It’s been a big week for Sony’s Columbia Pictures and fans of the Spider-Man franchise. A mere week ago we found that the studio has selected Gary Ross to direct and rewrite the upcoming Venom solo film. Ross has a long history with the studio and actor Tobey Maguire and he’s currently involved with the script of Spider-Man 4. While we later heard that Venom might be far off with Ross also being tipped to helm the Spielberg-less Matt Helm remake, there’s no slowing the Spidey franchise one way or another.

On the Peter Parker side of things, Raimi revealed a few days back that they’re planning for an early March start of production for Spider-Man 4 to meet their summer kick-off release date in 2011. That’s not all however, as more recently we reported on director Sam Raimi discussing the possible villains of Spider-Man 4.

Now, MTV is sharing the part of their interview with Raimi where he touches even more Spider-Man sequels in the pipeline, specifically the 5th and 6th installments. Read on after the jump for more!

The folks over at The Playlist have an interesting exclusive on a topic that’s been getting several headlines this week. According to their inside source, Gary Ross, the man who was just announced to write and possibly direct the Venom spinoff will not be working on that project next.

Instead, Ross will first be taking over the Matt Helm project from Steven Spielberg and it sounds like the Venom project is quite a ways off, despite earlier reports that had him starting on it after Spider-Man 4.

Spider-Man 4 has been receiving plenty of buzz in recent times with announcements and confirmations of it going into production next year for a 2011 release. On top of that, we’ve had countless reports and speculation about what storylines it may follow, the start of development for Spider-Man 5 & 6, and discussions of what villains will be the focus of the fourth installment in the super successful superhero franchise.

MTV spoke with Sam Raimi and got the director to discuss a bit about the villains of Spider-Man 4 and the results of a fan poll they ran on the site which saw The Lizard and Carnage come out on top as the most desired villains, with the highest percentages from an unknown number of votes.

Variety reporter Mike Fleming is reporting that Columbia Pictures is in talks with Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, Pleasantville) to direct and rewrite the upcoming Venom solo film. Ross’ name is not new to Sony and their Spider-Man-related flicks however, as back in July he was brought in to make rewrites on the Spider-Man 4 script.

Ross is an easy choice for Columbia Pictures because of his growing relationship with Sony (Sony Pictures Entertainment owns Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group) which includes his directing of a Lance Armstrong cycling film and his work on the in-development Tokyo Suckerpunch. Combined with his longstanding relationship with Tobey Maguire that includes writing and directing him twice in the films listed above. They’ll be pairing as Actor-Director for a third go with The Crusaders.

SCI FI Wire had an exclusive interview with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the writers behind next month’s Zombieland flick (which looks great!) and they spoke about that other big project they’ve been working on: the script for the Venom solo film.

The last we heard on the Venom project from the writers was from back in April when they couldn’t comment on whether or not this incarnation of Venom would be the same as/related to the wasted version we saw in the highly disappointing Spider-Man 3.

In the interview, Reese and Wernick take questions on the status of the project and when the film could be in production.

News has surfaced that Gary Ross, writer of such films including Seabiscuit, The Tale of Despereaux, Dave and Lassie in the past and writer/director of some others (that we’ll discuss later), is being brought in to re-write the script of Spider-Man 4.

What does this mean for the movie?

Superhero Hype recently caught up with Rhett Resse and Paul Wernick, the two screenwriters who penned a first draft of the Venom spin-off for Sony Pictures. The resulting discussion yielded a few choice tidbits about how the screenwriters view Venom, and what Sony and Marvel may be envisioning for the project.

The big question I know is on Venom fans’ minds: will we be getting the crappy Spider-Man 3 Venom? Or will the spin-off finally get the character right?

As part of the Spider-Man 4/5 story that just broke, Deadline Hollywood also reported that Sony is moving forward with a movie about Venom, one of the villains in Spider-Man 3. Without giving specifics, the word is that a pair of screenwriters have been hired to start work on the script.

The interesting thing is that Todd MacFarlane, one of the creators of the character, doesn’t think Venom can work very well as the “hero” of a movie.

The Hollywood Reporter has floated news that there is finally some movement on the long awaited (by fanboys) Venom movie.

The last time there was any news of note was back in February of this year that Sony had met with some “A-list writers” to pen a Venom screenplay. It seems that the main guy on that list was Jacob Estes, who has wrtten Nearing Grace and Mean Creek.

Yeah, I haven’t heard of either of those either, but that’s ok, because he’s out and someone else will be coming in to write the script.

We haven’t mentioned the Venom movie since last August here at Screen Rant because frankly, there’s been nothing to say about it.

Back then we reported that Avi Arad said that things are coming along “awesome” regarding the Venom movie, but was tight-lipped regarding casting or any other details. I guess that with the writers’ strike things have been dead in the water, but with Marvel recently cutting a side deal with the WGA it seems that things may be moving forward with this film.

[UPDATE: Is the Venom Movie Moving Finally Moving Forward?]

Avi Arad recently sat down with Garth of DarkHorizons.com to discuss his involvement in the upcoming movie Bratz (which no, I will NOT be covering here on Screen Rant!) and some Marvel projects came up in the discussion.

In particular it seems that things are moving forward, albeit at an early stage, for Spider-Man 4. At this point it’s just at the discussion level with Sony Pictures. What was a surprise for me was the fact that there is a Venom movie in development! I had not heard this previously.

