Remember how Sony and the people behind the upcoming film “Venom” were hinting that Spider-Man would be in the film? Or how they led fans to believe that the film was part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, even after Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige denying it? Well, apparently the producers and director of “Venom” want you to believe that the film was always intended to be PG-13, even after months of strong hinting that the film was going to be R-rated. And people wonder why there are so many fans out there worried? The people making it can’t even get their stories straight.
In a couple new interviews, producer Avid Arad, producer Matt Tolmach, and director Ruben Fleischer are all trying to convince fans that “Venom,” which everyone assumed was R-rated, was never going to be anything other than a PG-13. Silly fans, what would give you that idea?
“To me, R is not a consideration,” Arad said (via Comicbook.com). “Can you get away with not R so that other people can see? So that younger people can see? I made an animated show. There was a lot of Venom in there. It was in ’94. There’s no reason to put in violence. To define what Venom is as violence. He’s not. He’s the lethal protector, which is a very different thing. We want to be really true to the comics. Today, in CGI and stuff, we can make Venom bite your head. But we don’t have to show the head going side to side like, ‘that actually tastes good.’ It’s irrelevant. What’s relevant is that you finally understood, is that a bad guy? Yeah.”
No reason to put in violence for a character you just admitted eats heads? Okay…
“We only ever talked about this movie as being PG-13,” Fleischer said. “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 because that movie they put a pen through a guy’s forehead so I figure if you can do that in a PG-13 movie you can bite some heads off.”
Fleischer’s comments are especially interesting because he’s one of the reasons many people assumed the film would be rated R. In an interview back in July, when asked about the film’s potential R-rating, the director said, “That’s the plan. It is not the plan, that’s the movie.” And just a couple weeks ago, he hinted that there was the potential for an unrated cut of the film, insinuating that there was more graphic violence left on the cutting room floor.
In another interview with Polygon, the director goes a step further in denying that he ever talked about an R-rating. “I don’t feel like we compromise much,” Fleischer said. “I’m not sure why [people assumed an R-rating], other than maybe just a bloodthirst for Venom.”
Sorry, Fleischer, but people assumed it because you encouraged the speculation and did nothing to deny it, leading everyone to believe that a more adult, violent film was on the horizon. People are so convinced that the film was supposed to have an R-rating that there are now theories that there’s a whole different cut of the film all ready to go, with a more adult rating. This was all compounded by the recent comments by star Tom Hardy, who said up to 40 minutes was cut from the film. Well, according to producer Tolmach, that’s nonsense. Why? Well, because it was always going to be PG-13, silly goose!
“There isn’t some phantom version of the movie,” Tolmach explained. “Everyone is asking us that. Is there an R-rated cut sitting there? There isn’t. We came into this production and the development of the movie wanting to make a movie that was true to Venom, true to the comics, and true to the character, but at the same time is a movie that 13-year-olds, 14-year-olds can see. We had to push right up against it. We’re 15+ in England. It’s not like we just wanted to make a family film. We wanted to push it as hard as we could, but also to make it accessible. That was always the goal.”
Honestly, it doesn’t matter whether or not “Venom” is R, PG-13, or G-rated, as long as it’s good. We’ll find out soon enough once Sony let’s people watch the film. However, the producers and director of the film should understand that after months of people asking honest questions, giving mysterious answers has put them in the position they’re in. Hopefully, the film is great and everyone is happy come October 5. But at this point, it feels like we might have another ‘The Last Jedi’ or “Justice League” situation on our hands, and that just sounds tiring.