Spider-Man 4 delayed due to arguments over the villain

There was mention a while back that John Malkovich could be down to play the Vulture in Sam Raimi’s next installment of your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man.

According to THR Sony and Sam Raimi are at loggerheads over which direction to go with the villains for the latest installment. An impasse which has prompted the studio to delay its scheduled spring production start and potentially to bump the film from its 11th May 2011 release slot.

Raimi wants to have the Vulture act as the primary antagonist in the film while the studio, which dislikes the idea of the winged wrongdoer, is pushing for a romantic sub-plot involving a burglar named the Black Cat in addition to another villain. At the very least this seems to have got rid of the dreadfully named Vulturess.

This argument goes back to the awful Spider-Man 3 when Raimi wanted to use the Vulture, but the studio pushed for Venom and that was a waste of a good character.

I’m with Raimi on this one. A single villain would be great as, with many comic book movies, having more than one bad guy dilutes their menace and time to develop them. If we can’t have the Lizard then I am happy to see a cool take on the Vulture and they could just set up the basics for Black Cat for a future film.

Do you want one bad guy in the next Spidey film?

Spider-Man 4 – Is John Malkovich going to be The Vulture?

Interesting news or rather a rumour for the big bads of the next Spider-Man film.

Movieline has confirmed with sources close to the film that Sam Raimi’s sequel is circling John Malkovich and Anne Hathaway to play Spider-Man’s adversaries.

If negotiations proceed according to plan, Malkovich will be playing Spider-Man’s nemesis the Vulture, who packs a punch despite his advanced age.

In the comic Adrian Toomes was born in Staten Island, New York. He is a former electronics engineer who was once the business partner of a man named Gregory Bestman; Bestman handled the finances while Toomes, the inventions. One day, after creating a flight harness, Toomes eagerly rushed into Bestman’s office to share the happy news. However, Bestman was not there, and Toomes discovered that Bestman had secretly been embezzling funds and that Toomes had no legal recourse. Enraged, Toomes wrecked the business, discovering that the harness also granted him superhuman strength. He then decided to turn to crime professionally as the Vulture. His wings are as sharp as swords and can be used as projectile weapons. They will replenish themselves so he can maintain flying abilities.

The Vulture employs a special harness of his own design that allows him to fly; his flight is directed by a pair of wings worn on his arms. The harness also endows him with enhanced strength and (according to some sources) increases his lifespan. Although Toomes is advanced in age, he is a strong fighter and a remorseless killer.

I think Malkovich is an excellent choice to play. However, for Spider-Man 3 Raimi had originally wanted to use the Vulture but was sort of forced to use Venom and I think you can see how the Vulture would have worked in the final scenes of the third film.

Anne Hathaway is supposedly the top choice for Felicia Hardy, who’d been long-rumored as one of the new characters in this installment. (Other names bandied about for the role included Julia Stiles, Rachel McAdams, and Romola Garai.) However, unlike in the comic books, this Felicia Hardy doesn’t transform into the Black Cat. Instead, Raimi’s Felicia will become a brand-new superpowered figure called the Vulturess.

This is all still very much rumour and I’m just not getting the whole Felicia Hardy as Vulturess thing. Why take an established character from the Spidey-verse and then make them a different villain? Plus The Vulturess?!?! What kind of name is that?

What are your thoughts on the possible casting and what will this mean for Dylan Baker’s possible turn as The Lizard? Is the Vulture the right villain to use? Will we eventually see the Sinister Six?

Black Cat in Spider-Man 4

Hi all. Phil hasn’t been feeling too well for the past few days so he has asked me to step in for a little while. Hope I do okay. Call me Ishmael!

Recent news has mentioned that Black Cat may be featuring in the fourth Sam Raimi Spider-Man film. The original news had Rachel McAdams trying out for the role – funnily enough Live for Films had McAdams in a poll as to who would play Catwoman in the next Batman film. I’ll come back to that in a bit.

Now the great Hey U Guys have confirmation that Black Cat will be in the film, but that a few actresses have been trying out for the role – I vote Eliza Dushku.

