Sony Pictures has unveiled an official first look at Venom, although those hoping to see what the symbiote looks like may come away disappointed. Instead, this first official image is a look at Tom Hardy in reporter mode as Eddie Brock, pre-transformation. Indeed, the actual Venom look is being kept under tight wraps, which isn’t too hard since that character is being created using performance-capture—i.e., Venom will mostly be created digitally later on.

This is a movie that’s been a long time coming at Sony, and at one point was poised to be directed by Alex Kurtzman (The Mummy) as a spinoff of the then-planned Spider-Man universe revolving around the Amazing Spider-Man movies. Those films were scuttled, but Venom hung on and Sony tapped Zombieland and Gangster Squad director Ruben Fleischer to helm the comics adaptation.

The film takes place in San Francisco and Fleischer drew primary inspiration from two comic runs, Lethal Protector—which saw Venom moving to San Francisco where he tackles five new offspring of the Venom Symbiote—and Planet of the Symbiotes, where Earth is invaded by an army of symbiotes.

What’s most exciting about this film is the cast. Hardy is a tremendous actor, and he’s joined in the film by four-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, and Jenny Slate. No doubt the film’s post-production team is working overtime to get those effects finished, and while this first look image is somewhat bland given what this movie is, we may be seeing a trailer here before too long. Regardless, it's kind of neat to see that a Venom movie finally, actually exists.

Check out the first Venom movie image below, via IGN. The film hits theaters on October 5th.