Hollywood is beefing up its upcoming movies based on childhood heroes with stars and writers.

James Vanderbilt, who was responsible for putting the X-Men spinoff "Wolverine" in screenplay form, has been tapped to write the fourth installment of the Spider-Man series, according to Reuters, despite the fact that many of the film's key players such as director Sam Raimi and stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst have yet to commit to the project.

This certainly changes the dynamic a bit from the previous film, which was written by Raimi and brother Ivan along with Alvin Sargent. Sargent also was involved with the writing team of "Spider-Man 2" with Alfred Gough, Miles Millar and Michael Chabon. The first "Spider-Man" was written by David Koepp.

Vanderbilt has previously written "Darkness Falls" and "Zodiac."

A little action a day before the expected start of the Writers Guild of America strike also involved a proposed G.I. Joe movie. Variety is reporting that Sam Worthington is in talks to star in the film, which is expected to begin production next February.

Stuart Beattie has been has revised a script that Paramount officials apparently like.

Worthington already is set to star in "Avatar" from James Cameron, but it seems that both Paramount and Fox are trying to work out any scheduling conflicts that would allow Worthington to take on both projects.

"G.I. Joe" is looking at a Summer 2009 release. No potential release date has been made for "Spider-Man 4."