'Spider-Man' Spinoff: 'Thor' Writer Tackling Silver Sable, Black Cat Movie

Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff universe is getting a little bigger.

The studio, already in deep development on villain off-shoot Venom, is now developing a feature project centered on the female characters Silver Sable and the Black Cat.

Chris Yost, who worked on the upcoming Marvel movie Thor: Ragnarok, is writing the script, building on a previous version written by Lisa Joy, the co-creator of HBO’s Westworld.

The studio is hoping to go to directors soon with an eye on a fall start date. Matt Tolmach and Amy Pascal are producing the project, which was previously known as the secret female spinoff project.

Silver Sable, created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz in 1985, is a mercenary who runs a company that hunts war criminals. The character has been both antagonist and ally to Spider-Man.

Black Cat is an acrobatic cat burglar named Felicia Hardy. The character has a long and tangled romantic history with Spider-Man. The character was cut from scripts for the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy and briefly appeared in name only in Amazing Spider-Man 2, played by Felicity Jones.

Sony has a new and rebooted Spider-Man movie coming this summer, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and the superhero and his universe of characters are seen as a bright spot on a rather meager slate. But the problem with having rights to the character and universe is that, while Spider-Man is the most popular Marvel character, the other stand-outs tend to be the villains from his rogue’s gallery.

Hence, Sony is developing Venom, based on the popular character who already appeared on-screen in Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 and who has sometimes acted as an anti-hero in the Marvel comics. The studio has penciled in an October 2018 release and is meeting directors on the project.

Black Cat is a major supporting character in the Spider-Man universe, though Sable is less known.

Yost has deep Marvel ties having worked on not only two Thor movies, but also having gotten his start writing on Marvel animated series such as Wolverine and the X-Men. He is also known for comic book work on X-23, better known as Wolverine’s cloned daughter and who is a headliner in the hit Wolverine movie, Logan.

He is repped by Verve.

'Spider-Man' Spinoff: Silver Sable, Black Cat Movie Finds Director with 'Secret Life of Bees' Filmmaker

Gina Prince-Bythewood, who wrote and directed The Secret Life of Bees, will direct Silver and Black, Sony’s Spider-Man offshoot that centers on characters Silver Sable and the Black Cat.

Matt Tolmach and Amy Pascal are producing the project, which has an October 2018 release date and is planning for a fall start.

Chris Yost, who worked on the upcoming Marvel movie Thor: Ragnarok, is writing the most recent draft. Lisa Joy, the co-creator of HBO’s Westworld, also worked on the script.

Silver Sable, created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz in 1985, is a mercenary who runs a company that hunts war criminals. The character has been both antagonist and ally to Spider-Man.

Black Cat, an acrobatic cat burglar whose real name is Felicia Hardy, has a long and tangled romantic history with Spider-Man in the comics. The character was cut from scripts for the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy, and a "Felicia Hardy" (played by Felicity Jones) briefly appeared in Amazing Spider-Man 2, though no Black Cat connection was ever made explicit.

Sony is rebooting Spider-Man this summer with Spider-Man: Homecoming, and hopes to launch a slate of Spider-Man related movies. The first project, Venom, is already off and running, having snagged Tom Hardy as star and Ruben Fleischer as director. While Spider-Man is firmly in Marvel’s cinematic universe, Sony’s offshoots will stand apart.

Prince-Bythewood won acclaim and awards with her feature debut, the 2000 drama Love and Basketball. The writer-director has had her feet mostly planted in the drama world and on top of helming Secret Life of Bees also directed the romantic drama Beyond the Lights, which starred Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Nate Parker.

She co-created the crime drama Shots Fired, which is currently airing on Fox, and is due to direct the pilot for Cloak & Dagger, Freeform’s television series based on the Marvel Comics teen heroes.

Prince-Bythewood is repped by CAA and Del Shaw.

This project may be a long shot but I wouldn't bet against it.Marvel Studios has found success with long shots like Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy.They've got the magic touch.

I love both characters.

I'll remain cautiously optimistic, especially as neither character, as I've ever seen written, has any business being paired together.

Still has to be better than the Fox Fantastic Four reboot, right?

I'd tend to agree that this sounds like it doesn't have a chance in hell of succeeding, but then Deadpool happened....

I would argue that Deadpool had a brilliant marketing campaign and word-of-mouth did the rest.

How are they going to get people to go see this?

T&A.
LOTS of T&A.

Sony has announced that Silver And Black will open on February 8, 2019.

Well, I guess I know what I'll be watching on Netflix 3 months later!

'Captain Marvel,' 'Chaos Walking' Writers Tackle Silver Sable/Black Cat Movie

Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, two of the biggest names in geek screenwriting, have penned the most recent script for Silver & Black, Sony's movie project that centers on the Marvel Comics characters Silver Sable and Black Cat.

Gina Prince-Bythewood, who wrote and directed The Secret Life of Bees and is helming Silver & Black, is now doing a polish that she will submit to the studio.

Matt Tolmach and Amy Pascal are producing.

Silver Sable and Black Cat are established Spider-Man characters. Silver Sable, created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz in 1985, is a mercenary who runs a company that hunts war criminals. Black Cat is an acrobatic cat burglar whose real name is Felicia Hardy.

Prince-Bythewood wrote the previous draft. Thor: Ragnarok’s Chris Yost and Lisa Joy, co-creator of HBO's Westworld, worked on earlier drafts.

Beer and Robertson-Dworet have become go-to scribes for studios seeking geek and genre cred.

Beer worked on Chaos Walking, Lionsgate’s upcoming post-apocalyptic thriller starring Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland. She has been part of several high-profile writers rooms including those of Hasbro's Transformers projects, Godzilla vs. Kong, Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek and Paramount's Ology franchise.

Robertson-Dworet worked on Tomb Raider, the reboot starring Alicia Vikander that is set to open in March, as well as Marvel’s Captain Marvel, which is currently in production.

Beer is repped by WME and Gang Tyre, while Robertson-Dworet is with WME, Management 360 and Hansen Jacobson.

Silver & Black is slated to open Feb. 8, 2019.

I think this is optimistic; either you're being optimistic that it reaches Netflix in only 3 months because they improve the turn around of really good movies to just 3 months, or you're optimistic that it isn't bad enough to be there in about 6 weeks. Either way it plays, I think you're being optimistic.

Oh, if it ever happens...