Variety is reporting that Sony Pictures Entertainment has inked a seven-figure agreement with writer Alvin Sargent (Paper Moon, Julia, Ordinary People) to pen the script for Spider-Man 3 with an option to write Spider-Man 4 as well.  Sargent is currently working with director Sam Raimi on the script for Spider-Man 3, which is due out in May of 2007.

According to Variety Sargent, who is the husband of Spider-Man producer Laura Ziskin, did an uncredited rewrite on Spider-Man 1.  Sargent got the sole screen credit for writing Spider-Man 2, a project that involved a number of writers including David Koepp (credited with Spider-Man 1), Smallville creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon.  Sargent's work on Spider-Man 2, which was slightly less successful at the box office than its predecessor, but widely considered a better film, earned the 74-year-old scribe, who got his start in Hollywood writing the Route 66 TV series, the chance to pen the next two web-slinging epics.