"Seabiscuit" writer/director to take on "Venom"

According to various entertainment news reports around the web today, "Seabiscuit" writer/director Gary Ross will be writing the screenplay for and possibly directing "Venom", a "Spider-Man" spin-off movie for Sony Pictures. Ross is also currently penning a draft of the screenplay for "Spider-Man 4", also for Sony and is due in 2011. There is no word as to whether Topher Grace, who played Venom in "Spider-Man 3", will play the character in the spin-off film.

The news of Ross' involvement in both "Spidey 4" and "Venom" is very welcome news indeed. While I wasn't crazy about his 1998 feature "Pleasantville", I did love "Seabiscuit", one of the better sports dramas to come out of Hollywood in quite some time. I also thought his scripts for 1993's "Dave" and 1988's "Big" (co-written with Anne Spielberg) were first rate as well. Here's hoping Ross can bring the same level of character development and storytelling that he did to the aforementioned trio to both "Spidey 4" and "Venom".

Hell, anything would be better than the mess that was "Spider-Man 3" (or as I like to call it, 'Spider-Meh 3'), which was surprisingly penned by Sam & Ivan Raimi. Whether it was studio interference (nahhh!) or the fact that Raimi was planning on making the third one the last Spidey he would work on, "3" had none of the character or heart of the first two entries. Perhaps bringing Ross on board might steer things back in the right direction. At least I hope he does.