In recent weeks, there’s been some chatter as to what characters, or more specifically, villains, we will see in the upcoming fourth installment to the Spider-Man franchise.

First, we heard arguably crazy speculation that Bruce Campbell’s larger role in Spider-Man 4 would see him playing a villain such as Mysterio. Unlikely in the eyes of many fans, but we followed that up with a report on director Sam Raimi discussing the Spider-Man 4 villains where he admitted he favored the idea of The Lizard but wasn’t keen or familiar with the idea of Carnage.

Then, we finally got one confirmation on the topic of potential villains: Dylan Baker would in fact be returning as Dr. Curt Connors in the next movie but that didn’t necessarily mean he’d be transforming in the scaly green two-armed lizard, especially not if you can take Baker’s words as complete truth (he says he’s a background character). Of course, this was followed with more rumors where it was said that The Lizard could be Spider-Man 4’s only villain.

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Less than a week ago, Dylan Baker confirmed that he’d be returning as Dr. Curt Connors in Spider-Man 4. At the time, he said he’d be regulated to a small background role similar to his appearances in the last two Spidey films.

Now, comes an insider report from Jim over at Market Saw who’s saying that The Lizard may not only be in Spider-Man 4, but that he’d be the only villain of the movie. This of course would bring the franchise back to its one-villain roots as utilized in the first two movies of the series.

Sam Raimi did say that he loves The Lizard…

Speculation, here we come!

Dylan Baker, the actor who played the minor role of Dr. Curt Connors in the last two Spider-Man movies has confirmed that he’ll be in Spider-Man 4. Now, this doesn’t mean we’ll be seeing his scaly alter ego known as The Lizard, but it sure wouldn’t be surprising.

Even if The Lizard wasn’t making his appearance, we’d expect Dr. Curt Connors to play at least a small part again. It wouldn’t make sense to have him involved in the plot of Spider-Man 2 & 3 then throw him away.

It’s been a big week for Sony’s Columbia Pictures and fans of the Spider-Man franchise. A mere week ago we found that the studio has selected Gary Ross to direct and rewrite the upcoming Venom solo film. Ross has a long history with the studio and actor Tobey Maguire and he’s currently involved with the script of Spider-Man 4. While we later heard that Venom might be far off with Ross also being tipped to helm the Spielberg-less Matt Helm remake, there’s no slowing the Spidey franchise one way or another.

On the Peter Parker side of things, Raimi revealed a few days back that they’re planning for an early March start of production for Spider-Man 4 to meet their summer kick-off release date in 2011. That’s not all however, as more recently we reported on director Sam Raimi discussing the possible villains of Spider-Man 4.

Now, MTV is sharing the part of their interview with Raimi where he touches even more Spider-Man sequels in the pipeline, specifically the 5th and 6th installments. Read on after the jump for more!

Spider-Man 4 has been receiving plenty of buzz in recent times with announcements and confirmations of it going into production next year for a 2011 release. On top of that, we’ve had countless reports and speculation about what storylines it may follow, the start of development for Spider-Man 5 & 6, and discussions of what villains will be the focus of the fourth installment in the super successful superhero franchise.

MTV spoke with Sam Raimi and got the director to discuss a bit about the villains of Spider-Man 4 and the results of a fan poll they ran on the site which saw The Lizard and Carnage come out on top as the most desired villains, with the highest percentages from an unknown number of votes.

SCI FI Wire had an exclusive interview with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the writers behind next month’s Zombieland flick (which looks great!) and they spoke about that other big project they’ve been working on: the script for the Venom solo film.

The last we heard on the Venom project from the writers was from back in April when they couldn’t comment on whether or not this incarnation of Venom would be the same as/related to the wasted version we saw in the highly disappointing Spider-Man 3.

In the interview, Reese and Wernick take questions on the status of the project and when the film could be in production.

According to Variety, James Vanderbilt has been picked up by Sony Pictures Entertainment to pen the scripts to another two Spider-Man films.

What’s interesting about this is that Vanderbilt had initially written the first script for Spider-Man 4, a script that director Sam Raimi wasn’t fully in support of. Raimi brought in other writers to do several re-writes but executives at Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios actually liked Vanderbilt’s ideas.

News has surfaced that Gary Ross, writer of such films including Seabiscuit, The Tale of Despereaux, Dave and Lassie in the past and writer/director of some others (that we’ll discuss later), is being brought in to re-write the script of Spider-Man 4.

What does this mean for the movie?

