Spiderman sequel deal finalised

A deal has been finalised to make a sequel to the highly anticipated €195m Spiderman movie, it was reported today.

The film, based on the Marvel comic book superhero and starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, opens in the United States and Ireland early next month.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Columbia Pictures has now closed a deal with director Sam Raimi to make the sequel and hired executive producers Miles Millar and Alfred Gough to write a new script.

Production will begin early next year and Maguire will again star as Peter Parker (aka Spiderman) and Dunst as Mary Jane Watson.

Laura Ziskin, who produced the recent Oscar show in Hollywood, will also be back to produce the sequel.

Columbia executive vice president production Matt Tolmach said it was always the studio’s intention to make a sequel.

But while Maguire and Dunst had signed up for a second film in their original contracts, Raimi had not.

Mr Tolmach told the trade paper: ‘‘It was always our hope to do a sequel, but it was our belief in the movie and what a great job Sam and the actors did that made us feel very strongly about doing a sequel.

‘‘This is the big movie we hoped it would be. We are so proud of it - there’s no better endorsement than going back to Sam.’’

Spiderman opens on May 3 with Maguire in the title role of the student who gets his superpowers after being bitten by a radioactive spider.