SPIDER-MAN 4 web-slings into a brick wall and loses it's May 2011 release?

Spider-Man 4 has some huge hurdles to jump before it's anywhere near close to filming, that's the situation we are in right now. Thankfully, Sam Raimi has learnt his lesson and won't film a page of any script he isn't completely satisfied with. That at least we can guarantee. A breaking news article from Nikki Finke tonight claims that Raimi "hated" all previous drafts for Spider-Man 4 turned in by Gary Ross, David-Lindsay Abaire and James Vanderbilt - and in an attempt to appease their director and get the movie filming as quickly as possible, producer Laura Ziskin has quickly turned to her husband Alvin Sargant, co-screenwriter of Spidey's 2 and 3 - to put together a Sony/Raimi friendly script. Of course as we know, what further complicates matters is Raimi adamant's desire to stick on The Vulture as the main villain with John Malkovich playing him and Sony themselves hate that idea - so one doesn't see how a compromise script can be possible that pleases both parties. And as Sony will make another Spider-Man movie no matter what, it's almost inevitable that Raimi has to bail. I wrote on 18.12.09 that Sony had forced Spider-Man 4 to go on "holiday hiatus", effectively haulting pre-production on anything except the script and despite some denials from the studio, Finke has tonight posted an e-mail that the FX department received on Dec. 11th that backs-up the delay story... Sony sources claim it's "unlikely" that the script will be handed in for a Spring shoot meaning the May 5th 2011 release date that's been in place for well over 14 months now, is in huge jeopardy. If as expected, no filming begins in February/March, then the release will be pushed back to later in the summer - maybe July 2011 but tentpole free dates are few and far between then, so it could easily go to 2012. Also it seems Sony have dropped the idea of using Anne Hathaway as The Vulturess as they believe a "big name" actress isn't needed for the Spider-Man franchise to make a shed load of money, so they will probably trade down a wage bracket or two in filling that part. From the outside looking in, the whole situation looks pretty grim. I'm guessing Raimi's deep love for the character is keeping him on board right now despite all this trouble, I mean after all it's his baby on screen - but Sony have thought post-2002 that they know what's best for this series and that mindset has done very well for them financially speaking... so a divorce, a splitting of ways is what has to happen. And Sony win custody of Spidey, of course, and will find a new surrogate father to deliver a cobbled together villain fest that makes money and sells toys. Are we getting closer and closer to the Joel Schmaucher-like days of the Spidey franchise?