MUMBAI: Sony is on loggerheads with director Sam Raimi over which direction to go with the villains for the latest instalment of Spiderman-4 an impasse that has made the studio delay its scheduled spring production's start. This would also result in delaying the release of the film from its 11 May, 2011 release slot.

While Raimi wants to have a criminal known as the Vulture act as the primary antagonist in the film, the studio that dislikes the idea of the winged wrongdoer has been pushing for a romantic sub-plot involving a burglar named the Black Cat in addition to another villain.

A lot of effort to have the two parties coming to a solution has had no effect till date.

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire was hired to pen a key version of the screenplay in October 2008. Last year, Sony brought in Gary Ross who was nominated for the Oscar for his adapted script on 2003's Seabiscuit that he also helmed. Now, Alvin Sargent is penning the film.

Word of the Sony-Raimi conflict first surfaced mid-December on genre Web site IESB, but at the time Sony denied the report, saying tweaking of the script was "nothing unusual."

The differing views about the villain have their origins in the making of Spider-Man 3.

Spider-Man 3, while garnering $890 million in its worldwide web, turned out to be reviled by both the fan boy community and by many critics. In addition to a hefty paycheck, Raimi purportedly returned to helm the fourth instalment in order to leave the series on a high note.