So I don't get this - Venom is to be the baddie in Spiderman 3

[Taverner]

ANd I can totally get Topher Grace playing Eddie aka Venom - HOWEVER....

There is like miles of backstory behind Venom...how are they going to do that AND tell the story of Venom?

[Giant Robot]

1. Different story, different medium

While it looks like they are trying to be respectful of Spidey's history, it is not gospel to them and beyond violation or change. I'm sure we could sit and think of a dozen ideas for how to fit a guy with a living super-suit into the move Spider-Man universe. Just don't expect it to involve, the Secret Wars, the Beyonder, Spider-Man ever wearing it, etc. It's the movie. It's different. That's ok.

[Taverner]

2. True

They did take a bunch of liberties with the last two...

Thing his, however...the back story is what made Venom so interesting...especially Eddie's story. In many ways he was a parallel to Peter Parker - just one who made very different decisions with very different results.

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

3. My thing is, it's really two stories.

First, you've got Peter Parker's initial relationship with the symbiote, how he bonds with it and then rejects it. How he acquires the symbiote in the first place isn't an important part of the story, and can be rewritten with no problems; it could just as easily have hitched a ride on the Space Shuttle in orbit, or escaped from a government lab.

Then you've got the story of Eddie Brock: his vendetta against Spider-Man, how he encounters the symbiote and becomes Venom, etc. They're two different stories with different themes, and even though they're connected, I don't think you can squash them together into one movie and still do either of them justice.

BTW, personally I had pictured David Boreanaz (Angel) as Brock/Venom. Topher Grace is a good actor, but this part calls for someone who can do tall, dark, and brooding. Plus, Boreanaz has more fight-scene experience.

Grace is still a better choice than Alfred Molina was for Doc-Oc, of course.