Variety is reporting that Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, Pleasantville) has been hired to rewrite the screenplay for Spider-Man 4, which Sam Raimi plans to put into production early next year. Spider-Man 4 is slated to debut on May 6th, 2011. Ross is very familiar with Tobey Maguire having directed the Spider-Man star in both Seabiscuit and Pleasantville.
According to Variety the Spider-Man 4 script, which was written by James Vanderbilt, has already been rewritten by David Lindsay-Abaire (see “Pulitzer Prize Winner on Spider-Man 4”). Are there real problems with the screenplay or is having Ross do another rewrite just an example of the Hollywood philosophy that “more is better” when it comes to screenwriters?