Ahead of next year's The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sony has revealed plans for two spin-off movies in addition to the already-announced Amazing Spider-Man 3 and Amazing Spider-Man 4 -- one where the bad guys get the spotlight.
The newly announced films are Venom -- written by Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures co-creator Ed Solomon and Star Trek writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who are already signed to script Amazing Spider-Man 3 -- and The Sinister Six, which will be written by Cabin in the Woods co-writer and director Drew Goddard. Goddard, Solomon, Kurtzman and Orci will act as the official Spider-Man "brain trust" overseeing the production of the films.
While Venom, an alien parasite obsessed with Spider-Man who debuted in the comics during the mid-1980s, already appeared in Sam Raimi's 2007 movie Spider-Man 3, the Sinister Six is a relatively new concept for movie fans: a team of bad guys, united by their hatred for a particular superhero.
In a statement accompanying the news, Columbia Pictures president Doug Belgrad described the Spider-Man franchise as "one of our studio's greatest assets," and said that the studio is "thrilled with the creative team we have assembled to delve more deeply into the world that Marc [Webb, director], Avi [Arad, executive producer] and Matt [Tolmach] have begun to explore in The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2."
The news, announced via Sony's Electro Arrives promotional website for ASM2, confirms rumors that the studio would attempt to build out the Spider-franchise into a larger universe of movies, a la Marvel Studio's Avengers and related efforts. It also means that Goddard will be pulling double duty between superhero franchises, juggling Sinister Six with his work on Marvel's Daredevil series, due to debut on Netflix in 2015.
No release dates were given for either Venom or Sinister Six, but it's not unlikely that Sony will intend to release them in "off-years" between the already scheduled Amazing Spider-Man 2 (to be released on May 2, 2014), Amazing Spider-Man 3 (June 10, 2016) and Amazing Spider-Man 4 (May 4, 2018).
