It’s pretty clear that some Spider-Man fans have wanted to see Peter Parker spar with his arch nemesis, Venom, for the longest time. Apparently, Hollywood actually agrees.
I’ve been told that Sam Raimi, who helmed the first three Spider-Man flicks, didn’t want to do anything serious with Venom, which is why he’s barely in the third film, and almost feels like an afterthought.
Now the news has hit Collider and the L.A. Times that a Venom movie is still in development, and Chronicle director Josh Trank has been, as they say in Hollywood, “in talks,” to helm it.
Of course Trank, who is only 27, has a hot movie with Chronicle, and surely Sony will want him to apply similar youthful superhero magic to a Venom movie.
Reports also say Topher Grace, who played Venom in Spider-Man 3, probably won’t come back to play him in the film.
What’s rather interesting is that Gary Ross, who directed The Hunger Games, was at one point going to helm a Venom movie. According to the Times, this went back to 2008 before the current Spider-Man reboot came together. Ross came aboard the project in 2009, but then moved on to other things. A script was crafted, but Sony clearly wants a different approach, and it will probably go through three trillion more writers before anything hits the silver screen.
Obviously, Sony has high hopes for The Amazing Spider-Man, and a Venom spin-off film could be an interesting tale to spin concurrently with the new Spider-Man reboot. Perhaps they’ll even come together in a Spider-Man sequel down the road, if that’s not being planned already. For the fans who’ve always wanted to see Venom on the silver screen again, well, a movie solely based around Venom could especially be a big geek treat.
