‘Venom’ Director Hints At “Unrated” Cut In Light Of PG-13 Rating & Gives Update On ‘Zombieland 2’

As a life-long fan of comic books, and superheroes in general, it’s hard for me to not get excited about each and every Marvel, DC, and whatever other superhero films that are coming out. However, I have to admit, “Venom” just isn’t doing it for me. And even without having seen anything outside of the trailers (which aren’t great), a new interview with director Ruben Fleischer sums it up best. “Venom” feels like one big compromise from beginning to end.

When the film was initially announced, “Venom” seemed to have a lot going for it. Tom Hardy, Riz Ahmed, and Michelle Freakin’ Williams signed on to star. Then there was supposed to be this whole R-rated thing, which was going to lend itself to a more adult, horrific tone, which could separate it from the rest of the superhero crop. But even still, there was always this specter of Spider-Man’s absence that couldn’t be denied.

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But with recent news of a PG-13 rating, the cringe-worthy marketing (“Like a turd…in the wind…”), and the god-awful Eminem song, there’s some serious early-2000s “Daredevil” and “Ghost Rider” vibes going on. And as mentioned, Fleischer isn’t doing much to give me any hope that I’m incorrect in that assumption.

“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,” explained the director in a new interview with Fandango.

“Darker, edgier, grittier” — I’ve heard this all before, and if the DCEU taught me anything, it’s that these words often lead to misguided superhero films. But hey, it’s “Venom,” so maybe it works.

When the question was brought up of how will “Venom” be portrayed as an anti-hero if he’s biting off the heads of villains, Fleischer said, “I don’t know how heroic that is, but that’s definitely true to the nature of the character and what he’s doing in this film.”

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But here’s the kicker, the dubious PG-13 rating rears its ugly head when we discuss this portion of the film. How will a film, given a rating that would appear to underage kids, portray its main hero eating human heads? In the shadows? Quick cutaways with screaming? This just sounds…silly.

And to really give you those early-2000s superhero vibes, Fleischer admits that there’s the possibility of an “Unrated” cut of the film when it hits home video. “I wouldn’t rule anything out. We’ll have to see where it lands, I guess, but I wouldn’t rule anything out,” the director says.

I don’t know about you, but this sounds to me like a director that knows compromises were made. I keep coming back to an interview that Fleischer gave to ComicBook.com, where he talked about an R-rating, saying (my emphasis, not his), “That’s the plan. It is not the plan, that’s the movie. Our movie wants to honor the comics as close as we can tonally. In the comics, he bites people’s heads off and eats brains. It would be weird to make a movie with Venom if he wasn’t doing that.”

Oh, “Venom.” Here’s hoping for the best.

When discussing an upcoming project that he’s very excited about, the recently-announced “Zombieland 2,” Fleischer did give fans an update on the progress, saying, “We’re already actually starting ‘Zombieland.’ I’ve been scouting and storyboarding and getting it going, and to get to work with that cast again is just an absolute dream come true. It’s been really exciting starting to think about that movie, and to get to work with Emma [Stone], Jesse [Eisenberg], Woody [Harrelson] and Abigail [Breslin] once again is truly a dream come true. Yeah, we’re just at the very early stages, but we have an amazing script, and we’re going to start shooting in Georgia in January.”

“Venom” hits theaters October 5. “Zombieland 2” is expected to arrive October 2019.