This weekend marks the end of an era and closes out the story of Sony’s Venom. Since 2018, Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock has been a weirdo doing goofy-ass slapstick in ways that have upset some but delighted others, and Venom: The Last Dancepromised to be a last ride of some kind for the duo before another iteration of Eddie (or another character entirely) puts on the alien skin suit. And audiences have responded to it with a bit of an “ehhhhhh…”
Per the Hollywood Reporter, the gooey threequel is looking at $51 million domestic box office at time of writing, well below the initial $65 projections placed upon it pre-release. For comparison, the first movie started at $80.2 million in North America (a then-record for October movies in 2018), and 2021’s Let There Be Carnagebegan at $90 million, impressive back then because of the pandemic. The international audience has come in clutch; it’s apparently doing very well outside North America, and expected to pull in $124 million for a reported global total of $175 million.
Last Dance opened to negative reviews and spotty word of mouth, and it probably doesn’t help some folks are getting their Halloween party on. Still, it took the top spot for the weekend, happily knocking Smile 2 down to second place; the horror sequel made another $10.3 million domestically and $12.5 million overseas, bringing its global total to $83.7 million. And speaking of sequels to scary movies, Variety reports Terrifier 3 is pegged to make another $4.5 million and end the weekend at $44 million, triple the combined grosses of its predecessors.
Venom basically has next weekend all to himself, as far as big genre movies are concerned. Things truly kick in on week two with A24’s religious horror flick Heretic and the post-apocalyptic flick Elevation on November 8. The following weekends see the action Christmas flick Red One(November 15), Gladiator II and Wicked: Part I(November 22), and Moana 2(November 27).
Got thoughts on Venom: The Last Dance? Let us know in the comments below.
Kelly Marcel and Tom Hardy are fitting dance partners for Eddie Brock and Venom’s final go-round in Venom: The Last Dance. The longtime screenwriter turned director has been friends with Hardy since the early 2000s, as they both worked across the street from one another in Southwest London. Marcel was employed at a video rental store, and after hitting it off one day, she soon started writing scenes for Hardy’s theater company that was run out of the first floor of Battersea’s The Latchmere pub. Eventually, Hardy brought Marcel in to do uncredited rewrites on Nicolas Winding Refn’s Bronson (2008), something she’d again do years later on George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).
In the intervening years, she launched her career by selling Terra Nova to Amblin and Fox. It would go on to become TV’s most expensive series at the time, and despite creating the concept, she declined a lucrative offer to actually run the show. Instead, she went on to write Saving Mr. Banks and Fifty Shades of Grey. In 2017, Hardy called on her once more, but this time, it was in an official capacity as co-writer of Ruben Fleischer’s Venom (2018). The opportunity then paved the way for her to be a producing writer on Andy Serkis’ sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage (20221), and now, the writer-director of the trilogy capper, Venom: The Last Dance.
“Towards the end of Venom 2, Sony asked if I would like to direct the third one. Tom and I then looked at each other and were like, ‘Yeah, that’s definitely something that should happen,’” Marcel tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It was really a beautiful thing that they were going to allow us to see this movie from inception to the very end in our way.”
The third chapter in Eddie Brock’s unexpected bromance with a symbiote named Venom puts their relationship on center stage once more, as their union now creates an existential threat to the people of Earth.
Six years ago, it was not entirely known yet that Eddie and Venom would now be the primary “romantic” relationship of the franchise. At the end of Venom (2018), both Venom and the late Stan Lee, in a cameo role, encouraged Eddie to not give up on his former fiancée, Anne Weying, played by Michelle Williams. The groundwork had seemingly been established for a revival of their romance, but in the development of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, it was then realized that the heart of the franchise was Eddie and Venom’s love affair with each other. Thus, Anne became more of a supporting character who helps mend fences during a period in which Eddie and Venom are at odds. And now, with Venom: The Last Dance being a road movie where Eddie and Venom are on the run, Anne, who’s presumably still in San Francisco, has no presence or even a name check in the film.
Marcel confirms that there was a shift in focus after the first film.
“We do listen to the fans. After each movie, we go back and we look at what people liked and what people didn’t like. And it was very, very clear that people were very wedded to the relationship between Venom and Eddie. That was what they loved,” Marcel says. “The axis on which these movies spin is Venom and Eddie’s relationship, and it’s always been about them.”
In the middle of Venom: The Last Dance, Marcel puts Eddie Brock in a tuxedo during a stop in Las Vegas. For starters, she’d grown weary of Eddie’s Hawaiian shirt and Golden State Warriors t-shirt that was established in the coda of Spider-Man: No Way Home. But she was also motivated by a pop cultural factor outside of their fictional universe.
“There’s always been these rumors about [Tom] playing James Bond, so I may have been showing what Tom Hardy’s James Bond might look like,” Marcel admits mid-laugh.
Speaking of which, Marcel also recently found herself on a rumored shortlist of directors who may be in the mix for the next James Bond film. The list featured the names of Marcel, Edward Berger, David Michod, Yann Demange and Bart Layton.
“That’s an extraordinary list to be on. I was flabbergasted,” Marcel says. “There’s never been a female Bond director, and of course, when you see something like that, it’s just incredibly humbling. So I’m grateful to be mentioned alongside any of those brilliant, brilliant directors.”
Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Marcel also addresses Venom spinoff possibilities and whether she knows what the MCU has planned for the Venom sample that remains in that universe.
Apparently, you’ve known Tom Hardy for over two decades. How did you first meet?
We met when I was working in a video store. He was running this little theater company in the pub across the road. It was sort of like a gym for actors, so that’s how we met. We started talking about the industry and things that we were both interested in, and we found that we shared a sensibility and a sense of humor. So I started writing scenes for his actors to workshop in that theater company. I’d already written some plays at the Edinburgh Festival, so I wasn’t coming from nowhere, but we were both very much unemployed [in the larger sense]. I was employed by a video store, and Tom would come over and help me give out DVDs, so our friendship grew from there.
Director Kelly Marcel and Tom Hardy on the set of Columbia Pictures Venom The Last Dance
Laura Radford/Sony Pictures
According to the Internet, you did some writing for Tom on Bronson and MadMax: Fury Road. Assuming those jobs were trials by fire, did they only deepen your bond?
Yeah, absolutely. We had written some TV shows together. We had gone out pitching, so those jobs weren’t the first times that we had worked together. When he was doing Bronson, he was having a tricky time realizing that character. So I came in to do some rewrites on it and help him find what it was he was trying to express in that movie. He’s brilliant in it, and it was astonishing to watch him every day. And then it was the same with MadMax: Fury Road. So we’ve both worked together through our careers, and then we’ve obviously had our separate tangents, as well. But whenever Tom needs me, I’m there.
You wrote or co-wrote the last two Venom films, making you, Tom and Peggy Lu’s Mrs. Chen the three constants in the franchise. How did events unfold to where you landed in the director’s chair?
Yeah, I wrote Venom, I wrote and produced Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and towards the end of Venom 2, Sony asked if I would like to direct the third one. Tom and I then looked at each other and were like, “Yeah, that’s definitely something that should happen.” It was a great honor to be asked, and it was really a beautiful thing that they were going to allow us to see this movie from inception to the very end in our way. So it’s been beautiful to get to see these characters out.
It seems like you, Steven Knight and Chris Nolan know how to best work with Tom, so what’s the key to collaborating with him?
