Spider-Man 4 was the planned sequel to Spider-Man 3, for what would have been the fourth film in Sony Pictures' Spider-Man film series that was slated to release on May 6, 2011.

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History

In spite of the lukewarm fan reception to part 3, its impressive box office score convinced Sony to attempt to make a fourth film.

Development began in 2008, with Raimi attached to direct and the core cast of the previous films to return. Come 2009, however, Raimi dismissed the rumors that all three films were being made, instead confirming that only the fourth was under development. Sony hired James Vanderbilt in October of 2008 to pen the screenplay, after contacting David Koepp, the writer of the first film. The script underwent further revision by playwright David Lindsay-Abaire and once more by Gary Ross in October of 2009.

On the subject of villains, Raimi considered showcasing the transformation of Dr. Curt Connors into the Lizard, with Dylan Baker reprising his role. He also had plans to upgrade Bruce Campbell to a more significant role than his prior cameos. In December 2009, it was reported that John Malkovich was in talks to play the Vulture|Vulture, with Anne Hathaway playing Black Cat.

Spider-Man has a sticky situation to crawl out of. As reported by Deadline Hollywood, Spider-Man 4 is caught up in a web of disagreements that’ll likely keep it from being released on May 5th, 2011 as planned. Further complicating things, Raimi reportedly went through four revisions of the script, with different writers, and still "hated it". With so many issues, Sony cancelled the film in January 2010.

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Sam Raimi's Thoughts on the Film

Raimi admitted to being "exhausted" with the "tremendous amount of delegation" needed to make "gigantic" movies like the Spider-Man films. However, it ultimately came down to an inability to get together a suitable story that led him to pass on a fourth installment of the blockbuster franchise. "It really was the most amicable and undramatic of breakups: It was simply that we had a deadline and I couldn't get the story to work on a level that I wanted it to work. I was very unhappy with Spider-Man 3, and I wanted to make Spider-Man 4 to end on a very high note, the best Spider-Man of them all. But I couldn't get the script together in time, due to my own failings, and I said to Sony, "I don't want to make a movie that is less than great, so I think we shouldn't make this picture. Go ahead with your reboot, which you've been planning anyway." And [Sony co-chairman] Amy Pascal said, "Thank you. Thank you for not wasting the studio's money, and I appreciate your candor." So we left on the best of terms, both of us trying to do the best thing for fans, the good name of Spider-Man, and Sony Studios."

See Also

Reboot

Having anticipated this, Sony planned a back-up script for a reboot. The project was taken over by director Marc Webb, and was released in theaters on July 3, 2012.