It seems that Josh Trank, the director of Chronicle is in talks to direct a Spider-Man franchise spin-off. The movie which has been in the works at Sony since 2008 is called Venom, reports the LA Times.
It wasn’t that long ago in 2009 that Gary Ross; director of the Hunger Games; was in the very same talks to direct a Venom feature film. A draft of a potential script was produced several years ago, but Sony has since been looking for a new writer.
Venom made his first appearance in Spider-Man #252 as Spider-Man’s alien costume; made of a black liquid substance that moved of it’s own free will. The costume is actually a parasitic symbiote, but Spider-Man doesn’t know that yet. All he knows is that the costume makes it so he can change into whatever outfits he wants at anytime, plus it has somehow produces web fluid without replacement cartridges or web spinners. So the webhead returns with his new toy from the Secret Wars; a Marvel comics crossover.
A later full examination of what Spider-Man is wearing is conducted and Peter Parker freaks out as the symbiote tries to permanently latch on to him. Like a good super natural monstrous being, the symbiote has it’s share of weaknesses; loud noises and fire.
The symbiote is seperated from Peter Parker and is spurned like a jilted lover. Really? It’s trying to force itself onto another sentient being and it’s still has the gall to think it’s in the right. No means no!
Isn’t this the character traits of someone who is crazy? It turns out that other symbiotes also think the Venom entity is mentally unstable. Venom wants to share consciousness with the host rather than outright dominate.
To top it off, when venom bonds to another host, it also augments the new host with the exact same abilities as Spider-Man. If it’s really pissy, it’ll share with the host all of Spider-Man’s secrets like a gossipy ex-girlfriend. Also like ex-girlfriends, they tend to want lots of blood sacrifices. Venom now makes their host take on the appearance of Spider-Man with the addition of impossibly toothy smile and long serpentine tongue. Why? The better to eat people with of course.
So that’s that’s what Venom is all about. Since Spider-Man, the symbiote has passed on from one host to another like a case of alien German herpes; and somehow passed onto Peter Parker’s childhood bully, Flash Thompson. Hah! How’s that for karma? It was in the 90’s the Venom contracted the popular Anti-Hero bug that was sweeping the comic book bad boys of it’s day.
Though it remains to be seen if this Venom movie has any connection to the upcoming movie, The Amazing Spider-Man, it’s definitely unlikely that there will be any resemblance to Sam Raimi’s take of the Spider-Man villain. That’s right, no Topher Grace portrayals where Venom doesn’t look scary at all. It especially got ruined when the mask kept peeling back so Topher could talk more.
So out of the slew of potential candidates, who will be the subject host of the Venom symbiote? It’s almost like asking who my favorite Doctor is from Dr. Who, except less important. Two well known hosts are Eddie Brock, the muscle head failed photographer, and Mac Gargan, the original Spider-Man villain known as the Scorpion.
Forgot those two. It would require far too much writing and ret-cons to make any of the previous hosts a viable character. I hope they go with someone completely knew or relatively new enough.
You want a movie that will make Spider-Man fans sit up and take notice? Make the new host Miles Morales; that’s right, the kid who’s the new Spider-Man.
