Sony Revives Spider-Man Spinoff Movie “Venom”
By C.T. Smith
With Spider-Man joining Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe in another reboot, Sony has deemed another Spider-Man franchise worthy of movie revival -Venom.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel Studios founder Avi Arad and producer/writer Matt Tolmach are overseeing and producing the venture. Writing the script for Venom is Dante Harper, a movie producer/editor/writer who penned the movie script for Edge of Tomorrow (Live, Die, Repeat), a film based on Japanese novel All You Need is Kill -which has a pretty awesome manga if you are into that.
Created by David Michelinie, Todd McFarlane, and Mike Zeck, Venom was introduced to comics in 1988, though the symbiote itself first appeared when it bonded to Peter Parker during the events of the original Secret Wars. Venom has since bonded to a variety of hosts and gone on to become one of Spider-Man’s most frequent and effective villains, a brief member of the Sinister Six, a vigilante and anti-hero, a Dark Avenger, and more. Venom, who is currently bonded to Flash Thompson as Agent Venom, was recently revealed to be a member of a race of benevolent symbiotes called the Klyntar, and now serves as an Agent of the Cosmos/Warrior of the Galaxy.
Many of you may remember Venom’s appearance in Spider-Man 3 (seen above). Played by Topher Grace in a less-than-stellar movie (if not in general, then at least relative to the first two films), Venom was not quite portrayed as the sinister and hulking behemoth seen in the comics. The good news is that super hero movies and special effects have come along way since then, which is important because I believe that a lot of the movie’s pull will depend on how they design Venom’s costume and appearance. Whether he’ll be a hero, villain, or a little bit of both remains to be seen, but as Deadpool proved, a character’s return to the screen can be quite a wondrous thing indeed.
It seems that the new Venom is meant to launch a franchise with the reboot, not just a stand alone film, so expect more Venom if everything goes as planned. Maybe we’ll even get some Carnage one day. How a Venom franchise will work with the new Spider-Man/Peter Parker joining the crew over at Disney’s MCU is another question, but until more is revealed, we can all day dream about a future where Agent Venom joins the battle against Thanos in Infinity War.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter