Venom (2018 film)

Venom is a 2018 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is intended to be the first film in Sony's Marvel Universe. The film is directed by Ruben Fleischer from a screenplay by Scott Rosenberg, Jeff Pinkner, and Kelly Marcel, and stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock / Venom, alongside Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, and Reid Scott. In Venom, journalist Brock is bound to an alien symbiote that gives him superpowers.

Sony began developing a Venom film after the character made his cinematic debut in Spider-Man 3 (2007). After various iterations, work on a new version began in March 2017 to start a new shared universe featuring the Marvel characters to which Sony possessed the film rights, though Sony also intended for the film to share the world of Spider-Man: Homecoming, which is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after a deal between Sony and Marvel Studios. It was later clarified that the film is a standalone set in its own universe. Rosenberg and Pinkner were set to write, with Fleischer and Hardy added in May 2017. Principal photography began in October 2017, taking place in Atlanta, New York City, and San Francisco.

Venom premiered in Westwood, Los Angeles on October 1, 2018, and is scheduled to be released in the United States on October 5, 2018. The film received generally negative reviews from critics, who criticized the inconsistent tone and script, although Hardy's performance received praise.

Plot
While exploring space for new habitable worlds, a space probe belonging to bioengineering corporation Life Foundation discovers four symbiotic lifeforms and brings them back to Earth. One escapes in transit, causing the ship to crash in Malaysia, but the Life Foundation recovers the other three and transports them to their research facility in San Francisco. Its CEO, Carlton Drake, becomes obsessed with bonding symbiotes to humans to prepare humanity for Earth's inevitable ecological collapse, and begins illegally experimenting on vagrants, resulting in numerous deaths – including one of the remaining symbiotes – and attracting the attention of investigative journalist Eddie Brock, who arranges an interview with Drake through his girlfriend Anne Weying, a lawyer affiliated with the Life Foundation. Against instructions, Brock confronts Drake with confidential materials indicating wrongdoing that he stole from Weying's e-mail, leading to them both being fired from their respective jobs and the end of their relationship.

Six months later, Brock is approached by one of Drake's scientists, Dora Skirth, who disagrees with Drake's methods and wants to help Brock expose him. With her aid, Brock breaks into Drake's research facility to acquire evidence from his crimes, in the process learning that an acquaintance of his, Donna Diego, has become one of Drake's subjects. Brock attempts to rescue her, but Donna attacks him and the symbiote possessing her transfers from her body to his, killing her in the process. Brock manages to escape, but soon begins displaying strange symptoms and reaches out to Weying for help. Her new boyfriend, Dr. Dan Lewis, examines Brock, discovering the symbiote and learning that it is vulnerable to noise. Meanwhile, Drake kills Skirth for her betrayal by exposing her to the remaining symbiote, leaving Brock's symbiote as the sole surviving specimen.

Brock is attacked by mercenaries employed by Drake to retrieve the symbiote, but the symbiote takes over his body – transforming him into a monstrous creature – to repel the attackers. Taking shelter at a nearby lighthouse, the symbiote communicates with Brock, introducing itself as "Venom", and persuades him to form an alliance, so that he can experience life through Brock, while Brock gets to enjoy the superhuman attributes the symbiote affords him. Brock uses his newfound abilities to break into his old workplace to turn in evidence of Drake's crimes, but is intercepted by mercenaries on the way out and transforms once again to escape. Weying calls him back to Lewis' office, where Brock learns that the symbiote is slowly rotting his internal organs. Although the symbiote claims it is part of their symbiosis, Brock uses an MRI machine to weaken the symbiote long enough to separate from it, but he is then captured by Drake's men.

