Ah, the long, winding, sordid saga of Spider-Man on the silver screen.
Toby Maguire did three and was done. Andrew Garfield did two but Sony scuttled his chances to continue with too much studio meddling.
Who will be the next Spider-Man? We don't know yet, but this one will get Marvel's personal stamp of approval and appear in at least one (but totally more) Marvel Universe movies.
Prior to the Sony/Marvel deal, the plan was to expand Spidey into his own cinematic universe, with films planned based on Venom and the Sinister Six. Latino Review is reporting that those side-quels have been cancelled. But don't feel too bad for Sinister Six's proposed writer/director, Drew Goddard. He's going to be writing and directing the new Spider-Man solo flick, according to Latino Review's sources.
That same source says that the tentative title of the new movie and series is Spectacular Spider-Man, which like Amazing, is based on a title used by Marvel Comics. Latino Review also reveals that Marvel and its movie mastermind Kevin Feige will produce Spectacular Spider-Man for Sony, even though Sony alone will finance and release the film (smart move, Sony). Longtime Spidey producer Avi Arad is out, though he'll get an executive producer credit. Sony and Marvel are looking for an unknown actor to play the part this time, preferably a teenager who can age with the role.
The report offers a few other rumors to hang your hat on. Spectacular won't tell Spider-Man's origin again (for what would be a third time). Iron Man may show up in the movie to "audition" Peter Parker for admission to the Avengers. And despite scratching the Amazing Spider-Man series, at least one of its ideas will be pursued in Spectacular Spider-Man: Spidey will fight the Sinister Six as they assemble for the first time.
We should stress again that all of this is rumor until Sony makes an official announcement.
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