How Sony’s Venom Movie Is Eerily Similar To Never Say Never Again

Since Sony made a deal with Disney & Marvel Studios to share the Spider-Man film rights, Tom Holland’s introduction as Spider-Man to the MCU has been promising, from the films Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming and the current release of Avengers: Infinity War. But Sony aren’t letting go with their shared universe plans yet, as they’re attempting again with the Spider-Man rights that they still own, starting with a Venom spin-off and hopefully Silver & Black, Morbius the Living Vampire, and Nightwatch, too.

Less than five months away from Venom being released, this also shares parallels to another film franchise back in 1983. That was James Bond and during that year, a rival Bond film entitled Never Say Never Again was attempting to compete against the official Bond film, Octopussy.

This definitely provides noteworthy comparisons between Venom and Never Say Never Again.

 

The Legal Problems

Before the first James Bond film, Dr. No, was made, creator Ian Fleming had teamed up with filmmaker Kevin McClory and screenwriter Jack Whittingham to make an original Bond adventure not based on one of Fleming’s books. Thunderball is what this idea would become, but production didn’t get off the ground. However, Fleming turned the Thunderball concept into a book, without crediting McClory or Whittingham. This led the two to sue Fleming for plagiarism, which they ended up winning.

McClory was given the film rights to Thunderball and unsuccessfully attempted to make a film adaptation of it himself, but EON Productions, who have been behind all 24 Bond films to date, were able to make a deal with him. They offered McClory an opportunity to become the sole producer for the fourth EON James Bond film, Thunderball, the film rights that McClory owned. He signed on and the film proved to a successful hit.

However, ten years after Thunderball came out, authorization was given to McClory to remake the film, which he did in 1983 with Never Say Never Again.

Compared to Spider-Man, there were no plagiarism issues relating to the character, unless you count the disagreements between Stan Lee and Steve Ditko on the creation of the web-slinger. Anyhow, Marvel were in financial trouble during the mid-1990s and they had to make money by letting Hollywood studios acquire the film rights to some of their Marvel characters.

Sony would get Spider-Man and they were able to launch the web-slinger onto the big screen, with Tobey Maguire playing the title character in 2002 and again in two further sequels. The three films would make over 2 billion dollars at the box office. However, a fourth film fell through and was instead rebooted with the Andrew Garfield films by Sony, but were regarded as inferior to the Tobey Maguire ones. If the reboot didn’t happen, the character rights would suddenly be reverted back to Marvel and with Spider-Man being Sony’s moneymaking franchise, they couldn’t give those rights up.

In February 2015, a deal was made by Sony and Disney/Marvel Studios to share the Spider-Man film rights, meaning that Spider-Man would be rebooted (again!) and introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

However, Sony still maintained complete control of the overall rights, meaning that they can use other Spider-Man characters that Marvel doesn’t have full control of and create their own shared universe, which in this case will be the upcoming Venom film.

 

The Producers & Studios

When the James Bond film franchise started in 1962, producers Albert R. (Cubby) Broccoli & Harry Saltzman helped to create one of the longest running film franchises of all time. They would launch EON Productions as the production company to make the Bond films, as well as Danjaq to deal with the James Bond trademark and copyrights.

Being devoted to Bond, Broccoli would stay as producer for the franchise until his death in 1996, where the torch would be passed on to stepson and daughter Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, beginning with 1995’s GoldenEye.

Neither EON Productions nor Broccoli had any involvement with the making of Never Say Never Again, but instead, a different production company (Taliafilm) were involved with the decision-making. Also, the iconic James Bond gun barrel was not featured in the opening sequence due to copyright issues. The finished film is considered mediocre compared to the 1965 original.

With the MCU films, Marvel Studios were able to self-fund and make their own films based on the Marvel characters they owned, beginning in 2008 with Iron Man and launching the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Kevin Feige has been involved in all 19 MCU films to date as a producer, bringing his expertise and understanding of the characters and the universe of Marvel. The franchise has yet to have had a rotten percentage on Rotten Tomatoes with Thor: The Dark World being their lowest percentage rating at 66%.

When it came to the first MCU film for the web-slinger, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Feige would become one of the producers (unlike previous Spider-Man outings), alongside former co-chairman of Sony, Amy Pascal. Former producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach would take a back seat role as executive producers.

However, Sony now appears to be following their own agenda for Venom. Originally there were no plans for Venom to be connected to the MCU and neither Kevin Feige nor Marvel Studios would be involved with the making of the film. Even recently, Avengers: Infinity War co-director Joe Russo stated similar views. But Sony seemed to be taking advantage of the MCU deal and double crossing Marvel Studios when Amy Pascal explained last year that Venom does take place in the same reality. She will also be producing it alongside Matt Tolmach and Avi Arad, meaning possible trouble.

The track record for Sony has been inconsistent, with Spider-Man 3 earning 63% on Rotten Tomatoes and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 earning 52%, the lowest of the Spider-Man franchise. The first two Tobey Maguire movies and Spider-Man: Homecoming managed to earn over 80%.

