Tom Hardy will reportedly be performing motion-capture in Sony Pictures’ Venom film. The studio originally announced plans to develop multiple Spider-Man spinoffs alongside additional The Amazing Spider-Man sequels in 2014 before eventually agreeing to share the web-slinging superhero with Marvel Studios a year later. A spinoff movie focused on the anti-hero Eddie Brock, aka Venom, was to be the first to release. And while the studio no longer has plans to continue Marc Webb’s Spider-Man series, they are still moving forward with Venom.


Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer is helming the project with Tom Hardy playing the eponymous character, and Saving Mr. Banks and 50 Shades of Grey scribe Kelly Marcel writing the script. The movie is scheduled to release in October 2018, with production finally getting underway earlier this week after several delays. Hardy will be joined by an impressive cast – consisting of actors and actresses such as Riz Ahmed, Michelle Williams, and Scott Haze – along with some of the industry’s top stunt coordinators. What’s more, the movie will draw inspiration from John Carpenter and David Cronenberg’s films, but they aren’t the only inspiration for the film.

Andy Serkis recently spoke to Yahoo! Movies UK about his directorial debut Breathe, and in the interview, the acclaimed actor revealed that Hardy will be performing motion-capture in an upcoming role. Serkis didn’t specify the role Hardy would be playing, but considering Venom is the only upcoming movie of Hardy’s that involves CGI, it’s not difficult to presume that’s what he’s talking about.


“The time has come that people understand that performance capture is a technology, not a genre of acting. 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.”


The only Marvel movie that Serkis is currently involved with is Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther, in which he reprises his Avengers: Age of Ultron role as Ulysses Klaue, aka Klaw. However, it’s possible that Sony Pictures and Venom‘s production team are requesting Serkis’ expertise on motion-capture technology considering his extensive experience in the field, having notably played characters such as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes series. Another possibility is that Serkis’ own London-based Imaginarium studio – a motion-capture studio the actor co-founded in 2011 – is working on Venom.


At the moment, it’s unclear where Venom is filming, but as principal photography progresses, more and more information should come to light. And perhaps details on Hardy’s motion-capture performance will also make their way online.