Casting bombshells notwithstanding, it was hard not to see this one coming in recent weeks: Sony officially announced this afternoon it has spiked Spider-Man 4, canceling its troubled Sam Raimi project in exchange for a reboot that will send Peter Parker all the way back to high school.
Nikki Finke and our bouncing, bloggy new brother Mike Fleming have the scoop over at Deadline, including a Sony press release noting that the rebooted Spider-Man franchise will launch in summer 2012. That (presumably much cheaper) film will work from a script by James Vanderbilt, with a director and cast to be named in the weeks and months ahead.
For the record, Raimi took the high road: "Working on the Spider-Man movies was the experience of a lifetime for me," he said in Sony's statement. "While we were looking forward to doing a fourth one together, the studio and Marvel have a unique opportunity to take the franchise in a new direction, and I know they will do a terrific job." Behind the scenes, though, what with script hassles and date changes and plenty of options for himself if SM4 fell through (does this make World of Warcraft his next front-runner?), this all unraveled in less-than-attractive fashion -- much of which we expect to learn more about about as the dust clears. Developing...
ยท EXCLUSIVE: 'SPIDER-MAN 4' SCRAPPED [Deadline]