Kevin Feige will now join Broccoli as being victim to a film made outside of his control, which could sabotage the success of the MCU.

 

Greed

Greed can get the better of people and Hollywood is driven by one thing: money. Jack Whittingham’s daughter Sylvan explains in the James Bond Documentary Everything or Nothing: “Kevin McClory’s whole life was Bond. He lived, ate and breathed Thunderball. It was an obsession. Nobody could have any idea how tenacious he would be about his rights.” In the 1970s, McClory would make another suing attempt during the pre-production of The Spy Who Love Me, which he failed to win, and would also try to remake Thunderball again during the 1990s, even as far to teaming up with Sony to make a rival Bond series. But EON Productions would end up winning the court case, stopping it from happening.

With the Spider-Man films, the character of Venom came to the cinema screen in Spider-Man 3, brought to life by That ‘70s Show Star Topher Grace. Producer Avi Arad and Sony would persuade director Sam Raimi to include the character, despite his reluctance to do so. In the end, the film would receive mixed reviews, criticizing it for too many characters and Topher Grace’s performance.

After Spider-Man 3 came out, a Venom spin-off was in the works by Avi Arad. The project would unfortunately be in development hell for years. But before this year’s Venom got off the ground, the character was originally meant to be part of The Amazing Spider-Man franchise and the second one was intended to be the start of the Spider-Man shared-universe, which would also include a Sinister Six spin-off and The Amazing Spider-Man 3. However, due to the mixed reviews of the second film and under-performing at the box office, the shared-universe idea was cancelled in favor of Sony joining with Marvel/Disney to introduce Spider-Man into the MCU.

But with the start of Sony’s planned Marvel Universe, they’re hoping to cash in on the MCU and use Spider-Man’s most popular villain to launch that. Why? Well, in the words of Avi Arad: “Venom sells toys.” If that’s what he claims, then the Venom symbiote has probably taken hold of Arad’s mind and everyone associated with the film for the worst, including Sony.

 

The Film’s Opening

In 1962, Maurice Binder helped to create one of the most iconic sequences in film and for the James Bond franchise: the gun barrel, where an assassin is attempting to kill Bond, but only for Bond to suddenly shoot first. This helped to set the definition and tone for the James Bond character and for the series, with six actors so far putting their stamp on this memorable moment.

Additionally, for the film’s title sequences, they originally started off as “Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli Presents”. But after Saltzman left the franchise in the mid seventies, it would just be “Albert R Broccoli Presents”, beginning with The Spy Who Loved Me.

As mentioned earlier, Never Say Never Again does not feature the gun barrel and neither has the name or involvement of Broccoli, which lessens some of the key elements that are part of the James Bond film’s success.

Focusing on Marvel, Imaginary Forces helped to create the Marvel flipbook logo, beginning with 2002’s Spider-Man. Later, when it came to the release of Iron Man, the name would be altered from Marvel to Marvel Studios and then in 2013, the logo was given a complete update for the release of Thor: The Dark World. Finally, by the release of Doctor Strange in 2016, it was updated again, but this time featuring the MCU characters of Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Black Widow etc.

The Spider-Man films would maintain the simple ‘Marvel’ logo until Homecoming, but when it came to the second trailer for Venom, the logo was slightly altered to “In Association with Marvel.” This is probably Sony’s cheeky attempt to try and connect their Marvel Universe to the MCU and somehow deceive audiences into thinking that Marvel Studios is having some involvement with the making of the film, where in reality they aren’t.

 

Secret Weapon

When Never Say Never Again went into production, Sean Connery was brought back after his retirement from the role in 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever and having started the Bond franchise in 1962. This was considered a threat by EON Productions and Albert R. Broccoli and in order to compete against their competition, Roger Moore was brought back for his sixth outing in the 13th EON Bond film Octopussy. With two Bonds rivaling each other, it was considered that Connery would beat Moore at the box office, having taken a 12-year gap as opposed to Roger Moore’s two-year break. Additionally, this would be seen as Battle of the Bonds by the media.

With Venom, Tom Hardy was announced to be playing Eddie Brock/Venom in May 2017, which is the film’s trump card. With film credits including Inception, The Revenant, The Drop and Legend, Hardy has helped to bring a lot of hype and expectations, which could bring the character a lot of justice.

The other secret weapon Venom may have is a rumored cameo from Tom Holland as Peter Parker, suggesting that the film does take place in the MCU. This is similar to the end of M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, where Bruce Willis briefly reprises his role as David Dunn from Unbreakable. Alternatively, Robert Downey Jr’s cameo as Tony Stark at the end of The Incredible Hulk (2008).

Although when Ben Affleck made a reprised cameo as Matt Murdoch for the Daredevil spin-off Electro in 2005, his scene ended up on the cutting room floor. Unless they decide to do the same for Tom Holland due to his character perhaps being different in tone from the actual film, they probably won’t.

