Alright, I'm going to address this… it's weird, so stick with me, read all the way through this story before running off repeating anything read here.

According to the guys over at both FilmRot.com and InsomniacMania Thomas Hayden Church will be playing the Chameleon (Not Sandman or Venom as rumored) in Spider-Man 3. But there's a catch. Their source for this information is a supposed story on CountingDown.com, a story which doesn’t seem to exist. Are they just making this up?

Maybe not. On the CountingDown.com message boards, there's a discussion thread on the missing news story. So it looks like the story did exist… but has been removed from the CountingDown.com site. Was it removed because they were right and the studio asked them to pull it, or was it removed because they were wrong and now they're covering their ass? No way to know. According to InsomniacMania, the story also confirmed that Harry Osborne will become the Green Goblin , but only at the film's climax.

Keep checking back with us and I'll bring you further updates as we try to confirm the validity of all this.

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UPDATED!! CountingDown.com confirmed to me this morning that they did remove the story "...because it appeared to be rumor only and not a confirmed story." Fortunately, we have no problem reporting rumors here, so below are a few excerpts from their original, now deleted news story:

"...a source close to the production of Spider-Man 3 confirmed for me that the main villain played by Mr. Thomas Hayden Church will in fact be the Chameleon. Church plays Dmitri Smerdyakov, who goes by false name Dr. Turner at Peter's college. The Chameleon also has a brother in this film, which will set up Kraven the Hunter for a future sequel I'm told. Le'ts just say that the Chameleon will use his powers of performance and identify theft to bridge a gap between MJ and Peter Parker in this film."

I hate anonymous sources. The whole thing is pretty shifty, and with CountingDown.com pulling it down it becomes even moreso. If there is confirmation though, they predict it won't come till this winter... which is a very long wait: "The producers and Raimi have a big publicity event right before production starts to make this announcement. Look for it after Thanksgiving, with production to start this winter."

"Also, Harry does become the Second Green Goblin, but only at the very end." I think just about anyone could've predicted this one. It's what we've thought all along. No mention of where Topher fits in though. This sounds like a huge, wild guess. It's interesting though, this is the first time I've heard Chameleon mentioned and Church really does seem rather suited to play him.