- Guys, welcome to our MTV set here at Comic-Con.
It's good to see you both.
- We're so excited to be here, thank you.
- I'm thrilled to have you guys because this one
has been at or near the top of my list of must see films.
It's a project with a lot of attention on it.
It's a property that people love,
a character we've been waiting to see
portrayed in this way on the big screen.
Just talk to me about I guess,
the attention that has been on this property,
and does it feel like this is kind of like
the moment where you get to see the fans,
and see how they're going to react?
Is it a moment you've been looking forward to?
- Yeah, absolutely.
I mean there's no better place than here
to kind of birth the movie if you would,
like we've been working on it for so long,
and been working so hard,
and have created something I think
we're very, very proud of.
This is who we've made it for.
This is the audience that we are
excited to see the footage that we're gonna present,
and that's why we made the film,
because we're passionate about the character and the world,
and to get to bring it to the audience that loves it most,
and to present it couldn't be more exciting.
- Riz, are you the audience out there
as well as a participant in this film?
Would you be as psyched about a Venom film?
- Yeah, absolutely, and I think for me,
the thing that sets this film apart,
and the thing that would make me
a massive fan of this film if I wasn't in it,
is it just feels a little dark.
It's just set itself apart a little bit.
Venom is normally an anti-hero,
and to have an anti-hero in the lead in that way,
I think it just differentiates it
in a really important and enticing way
from the other superhero movies out there,
because there are so many
that you have to come up with something different.
I think that's something that Ruben is able to do,
he's so good at walking that fine line
between walking that darker tone
and that comic tone, so yeah.
- So yeah, let's talk a little bit about that,
because you're getting at something that's interesting,
and I think when this project was announced,
and the casting started to be announced,
everybody really perked up,
because when you get someone like Tom Hardy,
who just goes all out in every role he does,
and then you add folks like Michelle and Riz,
and this amazing ensemble.
Tell me what you were going for in terms of,
what's the cast of characters you're trying to establish?
What's the vibe you're trying
to establish in this collection?
- Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, the Eddie Brock Venom dynamic
is unique within the comics because most of the times,
the superhero is one person.
He might be a person who gets bit by a spider
and imbued with powers.
Another version is he comes from outer space,
and he becomes an alien on our planet
and he has super powers.
This is completely unique
because it's about the relationship
between two different wholes becoming one.
So there's Eddie Brock and then the symbiote,
and they unite to form Venom.
And so that's just a distinctive relationship
within the whole comic book canon.
And to cast somebody like Tom Hardy,
who brings so much complexity and interest
and menace to everything that he's done,
to play that unique dynamic,
and especially in something tonally darker
like this movie,
where you have a vicious, violent, brain-eating alien.
To have Tom Hardy occupy those roles
and to bring so much complexity to that duality,
that Jekyll and Hyde relationship,
it just elevates it to a whole other level.
And then when you add to it people like Riz,
who I've been a huge fan of for so long,
Michelle, who I've been...
Little known fact is I worked on Dawson's Creek as a PA,
that was my first ever job in Hollywood.
So to get to bring it full circle,
20 years later, and get to work with her
in this capacity is really amazing.
And yeah, it's just been a dream come true
every step of the way.
- Yeah, there's been some talk that
if there is source material you guys are leaning on,
it might be Lethal Protector.
Is that something that you pointed
some of your actors to take a look at?
- Yeah, I mean the Venom cannon is large,
so we tried to, within the scripting process,
kind of choose a lane, if you will.
And there were some unique challenges
that I won't get into detail about,
in terms of realizing this version of the Venom film.
But the Lethal Protector is set in San Francisco,
where we set our movie.
It's a Venom first series.
I mean, Spider-Man does appear in it,
but it's a largely Venom-driven story.
And then we pulled from a bunch of different comics.
In making the movie,
I felt a responsibility to try
and be as authentic to the comics as I possibly could,
given certain limitations.
- And I feel like we've done a good job,
especially tonally, just because I think that's
what resonates most about Venom.
Disregarding the specifics,
it's really about his character.
And when you think about who he his
and the relationship between he and Eddie,
that's what we honed in and focused upon.
- What about you?
What are you zeroing in on?
What are you drawing upon for your character?
Is it script, is it Ruben, is it source material?
- It's mainly Dawson's creek. (laughter)
- Little known fact, Riz is the biggest Dawson's Creek fan.
- I'm playing the creek. (laughter)
- That's one way to go.
- But I mean, with the creation of his character--
- I haven't even seen that before. (laughter)
- Finally.
- Yeah, something tells me you'd be a huge Pacey fan.
- Pacey all the way, obviously.
