The rift between Raimi and Sony over Spider-Man 4 and its villain has been extensively reported, but film geeks and webheads aren’t the only ones waiting for a conclusion to this fight. John Malkovich, appearing on an Italian soccer show*, mentioned (without specifically confirming he’ll be portraying The Vulture) that he too is waiting for a script and hoping that filming will commence shortly. This is via badtaste.it (valiantly translated by Google here).
So obviously Raimi has made definite moves to put The Vulture into this film, which makes me think Sony’s agenda has been, like with Spider-Man 3, to shoehorn in an addition villain rather than completely replace one. Total speculation on my part. But hell, what’s wrong with adding a little prestige to your tentpole with an actor like Malkovich as long as you balance it out with some fucking cool-ass fangs and shit?
In other Malkovich-related news, The Heat Vision Blog that he’ll be replacing John C. Reily on the Bruce Willis-led action flick, Red. There’s no mention of what drove Reily away from the insanely casted film– perhaps somewhere in the assassin-driven plot someone offs a donkey. Malkovich will be stepping into the role of a “retired CIA agent, a contemporary of Willis’, who is erratic and paranoid that everyone is out to kill him and joins Willis in is quest to find out who wants them dead.”
*Wikipedia gave me nothing on Malkovich and “soccer” or “futbol” so I have no idea what the fuck that’s about.
(Spidey 4 stuff via Collider)