Gary Ross, the acclaimed writer-director whose most notable successes have all involved Tobey Maguire, has been brought on board to rewrite Spider-Man 4.
Ross, who directed Maguire in both Pleasantville and Seabiscuit, has been hired to overhaul the current script, which has been worked on by Jamie Vanderbilt and David Lindsay-Abaire.
Of course, what that script so far contains, nobody is saying, but we imagine there’s a fair amount of web-slinging, wall-crawling and being friendly to neighbourhoods.
The hiring of Ross, though, is an encouraging sign. He’s a fine writer, and should be able to tap into the emotional core of Spider-Man and his supporting cast, without going too far into schmaltz, just one of the problems that scuppered Spider-Man 3.
Ross will combine the script duties on this movie with his work on the Lance Armstrong biopic. Both gigs mean that the drama, Tokyo Suckerpunch, on which he would have teamed yet again with Maguire, is on hold for the time being.
Shooting has been pencilled in for early next year on the Columbia mega-blockbuster. Needless to say, we’ll keep you updated.