Tobey Maguire and Sam Raimi have been locked in for the 4th (and possibly 5th filmed at the same time) movie(s). A release date of May 2011 has been announced, with production to start next year. On the subject matter of the movie they had this to say:

“Spider-Man is its own thing,” one insider tells me. “Sam Raimi made the first serious superhero movie, and others followed. The difference between Spider-Man and Batman is that Batman is duelling with a dark side of himself, and that’s not what Peter Parker’s struggle is. Peter Parker has no dark side himself. In Spider-Man 3 it was the black costume. Peter Parker’s struggle is about sacrifice.”

Thank God. I agree with the Geek Show, not every super hero works in a dark setting. As stated above, Spider-Man is about sacrifice, not struggle with his dark self. Although some bad news was released. The Spider-Man Musical moves forward (thanks U2) as well as the Venom spin off.

This was originally reported on Deadline Hollywood Daily. They have an interesting snippet about the villain in the fourth movie. Go check it out.