Following quickly on from the most recent Venom 2 trailer for Sony’ upcoming comic book movie sequel, a featurette has now been released giving us a behind-the-scenes look at director Andy Serkis’ approach to the world of the symbiotes. Though it does not offer too much in the way of new footage, it does show-off a few pieces of concept art depicting fan-favourite villain, Carnage, as well as offer Serkis the opportunity to explain how he has brought the extra-terrestrial beast to live action.
There will be #Venom. There will be #Carnage. And they will do battle in @VenomMovie, in theaters this fall. Starring Tom Hardy and @WoodyHarrelson. Directed by @andyserkis.
Watch the trailer and a behind-the-scenes vignette on the Apple TV app. https://t.co/vTGoG8wNnppic.twitter.com/uBwKrtxg55
— Apple TV (@AppleTV) August 2, 2021
“Digital characters have got to seriously act,” Serkis explains in the Venom featurette. “They’ve got to be totally believable.” The director also outlines his vision for the two title characters, setting out to ensure that audiences could tell the difference between them outside of them just being different colors. “I wanted to find a physical vocabulary for Carnage that was entirely different to Venom’s,” the director says before adding that “everything was always entirely underpinned by reality and a truth.”
Of course, crafting CGI characters is nothing new for Andy Serkis, whose performances as both Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the ape-leader Caesar in the rebooted Planet of the Apes franchise continue to be the best examples of such a creation. “I’ve spent a considerable amount of my life playing a character with two sides to his personality,” the actor and director says with a smile. “There’s common ground there.”
Following on from 2018’s Venom, which introduced audiences to Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, an investigative journalist who becomes the host of an alien symbiote giving him a violent alter-ego, Venom: Let There Be Carnage picks up a year later, as Eddie Brock struggles to adjust to life as the host of the alien symbiote Venom, which grants him super-human abilities in order to be a lethal vigilante.
Brock attempts to reignite his career by interviewing serial killer Cletus Kasady, who becomes the host of the symbiote Carnage and escapes prison after a failed execution. Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is directed by Andy Serkis from a screenplay by Kelly Marcel, and based on a story she wrote with Tom Hardy who reprises the dual role of both Eddie Brock and Venom alongside Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, Reid Scott, Stephen Graham, and Woody Harrelson as Cletus Kasady AKA Carnage.
The second installment in Sony’s planned comic book movie universe, many were surprised to learn of Serkis’ involvement in the franchise sequel, and have since been left waiting for the movie’s release amid delays and push backs courtesy of the ongoing global situation. The director though has assured audiences that Venom: Let There Be Carnage will be worth the wait saying, “I think it’s the perfect movie in a way because it’s very celebratory of what cinema can do.”
Venom: Let There Be Carnage is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2021, and then in the United States on September 24, after being delayed from an initial October 2020 date due to the ongoing circumstances.