It's been a bumpy week or two for those anticipating Sony and Sam Raimi's fourth Spider-Man movie, what with the news last week that Spider-Man 4 is undergoing delays that are likely to see it miss its targeted May 2011 release date.

Much of the reason for the delay is said to be down to disagreements over who should be the main villain, and these have filtered down into thus far unresolved script problems. And the speculation was that director Sam Raimi was very keen to use Vulture for Spider-Man 4, but that Sony wasn't keen at all. Hence, behind the scenes battles have ensued.

And one piece of the jigsaw has slotted into place with confirmation of the choice of Vulture coming from actor John Malkovich. Malkovich was linked with the role before Christmas, but he's now gone on Italian television and confirmed his involvement. Thanks to the site BadTaste.It that has summed up his words, we now know that Malkovich is definitely involved, and that he's awaiting the arrival of the final script for the film.

We won't attempt to translate the Italian ourselves, but if you're fluent, you might want to head over to Bad Taste and take a look.

The current betting, meanwhile, sees a July 2011 release date for Spider-Man 4. But we'd not put a penny on it ourselves...