File this piece of news under the heading, “Jumping the Gun”. According to The Hollywood Reporter, James Vanderbilt will be back to write the script to the sequel of the reboot, “The Amazing Spider-Man”.
Just this week (yesterday, in fact), Vanderbilt met with Columbia and “Spider-Man” filmmakers to discuss his outline for the next script, and, after given the OK, is now free to write the sequel.
According to the article, Vanderbilt has become part of a trusted “Spider-Man” team, if you will. He worked with Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire when “Spider-Man 4” was being developed.
It’s not unusual for studios to work on one movie in a series while another is in the final stages (“Pirates of the Caribbean” is a prime example), but it always seems like a weird practice, especially if one isn’t sure the movie will do well. Even with “Pirates” being a good example, Disney only went the route of writing scripts and filming back-to-back after the first “Pirates” became box-office gold; originally, they thought the film was going to be a flop and initially hated Johnny Depp’s drunken pirate Jack Sparrow. In any case, what I’m trying to say is that for Columbia to go ahead an OK a script for a sequel is either a bold move, or they’re extremely confident this new film will be just the shot in the arm the “Spider-Man” sequel needs.
“The Amazing Spider-Man”, starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone among others, will wrap filming this April and is expected to be in theaters July 3, 2012.
