Venom

Venom is a 2018 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Eddie Brock / Venom. The first film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU), it was directed by Ruben Fleischer from a screenplay by Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg, and Kelly Marcel. Tom Hardy stars as Eddie Brock and Venom, alongside Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, and Reid Scott. In the film, Eddie, a struggling journalist, gains superpowers after becoming the host of Venom, an alien symbiote whose species plans to invade Earth.

Following Venom's appearance in Spider-Man 3 (2007), Sony Pictures attempted to develop a spin-off film based on the Venom character, which was stalled due to issues with the company's ongoing Spider-Man franchise. In March 2016, work began on a new version that would start a new shared universe featuring the non-Spider-Man Marvel characters that the studio possessed film rights to. Sony also originally intended for the Venom film to share the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), but ultimately distanced the film from Spider-Man. Sony's Columbia Pictures produced the film in association with Marvel Entertainment. In March 2017, Rosenberg and Pinkner were set to write, with Fleischer and Hardy added in May; Marcel subsequently joined to rewrite the script. Filming took place from October 2017 to January 2018 in Atlanta, New York City, and San Francisco. The film was primarily inspired by the comic book miniseries Venom: Lethal Protector (1993) and the story arc "Planet of the Symbiotes" (1995). Ludwig Göransson was hired to compose the film's score, marking his second Marvel film after Black Panther (2018).