I think Tom works well with so many directors, but he loves Steve and Chris. Tom is a fountain of ideas. He is very alive in his imagination, and he is kind of a genius in the way that he keeps a character on its toes. He’s extraordinarily brave in how far he’s willing to go with a character, and as long as he feels safe and supported, then he’s going to give you everything he’s got. As a director, our job is to challenge him and get that amazing performance that he has within him to shine. But it’s all Tom. He comes with his characters fully formulated in his head. He is very much the creator of Venom and Venom’s voice. He very much knew who Eddie Brock was. My job was just to put the words in their mouths, and find fun and interesting things for him to do with those characters.
Who gets the credit for the hilarious running gag involving Eddie’s shoes?
(Marcel raises her hand.) As Tom will tell you, we want to have fun when we are making these movies. They’re hard work and long hours and long days. So whenever I’m writing these scripts, I’m always thinking about fun things that I can do, like stick Tom in a tank of water for two weeks or throw him off a plane. That’s just our thing with each other. We like playing and having fun, and because Eddie had ended up in a pair of Crocs, I thought it would be hilarious to have an action sequence in a pair of Crocs. That’s the dog fight. I then had him continue to lose shoes all the way through the movie just to see what he would do with that, and he was brilliant.
Venom: The Last Dance is a road movie, and therefore, Eddie and Venom don’t spend any time in San Francisco. Is that the main reason why Anne Weying (Michelle Williams) was absent from this one?
Yeah, we really wanted to isolate them. We wanted to take them away from their comfort zone. We wanted to take them away from everything they knew and everyone they loved, so that they really only had each other to rely on now. We knew that we wanted them to reach symbiosis with each other and decide that they were going to be the Lethal Protector, and that they were going to go on this journey together. And, of course, that quickly becomes very dangerous for them, because the very act of them being together means that the world is at risk. So they come to understand that the thing that they have chosen is actually their downfall, and so all of the characters from the previous movies — other than Peggy Lu’s Mrs. Chen — didn’t belong in this road trip story.
At the end of Venom (2018), both Venom and Stan Lee urged Eddie not to give up on Anne. So it seemed like the original plan was to rekindle Eddie and Anne’s romance until it became evident that the real love story was between Eddie and Venom. So is there some truth to that romantic pivot?
Yeah, I think so. We do listen to the fans. After each movie, we go back and we look at what people liked and what people didn’t like. And it was very, very clear that people were very wedded to the relationship between Venom and Eddie. That was what they loved, but they also loved Dr. Dan [Reid Scott] in Venom. So we were like, “Well, we’ve got to bring Reid back because everybody loves him.” So it just felt like the Venom 2 story was about these two characters who have been forced to live together and are driving each other absolutely crazy. It’s the seven year itch where they are forced to split up, and that was the trajectory of that movie, whilst also facing Carnage and Shriek. The axis on which these movies spin is Venom and Eddie’s relationship, and it’s always been about them.
You reference MCU events at the start, so how involved were those executives on this go-round?
They weren’t [involved] because, where we find ourselves in the MCU, it’s already something that we had shot.
The coda in Spider-Man: No Way Home …
Yeah, it already existed.
There’s still that sample or piece of Venom that’s left in the MCU version of that Mexico-set bar. Is it anyone’s guess what the plan is for that?
I think it’s anyone’s guess at this point.
Most notable actors these days have worked on comic book projects, but Rhys Ifans played Dr. Curt Connors/Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). Chiwetel Ejiofor also played a villain named Mordo in the MCU’s Doctor Strange movies. Thus, was there any hand-wringing over their castings?
No, none of us really thought about that. They’re brilliant actors, and they play different roles. For me, it was just about having the right actors for these parts, and I can’t imagine anyone but Rhys playing Martin. I also can’t imagine anyone other than Chiwetel playing Strickland. They’re amazing actors, and I’m so grateful we got to work with them. So none of us really thought about their prior characters that they had played.
Was it bizarre to direct the director of the last Venom movie?
(Laughs.) Oh my God, I love Andy [Serkis] so much. We all love Andy. We knew on Venom 2 that he was going to be this [Knull] character, should we be able to bring the character into this movie. He was the only person we asked, and of course, he was thrilled and excited. He’s one of the greatest voice actors there is. Knull is also mocap and CGI, and so it was brilliant [to work together]. It was like a reunion. Andy and I are friends, so it was just very, very fun to get to spend some time with him on this. It felt like a full circle in a way
When Knull’s foot soldier-type creatures eat humans and spray their blood in response, are they filtering the blood because it doesn’t agree with their systems?
Yes, if you look at their mouths, their mouths are a woodchipper. So they were conceived to have woodchipper mouths that spit out the back. They have a vent on the back of their head, and whatever goes through, the remains must come out.
Tom Hardy stars as Eddie Brock/Venom in Columbia Pictures Venom The Last Dance
Sony Pictures
Between the Spider-Man: No Way Home coda and half this movie, Eddie is dressed in the same dreadful vacation outfit. Was the tuxedo glow-up your response to that wardrobe? Could you not take it anymore?
(Laughs.) It was [a response]. Tom is a most handsome man, and I wanted to see him in a tuxedo. I also loved the idea of him doing all of the third-act action sequence in an amazing suit and looking incredible. I felt like Eddie deserved it.
I realize Tom’s contract is up and that Venom: The Last Dance is regarded as the last one, but Venom is still a valuable franchise to Sony. So if inspiration ever struck you and Tom, do you think the studio would welcome a Venom 4?
You’d have to ask Sony. I don’t know. Yes, it is the end of a contract. We were asked to do three, we’ve delivered three, and who knows what the future holds. I hope that we’ve laid groundwork for them in this third movie with other characters and other symbiotes and bad guys that they can run with, should they choose. But this is the last one for Venom and Eddie.
Yeah, this movie leaves one particular character in a very interesting place. Have you given some forethought to future spinoffs? Or was it purely a gift for the studio to run with as they please?
We have definitely given it forethought, so we definitely know what those stories could be, should they want them. But they are a gift to the studio, yes.
Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu) is suprised to see Eddie (Tom Hardy) in Venom: The Last Dance
Lacey Terrell/Sony Pictures
You knew you made it when you sold your first show [Terra Nova] and got your first writing credit on a movie [Saving Mr. Banks]. You again knew you made it when you directed Venom: The Last Dance. But you really knew you made it when you found yourself in James Bond-related rumors. Was that pretty flattering regardless of whether it’s true or not?
(Laughs.) Yeah, that’s an extraordinary list to be on. I was flabbergasted. There’s never been a female Bond director, and of course, when you see something like that, it’s just incredibly humbling. So I’m grateful to be mentioned alongside any of those brilliant, brilliant directors. [Writer’s Note: The rumored list is as follows: Marcel, Edward Berger, David Michod, Yann Demange and Bart Layton.]
When I saw Tom in the tuxedo, I did think of James Bond.
So did I!
I then wondered if you were potentially leaving a trail of breadcrumbs.
(Laughs.) Well, there’s always been these rumors about him playing James Bond, so I may have been showing what Tom Hardy’s James Bond might look like.
*** Venom: The Last Dance opens Oct. 25 in movie theaters.
Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy” premieres its final season and a Boston heist movie starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: a new “Dance Moms” series, a “Yo Gabba Gabba” reboot for younger audiences and J Balvin promises an album that hits like a house party.
