CinemaCon 2023: Sony Previews Spider-Verse, Kraven, and More (Live Coverage)

On Monday, Sony Pictures took over the Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace during the CinemaCon event with a special presentation of their upcoming slate of films. The titles which the studio has an opportunity to showcase include Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Kraven the Hunter, the new Ghostbusters film, and more. Sony is the first presentation from the major studios attending CinemaCon in 2023, with a full schedule packing out the week to excite fans of going to the theater. The following article is published and updated live throughout the presentation.

Mitch Neuhauser opened up the first presentation with a welcome back to CinemaCon, declaring theater owners are done with COVID and other obstacles and all “still standing,” for a smoother time going forward. He thanks the studios in Hollywood for their hard work in getting the shows coming to CinemaCon together and promises “talent,” “filmmakers,” and “product,” are what the audience is going to get this week. “Everything that you’re about to see on the screen this week has been selected just for you by the studios,” he explains, calling for a respect of the material being shown and requesting no recording or sharing of what is on the screen.

Neuhauser starts to wrap up by thanking CinemaCon’s 2023 sponsor, RealD, before a video from Sony plays. It starts with Martin Lawreence and Will Smith exiting a Porsche. “We are on set,” Smith said, referencing the fourth Bad Boys film. They debate whether or not it’s proper to say, “Sorry we couldn’t be there.” It results in Smith correcting himself and saying, “We glad we not there cause we here and they paying us to be here so we’re, like, happy that we’re here, and not there.”

“Bad Boys 4 is coming,” he said. “We are hyped, we excited! Fourth week of shooting!” They introduce Josh Greenstein, President of Sony Motion Pictures Group, to the stage through the video. Greenstein credits Sony for having “never wavered,” on theatrical releases when it comes to streaming simultaneously or closer to theatrical release. He points out how streamers are now pivoting and giving films theatrical releases. 

The first film is the GameStop phenomenon film, Dumb Money, with Craig Gillespie and Paul Dano taking the stage. “I;m thrilled that we’re gonna be in theaters with this,” Gillespie said. “It’s really about the little person. In the times that we’ve screened this in a theater, the energy is just incredible. Dumb Money is a true story of how the everyday investor flipped the script on Wall Street in a way that reverberated around the world.” Dano plays a YouTuber who put his life savings into GameStop. Dano explains his character, Keith, started a movement by getting “more and more regular folks to join GameStop.” The first few minutes of the film play for the CinemaCon audience. 

The footage sees Seth Rogen’s character debating with a real estate agent from his unfinished house. Meanwhile, in Connecticut, Steve Cohen is panicking over the stock changes. A montage of people seeing the GameStop stock soaring plays before Ken Griffin played by Nick Offerman, calls Rogen’s character. The fiinancial big wigs discover Dano’s Keith character as being responsible for the GameStop spike. It’s all set to the tune of Cardi B’s “WAP.”

Next up is a “snippet” of footage from the Insidious: The Red Door film plays which brings the original cast back. The footage sees a family struggling to reconnect after kids went to college, they remember falling into a coma, and they are tryinig to forget their troubles. Haunted dreams are plaguing the family and Patrick Wilson’s character declares, “Those are not dreams.” The tortured souls of the dead have conquered their world and the family is going back “where it all began,” according to the text on screen. 

CrunchyRoll gets some love from Greenstein. The Machine is the next film, the true story of Bert Kreischer getting tied up with the Russian mafia as a college student. The short look at the film plays like a parody of John Wick.

Kristine Benson, the President of Sony Pictures Animation, takes the stage. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is referred to as a “groundbreaking moment in our history, in our industry,” she declares. It changed what people expect from animation, She welcomes one of the directors to the stage, Kemp Powers. 

“When I first saw Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse I was actually still working on a movie at Pixar called Soul,” he said, noting he is the only director here because the film is still being finished.. “I was completely blown away by what I saw.” He promises this film will still “relate to the emotional journey of Miles and his family.” He introduces Shameik Moore, Issa Rae, and Hailee Steinfeld to the stage. 

