We knew that Venom star Tom Hardy had an oddball mix of personalities in mind when constructing both Eddie Brock and Brock’s toothy alien alter ego. 

He said those personalities included Woody Allen, Redman, and Conor McGregor.

In a new interview with the UK version of Esquire, Hardy elaborated on using McGregor as inspiration. Turns out the MMA star’s personality influenced the actor in a surprising way:

“It was not Venom: he was not based on him. There were more elements of [Venom’s alter-ego] Eddie Brock which needed to be pinned on somebody who’s incredibly handy physically.

“And, obviously, Conor is incredibly handy physically,” said Hardy.

“There was an aspect the studio wanted somebody who could fight, which they always do in these sort of hero movies,” he added.

“They want somebody who can have a scrap. Conor obviously wants to have a scrap with everybody, so that’s useful…”

It seemed obvious to the casual reader that Hardy was using his McGregor inspiration for the monster, right? McGregor is wild, will fight anyone (including massive “Mountain” Game of Thrones strongman Halfthor Bjornsson). He has a big, feral grin. It all fits.

But no, he apparently inspires the human side of the complicated creature who gives the movie its title. 

It seems like the kind of thing Conor McGregor might love. No one familiar with his shenanigans would be surprised to find him in the theater when Venom premieres on October 5. 

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Indian has delivered on their promise to make a production model of their badass FTR 1200 Custom project bike. 

Inspired by Indian’s championship winning FTR750 racer, America’s fabled first motorcycle company just unveiled the FTR 1200 and FTR 1200 S. 

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Both boast a brand new 1203cc V-twin engine that pumps out around 120 HP. Magnesium was incorporated into the power plant to cut weight, and a low-inertia crankshaft allows the engine to redline in the blink of an eye, thus delivering freakishly fast acceleration.

In combination with an upright riding position, Indian says the platform ensures “every rider feels like a pro when they twist the throttle.”

Pay an extra $3,000 for the 1200 S, and you’ll get even more track-worthy features. The higher-end model offers Sport, Standard and Rain ride modes with differing throttle response and traction traction control levels, as well as lean-angle sensitive stability and “wheelie mitigation” controls. 

The 1200 S also has fully adjustable front and rear piggy-back suspensions can be specifically tuned to match a rider’s preload, compression and rebound preferences. 

On the tech front, both models feature full LED lighting, a fast-charge USB port for mobile devices, anti-lock braking and cruise control. The FTR 1200 S adds a Bluetooth-equipped Ride Command LCD touch screen for mobile pairing. 

Ben Lindaman, Indian Motorcycle Senior International Product Manager, detailed the intensive testing that went into designing and building the new bikes. 

“The process was incredibly robust, including over one million miles logged through simulated rides,” Lindaman said in a press release. 

“We also accumulated tens of thousands of test miles on the street with input from racers, including our championship winning Wrecking Crew flat track team and former Grand Prix racers.”

The FTR 1200 starts at $12,999 and is available in Thunder Black. The FTR 1200 S starts at $14,999 and is available in Indian Motorcycle Red over Steel Gray, Titanium Metallic over Thunder Black Pearl. 

The badass new bikes roar into dealerships beginning in the spring of 2019. 

Every year, Austin’s Fantastic Fest–the largest genre film festival in the United States– harkens the scariest season with the best in horror, sci-fi, thriller, action, and more. 

So many modern genre classics got their start at the fest (John Wick, There Will Be Blood, Arrival), and this year’s lineup was packed with bloody fare sure to explode over the next year. Keep an eye out for these upcoming hard-hitters, big and small.

Halloween

If we had a dollar for every time someone said they were making a “great new” Halloween movie, we’d be able to, well, actually fund a “great new” Halloween movie. However, David Gordon Green and Danny McBride’s swing at the legendary franchise finally connects.

The film, which wipes clean the universe of bad sequels, is the perfect recipe of homage and innovation, humor and horror. In it, an aged (but not out-of-shape) Michael Myers – get this – escapes from his asylum to pursue his old prey Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). Laurie is working on her relationship with her daughter and granddaughter, while simultaneously attempting to overcome the trauma of her past. The whole thing is a total blast and will satisfy horror buffs while converting a new generation of weirdos.

Apostle

Brutal and relentless, director Gareth Evans (The Raid and The Raid 2 – basically the Bible of modern action film) changes his tune a little bit with a haunting British folk horror. 

Apostle is centered around the incredibly intense Dan Stevens (Legion) investigating the kidnapping of his sister by a mysterious cult. The atmospheric horror is punctuated with scenes of visceral violence in which Evans’ action talents are on full display, including a kill so awesome that people in the theater stood up to cheer. You can watch Apostle on Netflix in October.

Overlord

American World War II soldiers fight off bloodthirsty, medically-enhanced Nazi zombies in 1944 France in a movie produced by JJ Abrams: what’s not to like? 

This bloody, brutal ride is a little formulaic, and not without it’s flaws, but damn if it isn’t fun. See it in a theater this November to maximize the tremendous first and last sequences.

Suspiria

This highly-anticipated remake of the 70s horror classic by Oscar-nominated director Luca Guadagnino previewed some footage from this movie in April and the audience gasped, cursed, and in some cases, even walked out. 

