Venom (Sony Universe)

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures is not only growing its slate of its Universe of Marvel Characters but is building on the female characters at the center of it, and looks to have landed one of the sought female directors in Hollywood. Sources tell Deadline that Olivia Wilde has closed a deal to direct and develop a secret Marvel film project revolving around a female character in the universe. While not confirmed, it is expected that the story will be centered on Spider-Woman.



The film will be penned by Katie Silberman with Amy Pascal producing. Rachel O’Connor will exec produce.

Wilde, Silberman and Pascal already have strong ties and the three are working on a Christmas buddy film at Universal they hope to do prior to this one. Gary Spinelli penned a previous draft of the script.

The Spider-Woman character has actually been the alter ego of several characters in the Spider-Man timeline over the years including Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson and Jessica Drew, who was the first to sport the costume in the late 1970s. Since the concept is being completely revamped by Wilde, it’s unknown the direction the studio will go with her.

The project has been a high priority since the top of the year and Wilde came close to passing on it as her dance card has begun to fill up quite quickly. At the end of the day, the idea of having a chance to launch her own female superhero was too hard to pass up, and she eventually came around to fully committing to the project.

This marks the second film based around a female character in Sony’s universe of Marvel characters to land a director after S.J. Clarkson was tapped to direct a Madame Webb movie. Sony is also developing Black Cat and Silver Sable movies and is clearly making the effort to diversify the universe.

Around the industry, more and more female filmmakers are getting their shot at directing big-budget comic book movies. Nia DaCosta most recently landed the Captain Marvel 2 job at Marvel and along with Wilde and Clarkson will follow in the footsteps of Patty Jenkins, Cathy Yan and Chloe Zhao, the latter who has the upcoming The Eternals.

Even with Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Morbius postponed until 2021, Sony Pictures is continuing to build up its slate of Marvel films. Sources tell Deadline that J.C. Chandor is in talks to direct Sony’s Kraven the Hunter, the latest film to gain momentum in the studio’s Universe of Marvel Characters.

Sony had no comment.

Sony is continuing to build a healthy development slate of Spider-Man characters to rival other studios’ comic book pics currently in development. Besides Venom 2 and Jared Leto’s Morbius, the studio also recently set S.J. Clarkson to direct its untitled Madame Web pic and tapped Marc Guggenheim to write its Jackpot movie. The next installment in the Spider-Man franchise also begins shooting this winter.

Tom Spezialy, coming off a run as an executive producer on HBO’s Emmy-winning limited series Watchmen, has signed an overall deal with Amazon Studios. Under the pact, I hear Spezialy has joined Silk, Sony Pictures Television’s upcoming live-action Marvel series, which reportedly is headed to Amazon’s Prime Video as SVOD distributor. Reps for Amazon and Sony declined comment.

I hear Spezialy will serve as executive producer/showrunner on the series alongside executive producer Lauren Moon, a writer on Sony TV’s Netflix series Atypical, who wrote the Silk TV adaptation based on the Korean-American comic book superhero, created by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos.

Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse’s Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who oversee Sony’s suite of TV series based on Sony’s Universe of Marvel characters, executive produce Silk with Spider-Man franchise producer Amy Pascal.

As executive producer of another comic book TV adaptation, Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen, Spezialy shared in the show’s Outstanding Limited Series Emmy Award. He also co-created Starz’s Ash vs Evil Dead and executive produced The Leftovers, Desperate Housewives, Reaper and Dead Like Me. He is repped by Manage-ment and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.

Silk (aka Cindy Moon) first appeared as a faceless cameo in Marvel Comics’ The Amazing Spider-Man #1 in April 2014. She was part of the new Agents of Atlas team, which debuted in a War of the Realms tie-in and later got their own five-issue limited series. A new Silk ongoing series by writer Maruene Goo and artist Takeshi Miyazawa was set to be published in July 2020 but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released in March 2021.

The character has been portrayed by Tiffany Espensen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Silk: Spider Society 

‘Spider-Man’ Spin-Off Series ‘Silk’ Lands Order At MGM+ & Amazon With Angela Kang As Showrunner; Forms Part Of Suite Of Marvel Series From Sony TV

Yeah it kind of looks like the scenes with them in their costumes are just going to be set in a future that the villain is trying to prevent from happening in the first place