The production of Spider-Man 4 will be getting delayed start date after Sony announced so. The reason behind the delay is due to the disagreement between Sony Pictures studio and Sam Raimi following the choice of villains. Raimi is committed to use The Vulture, to be played by John Malkovich, while the studio prefers a version of Felicia Hardy (Black Cat) alongside another more marketable villain.
According to Heat Vision Blog, Raimi has always wanted to use the brainy beaky The Vulture for the Spider-Man 3 before the producers pushed in Venom.
With many potential villains to be featured in the fourth installment, many script drafts have been floating around but no mutual agreement on which one to take on to actually getting the shooting start. Previously, the names of James Vanderbilt (Zodiac), David Lindsay-Abaire and Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) have all been tasked with the script.
Since the studio has yet to decide which script to take on for the scheduled spring shooting, Sony may well have to retract that long-planned 2011 release schedule.
SOURCES: Empire Online and Slash Film