Now comes the speculation part. Raimi has stated he wants Malkovich as the Vulture and as the only villain in the movie. It makes sense that Sony might be a little reluctant to have the Vulture play the only villain in a blockbuster movie. There was also the rumor of Anne Hathaway being in the movie as the Vulture's daughter. Sony may be rethinking casting Hathaway as she might "cost too much" for the movie. We can only assume that the delays are creating unnecessary costs as well.
It's hard to say what all of this will mean for the movie. It's clearly not off to a good start. I do like John Malkovich and I do like the Vulture. I'm not sure how the movie would work having just the Vulture as the villain. I would have liked to have seen Hathaway as Black Cat (another early rumor) but if her not being in the movie also means no "Vuturess," that works for me. Sony still wants to be able to release the movie on its May 6, 2011 date. Let's hope they can resolve their script issues soon and get the show started.