TheVenomsequelappears to be moving full-steam ahead, and it’s getting serious creative input from its star, according to the film’s director. Truly,Venomwas one of the biggest box office surprises of 2018. The Sony Pictures Spider-Man spinoff looked, well, kinda silly, and surely fans were over their obsession with the Venom character right? Wrong. Despite negative reviews,Venomsoared to a massive $856.1 million worldwide, and even those who didn’t love the film were at least fascinated byTom Hardy’s go-for-broke lead performance.
Sony understandably got to work onVenom 2rather quickly, and this summer things really started moving forward as the studio found a new director. For reasons unknown,Ruben Fleischeris not returning to the director’s chair. After meeting witha few different filmmakers, Sony selectedAndy Serkisto take the helmearlier this week, and the news broke just in time for Serkis to make an appearance at the TCA’s to tout his upcoming role in FX’sA Christmas Caroladaptation.
While it’s clearly early days with regards to Serkis’ involvement, theMowglifilmmaker revealed that he has very clear ideas of the direction he wants to take the franchise (via/Film):
“I’m right at the beginning stages. I’ve got some very clear ideas about the journey I’d like to see visually and how we can take the characters into another dimension.”
Perhaps even more interesting, Serkis revealed that Hardy is intimately involved in the writing of the script, working closely with screenwriterKelly Marcel:
“Tom is very involved with the writing with Kelly Marcel of the new story, so it’s very much centered around their take.”
It’s certainly not out of the ordinary for a star of a franchise to be involved in the creation of the next installment—Tom Cruiseis a close creative partner on the making of eachMission: Impossiblemovie, andRobert Downey Jr.essentially hand-selectedShane Blackto write and directIron Man 3. But it’s interesting to note thatVenom 2doesn’t appear to be going the “lab creation” route with regards to its screenplay. Many studios nowadays assemble a writers room for franchises, hiring a bunch of different screenwriters to pitch different ideas for the movie before stitching together the best ones. According to Serkis,Venom 2is being crafted from the ground up by Marcel (who co-wrote the firstVenom) and Hardy.
The performance-capture pioneer added that he’s known Hardy for some time and the two have been eager to work together, soVenom 2fulfills years of courtship:
“I’ve known Tom for many years and always admired him hugely as an actor and producer. We’ve always wanted to work together directly. I’m deeply excited to work with Tom Hardy and to work with all the great actors who are involved in it. It’s a fantastic franchise. I’m really honored to have been asked to direct it and it feels like it’s a very contemporary story. I think it’s going to be hopefully an extraordinary piece of cinema.”
As long as there are more lobster tanks for Hardy’s Eddie Brock to jump into, I think fans will be satisfied.
Venom 2doesn’t yet have a confirmed release date, but Sony has penciled in June 09, 2025 for an “untitled Marvel sequel,” so that’s likely the aim. Whether they can make that date with only a year to go remains to be seen, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the film’s release date turns out to be sometime in 2021.
