Spider-Man Movie Producers Reveal Venom & Sinister Six Plans

producers, Matt Tolmach and Avi Arad, revealed some of their plans for Venom and the Sinister Six in an interview with SFX.Tolmarch confirmed that the team of writers responsible for the Amazing Spider-Man films is indeed planning to turn The Amazing Spider-Man franchise into its own movie universe:

“That’s the new thing that we constructed. We brought in [Alex] Kurtzman and [Bob] Orci and [Jeff] Pinkner on this last movie as the writers and we fell in love with that dynamic. We were all so enamored of the script they wrote, and just the spirit of the collaboration, that we decided that there are all these other stories to tell: not just Spider-Man movies but the ones that we’ve announced, The Sinister Six and Venom, and they all come from the same place. We realized it would be really good in terms of storytelling to have a grand scheme for where and how these stories grow out of the centerpiece, which is always Spider-Man. And if all these people are talking to each other, if Drew Goddard is going to do Sinister Six, it would be really good for him to be part of the conversation about Spider-Man. And obviously Alex is the writer of Spider-Man and the person who’s going to be doing Venom. We should all be talking so that these movies feel as though they’re of a piece, so the fans feel like there’s symmetry. It’s a crazy luxury to have all these smart writers sitting around in a room brainstorming. Our jobs remain the same in terms of having to produce and direct the movies but it’s like putting together an all-star team – why not have the best players there all the time? So that was kind of a breakthrough idea that we’re just now really tapping into.”

He also discussed the difficulties inherent in marketing a Sinister Six film, based on a group of villains:

“It’s a challenge in every sense. Obviously questions of traditional hero/villain dynamics have to be looked at. At the same time it’s an awesome challenge, because some of the greatest characters are in fact villains, and how you construct that is so much fun. People love those bad characters if they’re good bad characters, and love to watch them. And nobody’s all good, nobody’s all bad, and so where we end up with that story, I think, is a really awesome challenge, and we all smile when we think about what you can do. It’s definitely a bad-ass group of people and I think it’s going to be a ton of fun to watch them.”

Avi Arad discussed his vision for a Venom film that delved into the character’s moral ambiguity:

“Venom hated only one guy – Spider-Man. He wasn’t innately bad, he was a shortcut guy, not really into fighting hard for achievement. That’s the Venom story. Can he also be a good guy? As you know, Venom was also called ‘lethal defender of the innocent’. We had a great history with him, especially caring for the homeless, which is a very sensitive issue and something that many of us are very concerned with. Our villains all represent a different side of the misunderstood, and some of them unfortunately turned to the dark side. Venom happened to be a phenomenal character. With Eddie Brock, or if you do Flash Thompson, it doesn’t matter who is going to be inside the suit – what’s important is that a man like him is going to realize there comes a time when you wake up in the morning and say ‘How did I get here? There must be a better way.’”

Plans for the Sinister Six and Venom films are still in pre-production. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 comes to theaters May 2, 2014.