Among studios, Sony was first up with its presentation here at CineEurope in Barcelona which kicked off on Monday. “As an industry, we are anything but done,” declared Sony Pictures International Releasing’s President Steven O’Dell at the top of the show. The studio is coming off of its most ambitious six-month slate ever, which it began rolling out in the fall and wrapped up with the $1.9B worldwide smash Spider-Man: No Way Home, and the January hit Uncharted.
Said O’Dell, “Audiences love the social cinema experience enough to overcome obstacles, especially if we give them films with clear theatrical windows.”
Coming up, Sony showed off the first scenes and first trailer for Lyle, Lyle Crocodile — the adaptation of the classic children’s book that stars Javier Bardem and Constance Wu with Shawn Mendes voicing the titular reptile. This was new footage that had not been seen at CinemaCon in April. Will Speck and Josh Gordon are directing the pic for release this fall.
In other footage, there was a look at Where The Crawdads Sing, which counts Reese Witherspoon and Elizabeth Gabler among its producers and is based on Delia Owens’ best-seller; as well as Viola Davis in historical epic The Woman King.
A sizzle reel of further upcoming titles included a brief glimpse at the Tom Hanks-starrer A Man Called Otto while the studio touted Harold And The Purple Crayon, 65, Madame Web, El Muerto, The Equalizer sequel, the next Ghostbusters franchise entry, Venom 3, the two upcoming Spider-Verse movies as well as Kraven The Hunter.
That film’s star, Aaron Taylor-Johnson paid a visit to Barcelona, telling CineEurope attendees he had just wrapped shooting the Marvel movie two weeks ago. Calling Kraven “Spider-Man’s number one rival,” he also noted the character is not an alien or a wizard but a human with conviction and that the film was entirely shot on location with no stages.
The actor also appears in this summer’s action thriller Bullet Train. Directed by David Leitch and starring Brad Pitt, it’s “off the f**king charts,” said Taylor-Johnson before presenting a look at the first reel, which had also played at CinemaCon in April.
The movie is based on Kôtarô Isaka’s novel Maria Beetle and follows trained assassin Ladybug (Pitt) who wants to give up his career, but is pulled back in by his handler in order to collect a briefcase on the eponymous train heading from Tokyo to Kyoto. Once onboard, he and other rival assassins learn that their objectives are connected.