The never-knowingly-understated John Malkovich has confirmed the rumor that’s been floating around Hollywood for most of the holiday season – he will indeed take on the villainous role of The Vulture in “Spider-Man 4,” even as the film goes into an extended production hiatus. Nikki Finke said as much last week, but Malkovich was on an Italian sports show, of all things, and was asked about the rumors.
He responded “that he’s waiting for the final script to be sent to him, and that the movie has been delayed. He also hopes that shooting will begin as soon as possible.” (thanks to Empire for the translation, Italian site Bad Taste for the story, and Collider for the original spot).
On the one hand, Malkovich is a reliable hand at this sort of thing, and he’s a good fit for the character (originally an elderly winged thief, but now rumored to be the new proprietor of the Daily Bugle, at least in the last draft of the script). On the other, there’s certain actors in the villain hall of fame, Malkovich included, that we’re a little tired of seeing playing the bad guy – Alan Rickman seems to have given it up, for the most part, but Gary Oldman is returning to the game in “Book of Eli,” and we’re already weary of seeing Mark Strong as the antagonist, as fantastic an actor as he is. Can Malkovich still surprise in a role like this, considering he’s already playing another comic book villain in this summer’s “Jonah Hex”? Assuming, of course, that the film overcomes its script problems and remains in its current form.
In the meantime, though, Malkovich will take on a role which sounds a little more fun, replacing John C Reilly in Robert Schwentke’s spy thriller “Red.” Reilly, who was set to a play a paranoid former colleague of a former black-ops agent (Bruce Willis) being hunted by his former employers, apparently left the project in December for unspecified reasons, but Malkovich has stepped in, in what’s apparently a comic role. He’s only the latest addition to a shit-hot cast also including Morgan Freeman, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, Julian McMahon, Richard Dreyfuss, Ernest Borgnine and Brian Cox, who’ll play the villain (hey, speaking of the villain hall of fame…). Rumors that the same cast will re-unite for a big-budget remake of “Cocoon” are, as yet, entirely fictional.