Sandman is 'Spider-Man 3' Villain?

AICN drops another Spidey tidbit.

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Tuesday, March 29th 2005 at 2:49 AM

I never really used to check out Ain't It Cool News all that much, but lately Harry has come up with quite a bit of news lately, primarily surrounding the X-Men 3 film, but now he drops some Spider-Man 3 news that I know everyone will want to hear.

According to AICN Thomas Haden Church will be taking on the role of the Sandman as the new villain for Spider-Man 3. The report goes as follows:

Multiple spies at Sony have confirmed that Thomas Haden Church will indeed be playing SANDMAN. There's a ton of Sandman conceptual art all over the Spidey-offices!

For those of you, like myself, that have no idea who the Sandman is I went on over to the MarvelDirectory and snagged some info.

The Sandman first appeared in 1963 in "Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #4" and he possesses the ability to transform his body into a malleable, sand-like substance that can be hardened, dispersed or shaped according to his will. Also, he is able to increase his size and mass to an unknown extent by incorporating nearby sand into his form. Talk about some good stuff for the CGI effects artists to work on.

As for his origin, he grew up as William Baker, a.k.a. Flint Marko and at one time was a star athlete but ultimately fell into a life of crime and like most criminals he went to jail, but unlike most criminals he escaped and sought refuge where most people go to hide, at a nuclear test site near Savannah, Georgia, and you know what nuclear test sites can do to eventual comic book baddies…

Well of course the experimental reactor's steam system exploded and doused Marko with a massive dose of radiation and when he woke up from the incident he realized he could transform his body into an animated, sand-like substance.

To learn more about the Sandman and what happens next check out the MarvelDirectory.com right here.

Spider-Man 3 is currently slated for a May 4, 2007 release.