“You should be extremely afraid…”
The symbiote’s officially out of the bag, folks. Two months after Sony’s initial (and somewhat disappointing) teaser for Venom, the Powers That Be have finally unleashed Eddie Brock’s demonic anti-hero, and he’s every bit as sinister and primal as you might expect.
Said to be attached to screenings of Avengers: Infinity War later this week – fitting, really, given they’re two of the most hotly anticipated comic book movies of 2018 – the Venom trailer actually included one or two shots of the alien symbiote wreaking havoc on Eddie’s mind and the hapless fools who dare get in his way.
And just like Ruben Fleischer promised, Tom Hardy looks set to deliver a tour-de-force performance as the crippled anti-hero – hell, he’s basically playing two characters at once. And it’s that bipolar nature that’s projected on the official first poster for Venom. There’s also a high-res screenshot of Fleischer’s CG creation, which appears to be much more sinister than Topher Grace’s own rendition from Spider-Man 3 back in 2007.
Fast forward to now, and Sony Pictures is ready to spin out a Marvel universe of its own that will ultimately include the likes of Silver & Black and Morbius, the Living Vampire. The former project is said to be targeting a release in early 2019, but when it comes to Venom, we understand Ruben Fleischer and his team have earmarked “Planet of the Symbiotes” and “Lethal Protector” for narrative inspiration.
The former fan-favorite first released in ’95, and follows Eddie Brock as he forms an uneasy alliance with Spider-Man in order to clear his name. David Cronenberg (The Fly) and John Carpenter (The Thing), two giants of world cinema, have also been name-dropped in the past, which tells us that Fleischer has combed through the archives so as to mine inspiration for the film’s body-horror elements.
Featuring a script penned by Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner – before Kelly Marcel and Will Beal polished things up a little – Venom is due to slither into theaters on October 5th, at which point Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze and Reid Scott will be rounding out the ensemble cast.
