Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises

Anne Hathaway was excellent in 'The Dark Knight Rises' role of Catwoman and director Sam Raimi says he is not surprised as her work during auditions for the now defunct 'Spider-Man 4' showed off her skills as a possible comic book action hero on the big screen.

The director said Hathaway was fantastic in her auditions for Spider-Man 4 and Raimi isn't surprised she was fabulous in The Dark Knight Rises as Catwoman.

The director was the man in charge of the first three 'Spider-Man' movies and says he really wanted Anne for the starring role of Felicia Hardy/Black Cat in the fourth installment.

However the film never got made and Anne went on to play Catwoman in the new Batman movie 'The Dark Knight Rises'.

He told Vulture: "I didn't get to see Batman yet, because I've been working non stop... 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.'"

Sam says he was anxious to make 'Spider-Man 4' because he wanted to redeem himself as he wasn't happy with 'Spider-Man 3'.

Asked why the project never got made, Sam explained: "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.

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"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.'"

In the end Sony hired Marc Webb to shoot 'The Amazing Spider-Man' starring Andrew Garfield.

(Image: PR Photo)