HOLLYWOOD -- There are worse things than having your molecules stripped apart in a de-ionizer.

Like being known as that guy from Wings. Thomas Haden Church has survived both.

Still, one wonders why, after winning an Oscar nomination for his comeback performance in Sideways, Church would choose to play comic-book creature The Sandman in Spider-Man 3.

"Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire," he says. "They are genetically incapable of delivering anything that isn't superlative in the business."

That attention to detail extends to the film's massive special effects. Although large portions of the movie are computer-generated, segments of Church's transformation -- in which his character, Flint Marko, tumbles headlong into a giant spinning marvel of Sandman-making engineering -- are not.

"That thing was built off of this Bell helicopter turbo engine ... The guys were like, 'If you get hit, it's like getting hit by a car at 80 miles an hour.' ... The intensity and, quite frankly, the fear is really there."

Church's next role is decidedly more grounded. Produced by Michael London (Sideways), Smart People stars Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker and Canadian Ellen Page.

Of Page, he remarks, "She's kind of taking the industry by storm, which is weird because she's 4-foot-11 and probably weighs 95 pounds. She's just naturally gifted, like Leonardo Di- Caprio was in This Boy's Life -- a force to be reckoned with."