Sony is putting together the indie cast of your dreams for...Venom? Yes, indeed. The MCU-adjacent Spider-Man spinoff is set to star Tom Hardy as the anti-hero, alien symbiote-toting Eddie Brock, alongside Michelle Williams and Riz Ahmed. Now, Obvious Child and Gifted actress Jenny Slate is in negotiations to join the cast. Like the details of Williams and Ahmed's roles, Slate's potential part is being kept largely under wraps, but Variety reports that Slate would play "a scientist."

Plot details are being kept superhero top-secret at the moment, but reports suggest that Venom will feature the villain Carnage, naturally, and while Ahmed is said to have read for the role of Carnage, he landed a different mystery role and the studio is still on the hunt for an actor to play the psychotic symbiote.

If you're unfamiliar, Venom hails from the Spider-Man neighborhood of the Marvel Comics universe. He's an entity created when Eddie Brock -- Peter Parker's rival Daily Bugle photographer -- merges with the Venom symbiote and inherits some Spider-Manesque superpowers with a nasty attitude. He's usually been a foil to Spider-Man, so it will certainly be interesting to see what they come up for him as the star of his own franchise. Whatever they've come up with, it seems to have attracted quite a few of the most compelling young actors out there on the market -- and Williams' involvement is exciting in particular considering the actress has proven a near impeccable radar for picking good projects throughout her career. Or they all just need to get paid.

Sony is working against the clock with Venom, which is set to arrive in theaters on October 5, 2018 and will no doubt require some extensive post-production so I imagine these casting notices will keep rolling in during the coming weeks with filming just around the corner.

Zombieland and Gangster Squad director Rueben Fleischer is set to direct the comic book adaptation from a script by Scott Rosenberg (Jumanji) and Jeff Pinkner (The Dark Tower). Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach are producing with Amy Pascal.