Tom Hardy stars in new Spider-Man spin-off. Venom director talks about the anti-hero and building a universe
Hardy’s character transforms into a shape-shifter called Venom in the Zombieland director’s attempt to expand the Marvel Universe with a non superhero lead role
In an edit bay on the Sony Pictures lot, Ruben Fleischer looks outwardly calm but is clearly feeling some heat. At 43, the director is just weeks away from the release of the biggest film of his career: the dark comic-book movie Venom, which Sony is banking on to launch a series of interconnected films that will expand on the world of the studio’s comic-book star, Spider-Man.
“Every time, you’re nervous,” says Fleischer, who directed Zombieland, 30 Minutes or Less and Gangster Squad. “But this is the most predominant film genre so you’re under a bigger magnifying glass. That is a new experience for me.”
Building a cinematic universe is not for the faint of heart.
Venom, in Hong Kong cinemas from October 4 (and US cinemas from October 5), stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, a journalist whose body becomes host to a bloodthirsty alien life form known as a symbiote, transforming him into the shape-shifting Venom.
In the comics, Venom was originally introduced as an enemy of Spider-Man before evolving into a kind of vigilante anti-hero. (Topher Grace played the character in 2007’s Spider-Man 3.) But Venom wipes the slate clean with a different origin story. A hybrid of man-monster, Venom falls into the grey area between do-gooder and villain, with Brock’s urge to defend the innocent counterpoised with the symbiote’s penchant for biting off heads.