Many moons ago (2008 to be precise), Sony Pictures had planned a spin off film from Spider-Man series, featuring his long running nemesis, and big bad from the third film, Venom. Zombieland writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reece were brought into write the script, with director Gary Ross coming on board. Nothing much seemed to come from it, save news that another draft of the script was been written by Jacob Estes. Then Ross was attached to Hunger Games, and it's possible sequels, and the Spider-Man series is to be re-booted with this summers The Amazing Spider-Man, so the movie pretty much fell by the wayside.
Now the movie is back on, with Chronicle director Josh Trank in negotiation's to take over the project. He was also once in frame to direct Sony's planned re-boot of the Fantastic Four franchise. It is said that the project is to be put back to square one, with a new writer also being sought, and Topher Grace "not expected to reprise the role" he played in Spider-Man 3.
First introduced in 1988, Venom is an alien life form, making his debut as Spider-Man's black suit. It was soon revealed that the suit had a mind of it's own, attempting to turn the hero evil. The suit was rejected, and bonded with Eddie Brock, who became the character we know as Venom. He's had many hosts and iterations over the years, my favorite being his ongoing series which cast him as a The Thing-like monster which hid inside it's host's bodies.
Source: The L.A. Times
