Though we’re still waiting to hear news about the upcoming Venom movie’s MPAA rating, it sounds like the alien symbiote’s first standalone picture will at least offer as gruesome a spectacle as any PG-13 flick can deliver, with director Ruben Fleischer insisting that the film’s violent content will be “pushed to the hilt.”
The age rating for the Tom Hardy-led feature has been a source of sustained interest and a little concern for fans of Eddie Brock’s comic book outings as of late, since these haven’t always been the most child-friendly of escapades. While recent superhero flicks like Deadpool 2 and Logan have offered further evidence that the R-rating isn’t taboo for the genre or a dealbreaker at the box office, there’s a distinct possibility that the potential MCU connections of Fleischer’s film – not to mention the movie’s responsibility of kicking off a new cinematic universe – will result in Venom getting saddled with the more commercially appealing of the two ratings.
Nonetheless, the director assures us that the movie will succeed in carving out a distinct and appealing identity for itself, in terms of tone if not gore. Speaking to The LA Times, here’s what he had to say:
“I feel like the casting, the aesthetic and the character himself all combine to make something that just feels different. Tonally it doesn’t remind you of other movies. It doesn’t feel like we just tried to do what everyone else is doing…. The DC universe is so aggressively dark and the Marvel universe has become so light. It was kind of exciting to craft something that just felt a little bit more real and grounded and in our world.”
Indeed, a real-world film calls for a real-world performance, and Fleischer maintains in this same interview that Tom Hardy’s compellingly down-to-Earth lead turn will be another reason to check Venom out and is sure to surprise audiences. That’s certainly exciting to hear, and we’ll find out if the director can make good on this hype when the film comes out on October 5th.
Published: Aug 30, 2018 07:25 pm