Venom Movie Back On At Sony

Sony may have punted on Spider-Man just a bit by agreeing to share the wall-crawler’s movie rights with Marvel, where he’s about to be rebooted in the form of Tom Holland. But when it comes to one of Spidey’s most famous modern enemies, it looks like the company is taking the “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” approach.

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Not many fans were happy with the Venom that appeared in Spider-Man 3, where he was played by Topher Grace. That’s not stopping Sony from attempting a Venom solo film, something they were considering doing before the whole Spider-Man franchise went off the rails. A Venom movie is now back in development, according to an exclusive report earlier today in The Hollywood Reporter.

It even has real, actual people attached to it, with THR mentioning that Dante Harper will write the script while Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach serve as producers and overseers. Most notable is the idea that Sony sees a Venom flick as “a franchise apart from and unrelated to the upcoming Spider-Man movie,” meaning we shouldn’t expect to see Spidey in it at all.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Venom has been able to stand on his own as the star of his own comic book series on more than one occasion, and the character’s motivations can range from slightly uncontrollable hero to anti-hero to villain depending on who is bonded with the symbiote at any given time. Harper thus has a freedom a lot of screenwriters don’t have, in that he’s not beholden to one specific person as his main character.

Coming up with a thematic hook shouldn’t be all that difficult, and there’s no question that Venom is one of the most inherently appealing visual creations in comic book history. A better question is if the movie isn’t going to be linked to Spider-Man or any superhero franchise in a day and age when viewers almost expect connectivity, could it stand completely on its own? Deadpool, with only the barest of threads strung to the X-Men brand, might be an argument that it’s possible, but it still seems like a bit of a risk for Sony.

Next: First Pic of Tom Holland as Peter Parker

Then again, those rights to characters associated with Spider-Man aren’t doing the studio much good if they’re not used to make movies. It’s the default position here at Bam Smack Pow that more superhero movies are always welcome as long as they deliver the goods. If it can make us forget the Topher Grace Venom, we’re all for seeing the Lethal Protector given another shot.

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