It would appear that, contrary to previous reports, uber director Sam Raimi is not quite ready to rid his life of the pesky web-crawler just yet. In an interview with Empire Online, Raimi makes overt indications that he still wants to be involved with “Spider-Man 4″, if not as a director, than in some other capacity. Says Raimi about his on-again, off-again relationship with Peter Parker and Mary Jane’s impending fourth outing (with or without Raimi, it’s gonna happen, kids, count on it):

“I want to help contribute to the production,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ll just be a producer on it but if I can work with the writer in such a way so that directing would be right for me, I don’t know. We’ve had our first meeting on Spider-Man 4 and we’re looking for the writer.”

Here are some reasons why Raimi might be back, and why Sony might be willing to pay through the nose to get him back:

The worldwide gross of the first movie: $821,606,375
The second movie: $784,024,485
The third movie: $887,027,292

And you ready for it? The worldwide gross of ALL the three movies combined: $2,492,658,152

Now, add in the DVD sales, the TV sales, the cable sales, the merchandises…

Yeah, “Spider-Man 4″ is a done deal, and if Raimi wants to get in front of the gravy train, he should sign up right now.