Spider-Man 3 Villains: Sandman & Venom

datemenatalie writes "As posted on ComingSoon.net, "Kirsten Dunst confirmed rumors to Zap2it that Thomas Haden Church will play Sandman and Topher Grace is Venom in director Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3." As written, ""We have really great people though as the villains in this film, Thomas Haden Church and Topher Grace -- Venom and Sandman," said Dunst, who plays Mary Jane Watson in the Spidey films. "Maybe I wasn't supposed to say that," she added before reversing her claim. "It's the other way around. You're right," she conceded to a journalist." Spider-Man 3 is set for release on May 4, 2007."

Old & incomplete news.

[TripMaster Monkey]

Old news...Digg [digg.com]reported this two and a half weeks ago [digg.com]. Also, in addition to Venom and Sandman, the Hobgoblin will be played by James Franco (see Freeze Dried Movies [freezedriedmovies.com] for the scoop).

James Franco as Hobgoblin looks to be a good call, and Thomas Hayden Church is a lock for Sandman, but Topher Grace as Venom??? Seriously...I think Grace is a decent enough actor, but can he pull off Eddie Brock? Personally, I think he would have been better cast as Cletus Kasady (aka Carnage [alaph.com]).

Re:Geez....

[Chicane-UK]

Info on Sandman:

http://www.alaph.com/spiderman/enemies/sandman.htm l [alaph.com]

Re:Geez....

[slaker]

Sandman - the regular one - got his powers due by being irradiated while he was resting on a beach, giving him the power to turn his body into sand. He's basically a standard Spiderman thug/villian, other than that. He has tried to go straight in the past.

The Ultimate Universe version has a less silly origin as a failed attempt at making a super soldier by OsCorp. That version seems more dangerous as well.

Re:Old & incomplete news.

[TripMaster Monkey]

From the article on Freeze Drided Movies [freezedriedmovies.com]:

Now as for the other two stars listed above we've been told that Thomas Haden Church will in fact play SANDMAN and that James Franco will play HOBGOBLIN and not the Green Goblin II (like in the comics). No more info can be given at this time, but I've confirmed this with various sources and apparently it's quite well known.

Don't know why I post links to articles if noone's gonna read 'em...

Re:No Kingpin?!

[IoN_PuLse]

Erm, have you ever seen DareDevil [imdb.com]? Daredevil and Spider-man exist in the same universe (AFAIK) and in DD Kinpin was played by Michael Clarke Duncan [imdb.com]. I thought he did a pretty good job of it too. Colin Farrell on the other hand, still had the usual irish accent (Alexander anyone?) and the wide-eyed-vibrating-eyebrows look he uses for shock/surprise/anger/sadness/sorrow/everything.

Re:Bad news

[roman_mir]

No, The Avengers [imdb.com] is the worst movie ever made. (but your point is still valid.)

Sounds like they're doing Ultimate Venom

[Sandman1971]

In Ultimate Spiderman, Venom was a symbiote suit built by Peter Parker and Eddie Brock's fathers as a cancer fighting suit (no I'm not making this up). Both Peter and Eddie are smart in this universe. Unlike the traditional Marvel universe where Brock was a beefed up photographer. Sounds like they might be using the origin from Ultimate Spiderman instead. In this one, Brock is just as small as Parker (but doesn't dress as a science nerd, but as a grunge rocker). That would sorta fit in casting Topher Grace for the role.

Re:Old & incomplete news.

[J. T. MacLeod]

"but Topher Grace as Venom?"

Seriously, that's as lame as having a goofy nerd like Toby McGuire as Spider-... er, damn.

Spider-Man was a goofy nerd from the very start. Have you been paying attention?

It'll be different but good

[tbcpp]

First of all, let me say that Spiderman has never totally followed the comics. So any diversion here is nothing new. But hey, who cares? Spiderman 1 & 2 are still my top two favorite movies. This comming from a guy who never read the comics. If they director can make it look beleiveable and have a story, it will rock. That's what the other movies had. A great storyline.

As far as the Sandman thing goes, aleph.com says that spiderman and sandman were allies. What if they make it so that you have a Spiderman & Sandman vs. Hobgoblin & Venom?

Another thing I always wanted to see in these movies is have a villian come out of nowhere, trash the city a bit, and then have Spiderman come in and beat the snot out of him in 5 minutes flat. And have all that as the opening of the movie. Why do the battles have to last for 10 minutes with Spiderman almost dieing each time. If he's smart at all, he should have way more experience at the whole superpower thing by now.

Anyway, that's my two cents.

Re:One "actor" we know will be in it

[Anonymous Coward]

The Oldsmobile was seen parked in Aunt May's garage in a few scenes.