Maybe they want to develop it with Disney as well and make it stand alone initially to separate Venom from Spiderman so he can show up in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3? I doubt it but that's the only thing I could think of that wouldn't completely suck balls. No way it'd be Flash Thompson though if he's still 16-18 and still in high school with Peter Parker... maybe they'll just use Eddie Brock since basically nobody remembers his time as Venom now....

If I were behind the Spiderman films I'd lay the groundwork for the clone saga in part one with a villain like the Shocker showing up and Scarlet Spider at the very end revealing himself as a clone to the viewers. Part two would be Spiderman vs Scarlet Spider vs Kaine, and in the end one or two of them vs the Jackal. For part three I'd use Morbius, and have Peter adopt a black costume for being more stealthy in the sewers where Morbius is presumably based. At some point we'd get a glimpse of a live action Man-Spider be it nightmare or pre-vampire Morbius himself while still tampering with Parker's DNA. 

~KL~