I Leave for Two Days, and Sinister Six and Venom Movies Get Announced?

Via the “electroarrives.com” URL hidden in hi-res copies of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 trailer, Sony has announced more specific plans to expand their corner of the Marvel Universe – i.e. Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Spider-Man and possibly still Ghost Rider but let’s pretend that doesn’t exist right now – by hiring Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner, Ed Solomon, and Drew Goddard to collaborate with Marc Webb and producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach on villain spin-off movies, essentially ending all speculation and pretty much confirming that, yeah, this is what the Spidey sequel is setting up.

Goddard, who directed Cabin in the Woods, will write and possibly direct Sinister Six, while Kurtzman, who along with Orci has attack record of pissing off fanboys with every franchise property they touch, will direct Venom. Orci will indeed be one of the cowriters on the latter, so don’t be surprised if the plot involves Venom seemingly destroying a giant skyscraper, only to have it turn out that he was framed in order to escalate a war against supposed super-villains. And probably starring Benedict Cumberbatch as “Jim Smith,” except that’s just a fake name for Cletus Kasady. Seriously, he’d be a good Carnage.

Meanwhile, the ElectroArrives site is still counting down to something else in 18 days. Casting news, maybe? I can’t imagine anything else would be ready by then, or that they’d want to spoil more of the sequel than they have already. Then again, I don’t understand any of the decisions made so far in this new Spidey franchise, so I hardly expect whatever it is to follow logic as I know it.