Sorry to all you fanboys out there anxious to see Peter Parker take on the Vulture, the Lizard, or whichever of Spidey's rogue's gallery they have lined up, but you might have to wait a bit longer to see the web-slinger in action. From Variety:
A Sony source confirmed that the studio is postponing production on the fourth installment of its superhero franchise, which was scheduled to begin lensing in February. Word began circulating within the fanboy blogosphere in mid-December that pre-production had ground to a halt on "Spidey 4" due to script problems with the Sam Raimi-helmed tentpole.
Sony still has "Spidey 4" skedded for May 6, 2011, though that date has become highly unlikely.
If the issue is Raimi being forced to use villains he doesn't want to use, than I say he should abandon ship now. Since he was basically forced to put Venom in Spider-Man 3, there's no sense in him doing a third sequel when it's clear he's not happy with the script.
My wish would be for Marvel to buy back the rights and do a reboot, tying in their Spider-Man with The Avengers franchise they're doing now. It only makes sense to have all the Marvel heroes under one roof. But Sony will never do that, so we're probably in store for another Superman Returns, or Batman & Robin at worst.
