Venom is a 2018 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. The first film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU), it was directed by Ruben Fleischer from a screenplay by Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg, and Kelly Marcel. It stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock and Venom, alongside Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, and Reid Scott. In the film, Eddie, a struggling journalist, gains superpowers after becoming the host of Venom, an alien symbiote whose species plans to invade Earth.