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."

Venom and Sandman?!?!

[elasticwings]

Why not Venom and Carnage? At least they kinda go together.

Re:Venom and Sandman?!?!

[elasticwings]

At the same time, there is a great background story involving Spiderman and the alien costume before Venom was conceived. I just think that the Sandman could be an entire movie and the alien costume could be an entire series of movies on its own. Although, I'm sure there will never be a secret wars movie.

Clearly, you don't get the joke.

[otis wildflower]

Does anyone remember the Spiderman vs. Seabiscuit fiasco?

Topher Grace was (strongly rumored) to replace Tobey Maguire for Spiderman 2, due to injuries Maguire suffered during the shooting of Seabiscuit.

There were a few refs to it on That '70s Show as well.

(hey, I don't do unemployment that well :p)

Re:Bad news

[moviepig.com]

...We have really great people though...

Moreover, even a Spidey-flick optimist has be curious about what Dunst meant by "though"...

Re:Bad news

[ReverendLoki]

It's when they start putting multiple big names in villain roles that these superhero franchises usually start to go straight to hell.

I like to think that's why they cast the likes of Thomas Hayden Church and Topher Grace in these roles. Though both are well-recognized, neither really has the amount of star power where they could do any real damage. I mean, have you seen the typse of roles Thomas Hayden Church has taken lately? George of the Jungle 2? Rolling Kansas? And Topher Grace is still most recognized as the guy from That 70's Show.

Not that I fully agree with the casting, but I do think they are pulling from the right echelon of actors - underappreciated veterans for whom a role like this can be a huge step for. I certainly wouldn't cast anyone along the likes of Schwarzeneger (too lazy to look up the spelling) or Jim Carey or Tommy Lee Jones.

It doesn't mean Venom will have a big role...

[wickedj]

If we look at Spidey 2, we saw hints at the new Goblin and Lizard Man but they didn't have big roles in the movie. Most of the conflict came from Doc Oc. Perhaps in 3, Sandman will be the big opponent while Venom might show up as an introductory role. Venom is a hugely popular villain/hero in the Marvel universe with a complete and interesting back story. It would be nigh impossible to have both villains in the movie without subtracting from the plot/quality. If I were Raimi, I would set it up that Spidey uses the symbiote against Sandman, realizes the suit is bad, gets rid of it (with or without F4's help) and we end with Eddie Brock finding it, setting up the next film (and a possible spinoff).

I'm actually surprised that there has been no mention of the new Goblin or Lizard Man especially after being set up by Spidey 2. In any case, just because it's said that Topher Grace is in the movie, it doesn't mean he will have a huge role (yet).

Re:Bad news

[mshaslam]

For a truly obscure and a truly mind numbingly bad movie try The Irish Gringo [imdb.com]. It redefines the genre of bad movies. Until you have seen this movie, you really have no idea how awful movies can be. I'm not kidding. This one makes The Avengers look like The Godfather II.

Ultimate Spiderman venom version.

[Anonymous Coward]

The story line for venom/carnage in the Ultimate Spiderman comic is far easier an explanation that doesn't require any space travel. In that version the costume was an experiment in heliopathic technology that wraps the body in a special fluid that then diagnoses the disease and cures it. Spiderman was curious about the experiment after talking to Eddy Brock whos father was best freinds with Peters father, who was head of the project. He went to the lab that was once his fathers and pokes around. He finds the canister of black stuff, sticks his finger in it and the venom material wraps around him and picks up the mutated spider genes from Peter Parker. The genes are now permanently part of the "suit" and when Eddie comes around to the Lab he finds the stuff spilt on the floor and Spiderman fleeing the scene. He touches the venom substance and it immediately attacks him and engulfs his personality and transfixes on finishing the assimilation of Spiderman. Carnage wasn't brought in because the writter didn't like venom particularly but still wrote an interesting story. The Ultimate Spiderman Brock was just a normal kid who was trying to be cool even though he was a genious level geek like Peter and his father. Made him kind of annoying to Peter and everyone else. Hence the paranoid anger that the new venom took on.

