 Following the release of Spider-Man 3, Sony Pictures Entertainment had announced a May 5, 2011, release date for Sam Raimi's next film in the earlier series. By this time, screenwriters James Vanderbilt, David Lindsay-Abaire and Gary Ross had all written rejected versions of a script and Ziskin's husband Alvin Sargent, who wrote the second and third films, was working on yet another attempt. Raimi wanted John Malkovich to play his next villain. However, on January 11, 2010, Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios announced that rather than continue the earlier saga, they were rebooting the series with a new cast and crew. Industry reports claimed that Raimi had admitted that he could not meet the scheduled release date and retain creative integrity. Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach and Ziskin continued as producers.
