Trivia / Venom (2018)

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• Acting for Two: Tom Hardy plays Eddie Brock and also provides the voice of the Venom symbiote, and Riz Ahmed plays Carlton Drake and also provides the voice of the Riot symbiote. The same goes in foreign dubs, excluding the Japanese one, where Jun'ichi Suwabe voices Eddie, while Shido Nakamura voices the symbiote.
• Approval of God:
  • Venom's co-creator Todd McFarlane stated before release that he had faith in Tom Hardy. After release he said that, after Spider-Man 3, his only hope was that Venom would be enormous, and the movie didn't disappoint.
  • Previous live-action Venom actor Topher Grace heartily approved of Hardy's casting, calling him "just the best dude."
  • Concurrent Venom writer Donny Cates loves the movie as well.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Michelle Williams signed onto this movie just so she could work with Tom Hardy, which is something she really wanted to do. (An interview on the Blu-Ray states that she considers watching Tom Hardy go nuts on set as Eddie/Venom as basically Pass the Popcorn for her). The other reason she took the part? Money, Dear Boy. After the movie was released and was safe for her to spoil, she added a third reason: she was excited by the prospect of playing She-Venom, even if only for a single scene.
• California Doubling: Inverted, as this movie is set in San Francisco. The Chinese grocery store is located in Atlanta. The storefront where Dora speaks to Eddie is actually a beauty supply store; it's designed to look like a local place named J & J Jewelry, but the real one is nowhere near Chinatown. The pursuit in what should've been the Muir Woods was filmed at Panola Mountain State Park in Georgia. The motorcycle chase alternates between San Francisco and Atlanta fairly often as well.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: In the Japanese dub, the symbiote is voiced by movie actor Shido Nakamura, aka Ryuk. Curiously enough, this is not the first time he voiced a Spider-Man character, as he voiced Electro in the dub of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Also, Anne Weying is voiced by Idol Singer Shoko Nakagawa.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Part of the reason why Ruben Fleischer didn't return to direct Venom: Let There Be Carnage is because the negative reception this film received soured his interest.
  • Riz Ahmed spoke about his experience as part of the film in a 2021 interview. Although he found it "thrilling and welcoming," he admitted that he hadn't fully learned how to apply himself to the film at the time, from a combination of inexperience with acting in blockbusters and a realization he would have in hindsight that he is personally drawn more to roles based on his personal experiences.
    "I’m not saying I don’t like those big movies. I’m saying I had not learned yet how to bring myself to those movies. Those films teach you stamina, technical craft, and it is a skill to be able to eke out your artistry in that setting. Look at Javier Bardem in Skyfall. I just hadn’t developed the skill set at that point to do the technical thing and the emotional thing."
• The Danza: Tom Hardy (full name Edward Thomas Hardy) portrays Eddie Brock.
• Development Hell: Producer Avi Arad had been trying to make a Venom movie since before the Spider-Man Trilogy even came out, as he had noticed how well the character was doing in toy sales in the '90s, making him believe that Venom would make for great blockbuster material. It wasn't until after Spider-Man 3 that the project went into serious development, at first as a spin-off of the trilogy, but it was then decided to have the film be set in its own universe, partially in response to the negative reception that Topher Grace's take on the character received. Development was halted when The Amazing Spider-Man began production, but then resumed after the release of that film, with the idea that the Venom movie would this time be a spin-off of the Amazing series. After the Amazing series was cancelled in favor of bringing Spider-Man to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, development was halted yet again, but after a year or so, the final version of the movie was put back into development and then eventual production, with the idea of having it be set in its own universe revived.
• Executive Meddling: It was originally reported that Ruben Fleischer wanted to make an R-rated movie, but that some executives at Sony didn't in the hopes that they could have Tom Holland's Spider-Man cross over with Tom Hardy's Venom, and that the studio won and the film is PG-13. Contradicting these reports, Fleischer later stated that there was no R-rated version and that they were always aiming for PG-13.
• Fake American:
  • Similar to another English actor named Tom playing a character from Spider-Man lore, Tom Hardy plays Eddie Brock as an American.
  • British-Pakistani Riz Ahmed plays the South Asian-American Carlton Drake.
