CBR: Gary Ross to direct "Venom"

[CBR News]

Writer/director Gary Ross, currently rewriting "Spider-Man 4," is in discussions with Columbia Pictures to write and direct a feature film version of "Venom," spinning off from the previous "Spider-Man" film.


Full article here (http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=23223).

[SpideyZERO]

I hope it will be good

[Sean Whitmore]

They were serious about that?

I always thought Sony saying "we want to do a Venom movie" fell under the same general heading of "we want a pony".


SEAN

[Brother Justin Crowe]

They were serious about that?

I always thought Sony saying "we want to do a Venom movie" fell under the same general heading of "we want a pony".


SEAN

Post of the week.

[Night Swordsman]

I love most Marvel characters, but can NOT stand Venom.

I would actually boycott this movie, no matter who starred in it

[Sean Whitmore]

Post of the week.

In all fairness, I ripped that line off of Aaron Sorkin.


SEAN

[JimmyDee]

Is everyone ignoring the pedigree of the film maker? The guy makes good movies. He could end up making a good Venom movie, too. And Sony does NOT want to fuck up the franchise in any way, they want this to be a cash cow for years and years to come. They know how to make good Spider-Man movies. I've got faith they may know how to make a good Venom movie.

[meethraa]

I love most Marvel characters, but can NOT stand Venom.

I would actually boycott this movie, no matter who starred in it

I just realized I boycott thousands of movies every year, and I didn't even know it.

Do I get a prize?

[meethraa]

Is everyone ignoring the pedigree of the film maker? The guy makes good movies. He could end up making a good Venom movie, too. And Sony does NOT want to fuck up the franchise in any way, they want this to be a cash cow for years and years to come. They know how to make good Spider-Man movies. I've got faith they may know how to make a good Venom movie.

I didn't bother with the horsey movie, but Pleasantville was quite nice.

[the goddamn batman]

Is everyone ignoring the pedigree of the film maker? The guy makes good movies. He could end up making a good Venom movie, too. And Sony does NOT want to fuck up the franchise in any way, they want this to be a cash cow for years and years to come. They know how to make good Spider-Man movies. I've got faith they may know how to make a good Venom movie.

So you haven't seen Spider-man 3 then?

[The Joker]

Well, hopefully they can make a better version of Venom than he/they were in Spider-Man 3.

Shouldnt be too hard.

[Brock]

Its worth remembering that the last time a studio tried a "not-the-same-character" spin-off we got Catwoman.

[JCAll]

Did this idiot not watch Spider-Man 3!? Venom ruined that movie. Sandman (miraculously) turned up to be a remarkably well played and sympathetic character, and if it weren't for the formulaic whiny emo bull that every Venom story has to have by law the movie would have been 100 times more well received.

The only time Venom has been entertaining was when Juggernaut was stomping his head through the pavement. Turn that fight into a movie.

Is everyone ignoring the pedigree of the film maker? The guy makes good movies. He could end up making a good Venom movie, too. And Sony does NOT want to fuck up the franchise in any way, they want this to be a cash cow for years and years to come. They know how to make good Spider-Man movies. I've got faith they may know how to make a good Venom movie.

No they don't. They're talking about firing the director and entire cast after #4, and handing the series off to someone who says they can do it cheaper and more quickly. Sony doesn't give shit one about the long-time respectability of the franchise, just short term profits.

[Sean Whitmore]

Did this idiot not watch Spider-Man 3!? Venom ruined that movie.

Nonsense.

Raimi and his brother made a bad movie that Venom happened to be in.


SEAN

[JCAll]

Nonsense.

Raimi and his brother made a bad movie that Venom happened to be in.


SEAN

Just the lack of dancing and the cheating on MJ plotline that would have never existed without Venom there would have made the movie better. Of course, Harry as the Goblin would have had to been chopped too to actually make the movie good, and by that point there would be nothing left...

Still, I'm going to lay as much of the blame on Venom as humanly possible.

[Jared]

For all his faults, at least Venom didn't retroactively kill Uncle Ben.

[Sean Whitmore]

For all his faults, at least Venom didn't retroactively kill Uncle Ben.

Or walk away free at the end amidst a waterfall of tears.


SEAN

[tridon]

I just hope it's good. What they should do is have Scorpion in the next Spider-Man film so he can take over as Venom in his film. Actually, even better idea...

They should make this film off of Daniel Way's ongoing series from a few years back and set this as a horror flick in the Arctic. Make it a homage to John Carpenter's The Thing.

[Sean Walsh]

Sony doesn't give shit one about the long-time respectability of the franchise, just short term profits.

I would agree with this more nowadays, since Sony only has a limited time to cash in on Spidey (after....what, a 6th movie, the rights will go back to Marvel/Disney?)

But I also recall Raimi & Co. wanting out after 3, and yet 4 is gonna be made with that same group intact......Sony probably didn't mind the money from 3 despite its critical failings.

[Matt Spatola]

Spidey 3 had its moments but good have been so much better. I actually didn't like the Sandman stuff in the movie more I think. Venom could be good done the right way. You never know.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I'd rather a Venom movie than a Gambit one.

[Mundungus]

Ross has written and directed some of my favorite films, so I can tell "Spider-Man 4" and "Venom" are in good hands, though I'm not really a Venom fan.

