MTV has spoken Spidey-4 with Sam Raimi; no real juicy gossip bits to be had, but good to hear the project is moving swiftly forward nonetheless. It does appear that the dual Spider-man 4 & 5 shooting schedule that was previously rumored may have been dropped, possibly in favor of The Avengers movie coming in 2012.

“The writers, producers and I are working out what the story will be, but we haven’t been talking in terms of Part 4 and 5. [...] I’ve read that [about 'Spider-Man 5’] also, but right now we’re just working on the story for ‘Spider-Man 4,’ just that one film.”

[...]

“We’re definitely talking about working from all the material in the comic books and nothing [invented] outside of that. All the characters or villain or villains, whatever we decide to do will be from Stan Lee’s creations or those that came after him.”

[On who will be the next villain(s)]

“I do have a pretty good idea, but I’m just not a liberty to say yet,”

[On Kirsten Dunst in Spider-man 4]

“I can’t imagine making a ‘Spider-Man’ movie without Kirsten,” he said, seemingly contemplating the idea in his head with a long pause. “Of course it can be done because Spider Man has existed without the character of Mary-Jane but she’s one of my favorite parts and it would be a shame not to have her in the picture. I’m hoping she’ll be in it and I’m planning on having a story with her in it.”