'Venom' Unrated Cut Teased By Director Ruben Fleischer
Despite much of the hoopla surrounding Venom that it would be darker, bloodier, and more R-rated than most superhero fare, the Sony comic book movie has been saddled with a teen-friendly PG-13 rating. It's a rating that makes sense considering the film's supposed appeal to "the fans," most of whom are teen boys. But it's one that doesn't live up to Sony's year-long hype train of Venom as a dark and dangerous spin on the superhero movie — nor to that buzzy San Diego Comic-Con scene involving Venom's teeth and someone's head.
But director Ruben Fleischer teased that a potential Venom unrated cut could appease fans wishing for something more brutal.
In an interview with Fandango, Fleischer teased that there was a chance that fans could see a Venom unrated cut on home video release:
"I wouldn't rule anything out. We'll have to see where it lands, I guess, but I wouldn't rule anything out."
An unrated Venom cut would surely be more violent and unhinged than the final theatrical cut, which was officially rated as PG-13 amidst reports that Sony and Fleischer pulled back on the brutal elements a bit in anticipation of a possible Spider-Man crossover. However, this flew in the face of early buzz that the Venom project would be an R-rated movie with elements of sci-fi and horror mixed in.
It's possible this unrated cut could contain scenes that were chopped to push down the rating over to PG-13, or that Fleischer shot more scenes that would shift the film to an R-rating, like James Mangold did on The Wolverine. The only question now is whether Venom's already infamous line, "turd in the wind," belonged to the R-rated cut.
However, that doesn't mean the theatrical cut will be entirely family-friendly. Fleischer insists that Venom still plans to set itself apart from other comic book movies by leaning into its gritty qualities:
"When I set out to make the movie, I wanted to distinguish the film tonally, and I wanted to make a darker, grittier, kind of edgier comic book movie that also has a strong horror element, which is inherent to the character and the comic. Those were the aspects: darker, edgier, grittier. I think Tom Hardy embodies all of those qualities. The combination of Tom, Venom the character, and then the look of the film, which we really tried to make look, like I just said, edgy and gritty and dark and grounded of this world."
Venom stars Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Jenny Slate, Riz Ahmed, and Woody Harrelson and opens in theaters on October 5, 2018.