Sony Pictures CinemaCon Panel Recap: New Footage From ‘Kraven the Hunter’, ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’, Sydney Sweeney-Glen Powell Rom-Com Shown to Attendees
Sony Pictures presentation at CinemaCon 2023. Image via IndieWire.
The annual event for exhibitors and members of the press, CinemaCon, is currently happening in Las Vegas. The major studios are bringing in special presentations to try to sell their upcoming releases to movie theater owners, and they are not joking around. The first panel of the week kicked off on Monday, with Sony Pictures showing off their future slate.
The event began with a pre-recorded message from Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, who are currently on the set of Bad Boys 4, in which Smith said:
“What’s up CinemaCon? We’re glad we’re not there, cause we’re here and they’re paying us to be here!
‘Bad Boys 4’ is coming, we’re hyped, excited. We’re in the fourth week of shooting; everything is going to be spectabulous,”
Bad Boys for Life directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are back for the untitled fourth film in the saga, which also features the return of Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, and Paola Núñez, and the inclusion of Eric Dane as the antagonist. The plot is under wraps, and a release date has not been set.
After the video, Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group president John Greenstein was welcomed onstage right after, and reassured theater owners that their policy of being in business with the exhibitors rather than bow to the streamers is here to stay:
“There was a lot of noise about the death of exhibition, that the future was streaming.
Sony stood arm in arm with you. Studios that collapsed the windows are now realizing the value of windows and reversing the course. Now streamers are giving their movies exclusive runs,”
Sony Pictures is the only major studio without an associated streaming platform; instead, they inked a deal with Netflix to release there their future films after the home entertainment window closes. This year, Sony is releasing 23 films in theaters, that will stay there for at least 45 days before hitting the home entertainment market; this is a big change compared to the traditional 90-day window, but it’s become the norm after the pandemic, with some studios even shrinking it down to 17 days in some cases.
Sony Pictures’ Dumb Money, starring Paul Dano and Seth Rogen
The first of those films to be showcased during the prsentation is the upcoming film Dumb Money, from director Craig Gillespie, starring Paul Dano and Seth Rogen, among many others. The film depicts the GameStop stock incident from early 2021, as Gillespie and Dano described it onstage:
GILLESPIE: “Dumb Money is the true story of how the everyday investor flipped the script. A YouTuber comes from blue-collar family and puts his money into GameStop stock.”
DANO: “My character Keith calls himself Roaring Kitty and starts to post YouTube videos. … As more regular folks buy GameStop stock, the price goes up and up.”
A scene was shown in the room featuring Nick Offerman and Seth Rogen learning about the chaos that ensued when a grassroots campaign on Reddit made the price of GameStop rise to unprecedented levels.
Sony Pictures brings the first 14 minutes of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Shortly after, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse co-director Kemp Powers took the stage, along with Shameik Moore (Miles Morales), Issa Rae (Jessica Drew), and Hailee Steinfeld (Gwen Stacy), to introduce the first 14 minutes of the film. According to Deadline, this is what they had to say about the film and their characters:
POWERS: “You only get one director today because we are trying to finish this movie. When I first saw the first Spider-Verse, I was working on Soul at Pixar.”
MOORE: “It’s been over a year after the events of the first movie, Miles is still trying to figure out how to be a superhero. He discovers it’s how you wear the mask that really makes you a hero; the only person who understands is Gwen Stacy.”
STEINFELD: “Gwen has her own story as well. … She’s a character that many girls see herself in.”
RAE: “[My character is a] Spider-Woman of another dimension; she takes no prisoners, she’s not living a double life — this is not dress-up for her.”
First trailer for Kraven the Hunter shown
Aaron Taylor-Johnson then appeared via video to introduce the first trailer for Kraven the Hunter, the next film in Sony’s universe of Spider-Man-adjacent characters, which bows in early October. It was the only mention to the live-action franchise from the studio during the presentation, as they kept Madame Web and El Muerto (the Bad Bunny-starring film that was announced at this spot last year) behind closed doors. The footage isn’t public yet, but could hit during the summer, perhaps ahead of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Here is Deadline‘s description of what they saw:
The teaser begins with Kraven facing off with Australian mercenaries, stabbing them in the neck and biting off one’s nose. He’s a no-nonsense Marvel antihero. Russell Crowe plays his dad, teaching him to respect the world around him, and there’s a shot of him with a young Kraven feeling the spirit of a dead cow. “We are predators,” Crowe tells the son in a voiceover.
At one point, Kraven’s brother, Chameleon, played by The White Lotus’ Fred Hechinger, tells him, “You’re just another man hunting for a trophy.”
A voice intones, “There is an animal in each one of us.”
There’s a shot of Kraven in a luxe office behind the desk with a crossbow as his victim enters. Ariana DeBose, who plays Calypso, tells Kraven, “You’re a goddamn lunatic!”
Rhino also briefly appears in the footage, “Don’t you want to know why they call me The Rhino?” as his arm morphs.
Anyone but You, starring Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney
Sydney Sweeney then came out onstage, not to discuss Madame Web, but her upcoming rom-com with Glen Powell, who was also there. Titled Anyone but You, the film, currently in production, follows their characters as two people who hate each other so much they ultimately can’t resist the tension. Here is Deadline‘s description of the footage they showed:
Sweeney falls off a boat. “Is that a wart?” she asks Powell’s character as her hand is in the back of his pants. It’s not; it’s a spider. He hysterically freaks out and strips off his shorts to his bare bottoms. Says Powell’s character, “I’m going to get a drink and hope I never see you again.”
Sony Pictures brings first look at Gran Turismo
Gran Turismo was also featured at the panel, the upcoming video game adaptation from Neill Blomkamp starring David Harbour and Orlando Bloom, who were onstage in Las Vegas. They showed off a first trailer, which could hit online over the next few weeks; in it, Harbour plays a racing coach and Bloom a Nissan executive. The story follows a group of gamers who won a competition to become professional drivers for Nissan. Harbour was apparently very skeptical about the adaptation, telling Blomkamp after the approached him to join the project: “How are you guys going to make a movie out of a racing game?… There’s no story in the game. That’s when Neill told me about Jann Mardenborough and his incredible true story.”
Gran Turismo is set for an August 11, 2023, release date.
First look at The Equalizer 3
Denzel Washington was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award on the stage, and told theater owners:
“We would be nothing without you all. We’re here for you. We’re here because of you. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I have been blessed beyond measure.”
He then introduced the first trailer for the upcoming The Equalizer 3, which hits cinemas this fall:
Ridley Scott presents first Napoleon footage
Ridley Scott closed off the panel with footage from his latest film, Napoleon, starring Joaquin Phoenix. Here is Discussing Film‘s description:
The footage shown was a visceral battle sequence wherein Joaquin Phoenix’s Napolean is commanding his French forces and pulling the strings from afar on top of a hill. Napoleon lets the battle begin by giving the enemy army the upper hand, strategically sacrificing his first wave of troops on the frontline. Napoleon himself comes off as powerful and wise as he yells commands to his generals with confidence. He lets some of his own battalions die by drawing the enemy army into a snow-covered field, which is soon revealed to be a frozen lake.
That was Sony’s panel on opening night of the convention, followed up by Warner Bros. on Tuesday, which also screened an unfinished cut of The Flash to splendid reactions.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
