Spin-off of the Spider-Man villain
Variety reports that Columbia Pictures has tapped Gary Ross to direct Venom, a spin-off of the Spider-Man villain first introduced (on the big screen) in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3. Ross, who recently did a rewrite on Spider-Man 4 is also rewriting a draft of Venom that was originally penned by Zombieland writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.
While this may not exactly be a “genre” movie, Venom as depicted in the original Marvel comics does sport a monstrous appearance (hell, this writer used to draw him all the time), hence the character warrants at least one mention here on Shock.
We’re curious as to what direction they plan to give a comic book “villain” in his own movie. It’s highly unlikely that Topher Grace will reprise the role he originated in the third Spider-Man movie. (He’s just been cast in the Robert Rodriguez produced Predators, which starts shooting next month under the direction of Nimrod Antal.)
Gary Ross also wrote and directed Seabiscuit and Pleasantville.
Source: Variety, Robg.
