John Malkovich Confirms He Would Have Played The Vulture In The Never-To-Be Spider-Man 4
While visiting the sweltry set ofRedthis month, /Film had the pleasure of hanging and chatting a bit withJohn Malkovich. The iconic actor’s thoughts on the 2010 Warren Ellis comic book adaptation remain under wraps, but Malkovich also took a sec to extend on hisrumored involvementinSam Raimi’s (thankfully?) never-to-beSpider-Man 4. In what seemed to be the first official confirmation straight from the actor—mark your journals—Malkovich divulged he was to battleTobey Macguireas the winged super-villainThe Vulture. After the jump are his quotes on the once upon a role. (Sure, it’s the geek equivalent of a GF pondering last night’s crazy dream about a labyrinthian mall…but better.)
“Well, I think a lot of the people who sort of follow that genre… I’m not sure, I never really spoke withSamabout this, but I’m not sure they—maybe the kind of fanbase,the fanboys—either didn’t approve of [The Vulture] as an adversary for [Spidey] to some extent…or maybe the studio [didn’t]. Or maybe that was totally unrelated to why it fell apart.”
On set, I was surprised by how genuinely bummed Malkovich seemed to be about The Vulture not becoming a reality, probably because I still—rather inexplicably—consider him to be above popcorn franchises. When it was inquired if he actually watched and enjoyed many of the recent blockbuster spectacles coming out of Hollywood, Malkovich admitted that he checked them out when he had the time. He also said he foundTransformersto be “fine” and looked forward to his sizable supporting role opposite Shia LaBeouf inTransformers 3. More on The Vulture…
“Yes [I was disappointed],” he says. “But because I like Sam and I like Toby [Maguire] and all that stuff, and the producers, two of whom I’d met before because I’d been offered [Green Goblinon] the first [Spider-Man]… I came to like them, so sure why not? But it didn’t play out.”
Those who follow /Film already know thesearch is onfor a new, more teen-orientedPeter Parkerin directorMarc Webb’s reboot of the franchise. This year, Malkovich hasRedand the racehorse biopicSecretariat(both due in theaters in October) and will next be seen as a villain in another PG-13 comic book movie, this summer’s buzz-challengedJonah Hex. On the subject of mourning genre hypotheticals, pour one out for aJonah Hexdirected byCrank’sMark NeveldineandBrian Taylor, as originally planned, with a trigger-happy Malkovich chewing up scenesCon-Air-style.
