Producer Avi Arad talks about crossovers with Venom, Spider-Man, and The Avengers

Producer Avi Arad had a few comments about the upcoming VENOM solo film as well as potential crossover territory for both Venom and Spider-Man, as well as Spider-Man with The Avengers, while speaking at the press junket for the upcoming THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN.  Arad is always very passionate when he speaks about his film and is equally all over the map in terms of articulating his responses, so it goes without saying that some of what he says is open to interpretations.

That’s a nice way of me saying I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about sometimes.

On VENOM as a hero:

“As you know, Venom is defender of the innocent,” Arad said. “The only guy he really, really hates is Peter Parker, Spider-Man. The reason you didn’t see more development on Venom in the comics is because this power that he was given, he knew who Peter was, he knew who Spider-Man was, so go kill him already. We always struggle with storylines and you see the new Venom books. It’s Flash in Iraq. We know that if we put him in a certain position and concentrate on the human, not on the creature, which I thought was a really good beginning in 3.”

On VENOM story details:

“It’s an Eddie Brock story… We want to be as close to the comics as possible. Especially in Eddie Brock’s story. But again, pseudo-sceince is becoming science. All these tidbits about webs, artificial webs, is a huge industry now. Spiderwebs have unique qualities that will be huge for communications, fibers, and so forth. So we have taken the approach that we want to make the huge amazing movie about Eddie.”

On Spider-Man crossing over with The Avengers:

“Everything is possible,” Arad said. “If something like that happens, it’s great for Disney, it’s great for Sony. If the right story comes in, we are now working on Venom first. It’s our first out. So our thinking is in the right direction. Avengers to me was an expected success so I never looked at it because Avengers was successful.”  He elaborated, “Team ups can happen once you create the character, establish the CG, otherwise it’s not affordable.”

Producer Matthew Tolmach also spoke about the possibility of the new Spider-Man mixing it up with the new VENOM, saying:

“All things are possible someday,” said Tomach.  “What I’m trying to say to you without giving anything away is hopefully all these worlds will live together in peace someday… look for the worlds to make sense with one another.”

With VENOM seemingly in the midst of actually getting made my spider-sense gets a little tingly.  I’ve always liked the Eddie Brock version of Venom, but only as a villain, not as some kind of hero/anti-hero.  The current version of war vet Flash Thompson attempting to use the Venom symbiote as a weapon for the U.S. Government is a much more interesting concept for that arena in my opinion. 

As for THE AVENGERS crossover potential with Spider-Man, I think it’s ripe for exploration and high time that Sony realized it.  I really don’t see the downside to merging both franchises as both studios would stand to make a killing. 

What do you guys think?