John Malkovich has come forward and confirmed what we suspected all along. He was supposed to play the Vulture in the now-kaput Spider-Man 4. While on the set of his upcoming film Red, the actor talked with /film, who got him to open up on the subject. Here is what John Malkovich had to say:

"I think a lot of the people who sort of follow that genre...I'm not sure, I never really spoke with Sam about this, but I'm not sure they-maybe the kind of fanbase, the fanboys-either didn't approve of [The Vulture] as an adversary for [Spidey] to some extent...or maybe the studio [didn't]. Or maybe that was totally unrelated to why it fell apart. Yes [I was disappointed]. But because I like Sam and I like Tobey Maguire and all that stuff, and the producers, two of whom I'd met before because I'd been offered [Green Goblin on] the first Spider-Man...I came to like them, so sure why not? But it didn't play out."

As we all know, Spider-Man is undergoing a complete cast and crew change at this time.