Sci-Fi Wire has a story confirming that Sony is moving ahead on a proposed Spider-Man spinoff focusing on his evil alien doppelganger, Venom. Venom was the key nemesis for Spider-Man in the underwhelming third film, and was played at the time by That 70's Show's Topher Grace. No word on whether or not he will return as Eddie Brock or if they will go in a new direction. The script is being handled by Zombieland screenwriters, Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese.
This is a big mistake. First of all, they didn't exactly make Venom all that impressive in Spider-Man 3. He was cool to look at, but they didn't really give us a reason to care about what he does next. The only route this can take is if they turn him into an anti-hero, which as any Marvel fan can tell you was exactly when Venom became uninteresting in the comics. Ofcourse these studios aren't concerned about the long-term viability of the character as they are about how much money it can make immediately, so maybe that won't matter. It doesn't appear as if Sam Raimi is in any way attatched to this, a fact that will not escape fans.
