Good news for Marvel and Disney, but bad news for Sony as script issues have delayed the start of production on Spider-Man 4. Critical issues, too, since word has it the studio is at odds with Sam Raimi over who the main villain should be. Raimi wants it to be Vulture (and apparently he wants John Malkovich to play him), but the studio, I gather, wants anyone but Vulture, who, admittedly, isn't the most exciting of all the Spider-Man villains.
Earlier this week Sony officially announced that production on Spider-Man 4 would be delayed, and now two other giant films have swooped in to capitalize on Spidey's tardiness. Marvel's Thor has now moved up from its original May 20, 2011 release date to slide into Spidey's vacant spot on May 6th – giving it the much-coveted position as the film that will launch the summer movie season. Meanwhile, Disney decided to plop Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides into the May 20, 2011 spot that was previously held by Thor.
Sony, in a last ditch effort to save face, still claims they're going to try to make their original release date of May 6th, and if they do then Thor will need to move. But where could Thor even go? So far, that summer is stacked with films like The Hangover 2, The Green Lantern, Transformers 3, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and Captain America: The First Avenger. Something and someone will have to budge, and possibly hold their film off to winter 2011, or perhaps even delay to summer 2012. Who will it be? Who should it be?
