As of right now, Marvel Studios aren’t in the movie business, they’re in the Iron Man business. But, that’s all about the change soon, with the huge box office of Iron Man tracking to make well over what analysts predicted. This, of course, has only made their slate of films grow over the past few weeks.

A few weeks back, Kyle made a post about Marvel’s upcoming plans, announced the Monday after Iron Man’s $100 million+ gross. Since then, another project has been added to the slate, plus a little more light has been shed on the condition of the Spider-Man franchise.

Runaways is the latest announcement from the studio, being penned by creator Brian K. Vaughan (of Y: The Last Man fame, which is currently set up at New Line) . For those unfamiliar with the series (much like I was before this announcement), it “follows a group of teenagers who find that some family secrets are bigger than others when they discover their parents are actually super-villains. Running away from their homes, the teens band together and begin a journey of discovery, both of their parents’ origins and of their own inherited powers, while trying to make up for the evil done by their folks.”

I think it’s an interesting premise that seems very cinematical, especially since one of the characters owns a pet dinosaur. It almost seems like a “What If” scenario of Wanted, where the kids decide to become superheroes instead of supervillains. Much like Ant-Man, Runaways is optioned and in pre-production hell, with no start or release date attached yet.

On the Spidey newsfront, Cinematical posted a scoop late last week about James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) turning in a script for Spider-Man 4. Apparently, Spidey’s story arc encompasses two films, which means that Sony could shoot two sequels at the same time, saving money for a shoot and on optioning a script. Now, last week everyone was still negotiating and filling the pools at the Marvel mansion with money but this morning, IESB posted a quote from Marvel Vice Chairman Peter Cuneo.

As far as Spider-man 4, it’s really up to Sony and it up to them, most likely scenario is 2010 or 2011 but we can’t speak for them and I think that we don’t know. They have given us their re-up payment for that film so you know they’re going to make it within a reasonable timeframe. Sony may be looking at some issues with the cast and so on, I think they have to make some decisions.

To me, it sounds like Marvel is waiting for Sony to attach some talent to the picture before they push forward with their deal. Time to play the waiting game.