The Tone Of Tom Hardy's First Venom Was Inspired By A Classic Steve Martin Movie

Ruben Fleischer's 2018 monster movie "Venom" is one of the stranger success stories of its era. The title character was originally conceived of as an "evil twin" character for Spider-Man, but the film doesn't feature Spider-Man at all. Also, the character is a very strange concept. A blob of living tar-like alien glop comes to Earth from space and promptly invades the bodies of potential human hosts. It ends up bonding with a disgraced reporter named Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), who is distressed that an alien is living inside his body. Eddie and the alien can communicate psychically, and when the alien becomes distressed, it can seep out through Eddie's skin and wrap itself around him like a gooey, bullet-proof suit of armor, with a big, toothy, shark-like monster face. It's all very weird. 

The tone of "Venom" is part buddy comedy, part vicious horror movie. The film is only rated PG-13, but one can see the monstrous brain-eating in the margins. (Frank Henenlotter would have loved this material.) The first "Venom" film was an unlikely success, making over $856 million at the box office(!), and spawning two sequels – "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" in 2021 and "Venom: The Last Dance" in 2024. 

When Fleischer was brainstorming the script for "Venom," he was a little stymied by his inability (for legal reasons) to use Spider-Man. Without the hero/villain dynamic at play, he had to more closely look at the appeal of Venom as a character. Eventually, he struck gold by borrowing the dynamic of a classic Steve Martin comedy. In a new interview with the Playlist, Fleischer said that the relationship between Eddie and the symbiote should resemble the one between Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin in Carl Reiner's 1984 two-bodies-in-one comedy "All of Me." 

For those unfamiliar, "All of Me" stars Lily Tomlin as Edwina Cutwater, a spiteful millionaire who is about to pass away from lifelong chronic illnesses. The executor of Edwina's estate is the dishonest and greedy Roger Cobb (Steve Martin). The two characters hate one another instantly. When Edwina dies, she hopes she can, with the aid of a guru, transfer her soul into the body of a healthy young volunteer. There is a mishap, of course, and Roger ends up absorbing Edwina's soul instead. Edwina finds that she has control over the right side of Roger's body, while he controls the left. When Roger looks in the mirror, he sees Edwina. Roger can hear Edwina talking, but no one else can. 

It's a silly movie that Ruben Fleischer thought about a lot while writing "Venom." The premise of "Venom," he felt, was kind of silly too, and the character's central appeal was that he was actually quite funny. So, drawing inspiration from a comedy was fair game. He said: 

"I kind of leaned into the — I don't know if it's really body horror — but 'All of Me' with Steve Martin was a big inspiration. [... It's] tonally on the more humorous side of things. I think 'Venom' is darker among the superhero franchises, just in terms of the way the character looks and his attitude. But he's also really, really funny. So, Tom Hardy was able to realize that wonderfully. And I think the charisma of Tom and of Venom himself is largely what has made it so popular among audiences." 

Popular it was. Enough to warrant two sequels. Be sure to check out "All of Me," though. It features some of the best physical comedy in cinema history.