Director Sam Raimi says he's settled on the villain for Spider-Man 3. He's not revealing who exactly will take on Spidey but he told Now Playing magazine: "We wanted to have a villain not only who would fulfill the character needs but somebody who could entertain the audience on a visceral level and provide great visuals, something we haven't seen before, and create a real challenge and great foe for Spider-Man and his unique spidery, spider-like powers."
Why not tease more? "I’m not supposed to [talk about the villain]," Raimi said. "When Sony Pictures decides to release the villain they do it in conjunction with Marvel Comic books. Avi Arad is the president there and my producer, and they’re really the ones that decide how they’re going to present this to the fans of the comic and they love doing it with a lot of drama and a big splash. So they consult with me, but it’s really something… they really want to please the fans and do it in a very particular way."
Fans know Spider-Man 2 set up Harry Osborn to take over from his late father as the Green Goblin but the character of Dr. Curt Conners (the Lizard) has also been established. Venom has been identified as a fan favorite and the character of Eddy Brock has been mentioned.
Alvin Sargent is working on the screenplay now, Raimi said. "What I did was, when I worked on the story with my brother Ivan, I determined what journey I felt was most important for Peter Parker to take," he added. "He’s a young man so this is a coming of age story and he’s on a journey to becoming a more responsible adult – in each of the movies. And I tried to determine with my brother which human faults would be displayed in this particular story that Peter Parker would have to exhibit, and then recognize that he had that fault, and then try to grow and develop as a human being as somebody who could overcome that fault. So once [we] determined Peter Parker’s journey, we tried to determine a villain that best presented some aspect of that fault so that he could literally stand in the way of the growth of Peter Parker."
The film debuts in May 2007.