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IESB is reporting that due to yet another disagreement between the studio and Sam Raimi production on Spider-Man 4 has been put on hold indefinitely until they can work things out. Apparently, Raimi wants the Vulture as the villain in the fourth installment but the studio doesn’t. Here’s what IESB has heard from their “inside source”:

An inside source working on the project tells IESB that there are some major issues director Sam Raimi is dealing with that include an incomplete script. And why is the script incomplete? Looks like Raimi and the studio heads at Sony Pictures can’t agree upon a villain for the film.

Raimi is pushing hard for the Vulture to be the big baddie, something he also pushed for in the third film to star alongside the Sandman but didn’t get and we all know how that one turned out. Vulture was to do his evil deeds alongside the new Goblin and Sandman. A single concept art sketch can be seen in “The Art of Spider-Man 3″ book. Vulture and Flint Marko would have been cellmates who escaped together, with Vulture pressuring the more passive Marko into committing crimes.

On the flip side, who does the studio want to be the villain? Our source says they seem to only be interested in featuring which ever character is selling books right now but basically they have no idea, just not the Vulture.

As far as sources go, I am apt to believe IESB, they are pretty credible. But I certainly hope that maybe this little spat has been blown out of proportion. Of course, production was probably going to take a break due to the holidays anyway, so maybe the studio and Raimi can come to an agreement shortly after and get things rolling again.

Frankly, I don’t think Sony is in any position to be debating the villain in a movie they would like to have a positive turn around on from their last one. For Spider-Man 3, Sony and Raimi butted heads over villains -with Sony wanting Venom and Raimi wanting the Vulture. Of course, we all know Sony won and they turned out less than pleasing for most fans out there. Why Sony is again doubting Raimi’s ability to pick a good villain to fit the story again is beyond me, but they best pull their heads out of their arses or Spider-Man 4 could be even worse that Spider-Man 3, then the fans will be really mad.

Update:

Super Hero Hype is now reporting that their source at Sony is saying that production of Spider-Man 4 is simply on hiatus for the holidays:

Our studio source tells us this is not true. They are simply on hiatus for the holidays and production will resume in the new year. This is a very common practice on films, and not really surprising.

Okay, this makes sense. Of course films will stop production over the holidays to allow cast and crew to be with their families and what-not. But, it still wouldn’t surprise me if their is still a little tension between Sony and Raimi -granted, probably not as tremultuous as believed.