At Life Foundation's headquarters, Brock learns that Drake has bonded with the fugitive symbiote, "Riot", and that they are planning to launch a probe into space and bring a legion of symbiotes back to Earth to assimilate the human race. Meanwhile, Weying reluctantly bonds with the symbiote and breaks into the Life Foundation to rescue Brock, transferring the symbiote back to him with a kiss. Brock and Venom merge once again and set out to stop Drake and Riot, battling them on the probe's launch platform. As the probe takes off, Venom manages to damage it, causing it to explode, killing Drake and Riot and foiling their plan. Shortly afterwards, Brock has mended his relationship with Weying and returned to journalism, while secretly working alongside the symbiote to protect the city. In a mid-credits scene, Brock prepares to interview incarcerated serial killer Cletus Kasady.

Cast

 * Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock / Venom: An investigative journalist who becomes the host of an alien symbiote that imbues him with super-human abilities and a violent alter-ego: "Venom". Director Ruben Fleischer noted that unlike a werewolf or Jekyll and Hyde, the relationship between Brock and the symbiote is a "hybrid", with the two characters sharing a body and having to work together. Hardy was drawn to this duality, and compared the two characters to Ren and Stimpy. He gave each a distinctive voice: an "aw-shucks American accent" for Brock; and a "James Brown lounge lizard"-like voice for Venom, that was "modulated to sound more sinister". Hardy called Brock an antihero who would "do whatever he has to" to accomplish a goal. Despite initial plans for Hardy to use performance capture for portraying Venom, the idea was abandoned due to the difference between his facial features and those of the character.
 * Michelle Williams as Anne Weying: A district attorney and Eddie's ex-girlfriend.
 * Riz Ahmed as Carlton Drake / Riot: A genius inventor and leader of the Life Foundation experimenting on the symbiotes. Ahmed noted Drake is "trying to envision what the future of life looks like because the human race is almost done" and is "trying to do right by humanity and save the future" when he discovers the symbiote. Drake is eventually bonded to another symbiote known as Riot, which Fleischer described as "a body-hopper".
 * Scott Haze as Roland Treece: Drake's head of security.
 * Reid Scott as Dr. Dan Lewis: Anne's new boyfriend who tries to help Eddie.
 * Jenny Slate as Dr. Dora Skirth: A scientist working for Drake's Life Foundation.
 * Michelle Lee as Donna Diego: Brock's acquaintance who is experimented on by Drake.

Additionally, Sope Aluko appears as Dr. Rosie Collins, Wayne Péré appears as Dr. Lloyd Emerson, and Mac Brandt appears as Jack the Bartender. Woody Harrelson appears in a post-credits scene as Cletus Kasady. < Scott Deckert, Marcella Bragio, Christian Convery, Sam Medina, and Ron Cephas Jones have also been cast in undisclosed roles. Stan Lee has a cameo near the end as a man walking his dog.

Development
By 1997, David S. Goyer had written a script for a film featuring the Marvel Comics character Venom, which was to be produced by New Line Cinema. Dolph Lundgren was in talks to star in the film, which would have included the character Carnage as the main antagonist. The project ultimately did not move forward, and the rights to the character moved to Sony Pictures along with those for the character Spider-Man, whom Venom is an antagonist of in the comics. Eddie Brock, the alter-ego of Venom, was introduced to film in Sony's Spider-Man 3 (2007), with Topher Grace in the role. Grace was intended to play only a minor role as Brock, but became a major villain as both Brock and Venom because producer Avi Arad felt the series had relied too much on director Sam Raimi's personal favorite Spider-Man villains and not characters that modern fans were actually interested in. Raimi had been hesitant to explore the character due to his "lack of humanity". Arad revealed plans for a spinoff film focused on Venom in July 2007.

