Ever since the release of Spider-man 3, there’s been talk about a spin-off for the character of Venom. However it’s been trapped in devlopment hell, moving through numerous writers (including Zombieland’s Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, as well as Mean Creek’s Jacob Estes), none of whom produced anything Sony seemed happy with.
Although there’s been talk of the studio giving up on the film, which is undoubtedly a difficult proposition as it’d essentially be all about a bad guy who’s the opposite of Spider-man, they’re now giving it another shot as Variety is reporting that they’ve hired Gary Ross to write the script and possibly direct. Ross is best known for movies like Seabiscuit and Pleasantville, however it’s not his first venture into the world of Spider-man, as he’s currently busy re-writing the script for Spider-man 4.
Sony obviously must like what he’s doing, as they want him to move onto Venom as soon as he’s finished work on the fourth Spidey movie. While Venom appeared in Spidey 3 and was played by Topher Grace, the spin-off plans to start from scratch and completely reboot the character, which would probably be necessary to get round the fact that he was a unabashed bad guy in the Spider-man flick. It’s also unlikely Topher Grace will return.
The new movie would turn him into an antihero who becomes a defendor of the innocent. It’s probably this twisting around of the alien symbiote character that has caused the problems with previous scripts, as it’s going to be difficult to keep fans happy while also making Venom a character you can root for. After all, how can you have an evil version of Spider-man who isn’t evil?