Vanderbilt Set to Write “Spider-Man 5, 6″

Spider-Man 6 will be the midlife crisis movie, I guess.

Variety reports that Sony Pictures has put James Vanderbilt to work on the scripts for a prospective fifth and sixth “Spider-Man” movie. “Spider-Man 4″ is set to start shooting early next year for a 2011 summer release.

Vanderbilt actually wrote the first draft of Spidey 4, but director Sam Raimi wasn’t sold on it and brought in playwright David Lindsay-Abaire. Now Gary Ross is doing a rewrite of Lindsay-Abaire’s draft. Reportedly everyone is now happy with the direction of the script. Kids, this is why you do group projects in school.

So with 4 not even shooting and none of the principals (Raimi, stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst) on board for more films, why start writing already? Basically, the first three movies have been huge moneymakers for Sony, and it’s hard to imagine the fourth completely striking out. Sony wants to stop the increasingly lengthy lags between the films, so is getting the scripts in order now. If Maguire and/or Dunst don’t return, the scripts will be treated as a “reboot” (oh, that word).

I understand this from a business point of view (keep things rolling), but artistically it feels weird, writing without knowing what worked in the fourth film, what threads you might want to pick up from that, what actors will be involved, etc. But then again, it’s not like these will be the final scripts anyway–I’m sure Mr. Vanderbilt can look forward to having his scripts rewritten over the next few years.