Tom Hardy’s Venom Will Be Created With Motion-Capture CGI

First-time director and all-around performance capture expert Andy Serkis (The Last Jedi) has let slip that Sony will be using CGI to render Tom Hardy’s Venom.

Yahoo Movies caught up with Serkis to discuss Breathe, his directorial debut in which Andrew Garfield wrangles with polio. However, it didn’t take long before the conversation veered toward The Imaginarium, Andy Serkis’ London-based studio that specializes in next-generation storytelling, which is to say that it’s all for motion-capture performances.

Currently in pre-production on his own version of The Jungle Book, which was quietly pushed to avoid a clash with Disney’s recent live-action redo, Andy Serkis waxed lyrical about the future of performance capture, and why he believes the process deserves more mainstream recognition. From Mark Rylance (The BFG) to Karin Konoval in War For the Planet of the Apes, a whole host of big-name stars have embraced the art form…including Tom Hardy.

Much like how Marvel Studios renders Hulk in Avengers and the soon-to-be-released Thor: Ragnarok, Sony will be calling upon bleeding-edge tech to produce Tom Hardy’s anti-hero. And yes, in case you’re wondering, Topher Grace’s performance in Spider-Man 3 was largely created using CGI as well.

Per Yahoo Movies:

The time has come that people understand that performance capture is a technology, not a genre of acting. Acting is acting, and the more actors – like Steve Zahn… and Karin Konoval who plays Maurice in ‘War For The Planet of the Apes’ – the more A-list actors that come on board, like Mark Rylance playing The BFG, or a lot of actors in the new Marvel films… Tom Hardy is playing a new character using performance capture. It all points up ‘what is the nature of acting?’ and there is no difference between acting wearing a costume and makeup, or wearing a motion capture suit. That’s plain and simple, it just needs awarding bodies to understand that.

Directed by Ruben Fleischer, filming on Sony’s Venom spinoff is now underway ahead of its planned release in 2018, when Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, and Jenny Slate will co-star.