There’s been a lot of speculation going around about who the villains in the upcoming Spider-Man 3 film will be. Well, according to Kristin Dunst, it’s Thomas Haden Church as Sandman and Topher Grace as Venom.
Personally I’m still concerned about the idea of using 2 big villains in the film. If the bad Batman films taught us anything it’s that using multiple main villains can end in disaster. But, it can work if done right… I’d just feel better about it if they focused on one guy (my choice would be Venom). The good folks over at FilmForce give us this:
Dunst is quoted at Zap2It as saying, “We have really great people though as the villains in this film, Thomas Haden Church and Topher Grace — Venom and Sandman.” She added, “Maybe I wasn’t supposed to say that.” But when a journalist expressed disbelief that Sandman lookalike Church would be playing Venom, Dunst corrected her gaffe. “It’s the other way around. You’re right.”
Now, keep in mind that this COULD just be a publicity stunt. I doubt Kristen Dunst is that much of a fool that her bosses main rule (don’t reveal the villains) is one that she’s forget. Also keep in mind that she hasn’t read the script yet. In general what she’s saying sounds credible… but I won’t die of shock if I find out she was just lying.
One thing is for sure. If Grace is Venom, then there won’t be any body suit like there was for The Thing in Fantastic Four. Veonom will be full blown CGI all the way. As a former Special Effects guy I’m really curious to see how well they’ll pull that off. Your thoughts?
Oh god, jumpoff2010, do you speak English or retard?
There is nothing wrong with Sandman, his time on screen has a chance to either look really cool or really stupid.
TO ALL OF U WHO THINK THE THAT MORE THAN ONE VILLAIN CAN WERK…AS IF THERE WAS’NT MORE THAN TWO VILLAIN IN BOTH X MEN MOVIES…ALSO AS MUCH AS I WOULD LIKE TO SEE VENOM IN SPIDER 3 …IF ANY OF U SEEN THE CARTOONS WHERE SPIDEY GETS THE BLACK OOZE AND IS BAD FOR A MINUTE THAN THE OOZE GET KNOCKED OFF BY LOUD NOISES WHICH THE GIANT CHURCH BELL DID TO GET IT OFF SPIDEY THAN FALL ON TO EDDY B THEN HE TURNS INTO VENOM WOULD BE A GREAT WAY TO END THE MOVIE…BUT I GUESS WE WILL CEE WHUT THE JERKS DO WITH THE SANDMAN A$$HOLE…BY THE WAY THIS GUY WAS NEVER ON THE CARTOONS THAT I SAW…SO I GUESS WE WILL ALL HAVE TO WAIT AND FIND OUT….(FU*K SANDMAN) VENOM ALL THE WAY BABY…CHEA!!!
This is how i see it-Two stories in this one, venom and sandman. Harry hires sandman to kill spidey. in the meantime, peter and MJ get married. Eddie brock is sent to cover a story, John jameson returning from space. There is an accident involving spiderman which injures jameson, and Eddie is blamed for it and gets fired. He gets furious and goes to the scene of the accident, where the symbiote(stowaway from the space mission) bonds with him. Spidey has a few clashes with harry, some with venom, some with sandman. in the final climactic battle venom meets sandman and gets in a fight. Venom bites and kills sandman. Then spidey goes into an all out brawl with venom and eventually destroys the symbiote(maybe with an invention by Dr. Connors). Harry freaks out that sandman fails and dons the costume as the HOBGOBLIN! Fade to black. End credits. Whew! I know I left out key parts like how venom knows who spidey really is and the fact that harry is not the hobgoblin. Just realize this fanboys, there will not be a new green goblin. Sorry, Raimi just wont do it.
