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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."
How can we have a villain who looks like he just hit puberty?
"I'd take over the city right now...but I have to stop at CVS for Clearasil first"
It's when they start putting multiple big names in villain roles that these superhero franchises usually start to go straight to hell. Everybody wants screen time even at the expense of comprehensible storyline. Case in point, Batman and Robin, the worst movie ever made.
Old news...Diggreported this two and a half weeks ago. Also, in addition to Venom and Sandman, the Hobgoblin will be played by James Franco (see Freeze Dried Movies 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).
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
Topher Grace as Venom? He's so small/weak. The only thing that would be worse is if they cast his clone Tobey Mcquire as Spiderma....oh....wait.
Seriously, I can see Topher being absolutely evil in the role of Venom, with just enough humor to be scary.
I never understood what Sandman's story was...anyone care to enlighten me?
Sony pictures has hired a band of rogue ninjas to kill Kirsten Dunst.
Set renderfarm to kill.
Why not Venom and Carnage? At least they kinda go together.
With Topher Grace as Venom, I'd expect Kurtwood Smith to show up and tell Venom to behave or he'll be wearing Red's foot up his ass.
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.
If you read carefully, you will realize that what she really means is that she will be playing Sandman, Thomas Haden will be playing Venom, and Topher will be playing Mary Jane. I might just pay for this one as they will finally have a sexy Mary Jane. Dunst just never did it for me.
It should say: Dunst who plays Kirsten Dunst in every film that she has ever done.
She's perky but that's not acting.
....they kill the entire franchise.
Stuffing 2 or 3 villians in with no time to develop the characters, especially the Venom character is the dumbest idea ever. Didn't they watch the Batman movies after the first one?
Erm, have you ever seen DareDevil? Daredevil and Spider-man exist in the same universe (AFAIK) and in DD Kinpin was played by Michael Clarke Duncan. 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.
In the comics, Venom is composed of an alien symbiotic suit and the person, Eddie Brock. The Venom persona does look very muscular, but I think the alien symbiote would have a great part in giving Venom his menacing form.
My theory is that in the movie, Topher Grace will get "beefed-up" by the alien symbiotic suit.
Need a color? Try 100 random colors
And it's official: Bruce Campbell is playing Spiderman.
Venom was the creation of the costume/alien that Spider-Man picked up during the Secret Wars which, likely, never happens in Raimi's Spider-Man universe. So keeping faithful to the origin in casting is useless when the origin is going to be altered.
Does anyone remember the Spiderman vs. Seabiscuit fiasco?
:p)
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
Now that my symbiate knows the cast, he'll definitely make me go see it!
Best Trivia answer ever... Name the largest aquatic man eater... Contestant: Tsunami
Anyone ever get the feeling that Kirsten doesn't really "get" Spider Man or comic books in general?
- 16
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php?date=2004-07
Technoli
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.
It's better to burn out than to fade away
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).
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.
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.
Advice for my fellow geeks: before seeking out that threesome you dream of, you might see what a TWOsome is like first.
Call me crazy, but that does not bring images of Topher Grace.
Prof. Farnsworth - "Oh a lesson in not changing history from Mr I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!"
Still, that's not as much of a change as the actors playing Harvey Dent from the 1989 Batman to the later Batman Forever.
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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.
Man is the lowest-cost, 150-pound, nonlinear, all-purpose computer system which can be mass-produced by unskilled labor.
Both villans are great ... Plus they're both great villians
Yes, but what I want to know is, are the villians great?
in spidey 2, campbell said he would be the one to defeat spidey, and in a way he did. So one would expect there to be a little bit of truth to his claim now that he will be Spider-man. Maybe posing as a fake spidey for a bugle hackjob or something.
"In the game of life, someone always has to lose. To me, if life were fair, that someone would always be Oklahoma." -DKR
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.
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 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 ...!?"
Lord of the Rings had two main characters; Frodo and Aragorn. The rest of the characters were supporting roles to one or the other.
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
Id like to see maybe some Fantastic Four cameos. Ben Grimm and Spidey fighting and trading barbs could be good.
"In the game of life, someone always has to lose. To me, if life were fair, that someone would always be Oklahoma." -DKR