Hmmm…okay, so let me get this straight.  John Malkovitch is currently front runner to play The Vulture in Sam Raimi’s upcoming Spider-Man 4 flick.  Okay … that makes sense.  In fact, it’s not a half bad casting choice, as long as Malkovitch reigns in some of his Eragon overacting. Wouldn’t count on that … ya know, did anyone see Willem Dafoe in Spider-Man 1 and 2?  Yech.

As for the other name in the title, apparently Anne Hathaway is in the lead to play Felicia Hardy.  Yup!  The Black Cat herself…wait…okay, not so much.  Felicia Hardy, at least according to Movieline, will actually be a superviallain known as the Vulturess!  Yup…the Vulturess.  I’m hoping they don’t actually call her that by name in the movie.  I’m guessing they got the love triangle thing out of the way in Spider-Man 3, so they figured there would be no need for a Black Cat character?  I mean, Anne Hathaway is smokin’ hot and all that … but I’m not so sure about the Vulturess idea.  Of course, I didn’t like Spider-Man 1 or 3, so the hopes that 4 will be good, given the return of everything I didn’t like about the first three, aren’t high.

As for the Lizard character, whom fans have been asking for since Dylan Baker played Dr. Curt Connors back in Spider-Man 2?  Apparently scrapped, because the studio execs want a villain with a human face.  While I’m sure there will be a ton of angry fan mail surrounding the decision, it actually makes sense.  A big CG Lizard would anger fans more than actually not using the character at all.