'Venom' Spinoff Movie Update, Cast Spoilers: Tom Hardy to Play Character Through Performance Capture
Tom Hardy will bring to life "Spider-Man" villain Venom in the upcoming Sony spinoff movie through motion capture.
This is what Andy Serkis revealed in an interview with Yahoo Movies in which he offhandedly spoke about how Hardy will play the role as he talked about performance capture:
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.
Indeed, motion capture, in which actors wear dot-covered lycra bodysuits, is becoming a significant tool in film-making especially in comic book movies. Serkis himself plays his current roles using the technology.
This includes his acclaimed performance as Caesar in "War for the Planet of the Apes" and Supreme Leader Snoke in the new "Star Wars" films like "The Force Awakens" and "The Last Jedi." Serkis actually owns a performance capture company called The Imaginarium.
While he did not reference the "Venom" spinoff, the nature of the character Hardy will play in the highly anticipated movie requires performance capture to fully pull off. Add to that the fact that shooting for the film has just officially started.
Topher Grace, who was the first to play the role of Venom in live-action in the third "Spider-Man" film that starred Toby Maguire, had to use mostly computer-generated imagery (CGI).
The "Venom" spinoff movie will hit the big screen on Oct. 5 next year.
