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Gary Ross is the Third Screenwriter Hired for Spider-Man 4

by Alex Billington
July 9, 2009

Sony is really going all out on this one. They've hired a third screenwriter to rewrite Spider-Man 4 once again. Back in 2007 it was announced that James Vanderbilt (The Rundown, Zodiac) was the very first writer to work on this script. Then it was announced last year that Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire (Robots, Inkheart) would work on it. Now it's Oscar nominated screenwriter Gary Ross responsible for Big, Pleasantville, Seabiscuit, and The Tale of Despereaux. He's a good writer and has a long-standing relationship with Tobey Maguire, which is a good thing, but will that work wonders here?

This could be taken as bad news, but I'm trying to look on the bright side. Sony is just making sure they're getting a damn good script. They've got to recover from the bad taste that Spider-Man 3 left in everyone's mouth and they've got boatloads of cash to spend to make sure it's perfect. So why not go through as many big name writers as possible until they find the right one? Most tentpole movies usually do this anyway, we just don't hear about each new one when they're hired. And then there's the concern that maybe there's just too many cooks in the kitchen. Who knows what's really going on, it's far too early to tell. Thoughts?

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Scott

The second installment also had several writers that began with Smallville duo Alfred Gough and Miles Millar before switching hands to Michael Chabon. The film finally ended up in the hands of Alvin Sargent who finalized the script. Somewhere towards the beginning, David Koepp (Screenwriter of the first film) was also on board, possibly with Gough and Millar. http://www.internapse.com/marvel/news.php?id=2056 I think this is good news, and as Alex stated, Sony has gotta recover from the last film with an out of this world script and movie.
hey

george lucas has really smartened himself up for that pic. looking good george, good for you!
Voice of Reason

This movie will make millions anyways, and be just as bad if not worse than all the other movies, maybe even combined.
http://www.websbestcomics.com Scott Reed

Blah, yet another assumption that no one liked Spiderman 3, when if I recall it made gazillions and had generally favorable reviews. I liked 3, it was a little top heavy with villains but over all a fine addition to the franchise.
Sabes

@ #4.....did you watch the same movie I did? >.> That movie was effin horrible. >.< Emo villain dancing...anyone? I'll remain skeptical about this fourth movie until I hear/see more about it.
JussHaten

Spidey 3 was predictable and not that impressive. I thought they should have had just Venom along with some lackeys as the bad guys. Sandman was a terrible idea.
L1A

At least they have writers unlike the crapfest called Transformers 2
Welbanks

@#4 I totally agree, so sick of these damn haters acting like it was the holocaust or something. Its annoying, especially when they assume you hate it too.
Warren

Gary Ross is an excellent writer. He has a knack of writing accessible, fun and interesting films. From Big to Dave to Pleasantville to Seabiscuit to Tales of Despereaux. This can only be good.
germs

The more hands that touch this product the worse it will be. Keep it simple.
Tony

It would be nice if they got someone who has actually read a comic book in the past 20 years (like Michael Chabon). I guarantee that Gary Ross has never read a comic book in his entire life. He is a good writer though, so I guess we should give him the benefit of the doubt...
cat

how many times can they re-write it until they realize it's weak? im hoping for an awesome movie though.
http://entertainmenttodayandbeyond.com entertainmenttodayandbeyond.com

Im with #4. I like Spiderman 3. While it has a few too many characters its still a solid entertainment. I just don't get the hate for it. chuck
Xerxex

The problem with Spiderman is that the more you watch it the worse it gets, now my only beef with Spidey 3 is Venom. We waited two films for him and when he finally shows up its for like twenty minutes! And now Raimi wants to go with another villian!? Why not have Venom come back for revenge!?
Felix

#14 Because he died in a big explosion? I personally would have loved to see Venom returning along with Carnage and Mordo+Dormamu and have Spider-Man team up with Iron Man but that wont happen. Spider-Man has always been a loner that don't want to be alone, I hope they take from the 3'd movie and notices how good he can be with a partner but also play on the fact that he is a loner. I'm in between hating and loving Spider-Man 3 however I atleast understand that the Emo part of it was comedy, because I laughed my ass off in the theater. I didn't like Sandman but I enjoyed the story behind him (good guy going bad, which is almost always the case of Spider-Man villains, and his story is related to Spider-Man). If you look at it, Venom is the only one who is really evil among the villains who have been brought to the movies. #10 I don't get why you would say such a thing. Something that is redone serveral times by different people is often much better. And as Mr. Billington says, most "tentpole movies" does this very thing. Movies and writing for them is no easy busy.