What About Spider-Man?

Sony Pictures Entertainment announced today that Sam Raimi, Toby Maguire and Kirsten Dunst are no longer attached to the fourth Spider-Man film.  Instead, they will "reboot" the franchise by taking Peter Parker back to high school.  The plan is to release the fourth film in the series some time in 2011.

While Raimi's statement indicates that the split has come on amicable terms, it seems that Maguire was taken by surprise, as he was expressing confidence as late as last week that the film would still happen with Raimi.

Had Spider-Man 3 been a commercial failure, this direction might seem wise for Sony, but with all three films in the series generating huge profits, it seems like a massive risk to mess with the formula.  Having said that, Spider-Man 3 wasn't really all the pleasant for anyone, so maybe a new vision is exactly what's needed.

It seems a little too soon for a "reboot", but if they're starting with a good script, and it leads into a good film, it could work.  It's just going to take some serious convincing to get audiences to believe that someone besides Toby Maguire is Peter Parker/Spider-Man.