The inclusion of Venom in Spider-Man 3 wasn't handled very well, by any account: Sam Raimi was apparently asked to include the villain over his objections by Sony, and it was fairly poorly done. The symbiote appears early in the film, then simply disappears for an hour until the movie needs to have another villain, on top of the two that already existed. The movie wasn't very good, but I guess that, in the end, Sony achieved their goal of ensuring that the bulk of the movie-going world at least knew who Venom was after they had seen the film.
That groundwork, having been laid, might soon be built upon, as the L.A. Times says that Sony is talking with Josh Trank, the director of Chronicle, to shepherd the project to the big screen. That makes sense, if you think about it; The Amazing Spider-Man was rebooted to lower costs on the Spider-Man films, and Chronicle proved that Trank has the talent to release a superhero film without breaking the bank. It's likely that they'll wait to see if Amazing does well at the box office before committing to the project, but the for the moment it looks like it's in the works, as it has been off-and-on since 2008 at least. According to the Times, Topher Grace wouldn't be expected to reprise his role as Eddie Brock, but that's hardly surprising.
The question now is how you approach the material; obviously the Venom symbiote tends not to create the most sympathetic characters, and obviously if the resultant film was anything like the awful guyliner sections of Spider-Man 3, we'd have problems. I'm not incredibly up on the history of Venom, but it'd be interesting to see if the film went as dark as the material probably could go or made the character more of an anti-hero. I'd bet on a tone similar to the first Punisher movie, myself.
I love me some Venom. At least his story will be at least more fully-formed than in Spiderman 3...
This movie won't be a spin-off, but likely an entirely different universe film.
Also while I'm not trying to praise Spiderman 3, the Symboite was in the majority of the movie inside of Peter, it didn't just disappear.
At least keep Topher away. That's all I ask.
I still don't get people's problem with Topher Grace as Eddie Brock (seriously he wasn't that bad) but if this were to be set in the same fictional universe as the Spider-Man film, I think it could be good and I would want Topher Grace to play the role again.
Oh boy...Sony just needs to let Marvel do their own movies.
I mean, of course I hope it's good if they do in fact go through with it, but i'd feel better about it if Sony just let all their Marvel properties go and let Marvel make their own movies (which, I understand realistically...they probably should milk them for all they are worth...) but the fanboy in me wants it done right...and at this point, only Marvel could do it right.
If this is treated like a drug addiction movie it could be very interesting, but the question is; Will Spider-Man be in it? He kind of has to be, right? I'd say wait until Amazing Spider-man 2 and put him in there if all goes well.
I just hope they don't overwrite the damn script.
Haven't they been trying to make a Venom movie since Spider-Man 3 made them a bajillion dollars?
@Dylabaloo said:
That is the first thing that popped into my mind. Will audiences care if Spider-Man isn't in it? I like the idea of this spin-off, but without Spider-Man to garner interest from audiences at large, I question whether the project will be financially feasible, even if the director has made a relatively inexpensive movie that feature people with superpowers.
I really want this film to turn into a dark antihero film if ever released though.If Venom becomes sympathetic, it will be a missed opportunity.
If Venom is the protagonist, he will definitely be an anti-hero.
Venom sucks ESPECIALLY without Spider-Man.
What? Why?
If they're gonna do this they should do Flash Thompson Venom, thats the only way the film could hold its own.. for those of you who don't read comics, Flash (Peters high school bully) joined the army and lost his legs in Afghanistan, then the american government acquired the venom symbiote and flash was part of an experiment with it to basically make him a super solider (Also give him back his legs), and theres all this other stuff blah blah blah, basically it could make for a great film if done right..
http://www.comicvine.com/flash-thompson/29-1489/
Course then there's the problem of all the previous Venom hosts, but the film could just ignore all that, leave it open for a spider-man movie to cover
Vin Diesel should play Venom. Or Idris Elba, but the thought of Stringer Bell + Symbiote is too frightening to contemplate.
Honestly, it amazes me that someone can be as terrible an actor as he is and still only be the second worst thing to come out of That 70s Show (Ashton wins that one hands down).
Any Venom movie starring anyone better than him will automatically be a step up.
And by 'needs to have another villain' you mean 'wanted to crowd up the movie with even more bullshit', yes?
If they play it smart and have him think but not talk about his confliction with the suit while he uses it to accomplish his goals and becomes more and more ingrained into it until he's near unseperatable, I think it could be amazing.
So who would the bad guy be? Carnage? I'm not opposed to a Venom movie but I can't see it without some inclusion of Spiderman. Also, I'm not really sure the public wants these spin-off characters in their own movies. Look at Electra, Catwoman and Steel. Granted they're all bad films, but at the same time, I don't think there was much demand for them to begin with. I'd rather see a (better) Doctor Strange film or maybe Power Man and Iron Fist.
@Mr. Kamikaze said:
My thoughts exactly. Companies like Sony and Fox are trying to keep making more movies based on the properties to try and get that super-hero block buster cash in the summer. But of course the only folks so far to have gotten the fiction done right on film have been Marvel. Though X-Men First Class was good, I don't think Sony will be able to come up with a decent story for the property and it's too easy to imagine them dropping the ball on it.
I don't think that Venom should get his own film, or at least not until he appears in an Amazing Spider-Man sequel. I'd rather see Venom and Spidey's relationship done better as an origin story for Venom, rather than give him his own movie. Plus I've never been a big fan of giving supervillains their own film.