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.

In case you missed it, the interwebs were abuzz yesterday with whispers of Spider-Man star and newly Golden Globe nominated Brothers actor Tobey Maguire possibly being in consideration for the highly-coveted role of Bilbo Baggins in Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson‘s The Hobbit. At first glance, this sounds like the worst rumor ever to be started, but in fact, it turned out to have some solid backing to it.

The possibilities began when Latino Review was informed that while promoting Brothers, Maguire was asked about who he would like to work with in the future, to which he replied “Guillermo del Toro. We may have something here in the near future.” Of course, this is way too good to just leave as it is, so LR dug a little deeper and discovered that Maguire was actually in the earliest of chit-chatting stages with producers of The Hobbit about the role.

The list of nominees for the 67th annual Golden Globe Awards were announced earlier today, and you can check out the whole list below.

The Globes aren’t the most respected of all awards ceremonies (not that many…if ANY are these days), but they are good for one important thing: Academy Awards potentials. Many of the nominees and winners of Golden Globes will go on to land Oscar nominations as well, so movie fans watch with sharp eyes.

Just a glance over the list of nominees, you can see why so many people have trouble taking awards like this seriously. There’s a select group of movies that feel like they’re given these nods just because of their status and not due to their quality. These movies could in fact be the very best of the best this year — I do not know for sure — but when you see films like Nine which hasn’t even been released yet getting so many nominations, you scratch your head, especially knowing how much love musicals get JUST for being musicals. Or maybe even Avatar grabbing a massively unexpected nod in the Best Motion Picture Dramas category. Hopefully the majority of these are indeed the most deserving of the honor, and may the best films win.

Head on over to the other side to see the entire rundown of Golden Globe nominees and please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!

Sam Raimi has been talking a lot of Spider-Man 4 with MTV lately. Recently, they discussed the topic everyone wants to know about: villains. As it has always been, there is still no idea who the villain will be, but it appears that they are leaning toward a few prospects. Raimi was also asked by MTV what the chances are that he would return to do Spider-Man 5 and Spider-Man 6, which are both being written by James Vanderbilt at the moment.

When asked about who may be in the mix for the villains, Raimi simply replied “I’m not allowed to say at this point,” which could mean anything, really. We all know that the most expected one would be the Lizard, which they’ve set up throughout the franchise, but there’s numerous other faces it could be — both liked and not-so-liked by fans. Some seem to think the best route would be for Carnage to be the villain, and have that carry over to the Venom spinoff movie that’s planned, but considering Venom is supposed to be a clean slate spinoff, it’d be much better if Carnage was saved for that project alone.

The whispers around town indicate that Spider-Man 4 writer Gary Ross is currently in discussions with Sony to write, and maybe even direct their planned spin-off movie, Venom. The movie has already had multiple drafts written, including one from Zombieland writing team Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.

Ross plans to finish up his scrip for Spidey 4 and then move right into the Venom project. All indications so far is that all things we’ve seen from the character will be thrown away, and that this movie will start all over again — including re-casting the role once filled by Topher Grace in the forgettable Spider-Man 3.