Brave New Worlds

The 4th Spider-Man movie was canceled earlier today – confirmed in a press release from Sony Pictures.  No more Sam Raimi or Tobey Maguire.  Instead the series will be rebooted for 2012.

From the press release:

Peter Parker is going back to high school when the next Spider-Man hits theaters in the summer of 2012.

Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios announced today they are moving forward with a film based on a script by James Vanderbilt that focuses on a teenager grappling with both contemporary human problems and amazing super-human crises.

The new chapter in the “Spider-Man” franchise produced by Columbia, Marvel Studios and Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin, will have a new cast and filmmaking team. Spider-Man 4 was to have been released in 2011, but had not yet gone into production.

(You can read it in its entirety here.)

Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire will not return the the franchise.  Previous casting rumors had John Malkovich as the Vulture and Anne Hathaway as a new character -The Vulturess.

However – Those that are chomping at the bit for some never before seen (in this country anyway…) live action Spider-Man don’t have to wait – Marvel.com has posted a number of episodes of the 1978 Japanese Spider-Man TV show, the first of which is embedded below.

You can see more here.

Of course you can come by the store and pick up all the latest issues and collections of The Amazing Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man as well as toys, books and more featuring your favorite Spider-powered hero.