Topher Grace joins Spiderman 3

[Belowen]

CULVER CITY, Calif., May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Topher Grace has joined the cast of "Spider-Man®3," it was announced by director Sam Raimi and producers Laura Ziskin and Marvel Studio's Avi Arad.



Grace will join Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, and Thomas Haden Church in the blockbuster franchise.

"Spider-Man 3" is scheduled for release on May 4, 2007, and will reunite returning cast members with director Sam Raimi and producers Ziskin and Arad, the successful filmmaking team responsible for the first two films.

The "Spider-Man" film franchise has grossed more than $1.5 billion in worldwide ticket sales to date. Production on "Spider-Man 3," which was written by Alvin Sargent, is scheduled to begin early next year.

"I couldn't be more excited about the direction we are taking the continuing adventures of Peter Parker," said Raimi. "Topher Grace is an extraordinarily talented actor and will be perfect for the complexities of the role we are developing."

While speculation continues about which characters will be called into action, the studio will not comment on the new roles beyond confirming the casting of Grace and Church.

"Spider-Man 3" is being overseen by Columbia's President of Production Matt Tolmach and Shannon Gaulding, Director of Development for the studio.

Grace, who has been a weekly fixture in homes across America in the hit comedy series "That '70s Show" for the last 7 years, is seamlessly transitioning from the small screen to the big screen. Testament to his success, he has recently been prized with Breakthrough Acting awards by both the National Board of Review and the New York Online Film Critics, for his starring roles in Paul Weitz's "In Good Company" and Dylan Kidd's "P.S."

Last winter, Grace starred opposite Dennis Quaid and Scarlett Johansson in "In Good Company." And in "P.S.," which premiered at this fall's Toronto Film Festival, he starred as the romantic lead opposite Laura Linney in an off-beat romantic comedy adapted from the Helen Schulman novel by the same name.

Grace's major breakthrough on film came with his debut role in Steven Soderbergh's Oscar nominated movie "Traffic," which he followed-up with a memorable cameo in Soderbergh's "Ocean's Eleven." He also reprises his role, as himself, in the sequel "Ocean's Twelve." Earlier this year he could be seen in Robert Luketic's romantic comedy "Win a Date With Tad Hamilton," alongside Kate Bosworth and Josh Duhamel. Before that, he was in last winter's "Mona Lisa Smile," opposite Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst and Marcia Gay Harden. He fell into acting in high school in which he starred in plays such as "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum." After high school, he moved out to Los Angeles for college and soon embarked on his acting career with a starring role on "That '70s Show," remarkably sans prior industry experience. He currently resides in Los Angeles.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050520/laf005.html?.v=11

 

[dancingellecat]

Awesome!

 

[Arksiel]

awesome indeed....dancingellecat, have you heard anymore rumors about the villain possibilities? I think you are Spiderman fan as well?
with Topher joining (who I always thought very loosely resembled Tobey) I wonder...? will he ply a good role or a villain? hrm.

I still hope they bring out Venom.....

 

[dancingellecat]

From what I hear (and he's said this) Thomas Hayden Church is playing the villain, and I assume so as nearly all the SM villains are older....Topher does loosely resemble Tobie. Hey, their names both start with 'To'.

I'm not an actual SM comic book fan, I just love (and own) the movies. Because I think Willem Dafoe is hot (my icon on the left!) and they are good movies, especially the second one, THAT was phenomenal. I felt very bad for Doc Ock at the end; Alfred Molina is such a great actor. Same with Willem and Tobie and Kirsten and James...

 

[Arksiel]

From what I hear (and he's said this) Thomas Hayden Church is playing the villain, and I assume so as nearly all the SM villains are older....Topher does loosely resemble Tobie. Hey, their names both start with 'To'.

I'm not an actual SM comic book fan, I just love (and own) the movies. Because I think Willem Dafoe is hot (my icon on the left!) and they are good movies, especially the second one, THAT was phenomenal. I felt very bad for Doc Ock at the end; Alfred Molina is such a great actor. Same with Willem and Tobie and Kirsten and James...

