Sam Raimi Promises Spider-Man 4 Will Be Better

With "Drag Me to Hell" finished and getting released this summer, director Sam Raimi is starting to focus on returning to the "Spider-Man" franchise.

“Right now, David Lindsay-Abaire, a New York playwright, is working on the screenplay,” Raimi said of the eagerly-anticipated “Spider-Man 4” script that will lay the blueprint for his film, due in theaters May 6, 2011. “He says that he’ll be done in about four weeks with his first draft. So that’s where I am right now. And I’m just about to hire a production skeleton.”

Those are Raimi’s first steps in the process of reviving a franchise that has grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide, but was seen by many as stalling out with 2007’s poorly-reviewed “Spider-Man 3” — even though that film made more than either of its predecessors.

“I’ve learned the value of brevity,” Raimi grinned when asked by MTV News whether there were any lessons he’d be taking with him into the new flick. The run time for “Spider-Man 3” was 139 minutes, the longest of the series.


“I learn lessons on every single picture I make… I learned a lot on ['Drag Me To Hell'], about timing, and that you don’t have to give up any character at the expense of horror. It’s just an excuse that maybe I’ve used in the past. As far as 'Spider-Man,' I’ve learned a lot of lessons about what people didn’t like and missteps that I’d made. But I learned those lessons on the previous two, I was just a little quieter about them. I made a lot of mistakes, and it’s part of the reason I so want to make this next story of Peter Parker.

"There's a whole crowd there and they think that's as well as I know the piece but I really do know it a lot better than that and I would like one more chance at that character. I really think I know in my heart who the character is, and I haven't quite been able to sing the song yet, or bring it out to the extent or degree of detail that I feel in my heart that I can.

"[With] the 'Spider-Man' films, I’ve made mistakes, but I really do look at them as things that I’ve learned, and hope that when I apply what I’ve learned to this next one, I really make a film that people enjoy and is really true to the character in a fresh, original way. That’s my goal."


As Raimi and the returning Tobey Maguire look to take everyone’s favorite neighborhood webslinger into a fourth movie, one major question looms unanswered: Will Kirsten Dunst return as Mary Jane Watson?

“Kirsten? I have talked with her, and she’s very excited about the possibility of it,” Raimi said, insisting that although Dunst is willing, it will be the director’s call to make after he reads the script by Lindsay-Abaire. “I think I’m going to have to read the screenplay and make sure everything we’ve talked about is working, before I could honestly tell you absolutely how [Dunst’s possible return] would go.”

Do you think Raimi will keep his word and make "Spider-Man 4" the best in the series yet?
More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Sources: Screen Rant, MTV News, The Geek Files, Cinematical