Once he's finished the promotional tour for his incoming horror movie, Drag Me To Hell (which looks fantastic, we have to say), Sam Raimi is set to devote the next few years of his life to bringing Spider-Man's fourth instalment to cinema screens.

Raimi is definitely confirmed to be behind the camera again, and Tobey Maguire will be reprising his role as the webslinger. But where does that leave Kirsten Dunst as MJ? That much is still not yet clear.

Raimi, while talking to MTV, revealed that the first draft of the script is just a few weeks away, also was non-committal when asked if Dunst would be back. "Kirsten? I have talked with her, and she's very excited about the possibility of it," he said. "I think I'm going to have to read the screenplay and make sure everything we've talked about is working, before I could honestly tell you absolutely how [Dunst's possible return] would go."

Given how the character turned into a solid irritation in Spider-Man 3 - a film from which it seems lessons have been learned - it wouldn't be a huge loss were Kirsten Dunst not to make the cut this time round. But, at this early stage, Raimi has been making the right noises, and we suspect that he won't have characters foisted on him to squeeze into the film this time round...

Spider-Man 4 is set to arrive in May of 2011.

MTV