Spidey Caught In His Own Web

Back in December, IESB.net said that pre-production on Spider-Man 4 was put on hold when director Sam Raimi and Sony Pictures clashed over the sequel's villian.

But now the delay has reached critical mass--affecting its expected May 11, 2011 release date.

“It is unlikely that May 11, 2011, date will be made,” a Sony insider told Nikki Finke on her blog.“It depends on how quickly the script can get in.”

The Heat Vision Blog, says the main sticking point still being Raimi's commitment to John Malkovich as Vulture which he wanted in Spider-Man 3, (before the producers pushed Venom) and the studio preferring a version of Felicia Hardy, AKA Black Cat with another, more marketable opponent.

All this has led to multiple script drafts - nothing unusual on such a pic, but not conducive to actually getting to shoot the thing. In the last couple of years, David Koepp and James Vanderbilt playwright David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole), and most recently Gary Ross (Seabiscuit); have all been tasked with making the various combinations work.

Spider-scripter Alvin Sargent, has been brought in to see if he can figure out the formula to keep everyone happy.The cast members, effects and production crews have already been warned that they may need to look for other work while they wait.

I think the studio should trust Raimi on this since he tried it their way last time with mixed results. The prospect of history repeating itself should scare the hell out of them.