Sony is planning on releasing a solo Venom movie next year

For as long as there have been Spider-Man movies, there’ve been attempts to get a certain darker reflection of the sensational one fitted into his own solo project. Sony has had an odd fascination with the Venom character over the years, almost symbiotic one would say. An organism that would usually find itself bonded to a host with a haterection for the wallcrawler, the only big screen appearance to date of the villain was in Spider-Man 3 as Topher Grace had some silly fangs fitted and menaced the webhead.

It was terrible, and an utter waste of a fantastic villain that introduced audiences worldwide to the utter horror of watching Tobey Emoguire hip-thrust his way across New York.

Never say die though, because Sony is feeling pretty confident that the 23rd time may be the charm at getting a Venom solo movie off the ground. According to The Hollywood Reporter and ERC, Sony doesn’t just have a greenlight for a Venom movie that’ll be completely unrelated (for now I’d guess) to the current incarnation of Spidey, but a date as well for release: October 5 of 2018.

That’s a bit of a surprise announcement, as the last that anyone had heard of Venom was that news that writer Dante Harper was working on a script. According to THR, the Harper script was augmented with a treatment from Amazing Spider-Man 2 writers Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner, with Alex “The Mummy” Kurtzman rumoured to direct. Rumoured. I haven’t been able to find a single accurate link confirming this.

Who’ll be wearing the symbiote? The last couple of years have introduced plenty of new hosts for Venom, ranging from the heroic Flash Thompson through to the more recent Lee Price who uses the organism for less than savoury means. The Lee Price angle would be my personal favourite, one that fits a leaner budget and a more street-level approach to Venom that doesn’t require an overt link to Spider-Man.

That would be…amazing.

Last Updated: March 17, 2017