- But with The Life Foundation and Carlton Drake,
that's something from the comics
where we really try to identify
a good villain for the film, and Riz,
I think you had a real strong perspective
on what you brought to the character
and what his point of view is.
- Well something that we were speaking about
is that no one thinks that they're the bad guy.
In their own mind they think they're doing the right thing.
And to be honest I still would go to bat for Carlton Drake,
even now as a fan of the film,
as someone watching the film.
Because he is someone who's trying
to ensure a future for humanity,
and he's looking at the big picture,
and sometimes when you take that God's eye view,
individual lives start to be less significant,
if you're trying to fight for a future
of humanity at large.
So he's trying to do that.
And I guess his ethics run into conflict
with mainstream ethics.
- He's an iconoclast.
- He's just ahead of the curve.
He's ahead of his time.
- Cut him some slack.
- Everyone needs to catch up, exactly.
- You gotta break a few eggs if you're gonna make an omelet.
- Right, exactly, or try to murder a antihero.
Exactly, same difference.
- Thank you.
- I'm on your side man.
- You better be.
- Only because Tom isn't here.
If Tom was here it would be a totally different story,
to be honest.
I'm curious, there's so much talk about the rights issues
and the Spider-Man universe and the MCU and all this stuff.
If it was all one blend,
and you could take from any portion,
is there anything that you wish
you could kind of put into this one,
that you weren't able to from a legal perspective?
- I feel like we did a really great version of those movies,
so there's not much I would change about it
because I think it's really satisfying in and of itself.
But I am excited, to answer that question in a real way,
I mean the most iconic relationship
is Venom and Spider-Man obviously.
And so one can only imagine what
that confrontation would be like,
That epic battle between these two.
- And so in future movies,
or who knows when, I'm not gonna say,
we might get to see that.
I couldn't be more excited about bringing them together.
- So can you even say, are there references
to Peter Parker, Spider-Man in this film?
- I mean, you'll just have to see the movie I guess.
- It's just more incentive to wait
and see the movie I suppose, right?
And what about rating wise?
What did you guys figure out?
- The movie is at present unrated.
And we've pushed the envelope as far
as we can with the superhero movies,
so it's up to the ratings board
to let us know where we end up.
But I know that in order to be true to Venom,
that we had to take it to the hill.
And so we did.
And it's distinctive among superhero movies
in terms of its violence.
As a huge fan of The Dark Knight and other movies,
there's a way to have a ground and gritty,
hardcore, intense film.
But we haven't been rated yet.
- How aware are you of fans and what they talk about
in terms of social media and that kind of thing,
and are you reactive to that at all?
As the first trailer hit, and the second trailer, et cetera.
Do you pay attention to that?
And is it important to you?
I mean, you've shot your part,
there's nothing more you can do.
But is it helpful to you, even in the edit room,
to know how people are accepting your vision of the film?
- Well I can say I've been really proud of the fact
that it seems like people are responding to the trailer.
The trailer got a ton of views.
Which to me, just confirmed the fact
that there's a real appetite for this film.
And so that puts upon me a greater responsibility
to deliver a movie that people are gonna be excited about.
And so I just hope that they like what we've made,
but I'm very proud of it and I think
they'll be blown away by Riz's performance,
by Tom's performance, by Michelle's performance,
and the way that Venom has come to life in this film
is completely unique and exciting,
and the footage we're gonna show tonight in Hall H,
I'm excited to get the reaction to it.
Because I think it's pretty kick ass.
- I'm curious for you, a working opposite.
You've worked with some amazing talents
already in your career,
but working opposite, again Tom,
who's a whole unique performer,
and what he brings to I'm sure Eddie and Venom is special.
What do you recall about the time you had on set with him,
in terms of going toe to toe with a guy like Tom Hardy?
- I've known Tom for many, many years,
from London and also a little bit from music.
- Tom Hardy appeared in a Riz music video.
- What? There's so many revelations here today.
You're just dropping one after another.
- Yeah, I remember when I recorded my first ever track,
we had just booked a job together.
It was like a weird little moment
within a moment on a reality TV show,
where they bring in actors to read scripts
that these writers are putting forward
to try and get a show on Broadway.
It was this whole surreal thing.
And I played him my first track,
and he was really encouraging.
And we were rapping back and forth and stuff like that.
So I've known him for a while,
and I think that Tom,
quite honestly I think he's crazy in the best possible way.
- Right. No, I've gotcha, totally.
- He's the best possible kind of crazy
- Eccentric for a good cause.
- No, which is that he's like,
listen, I don't want to compromise in trying
to make this as good as possible.
And like you said, he goes all out.
He's dedicated, he's focused, he's very, very disciplined.
