It may come as a surprise to many to learn that the filmmaker steering Venom: Let There Be Carnage is none other than Andy Serkis. Yes, the same Andy Serkis well-known for portraying Lord of the Rings’ Gollum and Planet of the Apes’ Caesar. But just as the acclaimed actor has become well-known for his motion capture characters, he’s also been getting more behind the camera in recent years, including with the under-the-radar Netflix film Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle in 2018. And apparently Venom’s Tom Hardy took notice of his skills as a director.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage is inching closer, now just three weeks away, thanks to Sony’s decision to move its release from mid-October to the first day of the month. As Marvel fans prepare to see what’s next for Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock and his symbiote friend, official press notes for the sequel have revealed how Andy Serkis got on board as its director. In Serkis’ words:
I thought Tom gave an extraordinary performance. It was right in my wheelhouse – creating characters using CG. When Tom gave me a call out of the blue, saying he thought it would be great if I directed the sequel and asking me to come on board, I think it was because he wanted a director who would be capable of safeguarding his performance, translating it into a visual-effects realm, with some degree of authority from experience with that. We had been circling each other as actors for so many years, and it was wonderful to finally get the chance to work with Tom.
Venom’s star Tom Hardy thought of Andy Serkis for Venom: Let There Be Carnage and simply called him up to ask about his interest in joining the live-action Sony Spider-Verse in a filmmaking capacity. And it sounds like Serkis had already been a fan of the 2018 blockbuster and working on the CGI-heavy movie.
From the outside, it’s a great choice because Andy Serkis perfectly portrayed Lord of the Rings’ Gollum / Smeagol, which has a lot in common with Tom Hardy’s Venom role. Serkis’ iconic Middle Earth character has his own kind of split personality that he portrayed with the early use of motion capture before the medium became as advanced as it is now. Gollum is a character who is overtaking Smeagol with his obsession with the ring.
As Serkis shared, Tom Hardy felt the Let There Be Carnage director could help him with his dual performances as Eddie Brock and his voice role of Venom along with his abilities to work with the visual effects involved in telling its story. Check out the trailer for the Venom sequel:
Venom: Let There Be Carnage will also star Woody Harrelson as Cletus Kasady / Carnage, Naomie Harris as Shriek along with the return of Michelle Williams as Anne Weying. You can check out the movie in theaters on Friday, October 1.