• Flip-Flop of God:
  • While the universe that Venom is supposed to kick off is to be set in its own continuity and not that of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, somehow producer Amy Pascal has hinted at the presence of Tom Holland's Spider-Man in it, which would mean that there will be at least some ties to the MCU. However, the statement is contradictory to Kevin Feige's plans for the MCU, which do not include Venom at all (or do not yet, Wild Mass Guessing is in full force here). Pascal later retracted her comments on the MCU merging, stating that the film is not a part of that universe. Pascal then said in a later interview that although the spinoff characters will not appear in the MCU they exist in the same reality, which Feige backed up as the perfect answer... at least until an interview with Entertainment Weekly stated that the film was not part of the MCU whatsoever. It mostly depends on who you ask, with the people at Sony leaning towards "yes" and the people at Marvel saying "no".
  • There's also the matter of the film's rating; when the project was first announced, it was suggested by Sony that the movie would be R-rated. However, the teaser, the trailer, and comments by Avi Arad seem to indicate that the film will be PG-13. Despite Fleischer pushing for an R-rating, Sony executives ultimately mandated a PG-13 rating so as to make a potential crossover with the MCU Spider-Man easier to pull off. Fleischer later stated that there was no R-rated version and that they were always aiming for PG-13.
• Follow the Leader:
  • The movie is intended to kick off a new Shared Universe that probably wouldn't have been planned if not for the MCU's unparalleled success with that concept. And it's not the first time that Sony has tried this with this character's parent franchise.
  • While the initially-intended R rating was ultimately scrapped, Deadpool's success as a Anti-Hero-based film was a decisive factor in pushing forward for Venom.
• The Merch:
  • Prior to the film's release, Sony teamed up with Brisk to make a line of Venom-themed beverages, and repackaged several of their prior movies to have a sleeve that makes it look like the symbiote is covering the case.
  • While many were hoping for a tie-in video-game or at least action figures to be made, especially in light of the film's success, NECA revealed on their Twitter that Sony has not licensed the Venom movie to anyone.
• Milestone Celebration: The film is released in 2018, the 30th anniversary of Eddie Brock's first major appearance in the Spider-Man comics, The Amazing Spider-Man #300 in May 1988 more precisely.^note He had an Early-Bird Cameo in Web of Spider-Man #18 in September 1986 before that.
• No Animals Were Harmed: The reason why the lobsters in the tank had to be removed and replaced with plastic ones once Tom Hardy decided he was going to climb into the tank.
• Saved from Development Hell: First proposed in 2007, eventually made in 2017 for a 2018 release window.
• So My Kids Can Watch: Tom Hardy has said that he took up the role of Venom for his 10-year-old son who is a fan of the character. His son also helped him out in preparation for the role, teaching him about the characters.
• The Stinger: Woody Harrelson was sort-of expected to play Cletus, but sharp-eyed viewers will notice that the prison guard who escorts Eddie to Cletus' cell is Wade Williams, who played a prison guard in the show Prison Break.
• Throw It In!: Tom Hardy did a ton of improvising off various weird bits he noticed in various filming locations. Including the infamous 'Lobster Tank' scene where Eddie climbs in and takes a seat in a lobster aquarium as he's burning up from a fever.
• Troubled Production: Development on the movie was rushed to meet an October 2018 deadline — several months after the release of Spider-Man: Homecoming, a Marvel Studios movie with Spider-Man characters, and a few months before Sony's own Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which Venom itself would promote — and this would directly and indirectly lead to a number of problems down the line. According to Deadline, the production on the film underwent a shutdown leading up to the release, Tom Hardy and the director got into frequent conflicts on the set, and editing on the film was done in an incredibly short timespan to meet the aforementioned release date that had already been set. Some have guessed that this is the reason for the film's wildly disjointed tone.
• Uncredited Role: Brad Venable's work as Venom (notable with the "We are Venom" line) is not identified as such in the film, as is tradition when Looping Lines.
• What Could Have Been: See here
• Working Title: "Antidote".
• You Say Tomato: Symbiote and the fact that it was said Sym-BYE-Ote in the pre-release materials instead of Sym-BEE-Ote, which was the way most people have been saying it, including in various Spider-Man cartoons where Venom's symbiote has appeared, got people notably annoyed. It actually got to the point that ADR was used to have it pronounced Sym-BEE-ote in the final film. The discussion got to the point that Merriam Webster chimed in about the pronunciation, but to some surprise actually confirmed it can be pronounced either way, even going so far as to make a joke about how the trailer version of the word (Sym-BYE-ote) is ''just an Earth-616 thing''.

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