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The plan, director Ruben Fleischer told Comic-Con audiences earlier this year, was for Sony’s “Venom” to be a hardcore R-rated superhero jaunt in the vein of “Logan” and “Deadpool”. Seems Fox wasn’t onboard with that plan, quickly commissioning reshoots and a scissor brigade to make the Tom Hardy-starring film more teen-appropriate.
As such, the film that opens this week won’t be the edgy, violent and purportedly frightening take on the comic property that we’d all been hoping for.
So, just how much of the film had to be trimmed in order for “Venom” to get a PG-13 rating? According to star Hardy, quite a bit.
At the junket for the film this week, the “Mad Max Fury Road” actor responded rather blunty – and refreshingly, honestly – to a question regarding his favorite moments from the movie. According to the actor, his best bits are no longer even in the finished film.
“There are, like, 30 to 40 minutes’ worth of scenes that aren’t in this movie… all of them”, he told Comics Explained. Mad puppeteering scenes, dark comedy scenes. You know what I mean? They just never made it in.”
The film’s producers are back-peddling on rumors that those scenes were required to be excised from the movie in exchange for a kinder rating, with the film’s executive producer Matt Tolmach telling Comicbook.com that “There isn’t some phantom version of the movie,”.
“Everyone is asking us that. Is there an R-rated cut sitting there? There isn’t.”
“We only ever talked about this movie as being PG-13,” director Ruben Fleisher added. “What I’ve said in the past is that we wanted to push the violence to the hilt. The Dark Knight was always a huge reference point for me, personally, just as far as how far you could take a PG-13.”
Hnmm. Not what you said at Comic-Con, Ruben.
