Corona | Coming Attractions

From AICN comes this photo showing a promotional poster being used by Sony Pictures for Spider-Man 4. The poster is located at the Sony booth at the Licensing International Expo happening right now in Las Vegas.

When FEARnet asked Sam Raimi about a rumor they heard that there might be a "vampire antagonist" in the next Spider-Man movie, the director gave a very unusual sounding answer. You can watch the video of Raimi giving his answer on CHUD which has embedded the FEARnet exclusive. It sounds like there is more than just smoke to the SM4 vampire rumor.

Sam Raimi spoke with MTV News about the progress of Spider-Man 4. While there wasn't much meat to what the director had to say beyond the usual "we're working on it" answers, Raimi did say that they are in the process of deciding what villain, or villains, will be used in the fourth movie. As for what bad guy(s) would be there to pester poor Peter Parker in SM4, Raimi quipped "I do have a pretty good idea, but I’m just not a liberty to say yet."

He also had hope that Kirsten Dunst would reprise Mary-Jane Watson in the sequel although no deal has been finalized yet. "I can't imagine making a Spider-Man movie without Kirsten," Raimi answered. "Of course it can be done because Spider Man has existed without the character of Mary-Jane but she’s one of my favorite parts and it would be a shame not to have her in the picture. I’m hoping she’ll be in it and I’m planning on having a story with her in it."

Marvel Studios made a major announcement earlier today by announcing new release dates for five Marvel superhero films. Among the release dates given was one for Spider-Man 4; Columbia Pictures will release the next adventure for the webhead on May 6, 2011.

Spidey's ensnared his second Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for his film franchise. David Lindsay-Abaire is in talks to write a new screenplay for Spider-Man 4 and it looks like the earlier draft by James Vanderbilt is being tossed into the trash can. The Hollywood Reporter is breaking the news and placed a call into Columbia Pictures for a comment on their scoop. None came.

The first Spider-Man writer with a Pulitzer to their cred was Michael Chabon (The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay), the fellow who did a draft of Spider-Man 2.

Lindsay-Abaire won his Pulitzer last year for the play Rabbit Hole. He's taking that play and adapting it as a screenplay for 20th Century Fox with Nicole Kidman attached to star in it. He also wrote the lyrics for the Broadway musical version of Shrek and adapted the teen fantasy novel Inkheart for Warner Bros.

"I'm the last person that they call," stated actress Elizabeth Banks when she was asked if she would be back to portray Daily Bugle employee Betty Brant in the fourth Spider-Man flick. Banks was fielded the question by a reporter at the press junket for Zack and Miri Make a Porno and her response was published on CHUD. "If it's that small, I probably won't do it. They don't need Betty Brant. It's purely, at this point - and I don't think they see it this way - it's kind of a favor at this point."

Up to this point Betty has been a minor character in the background of the Spider-Man films. In the comic books she became a larger player when she began dating Peter Parker. In later issues the two broke up and remained friends, so for Banks, who is now headlining her own movies, it truly doesn't make any sense for her to return for such a small part.

"The story of Spider-Man is that I auditioned to play Mary Jane Watson and Laura Ziskin said 'She's too old.' It's fine. I'm a lot older than Kirsten Dunst, so I can get it. I'm not much older than Toby, but... But I got it back then," she explained to the reporters. "And I was a nobody. I had no expectations of even being in that movie. The casting director called and said, 'As a consolation prize essentially do you want to be Betty Brant?' So it started out as a consolation prize and it's become a favor."

Has Sony struck a secret deal that would bring back Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire to direct (the former) and star (the latter) in Spider-Man 4? Deadline Hollywood Daily is reporting that the answer to that question is yes, contracts have been inked and they will be back to work on the fourth film in the franchise. The site's source goes on to state that the studio also wants to bring back Kirsten Dunst to play Mary-Jane Watson; that there will also be another female character in #4's ensemble of actors (no word was given if that means Bryce Dallas Howard is in mind to reprise her role as Gwen Stacy); and that "once you find out who the villain is, you'll know who's playing it." Does that mean the bad guy could be The Lizard since his human alter-ego (played by Dylan Baker) has been seen in the last two Spidey films? Or is the source implying that once we know the identity of which supervillain will be the nemesis in Spider-Man 4 the list of potential candidate actors that could play that role is that short?

Perhaps the biggest piece of gossip in DHD's article is that Sony is contemplating shooting two Spider-Man sequels back-to-back to save on production costs and scheduling conflicts -- meaning that we might also get a Spider-Man 5 as a guarantee when 4 goes into production. The question that arises from that possibility is whether the rumored deals for Raimi and Maguire are only for Spider-Man 4 or if they're also locked for SM5 as well.