Venom

I wouldn't read too much into an announcement like this.  Hiring someone to write a script isn't that big a deal.  Studios have these things written all the time, and nothing ever comes of most of them.  Spider-Man is the character that really matters.  The latest development of the Spidey franchise is still in it's infancy.  How this new franchise turns out can't help but affect the development of Venom, regardless of any statements by the studio about the character standing apart.

Not so fast!  The tweet has already been debunked.  

This movie is separate from Marvel.

That was Sony's position on the Venom production the last time Sony said anything, which was a long time ago.  A lot has changed since then.  There's no reason to believe that their plans aren't liable to have changed at this point.  If Spider-Man: Homecoming performs as well as expected, Sony would be wise to just let Marvel Studios handle things.  Sony's willingness to put Spidey in the hands of Marvel Studios shows a level of good sense that we're not accustomed to seeing in a major Hollywood studio.

I'm more inclined to think the latter.  Most likely after Homecoming and Infinity War they'll cut ties with Marvel and think they can do better on their own, and restart that dreadful sounding Spidey Cinematic Universe they were trying to fart out.

Just please jesus, don't turn the Sinister Six into the fucking Suicide Squad.  I was looking forward to the Aunt May spinoff more than that movie.

I just don't understand why they want to make a movie about a villain.

That's only correct with the character Spider-Man and any literal Spidey-related films. Sony can do outside Spider-Man characters, such as Venom, and can do with them as they please, so long as they do not include Spider-Man in some way. If they want to include Spider-Man, then Marvel would be able to have a say in the production. As long as Spider-Man is not in the other movies, Sony has complete control over their production.

Kevin Feige and Marvel only came to this agreement because they actually care about the properties and don't like seeing shitty movies with the Marvel name attached. This allows them to make sure Spider-Man is being done right (we'll see anyway), as well as being able to use him in other movies in the MCU. The agreement that they came to is of far greater value on Sony's end, but that's assuming the heads of Sony are actually smart, which they clearly are usually not. They don't like that Marvel and Feige have so much creative control over the property, especially when they're paying for it. That's why there was so much backlash about the original announcement for the Venom stand-alone movie. It was originally stated that the movie would be it's own thing, unrelated to the new Spider-Man movies, so as to allow Sony to have full control over the production.

There's also the fact that we don't know everything going on behind the scenes. Maybe Marvel doesn't want to do a Venom movie at this time, since they like all their movies to be connected in some way. If that's the case, but Sony still wants to move forward with these standalone movies to make more money, then they may do it anyway, without Marvel.

So that's the question. Is Sony going to remain big-headed and try to make a Venom movie, that is literally stand-alone, just so they can produce the film completely under their control and in a more timely manner - or - do they come to their senses and not produce any additional Marvel-based properties without Marvel's help.

I like the choice for Director.

Zombieland and Now You See Me were both decently made for summer schlock.

(I'm still pissed they didn't name the sequel Now You Don't, even if I'll never watch it).

Tom Hardy as Venom

So?  Tom Hardy played a leading role in Star Trek: Nemesis and This Means War.  His presence doesn't guarantee anything.  Hardy was great in The Dark Knight Rises, but that doesn't change the fact that the film was a poorly written mess.

And now it looks as though Venom won't actually be completely separate from Spider-Man: Homecoming and the MCU.