Well, the most popluar Venom was based on that particular Eddie Brock. There have been several Brock's in the Spider-Man mythos.
In Ultimate Spider-Man, Brock is a childhood friend of Parker's. He's thin, and is most likely the character that Raimi is using. In that story, the symbiote isn't even from space, but rather it's a "genetically engineered protoplasmic suit"...
Sounds like it's going to be as stupid as Raimi's Goblin. While I generally like Spider-man 1 & 2, I still think Raimi is a hack, and an Uber cheese-ball.
mrC