10 Promising Comic Book Movies That Sadly Never Happened

9. Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 4

Speaking of Spider-Man, we all know this story all too well. In the early 2000€™s Sam Raimi made a trio of successful Spider-Man films for Sony with Tobey Maguire in the lead role and, despite the lukewarm critical reception of his third offering, was set to return to the series for a fourth outing. The film would have seen Maguire reprise his role as the web-slinger and John Malkovich join the franchise as the villainous Vulture. Anne Hathaway was in negotiations to play Felicia Hardy (aka Black Cat). And Dylan Baker's Curt Connors from the previous films was expected to finally morph into his Lizard alter ego. Raimi spoke to Vulture about the failed project: €œIt really was the most amicable and undramatic of breakups: It was simply that we had a deadline and I couldn€™t get the story to work on a level that I wanted it to work,€ he said of his split with Sony Pictures. €œI was very unhappy with Spider-Man 3, and I wanted to make Spider-Man 4 to end on a very high note, the best Spider-Man of them all. But I couldn€™t get the script together in time, due to my own failings, and I said to Sony, €˜I don€™t want to make a movie that is less than great, so I think we shouldn€™t make this picture. Go ahead with your reboot, which you€™ve been planning anyway.€™" As we all know, the franchise was rebooted in 2012 but we can't help wonder what Raimi could have done if the studio let him make "the best Spider-Man of them all".