Welsh actor Rhys Ifans has been cast as the villain in Columbia Pictures’ untitled Spider-Man reboot. He will torment Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy when shooting starts this December under director Marc Webb. The new Spider-Man is scheduled for a 3D release on July 3, 2012.
Sony/Columbia’s official press release does not reveal which villain Ifans will be portraying, but the popular rumor seems to be the rise of Venom. However, in the comics, the Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy saga ends in a tragic face-off with Green Goblin on the George Washington Bridge, so the return of the cackling menace, played by Willem Dafoe in the original, is a possibility, even if it’s another redundancy.
Ifans is the classically trained star of several Shakespeare stage performances and is starring in Sony’s Anonymous, Roland Emmerich’s Shakespearean conspiracy theory drama. His resume is loaded with art house fare, apart from scattered appearance in Notting Hill or Little Nicky, including festival favorite Mr. Nice. Ifans is set to appear in Novembers’ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part I as Xenophilius Lovegood.
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