Avi Arad Wanted Venom In Spiderman 3

v3nom.jpgI have heard this before, and today I read the news. We get the following Spiderman 3 report from scifi.com:

As he had discussed previously, Raimi added that it was Arad’s idea to add the villain Venom to the mix. “Avi Arad, my partner and the former president of Marvel at the time, said to me, ‘Sam, … you’re not paying attention to the fans enough,'” Raimi said. “‘You need to think about them. You’ve made two movies now with your favorite villains, and now you’re about to make another one with your favorite villains. The fans love Venom. He is the fan favorite. All Spider-Man readers love Venom, and even though you came from ’70s Spider-Man, this is what the kids are thinking about. Please incorporate Venom. Listen to the fans now.’ And so that’s really where I realized, ‘OK, maybe I don’t have the whole Spider-Man universe in my head. I need to learn a little bit more about Spider-Man and maybe incorporate this villain to make some of the real die-hard fans of Spider-Man finally happy.'”

This is concerning and horrible news. I think the fans were fine with how Raimi was handling Spider-Man – I am guessing that is why it made so much damn money. What the fans did not want Mr. Arad was a glut of characters and villains in the third movie – do you remember what happened to the Batman franchise? Venom is a cool character – but he needs a movie unto himself. I would also argue that not all Spiderman Fans put Venom as their number 1 villain. I would choose many over Venom on my list.

This does not bode well for my stomach – It looks like Raimi is doing pre-emptive damage control to save face. With some lacklustre reviews coming onto the net, I think it is wise of Raimi to do so, in this case especially. Avi Arad needs to douche out his filthy cunt brain and read the old adage “If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It.” Raimi has been doing a fantastic job, why step in and force the dude to push shit into the movie? Is it really for the fans? I doubt that, Venom is popular and they want to sell more toys, lunchboxes and other merch.

You know what fans like – good movies.

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32 thoughts on “Avi Arad Wanted Venom In Spiderman 3

  1. I think it’s a good way to have everything… All these people talking shit about Venom dying, whos to say he’s not to be setup tocome back in the next film if Raimi or anyone else does it. So don’t jump the gun just yet and say its horrible jus cuz Venom dies… That’s what I’ve heard so far at least…

  2. I wanted the Venom character back in Spider-Man 1, mostly cuz I just LOVE the character and just about all the other Spidy characters are cheesy to me, but I can understand why Goblin was picked first and even Doc Ock for part 2. And suprisingly Doc Ock and even Green Goblin turned out ok. Actualy I thought Doc Ock was bad ass. I’m exstatic that Venom made it into part 3, but I am worried we wont get to see him much. Sandman is cool, but they really should of saved him for part 4.

    Sandman really only fits into this story line cuz they made it so that he’s the one who actualy killed uncle Ben. I think the whole black suit story is much better cuz it is true to the comics and having a chance to explore Spidy’s dark side in one of the films is just too good to pass up. Exspeshaly since he’s probly one of the most wholesome and fly right comic book characters ever. Then Brocks never ending hatred for Parker on top of that.

    I don’t know, as bad as I wanted Venom to show up in one of the films, I really didn’t want him to just be pushed aside as a miner villian and Sandman will be the focus, only cuz of the uncle Ben change and I’m so worried thats what happened. I just hope Venom doesn’t die and can come back in the future if that is the case.

  3. I’m going to be a total jerk now, tick a lot of people off.

    At first, I too, thought that Venom showing up in the last half hour “because the fans wanted it” was outright dumb; better to set Venom up for 4…but once I got a look at the story (from the book) I’m under the impression that since Eddie Brock, Peter’s rival is seen through most of the film and the symbiont itself corrupts Peter/Spider-Man, then in a point of view, VENOM -or at least the essense of the character- was always around in the story. It’s sort of like a progression thing, where the alien symbiont is an early stage of Venom, and then, once bonding with Brock, becomes the end result.

    Now, that said, when Avi said ‘fans love Venom’, I will concede that Venom served a purpose in the comics. However, Venom was one of the worst written villians ever put in the comics- I don’t mean in terms of villiany. I refuse to buy the pussyfoot arguement that “you got your classic villians in, put in Venom and give the fans what they want’.

    Well, the problem with that is one, that’s like DC telling Nolan right now that Bat-fans would more likely dislike the Joker or Two-Face because they might want to see Hush; and two—what you are witnessing right now. The “fans” are mad because “Venom” isn’t the black, slobbering, shark toothed slimy hulk, that “he isn’t given his due”, and the usual airheaded shouts of protest because “the character s all wrong” blah blah blah. Screw your bagpipes. So Sam gives the fans what “they” want. Now they sharpen thier knives. Jesus wept.

    Well, now, when (there is no if) there is a 4, if it is with (the majority of) the original cast, Lizard is built up to the hilt now. If it isn’t with the original cast, it could be with other villians. The “fans” will beg for Carnage, or signs of ‘Venom’ being back in some form.
    But it could be with Stegron for all care — it’s how well the film is made, how good the script is, how good the actors are.

