Are you ready for an R-rated Kraven the Hunter who bites poachers’ noses off?

Well, you better be! Going back to the movie theater is IN, at least according to attendees at the annual CinemaCon shindig now taking place in Las Vegas. A showcase where film studios show off stars and footage to theater owners, the industry confab is already revealing some early looks at films that Hollywood hopes will fill seats.

Sony ruled Day One with their presentation, which included Ridley Scott’s epic Napoleon; Anyone But You, starring Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney; horror sequel Insidious: The Red Door;  Denzel Washington returning as the Equalizer in the third outing; and a Gran Turismo movie directed by Neil Blomkamp.

Of course there were also superhero movies. Sony debuted 14 minutes of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, coming to theaters on June 2. Can’t wait! Shemeik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld return as Miles Morales and Spider-Gwen, and they’re joined by a big cast including Oscar Isaac as Miguel O’Hara/ Spider-Man 2099, Issa Rae as Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman, Karan Soni as Pavitr Prabhakar/Spider-Man India, and Daniel Kaluuya as Hobie Brown/Spider-Punk.

For those who like spoilers, you can read a pretty detailed breakdown of the footage here, but the scenes shown include Miles and Gwen talking after Miles has been grounded again, and a discussion of the general bad outcomes of other Spider-Man/Gwen relationships in other universes. Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson directed this sequel to one of the most beloved and innovative animated films of all time.

The loudest debut was for October’s Kraven the Hunter, which stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the vest wearing title character, and Oscar winners Russell Crowe and Ariana DeBose in the kinds of roles Oscar winners are given in superhero films. 

Directed by J.C. Chandor (A Most Violent Year), Kraven is Sony’s follow up to the meme-tastic Morbius from last year. As you may recall Sony owns the rights to all the Spider-verse characters, which is why they are forging their own villain-centric cinema universe starring Venom and now…Kraven! All are from Spidey’s colorful supply of villains, but thus far any connections to the MCU are tenuous.

In the comics, Kraven is a big game hunter who decides to hunt Spidey instead. In the movie, he’s Sergei Kravinoff, a Russian “animal lover and protector of the natural world,” according to Taylor-Johnson.

The movie will be R-rated – a rarity for superhero films. The footage was universally described as “violent,” with Steven Weintraub giving a concise account:

“First footage from #KravenTheHunter shows this is a super hard R movie. Kraven kills everyone and bites someone’s nose off. This is not the movie I expected and I’m here for it,” he wrote.

Okay some spoiler. Discussing Film’s Andrew J. Salazar described more of the footage:

Sony revealed the first-ever footage for Kraven the Hunter starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson. The trailer starts with Kraven stopping some poachers in the wild. This is confirmed to be Rated R and the footage really shows it, with Kraven killing everyone like an animal. He uses weapons, his hands, and even his own teeth and he bites a poacher and spits out the blood. He also crawls around walls and pounces on foes like an animal. The main conflict is between his father, played by Russell Crowe, who was the one who actually raised him in the ways of hunter vs prey. The action features over-the-top gore, as Kraven uses all kinds of weapons from spears to bear traps to decapitate and chop up of goons. The footage teased a mysterious new character played by Ariana DeBose as well.

Spoilers: although Kraven does encounter the famous animal skin vest in the movie, he doesn’t wear it in the footage shown.

The preview ended with the shock reveal of (SPOILERS!!!) …. the Rhino.

Bullet Train Star Aaron Taylor Johnson Fought to Join Brad Pitt Movie – The Hollywood Reporter

No images of Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Kraven have been released yet, so you will have to make do with this still from Bullet Train. Just imagine him in fewer clothes, a fairly easy task.

For those keeping score at home, this marks Taylor-Johnson’s FOURTH outing as a comic book character; he was previously Kick-Ass in two movies, Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Archie Reid in The King’s Man (okay that’s a stretch but we said we were keeping score.) This could be Taylor-Johnson’s last such genre outing though, as he’s rumored to be the new James Bond, and that would probably slow his roll on future nose biting exploits.

Sony chairman/CEO Tom Rothman also made some remarks at the presentation, intended to boost the spirits of theater owners. The most popular studio head in Hollywood, delivered lots of salty sound bites. “The other thing pundits say is movie stars don’t matter anymore. I really hope all my competitors believe that shit,” he sad, referring to a recent study that showed movie stars are an aging breed.

“As you can see at Sony, we aren’t fucking around,” he told theater owners of Sony’s big screen focus and harsh response to poachers. “Originality is always a risk, but to me, the bigger risk is boring the audience to death with sameness. No balls, no glory.”

While Sony won the early headlines, today will bring many more from CinemaCon: a screening of The Flash was held with the social media embargo lifting later today! To say these reactions are eagerly awaited is an understatement. Perhaps to tease the reveal, Flash director Andy Muschietti and producer spouse Barbara Muschietti were given an award, which they accepted as scary disembodied heads.

CinemaCon runs for three more days, and we’ll keep you updated on all the big news.

Are you looking forward to the Kraven the Hunter movie? Let us know in the comments.

 

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