Sony Plans a Spider-Verse – Did You Hear? Week of August 10, 2018

Did You Hear? is a weekly examination of headlines in the entertainment industry and a take on what they could mean for the future of the industry and (often), the little geeky bubble that we occupy.

Silk and Venom and Spidey, Oh My!

For diehard MCU fans, Sony remains the last bastion standing in the way of complete Disney-controlled empire. While they remain will to play nice where Peter Parker is concerned, the studio remains determined to construct a shared universe of their own out of the few remaining Spider-Man specific characters that they own …

… despite the fact that they tried a shared Spider-Verse under the auspices of The Amazing Spider-Man purported-franchise.

In a recent sit-down with Variety Sony revealed that Tom Hardy’s Venom is going to be the “touchstone” of their universe, since that pesky Peter Parker is off gallivanting in Avengers flicks. This has also led them to the decision to re-align the upcoming Venom movie to achieve a PG-13 rating. Could this be the reason for the word “anti-hero” being tossed around in so many descriptions of Venom – including its own trailer? This decision seems questionable, at first blush. Past anti-hero movies like Deadpool and Logan (even the Netflix Punisher television series), have proven that characters known for their heightened violence and often ribald sensibilities are best served by an R rating.

Remember X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Wolverine? Neither do I!

Black and Silver, the proposed Black Cat and Silver Sable movie, has been scrapped with the supposed intention of introducing both women in their own separate film. Not a bad idea at face value, but surely there are other more prominent female Spider characters that Sony would want to throw the weight of their studio behind?

“We believe Black Cat is enough of her own character with a great backstory and a canon of material to draw from to justify her own film.” says Sanford Panitch (president of Columbia Pictures)

There is a Silk standalone movie in development, although there hasn’t been much traction there, along with Jackpot and Nightwatch movies, respectively. Richard Wenk (Equalizer, Equalizer 2), is currently penning the screen for Kraven and Suicide Squad’s Jared Leto is set to star in the Morbius spin-off.

It would seem that Sony hasn’t so much scaled-back their ambitious world-building efforts in their little corner of the Marvel Universe, as they’ve shuffled a few things around.

Marvel Does a Good Deed

Just when you think Marvel Studios can do nothing more to win the hearts and minds of nerds the world over, they do something so deeply heartfelt you know it would make Steve Rogers smile: MCU-inspired children’s hospital gowns.

Deemed “Starlight Gowns”, this collection included the likenesses of: Black Panther, Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, Captain Marvel and more. This donation from Marvel was part of a grant celebrating Marvel’s much-highlighted 10-year anniversary. $800,000 went to the Make-A-Wish foundation and $450,000 to Starlight Gowns.

Starlight Gown’s CEO  Chris Helfrich told Essence:

“Every kid dreams of transforming into their favorite Marvel superhero — and a hospitalized child is no different.”

Sometimes it’s refreshing to see that our on-screen heroes can inspired such superheroic real-life action.

The CW Finds It’s Batwoman

Ever since Batwoman was announced as the central figure of the CW DCTV crossover – and the speedy announcement of her solo series, days later – the casting of Kate Kane has been a big question mark on the mouths of geeks everywhere.

This week Orange is the New Black’s actor Ruby Rose was cast. The CW pledged to cast an openly lesbian actor in the part and Rose’s queer identity has long been a part of her public image.  Rose is also known for her comfort level with physical stunts including appearing in a number of action films including the upcoming: The Meg, John Wick 2, and XXX: Return of Xander Cage.

On paper she certainly carries some great cache, but fans of Batwoman will have to wait until December of this year to see our first live action Kate Kane on screen.

Look Up in the Sky! It’s a … Supergirl Movie?

Despite the fact that the CW Supergirl show has suffered a number of production problems since its inception over on CBS, Variety reports that the Girl of Steel may soon have her own standalone feature film. When you consider the fact that her famous cousin, Superman, has had nearly 10 movies of his own there is a definite sense of it’s about time! in this announcement even amidst the on-going confusion about why Warner Bros and DC Comics wants to continue the tradition of double-dipping from the same well of characters to populate both their television and film projects.

All we know about this potential Supergirl flick is that Oren Uziel has been hired to write the script. Uziel is best known for writing the highly popular 22 Jump Street reboot.

There will probably be a lot of questions and think pieces about just how much this movie should borrow from the television series in the months and years to come. This is one of the first projects that we know about since Walter Hamada took over WB comic book movies and will certainly bear the heavy weight of responsibility in potentially shaping what the DC Cinematic Universe is going to look like moving forward.

Sonic Sounds Like BB-8

Paramount’s upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog animated movie has found the voice of video game’s most beloved speedster in Parks & Rec actor Ben Schwartz, Variety reports. Schwartz joined SNL alum Bill Hader to create the unique “speaking voice” for the droid that unseated R2-D2 as the cutest droid in the galaxy for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens and lends his voice talents to Disney’s Ducktales reboot as Dewey Duck.

He joins Tika Sumpter, Jim Carrey, and former-X-Men leader James Marsden and – frankly – has more voice acting talent than some of his fellow castmates. As an actor known for his comedic chops, I think it’s fair to assume that this Sonic movie is going to have some jokes!

The Kirkman TV Empire Expands

While The Walking Dead seems determined to shuffle on until such a time as television ends, creator Robert Kirkman announced San Diego Comic-Con that another of his comic book properties is destined for adaptation. Super Dinosaur (from Image Comics made in collaboration with artist Jason Howard), is getting the animated treatment.

Another of Kirkman’s comic properties, Invincible, is currently in development for its own animated series at Amazon. However, Super Dinosaur would be the first Kirkman joint to feature an all-ages friendly narrative.

According to ImageComics.com:

“The Evil Max Maximus wants to get to Inner-Earth! He wants the dinosaurs that live there! He wants the powerful DynOre mineral that originates there! SUPER DINOSAUR and DEREK DYNAMO are the only ones who can stop him! The fate of the world rests on the shoulders of a ten year-old kid and his best friend, a nine-foot tall Tyrannosaurus Rex who loves to play video games.”

Young Adult and All Ages properties are more popular than ever with the huge fandoms that have sprung up around Adventure Times, Steven Universe, and Gravity Falls this feels like a move for the Kirkman empire to expand into some exciting uncharted territory.

What are your takes on any of these stories? Is there anything you want us to look at next week? Let us know down in the comments!

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