Venom 2: 8 Directors Sony Should Hire

8. Leigh Whannell

Leigh Whannell is a talented writer and director who rose to prominence after writing and co-starring in the little-torture-porn-horror-film-that-could, Saw. He spent the better part of the next decade collaborating with Saw-director, James Wan, in a screenwriting capacity. Then, in 2015, he made the jump to directing for the first time, helming his own script with Insidious: Chapter 3.

But the film that seemed to truly bring Whannell into his own was one of last year's biggest cult smashes, Upgrade. Chronicling the tale of a man who is paralyzed from the neck down getting a chip installed called STEM, which gives him superhuman abilities and precision. As many people before me have pointed out, in a great many ways, Upgrade is actually the best Venom movie of 2018.

Whannell utilized innovative camera techniques, such as strapping an iPhone to Logan Marshall-Green and locking the image onto the actor, to capture visceral and affecting action sequences. Between this newly minted action pedigree and his decade-plus history of exploiting both graphically grisly R-rated violence and suspense-driven, PG-13 spookfests, Whannell would be a perfect choice for the sequel.

With a shoestring budget, he pulled off Upgrade and made it look like it cost more than the actual Venom movie did. If Sony were to throw a few more millions at him, he would undoubtedly craft something special.