Two of Marvel’s greatest and most complex characters, Venom and Carnage will face off on the big screen, later this week, when the highly anticipated Venom: Let There Be Carnage hits Aussie cinemas.
The sequel to 2018’s Venom, the new film, directed by Andy Serkis with fan-favourite Tom Hardy returning as Eddie Brock, will see Woody Harrelson assume the role of villain Cletus Kasady a.k.a. Carnage.
Speaking with Screen Rant ahead of the film’s release, Hardy described Let There Be Carnage as “a hundred percent a love story”.
“I mean, it opens up with, ‘This is a love story,’” Hardy told Screen Rant.
Tom Hardy and director Andy Serkis on the set of ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’
“There’s an absurd, surreal element to that. But it’s not what you think, it’s about a kind of dysfunctional love. There’s a buddy movie there. There’s The Odd Couple, there’s The Seven Year Itch. There’s an element of Thelma & Louise, or Natural Born Killers, or True Romance with the other couple in that movie as well. And there’s these two couples in there. Well, there’s three because there’s Dr. Dan and Anne as well.
“So it’s, like, three couples intertwined in very different relationships, with varying degrees of functionality, or dysfunction, as you would like it, in a sort of operatic ride of thrills; with ultimately, Carnage and Cletus Cassidy being the nemesis of Venom and his son. So, you’ve got a father-son movie too in there.
“So we came at it from lots of angles of, how do we make this? How do we get more out of our characters that we love? How do we introduce new ones? How do we make a comparative reflection between the couples and love? And what’s that about? But also it be good fun.”
It’s widely noted that Hardy personally reached out to Serkis to request that he helm Let There Be Carnage to push the film “to the next level”.
In an interview with Comic Book Movie, Serkis revealed his hands-on approach to Carnage, and from that alone, it’s clear he was the right filmmaker for the job.
“We trawled through so many [comics], mainly as a source of inspiration for Carnage actually [because] that was going to be the newly introduced comic book character,” he said.
“I just gathered everything I could about Carnage, from the way he moves to how he changes himself and transforms, becomes mist, and changes the molecular structure of himself. Also, how he differs as a symbiote to Venom being the son of Venom, but then, plus, plus, plus because he’s a ‘red one’.
“That was a really enjoyable part of the process, and then turning that into a real, physical thing using performance capture. We had avatars of an early prototype version of Carnage and then we started working with dancers, gymnasts, and other physical performers to see how we could make him different.
“Venom, if you like, is very grounded and an ape-like American football player or rugby player with his physicality. Carnage is all about side-stepping, slippery, moving and using energy in different ways, and using his tendrils like a squid, firing them out and weaponizing them. All that exploration and having the comics there was amazing for reference.”
Exclusive to cinemas from November 25.
