By the time actor Thomas Haden Church earned an Oscar nomination for his unforgettable supporting role as a womanizing, has-been actor heading out on one last fling before tying the knot in director Alexander Payne’s critically acclaimed road drama Sideways, many film and television viewers may have assumed (and not without merit) that the former Wings star had all but abandoned his career in front of the cameras.

It had, after all, been nearly a decade since Church had endeared himself to television viewers as lovably dunderheaded mechanic Lowell Mather on the hit television series, and though he did remain fairly active onscreen after Wings went off the air in 1995, his career took something of a back seat to his family commitments and life on his Texas cattle ranch.

Coupled with a conscious decision to move away from acting and try his talents behind the camera, Church's fading devotion to acting still made his nomination at the 2005 Oscars feel like something of a comeback even though he had remained fairly active in show business all along.

Now he’s playing Flint Marko a.k.a. The Sandman, who is one of Spider-Man’s classic villains who will be featured in the new Sam Raimi film, Spider-Man 3, a movie that is sure to be one of the biggest movies this year!

Delaware County Magazine: When you first got the part of the Sandman what was your take on how to play him?

Thomas Haden Church: He’s a pretty kind of isolated guy. Sometimes in the comic book as I think is probably inherent and intrinsic to a lot of comic book series, there’s one or two dimensions to the characters and then once they make it to the screen then you learn a lot more about them. You kind of understand the backstory and what it is that delivered them to whatever level of familiarity that the readers have of the character or with the character, but the thing with Sandman is that he’s a very isolated guy and a fairly tragic guy. I don’t know whatever the crossover was between myself and why they decided I was the right guy to play him, but he is definitely fun. I’m very proud to be a part of it. Not to wrap myself in the flag of Spider-Man, but I’m really proud to be a part of it.

DCM: So for you, even though there are amazingly fantastic and ridiculous things going on in the Spider-Man films, a character like Sandman can still come off as “real,” right?

Church: He’s a guy with those kinds of problems and choices and dilemmas and sadness and elation. Everything that you go through as a human being walking in the streets of the planet, that’s who he is. That’s who Flint Marko is. That’s who the Sandman is. He’s a pretty normal guy set upon by these kind of extra-natural or extraordinary circumstances and he just deals with them as best as he can. Sometimes the outcome of his reactions or his response, sometimes it’s violent. Sometimes it’s saddening...even heartwrenching. It might be one of the most complete characters that I’ve ever played in terms of who I am, who this guy was in the producers minds, in the creative collective and then where we met in the middle of making him an accessible, real human being.

DCM: This is the biggest film you’ve ever been involved with. With all the hooplah around it, is it tough to keep the details of this movie a secret...or is it more fun?

Church: Sometimes it’s kind of a fun challenge to be as informative as possible without really saying anything or giving anything away.

DCM: That’s just the way it has to be so a movie has some surprises to it...

Church: Exactly. I understand it from a marketing aspect. I completely understand the engine of the machine because I’ve been in movies where they don’t keep the secrets. It’s part of the intrigue. It’s part of the compulsion to go and see the movie, and next summer is going to be highly competitive with Shrek 3 and Pirates 3 and Fantastic Four 2 and Spider-Man 3. There’s a lot of big movies coming out this summer.

DCM: Now, you were originally supposed to work with Raimi on a previous film, right? How did you get this part?

Church: Sam [Raimi] and I met probably around 2000 and he wanted me to be in a movie that he directed called The Gift, and circumstances prevailed at the studio level that Keanu Reeves ended up playing the role, and I was kicked to the curb. At the beginning of ‘05, Sam and Avi Arad and [Producer] Laura Ziskin were at an awards ceremony where I was accepting an award. Either Laura or Avi said something first and Sam thought about me and thought I was perfect to play the Sandman. Sam was like, “I tried to hire him several years ago. You don’t have to convince me of that because I like him.” So they called me the next day. I had no awareness whatsoever that Spider-Man 3 was even casting. I didn’t know who the Sandman was, but I was a huge fan of Sam’s and knew him, and I was a big fan of the first two movies.

DCM: And that’s when you and Sam began discussing who Flint Marko was and how he becomes Sandman?

Church: I went in and we talked and spent a couple of hours together with everyone, and then Sam said, “You know what, I would like to get together with you next week and we can go farther into this.” I was in L.A. doing press or something, I think, for Sideways. I was around though in L.A. and I did some research and the guy that works for me attained some material for me to look at and then Sam and I had about a five-hour meeting that next week and we just talked. There was no script at that point and we just talked about the guy and who he was in the comic books. As you’re aware of with Doc Ock and the Green Goblin and with all of the characters, Raimi really wanted to expand beyond those horizons that were established when Sandman was introduced in Amazing Spider-Man #4, which I actually now have a framed copy of hanging about 10 feet from me which was a gift to me from Sam after we finished filming.

DCM: So, Sam likes to not only tell you who he thinks the character is but also wants your input on how that character develops?

Church: Raimi just wanted to talk to me about the guy, my life and who I was, and what they saw in me because there was no script. They just knew that they wanted Sandman to be in the movie and that’s all they really had. So it was just about finding out the kind of man Sam and Laura and Avi and [screenwriter] Alvin [Sargent] and everyone involved at the studio, Stan Lee and whoever at that point, whoever was involved in the gestation of the story then—about who and what they imagined Sandman could and should be. It’s a terrific commitment, but you know what you’re signing on for at the onset and it was a treasure to be able to work with Sam and Laura who I’ve long admired, and Alvin who I have long, long admired. I really liked the first two movies too. If I didn’t like the first two Spider-Man movies, I probably would not have done it. I just really admire Sam’s storytelling abilities.