According to the blog Heat Vision, an offshoot of The Hollywood Reporter, Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit) is handling yet another Spider-Man-related production (he’s currently writing Spider-Man 4): Venom and also possibly directing it.
Ross, who is a three-time Academy Award nominee (Seabiscuit, Dave, Big who he co-wrote with Anne Spielberg) is just the latest name attached to the Venom project. It was reported early this year, that Zombieland writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick were working on a treatment for the character.
No word yet on whether Topher Grace will reprise his role from Spider-Man 3 or not.
This will be Ross’ first time in the director’s chair, should the rumors be true, since 2003. Let’s pray there are no Eddie Brock dance numbers.
Now this project has been in limbo for a while now, so let me ask you this: do you think Venom is a strong enough character to hold his own movie?
October 8th, 2009 at 9:27 am
NO.
October 8th, 2009 at 9:45 am
NO NO NO NO
October 8th, 2009 at 10:41 am
I’m okay with it, as long as Topher is in it, and they fix things they did wrong in Spider Man 3. Namely, not referring to themselves as “we” and having a different voice.
October 8th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Um, yeah. What they said. NO.
October 8th, 2009 at 10:51 am
C’mon guys, he co-wrote Big! This movie is gonna rock out loud.
October 8th, 2009 at 10:53 am
This could be a disaster of Catwomanesque proportions. Especially with the way they left the character in SM3 which was bad enough on its own.
October 8th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Venom? Yes. Venom as portrayed in Spider-Man 3? No.
October 8th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Keep Topher’s scrawny-ass away from it.
October 8th, 2009 at 11:24 am
it could work but, personally, i would rather see carnage in the lime light. and i would like tim burton to direct it! (no johnny depp though. as much as i love him, i would not like him as carnage)
October 8th, 2009 at 11:31 am
NO! A THOUSAND SUNS NO!
October 8th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Are you guys objecting to Topher playing Venom?
October 8th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
YES, make a damn Venom movie already. Please.
BUT do NOT have Topher “I don’t look a thing like Eddie Brock” Grace as Venom. That is a mistake. Get someone who looks and sounds the part.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Yeah, but REBOOT it. Then again, is this gonna be a Venom that exists in some strange Spider-man-less universe? Like Catwoman minus Batman?
Bah, forget it. Just forget it.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Yes to a Venom movie. NO to Topher Grace. I want a strong Eddie, not a soft-voiced wimp in tears all the time. Spider-Man has to be in it. I’d like to see it be a revenge film, only for him to change his mind at the end.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
NO MORE MOVIES PLEASE
October 8th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Venom, yes. Topher, yes. Just get some distance away from Spider-Man 3. Could be good if dark and creepy enough.
October 8th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Will the movie poster be printed on die-cut cardstock with silver holofoil?
October 8th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
I’m not real sure about a Venom movie it’d probaly be based on the Lethal Protector mini and that’d suck….no, Venom is at his best when he’s trying to kill Spider-Man…this smells like Elektra rather than Catwoman, CW totally ignored the “source” material and wasn’t even close…
October 8th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
I think it could work, but REALLY look at what Venom is, a horror movie monster.
Treat it something like a cross between John Carpenter’s “The Thing” meets the first “Terminator” and you’d have a sweet ass movie.
THINK people, THINK!
October 8th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Could be really good, but if anything like Spider-Man 3 I won’t go near it with a ten foot pole.
October 8th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
NONONONONONONONOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! No Venom spin-off! He’s an absolutely horrid villain to begin with! In a movie…!
Hell no!! It’s going to wind up a disaster!!
October 8th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
I’m supposed to believe that the same studio that allowed a fight scene (Between Spider-man and Venom) to be narrated by poor acting newscasters is going to be able to make a solo movie? Where is Disney in this? Hopefully they will get the rights from Columbia. I love Venom, but now is not the time. I hear a BOMB on the horizon.
October 8th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
WTH. Who ever thought this was a good idea in the first place? Venom is a supporting character! He only makes sense in the context of Spiderman. There’s no Venom without Spiderman.
October 8th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Agreed with Hugo… Take Spider-Man out of the equation, and Venom pretty much makes no sense. Not that I think the character makes much sense to me even in context of Spidey, but whatever. He’s just not a character I care about.
But honestly, I don’t see this working. People will associate it with the dud that was Spidey 3, even if it’s a reboot. I would certainly hope they’d find an actor who’s more like Eddie Brock that scrawny Topher Grace is, but either way I don’t see this satisfying comic books fans OR having all that much appeal outside of comic circles. This actually makes some of those proposed X-Men prequels and spinoffs sound good, and I’m not fond of most of those ideas either.
October 8th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
mike to you who says no movies shut up. 1st off directly spin this off from spidey 3 but make him leave new york battered, bloody, and with an weakly symbiote have eddie go through a rockyesque training regimine make him realize he needs to get stronger for the suit to be stronger then let his desire for revenge overtake him and have him and spidey have a quick bout but let the collateral damage be massive and have the small portion of eddie that still has morals stop the fight in order to rescue people from the damage he himself has caused and have him leave ny with uncertainty of his role in life is he a protector or destroyer? end the film
October 8th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Strong enough, yes. Able to be done so a movie studio doesn’t screw it up? No. They couldn’t even do Wolverine justice. They had to screw with everything they could. Venom needs some time away from the Spiderman franchise before they try this.
October 8th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
before spider-man 3 I would have been very excited about this movie. Now I don’t care about any movies related to spider-man. I won’t even watch them for free.
October 9th, 2009 at 2:12 am
As much as I love Venom, he doesn’t seem fit for a solo movie. I don’t think the character has any good stories without Spider-Man (except recent T-Bolts and DA stuff but that doesn’t matter).
I guess if this really does go through, I’d rather someone else play Eddie Brock instead of Topher Grace.
October 9th, 2009 at 7:33 am
As much as I’d like to see a Marvel movie bomb, I wouldn’t mind seeing this as a Topher Grace vehicle. I thought he was pretty good as Venom, and one of the few highlights of that man spider movie. He didn’t even look frail or wimpy, which, considering the person, was a freaking huge astronomical achievement.
October 9th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Venom is a tough sell without Spider-Man.
October 9th, 2009 at 10:15 am
If it were done like a horror movie, then yes. But after ruining Venom in Spider-Man 3, it’ll be hard to get that bad taste out of people’s mouths.
October 9th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Venom without Spiderman is like, cereal without the milk.
October 9th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
hell no!!!!!!!!
October 11th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
As much as I hate the idea of hollywood ruining this character again. I would love for an eddie brock- venom movie to get made.
October 13th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Yes to a Venom movie only if Todd McFarlane is involved with it!