After impressing Columbia Pictures brass with his character-driven take on the abandoned Spider-Man 4, James Vanderbilt was hired to pen the risky reboot of the web-slinging superhero series. The Amazing Spider-Man, a soaring new start for Peter Parker directed by Marc Webb and starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, hasn’t even completed its lengthy Los Angeles shoot but Sony is already lining up the inevitable sequel.
The Hollywood Reporter claims that Vanderbilt has just struck a deal with the studio to begin writing a follow-up to the July 3rd, 2012 tent pole. Both the behind-the-scenes creative executives as well as the suits seems to be on board with Vanderbilt’s vision for the next movie and he’ll now begin scripting immediately. That means we could potentially see The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (which will hopefully not be the title) as early as 2014, two years after the reboot hits theaters and following the original trilogy’s release schedule (Spider-Man hit theaters in 2002, with SP2 following in 2004 and SP3 in 2007).
What I’m taking away from this scoop is that Vanderbilt must have done a hell of a job on Amazing, because the studio has regularly switched up its writing stable for the franchise in the past. David Koepp penned the first film, while four writers contributed to the second (including Alvin Sargent and Michael Chabon, among others) before director Sam Raimi and his brother Ivan took over scripting duties on the third. Re-hiring Vanderbilt is a sure-bet vote of confidence from Sony, which considers Spider-Man one of its flagship properties. Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton (who run the company) wouldn’t have signed him if they weren’t totally happy with what they’ve seen from this reboot so far, so fans have good reason to rejoice now.
Source: THR