I think that focusing on the Parker/symbiote conflict in the 3 rd instalment would be a winner. It would make great viewing to see how MJ and Pete’s realtionship is affected by him slowly turning bad and him not really realising it–maybe even dumping MJ for someone else (Black Cat?). I definately agree with newplanet, I think the movie should end with the birth of Venom, this would set the fourth up nicely. I do not think a 2 and half hour picture could do the whole –symbiote origin/parker-symbiote conflict/ birth of venom/ battle and defeat of venom–justice. Make sidy 3 a dark and moody picture like the legendary Empire strikes back.
php1al
THIS IS THE ONLY WAY I WOULD WANT TO SEE ANOTHER GREEN GOBLIN:
HARRY DECIDES TO BECOME THE GREEN GOBLIN BUT HE WOULD BECOME A HERO INSTEAD OF A VILLAIN,SO HE SEES A BIG FIRE OR BURGULAR HOLDUP OR SOMETHING.BUT WHEN HARRY GETS THERE ON HIS GLIDER AND SUIT, PETER ARRIVES THERE TOO.THEY WORK TOGETHER TO STOP THE INCIDENT (AND OR ACCIDENT)BUT EVERYONE GIVES CREDIT TO SPIDERMAN INSTEAD OF THE GREEN GOBLIN SO HARRY STARTS TO GET MORE AND MORE INSANE UNITL FINALLY HE IS A FULL SCALE VILLAIN.MEANWHILE THEY CAN HAVE SOME OTHER VILLAIN LIKE ELECTRO OR MYSTERIO OR SOMETHING.NOT THAT THAT’S EVER GOING TO HAPPEN. I THINK THAT VENOM AND SANDMAN ARE IN THE NEXT ONE WHICH I THINK IS A VERY GOOD IDEA.
My thing with this whole Venom thing is this:
Venom has too much back story (As stated above multiple times). The last one by newplanet is probibly the best idea out there, to get spidy his costume for this movie and then have him reject it by the end, introducing Venom for the 4th.
And isn’t Harry Osborn the second green goblin and Nathan Phillip Macendale is the Hobgoblin?
I’m positively brimming with excitement about the possibility of Venom in the next Spider-Man movie.
But my thoughts are that he’d have to be the secondary villain. There just seems to be too much backstory to tell in one film, i.e. the rivalry between Brock/Parker, finding the symbiote, the black suit, the symbiote finding Brock, etc.
Maybe they’ll follow the storyline in The Animated Series – wasn’t the symbiote found on the moon or something? Didn’t it stow away on the Space Shuttle? That might be quite neat since we’ve already been introduced to Jameson the astronaut in Spider-Man 2.
But I just think that they like to throw cliffhangers our way. Spider-Man 3 could be all about one primary villain (whoever it may be), Spider-Man’s battle to reject the symbiote, introducing Eddie Brock (didn’t we actually *see* him in the first film?) and one heck of a cliffhanger when we witness Brock’s transformation to Venom. Which paves the way for a kick-ass Spider-Man 4.
I realise I’m about 10 millionth in the line of Spidey experts, but if all this happens in Spider-Man 3, I reckon it will be legendary.
Too bad he’s still an unbelievably dumb villain. Big teeth, big jaw, slobbering tongue… Ugh…
Even though I wouldn’t put it past Raimi to make even Venom look good, I would have liked the tradition of classic tech villains to go on…
Well, i haven`t read the ultimate comics, but now, after I read what you people said, i really think that it might be a possibility. Just hope theyll chance the cancerthing to something different, but, if someone ever watched the spidermancartoon, they chanced the story so that symbiote-spiderman was created when the spaceshutle controlled by John Jameson crashed on the manhattan bridge, and spidey went to save the pilots and that way got the symbiote, wich Jameson had picked up from, hmm, moon? Kinda silly. But anyway, they could link that and the ultimate thing somehow together, and WOILA! We have, umm, well, dont know yet but probably an OK story.
I like movie heroes!
Another update:
“Meanwhile, Kirsten Dunst again said who she believes are the villains to MTV:
“I think we have … I’m going to say two and a half bad guys,” the “Elizabethtown” star said. “Because I think one of them is resurrected. But yeah, two and a half bad guys, I think, about in this movie.”
She is referring to Thomas Haden Church playing Sandman and Topher Grace playing Venom in the film, with the identity of the “half” villain unknown at this time, but it could possibly be Harry Osborn turning into Green Goblin II or Hobgoblin.”
So I think my prediction that Hobgoblin will appear at the end of the film is correct. I think “half” means that we’ll see the birth of a villain but he wont exactly be full blown until the future.