We’re happy to report that the whole product is truly and actually that disturbing. But it’s also beautifully shot, skillfully acted, amazingly creepy, with some of the best editing we’ve ever seen and a haunting score from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you can gut your way through the super-arty gore, it was our absolute favorite movie of the festival. You can see it in theaters October 26th.

Hold the Dark

Westworld star Jeffrey Wright plays a wolf expert who travels to a small Alaskan village to help a woman track down the pack that took her son. He quickly uncovers something much bigger, darker, and more relentless than the canines. 

Director Jeremy Saulnier has been a Fantastic Fest regular, showing his last two masterpieces Green Room and Blue Ruin in years past. Hold the Dark is another bleak and exciting thriller, with a sharp penchant for violence. It also
differs in a lot of ways. It’s a much bigger, more open, and more expensive film than Saulnier’s others. It’s already on Netflix, but they’re also holding screenings of it in a number of cities.

The Guilty

Bottle movies – or movies that take place in one location, often in real time and with very few characters – are very difficult to pull off successfully. Luckily, The Guilty does effortlessly, and with only a single character for most of it.

The Danish film centers around a 911 operator (112 in Denmark), and an escalating night of tension as he’s dragged into one of the most horrifying domestic situations imaginable. The lead actor, Jakob Cedergren, is magnetic and the director finds endless engaging ways to capture one guy in one room, and make you sweat through the whole thing. It’s not slated for distribution in the U.S. yet, but it’s the Danish nominee for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, so it very well could be in the near future.

Mid90s

If you ever had a Shorty’s t-shirt or a Toy Machine hoodie, this movie will speak to you. Jonah Hill writes and directs for the first time in this slice-of-life feature following 13-year-old Stevie, with a single mom and a shitty older brother, attempting to find a place in the Los Angeles skate scene. 

Hill pulls it off effortlessly. It’s nostalgic without cheap ploys, and coming-of-age without the clichés. It’s also undoubtedly the best movie in history that also features a character named “Fuckshit.”

Bad Times at the El Royale

Drew Goddard, director of Cabin in the Woods, tries his hand at a Tarantino-esque ensemble piece taking place at the “bi-state” El Royale hotel, straddling Nevada and California. 

He gets immense help from a knockout cast and great production design, and although the third act is not as satisfying as similar genre pieces, it’s still an incredibly fun ride. Look out for the lesser-known cast members, who shine despite performing alongside vets like Jon Hamm and Jeff Bridges.

Destroyer

Come for the twisted hard-boiled detective story, stay for the soul-crushing existential meditation on death and anger. 

Karen Kusama, who previously helmed The Invitation, directs Nicole Kidman as a detective with enough baggage to make Batman blush as she tries to make sense of a violent case from her past as well as her rage entangled with it. It’s a noir story we’ve seen before but with style we haven’t.

Donnybrook

In the gnarled woods of the midwest, you’ll find the Donnybrook; a bare-knuckle, no rules affair in which the winner walks away with $100,000. 

This gut punch of a film explores what two men (Frank Grillo of The Purge and Jamie Bell of Snowpiercer) will do to survive and protect what they hold dear. You don’t so much enjoy this movie as much as you survive it, but there is a whole lot to find in the bleakness of Tim Sutton’s film.

Cam

A real modern-day techno-thriller, we follow a cam girl named Alice (Madeline Brewer of The Handmaid’s Tale) working her way up the charts, only to find that someone has not only stolen her login and identity, but apparently her likeness too. It somehow gets more tangled, as the techno-thriller takes Alice into a neon-soaked underworld to get back what’s hers. 

The debut film for both director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei, who is a former cam girl herself, was a sleeper hit at the festival. Netflix bought the film so it should be streaming soon.

When Maximilian Büsser, founder of cult avant-garde watch brand MB&F, first presented his design for the Horological Machine No.9, AKA HM9 Flow, his manufacturer simply said “no way.” But Büsser has never been one to bow to convention, often referring to his own creations as “crazy.”

Described as a “geometrically complex” combination of milled sapphire crystal and grade 5 titanium, the HM9 costs $182,000 and is limited to just 33 examples each of two different versions: an “Air” edition with a dark movement and aviator-style dial, and a “Road” edition with a rose gold-plated movement and speedometer-style dial. The movements are of course in-house, i.e. bespoke.

Resembling a jet engine and inspired by futuristic mid-century automotive and aviation design, the HM9 could be dismissed as deliberately provocative and impractical. But Büsser insists that’s (somewhat) wide of the mark.

“If it has already been done, what is the point in doing it again?” he once told me. “The watch industry has been taken over by marketers, who keep on copying whatever they think will sell. It’s a little sad and leads to a dwindling creative spiral.”

Outside the oil-fueled fantasyland of Dubai where he is based, Büsser’s designs, inspired by science fiction and his childhood dreams of space travel, can look a bit absurd. But well-heeled watch collectors have not only kept him solvent but made the business a resounding success. 

We still can’t see many people wearing a 57mm mechanical alien that costs nearly as much as a McLaren, but if you ever do spot one of these in the wild you’ll never mistake it for anything else.