According to Variety, James Vanderbilt has been hired to pen the fifth and sixth entries in the Spider-Man franchise.  Vanderbilt, who also has David Fincher’s best film Zodiac to his credit, is also the writer of the first draft of Spider-Man 4. 

Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire was hired on after him to give the film its first rewrite, and now Ross is working on it.  Maybe this is Sony’s way of trying not to make Mr. Vanderbilt feel insulted.  I wonder if they have the next few writers lined up already. 

With the first one currently looking towards a release in May of 2011, I frankly don’t understand why they’re planning so many Spider-Man movies so far into the future.  Don’t they know the world’s supposed to end in 2012?