And I find that really inspiring to be around.
So it was cool, man.
It was fun, to be honest.
- Were you one of his Myspace friends way back when?
Have you ever seen his Myspace page?
- Yes, it was him, but he was pissed because the other Tom,
the original Tom from Myspace, is a closer friend than him.
- Oh, he was one of your top six or whatever it was?
- Exactly. (laughter)
- Fair enough.
This gets thrown around a lot, the method thing.
Is he that on a set like this?
- He did become an alien on set, (laughter)
and started biting people's heads off.
It was intense.
- Wow that might be a little too intense.
- It caused union issues but we got through it.
The lawyers at Sony, shout out, Sony lawyers.
- Yeah, they've got the best.
You have to when Tom's around
playing an alien symbiote, right?
Is he kind of bringing Eddie on and off camera?
- I wouldn't say method.
He keeps it pretty loose, generally speaking.
But like Riz said, he's really focused,
so when it comes time to do the work,
he brings the performance.
And that's the most exciting thing as a director,
to be sitting behind the monitors
and watching these scenes
that you've been picturing in your head,
and you've read for months.
When he brings it to life,
it just transcends and gets to this other level.
And it's exciting.
- It sounds like you love your character in this one,
but is there another character in this film
that in your minds eye,
that would have been fun to give a stab at that one,
just seeing how they played it?
- Actually, not a character
that I would like to give a stab at,
but just a character that I really liked
and an actress that I really liked is Jenny Slate.
Because I worked with her a lot on this,
she plays the lead scientist
at The Life Foundation that my character founded.
And obviously she's mainly known
as a comedian to many people,
and she's absolutely hilarious,
and had us in stitches on set between takes,
just cracking jokes.
But I think people will be really taken
with her performance in this as a very sympathetic,
soulful, grounded performance.
Yeah, I'm just a big fan of Jenny's in general,
so I wouldn't dream of playing the role that she played,
but I'm really glad that she played that role.
- Fair enough.
And for you, you were alluding to the fact
that hopefully we get to see more
of this character in other films.
Do you spend much time positing
what the second Venom film is?
Do you guys have a treatment or an idea
of what that would even look like?
- Yeah, we've definitely laid some groundwork in this film
for the potential for a next film
that I think myself and fans will be really excited about.
- Okay, more familiar territory perhaps?
- Perhaps.
- Okay.
- It's not for me to say, but yeah.
There's a lot of groundwork laid
for this movie to go in a really exciting direction
and to meet a bunch of people
that I think fans will be really excited to see.
- One last thing, I just remembered another thing
that you probably can't talk about.
I'm gonna say the word Carnage.
Do you have a response to that word?
- Like I said, there's a lot of exciting things.
- Okay.
- A lot of groundwork laid.
- Is that a character you like from the comics?
- Yeah, I think everybody who loves Venom loves Carnage,
just because they're the two greatest adversaries
within that universe, outside of Spider-Man.
So yeah, for sure it'll be exciting
to see where this all leads.
- Okay.
And last thing, congratulations on Zombieland 2
finally getting close to the finish line,
at least in production.
- Or the starting line, but yeah.
- Well the finish line of pre-production, getting there.
It took a while to get here.
- Yeah, no, it's really exciting.
We've been working on the script for a really long time.
And to get that cast together,
which is some of my favorite actors to work with.
- Some of them.
- Yeah, well, there is a great part for a certain somebody.
Yeah, it would be a dream to get to work with Riz again.
But yeah, I'm really proud of the fact
that I've worked with those actors more than once,
and it'll be really exciting
to get us all back together again.
I think for all of us, the reason we're doing it
is because we have such a fond,
it was such a great experience universally,
and I think to reunite and go back
to Zombieland is incredibly exciting.
- I mean we know the actors are coming back.
Is that the core ensemble?
I mean, Emma's obviously in a much
different place in her career.
- Yeah, it's the core ensemble.
It doesn't quite pick up where it left off,
because there's been ten years that have passed,
but it's about that core nuclear family,
and navigating that universe.
There's still zombies.
There might be some other people
that they come across who are not zombies.
But yeah, we're all just thrilled
to go back to that world.
- How do we get Bill Murray back involved?
Is that even--
- Trust me.
Yeah, if you have his number, please. (laughter)
We'd love to give him a call
and see if he's still available.
- Is there a part written for Bill Murray?
- No comment.
- Okay. (laughter)
I think I got something there.
Congratulations on a big moment here at Comic-Con.
I can't wait to see the footage, guys.
Congratulations on getting close
to the finish line on Venom.
Everyone's really excited for it.
And have a blast at Hall H.
- [Both] Thank you so much.
- Thanks for being here guys.