When Spider-Man 3 arrived in theatres in 2007, it ultimately became Sam Raimi’s swan-song in terms of his work in the realm of comic book movies. Having been the creative force that reinvigorated the genre in 2002 with Spider-Man – a breath of fresh air after Joel Schumacher’s attempts at Batman movies in the 1990s – Raimi built his web-slinger work into a solid trilogy, which appeared to culminate in a film packed with infamous Marvel villains. Now, one of those villains is reflecting on the reality of the end of Raimi’s Spider-Man films and teasing his own return to the genre.
Many fans of Spider-Man 3 feel that Thomas Haden Church’s portrayal of Sandman was a highlight of an otherwise bloated movie, and in a new interview with JoBlo – actually about his television series, Divorce – the actor explained his take on the way studio interference from Sony on Spider-Man 3 contributed to Sam Raimi’s decision to abandon the Spider-Man 4 he was apparently developing.
“…when they first pitched me the movie [Spider-Man 3], Sandman and, of course, Franco’s transformation to the Goblin, we were who he [Spider-Man] had to deal with in the picture and Venom wasn’t even in it. They introduced at the very beginning the character of Vulture, but he was only in it briefly and then at the very end of that picture they were gonna bring The Vulture back just to sorta set the stage that he was probably going to be the main villain in Spider-Man 4. But then, obviously all of that stuff sort of derailed. Well, not so much derailed, but took a different railway.”
Continuing on, he said:
“I’m very proud of it. Even Sam [Raimi] has gone on record as saying, “Hey we tried to shove ten pounds of story into a five-pound bag.” Even he thought it was just too much. And, to some extent it led to Sam and Sony to part ways. Sam’s production company is still set up there and he’ll always have a home at Sony, but on that particular franchise they parted ways. I think that Sam could come back to it if he was really interested if it doesn’t so far past him, y’know. Sam is only like a year or two older than me. Sam’s got plenty of energy and creative fuel and if they ever invited Sam to come back and do another one, I think he’d consider it, I do.”
Clearly, the character of Spider-Man is currently enjoying a high level of creative attention elsewhere – with his successful inclusion in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and an animated movie set for theatrical release on December 14th – so the chances of there being an opportunity for Raimi to return to his own Spider-Man franchise any time soon are likely slim to non-existent. However, that doesn’t mean that Church won’t be popping up again in future comic book movies.
“I’m not supposed to talk about it, but I actually have returned, but not in the Marvel world, it’s another world, but it is in that genre of superheroes and supervillains. I’m not supposed to talk about it – it’s a movie I shot last year. They’re trying to keep it-and good luck to ‘em-with, y’know, today man, I’m surprised it hasn’t already kinda been revealed.”
A non-Marvel, yet highly secretive comic book movie shot last year, filled with superheroes and supervillains? Could it be that Spider-Man 3 star Thomas Haden Church will be hitting the big screens in December with Aquaman? We’ll be watching closely for him when the first trailer finally arrives.