Sony was actively developing Venom alongside direct sequels to Spider-Man 3 by July 2008, hoping the character could "add longevity" to the franchise in a similar fashion to Wolverine in 20th Century Fox's X-Men films. Jacob Estes had written a script for the film, but the studio was considering taking it in a different direction from that draft and was seeking new writers. Sony was also not yet convinced that Grace could "carry" the film. That September, Sony hired Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese to write a new script, while industry insiders suggested that Grace should return for the spinoff "because the likeable actor could be a sympathetic evildoer", in response to Venom co-creator Todd McFarlane suggesting that a Venom film could not do well with a villain as the central character. Wernick and Reese had pitched an original story idea for the film to Sony, which Reese described as "realistic, grounded, a little more dark take on the character". The pair then worked on an outline with Sony and Marvel, who "had specific rules about the villain and the backstory and stuff like that". They had completed a draft by April 2009, which included a role written specifically for Stan Lee, and featured a sequence where the Venom symbiote jumps "from body to body [through a city], and each person that it inhabits ends up becoming really violent and striking someone else and then it jumps to [them]."

Wernick and Reese had turned in a second draft by September 2009, and Reese said that Sony was "pushing forward in whatever ways they push forward". A month later, Gary Ross, who was rewriting the script for Spider-Man 4 at the time, was hired to also rewrite the Venom script, as well as direct, and produce alongside Arad. Grace was "not considered likely" to return to the role then, with the film starting "from the drawing board" and looking to make the villain "an antihero who becomes a defender of the innocent." In January 2010, Sony announced that the Spider-Man franchise would be rebooted after Raimi decided to no longer pursue direct sequels to Spider-Man 3. By March 2012, Sony was still interested in a Venom film, now looking to capitalize on the release of the first reboot film, The Amazing Spider-Man. The studio was in negotiations with Josh Trank to direct after Ross left the project to direct The Hunger Games (2012). That June, Arad and fellow producer Matt Tolmach discussed Venom connecting to The Amazing Spider-Man, after comparisons to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films crossing over in The Avengers (2012). Arad called it "an Eddie Brock story" only, but Tolmach added, "Hopefully all these worlds will live together in peace someday."

In December 2013, Sony revealed plans to use The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) to establish their own expanded universe based on the Marvel properties the studio had the film rights to, including Venom. Arad and Tolmach would produce the films as part of a franchise brain trust, with Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Ed Solomon set to write the screenplay for Venom, which Kurtzman would direct. In April 2014, Arad and Tolmach said Venom would be released after The Amazing Spider-Man 3—which was set for release on May 27, 2016—but before The Amazing Spider-Man 4. However, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 underperformed, and, with Sony "under tremendous pressure to perform [that had them taking] a hard look at their most important franchise", the direction of the shared universe was rethought. The Amazing Spider-Man 3 was pushed back to 2018, and the Venom film, now known as Venom Carnage, was moved up to 2017. Kurtzman was still attached to direct, and write alongside Solomon. In February 2015, Sony and Marvel Studios announced a new partnership that would see Marvel produce the next Spider-Man film for Sony, and integrate the character into their MCU. Sony still planned to produce the spinoff films without Marvel's involvement, but by November they were believed to have been canceled so Sony could focus on its new reboot with Marvel.

Venom was again revived by Sony in March 2016, with Arad and Tolmach producing, and Dante Harper writing a new screenplay. The project was envisioned as a standalone film launching its own franchise, unrelated to Sony and Marvel's new Spider-Man films. A year later, Sony gave the film an October 5, 2018, release date, and explained that Kurtzman was not involved with the new project. No new director had been signed, and Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner were now writing the screenplay. Venom was expected to begin both a new franchise and a new shared universe independent of the MCU, and was aiming for an R-rating on a smaller budget inspired by 20th Century Fox's success doing so with the X-Men films Deadpool (2016) and Logan (2017). Sony's director shortlist for the film was believed to include Adi Shankar, known for his dark, R-rated takes "on the properties he grew up on", and Adam Wingard. In May, Sony announced that Tom Hardy would star as Eddie Brock / Venom in Venom, to be directed by Ruben Fleischer and officially begin "Sony's Marvel Universe". Venom is not considered a spinoff of any other film. Fleischer was chosen after a long search by Sony, while the casting of Hardy, a "huge fan" of Venom, happened very quickly after he left director J. C. Chandor's Triple Frontier in April and Sony "saw an opportunity to court an in-demand talent."