NEW MOVIES TO STREAM
— A poorly planned heist goes terribly wrong in “The Instigators” (Friday, Aug. 9, on Apple TV+), a loosely amiable Boston-set caper starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck. The movie, directed by Doug Liman (“Go,” “The Bourne Identity”), returns Damon and Affleck to familiar hometown terrain. They play a despondent pair who try to steal money from a corrupt mayor (Ron Perlman) but end up on the run, with a therapist (Hong Chau) in tow. In my review, I called it “a rudderless but winningly shaggy action comedy.”
— Jeff Nichols (“Mud,” “Take Shelter,” “Loving”) extends his survey of classically American dramas with “The Bikeriders,” a chronicle of a Chicago motorcycle club in the 1960s. In the film (Friday, Aug. 9, on Peacock), Austin Butler and Tom Hardy star as riders with an antiauthoritarian streak who help found the Vandals, but watch as their club grows beyond their control. In a male-populated film, though, Jodie Comer, as the heavily accented narrator, is closer to the main character. In my review, I called it “a vivid dramatization of the birth of an American subculture.”
— This month, the Criterion Channel is running two overlapping series: one of movies directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, one of films starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman was a mainstay in Anderson’s films from the start (he steals “Hard Eight” with one scene) and a central presence in films like “Magnolia,” “Punch-Drunk Love” and “The Master.” The Hoffman series includes plenty other highlights, too; look especially for the exquisitely tender 2010 drama “Jack Goes Boating.” The Anderson series also includes an exclusive streaming of the director’s radiant 2021 coming-of-age tale “Licorice Pizza,” which poignantly starred Hoffman’s son, Cooper.
— Ryuichi Sakamoto’s “Opus” — the posthumous album and documentary of the same name — was captured while the Japanese film composer was dying of cancer. Across 20 songs, Sakamoto performs a collection of his biggest songs on piano, like the memorable themes for Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor” and “The Sheltering Sky.” The album also includes the first ever recorded version of “Tong Poo,” from his early days with techno-pop trio Yellow Magic Orchestra.
— On Friday, Aug. 9, Colombian reggaetónero J Balvin will release a new full-length project, “Rayo.” Across 15 tracks, he’s promised an album that hits like a house party — just in time for the hottest summer month of the year. “Rayo” is stacked with good time collaborations — reggaetón superstar Fied, regional Mexican musician Carín León, Bad Gyal, Zion, Dei V, Ryan Castro, Blessd and Luar La L among them. The previously released singles, “Gaga” with SAIKO, “Polvo de tu Vida” with Chencho Corleono, and “En Alta” with Quevedo, Omar Courtz and YOVNGCHIMI, embody that spirit. At his party, everyone is invited.
— Also on Friday, Aug. 9, “Not Not Jazz,” a documentary following the avant-garde, acid jazz-fusion band Medeski, Martin & Wood, becomes available to stream via video on demand. The film follows the improvisational trio as they endeavor to record a new album at the Allaire Studio in Woodstock, New York. It is a peek behind the curtain of their processes, and a celebration of music that is far too often underserved.
— The dramatic world of “Dance Moms” returns with a new coach, dancers and, of course, invested moms. In “Dance Moms: A New Era,” mothers hover as eight girls are trained by instructor Glo Hampton, a.k.a. Miss Glo, to compete nationally. The original “Dance Moms” ran for eight seasons and featured breakout stars Jojo Siwa and Maddie Ziegler. It also introduced the world to coach Abby Lee Miller, who was often criticized for being too harsh on her students. Miller was sentenced to a year in prison in 2017 for bankruptcy fraud. “Dance Moms: A New Era” debuts Wednesday, Aug. 7.
— Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy” premieres its final season on Thursday, Aug. 8. The show follows a family of adopted superheroes — who were stripped of their powers in season three — who must work together to stop the apocalypse. Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman and David Cross are new faces in season four alongside regulars that include David Castañeda, Tom Hopper and Elliot Page.
— The musical cartoon for preschoolers called “Yo Gabba Gabba!” is also getting a reboot called “Yo Gabba GabbaLand!” on Apple TV+. The 10-episode series premieres Friday, Aug. 9. It’s hosted by Kamryn Smith as Kammy Kam and brings back other characters from the original.
— Michael Imperioli, who played Tony Soprano’s protégé Christopher on “The Sopranos,” can’t shake the mob. He’s the executive producer and narrator of a three-part docuseries on five Italian American families who were selected by Charles “Lucky” Luciano in 1931 to rule the organized crime world. “American Godfathers: The Five Families” debuts Sunday, Aug. 11 on The History Channel. It will also stream on The History Channel app, history.com and major TV video on demand platforms.
— A four-part docuseries adapts historian Donald Bogle’s 2019 book called “Hollywood Black” for MGM+. Executive produced by Forest Whitaker, the series examines the history of cinema through the Black perspective. Creatives including Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, Issa Rae, LaKeith Stanfield, Gabrielle Union, Lena Waithe are interviewed. “Hollywood Black” premieres Sunday, Aug. 11.
— People who love collecting cute monsters and making them fight have long been drawn to Pokémon. This year’s Palworld upped the ante by adding guns to the mix. But what if you just want to cuddle? That’s where 11 Bit Studios’ Creatures of Ava comes in. You’re an explorer on a planet bustling with wildlife — but the creatures are being threatened by an infection called “the withering.” It’s your mission to tame the beasts with your magic flute and help them heal. It’s a cozier take on the old “gotta catch ’em all” formula, and it comes to Xbox X/S and PC on Wednesday.
Because The Bikeriders is filled with so much death and tragedy, it’s to be expected that writer-director Jeff Nichols might want to throw the audience “a bone.” Even if it’s a bone coated in a subtly bitter taste for audiences who know how to gauge the real meaning behind Benny (Austin Butler) and Kathy’s (Jodie Comer) so-called happy ending. One that, throughout the course of the film, doesn’t seem like it will actually happen (and, in a way, it doesn’t). This thanks to the storytelling method Nichols uses by way of Danny Lyon (Mike Faist) interviewing Kathy from a “present-day” perspective in 1973, after the numerous power struggles and shifts that took place within the Vandals Motorcycle Club since 1965 (on a side note: the photography book itself documents a period between 1963 and 1967).
In the beginning, the motorcycle club was “governed” by Johnny Davis (Tom Hardy), who also founded it. The inspiration for doing so stemming from catching The Wild One starring Marlon Brando on TV. And yes, Hardy is very clearly mimicking the “Brando vibe” in this role, while Austin Butler as Benny, his protégé, of sorts, embodies the James Dean spirit instead. Which, one supposes, would make Kathy the Natalie Wood in the equation, with Benny and Kathy mirroring a certain Jim and Judy dynamic in Rebel Without A Cause. Except the fact that Judy was ultimately much more game to live a life of rebellion and uncertainty than Kathy, making a pact with Jim to never go home again (like the Shangri-Las said, “I can never go home anymore”). As for Johnny, he serves as the John “Plato” Crawford (Sal Mineo) of the situation in terms of feeling Benny pull away from him once he becomes romantically involved. Indeed, the running motif of The Bikeriders is the “competition” between Johnny and Kathy to maintain a hold over Benny and influence which direction he’ll be pulled toward in terms of a life path.
