After making his directorial debut last month with Chronicle, the found-footage sci-fi/superhero film that turned a m. into more than 0m. and was brilliantly well received, it looks like Trank could well be returning to the superhero genre for his second film, with word now arising that he’s in talks to direct the long-gestating Venom, Columbia’s spin-off project from Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man trilogy.
After the release of Spider-Man 3 back in 2007, in which Topher Grace played the antagonist, Venom, it wasn’t long before talk began of the villain getting his own film. A script was written by Jacob Estes (the upcoming The Details), and Gary Ross (the upcoming The Hunger Games) was at one stage in talks to direct.
But now it looks like Columbia are starting afresh, with Trank in negotiations to go behind the camera, and a new writer being sought. Estes’ vision of Venom portrayed him more as an antihero, so the new script may take it in a different direction to cast him as an out-and-out villain.
In the vein of starting anew, Grace isn’t expected to reprise his role, and the search for the new actor to take the part would also be underway in this new resuscitation of the project.
Naturally, it’s early days yet, and without a writer or a cast, we can only guess at what kind of film we can look forward to. Trank certainly showed with his feature debut that he had the ability to pull a huge audience without a big cast or a lot of money, and it will be interesting to see what he’ll do with what will no doubt be a pretty substantial budget and quite possibly a (rising) star in the lead.
With all that lying somewhere in the future, we can of course all look forward to Columbia and Marvel bringing us The Amazing Spider-Man this year, in which Marc Webb has taken the helm to direct Andrew Garfield as the renowned superhero, and that will be coming to us in the UK on 4th July, and a day earlier in the US. For all our coverage of The Amazing Spider-Man, you can click right here. And be sure to stay tuned for more as news develops on the Venom film.