    Well, okay, I DO care if they put Stegron in there…

  4. You know… If I was in Sam’s place hell yeah I’d be pretty pissed too if someone forces you to use a villain who just isn’t ment to be in the film… Did Raimi really have a choice? What ever choice he would’ve made, people would still blame him.
    1) Create a good base for Eddie Brock/Venom in this film and then… Wait, what? Could you say that again? A whole new cast? What? 4 years of waiting? “F*ck you Raimi for not using him in this part you knew this…”
    2) Oohh, lets ditch Sandman and just have Eddie and Harry! Yayy, we’re getting alot outta that…
    I honestly think this is the best way to do this… Although the movie suffers. I myself would’ve survived without Venom, so thank you Avi!

  5. I was lucky enough to see an advance screening of Spider-Man 3 in Toronto last week, and this movie just has way too much going on.

    Without spoiling anything, I felt that not enough time was spent on any of the villains. In my opinion Harry Osborne as Green Goblin 2 worked the best, I think because we had all of Spider-Man 2 to build up to it. Sandman and Venom could easily have each had their own movies. As a side-note, I HATED how the alien symbiote was introduced.

    But I still had a great time watching it and recommend it, but the movie would have been that much better if it had just lost a couple of sub-plots (I’m looking at you Gwen Stacey).

    Doug, I’m with you.. if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Sam Raimi would have made a 10 out of 10 on his own I think.

  6. Doug has good points, and I haven’t seen the film yet. Who’s to say it will be cluttered at all, maybe the balance will be fine. But regardless, maybe Arad was right about Venom and Raimi could have just done a venom/goblin movie without Sandman. He hasn’t been advertised very well anyway

  7. venom definitly needed his own movie, and this should of been it.

    i could not care less about sandman and goblin.

    i almost wonder if raimi casted a weinery venom out of spite.

    also, last i checked spiderman 3 was at about 80% on rotten tomatoes. nothing wrong with that.

  8. So that’s why Spiderman 3 turned out as a film with too much of everything. Too many new characters and a variety stories that didn’t combine well; it’s all about this request that arad made and that raimi didn’t liked, so he made the film with a lot of things that one could see it was about to blow up.

    .::SPOILERS::.
    They f*cked up Venom, cuz eddie dies, so the eddie brock venom is dead and we see it for less than 30 freaking minutes!!!!
    .::END of SPOILERS::.

    it’s not arad’s fault, cuz i guess what he trying to say is to make a story with venom and NOT to put venom by force in a story designed for sandman.

    raimi has this stupid short sighted view of the spiderman universe, and he said it “All Spider-Man readers love Venom, and even though you (Raimi) came from ’70s Spider-Man…” now you see? Raimi hated the idea of venom in this film so he intentionally misplaced venom in the film to end things up with an “I told you so”. And now that i think about, that’s why the venom’s suit is too skinny and looks like the bad version of spiderman, but that’s it, it’s not even fucking scary. They, as always, could have done better. But as i say, this was all about this resistance from raimi to include venom and that by higher forces than him it was decided to have this villian. And we lose cuz raimi gave us the worst venom encarnation but yes, he gave us for the third time the same stupid harry mj & peter love triangule, thanks to all of you who make marvel films suck :)

    ghost rider, fantastic four, punsiher, daredevil, elektra, X3….. and the list goes on….

  9. You have to look at it both ways. There is a fair argument that could be made to say that a lot of the ‘through the roof’ anticipation for Spidey 3 comes from Venom being in it. Would we be dying to see the film if it was just Sandman and would it make as much money as it stands to right now?

    On the other hand, i have no doubt that people would be loving the film unconditionally if Raimi had just been allowed to do what he wanted. In a dream scenario, they should have spread this story over two films and just have Sandman in this one, with Venom to come later. In any case, i haven’t read anyone saying that they hated it or that it was a bad film, just dissapointing. I can’t wait to find out for myself.

    By the way, $120 million opening weekend. That’s what i’m calling.

  10. good posts by ‘Thoughts’ and ‘X’

    I’m struggling to find reasons why people are getting disappointed with this film before its even been released! I mean Raimi hasn’t let me down with Spidey 1 & 2 so why should he suddenly make a crap film now? Also Venom on the big screen is what got me so hyped for this film from watching the cartoon when I was young. Sandman + Venom + Raimi = Film of the YEAR. for spidey fans at least :p

    Transformers probably pips it for John!

    x

  11. ‘Thoughts’ well said… I agree that multiple villains can be just as good if not better, we will all findout friday. I’m excited bout the multiple villains myself.

  12. My concern is if this is TRULLY the last SM film, then yes I want to see venom. But if there is SM4, that should have focused on venom.
    .
    It sounds like we are only getting 30mins of venom. I hope they don’t kill him off after 30 mins. That would piss me off.