While Johnny wants him to agree to take over the Vandals and lead the next generation of increasingly volatile men, Kathy wants him to “quit the gang” altogether and stop risking his life every single day. A risk that exists, more than anything, because of his stubborn nature. This stubbornness, of course, extends to an unwillingness to remove his “colors” whenever he walks into an out-of-town bar that doesn’t take kindly to “gang pride.” Which is precisely how The Bikeriders commences, with Johnny refusing to take off his jacket when a pair of regulars at the bar he’s drinking in ominously demand that he does just that. Johnny replies, “You’d have to kill me to get this jacket off.” They very nearly do, beating the shit out of him and almost taking his foot clean off with a shovel. And yes, if Johnny’s foot had been amputated, he might as well have died anyway, for his life means nothing to him without the ability to just ride. Which is exactly why he begs Kathy, while she visits him in the hospital, not to let them remove it. Fortunately for his sense of “manhood,” they don’t and Benny is instructed to avoid putting stress on his foot for at least six months while it starts to heal.
Advice that seems to go way over Johnny’s head as he decides to show up to the hotel where Benny and Kathy are staying to invite him to attend the Vandals’ biggest motorcycle rally yet. Kathy is appalled by both Johnny’s suggestion and Benny’s eager willingness to accept despite his current physical state. Constantly fearful that he’s going to end up hurt because of how reckless he is with his body and in his actions, Kathy reaches a breaking point when her own life is put in jeopardy as a result of hanging around the Vandals for too long. Continuing to keep the company of these club members even as the club mutates into what someone from the sixties would call a “bad scene.” The infiltration of more cutthroat, sociopathic youths like “The Kid” (Toby Wallace), as well as new members fresh back from Vietnam, riddled with PTSD and correlating hard drug addictions, means that the Vandals is no longer the same entity that Johnny had envisioned when he initially founded it.
The last straw for Kathy happens at another gathering of the members during which Benny ends up leaving in a rush to take one of the OG members, Cockroach (Emory Cohen), to the hospital after a group of new members beats the shit out of him for expressing the simple desire to leave the club and pursue a career as a motorcycle cop. With Benny gone, there’s no one around to protect Kathy from being attacked by another group that tries to force her into a room and gang rape her (this being, in part, a result of mistaken identity because she’s tried on the red dress of another girl at the party). Johnny manages to step in just in time to keep the man from harming her, but the emotional damage is done. Kathy can no longer live a life spent in constant fear and anxiety like this. Thus, she gives Benny an ultimatum: her or the club. In the end, Benny sort of chooses neither, running out on both Kathy and Johnny when each of them tries to strong-arm him into bending to their will.
It is only after hearing news of Johnny’s murder (at the hands of The Kid, who pulls a dirty trick on Johnny that finds the latter bringing a knife to a gunfight) that Benny decides to go back to Chicago and seek out Kathy for something like comfort. For she’s the only one who will truly be able to understand this loss. In the final scene of the movie, Danny asks what happened with Benny after all that. She informs him that the two are now living happily together (having relocated to Florida, as Kathy had originally suggested), with Benny working as a mechanic at his cousin’s body shop. Even more happily, for her, is the fact that he’s given up riding motorcycles altogether. In short, “he don’t hang around with the gang no more.” This being one of many key lines from the Shangri-Las’ “Out in the Streets,” which is played frequently as a musical refrain throughout the film.
That it also plays again at the end of the movie—an ending that, on the surface, seems “happy”—is telling of the larger truth: Benny has lost an essential piece of himself in choosing to give up riding. So, even though Kathy smiles at him through the window and he (sort of) smiles back, the playing of the song, paired with the distant sound of motorcycles in the distance as he stares wistfully into the abyss, makes it seem as though, like the rider of “Out in the Streets,” “His heart is [still] out in the streets.” However, in contrast to the woeful narrator of the song, Kathy isn’t one to acknowledge, “They’re waiting out there/I know I gotta set him free/(Send him back)/He’s gotta be/(Out in the street)/His heart is out in the streets.” Like most women, she would prefer to keep Benny inside their domestic cage, safe from harm. Safe, in effect, from truly living. For there is no purer freedom Benny feels than what he experiences on the open road.
All of this isn’t to say that the ending isn’t “generally” happy. Though that perspective also depends on one’s values. And yes, The Bikeriders makes a grand statement about the sacrifices that are frequently necessary for a relationship to work (and also just to secure a little more lifespan longevity). In Benny’s case, it was giving up the essential core of his identity. Which begs the question: if that’s what it takes to make a relationship work, then can one really be all that happy? Judging from the “sunken place” look on Benny’s face, the answer is looking like a no. As Mary Weiss puts it, “I know that something’s missing inside/(Something’s gone)/Something’s died.” And in place of that is what society refers to as an “upright citizen.”
Although Jeff Nichols’ latest film, The Bikeriders, is absolutely correct in wielding The Shangri-Las’ “Out in the Streets” as the constant musical refrain throughout the narrative, one song that feels as though it’s “missing” in many ways is Lana Del Rey’s “Ride.” However, since Sofia Coppola is typically the only director to condone using anachronistic music in a period piece, it makes sense that “Ride,” originally released in 2012, couldn’t be “accurately” used in The Bikeriders. And yet, even placing it in the credits would have been a compromising consolation to those who can’t unsee or unhear “Ride” within the context of a story like this.
It’s possible that Del Rey herself, like Nichols, came across Danny Lyon’s seminal photography book (also called The Bikeriders) at some point before she hit the big time. After all, the book was released in 1968, a prime year within the decade that Del Rey is famously “inspired” by (complete with the Manson Family, Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan and Woodstock). So it’s not unfathomable that Lyon’s work would have crossed her path. And since she describes “reading Slim Aarons” as though he were a writer instead of a photographer, it’s apparent that Del Rey does know how to “read” imagery and repurpose it. One of the key gifts of any postmodern artist. And oh, how Del Rey put her postmodern skills to use in the video (or “short film,” if you prefer) for “Ride.”
Directed by Anthony Mandler, who had spent the better part of the 00s directing Rihanna videos, “Ride” opens with the now iconic image of Del Rey on a tire swing (that looks as though its rope extends all the way to the heavens), swaying back and forth (à la Mariah Carey in the “Always Be My Baby” video) with her dark curled hair billowing in the wind. As though to presage the idea that she would “go country” with Lasso, Del Rey also sports cowboy boots and a fringed denim jacket—emblems of her love for “the country America used to be.” Which, in her mind, was a country where a girl could be “fragile” and “delicate” without condemnation. Where rugged men like John Wayne still existed, and were idolized by other men, as well as sought after by women.
This rugged archetype is present throughout “Ride” in the form of the rough-hewn, usually much older bikers that Del Rey rides with. Whether “playing” (a.k.a. languidly leaning over the machine) pinball while one of the bikers lecherously hovers behind her or letting another man brush her ribbon-bedecked hair, it’s clear that Del Rey yearns for a time when “men were still men,” as it is said. The kind of men that Lyon documented in those years from 1963 to 1967. Men that didn’t fit into mainstream society—whether because of the way they looked, dressed, thought or acted. The kind of men that find community only through “just riding,” as Del Rey would say.
