It's Venom and Sandman for Spiderman 3! According to Kirsten Dunst.

[Kire]

Dunst Reveals 'Spider-Man 3' Villains
Topher Grace and Sideways star Thomas Haden Church have inadvertently been confirmed as the new Spider-Man villains by Kirsten Dunst. After months of speculation about the actors behind the masks of the Spider-Man 3 bad guys - and the characters they'll play, Dunst, who is back to play Spider-Man's love interest Mary Jane, has let slip in an interview the identities of both the actors and their evil alter-egos. Speaking to website Zap2it.com, she says, "We have really great people as the villains in this film - Thomas Haden Church and Topher Grace - Venom and Sandman... Maybe I wasn't supposed to say that." Dunst then reversed her claim, admitting Church will play Sandman and Grace, Venom.

http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/2005-10-03/#celeb3

I am confused though. Which one is Topher going to play? Aren't they both muscle bound jocks (which he is not)? Which one is he best suited for?

Haden Church could do either, but I thought that Venom was more intelligent, which is something I would think Topher would be doing.

Topher Grace as Sandman? Has the world gone mad?

I think this is a trick.

Just for the sake of discussion here are the biographies of the two:

Sandman
http://www.marveldirectory.com/individuals/s/sandman.htm

Venom
http://www.marveldirectory.com/individuals/v/venom.htm

[Mojambo]

1. Topher will play a pretty heavily re-imagined Venom, I would assume.

In fact, it says right there that Dunst admitted that Church will play Sandman (he'll be really good in that role.)

If they give Venom the right kind of treatment it could be good. If they thought the CGI challenges for Ock were hard... Man, Venom is going to be an interesting visual.

Guess this pushes the Harry/Goblin plot to #4.

[Kire]

2. It says she "reversed her claim"

was it a calculated reversal to draw out attention away from the fact that she slipped and shouldn't have said what she did?

I remember back when I first read the Venom stories in the comics, I thought Eddie Brock was Sandman's alter ego. Now the Marvel Directory says that he was a reporter.

Which one is Peter Parker's bully from childhood that got involved with Mary Jane?

Damn, I wish I never threw out my old comics. I had a ton of them...from that era (late 80's, early 90's) too.

I apologize for flying off the handle. But, you're right, Venom will need to be "heavily-reimagined" if Topher Grace is going to play him.

I've always been impressed by the Spider Man films. Interesting visuals, indeed.

I look forward to opening night.

[Mojambo]

3. Hmm. I read that to mean that she originally slipped and said

that Church was playing Venom and Grace was playing Sandman and then reversed (or corrected) herself to get their roles right.

Eddie Brock was some kind of disgraced Daily Bugle reporter who the symbiote attached to after leaving Peter Parker. Brock actually has a cameo in the first Spiderman movie, when Jonah references him off screen.

Wasn't the bully named Flash Thompson? He did go with Mary Jane for a while in the comics didn't he?

It's been way too long for me to remember this stuff.

I seem to recall hearing that Raimi really didn't like the Venom that was developed in the comics. I guess it stands to reason that he might rather dramatically reshape the character. It might be worth it to get Venom (who is going to look SO cool) on the screen. It's going to take a pretty talented touch to make Topher Grace work though.

I can't wait.

[Redneck Socialist]

4. Anyone else kind of disappointed by this?

I was never much of a marvel reader (though I did like spiderman) so maybe I'm jumping the gun here, but the Sandman just strikes me as lame and I never really got into the whole Venom thing. There has got to be some better villains out there than these.

[Mojambo]

6. Visuals, visuals, visuals!

We'll have to wait to see the story (Venom in particular will require significant tweaking) but this movie is going to be superhero eye candy like we've never seen before.

And honestly, that's probably enough for most people.

In terms of finding more historically important villains from the Spiderman canon I'm not sure who'd be better. They've already used the two most noteworthy villains with the Goblin and Doc Ock. The Lizard would have been a good pick and both Mysterio and Kraven the Hunter could be considered (in fact they'd work quite well together in a story.)

[DanCa]

5. Interesting choices of villians

Just remember though that the movies are not comic book cannon. I am just going to sit back and enjoy the ride.

[Mojambo]

7. Here's Church as Sandman.

Pretty hacky photoshop job.