Spider-Man 4

Spider-Man 4 is an upcoming American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, produced by Columbia Pictures and Marvel Entertainment, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It is the fourth installment in the Spider-Man film franchise. The film is directed by Sam Raimi, with a screenplay by James Vanderbilt, David Lindsay-Abaire and Gary Ross, and stars Tobey Maguire, Anne Hathaway, John Malkovich, Kirsten Dunst, Dylan Baker, Emmy Rossum, Rosemary Harris, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Nikolaj Lie Kaas.

Synopsis
The film sees Parker five years after the events of Spider-Man 3, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is engaged to Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), meanwhile during his time as a Supervillain, The Vulture (John Malkovich) would take a jaded cat burglar called Felicia Hardy, now known as Black Cat (Anne Hathaway), unleashes a rogues gallery of past villains to eliminate Spider-Man once and for all. Spider-Man is much more experienced this time around and has developed a public persona with an increased sense of humour, and built tactical webshooters with the help of Dr. Connors, that can hold any weight. Will Spider-Man defeat his old foes once again, or has this spider delivered his last pizza? Change the past to find out.

Cast

 * Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
 * Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson
 * John Malkovich as Adrian Toomes/Vulture
 * Anne Hathaway as Felicia Hardy/Black Cat
 * Emmy Rossum as Liz Allan
 * Rebecca Hall as Valeria Toomes
 * Rosemary Harris as May Parker
 * J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson
 * Bill Nunn as Joseph Robertson
 * Elizabeth Banks as Betty Brant
 * Nikolaj Lie Kaas as Richard Parker
 * Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy
 * Dylan Baker as Curt Connors/The Lizard
 * James Cromwell as George Stacy
 * Bruce Campell as Quentin Beck/Mysterio

Development
In spite of the poor reception from fans and critics alike to Spider-Man 3, its impressive box office score convinced Sony to make another film, even convincing them to speak of a fifth and sixth film, also to be directed by Raimi. It was even discussed that they be shot cocurrently.

In 2008, with Raimi attached to direct and the core cast of the previous films to return. Come 2009, however, Raimi dismissed the rumors that all three films were being made, instead confirming that only the fourth was under development. Sony hired James Vanderbilt in October of 2008 to pen the screenplay, after contacting David Koepp, the writer of the first film. The script underwent further revision by playwright David Lindsay-Abaire and once more by Gary Ross in October of 2009. Sony had also hired Vanderbilt to pen scripts for Spider-Man 5 and Spider-Man 6.

On the subject of villains, Raimi considered showcasing the transformation of Dr. Curt Connors into the Lizard, with Dylan Baker reprising his role. By December 2009, it was reported that John Malkovich was in talks to play the Vulture, with Anne Hathaway playing Felicia Hardy. Hardy would be taking a departure from her prior portrayals in this film, becoming "Vulturess" instead of the familiar Black Cat. The script was loosely inspired by 1990's What If... ? Vol 2 #21, which pit Spider-Man and the Black Cat against the Vulture.

According to sources online, the film would have had the Vulture buying out the Daily Bugle, forcing Spider-Man to kill him. Vulture's daughter, Felicia, would have had an affair with Peter Parker in order to shatter his engagement with Mary Jane. These rumors were never confirmed. The film was then subsequently delayed to 2011.

Filming
By 2009, pre-production had begun on the film. Character designs and redesigns were underway. Filming took place in Los Angeles from February 13th to March 17th to film the winter scenes. The film then moved to SoundStage 9 in Hollywood for special effects scenes. The idea for the film to be set around Christmas time was taken from Batman Returns, which had some influence on the film's production.

At San Diego Comic-Con International 2010, Marvel confirmed the castings of Malkovich, Hall, Rossum, Hathaway and Baker, while revealing Hall, Rossum, and Hamm's roles as Valeria Toomes, Liz and Wilson Allan, respectively, and announcing the casting of Nikolaj Lie Kaas as Richard Parker.

Designs
Unlike previous entries into the series, two different Spider-Man costumes were made for different scenes in the film. The costume seen throughout the majority of the film is the costume previously used in Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3. The costume used in the final battle is the original Spider-Man costume from Spider-Man.

The Vulture's costume was surprisingly complex to do. The initial design was based on that of the comic book design, what with feathers being placed on the body costume and wings, but this idea was scrapped. James Acheson returned the character costume designs, along with Scott Stewart, who was passionate about the characters' appearances. Although he was passionate about the comic book designs, they also took consistency into consideration. In keeping with the overall tone and look of Sam Raimi's world for Spider-Man, James reimagined the Vulture wearing a short-sleeved, green body vest with finger-less gloves, thus revealing his arms. The lower body portions of the suit were designed to resemble that of the Green Goblin from the first film, but to a lesser degree. Finally, the wings were redesigned to resemble more of an angel's that that of an actual vulture's. James said that the reason for this was because an angel's wings were smaller and more compact, as well as to reflect of Toomes' religious nature in the film. The only thing kept from the comic book design as a homage was the white "mane" around the neck area.

The Black Cat's design was relatively simplistic. James had taken inspiration from Michelle Pfieffer's Catwoman from Batman Returns (1992), and the comic book designs, primarily from her first appearance from the 1970s. The idea behind this was to give the essence of "an amateur, but experienced, cat burglar".