  13. I believe too this day that they should have set up Brock and the symbiote in this movie and then Venom is the villain in Spider-Man 4, which they should have shot back-to-back with SM3 and released it next year.But we’ll see on Friday how the movir turns out

  14. Since Sony wants to make Spidey 4, 5, 6, etc. they could have just waited on Venom. I read the novel and found that if Venom was left out, the movie could have worked just as well with only Sandman and The new Green Goblin. I have no doubt the film will still be entertaining. It’s definitely my number one choice for the summer.

    Oh, and Jaysmack, no disrespect, but you give way too much credit to David Hayter.

  15. Venom couldn’t have been in the first film, it would have been celluloid premature ejaculation.

    However after Goblin and Doc Oc we deserved a detailed and in depth exploration of both the Brock character and the symbiote.

    I can’t get my head around Raimi having been involved in Spiderman for so long and not realising he is basically Peter’s biggest threat. Any research into Spidey’s villains at all would have had Venom popping up.

  16. Executives in any business, though often obsessed with the bottom line, also know what will be popular and – dare i say it – entertaining. Sandman is nowhere near as popular or interesting as the character of Venom. So, if you are arguing that multiple villains suck (itself an idea that is not necessarily true as others have commented), then Sandman and not Venom should have been cut.

    Why would you rather see Sandman over Venom? Why is a movie with Venom over Sandman a bad movie? These are all assumptions that do not change the fact that Avi is right: people would rather see Venom over Sandman.

    Sure, Raimi has done a great job with the series. But Venom got me excited for Spider-Man 3 and I think most of the movie blogs and general public agree that his introduction into the series is a long time coming.

    I’m excited to see Spider-Man 3 to see Venom in cinematic glory, and I’m glad someone pushed for that.

  17. Well said Doug.

    I don’t really have a problem with multiple villians, so long as they’re incorporated into the story properly & with care. The problem here sounds like they’ve tried to fit Venom into the mix without forethought to how it will affect the entire story.

    I hope I’m wrong, I’ll wait to see it to make any final judgements, but the way Raimi’s talking, it sounds like he’s going in complete defensive mode. I believe this is the wrong tact to take so close to opening weekend. Of course, he could be just making excuses & trying to lay blame on others for not making a film which was as good as the first two.

    I can’t forget the problems he had with Danny Elfman during the post-production of Spiderman 2, in which Elfman left (or was fired from) the project. Elfman had some interesting points to make about Raimi’s character after this happened.

    On the other hand, Avi sounds like he pushed Venom into the script without thinking about the entire movie. If he’s going to get involved with the film, then he should be concerned about the movie as a whole, and not just worried about wether one specific villian will appear in it.

    Final judgement though will have to wait until this weekend though.

  18. I’ve been saying it for months, and this week I’ll be proved right: this movie looks WAY too busy. Multiple villains along with multiple old storylines that need to be wrapped up means that this flick is gonna be a clusterfuck. A cool-looking clusterfuck, but still…

  19. I’m still trusting my judgement that this movie will kick ass… I never personally listen to critics.. I prefer jus judging it myself.. I will wait to see it before making judgements myself..hope it is good tho

  20. I gotta disagree. I hated the first Spider-Man, felt the second was better paced, and tighter, more action (though that’s not saying much) but still not stellar. I don’t see why people get all pre-orgasmic over this franchsie anyway.

    You can have up to four villains in a movie and it can still be great. Batman Begins proved that, as did X-Men 3, Return of the Jedi (I’m thinking Boba Fett, Jabba and the Emperor here) Sin-City (which may not exactly count). If done right it can actually make your movie better than the single-villain mold. If Raimi couldn’t craft a script that skillfully incorporated more than two villains into the piece then maybe he should have hired another screenwriter (David Hayter anyone?) to do the job.

    Arad was dead right, it was past time to have Venom in the franchise. Personally I would have gone through Spidey’s entire villains’-roster before I even THOUGHT about the dumpy, bummbling Dr Octopus -what a stinker that was! Doesn’t matter if some Spidey purists wanted to stay with the archaic villains, damn near everyone wanted to see Venom and movies are supposed to be about giving the AUDIENCE what they want, not the filmmaker.
    And if three villains was simply too unweildly for the good King Raimi then he should have dropped Osborne. That plotline was old two movies ago.

  21. I have very little faith in this being a great movie. I think it will be decent but not as amazing as I want it to be. I agree Venom needed his own movie. Lets all hope this movie doesn’t turn out to be the piece of crap I think its gonna be. Early reviews are not lookin too hot.

  22. i’ve always been okay with the thought of multiple villains in sm3. what did concern me was something that i read about venom being shown in the last 30 min. of the movie and the way he was defeated was weak. i’m hoping in true comicbook fashion that he will be back in a future spider-man movie as the MAIN villain, bigger and badder. i’m thinking that venom was given to us as an appetizer of what’s to come.

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