With its dance numbers, amnesia plot and multiple villains, 2007's "Spider-Man 3" didn't exactly wow audiences in the same way that the first two installments in director Sam Raimi's Spider-trilogy did. Topher Grace played one of those villains, the symbiote-powered Venom, in one of his first major movie roles following his years as the lead on the sitcom "That '70s Show." Grace has mostly been off the radar, appearing in just a few modest-sized films in the following seven-ish years. Now Grace is back in the much buzzed about drama "Truth," which stars Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett. While discussing the new film with The Hollywood Reporter, the subject of "Spider-Man 3" came up.

"I know the movie did well for Sony, but I also know a lot of people weren't happy with it," said Grace. "I think [director] Sam [Raimi] is so talented. I remember one time I was on ninth unit. [Laughs] Ninth unit? It's like he's running a small country. This summer, there was a movie like that where people are just slamming a big studio movie. I would love to see anyone who's slamming one of those movies try to fit in Sam Raimi's position. He was like the president of a small country -- by the way, it had the gross national income of a small country, too. I have huge respect for him. I think, on a whole, he did such a fantastic job [on that trilogy]."

Spider-Man's had a shaky history on film since "Spider-Man 3." The wall-crawler was rebooted in 2012's "Amazing Spider-Man," a new franchise that spawned one sequel before mild box office returns spurred Sony to make a deal with Marvel Studios to share the character. A third Spider-franchise will launch under the Marvel banner on July 28, 2017.