Ever since Venom popped up in Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN 3, where he was played by Topher Grace, there has been talk of a spin-off centering around the Spidey villain, but not much has come of it, until now. In a rather surprising move, Sony Pictures have slated the VENOM movie for a October 5, 2018 release, filling the hole which was vacated by AQUAMAN earlier today.
Reports seem to be conflicted, but several outlets are claiming that Alex Kurtzman, who co-wrote THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2, will be taking the helm of the VENOM movie. Kurtzman was set to direct the VENOM spin-off four years ago when the project was among several which Sony was developing to expand the Spider-Man brand, but we should probably take his current involvement with a grain of salt until something more official is announced.
Sony abandoned those spin-off plans after coming to an agreement with Marvel over the use of Spider-Man, but the studio resurrected the VENOM project last year and hired Dante Harper to pen the screenplay as an entirely separate entity from their rebooted SPIDER-MAN franchise. That was pretty much the last word we heard on the subject and it remains to be seen whether VENOM will still be developed outside the SPIDER-MAN franchise. THR adds that Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner have recently turned in a draft and that Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach will be producing and overseeing the project, which probably supports the idea that this won't be related to SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING.
SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING is set for a July 7, 2017 release.