Back when Sony was feeling bullish about the future of the Spider-Man movie universe (i.e. before the arrival of The Amazing Spider-Man 2), there was talk of several Spider-spin-offs, including one focused on Venom. That idea has since gone by the wayside, but the studio is ready to have another stab at the character with Dante Harper hired to write a new script.
The alien symbiote has had almost as many rumoured movie incarnations as he has varied stories in the comic books. Once a flat-out villain, he's since been turned into something of an anti-hero, but it would seem the new film version – planned as currently separate from the Tom HollandSpider-Man reboot and the potential kick-off for a franchise of its own – may stick on the dark side of the stories.
Regular Spider-producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach are shepherding this one, which aims to redeem the cinematic use of the character after it largely seemed wasted in the overstuffed Spider-Man 3. No director is attached yet (Alex Kurtzman was the most recent name linked to the movie, but he would seem to be busy overseeing Universal's classic monster movie universe and kicking it off with a new Mummy).
Harper, who was one of several writers on Edge Of Tomorrow, is also behind the script for crime thriller Sleepless Night, which stars Jamie Foxx. As for Holland's Spider-Man, he'll first show up in next month's Captain America: Civil War before re-launching his own cinematic run on July 7, 2017.