Silver and Black director Gina Prince-Bythewood has provided a brief, but helpful, update on where the film is at in pre-production. One of multiple films based around Spider-Man anti-heroes and/or reformed villains that Sony has in the pipeline right now, Silver & Black is the only one after this fall's Venom to be granted a release date so far. However, at this point, it's safe to assume that Sony will eventually move the movie back from its current February 2019 theatrical launch date, seeing as Silver & Black has yet to progress past the script development stage.
Described as a buddy adventure that pairs mercenary Silver Sablinova with law-breaker Felicia Hardy, Silver & Black has passed through the hands of several noteworthy writers by now. In addition to Prince-Bythewood, Chris Yost (Thor: Ragnarok) and Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy have written script drafts for Silver & Black in the past, as have Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Tomb Raider) and Lindsey Beer, the cowriter of the upcoming YA adaptation Chaos Walking and a member of the Godzilla vs. Kong writers room. Prince-Bythewood, for her part, is focused on getting a great script locked in place for the film, above all else.
Related: Woody Harrelson is Barely in the Venom Movie
The Silver & Black movie will be Prince-Bythewood's second time playing in the Marvel sandbox, following her efforts directing the pilot for next month's Freeform TV series, Marvel's Cloak & Dagger (which she's also an executive producer on). Screen Rant interviewed the filmmaker on the press circuit for Cloak and Dagger, and the topic of Silver and Black naturally came up. Prince-Bythewood essentially reiterated what she wrote on Twitter back in February - when reports first surfaced that Silver & Black has been indefinitely delayed - and told us that for now, her focus is on getting the movie's script pitch-perfect:
The update is just really pounding out the script. It all starts with the script. You gotta have a great script so we want to make sure that's right before we jump in.
Although Sony has several Spider-Man spinoff films in development - ranging from Silver & Black to Spike Lee's sci-fi superhero romp Nightwatch and even a Morbius the Living Vampire movie - there's no guarantee that any of them will happen, should Venom under-perform at the box office this October. Sony has already tried its hand at a Spider-Man cinematic universe once before and failed, back when it attempted to spinoff Sinister Six and Venom movies from The Amazing Spider-Man series four years ago. The studio has all the more reason to proceed with caution this time around - meaning, the reception to Venom will have a big impact on the future of the franchise (as well it should).
Venom aside, there are plenty of other reasons for Prince-Bythewood to take her time and fine-tune the Silver & Black script before starting production. Many a tentpole before it has unwisely charged into filming without locking the screenplay firmly into place, and these movies based on secondary roster Spider-Man characters (like Silver & Black) are risky enough even with a great script in hand. As it were, Prince-Bythwood's strong track record speaks for itself (see Love and Basketball, Secret Life of Bees, Beyond the Lights) and is all the proof one needs to trust her judgment about when Silver & Black will be ready to roll camera.
