Is the Venom movie swinging into the Amazing Spider-Man's universe?

I still don’t think I’ve gotten over the shock of seeing that spindly kid from That 70’s Show! cast as Venom in Spider-Man 3. If there had ever been a warning sign as to how bad that movie was going to turn out, that klaxon of WTF casting, should have been it.

But despite the film’s (completely deserved) critical savaging, producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach have still been trying to bring the lizard tongued sometimes-villain, sometimes-hero to screen, with recent plans being announced to have Chronicle director Josh Trank handle a Venom solo movie.

And with Marvel showing exactly how it can be done, it looks like Sony are also now going to try and take a crack at this whole “shared universe” thing.

Speaking at the recent US press junket for Marc Webb’s rebooted Amazing Spider-Man, which sees release in just over a month, the producers dropped some hints of symbiosis (herp derp) between the two film, as Tolmach explains (via Hollywood.com):

“What I’m trying to say to you without giving anything away, is hopefully all these worlds will live together in peace someday… look for the worlds to make sense with one another.”

Seeing as how Venom’s comic book origins is so closely to tied to Spider-Man’s story (alien symbiote crashes on Earth, Spider-Man wears it as suit, Spidey discards suit after discovering its alien identity, symbiote bonds with Spidey’s old high school nemesis Eddie Brock to try and get revenge) I always just assumed that the two films would link up somehow, but seeing as how Hollywood has proven time and again that they really couldn’t care less how they alter a character’s origin, no matter how boneheaded (C’mon down, giant Galactus cloud!), its nice to hear some kind of confirmation.

Arad also added some hints as to the story behind the Venom film:

“It’s an Eddie Brock story… We want to be as close to the comics as possible. Especially in Eddie Brock’s story. But again, pseudo-sceince is becoming science. All these tidbits about webs, artificial webs, is a huge industry now. Spiderwebs have unique qualities that will be huge for communications, fibers, and so forth. So we have taken the approach that we want to make the huge amazing movie about Eddie.”

As to who I think should play Brock, well I say completely erase all memories of Topher Grace by getting somebody that actually resembles the character a bit more. My choice would be to get old Spider-Man alum Joe Mangienello back. He played the part of Flash Thompson in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 1 and 3, but he looks so much more differntly now, and the roles were so tiny that I doubt people would even realize that it’s the same guy.

And since he’s become more of a household name with his lycanthropic role in HBO’s True Blood, and will soon be getting even more…ahem… exposure with Magic Mike, he’s actually be able to headline a movie that most non-comic book fans would generally not show much interest in.

Last Updated: June 11, 2012