Raise your hand if you saw this one coming. Then put your hand down, because you’re probably a liar.
Tom Hardy, the Oscar-nominated star of The Revenant and Mad Max: Fury Road, is signing up to play the supervillain Venom in Sony’s first Spider-Man spin-off movie. Ruben Fleischer, the director of Zombieland, will direct the Venom movie, which is being fast-tracked for release on October 5, 2018.
Venom is one of Spider-Man’s most notorious foes, an alien symbiote that originally attached itself to the superhero, was rejected, and then merged a reporter named Eddie Brock, with one of Peter Parker’s enemies at work, to take revenge.
In the comics the alien symbiote would eventually merge with a variety of other characters, including Peter Parker’s high school bully Flash Thompson and the Spider-Man villain called Scorpion, but Hollywood Reporter confirms that Tom Hardy will be playing the Eddie Brock version of the character. Eddie Brock was previously played by Topher Grace in Spider-Man 3, and by Ryan Kwanten in the unofficial short film Truth in Journalism, directed by Joe Lynch (Everly).
Sony Pictures
Also: The 62 Marvel Superhero Movies: Ranked From Worst to Best
Sony Pictures had big plans for Spider-Man spin-offs before the release of Amazing Spider-Man 2, including a film devoted entirely to the hero’s arch-nemeses The Sinister Six. But when Marc Webb’s second Spider-Man feature failed to meet box office expectations those plans were scrapped, leading to the landmark deal that allowed Spider-Man to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe starting with Captain America: Civil War, and leading directly into this summer’s release of Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Sony Pictures does retain control over the Spider-Man character, and has plans to release more films set in the so-called Spider-verse. The popular Marvel character Miles Morales, who donned Spider-Man’s costume after the character’s death in the Ultimate Spider-Man comic books, will finally make his big screen debut in an as-yet-untitled animated movie, set for release in 2018. Sony Pictures is also currently working on a movie that would co-star Silver Sable and Black Cat, two of the Spider-verse’s most morally flexible characters.
Eight Unusually Good ‘Alien’ Knockoffs:
Top Photo: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images & Marvel Comics
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
Eight Unusually Good 'Alien' Knockoffs
-
8. Species (1995)
Scientists decide to combine alien and human DNA, presumably because they've never seen any movies, and end up with Sil, an alluring woman who escapes and tries to get herself pregnant to start populating the planet with monsters. Species is cheesy and kinky, but the material is elevated by a surprisingly good cast, which includes Sir Ben Kingsley, Forest Whitaker, Alfred Molina, Michael Madsen, Marg Helgenberger and Natasha Henstridge.
Photo: MGM
-
7. Jason X (2001)
Jason Voorhees goes to space and it's exactly as ridiculous as you'd expect. But Jason X is also a self-aware send-up of sci-fi clichés, one that subverts your expectations while simultaneously giving you every great kill you could want. By the time Jason finally becomes a cyborg and fights a sexy robot, it's hard not to cheer at the sheer, unbridled zaniness of it all.
Photo: New Line Cinema
-
6. Leviathan (1989)
An alien infection is unleashed in an underwater science station, and even though you know exactly where the story is going to go, you don't really mind because the practical effects are gross and impressive, and the great cast is selling it like it's new. Peter Weller, Richard Crenna, Daniel Stern, Ernie Hudson and Hector Elizondo are all great in the familiar, but underrated Leviathan.
Photo: MGM
-
5. 51 (2011)
One of the best SyFy Original Movies ever produced, 51 is all about an alien jailbreak in Area 51, but the real gag is that there are a whole bunch of different species unleashed at the same time. Fun practical effects and a pretty darned clever screenplay compensate for 51's low budget and occasionally amateurish acting.
Photo: SyFy
-
4. Event Horizon (1997)
Alien has been called "a haunted house in space", but Event Horizon takes that concept literally. Another great cast, bolstered by awesome production design, is menaced not by monsters but by the literalization of their innermost fears. It's a neat concept, but we liked it a lot better when it was called...
Photo: Constantin Films
-
3. Galaxy of Terror (1981)
Bruce D. Clark's ambitious, grimy and bizarre sci-fi thriller finds yet another cool cast of characters menaced by their own phobias in the furthest reaches of space, but the effect is more personal and anxiety-inducing than in the comparatively slick Event Horizon. Some of the scares in Galaxy of Terror will leave you feeling dirty.
Photo: United Artists
-
2. Pandorum (2009)
One of the most underrated sci-fi films of the last ten years, Pandora finds Ben Foster awakened from his cryogenic slumber to find a spaceship overrun by mysterious monsters. The great performances and sharp direction by Christian Alvart would have been enough to make Pandorum worth watching, but Travis Milloy's screenplay is also full of clever, satisfying surprises.
Photo: Overture Films
-
1. Pitch Black (2000)
Trapped on a desolate planet with man-eating aliens is bad enough, but in David Twohy's fantastic Pitch Black, the heroes are also stuck with a homicidal criminal named Riddick. Pitch Black was Vin Diesel's breakout performance and it's easy to see why: he's dangerous and charismatic, and ably matched by his great supporting cast and a creepy new species of monsters.
Photo: USA Films
