How's about a Venom movie?

[Dr. Strange]

According to today’s Variety, Sony is prepping to make a Venom flick — you remember, the bad guy Topher Grace (and a whole mess of CGI) played in Spider-Man 3 — to be written and directed by Seabiscuit’s Gary Ross. I find myself wondering: What’s a worse idea, Venom or Elektra 2: Sai Anything?

Venom is popular in the pages of Spider-Man comics, and has been for years. But with Spider-Man 3 being universally criticized as the weak link in Sam Raimi’s trilogy, and Venom being a chief instrument of that lameness, I can’t help but puzzle at the wisdom of spinning off a whole movie based around a character audiences didn’t seem to care for in the first place. Of course, this will be a reboot, one that refashions Venom/Eddie Brock from the ground up, with a new actor (since Grace is heading to the jungle for Robert Rodriguez’s Predators). And Ross is a solid filmmaker, who must’ve wowed the Sony brass with his rewrite for Spider-Man 4 to put him in line for this gig — otherwise, how else to explain the leap from equestrian elegy to costumed fisticuffs? — but I’m just not feeling it.
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http://popwatch.ew.com/2009/10/08/spider-man-spin-off-venom-a-poisonous-idea

I'd watch it. Lot's of good potential there. Of course, that also means lots of potential to screw it up.

[Mojambo]

1. Sounds like a disaster in the making.

Venom's a decent comic book villain.

But his story is SO tied up with Spider-Man I just don't see anything interesting for this character outside of that dynamic.

[Dr. Strange]

2. Except that he's not entirely a villain.

In the comic books, he considers himself a protector of the innocent. And so, even though he always wants to kick Spidey's tookus, he often tries to do the right thing.

A movie might make for an interesting study of this, except that Topher's version of Eddie Brock is such a scumbag. He'd have to make a whopping great change to become even somewhat decent.

[Mojambo]

3. Maybe. Never a big fan of the character personally.

So that's probably affecting my thoughts on a potential movie.

[Orrex]

4. They should have left Venom out of Spiderman 3 altogether

He was shoehorned into the last 20 minutes of a movie that was, coincidentally, about 20 minutes too long. If they were going to feature Venom at all, he should have been the lone villain either in that film or in the one that follows it.

For that matter, they should have handled Goblin Jr. a lot differently, too. I mean, the whole Norman/Harry thing goes way back, but the Extreme Sports Goblin incarnation was just crap.

[Broken_Hero]

5. .......

:thumbsup: Big ditto.