When your movie brings in over $700 million worldwide, you'd think you're in pretty great shape, right?  Well, not when the movie is The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and it ranks as the lowest box office in the franchise's five films to date.  In the movie-making world of big studio productions, that means changes are a comin'.  One of the early casualties might just be screenwriter/producer Roberto Orci, who penned the Spidey sequel with former writing partner Alex Kurtzman.  While the duo went their separate ways to work on their own projects, Orci was supposedly part of Sony's brain trust that would tackle not only The Amazing Spider-Man 3, but also franchise spin-offs Venom and The Sinister Six.  Now, the state of those future films also appears to be in disarray.  Hit the jump for more.

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A new report from IGN has Orci himself confirming that he's not involved with Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man 3.  Kurtzman, however, will remain at the studio to write and direct the Venom spin-off, while Orci is kept busy with his own writing/directing duties for Paramount/Skydance's Star Trek 3.  That's about all that's set in stone as the rest of the Spider-Man franchise calendar is up in the air.  Here's how Orci responded to a question about the studio's scheduling plans:

"I don't know what their plans are for that franchise.  I don't ever want to say never, but we have to figure out what their scheduling is in terms of when they want each movie. I've read probably as much as anyone else. There's a love for the Sinister Six, the idea of Venom -- there's an idea of Spider-Man's going to be one of these characters that's part of our business. He's such a popular character. Spider-Man's not going to go away any time soon. When it all happens and how and all that has yet to be determined."

So although Marc Webb is still confirmed to be directing The Amazing Spider-Man 3, and Drew Goddard will head up The Sinister Six, we're not quite sure in what order we'll get the next three films.  Perhaps the plans to release a new film every year were a bit premature; even TASM3 might not make it's planned 2016 release date.  Whatever the order of release, Orci himself said of the film that he's "not officially involved in it. I don't want to say anything about what they should do, I don't want them to think I'm spilling the beans about something."

Perhaps Sony is rethinking their world-building plans in response to TASM2's sub-par performance?  Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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