This is stupid if you have Venom you don’t need frink’n frack’n Sandman!
Actually Sandman become GOOD for only a short while, and then resumed his evil ways. You make it sound like he was mostly good and was only evil for a short period, but it’s actually the other way around.
I think SpideyFan is correct and that the Ultimate Storyline will be used for Venom; The original Sandman origin of him escaping prison and bonding with sand after an accident will be used; And as most of us know Sandman is a cousin of the Osbournes…. Hence he will be hired by Harry to destroy him. Venom will likely terrorize Harry as the “black costumed” spidey for a while, which will make Harry even more insane and my prediction is we’ll see him become Hobgoblin at the end of the flick (again, following the Ultimate storyline).
As for Raimi not “liking” venom…
It’s funny how everyone applies “this must be a smokescreen to the truth” theory when it comes to leaks about Venom. But noone applied it to Sam Raimi and everyone in the Sony studios saying, “Venom sucks”. The real smoke screen was the one everyone believed was real – that they hate venom – when, in fact, they had every intention of using him for the third film.
If you listen to the commentary in the Spiderman 2 DVD (For those that actually bought the DVD) Avi Arad makes it clear that Eddie Brock was introduced in the first movie. Although we never heard the name “brock” mentioned once, Avi Arad clearly states that he’s a possibility.
He also stated that yes, in fact, they wanted to bring in both Doc Ock and Green Goblin in the first film.
As well, they wanted to bring in Black Cat and Doc Ock in the second one.
Now they’re finally bringing in two characters – possibly a third one even at the end of the movie – so it’s very believeable that Venom and Sandman are in this.
Can’t wait to see how they pull it off, I’m very excited.
The sandman was only a villain for a while and then turned into one of spidey’s lukewarm allies. I am sure that if this rumor is true, than this movie will be about two things…
1: the moral struggle of Sandman to be good… giving spidey hope. Hope that all of the villains he fights and doesnt kill may some day be redeemable… an element central in the spidey mythos…
2: kicking venom’s ass and making it look as cool as possible.
lookin forward to it.
I’ love the fact that it MIGHT be venom… but using Topher Grace will mean venom is gonan be all CGI.. and when they fight above the city its gonna look a lot like Matrix:Reloaded when Nero and Mr.Smith are fighting over the city.. I remember watching that and just thinking to myself that it was the worst fight scene I’ve ever seen..
BUT!! VENOM RULES!! GO SPIDER MAN 3!!
Good point John.
It’s probably not possible to have three “main” villains, but I think my example shows that it is possible to pull off three villains, one being main, one being a pawn of the main character, and one that simply controls the area that the hero inhabits.
In other words:
Venom is already in Gotham (as was scarecrow)
Sandman comes to Gotham (as does Ra’s Al Guhl)
Hobgoblin is alread in Gotham (as is the mob boss)
You can replace Gotham with New York City. :)
But the point is easily understood: It’s possible to have three villains and be able to pull it off with flavor.
not a venom nor a carnage fan. they belong in a spawn comic.
sandman will rock.
Hey there Spidey Fan,
Good comments, however, Batman Begins does not have 3 main villains. Scarcrow is a minor character in the movie (maybe a bigger role in the next one), and the mob boss isn’t a main character either. There is 1 main villain in Batman.
I’ll be interested in seeing how they do this in the next Spiderman flick.
Cheers.
~John
*high fives everyone except Alter-Egobob*
Ok, I *WAS* the second poster here, but my post never made it. Let’s try again, shant we???
Topher Grace – with his NEW BLONDE DO which not only dyes his hair but his eyebrows as well – looks EXACTLY like the Ultimate Spiderman Eddie Brock. I pointed this out many times on this board. Although I DETEST the Ultimate spiderman storyline for venom, it makes it a quick and easy way to introduce the symbiote without having to have a backstory which took place during Secret Wars #8. (Go look it up!!)
Eddie Brock JR is the character that becomes venom, NOT Eddie Brock Sr. Eddie Brock SR actually was a friend of Peter Parker’s father (in the ultimate storyline) and they were working on a cure for cancer. Eddie Brock JR and Peter Parker actually hung out together as toddlers.
