THOR hammers SPIDER-MAN 4 and takes it's release date as a prize!

Gotta love the Hollywood business - there's barely any other industry that is so bloody-thirsty and opportunistic. Just a day after the full extent of Spider-Man 4's problems truly became evident and Marvel Entertainment have moved up Thor by two weeks to theMay 5th 2011slot that Sony had owned for over 18 months. Thor is now the first franchise out of the blocks next summer. Disney have also moved fast to slot Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides inwhere Thor used to reside, on May 20th 2011. Disney had been looking for the right 2011 date for months and should thank Sony for the bang-up job they have made of Spidey 4's pre-production, which has saved Disney from trying out a trickier June/July date for POTC 4. Where does this leave Spider-Man 4, if by some miracle Alvin Sargent's hastily written script manages to please both Sony and director Sam Raimi, and it actually films in the first half of this year? Here's the rest of the 2011 Summer release schedule...

May 6th - Thor, Spider-Man 4 (this one is obviously going to move now) May 13th/14th - FREE - though it is very close to the first big tentpole of the year and would probably be an ill-advised slot to take. Especially for a superhero based on a Marvel character. May 20th - Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides May 25th - The Hangover 2 June 3rd - Kung Fu Panda 2 June 10th - FREE June 17th - Green Lantern June 24th - Cars 2 July 1st - Transformers 3 July 15th - Harry Potter July 22nd - The First Avenger: Captain America July 29th - Battleship, The Smurfs 3-D

So if we say that May 13/14th is a day that couldn't be used for Spider-Man 4... then June 10th would seem a good fit, and would scare the bejesus out of Warner Bros. because Spider-Man is firmly established as a big player, and Green Lantern is the first movie out for that character. But even to hit that, Sony have alot of issues they need to solve first and they aren't quick-fixes, I assure you.