Sam Raimi, director of the Spider-Man films, revealed back in January of this year that he has an interest in the character of Morbius and that sparked rumors that he would be (one of) the featured villains in the upcoming Spider-Man 4.

To me, this made perfect sense as it would allow the next movie to explore a darker and more realistic tone (compared to the more extreme Sandman and Venom characters). Even more than that, Morbius shares plenty of Marvel Comics history with the Lizard character (Dr. Curt Connors) who we saw introduced in Spider-Man 2 and play an important role in Spider-Man 3.

Did you like Spider-Man 3? I didn’t. Sadly, many fans of the Spider-Man franchise were let down by the third installment of the series but don’t fret! We just may get a return to form with Spider-Man 4.

In an interview with Empire for this May’s issue, Raimi openly talked about some of the problems with Spider-Man 3 and confirmed some rumors we all heard about two summers ago when the movie was released.

To quote the Joker, “It’s not about money. It’s about sending a message.”

Consider the message received, loud and clear.

The Dark Knight has officially dethroned former champ Spider-Man 3 to become the movie with the highest-grossing first-day premiere. Led by fan fervor, strong buzz, impeccable reviews from both fans and critics alike, and a all that talk, talk, talk, about the late Heath Ledger’s boundary-shattering performance as the Joker, Dark Knight managed to rake in $66.4 million in just its first day! (More than twice what The Love Guru has made all Summer.)

The 2007 Toronto International Film Festival ended recently and the 2008 Sundance Film Festival is just around the corner, and these have gotten me thinking (uh oh!).

I’ve been thinking about why it is that some movies that are so mediocre go on to earn hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office while other films that are just as good (and quite often far better) end up unseen not talked about. While I enjoy a good popcorn movie as much as the next guy, I do tend to hold even action and sci-fi movies to a higher standard than the average 14 year old.

So I find it extremely frustrating when movies that seem to be mediocre or worse make incredible amounts of money and give some directors credibility and the opportunity to pump out more schlock, while other movies that are better go on to make almost nothing and those directors continue to have to fight to get movies made.

Let’s look at some examples from the last 10 years or so…

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: Although at times it felt like a made-for-TV movie, a far better film than the first and more entertaining than the super-serious Spider-man 3.

So it’s possible.

Not only can a sequel be better than the original, but it can be done with the same director and writer. By process of elimination, it would seem that the blame for how bad the first film was can perhaps be laid at the feet of the one guy missing from the new production crew: writer Michael France. I can’t say for sure, but at the top level it seems like pretty much everyone from the first film was still there for the second one. Pure speculation on my part, of course.

Anyway, on to the review…

Soooo…. The prints of Spider-Man 3 running in movie theaters are barely dry and already a couple of days ago news began surfacing that yes, there will be a Spider-Man 4. Heck, there will even be a 5, 6 and beyond.

Yeah, we’ll just have to see about that. There is no doubt that Sam Raimi (director of the first three Spiderman movies) is not about to make a lifelong career out of ol’ web head. What does that mean? That either a new director or directors will be brought in, and each one will want to put his own personal mark on the franchise. Sure, it could turn out to be a good thing, but lets keep one thing in mind, shall we?

Nipples on the Batsuit.

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: Although Spiderman 3 is the weakest of the trilogy, it’s still good enough to be a member of the club.

Man… where to start on a review of a movie like this? Spider-Man 3 has been one of the most wildly anticipated movies coming out this year, so could it possibly live up to expectations? (By the way, this review is spoiler-free.)

My answer would have to be: Almost.

While the story of Spiderman 3 fits very nicely into an overall three-movie arc, there are problems with it that keep it from being as satisfying as it might have been. In the first film we meet Peter Parker as the geeky, picked-on teenager and watch him acquire his newfound powers, experiencing with him the initial giddiness and then the weight of responsibility that comes with those powers. In the second film we meet a character who has come to terms with who he is, but struggles with the amount of responsibility, difficulty and loneliness that comes with his new life.

We have a winner of Screen Rant’s Sideshow Collectibles Spider-Man 3 mini-bust contest:

The Spider-Man 3 Mini-Bust Winner is

Eric Hall

Thanks to everyone who entered and signed up for our daily movie/tv newsletter!

If any of you have some spare cash burning a hole in your pocket, check out the Ebay auction that’s coinciding with the opening of Spider-Man 3 today. It’s sponsored by Sony Pictures and they’re auctioning off some serious stuff… not aftermarket collectibles but actual costumes, wardrobe and props used in the movie!

You can either click here or on the image above to see what they have to offer.

