A busy Sony put on a spectacular opening show at CinemaCon as it took a well-deserved victory lap for Spider-Man: No Way Home, teasing its upcoming roster with stunning footage from Bullet Train and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman Tom Rothman was in rare form as he went through the studio’s lineup, including announcing there will be next installments in the Ghostbusters and Venom franchises (no details were given). Sony first made a lot of noise by showing more than 10 minutes of Bullet Train, followed by announcing that Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, best known as global superstar Bad Bunny, will be starring as Marvel anti-hero comic book character El Muerto. He will be the first Latino actor to direct a Marvel live-action film. “This is the perfect role for me. It’s going to be epic to me,” Bad Bunny said as he took the stage alongside Sony’s Sanford Panitch. (Bad Bunny’s first feature film is Bullet Train.) Panitch announced that the El Muerto film will hit theaters on January 12, 2024.
While most of the studio’s presentation focused on the release of exclusive footage, a confident Rothman took a quick stroll down memory lane to last year’s event. “I stood here in August and said the heart and soul of our business remains theatrical. What happened? he asked more than 3,000 seated guests at the Colosseum, echoing how the naysayers projected the death of the exhibition business (“Don’t you know you’re dead? Can you read? You’re done!”) grossed $3.3 billion at the global box office.”
Rothman then welcomed writer/producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller to enthusiastic applause to show their ongoing work from Sony Pictures Animation, including storyboards, for the first 15 minutes of the highly anticipated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse the first chapter of a two-part sequel to 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse that pushed the boundaries of animation and earned an Academy Award for Best Animation for its efforts.
Once again, Shameik Moore speaks as Miles Morales, a teenage Spider-Man who is transported to another universe where he comes into contact with Miguel O’Hara, aka Spider-Man 2099, voiced by Oscar Isaac. Miles Morales will also reunite with Gwen Stacy/Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) as well as a new roster of Spider characters including Spider-Woman/Jessica Drew, voiced by Issa Rae.
The clip begins in Gwen Stacy’s dimension, with Gwen and her father, the police chief, when he receives a phone call. Gwen follows and meets Vulture. O’Hara’s Spider-Man and Spider-Woman/Jessica Drew are introduced from another dimension. In the scene, Gwen’s father comes and tries to arrest her for the murder of Peter Parker and she takes off the mask and reveals her identity. Next, we switch to the world of Miles Morales, who introduces Miles at a parent-teacher meeting at his school.
Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson are directing the sequel from a screenplay by Lord, Miller and David Callaham. The film was scheduled for release on October 7, 2022, but the studio announced last week that it would push back the theatrical release date to June 2, 2023. Spider-Man: Behind the Spider-Verse is the name of the second sequel, scheduled for release on March 29, 2024.
Rothman closed the section of the presentation by saying, “To the opposition: ‘Look, dammit.’
He wasn’t the only one promoting Sony’s commitment to cinema. “I spoke about Sony’s commitment to protecting the exclusive cinema window. The last time I was here I said it would thrive, and it did, and we made it together,” said John Greenstein, president of Sony Motion Pictures.
Greenstein welcomed the “visionary director” driving the bullet train, David Leitch. As he took the stage, he said that he and his producing partner Kelly McCormick set themselves lofty goals to do something “incredibly original, something that would bring people back to the movies. “I think we did.”
Leitch’s film, due out July 29, has been described as a hilarious, mind-bending action thriller in which Brad Pitt leads an ensemble cast of diverse, diverse assassins – all with interconnected but conflicting goals – against the backdrop of a non-stop journey through the modern. day Japan. It’s a Pitt “like you’ve never seen before,” praised Leitch. And footage backed up that claim as Pitt walked the streets of Tokyo while speaking to Sandra Bullock’s character on the phone as she described his mission – to retrieve a briefcase with a train sticker on it.
Meanwhile, on the train, Aaron Taylor Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry wait with Logan Lerman after saving him from being kidnapped. After the latter wakes up, the two assassins offer a gory synopsis of the 17 people they had to kill to free him. This high-energy sequence debuted with cheers and laughter, as did the entire 10-minute footage, which ended with Bad Bunny’s explosive fight scene with Pitt.
Sony’s presentation also highlighted TriStar Pictures label’s anticipated The Woman King. Division leader Nicole Brown took the stage to recall the short story, as Viola Davis walked into her office to present the story of All-Female Badass Warriors. Brown said she couldn’t believe it was true. “They were real Amazons,” she explained. “A real Black Panther.” She wrote the Oscar, Emmy and
Tony Award-winning talent as a producer who championed the film “like a general.” Brown then welcomed Woman King director Gina Prince Bythewood onto the stage. The filmmaker, who said it’s incredibly cool to be attending her first CinemaCon, praised her star as someone every director wants to work with. Linking the material to an in-demand star allowed Prince Bythewood to “touch greatness.”
“She’s everything we all think of her,” Prince-Bythewood said of her star. “She kicks ass in the movie.”
To recognize her contributions, Prince-Bythewood announced that she would present Davis with an inaugural Trailblazer Award, noting that the trophy is now presented annually at CinemaCon. The bar was set pretty high when Davis was greeted onstage with a standing ovation.
“The five words I wouldn’t take to my grave would be: I wasn’t brave enough. I didn’t risk jumping through a plate of glass to risk discomfort, failure, or embarrassment,” Davis said at the start of her acceptance speech. She then credited the late legend Cicely Tyson with inspiring her career choice when she first saw her at the age of 9. “The transformative, radical power that believing in something bigger than my world gave me. It touched and landed in me. I arrived and ended up in a generation of artists and that’s what I wanted to do with my work. As an actor, I wanted to play characters that have never been seen before in a body that looked like mine.”
Davis said when The Woman King was brought to her, she believed it was “divine intervention.” She called the film her “magnum opus”, the same goes for her director. “I felt like it was the absolute way to introduce a whole new realm of storytelling to the world.” She then introduced an exclusive clip roll of never-before-seen footage that featured intense action sequences.
The film, due for release on September 16, centers on the untold story inspired by true events that took place in the Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states in Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. Based on a story by Maria Bello with a screenplay by Dana Stevens and Prince-Bythewood, The Woman King Davis stars Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, Hero Fiennes-Tiffin and John Boyega.
Reese Witherspoon appeared on the big screen via video message to introduce Where the Crawdads Sing. The film, due out July 15, is based on the best-selling novel and tells the story of Kya, an abandoned girl raised to adulthood in the dangerous swamplands of North Carolina. “It’s a great film,” Witherspoon said. “Everyone worked so hard to bring this to life. … Beautiful scenery and great acting, beautifully told.”
Sony ended its presentation with footage of George Tillman’s upcoming George Foreman biopic. The real Foreman made a special appearance via video and Rothman shared the final words of the evening with him. “It took me a long time to get ready to tell my story on the big screen. But I felt trustworthy in Tilman’s hands,” Foreman. “When you get knocked down, you get back up, both in life and in the ring. Have fun in Vegas – not too much fun – and God bless you all.”
Hollywood studios and theater owners gather in Las Vegas this week for CinemaCon, the annual convention hosted by the National Association of Theater Owners. This year is particularly important for exhibitors as they seek to emerge from the ravages of the COVID-19 crisis and compete with streamers.
CinemaCon was canceled entirely in 2020, while last year’s event was a slimmed down version, taking place in late August as opposed to its traditional late spring date.
This year, all five major Hollywood studios, as well as Lionsgate and Neon, announce their upcoming slates during their time on stage in the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.
CinemaCon 2022 will take place from April 25th to 28th.