Spider-Man 4 Delayed Due to Script Problems

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sam Raimi’s fourth installment in the Spider-Man franchise probably won’t be hitting theaters on its scheduled May 6, 2011 release date due to script complications. Although, if you ask me, this series had script complications even before Spider-Man 3 started filming. Yes, that movie is still an easy target.

Apparently, Raimi and the studio, Sony Pictures, have differing opinions on who the Spider-Man 4 villain should be. While Raimi wants to feature winged classic Spidey villain the Vulture, the studio has another baddie in mind and is calling for a romantic subplot involving the web-slinger’s sultry sometimes-sweetheart, Black Cat.

Studio meddling in a Spider-Man movie? Why is this familiar? By the way, Venom says hi. Oh wait, no he doesn’t. He’s dead.

Spider-Man 4 has already had a swarm of writers take a crack at the script, including James Vanderbilt (Zodiac), Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole).

Paramount Pictures has moved another Marvel superhero adaptation, Thor, into the now-vacant May 6 slot. Meanwhile, Disney—which now owns Marvel Entertainment—has placed Pirates of the Caribbean: On Strange Tides in Thor’s previous May 20 slot.

Some Spider-Man 4 Casting News?

Got a few grains of salt handy? You’ll need them.

According to Movieline, “sources close to the film” have divulged that John Malkovich and Anne Hathaway are in talks to play villains in Spider-Man 4. Malkovich is being eyed to play the Vulture—a classic Spidey adversary who made his first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #2 in 1963—while Hathaway might play Felicia Hardy who, in the comics, is the webslinger’s morally questionable costumed love interest Black Cat.

Malkovich is certainly creepy enough, and I doubt I’m alone in loving the idea of Hathaway in spandex or skintight leather. This is great news!

But here’s where this story gets a bit suspect.

Movieline reports that director Sam Raimi’s version of Felicia Hardy isn’t the Black Cat. Instead, she’ll “become a brand-new superpowered figure called the Vulturess.”

Wait, the Vulturess? Are we kidding? That doesn’t even sound good. If this is true, Raimi’s lost it completely.

Here’s hoping this news turns out to be completely false and that Sony Pictures makes some official casting announcements soon.