Eddie Brock JR tells peter that they used a human’s dna to start this magic cancer cure. Whos DNA? Peter’s Fathers.
Stupid, I know, but that’s the ultimate storyline.
It’s this black goo that supposedly is the cure. (gee, the symbiote)
So Spiderman decides that he’s going to take the DNA sample / black goo and perfect the yet-to-be-created cancer cure which is a work in progress. When he accidentally touches it, it engulfs his entire body and he now has a black costume.
However, his mood changes, and at one point he actually transforms into the likeness of venom – Huge Fangs, long tongue, and VERY VERY muscular – and peter is NOTHING like that – duh – in the ultimate universe. He’s actually super scrawny and silly looking with a large head and skinny body.
However, that not withstanding, the black costume becomes ‘venom’. He manages to get it off of him. Brock gets it back, and boom, connects with him, and he becomes venom. Mind you, BROCK JR is a very scrawny and skinny guy – exactly like peter – he looks almost like him except for the Blonde Hair and Blonde Eyebrows – hence, the casting of a topher grace who has similar features to Tobey McGuire.
So can we please accept that Venom is in fact a character in this movie?
As for not being able to pull off two villains, I think everyone has forgotten something very significant about Batman Begins – it had THREE villains:
1 – Ra’s Al Guhl
2 – Scarecrow
3 – The mob Boss in Gotham
And we didn’t even care. We actually enjoyed and accepted it. I say that we’ll accept both Sandman and Venom as villains because Venom – although he hates Spiderman – doesn’t want anyone ELSE hurting him. Hence, he’ll very well “protect” Spiderman from Sandman.
And I will remind you that Venom is the only one in the universe that has been able to damage Sandman to the point of him dying. He bit a chunk of his material and he died. Go look it up!
I hope this post makes it, because I’m tired of typing!
SpideyFan!
are you friggin’ kidding me?!? your argument for why venom sucks is that he is “a creature of the nineties”. venom fighting spidey at 80 stories up would provide the coolest visuals of any superhero flick yet. not to mention that if it is true that topher is playing venom, what an absolutley spectacular way to translate eddie/venom to the screen. lest we forget, in the comics doc ock was a short, pudgy,one dimensional guy with a bowl cut. TRUST. raimi will knock it out of the park
Venom sucks! He’s a creature of the nineties.
I bet Lou is right. I don’t think they’d do both in the same film when they already have so much other story in the background, but they might use the last 20 minutes or so for Venom’s origin, leaving us all waiting for another 3-4 years for them to actually fight.
But I bet Raimi is going to leave, and they’ll bring in someone else to direct a film that will have Venom, Carnage, Man-Wolf, Vulture, Electro, Hydro, Chameleon, The Lizard, Hobgoblin, the Hulk, all of the X-men and Ritchie Rich. And Kirsten Dunst will get more screen time.
Of course, I don’t think Dunst knows shit. The article says the PR rep or somebody said the information is already available. I’d be amazed to find out that she didn’t know that the studio is specifically hiding the villains from the public. I don’t think its another sony conspiracy to hide the truth, but I do think she was just talking out her ass.
I think Grace is an inspired choice. He could easily play Spidey as well. I believe Raimi’s intent is to show Peter Parker how easily power corrupts when another average guy like himself is given great powers and chooses a path 180 from the one Peter took. Talk about looking in a mirror!
The SFX for Venom will be a challenge but the thought of Spidey and Venom dueling out over the NYC skyline gives me major geekgasms.
The cost of this movie could be obscene thoug!. The $250 mill for Superman Returns could seem like chump change after this. I betcha the budget on this will break $300 mill if both villians – Venom and Sandman appear together.
I wonder if Spidey3 will lay the background for one of these characters and the next sequel will focus on one of them.
i wholeheartedly support topher grace in any role…even if it seems bizarre to cast him as venom.
now there is a guy i will back as the next big thing, old topher grace, 100% the new hotness. the only thing about that 70’s show worth watching…god, i hate that show.
also:
wahoo!! venom!