It seems that Live Free or Die Hard, the long awaited fourth film in the Die Hard movie series is king of online movie buzz so far this year. This is according to the number of mentions of upcoming movies in blog as tracked by Nielsen BuzzMetrics.

Die Hard 4.0 (as I prefer to call it) even beat out mentions of Spider-Man 3 by 2 to 1, which I find very surprising.

Hey, just a reminder that this is the final week to enter Screen Rant’s Spider-Man 3 Mini-Bust Giveaway!

The contest ends midnight this Friday May 4th, the same day that Spider-Man 3 opens. I also want to remind you that all you have to do to enter is subscribe to our daily newsletter, but remember that you have to be a VERIFIED subscriber! That means you need to reply to the verification email or you won’t be entered (and you won’t receive our updates either!). This is in place to protect you from receiving unwanted emails.

You’ll be entering to win the collectible bust shown below.

So head on over to the contest page for more details and to enter!

And for tons more cool Spider-Man 3 movie stuff check out the new Screen Rant Movie Store.

Here’s this week’s edition of the Screen Rant podcast with my thoughts on this week’s news including why Death Race 3000 won’t be any good, the double-dose of “punking” received by AintItCoolNews, Iron Man updates, a reminder to enter the Spider-Man 3 contest and more!

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A Screen Rant reader named Logan sent in a link to a bunch of cool Spider-Man 3 images plus a whole bunch of notes related to the production.

If you’re interested, head on Click to continue "New Spider-Man 3 Images And Production Notes"

If you’re as big a fan of movies as I am but you haven’t heard of yet, you really need to check out their website because it’s filled with lots of very cool, limited edition collectibles that any fan would love to have. Most of the collectible items they offer end up selling out quickly and going for much more than the original purchase price on eBay. Their stuff is super high quality and I own a very cool Iron Man statue from them, myself. fans will have a blast in there, as well as horror maniacs, , , , Fantasy and all other types as well.

There’ve been lots of complaints about how Venom will look in Spider-Man 3. Well based on these two images I think he’ll look plenty scary:

No, the following is NOT what I’ll be giving away in the upcoming Screen Rant Spider-Man 3 contest. You can’t even buy this thing or pre-order it yet but I thought it was pretty stinkin’ cool and most of you probably wouldn’t ever see it so I thought I’d share it here.

For a bigger look at the sculpture and more info click on the image below or you can .

Superherohype has alerted readers that there is a newer and slightly different version of the final trailer for Spider-Man 3 over at Yahoo! Movies.

I’ve been reading comments here saying that Venom doesn’t look the way he should based on the comic book. I think he’s going to scare the heck out of the little kids in the audience from what I’ve seen. Click on the image to the left for a much larger screen grab of the new look at Venom from the trailer, complete with some big honkin’ claws.

Matt, one of the commenters here at Screen Rant mentioned a few days ago that despite reports to the contrary, Tobey Macguire had stated that if Sam Raimi and the rest of the gang return for Spider-Man 4, that he (Tobey) would as well. Most of the movie sites have been stating recently that Macguire was in fact NOT interested in a fourth Spider-Man movie, period.

Well today there’s confirmation that Macguire said that over at SciFiWire. (So Matt, who is YOUR source?)

Boy, the Venom stuff is coming fast and furious as the release date of Spider-Man 3 approaches. Click the image on the left to get a much larger look at a new bust coming out showing the transformation of Eddie Brock into Venom.

I could have done a close-up of the face but it’s really kind of creepy looking.

The sculpt was created using 3D digital production files from the movie so it’s going to be extremely accurate.

Spider-Man 3 opens on May 4th.

Sideshow Toys has another Spider-man 3 Venom statue coming out which shows Venom in all his creepy goodness.

Click on the image at left for more details and for larger views.

BTW, there’s also a mention of the role Gwen Stacey plays in Spider-man 3, which I hadn’t seen anywhere else:

“…Peter is pursued by Gwen Stacy, who rivals M.J. for his affections.”

So you’ve probably already heard that the new (and final) Spider-Man 3 trailer is online. Of course if you were one of the folks who’ve seen 300 then you’ve already seen this trailer on a big, giant screen.

This trailer concentrates a lot more on Venom than previous footage has and seems to show that Venom is indeed the main antagonist in the film. It seems like Harry and Sandman are more like the triggers for Venom gaining power than anything else.

There are some new photos from Spider-Man 3 over at Joblo.com including the one above. If you ask me this image settles the question of whether in the movie Venom will be from outer space. That’s Peter Parker’s moped in the foreground (as if you didn’t know).