I think they should establish Venom in his own universe outside of the "Spider-Man" movie-verse. The premise only makes sense with Eddie Brock as the host, and he went a little kaplooey at the end there.

I also hope Ross makes sure to hit a balance between the action and the melodrama. I like soap opera Pete as much as the next guy, but I also don't want to drown in it.

[Jmacq1]

I would agree with this more nowadays, since Sony only has a limited time to cash in on Spidey (after....what, a 6th movie, the rights will go back to Marvel/Disney?)

No, there is no limit on how many Spider-Man movies Sony can make. The rights are held in perpetuity (read: forever) as long as Sony cranks out a Spider-Man movie every few years. Same with Fox and the X-Franchise. Marvel/Disney ain't getting those franchises back for a looooong time (read: until they stop making any money at all). Looks like Fox wants to keep ahold of Fantastic Four, too. Disney/Marvel could buy the rights back from them, but it'd probably cost them more money than it's worth (like a couple more billion in Spider-Man's case, most likely).

But I also recall Raimi & Co. wanting out after 3, and yet 4 is gonna be made with that same group intact......Sony probably didn't mind the money from 3 despite its critical failings.

Yep, by all indications Raimi and Co are already signed for 4, 5, and 6, and you can bet that Sony could care less about the critical failure of Spider-Man 3 compared to its' financial success.

[Monty_Cristo]

I just hope it's good. What they should do is have Scorpion in the next Spider-Man film so he can take over as Venom in his film. Actually, even better idea...

They should make this film off of Daniel Way's ongoing series from a few years back and set this as a horror flick in the Arctic. Make it a homage to John Carpenter's The Thing.

that's not an homage. that's a ripoff.

[Frank]

They should make a movie about Toxin, instead. At least he's a hero that uses Venom powers.

[Spidey-kid1]

They should make a movie about Toxin, instead. At least he's a hero that uses Venom powers.

I agree with this, but who's going to be Toxins villain? He's already the strongest symbiote there is. Not to mention the fact that he's relatively unknown to mainstream public.

Toxin would be cool, but I have no idea how they would go about it.

[Frank]

I agree with this, but who's going to be Toxins villain? He's already the strongest symbiote there is. Not to mention the fact that he's relatively unknown to mainstream public.

Toxin would be cool, but I have no idea how they would go about it.

His villains would be Venom and Carnage.

Think about it all the things they couldn't do with Spider-Man, they couldn't go that dark because of this and this reason, they could do by building a more vicious rogue galleries for a character like Toxic.

In a way they could do a Venom movie first with Brock as villain. Then a bystandar gets infected, gets powers, then tries to stop Venom. Then next chapter would be a Toxin movie with Venom AND Carnage as villains.

[Spidey-kid1]

His villains would be Venom and Carnage.

Think about it all the things they couldn't do with Spider-Man, they couldn't go that dark because of this and this reason, they could do by building a more vicious rogue galleries for a character like Toxic.

In a way they could do a Venom movie first with Brock as villain. Then a bystandar gets infected, gets powers, then tries to stop Venom. Then next chapter would be a Toxin movie with Venom AND Carnage as villains.

But Toxin has already been shown to be stronger than both Carnage and Venom combined. He could probably take all the symbiotes and spiderman at the same time and still win it effortlessly.

[Frank]

But Toxin has already been shown to be stronger than both Carnage and Venom combined. He could probably take all the symbiotes and spiderman at the same time and still win it effortlessly.

Well they could get rid of that stupid element for the movie, since if a character is so powerful, then there's not threat and no movie. Toxin should be a good version of Venom/Carnage and that's it.

[The Joker]

They should make a movie about Toxin, instead. At least he's a hero that uses Venom powers.

I could see them going the "Lethal Protector" route with a Venom movie. Even that would be better than what we subjected to in Spider-Man 3.

[kalorama]

I find it hard to imagine that this won't be awful.

[Zero Hunter]

This already has that faint stench of an Elektra type failure.

[EZMOHR]

You know, I'm shocked enough at the Gary Ross revelation now, that I'm kinda excited about this movie. Gary Ross has made a really good movie from a great book (Seabiscuit,) and a great movie from his own source material (Pleasantville.) This is such a freaky combo for a Venom movie (a character that I might add, I think should've expired in 1988, after his first arc. The character basically created the late 80's/90's fiasco of characters that were created only as events, such as Doomsday, Bane, and Azrael,) that it makes me care for a character I really have never cared for.

[Tobias March]

They should make a movie about Toxin, instead. At least he's a hero that uses Venom powers.

In effect I imagine this will be a 'Toxin' film, but titled Venom, as the script will call for a sympathetic lead infected by the symbiote, dealing with problems and resolving them in 90 reassuring minutes of diverting entertainment.

Afterwards we will leave the cinemas and be grateful for having seen a Venom in name only film.

[Alex]

They are going to do a spin off on a character who was in the least popular (Did it make less money?) film from a franchise. Said character was also an afterthought in the story, who had little screentime and silly, underdevloped motivation.

Sounds like a good idea.

[meethraa]

In effect I imagine this will be a 'Toxin' film, but titled Venom, as the script will call for a sympathetic lead infected by the symbiote, dealing with problems and resolving them in 90 reassuring minutes of diverting entertainment.

Or they could try to make a decent Venom movie.

[Sighphi]

At least it's not going to have the guy from That 70's Show.
He is now going to be messing up the new Predator movie.