Pre-production
In June 2017, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed that the film was solely a Sony project and Marvel had no plans to connect it with the MCU. However, producer Amy Pascal soon clarified that Sony intended to have their MU films take place in "the same world" as the new MCU films starting with Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), describing them as "adjunct" to that world. She said that Venom would connect to the next planned film in Sony's MU, Silver &amp; Black, and that there was potential for Tom Holland's Spider-Man to appear in either. Carnage was also expected to appear in Venom at that point. In July, Columbia Pictures president Sanford Panitch explained that Sony was not interested in producing "conventional comic-book movies" and was looking to give each film in their MU a distinct style. Venom was considered "a spin on a horror film", inspired by the works of John Carpenter and David Cronenberg but with "more pop and fun". Fleischer said he has "always been drawn to the more antihero superheroes. There's a dark element to [Venom] and a wit that has always appealed to me." He said the film would explore Venom's origins and the "Jekyll and Hyde" relationship that Brock has with the symbiote.

Riz Ahmed was in talks to join the film in August, with Matt Smith, Pedro Pascal, and Matthias Schoenaerts also up for the same role. In September, Michelle Williams entered talks to join the film as a district attorney and Brock's love interest. By October, Jenny Slate, Reid Scott, and Scott Haze were in negotiations to join the film, with Slate up for a role as a scientist. Kelly Marcel was writing the latest draft of the film's script. Hardy recorded his lines for the symbiote during pre-production, and they were modulated to sound more threatening. These could then be played back to the actor through an earpiece on set during scenes where Brock and the symbiote talk to each other. The final budget that Sony allocated for the film's production was $100 million, though Chinese production company Tencent Pictures ultimately covered a third of these costs for the studio.

Filming
Principal photography began on October 23, 2017, with filming set to take place in Atlanta and New York City. Marvel's Iron Man (2008) cinematographer Matthew Libatique returned in that role for the film, while Oliver Scholl served as production designer after also doing so for Spider-Man: Homecoming. Williams was confirmed to have joined the film in November, with Sony organizing her filming schedule to ensure her availability for concurrent, unexpected reshoots on All the Money in the World (2017).

In December, Fleischer and Hardy said that the film was "important to the Marvel universe", and that it was primarily based on the Venom: Lethal Protector and Planet of the Symbiotes miniseries. Hardy added that, like Lethal Protector, the film would be set in San Francisco. At that point, Woody Harrelson was in talks to portray a henchman in the film, and Williams was revealed to be portraying Anne Weying. Additional filming took place in San Francisco from January 16 to 26, 2018. Locations included Russian Hill, North Beach, Chinatown, and the Financial District. Hardy wrapped filming on January 27.

Post-production
Ahmed and Scott were confirmed to appear in the film in February 2018, and Will Beall was revealed to have done additional writing for the film.In the following months, Sope Aluko and Scott Deckert were revealed to be cast in the film, Haze and Harrelson were confirmed to appear, and Ahmed's role was confirmed to be that of Carlton Drake.< Harrelson, who previously worked with Fleischer on Zombieland (2009), explained that he signed on to the film for a small role—he described himself as being "in a little fraction of this movie"—knowing that he would have a bigger part in a potential sequel. The film underwent reshoots in Los Angeles in June 2018, which were reportedly overseen by Hardy.

In July, Fleischer described the film as having "no heroes", and said that they were planning a "huge world" with many characters while developing the film; he revealed that another symbiote, Riot, would be appearing as a villain in the film. Additionally, he confirmed Spider-Man would not be appearing but said a crossover with that character could happen in a future film. Since Venom's origin is not tied to Spider-Man in the film, as it is in the comics, it did not make sense for the filmmakers to add a version of Spider-Man's symbol to Venom's chest. However, they still wanted to be as accurate to the comic designs as possible, and an all-black character would have been difficult to see in night scenes, so Venom has a unique symbol on his chest instead in the film which is formed from the white veins of the symbiote. Fleischer wanted Venom to stand out compared to other comic book-based films, and felt tonally that it would not remind viewers of the lighter MCU or the somber DC Extended Universe. It was important for him to honor the violence of Venom from the comics, where "he bites people's heads off and eats brains. It would be weird to make a movie with Venom if he wasn't doing that." Sony executives were reluctant to push this element so far that the film would earn an R-rating, which they believed would cause problems for crossovers with the family-friendly Spider-Man, as well as other MCU characters, in future films. Venom was ultimately rated PG-13, with the violence toned down to allow for those possible crossovers.

