‘Venom’ Director Says Film’s Level Of Violence Will Be Pushed To The Hilt

The violence in Sony’s Venom movie will set it apart from other super hero movies according to director Ruben Fleischer.

While the film is just over a month from release and does not yet have an official MPAA rating, Fleischer’s recent comments might just hint towards one which allows for more grotesque freedoms. Fleischer said the violence in his upcoming film will be “pushed to the hilt,” meaning it will be supplied to the maximum degree.

“I feel like the casting, the aesthetic and the character himself all combine to make something that just feels different,” Fleischer told LA Times. “Tonally it doesn’t remind you of other movies. It doesn’t feel like we just tried to do what everyone else is doing…. The DC universe is so aggressively dark and the Marvel universe has become so light. It was kind of exciting to craft something that just felt a little bit more real and grounded and in our world.”

Speaking to ComicBook.com at San Diego Comic Con, Fleischer teased more specifically what some of the differences between Venom and the other super hero properties will be. Given Venom’s terrifying nature in comics, the movie aims to be consistent with the Marvel pages.

“That’s the plan,” Fleischer said. “It is not the plan, that’s the movie. Our movie wants to honor the comics as close as we can tonally. In the comics, 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. We tried to honor it as closely as possible. This is definitely a darker, more violent, more vicious Marvel character than I think anyone’s ever seen before.”

In the end, it was important to honor the comics while crafting a story which will keep moviegoers guessing. “We really want to honor the comics and the character from the comics and I feel like we did a really good job,” Fleischer said.

It was also important to Venom star Tom Hardy.

“Venom is, by far, for me the…coolest Marvel super hero that there is,” Hardy said during the movie’s Hall H panel. “I just like the way he looks first and foremost. Then, also, there’s my son and he’s a massive Venom fan. He was a very strong influence on me as to why I ought to play Venom specifically…So I did something where I bite people’s heads off which my son can’t see.”

Expect a final ruling on the film’s MPAA rating, be it PG-13 or R, sooner rather than later. Venom is set for release on October 5, 2018.