Sony's Toying With 'Venom'
Filed under: Action, Sony, RumorMonger, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
It looks like someone read my supervillains piece (yes, I'm that influential) because according to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony is looking to give Venom his/its own spin-off movie (first reported by IESB earlier this year). They think Spider-Man would benefit from a few stand-alone stories, as they actually consider it to be "an aging franchise." (We all better check ourselves into nursing homes then, seeing as we actually lined up for the first movie all those years ago!)Now, as I stated so emphatically, I do believe a villain could carry his own movie. (After watching Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog, I'm even more convinced.) But Venom? Seriously? It's not even a character in the strictest sense of the word. It's a ... symbiote! (In the Ultimate Universe, it wasn't even that much, it was just a suit.) It just bonds to people and makes them do really bad things. How can you make a movie about a parasite? Will they give it the sympathetic angle of a lonely and silent creature who just wants to make some friends?
While Sony and Marvel have yet to comment, the studio has hired Jacob Estes to write a draft, and they're eying potential cast members. Topher Grace won't be reprising his role from Spider-Man 3, as they're not convinced he can carry a big budget picture. They should be more worried about a symbiote carrying a tentpole picture, but that's just me. Maybe the Spider-Man fans out there feel differently -- in fact, I know some must, because of the dozens of Venom T-shirts I've seen in my lifetime. Is Venom the character you want flying the Spider-Man banner?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-31-2008 @ 10:19AM
Mystok said...
Venom's history in the Marvel Comics main universe is one more of an anti-hero than an actual villain. Venom saw him/itself as a protector of the weak and was willing to kill to do so (though he later began using restraint and just causing massive destruction). The Spider-Man movies play on the conflict between Peter's life as a person and as a superhero, could not the Venom movies play on the conflict struggles of control between the symbiote and the host as well as the decisions between being a lethal hero like Punisher or a non-lethal like Spider-Man. Then there is always the stories about Carnage, the government-grown symbiotes, and the symbiote invasion. A great tie-in with Spider-Man could be based on the story in which Spider-Man tries to stop Venom once and for all yet stops when he realizes that Venom has turned heroic.
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7-31-2008 @ 12:53PM
Joe said...
Mystok is right Eddie Brock really is a good guy just with a Warped mind. I was so not a fan of S3 but in the movie it did play a little on showing people that Eddie is willing to steal money and what not to help Sandman get money to help his daughter.
I think there are many ways you could go with the movie do you want to go with a little more human feeling with Eddie having cancer and if the symbiote leaves him He knows he will die and so He does bad things to keep the symbiote with him at the same time knowing it is wrong but finds it in himself that it is better he lives then dies.
Do you show Brock growing up and his dad hating him because he believes he killed his wife. Then thinking about suicide because his dad later on in life disowns him. He losses his wife his job. There are so many ways you could make this movie.
Do you bring in Sin-Eater or Carnage. Because if not who is the guy Venom will take down or do you go with strait up bad guy with no one being able to bring him down. Seeing as there would be no Spiderman in this movie.
As for Topher Grace I thought He did a good job in That 70s Show. Not so much in S3. So it might be a good choice that some one new plays him. Though at the same time I would like to what He could do with Venom if He will stay looking Venom the whole time. I hated how when He would go up to some one to talk He would show his real face.
I do think Topher Grace did a good job as Brock though. Before the Symbiote mixed with him. The only part in S3 that really showed Venom was in the Catholic Church and that was only for two seconds when He changed. The rest was Brock fighting showing his head. Also at the end of the movie the Symbiote was cooler then Venom. So what was up with that. Why make this cool Symbiote creature only to die two seconds later.
If the movie takes place after S3 you wonder if Venom will be played by Topher Grace or if Sony will right off S3 and say Venom was never in it so this movie is just his. So then you can bring on a new person to play Venom. Also if it is after S3 you have to wonder if when Venom died that the portal opened up where in the comics Venom takes MJ. Though she would not be in it you have to wonder if there would be some kind of portal to another world.
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