 

A Second Attempt

Remakes and reboots are sometimes a chance to improve from the original or re-invent a franchise, such as Christopher Nolan’s dark and realistic take on Batman for The Dark Knight Trilogy, after Joel Schumacher’s campy Batman & Robin. But other remake attempts don’t work as well, such as Gus Van Sant’s pointless 1998 Psycho, which was basically a shot-for-shot remake of the Hitchcock original.

Never Say Never Again was made 18 years after the 1965 original came out, but unlike the original, Bond was re-written as a retired secret agent. This was probably done to accommodate Sean Connery’s age during that period (he was 52), compared to the 56-year-old Roger Moore in Octopussy. However, the finished film could be criticized for Connery’s cold performance, mediocre production costs and being a vacant affair. Whereas the original could ‘never’ be topped from what EON Productions achieved in 1965, especially as its visual effects managed to win an Academy Award.

The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012 was critiqued for being unnecessary and a rehash of the 2002 original. But Venom will be going in a different direction, taking inspiration from Venom: Lethal Protector & Planet of the Symbiotes comics by perhaps having more of a horror and adult feel than previous Marvel efforts. To be fair, had Venom been closer to the origins of the comic books, you could criticize that it will be repeating the same storyline as Spider-Man 3, whereas Tom Holland’s Spider-Man skips the comic book origins and the death of Uncle Ben. So Sony needs to take on a fresh and different approach than their previous efforts.

Additionally, with the casting of Tom Hardy being a significant improvement over Topher Grace, Hardy could really help carry the film. Although from the looks of the two trailers, some people are criticizing Tom Hardy’s New York accent. Unless Hardy is having the opportunity to dub his lines in post, then the film could be in trouble.

 

Franchise trying to kill a Franchise

Octopussy would, in the end, have the last laugh, defeating Kevin McClory and Sean Connery’s rival Bond film. As previously mentioned, it could have destroyed 21 years of the James Bond film franchise had McClory succeeded. It may have even started a rival Bond series by McClory at the time, putting the original Bond franchise in the grave.

Sony’s Venom could also produce problems for the MCU if it creates continuity issues. Black Panther’s Sope Aluko has been cast in an undisclosed role for the film. Could she be playing the same role or something different? If it’s a different character, it may create confusion. It could make things even more confusing if the Tom Holland cameo rumor is to be true.

 

Having One Element Alone May not be Enough

James Bond Producer Barbara Broccoli explains in the documentary Everything or Nothing, “Never Say Never Again I think proved the point that a Bond film cannot exist with just one element alone. Just having Sean wasn’t enough.” Additionally, McClory didn’t have the original key members of the Bond team such as production designer Ken Adam, screenwriter Richard Maibaum, or composer John Barry to help improve his remake.

Likewise with Venom, although it has yet to be released, may just prove the exact same point. Despite the rumors of a Tom Holland cameo, it’s unlikely that the film will stay faithful to the comics from what we’ve seen in the second trailer. Tom Holland’s cameo is likely to remain in the final cut of Venom, but coming out from a bright and colourful Marvel Universe, it may create a disjointed tone for Venom’s dark and horror-like feel. However, in terms of the crew, Sony seem to be pickpocketing particular crew members from the MCU as a ravenous way for Venom to be connected to that same world somehow. They include Iron Man cinematographer Matthew Libatique, Black Panther composer Ludwig Göransson and Spider-Man Homecoming production designer Oliver Scholl.

Still, Feige and the creative team of Marvel Studios aren’t involved and they may know better about what makes Venom tick and what doesn’t, doing a superior job with Venom than what Sony can do by themselves. Also, if Venom does bomb critically, it would become a waste of time for Sony, especially as they could have been more patient for Marvel Studios to include Venom for Spider-Man Homecoming 2 or for a possible third instalment and do the character proper justice.

 

The Legal Problems will eventually come to an end

30 years after the release of Never Say Never Again, the legal dispute with Kevin McClory finally came to an end when the McClory estate sold all of its rights to Bond Distributors MGM and Danjaq in November 2013, seven years after McClory died. This led EON Productions to re-introduce the Spectre organisation and Ernst Stravro Blofeld in 2015’s Spectre, the original characters and concepts that McClory formerly owned.

Under five months away from the release of Venom, Sony may have no choice but to ‘let it go’ and sell their share of the Spider-Man film rights back to Marvel Studios, if the film flops and giving up with their shared universe plans altogether.

Alternatively, there have been reports that Sony may be giving away their film and TV assets, suggesting that Disney could acquire those rights, in the same way that they are hoping to acquire 20th Century Fox, giving X-Men, Fantastic Four and Deadpool the chance to be a part of the MCU.

Whatever Venom’s outcome, it’s unlikely that it will be included in the Phase 3 box set of the MCU, in the same way that Never Say Never Again is not part of the Sean Connery Bond Box set or The James Bond Film Collection.