10 Things You Need To Know About Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 4
9. John Malkovich Would Play The Vulture
The Lizard was definitely in the mix, anyway, and apparently Raimi didn't learn his too many villains spoil the broth lesson on Spider-Man 3 - which included The Sandman, Venom, and Harry Osborn as a New Goblin, all causing headaches for the wall crawler - because he wanted The Vulture in there too.
And considering that John Malkovich is a significantly bigger name than Dylan Baker, it's possible that he would've been the actual central protagonist, with Lizard more in the Sandman position of supporting bad guy.
Malkovich would actually be quite the get, too. He was apparently all signed on to play Adrian Toomes, who is kind of a weird villain: he's an elderly criminal who builds a suit that lets him fly. But like, with wings. And a little neck ruff. Like an actual vulture. Presumably he would've gotten a Defoe-as-Goblin redesign...