John Malkovich and Anne Hathaway Rumored for "Spider-Man 4"

By our guest blogger, Rob Stammitti

Eight years after Malkovich was offered the role of the Green Goblin in the first "Spider-Man," he may be in consideration for the web-slinging series once again, this time to possibly play Spidey's winged nemesis The Vulture. A pretty inspired choice for sure, both for villain and his portrayer, but even more bizarre is what rumors are saying about a potential role for Anne Hathaway.

From Empire:

"The Vulture--aka aged robber, Adrian Toomes, who takes to the skies wearing a hi-tech flying harness--won’t be alone. In fact, he’ll be joined by the beautiful and ravishing Anne Hathaway as… The Vulturess?"

For those unaware, there is no such character as The Vulturess in the the Spider-Man comics. If you remember, there was plenty of talk not too long ago about numerous actresses auditioning with most news outlets presuming that they'd be playing Black Cat, but it now seems that either they're entirely revamping Black Cat's character or Raimi is pulling another "New Goblin" and making a new character entirely. That is, unless Raimi's really going to pull the carpet out from everyone's feet and give us a filmic adaptation of Spider-Man's campy "Cloak and Dagger" villain team (which I think is pretty unlikely, even for Raimi, who thrives on campiness in his films).

Whatever the case, I hope the rumors about Malkovich are accurate if nothing else, not necessarily for the sake of seeing The Vulture but to see Malkovich as a villain, which always is a pleasure. Plus, it will continue in the line of seasoned dramatic actors portraying Spidey villains that the third entry sort of strayed from.

Raimi is fine-tuning the script with filming to start in March. "Spider-Man 4" is set to be released on May 6, 2011.