UPDATE: Tom Hardy’s ‘Venom 2’ Also Has Travis Knight (‘Bumblebee’) & Rupert Wyatt (‘Rise of the Planets of the Apes’) in the Mix to Direct

Jul 26, 2019

After over half a year of silence, Sony is close to choosing its director for the upcoming ‘Venom’ sequel. Travis Knight and Rupert Wyatt are two more filmmakers in the mix to direct the film.

Knight recently made the Transformers spin-off/reboot/prequel film ‘Bumblebee,’ which got universal acclaim. Prior to that, he had his directorial debut with the Academy Award nominated ‘Kubo and the Two Strings.’

Wyatt is popular for the reboot film ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ and recently helmed this year’s ‘Captive State.’ However, he has been known to drop out of franchise films before, such as 20th Century Fox’s ‘Gambit’ and Showtime’s upcoming ‘Halo’ series.

Andy Serkis (‘Breathe,’ ‘Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle’) is also part of this director list, as he even flew to Los Angeles for meetings with Sony executives earlier this week. So far, it has only been meetings and no one is in the front-runner position.

The previous film’s director Ruben Fleischer (‘Zombieland,’ ‘Santa Clarita Diet’) will not be returning to helm this sequel.

Meanwhile, Tom Hardy (‘The Revenant,’ ‘Dunkirk’) will reprise his roles of both Eddie Brock and the titular character Venom. Michelle Williams (‘Manchester by the Sea,’ ‘Fosse/Verdon’) and Woody Harrelson (‘True Detective,’ ‘The Highwaymen’) are both expected to come back as well, for Anne Weying and Cletus Kasady/Carnage respectively.

Moreover, the screenplay is from returning screenwriter Kelly Marcel (‘Saving Mr. Banks,’ ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’).

Further, filming is aiming to begin this November. It is unclear where they will shoot the film this time around.

While a release date is not currently in place, ‘Venom 2’ will likely release on October 2, 2020.

Source: Variety