Sony has been happy for the past few months to announce which actors will be joining the cast of Spider-Man 3, but they’ve remained tight lipped about who they’ll be playing. Of particular interest are Topher Grace and Thomas Hayden Church, who are supposed to be playing villains. Rumors about exactly who they’ll be playing have ranged from Vulture, to Chameleon, to Sandman but now FreezeDriedMovies claims they’ve got the real scoop, and that they’re proof positive certain it’s true. Wouldn’t be the first time someone has claimed that.

But, according to them Topher has been bulking up to take on the role of Venom. Odd, since reportedly director Sam Raimi hates that character, but there you have it. If true, it’s a good move and a character that could really suit Topher if they take the right angle on it. Set him up as the yin to Spider-Man’s yang. They’re also reporting that Thomas Hayden Church will play comic nerd favorite Sandman, a guy with the power of um… sand. Throw into the mix James Franco in a brief appearance as Hobgoblin and you’ve got a pretty bad guy packed flick.

Hold out for official confirmation before you take this as gospel. Other sites are already claiming Freeze Dried is wrong and that they have the real story (The always unreliable, glory hogging team at Aint-It-Cool insists it is Electro and Sandman). We’ve heard these sorts of “sure thing” scoops before and none of them have yet to be proven valid. Personally I’m getting a little tired of them. It’s time for Raimi to step up and shut everyone down with something official. Until that happens this is all just useless fluff.