Sony is hoping to capitalize on this summer’s The Amazing Spider-Man by moving forward on a Venom spin-off with Chronicle director Josh Trank behind the camera.

According to the L.A. Times, Trank is currently negotiating with Sony for the gig that would put him in charge of the alien entity that attaches itself to a human host and becomes as powerful as – if not more powerful than – Spider-Man himself. The source is being kept under wraps, and Sony isn’t publicly addressing the story at this time.

Topher Grace played Eddie Brock / Venom in Spider-Man 3 as a nemesis to Spider-Man. His screen time as the villain was fairly limited, and he was quickly written out of the franchise by the time the film concluded.

The new Venom film project will seek a new actor for the starring role, though it’s unclear at this time if there will be any crossover appearances from Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man.

A Venom film has been in the works at Sony dating back to at least 2008. The Hunger Games director Gary Ross was negotiating to take the reigns in 2009, but dropped out to focus on other projects. As with recasting the role of Eddie Brock, Sony will be scrapping the 2008 script by Jacob Estes and will soon begin the search for a writer to start over. If Trank got on board now, he could be in a position to potentially influence the story as it is written.

Josh Trank found much success with Chronicle, earning just under $61 million with his superpowers tale that featured no name stars. It is Sony’s hope he can bring that success to Venom and multiply it with a larger budget and more recognizable cast.

If Trank does get the job, it will either sideline a potential Chronicle sequel for a few years or put Fox in a position to hire a new director to push that potential franchise forward.

Source: L.A. Times