Oct 8 2009 'Venom' Also Being Done By 'Mr. Baseball' Writer
Providing an ominous reminder that, oh yeah, a Venom movie is still in the works, Variety is reporting that Gary Ross, the man recently charged with writing a new draft of the equally inauspicious Spider-Man 4 (and writer of an odd collection of mixed results, including Big, Pleasantville, Mr. Baseball, and Dave), has been hired to write an antihero take on the shiny, ebon villain:
Venom, an archenemy of the webslinger in the Marvel Comics series, will be transformed into an antihero who becomes a defender of the innocent.In "Spider-Man 3," Venom was played by Topher Grace, who started out as Eddie Brock, Peter Parker's newspaper rival. Infected by an alien organism that grafted itself to his skin, Brock had superpowers and strength superior to Spider-Man's.
Grace, who just signed on to star in "Robert Rodriguez's Predators" at Fox, is not considered likely to reprise, as the spinoff will start from the drawing board.
So we'll have possible continuity between Spider-Man 4 and Venom, but we're just going to completely disregard all the black-suit-Spidey/Venom set-up from Spider-Man 3?
Actually, that's a pretty solid plan. Carry on.
Jul 31 2008 Sony Figures They Might as Well Make a Venom Movie
If one looks at superhero comic movies as a trend, like pogs, we're getting to the point where 7-11 Slurpee cups come with pogs attached; and there's a small kiosk near your mall's Sunglass Hut devoted entirely to pogs and pog storage; and every time you go to school, kids are asking if you have any new pogs, or want to trade pogs, but probably still don't care that much about playing pogs; and you're looking at your room, strewn with thin, strangely expensive cardboard discs, and you're like, don't get me wrong, I love pogs (for at least a couple more weeks), but fuck, why are there so many pogs?
Case in point: Sony has announced they'll be making a Spider-Man spinoff focusing on Venom. From Hollywood Reporter:
The studio had commissioned a draft of the [Venom] script from Jacob Estes, a writer of the specialty film "Mean Creek," released several years ago by Paramount Classics.But the studio is considering going in a different direction from Estes' script and is seeking writers for a new draft.
Casting also is no simple matter. Topher Grace played the character in the film, but agents have been eyeing the role for their clients, as Sony is not yet convinced the actor can carry a tentpole picture.
Ignoring that it will almost surely be terrible in its execution, it's not even that bad of an idea, really. It's just that in a few years we're going to have to explain to the next generation why we have so many of these discs that we never touch, and I'm not sure I have the answers.
Feb 4 2008 Venom Stand-Alone Movie Heading to X-Treme Theatres
In the same way Spider-Man is the epitome of the radiation-centric superheroes of the '60s, the hero's villainous counterpart, Venom, is an embodiment of everything that was wrong with comics in the late-'80s/early-'90s. It was an era of parachute pants and painfully-acceptable neon, a time when most ideas involved taking something that existed and injecting a shot of "totally xtreme". And so, Spider-Man's greatest foe became, obviously, this really awesome Spider-Man with giant teeth, more muscles, excessive tongue, and crazy black shit flying off him. He was already a pointless addition to the last Spider-Man film, and a movie focusing on the character is about as necessary as the Vanilla Ice movie was, but less timely. But when has that ever stopped Hollywood? From IESB:
Venom fans rejoice, Marvel is moving forward with a new stand alone film, yep you heard right, Venom is coming back to the big screen.We've confirmed that "the studio" has met recently with several "A list writers" about a spin-off film.
Don't forget to wear your sweetest Rollerblades to opening night. And feel free to adamantly agree/disagree in the comments.
