We're just over a month away from the release of Sony's VENOM, based on the Marvel Comics anti-hero of the same name, and the marketing machine is running in top gear. Earlier this month, Entertainment Weekly got their hands on an exclusive image from the film that was accompanied by a quote from star Tom Hardy, and now Total Film has also gotten their own exclusive image and quote from Hardy.
The Entertainment Weekly image shows Venom in all his glory, threatening to turn a criminal into a turd in the wind. In the Total Film image, Hardy is seen facing off with one of the "mysterious assailants" that come after his character Eddie Brock.
Brock is a journalist who becomes bonded with an alien symbiote that coats his body to form into the monstrous Venom.
Directed by ZOMBIELAND's Ruben Fleischer from a screenplay by Scott Rosenberg, Jeff Pinkner, and Kelly Marcel, VENOM is said to be based on the comic book storylines Lethal Protector and Planet of the Symbiotes. The official synopsis doesn't give us much to go on at all:
One of Marvel's most enigmatic, complex and badass characters comes to the big screen, starring Academy Award nominated actor Tom Hardy as the lethal protector Venom.
Hardy told Entertainment Weekly that Brock and the symbiote are both
a bit lost in this world, and finding each other and negotiating an ethical framework is perhaps a gift and a burden for the two of them. They bring out the very best and the very worst in each other."
He told Total Film that he was drawn to the project because it gave him the opportunity to play multiple personalities but on
a kind of epic level, a superhero level, that was the big draw. I was like, ‘This is a great character, because he’s a diverse anti-hero. He’s not a good guy, and he’s not a bad guy.’ He’s connected to this alien who’s not from this planet. They’ve got to figure out an ethical framework between the two of them, and neither of them are run-of-the-mill types. There’s this kind of Odd Couple [relationship] between the two of them. I enjoyed the Jekyll and Hyde nature of that, in a superhero world."
Fleischer added,
Tom brings so much complexity, and I would say danger, to the roles and characters he plays. Those are two inherent qualities of Eddie Brock and Venom, the complexity and the menace. So getting to watch Tom live between these two characters who are sharing a body and having to navigate these two forces simultaneously was really impressive and fun to watch."
Hardy's co-stars in the film include Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Jenny Slate, Reid Scott, Woody Harrelson, Sope Aluko, and a cast member whose involvement was only just announced two days ago: Ron Cephas Jones.
Details on Jones's character were not revealed. The actor previously shared the screen with a Marvel character on the Netflix series Luke Cage.
VENOM arrives in theatres on October 5th. It will be odd to see a Venom origin story that doesn't involve Spider-Man in any way (Spider-Man was left out because he's part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe now, and this film is not), but I'm willing to give the movie a chance.