From a Serial Killer to a Superhero: Spider-Man 4 Writer Announced

With Spider-Man being one of the most lucrative comic book franchises around, it should come as no surprise that there are plans for a fourth film. While there have been no deals for director Sam Raimi or star Tobey Maguire (yet), at least one component of the film is seeing a changing of the guard.

It was announced today that James Vanderbilt (Basic, Zodiac) has been brought in by Columbia to write the screenplay for the next installment. While the plot is being closely guarded by the studio (though how long do they expect that to last?), reportedly they are wanting to scale back the number of villains from three to two, in response to criticisms that there were too many plot lines in Spider-Man 3.

More after the jump!

There were in fact multiple writers being considered, but apparently Vanderbilt won the job for his "character-driven approach to the story rather than a focus on special effects".

Well thank God for small favors. IMHO, Spider-Man 3 sucked balls, and I haven't seen it since my initial viewing in the theater (and have no desire to ever see it again). Let's hope Vanderbilt doesn't include any Saturday Night Fever-esque strutting in his script. Ugh.