Olivia Wilde To Direct SPIDER-WOMAN For Sony's Marvel Universe

Deadline are reporting that Booksmart director Olivia Wilde is in talks to helm a Spider-Woman film for Sony Pictures.

It is currently unclear which incarnation of the character will feature, but the outlet's report mentions that "the concept is being completely revamped by Wilde", and that the filmmaker was enticed by the project primarily because she'd get the chance to "launch her own female superhero". Katie Silberman, who co-wrote the script for Booksmart, will write the film.

Sony have been rapidly expanding their plans for their own shared continuity of comic book movies - somewhat awkwardly referred to as the Sony Universe of Marvel Characters (or SUMC for short) - with other projects in various stages of production. A sequel to 2018's Venom is currently in the works, and will see Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock fend off against Woody Harrelson's Carnage, while projects centred around the characters Black Cat, Silver Sable and Madame Web are also in different stages of development.

Spider-Woman herself has been the subject of plenty of interest over the years. Initially created as a means of snaffling up copyright adjacent to Spider-Man, the first Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) went on to become a fan-favourite in Marvel's comics, even spawning a short-lived animated series in 1979. She's frequently depicted as an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the comics and has also been a prominent Avenger.

Other figures to have taken on the Spider-Woman mantle in the years since include Julia Carpenter and, in the Ultimate Universe, a clone of Peter Parker who also went by the name of Jessica Drew. Notable Spider-Women, meanwhile, include Silk (Cindy Moon), Spider-Girl (Mayday Parker), and of course Ghost-Spider, aka Spider-Gwen.