Venom 2 to be directed by Andy Serkis
 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/he...direct-1228724

The actor-turned-filmmaker will be tackling his first comic book movie as helmer.
Andy Serkis is officially stepping into Venom's goo.

The filmmaker has closed a deal to direct Venom 2, Sony's sequel to the 2018 film that grossed $856 million at the global box office. The sequel, part of the company's stable of Spider-Man-related and Marvel-centric characters, will once again star Tom Hardy as the journalist who joins with an alien symbiote.

Serkis flew to Los Angeles the week of July 22 to meet with Sony brass on the project and was one of several filmmakers in the mix for the job. This will be Serkis' third directorial effort, after the 2017 drama Breathe and last year's non-Disney take on the Rudyard Kipling stories, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, which ended up on Netflix after being made at Warner Bros.

Serkis rose to fame for his motion-capture and performance-capture acting work as Gollum in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy from 2002 to 2004. He cut his teeth with second unit directing by reteaming with Jackson for the Hobbit trilogy (2012-14). He played the villain Snoke in the recent Star Wars films, as well as bad guy Klaw in Marvel Studios' Black Panther. His expertise with CG and performance-capture technology is one of the factors that landed him the Venom 2 gig.

Sony had no comment.

Kelly Marcel wrote the script for Venom 2. Ruben Fleischer helmed 2018's Venom, which starred Michelle Williams and featured a last-minute cameo by Woody Harrelson as chief Venom villain Cletus Kasady, aka Carnage. Serkis previously worked with Harrelson on 2017's War for the Planet of the Apes.

Shortly after the news broke Monday, Serkis shared a post on his verified Instagram account.

"It's actually happening. I can feel it, the Symbiote has found a host in me, and I'm ready for the ride...Can't wait," he wrote.

Serkis is repped by CAA and Principal Entertainment.

Alright, so his first movie "Breathe" has 68% critic's score, 53% top critic and 71% aucience score on Rotten Tomatoes. On Metacritic it scored at 51 with critics and 6.3 with audiences (Metacritic scores use different metrics for critics and audiences in case you didn't know, both mean about average in this case).
His second movie "Mowgli" has 52% critic's, 42% top critic's and 53% audince. On Metacritic it has 51 for critics and 6.5 audiences.

I haven't seen either movie but the consensus seems to be that he's a mixed bag of a director. I kinda think he was picked because he's a big name rather than his skill.

I am one of those people who absolutely loved Mowgli, so I'm both hopeful and curious to see how Serkis approaches this film and character.

New Title (Venom: Let There Be Carnage) and pushed back to new release date of June 25, 2021

If it were up to me and money was no risk, I'd just call it "Carnage". I like the simplicity and the boldness of not even including the title character's name in it. I also think it sounds a bit foreboding and all-encompassing.

The idea that Carnage is such a threat that he's even taken over the title is exciting and a bit chilling to me. It nearly says to you "Carnage is coming", without having to actually say it.

My two cents.

Sucks it got pushed back. I thought it being October it was safe from Coronavirus push backs. Post-production still to be done I assume?

I recently rewatched my copy of the film. I wanted to convince myself there can be Venom without Spider-Man. There actually can be I found. Not nearly as cool, but it still works especially if you don't want Eddie Brock to be evil.

I know Carnage is one of the deadlier villains in Marvel, but I wonder if it can tonally accurate and still be PG-13. The first installment managed to do it.

Post-production? I've been under the impression they haven't even started filming yet.

Oh, really? I know October 2020 was always the target release date. I believed something like that would have filmed already.

Huh. Maybe I'm wrong, but usually with any kind of movie like this there'd be at least a few of pics from behind the scenes during the shoots, whether official or paparazzi borne. Not one, that I'm aware of.

According to many sources it has been filmed and post production was started just before the pandemic. I’d Link a source but I’m too lazy to do that at the moment.

Oh, OK. Weird this didn't get a lot of circulation.

https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/31...wraps-filming/

Venom 3 will be called Maximum Carnage and will feature MCU's Spider-Man teaming up with Venom against Carnage and other symbiotes.

Is that official? That's pretty much what I envisioned happening.

No way that is official. They don’t even know yet.

Pushed back to September 17th

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/he..._medium=social

That's dumb. Things are already mostly fine now and will be even moreso in June.

Borys Kit
@Borys_Kit


Sony pushes VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE release date from Sept 17 to Sept 24, 2021.

https://twitter.com/Borys_Kit/status...79134749253632

A week? What's the point?

I hope they can find a way to make symbiote battles compelling. It's hard to get invested in the unknown laws of physics concerning some goopy alien crap that slides all around your body, heals you, and morphs into lethal objects. It's too abstract and they need to lay some ground rules.

Interesting choice. His Jungle Book was pretty good. Shame that it released right next to the Disney version, which overshadowed it.

That was like the worst thing I've ever seen.

That looks fun I can't wait for this one

Looks crummy.

Looks promising. Goofy, dark, somehow it will all fit despite no Spider-Man. I am definitely open to this and hope I enjoy the end product in September.

Andy Serkis, director, on which universe this film takes place in:

I'm sort of over this whole "will they, won't they?" with Sony's Venom. They've been doing this little Spider-Man tease since the marketing of the first film.
I really have no desire to see this version of the character interact with Spider-Man anyway.

I thought the first thing about the first flick, but then it was pretty entertaining even though the concept of Venom as a star-hero drives me nuts....

This one will probably be entertaining too.

My thoughts exactly!

I don't want it to go any further than a second installment either.

Well, you're certainly not alone in liking the first film. Personally, I found it watchable but forgettable.

I don't mind the character not being taken so seriously, but I guess the comedy and charm they are going for just falls flat for me. The other whammy is how cold the special effects leave me. The action in the first film wasn't very inspiring, and with another computer-animated monster thrown into the mix, I'm not assured this will be any better.

I thought they had a real opportunity with this sequel and a new director, to build off the success of the first film and take us somewhere a bit more compelling. Instead, it appears the idea is not to disrupt the success of the first film, but rather to double-down on what worked the first time.

Makes sense, but I also think a lot of the success of the first movie was fueled by the curiosity of what a Venom movie would be like. Now that the curiosity has been satiated, I can see the opening weekend and resulting box office shrinking in comparison.

With Knull and the King In Black event being the massive sales success for Marvel that it was, you can forget about that

Agreed 100% here. And really, the second movie will be fueled by the excitement of "finally" seeing Carnage on-screen.

I like the trailer. In a way, it's the kind of likeability and respect comic book Venom always wanted and will probably never get. Just the way the lady in the store said hi to Venom.

I want Sony to make a Scarlet Spider/Ben Reilly movie next.
No connection to Spider-Man, cast the up and coming Timothy Chalamet. Kaine for the sequel. Who cares.

No, but what they should really do is Spider-Man 2099. Hell, Sam Raimi could kill that.

http://i.imgur.com/PPX0Zdzl.jpg
First movie trailer I've seen this year bold enough to promise that.

I've seen the "Only in theatres" thing in at least two other trailers (can't remember which movies). I'm gonna guess that the attempt to cash in via streaming services during the pandemic isn't really working out?

I would be interested in both.

Tom Hardy will receive a "story by" credit on the movie

https://www.darkhorizons.com/hardy-c...-sequel-story/

There are plenty of times when the actors drive the story of a movie that it turns out great... uhhh... Deadpool? Umm...........

I noticed they raceswapped Shriek, a woman who is literally whiter than white. Like chalk white, ala Domino.

****ing **** just never ends.