MUMBAI: Director Marc Webb, known for his Golden Globe best picture nominee 500 Days Of Summer, will direct the next instalment of Spider-Man.

The film having screenplay by James Vanderbilt will start shooting later this year and will have a 2012 release, Columbia and Marvel Studios announced.

Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal said, "At its core, Spider-Man is a small, intimate human story about an everyday teenager that takes place in an epic super-human world. The key for us as we sought a new director was to identify film-makers who could give sharp focus to Peter Parker‘s life… We believe Marc Webb is the perfect choice to bring us on that journey."

"Marc Webb will do for the new direction of the films what so many visionary storytellers have done with the comic books," Arad and Ziskin added in a joint statement. "He is an incredibly talented film-maker and we look forward to working closely with him on this new adventure," Pascal added.

Last week Raimi and Tobey Maguire exited the franchise after Raimi expressed concern that the script would not be ready in time for a May 2011 release. Not to be outdone, Columbia had the Vanderbilt screenplay ready and moved on.