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The complete story...

Spider-Man 3 left a very bitter taste in the collective mouths of geeks. Raimi deserved a mulligan on that, but word 'round the campfire was that his fee (and those of his principal actors) were going to be cost prohibitive. Then, the movie gods smiled down on Sony's Culver City lot and forced the suits to reach into some deep pockets, striking a deal with the original Spidey crew to return for a fourth film.

Hoping not to have another mess of a story on his hands, Raimi made it a mandate to make sure he had a great script this time around. Zodiac scribe James Vanderbilt was the first writer on the project, and apparently his draft did not meet the greenlight demands of Team Raimi. (Interestingly, Sony is now fast tracking Vanderbilt's draft for 2012's reboot.)

David Lindsay-Abaire was the next writer Raimi commissioned to re-draft the script. And after that little experiment, Raimi tried on writer-director Gary "Pleasantville" Ross for a draft. Ross, hot off the script he turned in for a Venom spin-off, delivered a take rumored to have The Vulture as the lead villain , a villain confirmed by the actor the production wanted for the role – John Malkovich.

With Raimi at creative odds with the studio as to who the villain should be (Raimi wanted Vulture, the studio wanted whomever was selling the hottest in comics currently) and what direction Spidey's fourth movie should go in, the first major sign of trouble hit: Spider-Man 4 was most likely going to miss its release date of May 11, 2011, a reported move that didn't sit well with Sony execs.

The reason for the move: Raimi was unable to find a satisfactory story he – and the fans – would be proud to get behind. (The fan-favorite director should be applauded for sticking to his creative guns.) Reports said Raimi was quite vocal about his, ahem, hatred for the scripts coming in, and was now waiting on a draft from Spider-Man 2 and 3 writer Alvin Sargent , who is married to Spidey producer Laura Ziskin.

Gone in this new draft was a part for the Vulturess and/or Black Cat, with both roles rumored to be for Anne Hathaway. Creative Direction #147 prompted lead actor Maguire to speak up about the movie's delay and story status: "Like anything, it's a process," he told the Associated Press. "We're just in the midst of the process. We have a lot of great stuff in terms of story and script. We're just trying to dial it in and get it ready as quickly as possible."

Maguire continued: "I think the evolution of the character is really exciting, to be rooted in the history of what we've done already and to have a continuity, yet have a progression or evolution."

Sadly, that is an evolution the actor won't be around to see.

On Monday, January 11, 2010, Sony announced via Twitter that Peter Parker was going back to high school for a reboot releasing Summer 2012 – moments after DeadlineHollywood.com reported that Raimi and Co. were out. According to Deadline, Raimi told execs that he couldn't creatively move forward and satisfy their targeted release date of summer 2011.

Rather than replace the director, the studio decided to wipe the slate clean and reboot. (So yes, the studio that didn't want to miss their 2011 release date due to Raimi's creative sticking points decided to, er, miss the date anyway and go in an entirely new, and divisive, direction for 2012.)

After Deadline's story broke and Sony took to Twitter, an official press release further confirmed what made everyone's Spidey sense go, "What the eff?!" The entire cast has been scrapped (whether or not that means actors in certain supporting roles will stick around, a la Judi Dench as "M" in the new Bond reboots, remains to be seen) and Parker is going backward, not forward, in his evolution as Marvel's biggest big-screen hero.

One can only hope for the rumors that Sony is looking at taking Spider-Man into a grittier direction are just rumors. Gritty ain't what the character is. You'd think after three films, the studio would get that. And that is the first thing a new director for the franchise would have to realize, and moreover, respect.