Venom was one of the first films to take advantage of the new post-production facilities at Sony Pictures' Stage 6 building in Culver City, California, with two new theaters equipped for sound design using the immersive Dolby Atmos technology, two new stages for sound mixing with Avid Technology's Pro Tools workstations, and a theater set-up for remote visual effects and color grading review.

Music
Ludwig Göransson signed on to compose the score for Venom in March 2018, reuniting with Fleischer after the pair worked together on the 2011 film 30 Minutes or Less. Having composed the music for Marvel Studios' Black Panther (2018), Göransson said that he was interested in continuing to explore music for superhero films because "as a young film composer that is one of the things you dream of ... superhero themes really resonate with audiences." In August, rapper Eminem teased that he had contributed a new song to the soundtrack for Venom, and his album Kamikaze—released on August 31—features a bonus song called "Venom (Music from the Motion Picture)" that includes references to the film. The song was subsequently released by Aftermath Records as a digital single on September 23.

Marketing
For the Sony Pictures panel at Comic Con Experience 2017, Fleischer and Hardy appeared in a video from the film's set to promote it. A teaser for the film was released in February 2018, which Dani Di Placido called "comically underwhelming" for Forbes. He felt this was a major misstep by Sony given the teaser was meant to win over uninterested Spider-Man fans, particularly after the character's portrayal in Spider-Man 3. The fact that the teaser did not include the title character was a common criticism by commentators. Sony chairman Tom Rothman later acknowledged this, explaining that the intention had been to "heighten anticipation" for the film. In August, Fleischer revealed the trailer did not showcase Venom because the visual effects for the character were incomplete at the time.>

Rothman presented new footage of the film at CinemaCon 2018, and acknowledged that it revealed the film's version of Venom by saying, "See, we didn't forget to put Venom in the movie!" Placido was more positive of this trailer, praising the appearance of and visuals for Venom, but being concerned about the dialogue. During the trailer, actress Jenny Slate pronounces the word symbiote as PA (SIM-bye-oht) rather than IPA (SIM-bee-oht) as many commentators believed it should be pronounced. This led to widespread criticism and a 35,700 percent increase in searches for "symbiote pronunciation" according to dictionary Merriam-Webster, which noted both pronunciations are technically considered acceptable. Hannah Shaw-Williams of Screen Rant noted that the trailer reused music from a major, recently-released trailer for the Marvel film Avengers: Infinity War (2018), questioning whether this was a coincidence or if Sony was "deliberately trying to tie Venom to the MCU in the minds of audiences. Whatever the reason, Venom will need more than just a familiar piece of trailer music in order to win over audiences". According to Fizziology, an analytics company that takes different social media platforms into account, the second trailer was watched 64.3 million times within 24 hours, a 72 percent increase over the first trailer. Fizziology said it was rare for a second trailer to get more views than the first and noted that general positive responses were up 46 percent. The majority of positive responses were directed towards the appearance and design of Venom.

