Sam Raimi Was Courting Anne Hathaway To Play Black Cat In SPIDER-MAN 4

Sam Raimi, who dropped out of the fourth installment of the Spider-Man films told Vulture about his decision to leave the project, while confirming some very interesting rumors.

First of all, Anne Hathaway could have played cat burglar-turned crime fighter Felicia Hardy – aka Black Cat in Spider-Man 4 before she appeared as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises.

Raimi said:

I didn’t get to see Batman yet, because I’ve been working nonstop… but I hear she’s great in it. I’m not surprised, because I loved what she was doing with the auditions for Spider-Man 4.

Raimi, who directed the three Spider-Man movies that came out between 2002 and 2007, explained why Spider-Man 4 never got made:

It was simply that we had a deadline and I couldn’t get the story to work on a level that I wanted it to work. I was very unhappy with Spider-Man 3, and I wanted to make Spider-Man 4 to end on a very high note, the best Spider-Man of them all. But I couldn’t get the script together in time, due to my own failings, and I said to Sony, ‘I don’t want to make a movie that is less than great, so I think we shouldn’t make this picture. Go ahead with your reboot, which you’ve been planning anyway.

Well, now that we’ve all seen The Amazing Spider-Man starring Andrew Garfield, are you glad that Raimi’s fourth movie fell apart?

However, director Marc Webb began shooting his sequel in New York last month and Hathaway went on to win acclaim for her performance as Catwoman in Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight Rises.

On the other hand, Raimi’s latest, Oz The Great and Powerful, arrives in theaters this Friday, March 8th, 2013.