Lindsay-Abaire, who won a Pulitzer in 2007 for his drama "Rabbit Hole," is in final negotiations to write "Spider-Man 4" for Columbia. Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire are back as director and star, respectively, as are series producers Laura Ziskin and Avi Arad. Kirsten Dunst also is expected to return for the latest movie featuring the Marvel Comics character. Plot details are under lock and key.

Columbia always has gone off the beaten path during the development process when hiring writers for the "Spider-Man" movies. Alvin Sargent, a veteran scribe best known for 1973's "Paper Moon" and 1980's "Ordinary People," served as a writer on the second and third films. Michael Chabon, another Pulitzer winner, also worked on "Spider-Man 2."

*****

Lindsay-Abaire has said in interviews that his plays tend to be "peopled with outsiders in search of clarity," which would put his work on sympathetic terms with Peter Parker, who in his classic incarnation is the perpetual outsider. The choice of scribe also signals that that filmmakers are intent to focus on character, something that critics said got lost in the third installment.

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Tobey Maguire to Star in Robotech Film

Tobey Maguire is set star in a film version of the anime series Robotech.

Warner Brothers Pictures picked up the rights to Robotech, which features giant robots known as mechas. Maguire is producing through his Maguire Entertainment banner and is eyeing the lead role in what the studio plans as an SF franchise a la Paramount's hit Transformers.

Drew Crevello also is producing through his Supercool Hollywood BigTime Productions. Craig Zahler has been tapped to write the screenplay.

Robotech was a cartoon series during the 1980s from Harmony Gold USA and Tatsunoko Productions. It was re-edited and re-dialogued to combine three Japanese anime series to give the producers enough episodes to air as a daily syndicated series.

Robotech takes place at a time when Earth has developed giant robots from the technology on an alien spacecraft that crashed on a South Pacific isle. Mankind is forced to use the technology to fend off three successive waves of alien invasions. The first invasion concerns a battle with a race of giant warriors who seek to retrieve their flagship's energy source, known as "protoculture," and the planet's survival ends up in the hands of two young pilots.

Everyone wants on board the giant robots express, it seems.

Posted on September 8, 2007
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