Sony is building out their catalogue of non-MCU dependent titles, and after Tom Hardy's Venom takes the first step, Black Cat and Silver Sable are the next Marvel heroes set to headline their own movie. The studio has tapped screenwriters Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet to pen the most recent draft of the script for Silver & Black; the standalone movie centered on Marvel Comics' war criminal-hunting mercenary, Silver Sable, and the Robin Hood-style burglar for the people, Black Cat.

The Secret Life of Bees and Beyond the Lights writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood will direct Silver & Black. Bythewood first dipped her toe in the Marvel waters when she directed the Cloak & Dagger pilot for Freeform. She also penned a previous draft of the script. Indeed, the Silver & Black script has had all kinds of talented writers take a pass -- Thor: Ragnarok scribe Chris Yost and Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy both worked on previous drafts of the script. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Bythewood is now doing a polish on Robertson-Dworet and Beer's draft that she will submit to the studio.

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Image via Marvel Comics

The writing duo have both lent their talents to a number of highly-anticipated films on the horizon. Robertson-Dworet worked on Captain Marvel and Tomb Raider. Beer worked on Doug Liman's dystopian sci-fi Chaos Walking and Sony's upcoming Barbie movie, and has been a part of a number of studio writers rooms, including Transformers, Godzilla vs. Kong and Quentin Tarantino's Star Trek. Both screenwriters have become go-to writers for studio genre fare in recent years.

Black Cat and Silver Sable are both regulars in Marvel Comics' Spider-Man universe. However, like the Venom movie, it remains unclear how much, if any, overlap there will be with Tom Holland's Spider-Man. For his part, MCU boss Kevin Feige has been insistent that the universes are separate (and after how much effort they put into crafting the MCU, you better believe I'm inclined to believe him), while Sony boss Amy Pascal has coyly hinted that "you never know".

We'll find out when Venom arrives in theaters on October 5, 2018. Silver & Black will follow on Feb 8, 2019.

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