Spider-Man 3 Trivia

The release date for the film was set before Spider-Man 2 (2004) was even released.

John Dykstra, who won an Oscar for his work as visual effects supervisor on Spider-Man 2 (2004), had declined to work on the third film. Instead, Dykstra chose to work on Hot Wheels. Scott Stokdyk took over as visual effects supervisor.

Originally, director Sam Raimi vehemently opposed having Venom as a villain in the film, claiming he hated Venom's "lack of humanity," but Marvel producer Avi Arad convinced him to include the character, explaining that Venom had a strong worldwide following. Raimi eventually came to appreciate the character, based on writer Alvin Sargent's script and actor Topher Grace's performance. However, to keep Venom's appearance a secret, he claimed during the film's casting and production that he hated the character, and had no intention of including the character in this film or any subsequent sequels. To make amends, he then treated the audience at the 22 July 2006 San Diego Comic-Con to the first public images of Venom in the film, albeit with unfinished special effects.

Ground corn was used as sand because it reflected well on camera.

Producer Grant Curtis appears as one of the two security guards in the truck that got hijacked by Sandman.

On May 4th, 2007, while promoting the film on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (1992), Thomas Haden Church revealed that he broke three knuckles during the subway scene where he swings to punch Spider-Man and ends up punching a chunk of the wall away. Church said that the effects crew had told him that the brick in the middle was fake while the upper and lower ones were real. Unfortunately, the foam brick had not actually been put in place yet, and when Sam Raimi yelled 'action', Church spun around and punched the real brick on the first take.

Kirsten Dunst, a natural blonde, plays redhead Mary Jane, while Bryce Dallas Howard, a natural redhead, plays blonde Gwen Stacy.

The name of the character who replaces MJ in the play is Andrea Rubin; Sam Raimi's sister is named Andrea.

All of the screams Kirsten Dunst had for this film were recycled from Spider-Man 2 (2004).

The scene where Spider-Man throws an exploding pumpkin back at Harry, and it explodes in his face, recalls a similar scene in the first film. Green Goblin throws a pumpkin at Spider-Man, whose reactions are the same, blowing off half of his Spider-Man mask.

Elisha Cuthbert and Scarlett Johansson were each considered for the role of Gwen Stacy.

It was delivered to UK cinemas under the code name "Back for more".

The photograph of Mary Jane next to Peter's police scanner is the picture he took of her at the science exhibit in the first Spider-Man movie.

Prints were delivered to some theaters under the codename "Let's Dance Again".

Co-creator of Spider-man Stan Lee makes an appearance as the man who tells Peter how great Spider-Man is.

It took three years to create the visual effects required to portray the Sandman's powers. To understand the dynamics of sand, various experiments were conducted with sand (launching sand at stunt men, splashing the stuff around and pouring it over ledges). Sand sculptors were also consulted for advice.

While Topher Grace was a big comic book fan and had read the first Venom stories as a boy, he found the suit he had to wear as Venom extremely unpleasant. It took an hour to put on (and four hours to apply the prosthetics); and it had to be constantly smeared with goo to give it a liquid organic feel. Grace also had to wear fangs, which bruised his gums.

Originally, Dylan Baker was meant to mutate into the Lizard and become the main villain for this film. There is a lizard skeleton in Dr. Connors' laboratory that foreshadows this metamorphosis. Another hint is the fact that his right arm is missing: in the comics he tried to restore it using reptile DNA, which led to his transformation.

Topher Grace is never referred to as "Venom" in the entire movie.

In Harry's lab, his father's Green Goblin mask is seen as well as a gold Goblin mask. In the comics, Hobgoblin wears a yellow Goblin mask.

The movie had the best per-theater average ($34,807) ever among wide releases.

Opened in 4,252 theaters, more than any other movie before, beating out the former record-holder Shrek 2 (2004) which opened in 4,223 theaters. The record was then beaten by Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), which opened in 4,362 theaters in the US.

Composer Christopher Young appears as the conductor and the guy standing next to the piano player at Mary Jane Watson's rehearsal scene.

When the symbiote attaches to Peter's motorcycle license plate, it takes on the shape of a V (for Venom).

The font of Venom's web message is the same font used for the title of the comic, Sensational Spider-Man.

Release prints were delivered to theaters in three parts, each with a fake title. Reels 1, 3, 5, "Two Timing Friend". Reels 2 and 4, "Back for More". Reels 6 and 7, "Listening Heart".

