Tobey Maguire�s career direction? It�s a tangled web

There�s been a lot of speculation about who might replace Tobey Maguire as the new Spider-Man (Joseph Gordon-Levitt seems like a no-brainer). But almost as interesting is what happens to the man who�s been playing him.

After all, Sam Raimi will go back to, one can assume (read: hope), the horror/suspense movies of earlier in his career (the rightly lauded �A Simple Plan� and the underrated �The Gift,� to name two). (At least we�re hoping he does; it�s likely he takes on the bigger-budget video-game adaptation �Warcraft� first.) But Maguire poses a trickier question.

He�s been associated with � and in some ways tethered to � the �Spider-Man� franchise for nearly a decade, and the scrapping of the superhero character opens up a new vein of possibility. The actor recently wrapped production on a dark comedy called �The Details.� And of course he can be seen this awards season in the (tepidly reviewed) war movie �Brothers.� With his �Spider-Man� days over, does he continue in a more specialized direction or go back to the blockbuster?

There�s certainly no shortage of big vehicles he can sign on for. A while back, Sony was working on a sci-fi effects-fest called �Worlds,� based on the art-heavy bestselling book by Alec Gillis, that was being developed with Maguire in mind. And there have been rumors of the sci-fi epic �Robotech� and the Guillermo del Toro-directed �The Hobbit.� Both would create Spidey-level fandom � but, also, Spidey-level time commitments � and not offer nearly as much character nuance.

Several development experts say this is a chance for Maguire to move in a more dramatic direction. One project that�s starting to get momentum: �The Limit,� the story of rival Grand Prix race-car drivers, which is being developed by Sony and Maguire�s own production banner, and also has a nearly completed script. He can also take aim at awards with the civil-rights drama �The Crusaders,� which would pair him with hot writer Danny Strong (�Recount�) as well as the Oscar-nominated Gary Ross.

The actor has also been ramping up his own Maguire Entertainment, which has such movies as the Nicolas Cage thriller �The Hungry Rabbit Jumps� on the brink of production. In fact, there are plenty of active development projects at his production company. But Maguire has a bit of a DiCaprio-esque reputation: signing on to produce a lot of films as potential starring vehicles but in the end opting not to play in them, So the problem may not be finding the vehicles. It�s deciding whether he wants to drive them.