These are the bikeriders that Nichols brings to life onscreen, with Johnny (Tom Hardy) and Benny (Austin Butler) positioned as the embodiment of camaraderie (and yes, even a father-son sort of dynamic) within the outlaw motorcycle club niche. But it is Kathy Bauer (Jodie Comer) that acts as the true anchor of the story, with her character serving as the important feminine/outsider perspective needed. In some ways, Del Rey does mirror Kathy’s role, not merely aesthetically, but in terms of being “taken in” and glamored by this lifestyle she never knew before. At the same time, Del Rey asserts that she’s just as much a rider—therefore a true part of the gang as opposed to just a wifey—as any of the other boys. This is her tribe in ways beyond the romantic or sexual, something that separates her from Kathy, who ultimately finds that she just wants to settle down and lead a normal, quiet life. A task that’s impossible to achieve with a man like Benny. He who refuses to ever surrender to that oh so hideous word and concept: responsibility.
An aversion that Del Rey, in this nomadic “persona,” can certainly identify with. And, in turn, identify with the type of men who pursue this life as the only thing they can really “commit” to. This much is evidenced by the opening of her monologue: “I was in the winter of my life, and the men I met along the road were my only summer.” Here, too, it’s interesting to note she says “winter of my life” rather than “winter of my youth,” as though she knows that those who embrace the transient, rebellious biker lifestyle are doomed to “live fast, die young.” A small tradeoff, in their eyes, for being able to experience pure freedom.
That feeling is displayed in the “Ride” video as Del Rey sits on the back of a motorcycle with the wind whipping in her face (“I hear the birds on the summer breeze”). This kind of unbridled, undiluted liberty is also shown in a scene from The Bikeriders where Benny guns his bike down the streets and highways in a high-speed police chase. By cutting them off at a red light, he gains ground and takes to the open road, letting out a loud cry of joy as he passes by a signature silo of the Midwest. Of course, that sense of victory and liberation is soon counteracted by the realization that he’s out of gas, and will now have to surrender to the police when they catch up.
For those who can’t fathom taking such risks for the “mere” sake of feeling free—from the pressures of society, family and even so-called friends—Del Rey addresses it best when she also mentions in her monologue, “When the people I used to know found out what I had been doing, how I had been living, they asked me why. But there’s no use in talking to people who have a home. They have no idea what it’s like to seek safety in other people. For home to be wherever you lie your head.” Further explaining that she has “an obsession for freedom that terrified me to the point that I couldn’t even talk about. And pushed me to a nomadic point of madness that both dazzled and dizzied me.”
The same goes for Benny in The Bikeriders (and, to a lesser extent, Johnny and Kathy). He has to be free, no matter the cost. No matter if it means alienating others or alienating himself from anything resembling a “future.” Nothing else matters but the ability to cut and run, to take to the open road whenever he feels the call. Something Kathy can never quite grasp, which is exactly why “Out in the Streets” is so perfect for describing their relationship, for its lyrics speak directly to how stifled and repressed Benny feels now that “he don’t hang around with the gang no more.” As our woeful narrator, Mary Weiss, also describes in the song, “He don’t comb his hair like he did before/He don’t wear those dirty old black boots no more/But he’s not the same/There’s something ‘bout his kissing/That tells me he’s changed/I know that something’s missing inside/Something’s gone/Something’s died/It’s still in the streets/His heart is out in the streets.” A characterization that fits Benny to a tee by the end of the film.
And yet, for as tailor-made as “Out in the Streets” is for The Bikeriders, so, too, is “Ride.” For Del Rey even speaks from a Kathy-esque perspective when she pleads, “Don’t leave me now/Don’t say goodbye/Don’t turn around/Leave me high and dry.” At the same time, she knows that, when you live this life, it’s filled with perpetual goodbyes and moving ons. From her own Benny-centric view of things, that’s exactly why she likes it, can’t get enough of it.
As she says in the closing monologue of the “Ride” video, “Every night, I used to pray that I’d find my people. And I finally did, on the open road. We had nothing to lose, nothing to gain, nothing we desired anymore. Except to make our lives into a work of art. Live fast, die young, be wild and have fun.” This might as well be the Vandals’ mantra, too.
At another moment, she declares, “I believe in the country America used to be.” This line unwittingly speaks to an overarching theme of The Bikeriders, which is an acknowledgement of an America in increasing decay, and one that is, accordingly, evermore morally bankrupt. Even so, Del Rey still insists, “I believe in the person I want to become. I believe in the freedom of the open road. And my motto is the same as ever. I believe in the kindness of strangers [as does Blanche DuBois]. And when I’m at war with myself, I ride. I just ride.” Much the same way Benny does. For, even though Kathy and many others outside/on the periphery of the motorcycle club might not understand it, it can best be summed up with the Del Reyism: “I am fucking crazy. But I am free.”
Thus, while the baleful, sustained “ooooh” at the beginning of “Out in the Streets” is a perfect fit as a musical refrain for the film, it has to be said that Del Rey’s almost equally baleful “mmmm-mmmm-mmmm-mmmm-mmmm-mmmm-mmmm” (though some will say it’s an “ooooh” not an “mmmm” sound) opening to “Ride” is as well. Not to mention the fact that the plot of her “Ride” video is très The Bikeriders oriented (well, minus the part where she’s vibing out in a war bonnet a.k.a. “Native American headdress”). And so, it’s hard to say, within this ouroboros of being inspired by Danny Lyon’s photography, if maybe Nichols wasn’t in some way also inspired by “Ride.” Either way, the song’s absence in the film is partially what makes it simultaneously feel as though it’s there, out in the streets like a sonic specter.
One wonders, sometimes, if there was ever truly a period in U.S. history that was “golden,” so much as the nation being in an ever-increasing state of decline from the moment it was roguely founded. For while the present set of circumstances befalling the United States has rightfully convinced many Americans that things can’t possibly get more dystopian/reach a new nadir, to some extent, that has been the story of America for most of its relatively brief existence. And yet, starting in the early sixties (circa 1962), it was apparent that the United States was already beginning to experience the symptoms of some major “growing pains” unlike any they had ever known. A seismic cultural shift was afoot, and perhaps one of the most notable signs was the increase in “outlaw” motorcycle clubs across the country.
Such as the one created by Johnny Davis (Tom Hardy), leader of the Vandals Motorcycle Club. An “MC” based on the real-life Outlaws Motorcycle Club that Danny Lyon was a member of from 1963 to 1967 (two years before Easy Rider would enshrine “the culture”), becoming one for the purpose of being able to authentically photograph and generally document the life and times of this “fringe” society. It is Lyon’s book that serves as the basis for Jeff Nichols’ fifth film, The Bikeriders (the same name as Lyon’s photographic tome). And, although Johnny is the founder of the Vandals MC, it is Benny Cross (Austin Butler) who serves as the “true” representation of what it means to live the biker lifestyle: being aloof, mysterious (through muteness) and not at all concerned with or interested in settling down in any one place, with any one person. That is, until the anchor of the story and its telling, Kathy Bauer (Jodie Comer, wielding her best impression of a Midwest accent), shows up one night in the bar where the Vandals hang out. As she retells it to the film version of Lyon, played by Challengers’ Mike Faist, a friend of hers called her up and told her to come by and meet her there.
