Before Spider-Man 3 came out, there was tons of speculation about the future of the Spider-Man franchise. Would Sam Raimi return now that he was more of a mainstream director? Would Toby Maguire, who barely had fulfilled his three picture contract, sign on for any more films? Would someone… anyone… replace Kristen Dunst as Mary Jane? Then the third movie came out and disappointed fans to the point of not discussing any more films.

I guess enough time has passed to let people recover from their disappointment, because there’s a buzz making the rounds about more Spidey pictures. Cinematical has the scoop that a script has been turned in for Spider-Man 4 by James Vanderbuilt, and it’s a doozy – so much so that Sony is eyeing the script as two movies, instead of just one.

Apparently, Vanderbuilt’s story arc, which is currently unknown, is big enough to spread across as two movies. ”The studio saw dollar signs and is in the process of reworking his deal to snatch up the story arc." The plan would then be to film two more Spider-Man movies simultaneously / back-to-back. Remember that this plan comes from the same studio who wanted to overpack Spider-Man 3 with villains, despite the director’s wiser vision.

So what does this mean for the future of Spider-Man? Well, it means fan speculation should probably kick back in about Raimi, Maguire, and Dunst, none of whom are contractually obligated to do another movie. Other than that, don’t expect any definitive news on the franchise any time soon. First the studio and Vanderbuilt have to reach an agreement over the story arc, and then, most likely, Vanderbuilt will have to retool the script into two movies. Still, it’s exciting to hear the web-slinger just might make his way to the screen again soon. Let’s just hope they follow the success of Spider-Man 2 instead of the overstuffed Spider-Man 3.