HUG also have news on the characters arc in the film:
Apparently she is the daughter of the new editor of The Daily Bugle, a man who is also referred to as ‘a viper’ (more on this in a second). She falls in love with Peter Parker, and uncovers his true identity. Her father then dies, and Hardy becomes a threat to Peter Parker (presumably as The Black Cat).

This doesn’t fit exactly with the comic book incarnation of Hardy, who is the daughter of a cat burglar, but the character’s interaction with Peter Parker is fairly close to that in the comics.

The source also implied that the word viper has some relevance. We’ve been trying to work out what, and we’re at a loss. Looking through the pantheon of marvel characters the only ones known as ‘The Viper’ are villains in Captain America stories, so it’s unlikely that it’s the name of a baddie, although our source did suggest that Felicia’s father is a villain as well as the editor of The Daily Bugle.

Interesting news indeed. Not sure who the Viper could relate to. Spidey does not have many snake related bad guys but I am no expert in that side of things. Viper..Vulture..Venom? Anymore Vs?

Black Cat is a cat burglar in the Marvel Universe (I think she had some kind of luck based power as well, but I could be confusing that with one of the X-Men), as is Catwoman in the DC Universe.

The story, characters and plot have still to be set for the next Batman film. Catwoman was one of the many characters to be rumoured to be in it. I am wondering whether the news that a similar character appearing in the Marvel film will have an effect on the next Batman film. Does an early appearance by Black Cat knock Catwoman out of the running? Would that be a cat fight anyone else would want to see?

How do you feel about Black Cat appearing in the next Spider-Man film? Any idea who Viper could be? Who would be good to play Black Cat?

Image by Adam Hughes.

Marvel Divas

“In the series, they’re an unlikely foursome of friends—Black Cat, Hell Cat, Firestar, and Photon—with TWO things in common: They’re all leading double-lives and they’re all having romantic trouble… there’s definitely that ‘naughty’ element to it, but I also think the series is doing to a deeper place, asking question about what it means…truly means…to be a woman in an industry dominated by testosterone and guns. (And I mean both the super hero industry and the comic book industry.) But mostly it’s just a lot of hot fun” – Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

According to io9 Joe Quesada was getting a bit of hassle from people saying this all sounded a bit sexist. He responded as follows.

If you’re [a] Marvel reader and truly feel we’re sexist, then why are you reading our books? Now, perhaps you’re not a Marvel reader, then if that’s the case, I’m not quite sure what you’re criticizing if you don’t read our books?

…The cold hard reality of publishing and trying to sell our books to as many people as possible, so here’s an example of what happens more often than you may think here at Marvel. From time to time, we’ll be launching a title that doesn’t focus very heavily on the super heroic. From time to time I’ll get a cover sketch and it doesn’t have a costumed hero or villain on the cover, what we internally refer to as a “quiet cover.” On those occasions, more often than not, I ask my editors to direct their cover artist to give me at least a first issue cover with the characters in costume. Why? Because it will help launch a book that will most likely have trouble latching onto a large audience. We want to give every title the best possible chance to be successful. Marvel Divas is no different and that’s why you’re seeing our strong female leads in their super hero personas. Let me try an example outside of comics. I’m a huge fan of Pink, I really dig her music and love her voice. Love her or hate her, I would say that she’s an amazingly strong and intelligent female performer and song writer in the pop genre. In many of her songs she even criticizes the over sexualized female pop stars of the day and their over the top videos. But when you look at Pink’s CD covers, while she’s looking strong and like she’s looking like she’s having fun, she’s also looking really sexy. The reason is simple, she’s trying to grab people’s attention and sell some albums. Comics are no different and as much a part of the entertainment business as any other medium, and the cold hard truth is that if we were to launch Marvel Divas with a “quiet cover,” I guarantee you the book would be canceled before it hits the shelves. That’s it in a nutshell, I could sugar coat it for you and give you a million other reasons that would sound plausible, but that’s not what I do.

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