Paul Giamatti in talks to play Rhino, villain in 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2'

Reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Paul Giamatti appears to be in talks to play the villain Rhino in The Amazing Spider-Man sequel. Rhino is a hulking villain, with armor, a ramming horn and the brute strength from a radiation-enhanced body, all combining to make him an unstoppable force.

Giamatti is, admittedly, a big fan of Rhino since being a kid. In an interview two years ago with ShowBizSpy, he said of him wanting the part: "I thought Rhino was the greatest thing when I was a little kid. It was a guy who was basically in this rhinoceros outfit and I always thought, 'Why don't they have The Rhino in one of their movies,' but maybe The Rhino wasn't that big of a deal for anybody but me. ... If they ever go with The Rhino I would be ready and waiting."

Well, it appears that waiting might be over. According to THR, the deal would have Giamatti playing Aleksei Sytsevich, a Russian mafia thug who sees the Rhino experiment as his chance to rise in the ranks of the criminal underworld, despite lacking intelligence.

So far, both Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are set to reprise their roles of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy in the sequel. The film already has one villain -- Jamie Foxx has signed on to play Electro. The Descendants' actress Shailene Woodley will also be playing Mary Jane Watson, and Chronicle's Dane Dehaan is playing Harry Osborne, who eventually becomes the Green Goblin.

It's worth noting, in the Marvel comics, one of Rhino's first jobs was to kidnap the astronaut son of J. Jonah Jameson, the newspaper editor of The Daily Bugle.

You can follow Senior Editor Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ. He likes talking sports, video games, movies, and the stupidity of celebrities. Email at LLiebl@GameZone.com