Gollum has a new precious.
Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, the actor-turned-filmmaker Andy Serkis has officially signed on to take over for Ruben Fleischer as director of Venom 2, furthering Sony’s Spider-man-less Spider-verse.
The film marks Serkis’ third effort as a director, following the 2017 drama Breathe and last year’s Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle for Netflix.
Serkis initially rose to prominence as a pioneer in performance capture, most notably as Gollum in Peter Jackson’s original Lord of the Rings trilogy. Additionally, Serkis played the villainous Snoke in the last two Star Wars films as well as the charismatic terrorist Klaw in Marvel Studios’ Black Panther. Serkis’ familiarity with performance capture will undoubtedly be an asset on set of the Venom sequel where Tom Hardy will Once again play both San Francisco journalist Eddie Brock and his slimy alien counterpart named Venom.
Shortly after news broke, Serkis himself took to Instagram to share his excitement:
“It’s actually happening. I can feel it, the Symbiote has found a host in me, and I’m ready for the ride…Can’t wait! Are you ready @tomhardy ?
#venom #venom2 #marvel”
You can check out his original post below:
The first Venom was a smash hit, grossing $856 million worldwide. Kelly Marcel wrote the script for the sequel, which is expected to land in theaters Oct. 2, 2020.
What do you make of this news? Are you excited to see Andy Serkis step into the director’s chair for Venom 2? Or did you have your heart set on another pick? Sound off in the comments below and let me know your thoughts!
movieminutes.net 