It looks like Thomas Haden Church enjoyed his time on ‘Spider-Man 3‘ more than many of the viewers as we’ve just learned that he even loved the way Venom was handled in the movie. Yes, the inclusion of Topher Grace (‘That 70’s Show’,’In Good Company’) who is universally panned as a horrible Eddie Brock, and even worse Venom, didn’t overly bother Church. That isn’t to say that he doesn’t agree with Raimi’s statement that the film “tried to shove ten pounds of story into a five-pound bag,” just that he didn’t feel Grace did a lousy job here.

How Grace ended up being cast in the movie and Venom being included is another example of studio interference which tarnished what could have otherwise been a decent film:

“The studio felt like they had me, they had Franco’s story continuing, and they were like, we need one more that’s more of a millennial. And that’s how Venom and Topher Grace came into the picture. And by the way, I thought Topher was great in the movie and Venom is a pretty scary animal. And that was the evolution of that. I was thrilled, man. I’m a big admirer of Sam Raimi’s, I love Tobey [Maguire] as an actor and it was right on the heels of getting so much attention for SIDEWAYS and then these people step up and offer me the villain in the next Spider-Man. And, I just liked everybody involved, I liked the script. Again, I didn’t know how it was going to change, but c’mon, I would’ve done the movie anyway. I liked the character a lot. I thought he was a challenge and it presented a whole other set of challenges, which is physically to transform myself to be Flint Marko, y’know, to be that guy, the way he was drawn and the way he was portrayed in the books. It was a big challenge and it went on for two years. They asked me to do it in January of 2005 and the movie didn’t come out until May of 2007, so it was a good two plus years of my own life.”

You can’t complain about getting paid well to be in shape for two years! Also, Church was one of the standout actors in the film as he really brought Sandman to life. Had the movie not contained Venom this could very well have been an introduction to a fourth film in the franchise.

Do you agree with Thomas Haden Church that Topher Grace was “great” in ‘Spider-Man 3’? If they hadn’t included the character could we have ended up seeing a fourth ‘Spider-Man’ movie instead of the franchise being rebooted into ‘Amazing Spider-Man’? Share your thoughts below True Believers!

Source: JoBlo