Spider-Man 4 screenwriter Gary Ross is to direct a spin-off film based on super-villain Venom. Ross - who directed Pleasantville and Seabiscuit and whose screenwriting credits include Big and Dave - is to rewrite the script and helm the hotly-anticipated project.

It is not yet known whether Topher Grace, the actor who played the alien parasite in 2007’s Spider-Man 3, will return. Topher, 31, has only just signed on to star in Robert Rodriguez’s Predators - based on the character from the cult 1987 sci-fi film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger - so it is unlikely he will have time for the role.

Columbia Pictures refused to comment on either Gary’s or Topher’s involvement with the movie, based on the Marvel comic book character who battles Spider-Man.

“Venom, an archenemy of the webslinger in the Marvel Comics series, will be transformed into an antihero who becomes a defender of the innocent,” Variety reports. Avi Arad and Marvel are producing the movie which is expected to be released in 2011