From the moment Kathy walked in, she said she had never felt more out of place in her entire life. This being further compounded by all the ogling aimed in her direction. Creeped out to the max, Kathy tells her friend she’s going to leave, but is stopped in her tracks by the sight of the muscular Benny standing in front of the pool table. She decides to go back to her chair, waiting for the inevitable moment when he’ll come over and talk to her. But before that happens, Johnny approaches her first, assuring that he’s not going to let anything happen to her. Kathy’s response is of an eye-rolling nature and, when she and Benny finally get to talking, she still tells him she has to go. And she does…but not without being pawed on the way out. So pawed, in fact, that when she makes it back onto the street, her white pants are covered with handprints. Alas, the pursuit isn’t over, with Benny casually walking outside, going over to his motorcycle and mounting it as Kathy watches, realizing that the hordes from the MC are coming out to essentially force her to take a ride with him so as to avoid their wolf-like, unsettling nature.
From that night onward, Benny waits outside her house once he drops her off, sitting on his motorcycle with stoic determination. Which, yes, comes across as even more stalker-y than Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) showing up to Diane Court’s (Ione Skye) house in Say Anything… to hold a boombox over his head and play Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes.” Even though Kathy already has a live-in boyfriend, Benny just keeps waiting. Irritating the shit out of the boyfriend with his presence until he finally splits in a huff, leaving the door open, so to speak, for Benny to make his move without Kathy being able to have any excuse to “resist” him. Although she starts out by telling Danny that her life has been nothing but trouble ever since she met Benny, with him constantly getting in brawls, being thrown in jail, etc. (indeed, it smacks of the sentiment behind Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please”), she admits that they got married just five months after meeting. Thus, her house effectively becomes another home away from home for many of the boys in the club. A hangout where motorcycles parked on the sidewalk vex Kathy to no end as she warns them that the neighbors will start to complain of a “bad element” in the vicinity.
Ironically, of course, the main reason many of these boys chose to join up was because they were deemed a “bad element” based on their appearance alone. As Johnny’s right-hand man, Brucie (Damon Herriman), tells Danny, “You don’t belong nowhere else, so you belong together.” Basically, the misfits create their own “utopian” society where they can at last find acceptance in a world that has otherwise rejected them. As Johnny Stabler (Marlon Brando) puts it to Mildred (Peggy Maley) in 1954’s (or 1953, depending on who you ask) The Wild One, when she asks, “What are you rebelling against, Johnny?”: “Whaddaya got?” In short, these are the men rebelling against everything, including their own effective banishment from “polite” society. (And, needless to say, Johnny is inspired to form the club in the first place as a result of watching this movie.)
While Lyon’s original book documents years going up to 1967, the film version of The Bikeriders goes up to the early seventies, with things taking a shift toward the decidedly sinister as the end of the sixties arrived, and more and more of the types of men joining up were drug users and/or recently returned from Vietnam with the PTSD to go with it. As Lyon himself remarked while still part of the club, “I was kind of horrified by the end. I remember I had a big disagreement with this guy who rolled out a huge Nazi flag as a picnic rug to put our beers on. By then I had realized that some of these guys were not so romantic after all.”
To that point, many who had tried to remain in the “lavender haze” of America’s postwar “prosperity” in the 1950s were starting to realize that maybe capitalism and communist-centered witch hunts weren’t so romantic after all, either. The sixties, indeed, was a decade that shattered all illusions Americans had about “sense,” “morality” and “meaning.” This perhaps most famously immortalized by Joan Didion writing, “The center was not holding. It was a country of bankruptcy notices and public-auction announcements and commonplace reports of casual killings and misplaced children and abandoned homes and vandals who misplaced even the four-letter words they scrawled. It was a country in which families routinely disappeared, trailing bad checks and repossession papers. Adolescents drifted from city to torn city, sloughing off both the past and the future as snakes shed their skins, children who were never taught and would never now learn the games that had held the society together. People were missing. Children were missing. Parents were missing. Those left behind filed desultory missing persons reports, then moved on themselves.”
Like Didion, Lyon was also part of the New Journalism “movement” in news reporting. He, too, inserted himself into the situation, into the “narrative.” One ultimately shaped and experienced by his own outsider views (like Didion documenting the “dark side” of Haight-Ashbury hippies in 1967’s “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” quoted above). And what his photos and their accompanying interview transcriptions told the “squares” of America was this: their precious way of life was an illusion built on a house of cards. By a simple twist of fate, they, too, might find themselves as one of these “lost boys” or as one of the women who loved them. And oh, how Kathy loves Benny, even though it’s to her emotional detriment.
With that in mind, it’s no wonder that the musical refrain of The Shangri-Las opening “oooh” in “Out in the Streets” keeps playing throughout the film (because who knows more about biker boys than the Shangri-Las?). A constant callback to remind viewers of the track’s resonant lyrics, including, “He don’t hang around with the gang no more/He don’t do the wild things that he did before/He used to act bad/Used to, but he quit it/It makes me so sad/‘Cause I know that he did it for me (can’t you see?)/And I can see (he’s still in the street)/His heart is out in the street.” This song foreshadowing what Benny will end up sacrificing for Kathy by the end of the film.
Though, ultimately, the sacrifice is a result of knowing that the motorcycle club will never be what it was during its pure, carefree early years. Years that were untainted by vicious, violent power struggles—this most keenly represented in The Bikeriders by a young aspiring (and ruthless) rider billed as The Kid (Toby Wallace). It is his way of life, his lack of regard for anything resembling “tradition,” “integrity” or “honor among men” that most heartbreakingly speaks to how each subsequent generation of youth becomes more and more sociopathic. Whether in their bid to prove themselves as being “better” than the previous generation or merely exhibiting the results of being a product of their own numbed-out time. Either way, in The Bikeriders, the generational divide will prove to be the undoing of both sides, “old” and young.
Incidentally, this might be most poetically exemplified by a scene of Kathy and Benny watching an episode of Bewitched where Dick York is still the one playing Darrin, not Dick Sargent. Obviously, York was the superior Darrin. Not just because he was the original, but because he exuded a sleek, effortless sort of class that Sargent didn’t (though, funnily enough, York ended up leaving the show because of his painkiller addiction, related to the health issues he had sustained from a back injury while filming a movie five years before Bewitched—a meta detail as Benny is also laid up in bed due to his own “work-associated” injuries). The same goes for the old versus new guard motorcycle club members in The Bikeriders.
Nearly 10 years ago, George Miller brought the Mad Max franchise blasting back to relevance with Fury Road. The film wasn’t just well-liked, it was basically a game changer for plenty of moviegoers and delivered them something they’d never really seen at the time. And of the many things to love about Fury Road, people fell greatly in love with Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa, who is more of the film’s true protagonist than Tom Hardy’s Max.
Spoilers of the Week: August 12th
When Miller revealed he was following up Fury Road with a prequel focused on Furiosa, eyebrows were definitely raised, particularly when Anya Taylor-Joy was cast as a young version of the character. Then we got to see Furiosa’s first trailer, and it instantly became clear Miller was about to cook yet again. Now that it’s out, people have gotten to experience what’s been said in the weeks since its premiere at Cannes: Furiosa: A Mad Max Sagais the real deal, and a more than welcome return to mad, mad car-heavy wasteland.
While not quite the revelation that Fury Road was, or at least not in the same way, critics and audiences have been fairly high on Furiosa. Amid criticisms of the pacing and visuals, those who like it really like it, particularly its cast and 15-year scope that makes it feel like the post-apocalyptic epic it’s been marketed as. With the summer movie season in full swing, this film will probably end up as the highlight for many once all is said and done.
