Now this is interesting news for the direction of the Spider-Man franchise. Sam Raimi may have announced that he's taking a more hands-off view to the project, but this could be some great news in return.

According to reports the writer who brought us the screenplay for David Fincher's Zodiac is signed up to write Spider-Man 4, but with Sam Raimi and Toby Maguire considering their involvement, is it all too late?

What is interesting, and Rope of Silicon mention after picking up the Entertainment Weekly story, is that Sony are stamping a 2009 release date on it despite the looming writer's strike and the fact that Sam Raimi doesn't even know if he's going to direct it yet, not to mention that Tobey Maguire might not return.

Mind you they have started down a very interesting road for Spider-Man 4 with James Vanderbilt now signed to deliver a script, he also has Basic and Darkness Falls on his resume. He's also marked down to bring to life the comic series The Losers, which is a very cool story, sort of like A-Team all modernised and with real bullets and attitude.