This is rather interesting. The Hollywood Reporter has a report that Paul Giamatti is in negotiations to play the Rhino in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and strangely enough, in a video posted back in March of 2011 (watch below), Giamatti was telling Conan O’Brien this was exactly the character he wanted to play.
As for the character, his actual name is Aleksei Sytsevich and he was a thug in the Russian mafia who underwent a series of chemical and radiation treatments to transform him after several months into the superhumanly strong agent for a collective of professional spies. The subsequent armor permanently bonded to his form, and was modeled after the hide of a rhinoceros.
The one thing I’m trying to figure out here is whether this will be a set up for a third Spider-Man film or if Sony and director Marc Webb are already making the same mistake that was made with Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3, which was to wedge as many villains in as possible. Jamie Foxx is already set to play the main villain, Electro, and there are rumors Dane DeHaan, who plays Harry Osborn, may actually be seen as the Green Goblin in the new movie.
In addition to the Giamatti news, Felicity Jones is in talks for an undisclosed role.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is set to hit theaters on May 2, 2014 and stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Shailene Woodley, Dane DeHaan and Martin Sheen. Check out the video of Giamatti on Conan directly below.