If you saw Furiosa, let us know what you thought about it. Did it live up to whatever expectations you had, and wht do you want out of Miller and Mad Max next? Tell us in the comments below.
The latest installment in Columbia Pictures‘ Tom Hardy-led Venom franchise now has an official title and an earlier release date.
Director Kelly Marcel‘s Venom: The Last Dance hits theaters Oct. 25, Sony announced Tuesday. Starring Hardy, Juno Temple and Chiwetel Ejiofor, the film had been untitled and moves up two weeks from its previous release date of Nov. 8.
In addition to helming the feature, Marcel also wrote the script, with the story credited to herself and Hardy. Hardy, Marcel, Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, Amy Pascal and Hutch Parker serve as producers.
Hardy returns as the Marvel antagonist that he originated in 2018’s Ruben Fleischer-directed Venom. Andy Serkis took over directing duties on the 2021 follow-up Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Marcel is making her feature directorial debut after earning writing credits on both earlier movies.
This will now be the third Venom film to hit theaters in October, and the pre-Halloween space has worked out nicely for the franchise. The first movie surpassed $850 million globally, while the sequel crossed the $500 million mark worldwide.
Hardy took to Instagram in November to announce that the film, billed as the final one in the series, had resumed production after taking a break due to last year’s actors strike. The project had initially been planned for a June 2024 release but was later moved to November on account of the labor stoppage.
In his November post, Hardy referred to the film as the “last dance” and added that the work “doesn’t feel as hard when you love what you do and when you know you have great material and the support at all sides, of a great team.”
Venom: The Last Dance is the latest title in the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters. It follows Sony’s release of Madame Web, which stars Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney and has underperformed since hitting theaters last month.
Mad Max: Fury Roadwas a revelation when it released in 2015, and a lot of that can be owed to Charlize Theron’s Furiosa. Even with Max Rocktansky getting top billing, it’s more her movie than his, and we’ree now primed to get an origin story with the upcoming Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
Spoilers of the Week | June 3rd
“Saga” is an apt word, it seems. In Empire Magazine’s new write-up on the prequel, the outlet reveals we’ll watch Furiosa—played here by Anya Taylor-Joy—throughout 15 years of her life. “The story is the saga of Furiosa,” explained director/co-writer George Miller, “and how she gets taken from home, and spends the rest of her life trying to get back. ”
In that first trailer, which calls the film Furiosa’s “odyssey” of finding her way back, you get a sense of how much time will be covered. Not only do we see Furiosa as a young child and a young woman donning her black forehead paint for the first time, she also has both of her arms. That trailer ends on the sight of the Furiosa will come to know, prosthetic included, and it’ll be interesting to see how she gets to be an eventual enforcer for Immortan Joe. And while it may be a prequel, Miller has no intent of coasting on the almost 10-year goodwill of that previous movie. “It’s a different animal,” he said. “It’s an odyssey. No question.”
15 years is a long time—Fury Road, for comparison,took place over a couple of days—and as a result, Miller teased we’ll be seeing “many different locations.” Since this is meant to lead directly into its predecessor, he was asked if this meant there’d be a cameo from Tom Hardy’s Max at any point in the film. To that, all he said was the Road Warrior was “lurking in the background. I won’t give away too much about that.”
George Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece “1984” is getting a new audio-only treatment from Audible.
The Audible original audio drama, set to premiere April 4, stars Andrew Garfield (“Tick, Tick…Boom,” “The Amazing Spider-Man”) as Winston alongside Cynthia Erivo (“Wicked,” “Harriet”) as Julia. They are joined by Tom Hardy (“Inception,” “The Dark Knight Rises”) as the voice of Big Brother and Andrew Scott (“All of Us Strangers,” “Fleabag”), who plays the mysterious and dangerous O’Brien.
The cast also features Romesh Ranganathan as Parsons, Natasia Demetriou as Mrs. Parsons, Chukwudi Iwuji as Charrington, Francesca Mills as Syme, Katie Leung as Ling, and Alex Lawther as Ampleforth.
Audible will release “1984” audio original globally on April 4, 2024, exactly 40 years after the date of Winston’s first diary entry. Listen to the trailer at this link. According to Audible, the “1984” adaptation has been officially authorized and endorsed by the Orwell estate. Richard Blair, George Orwell’s son, called it “sensational” with a “brilliant cast,” per the company.
The Audible original will feature an original score composed by Matthew Bellamy, producer and songwriter who is the front-man of Muse, and composer Ilan Eshkeri (BBC’s “A Perfect World,” “Ghost of Tsushima”). The score is performed by a 60-piece orchestra at Abbey Road Studios.
Audible’s “1984” is directed by BAFTA-winner Destiny Ekaragha (“Ted Lasso,” “The End of the F***ing World”) and written by Joe White (“Blackout Songs,” “The Little Big Things”). According to Audible, the adaptation remains faithful to the original text, “leaning into the horror of the dystopian setting, whilst going deeper into Winston and Julia’s love story,” the company said. “In a world where love and sex are forbidden, Winston and Julia are the last lovers on Earth.”
Ekaragha said in a statement, “This is my first experience directing an audio drama, and what an honor it was to work so closely with a cast of this caliber. I can’t wait for everyone to hear what Andrew, Cynthia and Tom have done with these iconic characters.”
Pictured above (l. to r.): Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Ervio, Tom Hardy, Andrew Scott
Venom 3 has resumed production post-strike, star Tom Hardy says.
The actor, who portrays the title character, took to social media Friday to announce that the franchise’s third and final installment had returned to set following the 118-day actors strike that ended Nov. 8.
“The Last dance — thankfully we are back to shooting,” he wrote in an Instagram caption for a photo of himself, director Kelly Marcel and stunt double Jacob Tomuri. “It’s been and continues to be a lot of fun this journey — there’s always hard turns to burn when we work but doesn’t feel as hard when you love what you do and when you know you have great material and the support at all sides, of a great team.”
He took a moment to share how thankful he was to all the teams involved, including cast, crew, friends and family, expressing what it’s been like for him to be surrounded by such talented and passionate departments in the Venom franchise.
“I want to mention very briefly how proud of my director, writing partner and dear friend Kelly Marcel I am,” Hardy continued, “watching you taking the helm on this one fills me with pride, it is an honour. Trust your gut, your instincts are always spot on.”
The Mad Max actor also shouted out his friend, stunt double, brother and “face plant chief operator,” Tomuri.
The upcoming installment in the franchiseoriginally began production in late June in Spain, with Marcel also serving as the writer, but stopped production when the actors strike began in July. Newcomers include characters played by Juno Temple and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Venom 3was originally set to hit theaters July 12, 2024, but was pushed back to Nov. 8, 2024, when the strike ended to give it more time to finish shooting and complete postproduction work.
Tom Hardy is an esteemed English actor, recognized for his compelling performances in a variety of roles, especially his portrayal of Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. His most recent projects include leading roles in the film Venom: Let There Be Carnage. He is also part of the upcoming crime drama movie The Bikeriders.
Here’s all you need to know about Tom Hardy, including whether or not he is married, his height, age, zodiac sign, whether or not he has kids, and his net worth in 2023.
What is Tom Hardy’s relationship status and is he married?
Tom Hardy is married. He has been married since July 4, 2014.
