
Banking on the success of the found-footage superhero film, Chronicle, word has it that Sony is looking to the film’s director, Josh Trank, to helm its Spider-Man spin-off, Venom. With the studio’s The Amazing Spider-Man reboot swinging into theaters on July 3rd, perhaps there’s room for the psychotic symbiotic to be featured as a main antagonist in an upcoming film, rather than the sidenote he became in 2007′s Spider-Man 3, played by Topher Grace. Venom, an alien symbiotic life form that bonds with its host for survival, has been a mainstay in the world of Marvel nemeses and could further open up the Spider-Man storyline if the creative team chose to go in that direction. Being a big fan of Trank’s work on Chronicle, I’d be very interested to see what he could do with a big budget superhero flick. Hit the jump for more on Venom.

Last week we reported that writer-director Gary Ross (“Pleasantville”, “Seabiscuit”) was in talks with Columbia to direct their “Spider-Man” spinoff movie, “Venom” about the Spider-Man villain who has Spider-Man’s powers but he’s got claws and is muscular and slobbers a lot. I didn’t see much of a need for a Venom movie so I’m delighted to learn that Ross is pushing “Venom” aside to take on Donald Hamilton’s “Matt Helm” series about a swinging, pulpy super-spy. Hit the jump for more details.

We don’t need a Venom movie. Underneath his proto-”Spawn” design, he’s a simple and boring character. Eddie Brock/Venom is the polar opposite Peter Parker/Spider-Man and the main goal of both is to kill Spider-Man, a goal which should be no problem to accomplish in a movie that doesn’t have Spider-Man. But fanboys love the drooling doofus so Columbia has been hard at work on a spinoff. Last we heard, “Zombieland” writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese were on the project but that no longer seems to be the case as its now looks like “Seabiscuit” director and “Spider-Man 4″ screenwriter Gary Ross may write and direct the project. Hit the jump for more details as well as bafflement as to how you make a “Venom” movie that isn’t just a two-minute tech demo.

As the creators of the short lived “Joe Schmo Show”, you’d never think of these two as the writers of a zombie movie. But sometimes when you want to shake up a genre, getting two outsiders is exactly what you need for success. And that’s what I think is going to happen later this year when Columbia Pictures releases “Zombieland” on October 9th.
The film is written by Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese and after the jump is a lot more info on the film, along with a very extensive interview with the two screenwriters. They talk about where the idea came from, what changes were made along the way, what are the rules in their zombie universe, how they got into writing, and they talk about the other projects they’re working on. It’s a great interview so take a look:
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