So you’ve probably already heard that the new (and final) Spider-Man 3 trailer is online. Of course if you were one of the folks who’ve seen 300 then you’ve already seen this trailer on a big, giant screen.

This trailer concentrates a lot more on Venom than previous footage has and seems to show that Venom is indeed the main antagonist in the film. It seems like Harry and Sandman are more like the triggers for Venom gaining power than anything else.

There are some new photos from Spider-Man 3 over at Joblo.com including the one above. If you ask me this image settles the question of whether in the movie Venom will be from outer space. That’s Peter Parker’s moped in the foreground (as if you didn’t know).

So Venom has black webbing? Here’s a new pic showing Spiderman snagged by the long-tongued, big-fanged dude. Sadly I must admit that I have never read an issue of Spiderman that had Venom in it as a villain (I know! Can you believe it?). So can anyone tell me, does the uber-evil villain in black have black webbing in the comic book?

You can find the original image at the link below. I tweaked it for a clearer look at Venom.

Source: ComicBookMovie

Update: You can now see the preview right here!

For the next 24 hours only you can go to NBC.com and catch a seven minute preview of Spiderman 3. Personally I fast forwarded through the first half because what I wanted to see was some ACTION.

I hate to admit it, but although I found James Franco’s portrayal of Harry Osborne kind of weepy in the first couple of films, his scenes in the preview as (correct me if I’m wrong) Hobgoblin are really excellent. He seems absolutely ferocious and it works great. And gone is that silly Power Rangers version of the costume, replaced with a more Ninja-like outfit.

Here are a few more images from the preview:

A while back I had a screen cap of what venom looked like from the Spiderman 3 trailer and I did my best to clean it up to make it clear. Well Sideshow Collectibles, which sells really quality movie-related toys and collectibles has for an articulated Venom figure from Spiderman 3.

If you don’t mind seeing what Venom is going to look like in clear detail (consider yourself warned!), go ahead and click on the thumbnails below for a much larger view.

Ifilm is hosting a hot off the press, brand new Spiderman 3 trailer. It’s over 2 minutes long and is a genuine trailer (as opposed to a teaser).

Looks freakin’ excellent to me and right up there with the first two Spiderman movies. We get plenty of looks at Sandman (who was cast PERFECTLY) as well as more Venom background. I’m still concerned that they may be trying to squeeze in too much with three bad guys… well, actually it looks like the way they’re portraying Venom he’s not an actual character, but we’ll have to see.

On the flip side what I did like was seeing the Peter is finally going to tell Harry that he didn’t kill his father. Of course that doesn’t mean that Harry will believe it.

Click here to see it in a variety of video formats.

Update: Click here for the new Spiderman 3 trailer released November 2006.

It’s out and it’s very cool and if there was any doubt Venom is in it, doubt no more.

Pretty sweet if you ask me, with the same level of integrity as the previous two films.

Click here for a variety of Quicktime formats.

So how many characters can a superhero movie sustain and still give each enough screen time that we get to know and care about them? Based on recent news it’s looking like besides Spiderman we have:

- Mary Jane Watson
- The Sandman
- Venom
- Gwen Stacy
- Harry Osborne (Hobgoblin?)

Venom was confirmed a couple of days ago as was the addition of Gwen Stacy (to be played by Bryce Dallas Howard). I think it’s pretty cool that they’re finally putting the Gwen character in a Spidey movie but I’m wondering how they’ll be working her in?

Call it wishful thinking about the whole “Venom is the villain in Spiderman 3” thing, but it looks like it ain’t gonna happen. According to AICN, there is artwork all over the production offices of the upcoming Spidey flick indicating that the villain will be Sandman.

Realistically, this makes more sense than Venom from a marketing and box office standpoint. There are some things that are just creepy in drawn or animated form that would be scary as hell in live action, and Venom is one of them. When I think of that character in a live action film, for some reason Spawn comes to mind.

Sandman, if done right (and I have no doubt he will be), will make for a visually interesting villain and is much less intimidating for the kiddies, upon whom much bank will be made.

Ok, so you already know that Thomas Hayden Church has been cast as a villain in Spiderman 3… but which villain? Now that is the question.

The following may be either an “oops” moment during an interview, or just misdirection, but the thing is that it actually makes sense.

Tim Phoenix is a special effects guy who did work on Spiderman 2, and is currently working on Where the Wild Things Are, and the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel. During an interview with a local paper in which he talked about how fortunate he feels with all the big projects he’s been fortunate to be involved in he apparently let slip that he was working on conceptual designs for the upcoming Spidey flick.

What designs?

This had to be the wildest Survivor conclusion in the series entire run. It was obvious that even Jeff Probst (the host of the show) was caught off-balance.

The final on-island episode was a jaw-dropper. With a million dollars on the line, neither Rob nor Amber trusted each other enough to forfeit immunity. The closing remarks/questions by the jury had the most venom since the first season. Lex’s and Alicia’s speech had been percolating for a while, but Tom’s dissing of Rob at the end almost made me spill my drink.

The “after the vote” portion of the show could have gone on for another 30 minutes easily. There was just so much to process. The producers are going to have a heck of a time following up this latest run.

Let’s summarize: