A Venomous Spidey Spinoff May Have a Writer

After arch-villain Venom was unceremoniously shoehorned into Spider-Man 3, Columbia Pictures is readying a spin-off film for the character, Variety reports. Fresh from rewriting the script for Spider-Man 4, which goes into production in 2010, Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) is in talks to pen the script. He may also direct.

Do I think Venom could work in a movie? Sure. He’s one of my favorite Spidey villains. But I just don’t see how a standalone Venom film would work if it’s attached to the existing Spider-Man franchise. All fanboy conjecture aside, Venom/Eddie Brock (played by Topher Grace) is quite dead at the end of Spider-Man 3. So this movie already has that going against it.

Also, and let’s be honest, the Venom subplot is easily the weakest aspect of that film. Since the studio essentially forced director Sam Raimi to work the character into the story somehow, the entire film suffered and left a lot of fans disappointed. Spider-Man 3 came out in 2007—I’m not sure if those wounds have healed just yet.

If Ross does sign on to this project, he has his work cut out for him.