Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Yes, I was severely disappointed with SPIDER-MAN 3 just like 98% of you guys were. It's one of those movies that just seemed to be off-key, missing every note by a few seconds.

But you gotta give Sam Raimi credit for what he did with the first two. Of the three films, I like SPIDER-MAN, but I love SPIDER-MAN 2.

According to Nikki Finke at DeadlineHollywood, Sony has locked in both Raimi and Tobey Maguire for SPIDER-MAN 4. There are a few reasons this could happen like this. Remember both were walking away from the flick.

They either had dumptrucks of money backed up to their door or they were both using this as a means to get something more out of the series. Maybe that something more is money, but I'd like to hope that Raimi is would decide to come back only if he's offered more freedom. We all know Venom was forced on him and I think that is what primarily derailed Spider-Man 3.

Then there's the third part to all this: Jamie Vanderbilt's screenplay. Maybe it's fucking amazing. Maybe that got both Maguire and Raimi to reconsider walking away from the series.

Finke's source also tells her that Sony is seriously considering doing 4 and 5 back to back in order to ensure the same creative team and save on costs. A release date of 2011 is looking likely for Spidey 4.

As far as the villain, the source wouldn't say, only that when we hear who the villain is, we'll know who'll be playing it. Lizard anybody?

Anyway, I love the idea of a fresh set of eyes on this series, but Raimi has earned one slip up... at least for me, so I can't complain if he comes back, especially if he has a little more power to do what he wants.

I'd love it if the next flick is Lizard and he shoots it a little like he shot his horror movies. We saw a glimpse of that in SPIDER-MAN 2 during the Doc Ock operation scene. Imagine if that style was done throughout the film.

What are your thoughts?