Los Angeles, Feb 10 (IANS): Sony Pictures Entertainment, which owns the “Spider-Man” franchise since 1999, has announced its partnership with Marvel Studios to bring a new version of the fictional character to life.

The next Spider-Man film will hit theatres July 28, 2017, reports variety.com.

Sony has owned the feature rights to Spider-Man since last 15 years, when Marvel sold the comic book story for $7 million.

According to the announcement, Sony and Marvel will cast a new Spider-Man after Andrew Garfield starred in the last two films, “The Amazing Spider-Man” and “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” respectively.

Tobey Maguire played Peter Parker in the previous three instalments for Sony.

Marvel’s Kevin Feige will produce the rebooted character with Amy Pascal, who recently stepped down as co-chairman of Sony in a new producer deal.

However, Sony will continue to distribute, finance, own and have final creative control of the "Spider-Man" films.

They’ll work with Disney-owned Marvel on how to weave Spider-Man’s character into Marvel’s upcoming superhero films, which includes the popular franchise “The Avengers”.