On that same topic kinda, X-Men 3 will most likely use the same "Ultimate" version for the Phoenix storyline. No space battles. No Dark Phoenix Saga. Jean Grey just goes nuts with her ever expanding powers and creates the Phoenix personality to deal with the guilt and anger it unleases. The whole time she's been with Xavier he has been stunting her powers so she doesn't go nuts and wipe out city. Oh yea and the Hell Fire Club is part of the whole shabang as well. Pretty cool stuff but this is just a guess at what the script will follow.

One "actor" we know will be in it

[Cerdic]

Sam Raimi's yellow 1973 Oldsmobile.

For those of you who don't know, the car appears in pretty much everything Raimi does. It was in the Evil Dead movies (though a "stunt double" was used for some parts). In Spiderman 1, Peter's grandfather drove it when he dropped him off for the library / wrestling event. I haven't seen Spiderman 2, so I don't know where it appears in that.

Re:The original movie Eddie

[ReverendLoki]

Still, that's not as much of a change as the actors playing Harvey Dent from the 1989 Batman [imdb.com] to the later Batman Forever [imdb.com].

Re:Bad news

[Coryoth]

Look, there are bad films, and then there are Bad Films. As crap as Showgirls may be it has features like semi-professional camera work, audible dialog, a plot that is not only coherent, but can actually be discerned just from watching the film, and a complete lack of 5 minute long nausea inducing strobe light scenes. Until you have seen the true horror of something like The Roller Blade Seven [imdb.com] you don't really know bad films. Try reading some of the user reviews to get some idea - but be aware, until you've seen TRB7 you can never truly understand how bad it is; you'll think you know, but believe me, you don't.

Jedidiah.

Ultimate Venom Not 616 Venom

[MrOuija_AK]

For those of you that think Topher Grace is poor casting as Venom, you're right IF they use the normal Marvel Universe (Universe 616) version of Venom. However the Venom from Ultimate Spiderman would work great for Topher Grace. A childhood friend of Peter's who is going to college and continuing the research began by his and Peter's parents. The research project ends up becoming the Venom suit after interaction with Peter. This version of Venom is a college science nerd and more of an anti-Spiderman then the alien symbiote of the normal Marvel Universe. Considering Sam Raimi's voiced dislike of the Venom character I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to go with this alternate interpretation.

I'll think this is even more likely if the Venom from the new Ultimate Spiderman game turns out to have the same Ultimate storyline.

Re:Pic Comparison

[milkman_matt]

Granted while I couldn't agree more that there's no way Topher could possibly match the physique of Venom, I think they were trying to match him with Eddie Brock [fortunecity.com] more than Venom.. They seem to go for a more character based story in these films than a "Throw these guys in costumes and have 'em brawl" approach. And I can see Topher looking like Eddie, but he seriously needs to pack on a few lbs before he's a bad mofo like Venom. That was Venom's appeal, just a big massive badass. Then again, they could always throw someone else in the Venom suit.. I'm on your side on this one, I think he's way too small for the role, but Raimi seems to know what he's doing, Green Goblin, Doc Oc, Hobgoblin, Spidey, all very well cast, even when you initially thought "what the ...!?"

Re:No Kingpin?!

[Viper Daimao]

actually, in Spiderman 2 Thomas Jane makes a cameo in the scene when M.J. runs through the park at the conclusion of the film. From the wikipedia [wikipedia.org]

Id like to see maybe some Fantastic Four cameos. Ben Grimm and Spidey fighting and trading barbs could be good.

Re:It doesn't mean Venom will have a big role...

[Senobyzal]

This is actually a really good idea. I think in one of the animated shows they just had the symbiote come back on a deep-space rocket (maybe something sent to investigate a comet or asteroid, I can't remember). Since JJJ's son is an astronaut, they could easily link in that character as well in a minor way.

Rather than the F4 angle, they could use Doc Connor to help Spidey remove the symbiant in SM3. During that scene they could drop a hint about Connor's research on lizard regeneration, keeping the thread alive to bring in the Lizard as a main villain in SM4 or SM5.