Composer Danny Elfman does not return to provide the musical score for this film, citing creative differences with director Sam Raimi over the previous film. Instead, Christopher Young composes the film's score. In December 2006, however, producer Grant Curtis announced that Elfman had begun collaborating with Young on the film's score music. Interestingly, Elfman turned down this film for Charlotte's Web (2006), which is about a spider who uses her talents to do good.

Topher Grace left "That '70s Show" (1998) to star in this movie.

The over 600 latex "web" balloons in the celebration scene had to be hand-painted with a Sharpie marker.

Both Topher Grace and Thomas Haden Church confessed that when they were unceremoniously invited to meetings at Sony, they had no idea they would be auditioning for this film.

Thomas Haden Church worked out for 16 months to build up his physique to portray the Sandman, and Topher Grace worked out for six months to prepare for his role as Venom.

To prepare for his role as the Sandman, Thomas Haden Church worked out for 16 months, losing ten pounds of fat and gaining 28 pounds of muscle. He based his performance on misunderstood monsters, like Gollum, Frankenstein's monster and King Kong.

To prepare for his role as Venom, Topher Grace worked out for six months, gaining 24 pounds of muscle. He based his performance on alcoholics and drug addicts.

In a fight scene where Spider-Man punches through Sandman's chest, congenital amputee boxer Baxter Humby took Tobey Maguire's place in filming the scene. Humby, who was born without his right hand, helped deliver the intended effect of punching through Sandman's chest.

The film's visual effects designer, Scott Stokdyk, created a miniature of a skyscraper section at 1/16th scale, instead of using CGI, to save time and costs, and so that damage done to the building could be portrayed realistically.

The scene where the symbiote takes over Spider-Man while he sleeps (and wakes up hanging upside down in front of a building in the black suit) is reminiscent of a scene from "Spider-Man: The Alien Costume: Part 1 (#1.8)" (1995)". In the episode, Peter Parker decides to lay low for a while, as the authorities are out to get him due to his alleged injuring of J. Jonah Jameson's son. He goes to sleep and has dreams of a black Spider-Man costume fighting with his normal costume, and then wakes up hanging upside down in front of a window. The scene where Spider-Man gets rid of the black suit is also reminiscent of an episode from the cartoon, "Spider-Man: The Alien Costume: Part 2 (#1.9)" (1995)". In that episode, Spider-Man goes to a church and there fights the Shocker. Just before he throws Shocker off the building, he realises that Spider-Man doesn't kill people, and hastily tears at the costume. Eddie Brock is hanging below the bell, tied up in a web that Spider-Man has spun in order to keep Brock from escaping. The symbiote drips onto Brock, who becomes Venom.

The film's translation in Russia is "Spider-Man 3: Enemy in the Reflection"

The character of Eddie Brock/Venom, as portrayed in this film, is an amalgamation of his "Amazing Spider-Man" (an obsessive journalist) and "Ultimate" (a skinny young man with a crush on Gwen Stacy) versions. This was done to present Eddie Brock as a shadowy reflection of Peter Parker (which shows that Peter Parker, when affected by the symbiote, starts to act like Eddie).

Real sand was used in the scenes with Sandman, except where there were characters being buried/covered in sand. Real sand being possibly hazardous for such scenes, ground up corncobs were used as a substitute. It provided marvelous snacks for the cast and crew afterwards...

Partial scenes, where Spider-Man is hanging from the back of an armored car, were filmed in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, due to high shooting costs in New York City.

Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire were the driving forces that got Sandman into this film. During press interviews for the first two Spider-Man films, Raimi and Maguire repeatedly mentioned Sandman as a villain they would like to see in a future sequel.

According to Grant Curtis, in early production the Vulture was originally going to be in the movie, and Ben Kingsley was involved in negotiations to play him before the character's story line was replaced by Venom.

Eddie's line - "My spider-sense is tingling... if you know what I'm talking about!" - when referring to MJ, was Topher Grace's idea.

The font used for the posters of the play Mary Jane appears in, was originally designed for the first Fantastic Four logo.

During the celebration scene the band plays an alternate rendition of the "Spider-Man" (1967) TV show theme while Spider-Man ascends to the stage.

During Stan Lee's cameo in the film, he uses the catch phrase "'nuff said", which he used frequently in the comics to end short editor's notes inside the panels.

Spider-Man 3 (2007) combines all three Raimi brothers. Sam Raimi as the director, Ivan Raimi as one of the writers and Ted Raimi as an actor in the role of Hoffman.

While being in the Venom costume, Topher Grace didn't drink any water during his breaks because he couldn't use the bathroom with his costume on.

