Spider-Man loses Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire

He can cling to skyscrapers and leap across yawning chasms, yet Spider-Man has not been able to bridge some irreconcilable differences to make it to his fourth feature film – at least, not in his present incarnation. Columbia announced yesterday that Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst – the director and stars of one of the highest-grossing comicbook film franchises in history – have all been dropped. Producers now plan to "reboot" the series with a new director and cast and take Peter Parker, the superhero's alter ego, back to school.

The first three Spider-Man films took about $2.5bn (£1.5bn) worldwide. The most recent movie, Spider-Man 3, was the biggest earner of the series, with $890m, but the film was criticised by some for a storyline which featured too many villains and turned Parker into a moody emo. Raimi had reportedly also been clashing with Columbia over which baddies to feature in Spider-Man 4, arguments which resulted in the studio publicly admitting that it was unlikely to meet its planned 6 May 2011 release date.

The director, famous for making the seminal Evil Dead comic horror movies before turning his hand to comicbook fare, had hinted previously that he did not have full control of Spider-Man 3. "They really gave me a tremendous amount of control on the first two films, actually," he said last year. "But then there were different opinions on the third film and I didn't really have creative control, so to speak."

Yesterday, Columbia and Raimi were presenting a united front to the press. "A decade ago we set out on this journey with Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire, and together we made three Spider-Man films that set a new bar for the genre," said Amy Pascal, co-chair of Columbia parent company Sony Pictures. "When we began, no one ever imagined that we would make history at the box office, and now we have a rare opportunity to make history once again with this franchise.

"We're very excited about the creative possibilities that come from returning to Peter's roots, and we look forward to working once again with Marvel Studios, Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin on this new beginning."

Said Raimi: "Working on the Spider-Man movies was the experience of a lifetime for me. 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."

Producers now plan to refocus the story on the teenage superhero's struggle to deal with normal teen issues while learning to use his superpowers. Spider-Man 4 is slated for a summer 2012 release. But superhero reboots have a chequered history. While Christopher Nolan revived the Batman franchise with 2005's Batman Begins, Bryan Singer's attempt to refresh the Man of Steel in the following year's Superman Returns was less successful. The film performed only averagely at the box office and was met with critical apathy, leading to the series currently being in limbo.

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Source: Guardian Online