Can Venom and Spider-Man co-exist? Yes!
The success of Marvel’s “The Avengers” has pushed other studios with comic properties to try to put together their own all-star ensembles; witness Warner Brothers recent talk about reviving “The Justice League.”
Sony picked up a few Marvel properties in the ’90s and has had some success with them. You may be familiar with their “Spider-Man” movies of the early ’90s, the success of which they’re hoping to duplicate in a few weeks with “The Amazing Spider-Man.” That has a sequel in the works for sure, but will that sequel be used to connect some other parts that Sony will spin into solo movies and eventually a multihero film, the way that Marvel built “The Avengers” universe out of a series of solo movies?
Hollywood.com talked to “Spider-Man” producers Avi Arad and Matthew Tolmach, and it sure sounds like they’re heading in that direction, at least with the character Venom. This, of course, is not the first time Venom has hit the big screen–he was in the disastrously messy but highly profitable “Spider-Man 3.” Now, though, rumor has it that he will get his own movie, possibly with “Chronicle” director Josh Trank at the helm.
Tolmach said that a Venom movie would be constructed in a way that fits into the “Spider-Man” universe they’re building, and will fit in with “Spider-Man’s” realistic approach.
Arad said:
“It’s an Eddie Brock story. We want to be as close to the comics as possible. Especially in Eddie Brock’s story. But again, pseudo-sceince is becoming science. All these tidbits about webs, artificial webs, is a huge industry now. Spiderwebs have unique qualities that will be huge for communications, fibers, and so forth. So we have taken the approach that we want to make the huge amazing movie about Eddie.” Commitment to reality and tangibility is a key factor to Amazing Spider-Man. From Arad’s description, the scientific slant will be a point of interest in Venom.
Tolmach and Arad also noted that their Eddie Brock would be a more realistic character than the muscle man depicted in the early comics (journalists are never muscled; they’re too busy drinking and smoking while pounding away at their manual typewriters.
“He was a journalist. He had the wrong story, he got in trouble for it, he got fired,” explains Tolmach, who also went on to describe his and Arad’s approach to adapting Marvel properties. “The whole essence to us for the Marvel characters. Stay close to the bible, stay close to the emotional story, and the rest is fun.”
Well, all we can do is hope that Venom fares better on his own than in his last screen appearance.
