Ever since Avi Arad left Marvel Comics and became the executive producer of the Spider-Man movies distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment there have been rumors of a Venom movie. After the immense success of the first two Spider-Man movies directed by Sam Raimi the popular super-villain and part-time anti-hero was featured as one of Tobey Maguire’s enemies, portrayed by Topher Grace. Unfortunately for Sony Pictures Entertainment their interpretation of the character was met with virtually universal hatred, with director Raimi having since expressed his dissatisfaction in the way the character was handled.
After failing to relaunch the Spider-Man property with the recent reboots starring Andrew Garfield, Sony have teamed up with Marvel Studios to incorporate yet another rendition of Spider-Man, this time played by Tom Holland, within Marvel’s massively successful cinematic universe, in a deal which has been spearheaded by former Sony chief Amy Pascal and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige.
Brock, Gargan or Thompson - which host will Sony's eagerly awaited Venom movie focus on?
Keen to redeem themselves from the questionable decisions that led to Spider-Man 3 and the Amazing Spider-Man reboots Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach have capitalized upon the success of 20 Century Fox’s recent R-rated hit Deadpool and are pushing ahead with development on the long rumored Venom movie, for which screenwriter Dante Harper (Edge of Tomorrow) will write the script with Arad and Tolmach, and Columbia Pictures’ Palak Patel and Eric Fineman to be attached as executive producers.
The movie is expected to be separate from the forthcoming Spider-Man movie which is expected to release July 7 2017, and after the runaway success of Deadpool will likely be R-rated. No release date or casting preferences have been announced.
