Spider-man spin-off movie venom revived

The Spider-Man spin-off film Venom is back in development at Sony Pictures.

There was a time, not that long ago, when Sony was planning several Spider-Man spin-offs. Then Amazing Spider-Man 2 happened, and the studio’s execs decided to join with Marvel and share the character of Peter Parker. When the Marvel/Sony alliance happened last year, it was clear that the proposed Spidey spin-offs were all on hold at best (and cancelled at worst -- sorry Young Aunt May movie). But now, The Hollywood Reporter says that the Venom film is getting back on track.

Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach, the producers of the Spider-Man movies for Sony, are overseeing the new film, with Dante Harper onboard to write the script. Harper is “an up-and-coming scribe who did rewrite work on Edge of Tomorrow,” THR says, while adding that the film is “being envisioned as a franchise apart from and unrelated to the upcoming Spider-Man movie in the works with actor Tom Holland.”

What that means exactly is unclear. Will this Venom exist in the shared MCU as the new Spider-Man will? How can he not? Whatever the case, the report indicates that this is meant to be -- surprise, surprise -- the first installment in a franchise.

Various names have been involved in trying to get a Venom film off the ground in recent years, including writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese (Deadpool) and Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Transformers, Star Trek, Amazing Spider-Man 2).

The shared MCU/Sony version of Spider-Man, meanwhile, is set to make his big screen debut in Captain America: Civil War in May.