'Jackpot' Movie, Based On Yet Another Spider-Man Universe Character, In The Works At Sony
Sony is hellbent on making their Spider-Man Universe (which they also call the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters – yikes) work. After having great success with Venom without the input of Marvel Studios, Sony is feeling pretty confident about forging ahead with other characters. The latest is Jackpot, a female superhero I'm pretty sure most people aren't familiar with.
Deadline has the story on the Jackpot movie, revealing that Marc Guggenheim is writing the script about a female superhero from the Spider-Man comics. Jackpot was the name of two different female heroes – Sara Ehret and Alana Jobson. Sara Ehret was employed by Phelcorp (a subsidiary of Oscorp), and worked on "gene therapy to cure Parkinson's disease when she is accidentally exposed to Lot 777. The virus rewrote the DNA in her cells leaving her in a coma for four months. Coming out of her coma Ehret went on to have her child Madeline with no complications, however, when her family came under threat by falling debris she displayed superhuman strength to save them."
Sara used her new superpowers to become a superhero and train other superheroes, but eventually grew tired of fighting crime and wanted to return to normal life. At that point, Alana Jobson offered Sara money "for the use of Sara's Jackpot identity and license, Sara took the offer and gave up costumed crime-fighting." Alana took up the Jackpot gig and started fighting alongside Spider-Man, but was eventually killed in action. After Alana's death, Sara returned to the Jackpot identity.
The news of the Jackpot movie comes on the heels of the news that S.J. Clarkson was directing another female-driven movie based on a Spider-Man Universe character, Madame Web. I don't want to be immediately dismissive here, but it really seems like Sony learned the wrong lesson from Venom. Sure, that movie was a huge hit, but Venom is a very well-known character, even to non-comic book readers. The same can't be said for Jackpot and Madame Web. Nor can it be said for Morbius, another Sony pic headed our way. But Sony has long wanted a superhero universe to call their own, and damn it, they're going to make it happen.