SPIDER-MAN 4 Stops?

Whoa! What is going on here?! IESB reported that SPIDER-MAN 4 has been put on hold. I hope the act of Disney stopping all its projects didn’t get contagious. There are 2 unfortunate reasons to this mess. The script isn’t completely finished and there’s creative disagreement over which character should be the next villain and from the sound of it, there’s been a bit of a tension between director Sam Raimi and execs at Columbia Pictures. Earlier this month, there was a rumor that John Malkovich might be considered to play the Vulture in SPIDER-MAN 4. Turns out, Vulture was exactly what Raimi wanted…

there are some major issues director Sam Raimi is dealing with that include an incomplete script. And why is the script incomplete? Looks like Raimi and the studio heads at Sony Pictures can’t agree upon a villain for the film.
Raimi is pushing hard for the Vulture to be the big baddie, something he also pushed for in the third film to star alongside the Sandman but didn’t get and we all know how that one turned out. Vulture was to do his evil deeds alongside the new Goblin and Sandman. A single concept art sketch can be seen in “The Art of Spider-Man 3″ book. Vulture and Flint Marko would have been cellmates who escaped together, with Vulture pressuring the more passive Marko into committing crimes.

The article went on to say that the studio doesn’t really know what it wants as the villain, as long as it’s… a character that is selling books right and.. NOT the Vulture.
Here’s a fun fact, this fourth installment is currently known as SPIDER-M4N within the production offices. I kid you not!
Filming is supposed to start next year but this might change plans significantly.

Does a villain make or break a movie? The Vulture isn’t the most attractive or entertaining nemesis, yes young generation might quickly think the Vulture is not cool or badass enough, the fact that he wears a green winged suit doesn’t help either.. but if Malkovich gets to play the character, I believe without a doubt that the man can pull it off, surely a better match than Topher Grace as Venom.
Rami gave in to Studio’s demands and didn’t go with The Vulture for Spider-Man 3, that went south, so I think now the studio needs to give the ball back to Raimi and let him run with it. But with big budget projects like this, leaving it to the filmmaker’s vision is almost a wishful thinking, people in higher ups will always want to have their input heard and respected.