If you’re a movie fan (which I assume you are if you’re reading this), then I hope you don’t suffer from arachnophobia. It would seem that Hollywood has gotten a little spidery lately. Marvel is leading the way with the brand new trailer for Spider-Man: Homecoming expected to swing in very soon, but there’s a whole lot of other Spider-related news also *cough* hitting the web.
Two weeks ago we heard that Sony are revisiting some of the plans they had before scrapping their Amazing Spider-Man franchise and striking an unprecedented co-producing deal with Marvel to bring Tom Holland’s young Spider-Man/Peter Parker into the MCU. The studio were apparently developing a new standalone Venom film, something which originally had been in development a few years back. At the time there was no mention of the specifics of this movie, other than it was being penned by Alien: Covenant’s Dante Harper and had a October 5, 2018 release date.
More recently we also heard that another one of those old plans, which at the time had just been known as “Secret Female Spin-off Project” was also finally coming to life in the form of a movie focusing on female Spider-Man villains Black Cat and Sable. Once again though, there was not much info other than screenwriter (in this case, Thor: Ragnarok’s Chris Yost), leaving many to wonder if and how these movies would be integrated into Marvel’s new Spider-Man movies. That answer is apparently a very violent “No” though, according to Collider.
Their sources indicate that Venom is actually going to be the start of a new, completely separate movie universe for Sony. So too the Black Cat and Sable movie won’t be spinning off from anything but rather be a standalone movie in this new universe. Collider goes on to explain that Venom is currently being pitched at being R-rated, which actually fits in perfectly with the dark and violent tone of the comic book villain/anti-hero (and after the mega-successes of Deadpool and Logan is suddenly very enticing). This Venom is also reportedly going to have a relatively modest budget compared with the huge price tags of Marc Webb’s two Amazing Spider-Man movies, or even Sam Raimi’s early 2000s Spider-Man trilogy (the much-despised third movie of which actually featured a rather crappy version of Venom). Collider does go on to say though that “things could still change between now and late 2018—especially once a director signs on and has his or her own vision”, so who knows how this will end up.
As to why Sony would be doing this instead of working with Marvel more, I guess it all comes down to business. Sony still technically own the rights to entire Spider-Man library which is reportedly 900 characters strong. If they can find a way to build a profitable movie universe with those characters, but still exclude Spider-Man – which would involve sharing the profits with Marvel – then they can probably hear the ka-chings already. And according to Collider that is seemingly the case here as these developments are coming exclusively from Sony Chairman Tom Rothman with Marvel’s Kevin Feige not involved at all.
Personally, I just can’t see how they can develop a movie around Venom – which in the comics is an alien symbiote that attaches to Spider-Man – with no Spidey without substantially tweaking the character’s origin. With Venom already having gone through one bungled adaptation, would Sony really risk another? What do you guys think?
Last Updated: March 28, 2017
Original Heretic
March 28, 2017 at 10:15
Perhaps one day Marvel will own the rights to all their movie characters.
Until then, we have to watch our beloved characters get passed through a wood chipper by Sony and Fox.
Allykhat
March 28, 2017 at 10:16
I’m staying hopefully optimistic. They know they screwed the last venom, so they may take that in stride and make a better job of it this time.
Charlb87
March 28, 2017 at 10:20
I can actually see this happening. The Venom solo comic books are actually pretty good, especially later on when it pits Venom as a government agent. Hopefully they can tell an interesting story.
Magoo
March 28, 2017 at 10:32
I just want a dark, non-comedy, R-rated, bullshit cliches aside super-hero movie about everything going to shit because the villain IS powerful and your quirky little one-liners are just a distraction unlike the villain’s plot which they will not spill out to you before their final blow so that you can make some last-minute comeback and shoot him in the ribs with any one of the 1800 bullets that he and his organization didn’t literally shoot straight at you while you were running in a straight line and they were aiming down sights with a gun rest and a laser-pointer.
Viking Of Science
March 28, 2017 at 10:40
They did tweak the Symbiote’s Origin. That movie is Called Life.
Chuckles von Clausewitz III
June 20, 2017 at 13:23
But Topher Grace was the best Venom…. 🙁