News on developments for the planned film emerged this week in and around the same time that the new trailer for Spiderman: Homecoming was unveiled.

Venom is the titular standalone movie being planned by Sony which revolves around the antagonist of The Amazing Spider-Man series.

The movie has been in the development hell for a number of years now, having been first announced around the time of The Amazing Spider-Man 2's release (and we all know how that worked out). Venom previously appeared in 2007 movie Spider-Man 3, back when Tobey Maguire played Spidey.

In the comics, Venom is an intelligent alien symbiote that requires a living host in order to thrive and survive. He first attaches himself to Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man himself, but then makes his way to a new host, Eddie Brock, a failed tabloid journalist with a grudge against Parker.

Here’s what we know about the Venom movie:

 

Venom will be separate from the Marvel Cinematic Universe

This is the most interesting news that has emerged. According to Collider, the upcoming film will not be under the jurisdiction of Kevin Feige but will instead fall under Tom Rothman, Chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group.

Furthermore, there will be a series of films under this particular management, which also won’t be related to any of Sony’s previous Spider-Man movies, including Homecoming. If this all falls into place, there could be an interesting shake-up of the Disney/Marvel-Warners/DC dominance of the superhero movie market.

 

Venom won’t be the only spin-off of the Spider-Man franchise

THR reports that there will also be a Black Cat and Silver Sable film to surface in due time, but the details on this are still vague. Reportedly Chris Yost, who worked on Thor: Ragnarok, is writing the script.

 

It’s going to be R-rated

Well it worked for Deadpool and Logan, so imitation is the best form of flattery, we suppose.

 

It’s being billed as an "Action / Horror / Sci-Fi" film

This news comes from Screenrant, and the horror element is particularly interesting here. Venom is, after all, a supervillain, but having a bad guy set off a whole new franchise seems highly unusual. Somehow I feel like this is going to end up going down the Suicide Squad route, opting for anti-hero protagonists rather than actual bad guys.

It is also still in question as to whether the Venom origin will be that of the comic book or if it will be told in a sequential manner.

 

It’s slated for release on October 5th, 2018

Shooting is due to start this autumn which is just as well because they’d want to get a move on if they’re going to make that date.