Fleischer, Hardy, and Ahmed promoted the film at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con, where the audience was given Venom masks and chanted "We are Venom". New footage from the film was debuted at the panel, including the reveal of the villainous symbiote Riot. A third trailer was subsequently released online. It was criticized by Scott Mendelson (also of Forbes), who said the film was looking comparable to Catwoman (2004)—"the shining example of how not to do this kind of movie". He also felt that Fleischer's decision to make a sequel to his successful film Zombieland before Venom's release was an indication that the film was not going to be good. Richard Newby, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, felt that the film was being marketed as if it was in an "earlier era", saying it "looks pre-Iron Man cool" and more like a cross between An American Werewolf in London (1981) and Blade (1998) than a modern superhero film. He noted that despite early fears, the latest trailer showed that Venom would be featured throughout the film, and believed that the film's lack of shared universe connections and distinct tone could help Sony prove it has "a handle on these characters after all". A tie-in comic book, serving as both a prequel and a teaser for the film and simply titled Venom, was released digitally by Marvel on September 14, with a physical version available to those who purchased tickets for the film from AMC Theatres. Written by Sean Ryan and illustrated by Szymon Kudranski, the comic establishes the film's backstory for the symbiote. SKAN provided the cover art for the comic.

Release
Venom had its world premiere at the Regency Village Theatre in Westwood, Los Angeles on October 1, 2018, and is scheduled to be released in the United States on October 5.

Box office projections
In the United States and Canada, Venom is projected to gross $60–70 million in its opening weekend. Worldwide, it is expected to debut to $160–175 million, including $100–110 million from 59 markets internationally. According to Screen Rant, the film will need to gross at least $200 million to break even.

Critical response
Venom received generally negative reviews from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 30% based on 115 reviews, with an average rating of 4.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Venom first standalone movie turns out to be like the comics character in all the wrong ways—chaotic, noisy, and in desperate need of a stronger attachment to Spider-Man." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 34 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Alonso Duralde of TheWrap gave the film a negative review, calling it a "listless dud" and writing, "Leaping from plot point to plot point without the hindrance of logic or characters, this big-screen return of the legendary Spider-Man nemesis — last seen in the franchise-hobbling Spider-Man 3 — is aggressively loud and stupid without being much fun at all." Owen Gleiberman of Variety wrote, "Venom is a textbook case of a comic-book film that’s unexciting in its ho-hum competence, and even its visual-effects bravura...This gateway into the Sony Universe of Marvel Characters (get ready: there are 90!) may not sputter as badly as Tom Cruise's The Mummy, but it could turn out to be a similar case of a franchise kickoff that doesn't fully attain franchise liftoff." Alex Hudson of Exclaim! gave the film 3/10 and wrote, "Venom is basically The Mask with a slobbery tongue and none of Jim Carrey's slapstick charm."

Katie Walsh, writing for of the Chicago Tribune, gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars and said, "It's a mess, but wow, is it ever a fun, fascinating mess. Those are always so much more thrilling than any of the formulaic superhero movies that parade through multiplexes all year." Perri Nemiroff of Collider graded the film a C+, saying "Bear with me here; Venom the movie is an actual 'turd in the wind.' Chop off its legs thanks to a weak first act. Lose the arms because every single supporting character is essentially worthless. The head obviously has to go because Venom is pretty brainless. And, not for nothing, but that leaves us with the heart (or for the sake of this visual, the torso) of the movie, the Venom and Eddie relationship."

Future
Sony plans for Venom to launch its own franchise. In July 2017, Panitch indicated that future Venom films could crossover more with the Spider-Man films. Harrelson revealed in May 2018 that he was expected to have a larger role in a Venom sequel, describing this move as a roll of the dice since he was unable to read a script for the sequel before signing on to the first film. That July, Fleischer and Hardy both expressed interest in a crossover with Spider-Man, and indicated that Sony was interested in the idea as well; in August, the studio confirmed that it planned to crossover Spider-Man and Venom by saying they "are already in the same universe—so without giving too much away, we are looking forward to the two of them eventually facing off in the future". Venom producer Matt Tolmach stated that the film was developed as a standalone feature, though future collaborations with the MCU are expected by the studio. He stated, “The opportunities are wide open in terms of storytelling, but we made a movie about Eddie Brock and Venom, and it lives in the world of Venom right now. It’s a standalone. But we can do lots of things, and we’ll see where the next story takes this.” The same month, Hardy revealed he is signed on for two more Venom films.