Earlier this morning, a photo from the set of VENOM appeared online, giving fans a behind-the-scenes glace at star Tom Hardy looking very excited by the film's creative process. Now, an interview conducted by Yahoo Movies UK with motion-capture aficionado Andy Serkis has revealed that Hardy "is playing a new character using performance capture."
To say that Serkis, who in the past has delivered award-worthy motion-capture performances as Gollum for the LORD OF THE RINGS and Caesar for the PLANET OF THE APES franchise, is an advocate for the motion-capture medium would be a gross understatement. Hell, Serkis loves the art form so much that he'd founded his own production studio with producer Jonathan Cavendish in 2011 called The Imaginarium, which specializes in the mind-blowing motion-capture tech.
So, when Serkis was asked about whether or not he believed that performance-capture roles deserve their own award category, that's when the esteemed actor let this new detail about Hardy's VENOM slip out: “Acting is acting, and the more actors – like Steve Zahn… and Karin Konoval who plays Maurice in ‘War For The Planet of the Apes’ – the more A-list actors that come on board, like Mark Rylance playing The BFG, or a lot of actors in the new Marvel films… Tom Hardy is playing a new character using performance capture. It all points up ‘what is the nature of acting?’ and there is no difference between acting wearing a costume and make up, or wearing a motion capture suit. That’s plain and simple, it just needs awarding bodies to understand that.”
Now, Serkis doesn't reference the VENOM title in the above quote directly, but c'mon. Naturally, the idea of Venom being a performance-capture character as opposed to a full-on CGI abomination (like the one we saw in Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN 3) should come as a welcomed relief to fans. Personally, I think they need to pull a Deadpool with this character; just build Venom from the ground up and give us all a great reason to forget Topher Grace's version all together.
Are you excited for VENOM? Let us know in the comments section below. The film is expected to hit theaters October 5, 2018.
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