Contrary to what you might think, the symbiotes in the upcoming Venom 2: Let There Be Carnage are CGI. Director Andy Serkis has revealed why made the choice to move away from his time honoured motion-capture techniques.
According to some production notes from the science fiction movie, as discovered by ComicBookMovie, Serkis believes computer-generated imagery helped lead actor Tom Hardy get his desired performance. “I’ve spent a considerable amount of my life playing a character with two sides to his personality. I knew that this film would be about how to free up [Hardy] to imagine Venom’s presence,” Serkis explains. “We knew it would not be helpful for him to act opposite a man in a suit, because Venom is a symbiote, coming out of him. We wanted to give [Hardy] the freedom in his process to give the performance he wanted.”
Once they’ve clung to a host, the symbiotes from Venom become a part of that person’s body. They stretched in, out, and all over their hosts, and can even be another full-blown personality within the same consciousness. With no actor in front of him, that allows Hardy, or his Venom 2 co-star Woody Harrelson, to imagine what it’s like to have another co-dependent being within your psychology that isn’t fully there.
What makes this slightly shocking is the amount of time, energy, and research Serkis has put into motion-capture. Ever since he pushed boundaries with Gollum in The Lord of the Rings fantasy movie trilogy, he’s learnt his ability to create vivid, lifelike faces and bodies to Star Wars, Steven Spielberg, and more.
Besides Serkis directing, Venom 2 features Hardy as Eddie Brock, who lives with the Venom symbiote, and Woody Harrelson plays the antagonist, Cletus Kasady, the beholder of Carnage. Naomie Harris plays another villain, Francis ‘Shriek’ Barrison, and Michelle Williams and Reid Scott are also set to appear.
It’s possible that the Venom thriller movies, part of Sony’s Spider-Man villain-verse with Morbius and Kraven the Bounty Hunter, are part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but Sony has denied such speculation. We can find out for ourselves when Venom: Let There Be Carnage pens in UK cinemas October 15.