The Amazing Spider-Man Gets 'Venom' Spin-off From Chronicle Director Josh Trank?

Make a low-budget, superhero film that makes a healthy profit and suddenly you become the go-to-guy for comic book film reboots. 27-year old director Josh Trank, who is now firmly on the map having delivered the found footage super-powered Chronicle in theaters last month, was courted recently by 20th Century Fox for a Fantastic Four reboot and although he didn't seem too interested in answering Fox's calls, it does look like another superhero film does interest him. LA Times reports that Trank has entered talks with Sony to direct the long-gestating "Venom", a spin-off from the Spider-Man series that would revolve around the popular, alien-suited villain. Although not stated, we have to believe the proposed film will be tied into "The Amazing Spider-Man" rebooted franchise, an in-continuity spin-off that is likely to include cross-overs from the new cast, either the main or supporting characters. We already know that "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" is due May 2nd, 2014... so we do wonder how Venom will figure into all this but if they are in talks with a director and a script writer comes together quickly, there is no reason why Venom couldn't come out in the summer of 2013 and build into "The Amazing Spider-Man 2". Oh and unless it wasn't obvious, Raimi's continuity is dead... this film won't have Topher Grace involved. The role needs to be re-cast. As we've reported many times in the past, the undoing of Sam Raimi's previous "Spider-Man" film franchise would be the introduction of Venom. Raimi, a lover of the original Stan Lee and Steve Ditko characters, had absolutely no interest in Venom, a character that was never part of his era of fandom but because the villainous symbiotic harbinger of evil became THE big villain of the 90's and 00's, appearing in the biggest Spidey stories and as the major villain in every single video game and huge merchandise seller, Sony knew who they wanted as the baddie for "Spider-Man 3". Raimi preferred a story involving The Sandman and The Vulture, classic era Spider-Man villains. Sony were adamant on Venom and forced Raimi to replace Vulture's character with a subplot involving Eddie Brock's downfall and the result is a mess of a superhero movie but one that, helped by Venom, became one of the biggest opening films of all time. (We should note it ended up being the lowest grossing movie of the trilogy because it was a bad movie and had poor word-of-mouth and few repeat visitors). On the back of the big opening and a perceived notion that Raimi hadn't done justice to the character, Sony wanted more Venom. They quickly hired writers to work on the spin-off at the same time as Raimi was putting together his never realised Spider-Man 4. Among many things, one of the tensions betwen Raimi and Sony that ended any chance of Spider-Man 4 was over Sony's instance for more Venom. Sony attached Seabiscuit director Gary Ross to deliver Venom into theaters. However when Raimi left "Spider-Man 4", The Venom movie was stalled whilst Sony worked out the kinks of "The Amazing Spider-Man" reboot, but now with that film finishing up it's post-production ahead of a release in July, attention at Sony has returned to Venom again. With Gary Ross now involved in The Hunger Games franchise, Sony are looking at Trank to spearhead the spin-off. Similar to their poaching of Marc Webb, who helmed a profitable low-budget movie in "500 Days of Summer", Sony are looking at the next generation of hungry young filmmakers and they believe Trank is their man. Is it a good idea to be rebooting Venom this quickly? Is it going to complicate things too early with this reboot? Will the film come before or after "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" and will Sony try and make us believe it is a separate film that has no tie in to the new series (when obviously the idea will be that it will, either sooner or later)? Is the whole thing simply so that Disney can't retain ownership to the character? So many questions at this point but few answers but definitely the feeling that the Venom spin-off is not an addition to the Spider-Man filmography that is needed right now.