"Venom: Let There Be Carnage," the sequel to 2018's hit comic book movie "Venom," tears up the Bay Area with gory glee — and that's partially due to new director Andy Serkis. The shape-shifting master of computerized performance capture, who has played indelible screen characters in film franchises such as Gollum from "Lord of the Rings," "Planet of the Apes" leader Caesar and "Star Wars' " evil Snoke, is as enthusiastic about dark destruction as he is about his love for San Francisco. Serkis recently moved into directing with the English heritage drama "Breathe" and "The Jungle Book" adaptation "Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle." So Serkis felt more than ready when "Venom" star and fellow Brit Tom Hardy asked him to direct his second outing in the dual role of Marvel's goopy, toothy symbiote and investigative reporter Eddie Brock, whose body the alien antihero shares. After filming interior shots and other scenes for "Carnage" near London, the production moved to San Francisco for a month's worth of exteriors in early 2020 before the pandemic hit. Serkis spoke with The Chronicle by phone from New York about the great time he had bringing "Carnage" to the Bay Area. Q: How did you want to distinguish the sequel from "Venom"? A: The story that I inherited from the first movie is that, two years down the line, we're beginning to see an odd-couple relationship blossoming. It was a really enjoyable phase of the story arc to come into. So we tried to mine the relationship between Eddie and Venom, who can't live with each other but can't live without each other. And you've got the psychology of Cletus Kasady — the serial killer that Woody Harrelson plays — but then amplified through Carnage, the symbiote who comes out of him. So my challenge was to create a movie that was always going to be a fast-moving roller-coaster ride, but with a lot of in-depth character, psychologically and emotionally underpinned. Q: How was filming in the Bay Area for you and your crew? A: We had a ball. We shot there for about three or four weeks. It was the last part of the shoot; we'd been filming in the U.K. at Leavesden studios.