Well folks, the battle between Sam Raimi and Sony has finally ended with the trilogy director packing it all in. The next movie was in some trouble due to differing opinions on scripts but now he’s had enough and Raimi has jumped ship, leaving Sony and Marvel with creative control over what happens next for the famous webslinger.

Yesterday we commented on how we wanted to see Tobey Maguire be recast and, well, now he has been. Maguire has abandoned the project as well, which just goes to show that dreams can come true.

Raimi issued a statement on the split, “Working on the ‘Spider-Man’ movies was the experience of a lifetime for me. While we were looking forward to doing a fourth one together, the studio and Marvel have a unique opportunity to take the franchise in a new direction, and I know they will do a terrific job.”

Empire reports today that Sony have also announced that they are planning a reboot of the series in 2012. Um, why? The Spiderman franchise may have not been my favourite but show a little respect, it’s only been dead 5 minutes! This has bad idea written all over it; did they learn nothing from The Hulk?

Stripper turned screenwriter, Diablo Cody, will soon be turning her attention to producing.

Cody will be behind the upcoming zombie rom-com Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament, which will be written by newcomer Geoff LaTulippe. I’m kind of glad Cody’s not writing this one as it sounds like it could be good and after her last effort in Jennifer’s Body, I’m a little worried about her work.

The script will be based on S.G. Browne’s debut novel of the same name and will follow Andy, a car crash victim who becomes reanimated. He has some trouble adjusting to his new-found undead life until he meets Rita, a lipstick obsessed suicide case, at a zombie support group.

Cody recently told If Magazine, “We have a script, and I am thrilled with it and hope we can go into production with it soon. It’s a zombie love story. Zombies are so hot now, but I like to think it’s about the personal side of being a zombie and being ostracized.”

While I always thought Shaun of The Dead would have the monopoly on romantic comedies for the living deceased, just goes to show that there’s always room for more braaaiiins! I mean zombies.

Even though the production is held up right now it seems that the team behind Spiderman 4 have gotten their act together enough to confirm a casting.

John Malkovich has confirmed rumours that he will be playing The Vulture although he is waiting on a script. Empire reports today that Malkovich told the Italian press that he hopes shooting will be starting soon. He could be in for quite a wait though as it’s actually the choice of Vulture that’s holding things up.

Sam Raimi is still butting heads with producers at Sony over the villain choice and other script details but hopefully with Malkovich on board, the producers might be convinced to use him.

We’re hoping that they go for it because Malkovich gives good villain and we’re kind of hoping that they’ll finally see the light and change their minds about Tobey Maguire as Spidey.

It seems James Cameron isn’t finished trying to take over the world yet.

With the press for Avatar just about over, details about an upcoming project are already making the rounds.

On a recent promo tour around Japan, Cameron visited the last survivor of the terrible atomic bombs attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Tsutomu Yamaguchi.

Yamaguchi was one of the few to experience both attacks at ground zero and live to tell the tale. The movie will be based on the book ‘The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back,’ by Charles Pellegrino. Sadly, Yamaguchi died this past Monday and did not live to see his story told.

No word on the script of production yet as it’s still early days and Cameron is still working on the upcoming Battle Angel based on manga Battle Angel Alita, so we might be waiting a while for Yamaguchi’s story.

I’d be satisfied with a 3D version of the original movie, but when I heard that star of Twister, Bill Paxton, is involved in a 3D sequel, well I pretty much screamed like the 5-year-old I am.

In a recent interview with Bullz-Eye, Paxton told the tale of a famous twister from 1925 that ravaged the Midwest.

‘…And then it went across the Wabash, into Indiana, staying on the ground three and a half hours and cutting a damage path 219 miles long, killing about 700 people. There’s actually footage that I found in Murphysboro at their historical society. They had footage from a biplane that the government sent down, just to do aerial footage of all of the destruction and the damage. So we just did that to kind of get some ideas, and from that I kind of extrapolated an idea for a sequel. And I kind of put that together into a format, and now we’re kind of waiting to see if that’s going to move forward.’