Tom Hardy has previously been in a relationship with Sarah Ward, whom he married in 1999 and divorced in 2004. He was also in a relationship with casting director Rachael Speed from 2005 to 2009.
Who is Tom Hardy’s wife?
Tom Hardy is married to Charlotte Riley. They have been married since July 4, 2014.
Charlotte Riley is a talented British actress, admired for her versatile performances in both film and television. She garnered attention with roles in Peaky Blinders and Wuthering Heights. Being married to actor Tom Hardy since 2014, they share a life both personally and in the limelight, often supporting each other’s acting endeavors.
Does Tom Hardy have kids?
Tom Hardy has three children. Their names are Louis Thomas Hardy, and two others whose names have not been publicly confirmed.
Tom Hardy’s eldest child, Louis, was born in 2008 to the actor and his ex-girlfriend, Rachael Speed. They met on the set of the 2005 historical miniseries The Virgin Queen. Tom has mentioned in an interview that Louis helped him prepare for his role in the movie Venom.
Tom has two more children with his wife, Charlotte Riley, whom he married in 2014. They welcomed their first child together in 2015, and while the couple has not publicly confirmed the name or gender of this child, various outlets have reported that they welcomed a baby girl. Their second child together was born in 2019, and similarly, the couple has not publicly confirmed this child’s name or gender either, but various outlets have reported that they welcomed a baby boy, named Forrest, after Tom Hanks‘ character in Forrest Gump.
What is Tom Hardy’s height and how tall is he?
Tom Hardy is reportedly 5 feet 9 inches tall.
This height is considered average for someone of his gender in the U.S., where the average height for males is 5’8″ and females ins 5’3”.
What is Tom Hardy’s age and how old is he?
Tom Hardy is 46 years old. His birthday is September 15, 1977.
On this day, the number one single on the U.S. music charts was Best Of My Love by The Emotions.
What is Tom Hardy’s Zodiac sign?
Tom Hardy’s Zodiac sign is Virgo.
This sign is for birthdays that fall between August 23 – September 22. Those who have the Virgo star sign are said to be analytical, diligent, meticulous, reliable, and practical. They are known for their strong sense of duty and their analytical outlook makes them excellent problem solvers.
What is Tom Hardy’s net worth?
Tom Hardy’s net worth is reportedly around $55 million.
This net worth includes Tom Hardy’s earnings from a successful acting career, with financially successful projects like Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Mad Max: Fury Road, and the Venom series. He also has endorsements with brands like Hyundai, Kleenex, and Nike. Additionally, Hardy owns a residence in South West London and has a collection of cars, contributing to his financial ventures outside of acting.
Tom Hardy is most famous for his roles in Inception as Eames, The Dark Knight Rises as Bane, and Venom…
Tom Hardy is an English actor known for roles in films such as Bronson, Inception, Venom, and The Dark Knight…
Rachel Zegler is most famous for her role of Maria in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of West Side Story, which was…
The new trailer for “The Bikeriders” just dropped, and with it came the question: will we hear Austin Butler’s own voice ever again? Having just shaken his infamous Elvis Presley drawl, the Sept. 6 teaser proved that old habits die hard for certain Oscar nominees. In his new role as Benny — the daring bad-boy of the fictional Vandals motorcycle club in Chicago — Butler tries his hand at a Midwestern accent. Abandoning any friendly “you betchas,” he rarely speaks above a low growl, leaving costars Tom Hardy and Jodie Comer to cover most of the lingual bases.
Butler previously forgot to stop speaking like the King of Rock n’ Roll long after filming on “Elvis” wrapped in 2021. He told Graham Norton that all the discourse on social media initially made him feel “self-conscious,” attributing the change in his voice to the singing he did for the movie. Later, at the 2023 Golden Globes, he admitted it was hard for him to distinguish between his own voice and Elvis’s. “I can’t really reflect on it too much. It’s just this process — I don’t know the difference,” he said. “I don’t think I sound like him still, but I guess [it must be] because I hear it a lot.”
To be perfectly honest, we’re not all that mad at this new Midwestern Butler. Although we have yet to hear more than a few words from his unpredictable character (including, “you’d have to kill me to get this jacket off”), assuming the same “process” is at play, we’re prepared to hear this accent well after “The Bikeriders” drops on Dec. 1. Read on to find out everything else we know about Butler’s upcoming appearance.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, the creative director on Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 revealed that he was nervous about finding the right person to play the sequel’s notorious big bad, Venom. That is, until he heard the unmistakably awesome voice of Candyman actor Tony Todd.
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Speaking with EW, Insomniac Games’ Bryan Intihaar disclosed that deciding on the right voice actor for Venom was “one of the things I was avoiding for as long as possible because I was so scared of who we were going to get to do the voice.” Although Insomniac’s previous Spider-Games, Marvel’s Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, garnered high praise from critics as some of the best iterations of the web-slingers, Intihaar said pressure was on to cast the perfect Venom because “people would have a lot of opinions on it.” But Todd, he says, was up to the task.
“Everything we talked about [with] Venom — that sense of strength, that sense of fear, that sense of overwhelming, so different from Peter — Tony embraces that completely in the performance,” Intihar told EW.
After hearing the booming voice of Tony Todd in the trailer for 2021’s Candyman (in which Todd reprises his role as the title character of the 1992 original), all Intihar’s fears went away. Luckily for Insomniac, Todd had already submitted an audition for the role of Venom.
Spider-Man 2 PS5 director says Todd is the perfect Venom
As Intihar has noted in previous interviews, the tone of Insomniac Games’ take on the iconic Spider-Man villain will be darker than some other depictions, treating Peter’s struggles with the symbiote as akin to battling an addiction.
“We wanted to try something very different, and I don’t think you can get much more different from Doc Ock than you do Venom,” Intihar said. “It’s about power, it’s about strength, it’s about being slighted, it’s about Peter being involved much more in the creation of Venom. I think that’s what attracted us.”
Narrative director Jon Paquette echoed Intihar’s sentiments, saying Parker’s internal struggle with Venom impacts those closest to him, adding that “there’s a lot of juicy drama that we can get from that.”
“For us, Venom is the host plus the symbiote,” Intihar said. “You don’t get Venom without both of them being bonded together. What Tony represents is that bond. I think, if anything, casting Tony made us feel more confident in the visual design of the character.”
Yes, Insomniac Games’ Venom has a grotesque mouth just like in the movies
Insomniac Games gave fans an exclusive look at Venom’s design in EW’s article, revealing the space-faring symbiote’s numerous teeth and imposing ink-black physique as he roars in the center of a city block surrounded by Humvees. While drafting early concept art for Venom, senior art director Jacinda Chew revealed that the trickiest design components involved his freakish monster mouth.
“One of the challenges we had throughout production was, how much does [Venom] talk?” she says. “I remember we did some concepts early on [of] does Venom have lips? Does he laugh? Does he smile? Does he frown? It’s a fine line between making this creature scary and intimidating, but then also, I guess, relatable.”
For all the monster-fuckers out there who fell to their collective knees at Tom Hardy’s Venom having a gaping maw, I hope Spider-Man 2 throws them a bone. Perhaps it could offer up a tiny crumb of the anti-hero’s silly side by having him give Parker and Miles Morales a shit-eating grin before their inevitable two-on-one brawl.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 releases on October 20 for PlayStation 5.
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