Besides being one of the year’s biggest box office winners, the success of The Avengers is already showing off its creative influence throughout Hollywood. For more than a decade, superhero movies and franchises were coveted summer tentpoles, recognizable characters with epic adventures ripe for adaptation — but Marvel’s The Avengers upped the ante. The comic book titan’s five years of strategic interconnectivity and world building, beginning with 2008’s Iron Man, paid off with a grand crescendo, one that resulted in approval of fans and big returns.
Other studios foresaw the success even before Avengers hit theaters. Earlier this week, we learned DC/Warner Bros. is moving forward with their plan to assemble the Justice League, and based on Hollywood.com’s conversation with The Amazing Spider-Man producers Avi Arad and Matthew Tolmach, the world of Spider-Man may be in the for the same interwoven storytelling.
While promoting Spider-Man, Arad and Tolmach alluded that their next project, Venom would be developed in a similar fashion that could potentially tie the films together. “What I’m trying to say to you without giving anything away is hopefully all these worlds will live together in peace someday,” hinted Tolmach. Venom , which Chronicle director Josh Trank is rumored to helm, will follow Eddie Brock, a character previously introduced in Spider-Man 3. Don’t expect any carryover, as Venom will be following Amazing Spider-Man‘s modern, realistic approach.
“It’s an Eddie Brock story,” explained Arad. “We want to be as close to the comics as possible. Especially in Eddie Brock’s story. But again, pseudo-sceince is becoming science. All these tidbits about webs, artificial webs, is a huge industry now. Spiderwebs have unique qualities that will be huge for communications, fibers, and so forth. So we have taken the approach that we want to make the huge amazing movie about Eddie.” Commitment to reality and tangibility is a key factor to Amazing Spider-Man. From Arad’s description, the scientific slant will be a point of interest in Venom.
Tolmach and Arad insisted their Eddie Brock, who was drawn in early incarnations as a muscled man, would be more grounded. “He was a journalist. He had the wrong story, he got in trouble for it, he got fired,” explains Tolmach, who also went on to describe his and Arad’s approach to adapting Marvel properties. “The whole essence to us for the Marvel characters. Stay close to the bible, stay close to the emotional story, and the rest is fun.”
When Venom eventually hits theaters, expect it to feel intrinsically connected to July’s Amazing Spider-Man. As Tolmach puts it: “Look for the worlds to make sense with one another.”
More:
‘Chronicle’ Director Eyed for ‘Spider-Man’ Spin-Off ‘Venom’
‘Amazing Spider-Man’: 4-Minute Preview Teases 3D-Friendly Action
‘The Amazing Spider-Man’: 66 Questions That Must Be Answered
