When it was announced that Sony had decided to completely incinerate their plans for a fourth Spider-Man, as well as everyone involved from director Sam Raimi to stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, we could only imagine who might step in and replace them for the proposed overhaul of the franchise.

Not too long after that, it was announced that (500) Days of Summer director Marc Webb would be the new man at the wheel, and now we’re beginning to hear the names that could become Spider-Man himself.

In a chat with Access Hollywood‘s Billy Bush, Logan Lerman was pointed out as a prime candidate for the new Spider-Man, and was then asked if he was in any sort of talks about the role. Lerman excitedly admitted that he has had conversations with Sony and the producers of the film, and that he’s hoping that more talks will follow. He also admitted that it was the producers who sought him out, and not the other way around — surely a good sign for Lerman, whether he lands the role or not.

Well now, this is one thing that no one saw coming.

Let’s recap: last week, we discovered that Sony was halting production on Spider-Man 4 due to creative differences between studio executives and director Sam Raimi. This was taken as a very bad sign, but star Tobey Maguire assured all that this was only “part of the process” and the movie was still going to happen.

Now, out of nowhere, Deadline Hollywood is reporting exclusively that Sony has actually decided to completely CANCEL Spider-Man 4, and reboot the entire franchise. This means that Raimi, Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, J.K. Simmons, Bruce Campbell, and everyone else involved in the previous movies are no longer involved in any way. This also means that Sony will use a script from James Vanderbilt, who was hired to begin working on drafts for fifth and sixth Spider-Man, to start over with a brand new cast, crew, and look.

Click over to the other side to read the full press release from Sony!

It took a while for everyone to get over whatever Spider-Man 3 was, but since we were informed that Spider-Man 4 was on the way with director Sam Raimi and stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and others set to return, all has seemed to move quite smoothly. In fact, things were moving so smoothly that plans for fifth and six installments were already getting set up. The only delay that seemed to be causing problems was the choosing of a villain for the fourth film and the hiring of multiple new writers, but with an official release date of May 5, 2011 announced, there was nothing to worry about…right?

Apparently not, as it was first reported in December by IESB that Sony has actually changed the popular comic book movie’s status from on “holiday hiatus” to the much more disheartening “indefinite hold.” The trades have since confirmed this to be true even after it was initially denied by studio representatives. The reason for the sudden halt? Reportedly, not only can’t Raimi and the studio agree on a proper villain lineup, but Raimi is also incredibly unhappy with how the script(s) are shaping up. It looks like this move is probably the smartest thing to do, as it will allow everyone to step back for a moment and gather themselves before figuring out the next best move for all involved.

Spider-Man 4 is nowhere near its May 2011 release, but Sony isn’t sitting around — the studio has hired James Vanderbilt to write the scripts for both Spider-Man 5 and Spider-Man 6 movies.

Vanderbilt wrote a draft for Spider-Man 4, but director Sam Raimi went out to David Lindsay-Abaire (Robots, Inkheart) for a rewrite on that, and then moved on to grab Gary Ross (Big, Pleasantville) for yet another rewrite.

While Raimi, Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst are all coming back for the fourth installment of the franchise, there have been occasions where it seemed like none would be coming back, so Sony is setting up for the long-haul with Vanderbilt as their screenwriter and fully-prepared to move on to a “franchise reboot” with a new director and stars if the others don’t come back for future chapters.

It’s being reported that Sony Pictures have hired Gary Ross to rewrite Spider-Man 4. Ross wrote, directed, and produced both Pleasantville and Seabiscuit — both which starred Tobey Maguire — and also wrote and produced Big and the upcoming new take on Creature From the Black Lagoon.

The writer is now the third man to be writing a draft of Spider-Man 4. Before him, David Lindsay-Abaire (Robots, Inkheart) wrote a draft, and then James Vanderbilt (Zodiac, The Rundown) wrote one as well. No word on if Ross will simply be working off what the previous two have put together or if he will be completely starting over with his script.

On one hand, it is a good thing that Gary Ross has written for Tobey Maguire twice before this. At the same time, those two films weren’t very similar to Spider-Man at all, which may cause one to worry. Naturally, director Sam Raimi will be closely watching the development of the script, so hopefully this all leads to good things.