In truth, there are probably dozens of reasons why Spider-Man 4 failed-- Sam Raimi and Sony never seemed to be seeing eye-to-eye on the whole thing, and the venture was guaranteed to be hugely expensive. But Vulture has uncovered what's definitely a new theory about why the whole thing fell apart-- Avatar. According to their sources, Raimi apparently was so dazzled by the effects in Avatar that he demanded an even bigger CGi budget from Sony. An unnamed insider explained, "The tipping point was that Sam wanted to do certain things that would push the envelope in terms of [special effects] ‘toys’ and other visual stimulation, and Sony didn’t feel that was essential to the franchise.”

They also got their hands on the basic outline of the plot Raimi was pushing, which is pretty much what we knew-- a new love interest whose father turns out to be The Vulture-- but includes a downer ending that was understandably not that exciting to the studio. Here's the gist below:

Peter Parker gets over MJ, finds a new girl, falls in love. But: Peter also discovers her father is actually the Vulture, a naughty green guy with wings to be played by John Malkovich. Peter is torn between the love of his new lady and taking down the Vulture. Being a Spandex tight-ass, he decides to take down the Vulture, and kills him. This patricide goes down poorly with Peter’s new fiancée, and she rejects him. Despondent, Peter decides to abandon his superpowers, and Movie No. 4 ends with Peter Parker throwing away his Spider-Man mask, and audiences wondering if they are watching Superman II.

There's a whole lot of other tidbits about the other things that went wrong, including concern over action figures for a sexagenarian villain played by John Malkovich and a last-minute plan to bring in yet another screenwriter. It all offers further proof that there were so many things wrong with the project that nothing really could have made Spider-Man 4 a good movie, and also one tantalizing headline: Avatar Killed Spider-Man 4. How much do you want to bet that's the blame that gets spread the fastest?