The latest screenplay was said to have featured the villain Raimi wanted, The Vulture, but at the request of the studio, the writers (about five were on the project at different times) also added The Vulturess, a new character that Anne Hathaway was loosely in talks for at one stage (she dropped out of the race late last year). There was also talk of a third villain.
In other words, this was going to be "Spider-Man 3 Part 2".
A friend that works at Sony Pictures Technologies – an off-shoot of Sony - shot me an email tonight, after reading my item on the “Spider-Man 4” cancellation.
“Did you read the script man?", he asks, "I mean, it was fucking terrible – it was pretty much Spider-Man 3 all over again. I kid you not, it was just a mess. Seriously. You say people are ‘sobbing’ now, but had this film been made, fans would’ve been jumping off roof-tops!".
He adds, "Basically, it was Peter Parker, in between changing his little one’s diapers, fighting the new editor of the Daily Bugle, who's The Vulture, and Black Cat. They’ve rewritten it since then (Black Cat is now Vulturess), but I believe the gist of the story remains. Or.. remained".
"Thing is, there’s another script – this reboot script, that was completed around the same time as the Spider-Man 4 script. And it’s apparently - haven’t read it myself – much better.”. I called my pal to see if he had any more info but he didn’t, only that the new film will be the first in a new trilogy – a trilogy that’ll be more “Dark Knight” than “Spider-Man” as we know it. “They’re losing the fluff”, he said.
I'm guessing by "fluff" he means laughs... and Bruce Campbell cameos.
The studio was never certain that Raimi, Maguire and Dunst would return for another (the trio had all said, at different times, that it was unlikely they’d be back for another), so they had a contingency plan up their sleeve – reboot.
