Sony Near, Sony Far: 'Deadpool' Writers Reflect On Their Cancelled 'Venom' Script

2017 brought news of a Venom film crashing to Earth in a meteorite of fandom, and it now looks like #Sony is moving full-steam ahead with the plans. Shooting is set to start as early as autumn this year with a 2018 release, so there isn't much time for the symbiote to suit up. The character has been in our lives since the mid-'80s, and has had several scrapped plans for a solo-outings, but it is unknown how much (if any) of the previous ideas scriptwriters Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner will incorporate into the alien anti-hero's next live-action outing.

Once upon a time #Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick had a fully completed #Venom script, but just like Topher Grace's performance as the character in Spider-Man 3, Venom failed on every level. As the duo once again put pen to paper for Deadpool 2, they look back on their time wrestling Eddie Brock into his symbiote suit, and whether or not their ideas still have the formidable bite of the titular character.

Write Place, Wrong Time

When discussing their latest film Life and their plans for Deadpool 2, the "V" question inevitably popped up. While the plans are long gone, Wernick fondly reminisced about the pair's plan for the character, an entity they clearly had high hopes for:

“We haven't read that script in so long. We were out on the set of Zombieland and we had turned it in. That would have been 2007, 2008. … Not having read it, it's hard. But we were immensely proud of that script. My guess is there are things if we would go back and read it, we would want to change things, but there are also things that we think, ‘Oh my God, that's so cool.’”

However, Reese seemed pessimistic that any of their ideas have survived from 2007, citing that Sony will undoubtedly put a new spin on the story:

“I don't think that draft is being used in the creation of the movie. They have got to have moved on from it a long time ago, there have been other writers.”

Wernick closed the book by saying that their script could only ever be a rough guide on how to write a "new" Venom film:

"I think there may be an element or two that has survived, but that might be it."

Both still refused to disclose what their Venom script contained, or whether it would even focus on Eddie Brock, but given Deadpool, there would undoubtedly have been some ass-kicking carnage included.

New 'Life' To The Project

Details on Venom are still relatively thin on the ground, and it is unknown how/if the project will tie into the #MCU and Tom Holland's #SpiderMan. With Venom's roots altogether more violent, it seems that the film would be perfect to join the recent trend of R-rated #superhero movies, further backed up by the fact it is currently being categorized as a sci-fi-horror.

Sadly, the interview also teased another "what if" problem, which could also have been superb. We see another alien menace made of gloop in #Life, which only nods to what could've been Venom and quashed rumors that the #scifi #horror is a secret set-up for Venom's arrival to Sony. The duo also joked that Life 2 is already written — it would simply be their Venom. Life seamlessly crafted a gooey black menace from outer space with terror, so we can only imagine what venomous delights would've come crawling out of the duo's shelved script.