It seems like there are one too many spin-off opportunities that never saw the light of day in the realm of comic book movies. The Nightstalkers from Blade: Trinity were supposed to get their own movies. Deadpool from X-Men Origins: Wolverine was supposed to get his own spinoff. Spider-Man 3 was supposed to lead to a Venom movie. Interestingly, those last two projects have the same screenwriters still working on breaking the stories.
Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have been promoting their most recent project G.I. Joe: Retaliation and they admitted in the interview they have a Deadpool script that is R-rated and they also worked to crack the Venom story as well.
We did. A long time ago, and it likely will not become a movie in that form. Too many things have happened in between now and then and different people have been involved, and it’s just likely not to happen in the form that we wrote it, unfortunately. – Paul Wernick
That Venom movie was supposed to be grounded and a dark take on the character. They called it “soul search-y” and they also referred to Eddie Brock as a “conflicted character.”
That could have been perfect. What made Venom great in the comics is that he wasn’t a bad guy, he just hated Peter Parker. Eddie hated Peter for ruining his career and Venom hated Peter for rejecting him. However, when Spider-Man wasn’t around, Venom was the protector of the innocent, and especially the downtrodden and homeless who had no one else to look out for them.
While they said they got close to nailing the Venom movie, they did nail Deadpool and feel that their script works perfectly for the character.
We have a phenomenal director in Tim Miller, who did about a 3-minute test for Fox, and Ryan came in to do the mo-cap for it and the voice. And it’s like the greatest three minutes ever. I look at the three minutes and I’m like, “That’s the movie, and it has to get made.” I think the biggest hurdle right now is convincing the-powers-that-be that it’s okay to have a hard-R rated movie within the Marvel Universe. – Rhett Reese
An R-rated Deadpool by the guys who wrote Zombieland? Fox, make it happen.