That's right, if Spider-Man 4 had happened, John Malkovich would have been The Vulture up against Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man. It seems he thought he might have been part of the problem as to why the movie got derailed after many fanboys (and fangirls) criticized the questionable villain for the movie.
“Well, 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 that character as an adversary for him to some extent…or maybe the studio. Or maybe that was totally unrelated to why it fell apart.”
Image courtesy of our own JoshW from his
Amazing Spider-Man cast.
Malkovich was very familiar with the production as he had been originally offered the role of Green Goblin and was disappointed how things went.
Thanks to Collider. For the full interview, click the link.