The name of the character Mr. Ditkovitch clearly recalls the name of the co-creator of Spiderman, Steve Ditko.

After Peter tells Mr. Ditkovitch that he'll get his rent when he fixes the door, and goes to the window, on the bookcase next to the window is a book "Jekyll and Hyde" (The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson), a story of man's duality, much like Peter Parker in this movie.

The girl who sells her camera to J. Jonah Jameson for $100 is actually Sam Raimi's daughter, Emma Raimi.

The demanding shoot in Cleveland meant that a section in downtown was closed down. The pavements had to be repainted to resemble those in NY. Traffic signs and electricity poles were removed for stunts. The shooting schedule also overlapped with the start of the MLB season for the Indians as well as the NBA playoffs for the Cavaliers and the heavier-than-usual traffic had to be re-routed. Despite all this, it is reported that the people of Cleveland welcomed the crew and didn't complain about the disruption the shoot caused.

At 00:37:29, in the background, you can see a Charles Manson news article for the daily bugle framed and hanging on the wall.

In the comics, Reed Richards of The Fantastic Four is the one who discovered that the black and white Spiderman costume is an alien symbiote. However, because the Fantastic Four characters are owned by 20th Century Fox, it was changed to Dr. Curt Connors making the discovery.

During one of the scenes in Jameson's office, a newspaper in the background says "Doc Ock Still at Large".

The alien symbiont's main weakness is that it is susceptible to high ultra-sonic sounds. This weakness is also shared by Daredevil, another Marvel Comics character.

The song that Mary Jane sings near the end of the movie was also sung by Virginia Grey in the 1942 film Tarzan's New York Adventure (1942).

In the comics, the symbiote was a flowing sentient liquid ooze. Sam Raimi was very clear on the film's portrayal of the symbiote: he wanted it to have character, but not to resemble a spider or octopus. As portrayed in the film, it possesses a webbing form (it was composed of many separate CGI threads) that gives it a sense of life and an appearance of gripping onto someone's body.

According to composer Christopher Young, the Sandman's theme was composed with two contrabass saxophones, two contrabass clarinets, two contrabrass bassoons and eight (very low) French horns to describe Sandman as "heavy and aggressive." Venom's theme was meant to make him sound "vicious and demonic" and used eight French horns.

The animators at Sony Pictures Imageworks based Venom's movements on big cats like tigers, panthers and cheetahs.

As of 2008, this is the most successful film domestically in the U.S. not to be nominated for an Academy Award.

Sam Raimi stated in an interview that he has no interest of seeing Carnage in a live action movie, as he said that about Venom. However, he said that Toxin would make a cameo in future Spider-Man movies, without Carnage.

According to James Franco, they had to go back and do some re-shoots just prior to the release, because test audiences felt that there was not enough action in the film.

The film's IMAX screenings reached $20 million in 30 days, faster than any other 2D film remastered in the format.

This is the only film of the trilogy not to feature Spider-Man swinging through the city at the end.

This film was reportedly the most expensive film ever made in U.S. dollars, with a green-lit budget of $250 million. However, with the ground-up development of revolutionary CGI, the astronomical costs of shooting on location in New York (reportedly at $1 million per day) and extensive re-shoots which over-ran the production schedule an additional 8 months, have led many industry insiders to speculate a final tab of $350 Million or more in production costs alone. If this figure is true, then only Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) comes in second with a final budget of $300 million.

During breaks in filming, James Franco read works by William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer and John Milton.

Bryce Dallas Howard performed her own stunts during the crane accident scene, unaware that she was pregnant at the time of filming.

According to Bryce Dallas Howard on the DVD commentary, the actor who plays the photographer during the crane accident scene performed magic for her at a birthday party when she was in the second grade.

Is the only Spider-Man movie to not have a version of the classic Spider-Man theme play over the end credits.

Phil Saunders, one of the art crew members, says that production designer Neil Spisak was let go just a few weeks into principal photography. J. Michael Riva was subsequently hired for the remainder of principal filming and re-shoots. However, both Spisak and Riva are credited in the main titles sequence.

Venom is never referred to as Venom. Sandman is only called Sandman once - during a newscast sequence near the film's climax. New Goblin is never called New Goblin - the closest this comes to happen is Peter calling him "Goblin Jr."

A musical cue from The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) plays when Peter looks at a drawing of his Spider-Man suit. Sam Raimi co-wrote the script for that film along with the Coen brothers.

The climax at a construction site is similar to the one Sam Raimi did at the end of Darkman (1990).