Hey, their names both start with 'To'.



oh well. I was kind of hoping you had an insiders edge or something! guess I'll just have to be patient. I also find that Mr. Dafoe is quite good looking, especially for a man of his age! as for the villains, I am happy that they kept the 'human' factor with them intact. too many movie adaptations of comic books or classic heroes stick with the black and white portrayal of good and evil, and I love it when a storry has more to it then that.
yes, if you're wondering...I am a geek

 

[Kimkhuu]

Hmmmm..... I am not too fond on William Dafoe. Never considered him as being "hot". Well I guess to each their own.

And back on topic, I didn't even know they're making third Spiderman movie.... What's up with doing millions of followups to successfull blockbuster movies. When will it stop? Until one Spiderman X eventually flops?

 

[dancingellecat]

OK well my dad is a movie producer, worked on Life Aquatic and now Marie Attoinette, I'm in France now...I DID get to go to the Life Aquatic set in Italy and I did see him (like two times) (willem) but never actually got to meet him as the producers/BTS people were on a different ship. He showed up to the set every day even when he wasn't needed, had nothing to do. He would add himself into the scenes, just in the background doing silly stuff. He is super fit and would amaze everyone with his yoga abilities. He and Jeff Goldblum were good buddies and sang weird songs together in really high pitch voices. He's kind of short in real life though. Watch the BTS stuff on teh second disc of Life Aquatic and you can see him do amazing yoga moves and he sings with Jeff too.

My dad is currently looking into the third SM, as he knows it's going to be another huge hit. He visited the set for a while on SM2 (producers, when considering joining a movie to produce will visit the director's set to see how things work out and to talk) and I got to go, New York. I met Alfred Molina and I have an autographed picture of him hanging in my bedroom back in teh states. He is the sweetest guy ever and very tall and hulky. I'll try to scan the picture.

From what I know, of course, the SM3 secrets are...uh secret, but Venom is the villain that is rumoured on the drawing boards. Evidently he's everyone's favorite villain and Thomas Hayden Church resembles the character.

So there's the insider info, wasn't really quite sure if I should have said it earlier....but my dad is not officially signed up for it, he has to finish up Marie Antoinette (producers kind of do everything from overlooking casting, interns, post-production, the super exciting stuff) and then talk to Sam Raimi again. He kind of scares me, but whatever. Very hyper on set.

That's all I know and can say.

 

[Arksiel]

thanks!
I have always been such a huge Spiderman fan for some reason. When the first movie came out, a friend of mine offered to steal a poster from one of the bus stops for me, haha. I turned him down because I didnt want him to get into trouble.

I love an actor who seems to have a great sense of humor.

as for the trilogy thing, when Spiderman was first announced to be in production, I read an interview with (perhaps the director? Im not sure) someone, and they had already planned to make a trilogy out of it. There is too much story to touch on in one movie, and if they tried, the movie would probably be awfull. As it is, I'd want to see more than three, there are so many great characters that will never make the big screen.

fir the third movie, I think that they will at least revisit the Green Goblin, as in the comic, Harry takes over his dad's old role, and starts to go insane. They seemed to be hinting at that when Harry found his dad's old lair in the second movie.

dancingellecat, how old are you? it must be great to be able to occasionally travel with your dad, where his work takes him!

 

[dancingellecat]

I'm 16, it is great to go to movie sets. And meet people, but it's just like "Hey Alfred" and then he's like "Hey Bob" or whatever...everyone really gets to know each other well and there's no staring at teh movie stars or anything...they just become good friends because they are nice.

Yes, the second movie had a lot of hinting, there was the mask, the green tie at the party, then Dafoe in the mirror yelling at him. Maybe two villains, I don't know. But Venom is the rumoured villain.

 

[tiffany]

He and Jeff Goldblum were good buddies and sang weird songs together in really high pitch voices.

that's so cool

 

[Tinuviel]

^ That reminds me I used to have the hugest crush on Jeff Goldblum. Something about the way he walks is so... hot? lol

 

[dancingellecat]

^ That reminds me I used to have the hugest crush on Jeff Goldblum. Something about the way he walks is so... hot? lol

you should see Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, he walks around in a Speedo and a bathrobe a lot. He plays Alistair Hennessy, who calls himself "half gay".

Not bad looking in real life.