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A few days ago, a pretty wild fan theory about the upcoming sci-fi thriller Life hit Reddit. Given that the story of the film revolves around astronauts coming into contact with the first extraterrestrial life in space, this Reddit theory asked whether Life was actually a secret Venom origin story. At first I laughed about it. After all, there is no way Sony could make it to almost the opening day of a movie without people knowing what it actually was, and the project was put together by Skydance before Sony even came onboard and Skydance certainly doesn't own the rights to the Marvel Comics character. But then I remembered only a few weeks ago I sat down to watch M. Night Shyamalan’s Split and was blown away by that film's ending, which revealed Split to be a secret sequel to another film entirely. Moreover, when I interviewed Life screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick a few years ago, they told me about their version of the Venom script Sony had been developing after Spider-Man 3.

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Image via Sony Pictures

Immediately I emailed Sony for comment. Almost instantly they emailed me back debunking the theory. While personal publicists occasionally won’t tell you the truth about their client, I’ve never had a studio deny something and then find out later it’s true. It’s just not how they operate. So, like I said, when the studio debunked the fan theory outright I was done with it.

But then, almost a day after I asked Sony about that rumor, the studio announces an October 5, 2018 release date for a Venom movie. This was surprising to say the least.

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Image via Sony

After spending the day at the Life junket in Austin, Texas and talking with all the key people involved, I can tell you with certainty what the studio told me is still true: it’s just a wild fan theory.

But when I sat down with Life director Daniel Espinosa, I still wanted to know what he thought about this crazy theory. Check out what he had to say in the player above. He also talked about his love of comic books, Marvel, and how when he was growing up, being into comics meant something completely different than it is nowadays.

Look for my full interview with Daniel Espinosa in a few days.

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Image via Sony Pictures

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