Frankly as long as it’s got the flying cows in it, I’ll be happy.

‘That would need Steven Spielberg’s blessing, ultimately, and they probably won’t take it to him ’til there’s real studio interest, but I think the 3D applications of that could obviously be pretty amazing.’

Make it happen Paxton. This sequel sounds like it actually might have a story and will really benefit from 3D wizardry, and given the solid box office dollars that the first movie made, I’d be surprised if this was going to be passed over.

Today BAFTA announced a list of potential nominees for this ceremony.

BAFTA members have voted in order to compile this list, with 220 films entered for consideration this year they’ve been whittled down to 15 nominations per category.

That might seem like a lot but that’s only because there’s still another round of voting to go before each category has a final 5. So what I’m basically saying is that if you head over to the BAFTA website you can check to see if your favourite film of the past year is potentially in the running.

I’m pretty happy to see that Nowhere Boy’s Aaron Johnson is up for a prize are his co-stars Ann-Marie Duff and Kristin Scott-Thomas. And it looks like even more awards are on their way for Kathryn Bigelow’s genius war effort The Hurt Locker.

Avatar of course seems to be sweeping the board except it hasn’t received a look in for the acting categories – Zoe Saldana, you’ve been robbed!

Though I’m not exactly waiting in childish excitement for the next instalemt of Spiderman, it’s my duty to report news, even on the crappy stuff.

So Spiderman 4 has been held off from filming due to some serious rewrites causing much frustration to director Sam Raimi.

Most of the problems surrounding the script have been based around which villain from Spiderman’s history to use, with Raimi being adamant that he wants to use John Malkovich as The Vulture he’s going up against producer’s and studio’s demands.

Other writers had been brought in to work on the script but with nothing working the writer of the sequels, Alvin Sargent, is back on board to sort out the mess.

Production was set to start this Spring but with continual script delays and disagreements about big bad villains, it looks like the closest fans are going to get to Spiderman is at this year’s Comicon. Or hardcore fans could get a ticket to New York and see the upcoming Spiderman musical, that’s right, Spidey sings. It might hold you over until Spiderman 4 gets itself together.

It seems that the world’s love affair with Robert Pattinson could soon be fizzling out and ending with awkward phonecalls. ‘It’s not you, it’s me…’

Since New Moon’s release, I’ve sensed a disturbance in the force. Taylor Lautner, R-Pattz’s love rival werewolf, has not only been racking up just as many, if not more, Twi-hard fans but also has taken a huge pay hike.

Reports this morning indicate that Lautner is now the highest paid teen actor in Hollywood. For his next movie Lautner will earn $7.5 million for his role in Tom Cruise’s upcoming Nothern Lights. I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that in New Moon he turned into a total beefcake.

Cinemablend described the plot of the new movie as “aerobatics pilot who faces off with his controlling, billionaire father and falls in love with a gifted female pilot.”

Hmmm, pilots and Tom Cruise? I’m a little worried for Taylor’s heterosexual credibility; beware the gay subtext of Top Gun Taylor, beware!

Last year I reported on Steven Soderbergh’s desire to retire from directing, so I was pleasantly surprised to learn that not only is he currently still working, but that he has secret projects.

The Oscar winning director may still have a few fingers in some big movies to come but he recently spent some time in Australia recently directing a play, Tot Mum, with Cate Blanchett’s theatre company.

But the Sydney Morning Herald reports that while he was there, sneaky Steven made an improvised, digital film with the cast of Tot Mum. Lucky sods; not enough that local actors were directed by a big Hollywood name in a play but he went and put them in a movie too.

Well what do we know about the film? Um, not a lot of anything at this point.

All we really know is that it was a low budget movie, something Soderbergh leaned towards in the recent Girlfriend Experience. But don’t expect him to say in the low pay bracket; he’s still working on Cleo with Catherine Zeta Jones which is expected to be a big ass, lavish production.

WhileI’m not holding our breath for a cinematic release for Soderbergh’s secret film, a DVD or online campaign isn’t out of the realm of possibility.