Spider-Man 4 is officially boned

Despite chatter that Sam Raimi was gearing up to start work on Spider-Man 4 for a 2011 summer release, those gears are grinding already. Spider-Nerds, don't hold your breath.

Do you want the bad news, or the worse news? They really only come in the one order. The bad news is that, according to reports from the likes of IESB, Spider-Man 4 has been put on indefinite hold over at Sony, due to 'villain indecision'.

The worse news is that the movie is currently going by the title, Spider-M4n. (*drops coffee mug, stares in disbelief*)

A rumour it may be for now, but this rings true. Raimi made his displeasure clear at being forced to shoehorn in third villain Venom into Spider-Man 3 [pictured] - leading to short-cut scenes like an asteroid full of alien goo landing on Earth right next to Peter Parker - so it figures that he'd be prissy about having the suits jerk him around again.

As far we knew at this time yesterday, the villains were all set to be The Vulture (to be played by John Malkovich) and his daughter, Felicia Hardy (to be played by Anne Hathaway), whose comic-book origins as Black Cat were ignored in order to create all-new villain The Vulturess.

We weren't overly thrilled at this needlessly complicated development, but hey - any Spider-Man news has to be positive. Right?