Sony's moving full steam ahead on a Venom movie that will launch their cinematic universe of Spider-Man supporting characters. We've heard it could be R-rated, which makes a lot of sense considering the violent, alien nature of the character, and if Sony is going to do this right they'll need a director who make that vision a reality. It's possible that director has been found, and he's got a little bit of a history with the Venom character.
A rumor over at Splashreport.com, which I'm not totally buying into, says that Adi Shankar is a contender for the Venom gig. Shankar is best known as a producer, most notably on Dredd and Lone Survivor, but he was also the director behind a series of one-shot short films featuring popular comic book characters. One, titled "Truth in Journalism", starred True Blood's Ryan Kwanten as Eddie Brock aka Venom. Shankar also made films using The Punisher, Judge Dredd, and a Power/Rangers short that I'm certain inspired the current movie.
Like I said, I don't necessarily buy the source, but you never know. This would be Shankar's first directorial feature, and considering how important Venom is to Sony I think they'll want someone with more experience. The film is expected to hit theaters next year on October 5th, which isn't a ton of time.