“It’s been overa year after the events of the first movie,” Moore said. “In the first movie, he leaned that anyone can wear the mask and in this film he discovers that it’s how you wear the mask that makes you a hero. The only person who really understands what he’s going through is Gwen Stacy.”

“Gwen is such an important part of Miles’ journey but she has her own journey as well,” Steinfeld said.

“I also play a SpiderWoman, Jessica Drew.She is super coo,” Rae added. “She is a Spider-Woman of another dimension. I really like her attitude. She is no non-sense…Unlike these jokers over here, she is not living a double life.”

Powers introduces 14 minutes of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which features new, original music from the film. A spoiler-filled recap of the footage follows! The unfinished footage sees Miles struggling to deal with being grounded and stuck in his own room. A new song plays as he puts headphones on and kicks back. Gwen bursts into the universe to disrupt and raid all of his things, including a notebook filled with drawings of her. She asks him, “Wanna get out of here?” before falling out the window and then standing on the building’s outside wall, horizontally. After a momentary debate, he follows her. Later, his parents find he has left the room. “That’s three months!” his dad declares. While swinging through the city, Gwen tells Miles about Jessica Drew. The animation, though at times incomplete, looks brilliant and has only built on what worked so well in the first film. Gwen labels Miguel O’hara as a “ninja, vampire, good guy,” in her description of him. More music platys as the two swing through traffic, across rooftops, around the city, and through a hot dog vendor who they web some cash onto his chest after swiping a bite. Gwen temporarily hides from Miles before emerging to plant a device on his back. Elsewhere, The Spot is outside of an apartment near what seems to be a device receiving a signal from the device Gwen planted on Miles. Gwen explains how she hasn’t talked to her family much and Miles is contemplating telling his own. She discourages such an idea. As they gaze at the city, Miles wonders if some things are supposed to be just for them. Gwen agrees. The whole conversation happens as the two hang upside down, with finished and unfinished versions of the animation cutting throughout the scene. “In every other universe, Gwen Stacy falls for Spider-Man,” Gwen said. “And, in every other universe, it doesn’t end well.” Miles moves his hand away from her on that note. Later, webs fly through a cookout as Gwen and Miles yank some food away for themselves. Miles’ mother doesn’t seem to be a fan of Gwen as the two talk in the distance. Miles plays with Gwen’s bracelet which she says protects her during multiversal travel. She is startled when he pushes a button, indicating a potential danger, before Miles’ parents interrupt the conversation. Miles gives her a fake name. The bracelet makes noises and Gwen has to run, very awkwardly and abruptly leaving the family behind as she does. Miles’ mom tries to reason with him about opening up but Miles is having a hard time. It’s clear, family is still at the heart of the film. Miles tries to work up the courage to tell her that he’s Spider-Man but ultimately concludes, “I’m sorry I was late.” With that, she dismisses Miles and tells him to follow Gwen. “For years I’ve been taking care of this little boy, right? Making sure that he’s loved,” she said. “He wants to go out into the world and do great big things and what I worry about most is that they won’t look out for you like us.” She makes him promise, “to take care of that little boy,” before he goes on from this point. No one can tell him he doesn’t belong and he will still come home, early, and never get lost. It concludes on an emotional note, impressively so, considering how short and out of context the footage was.

Next up is Kraven the Hunter. Aaron Taylor-Johnson sends a video message. “Even from afar, I still get the privilege of introducing the first ever footage of Kraven the Hunter shown anywhere,” Johnson said. “A Marvel movie grounded heavily in the real world…He is a fierce hunter. He confirms it is rated R before the first footage plays. He confirms the film will be rated R before footage furthers the point. In the footage, brutal Kraven slaughters men in a truck, including biting chunks of their faces off and tossing them out of his mouth towards the camera. He pulls hjs classic lion costume out, showing its mane. He fights many man, slaughtering them in a bloody series of events. In the woods, men look for Kraven and set traps, but Kraven uses the locale to his advantage and wrecks them. In the film, Kraven seems to be setting out to be nothing like his father, uses spears to kill men, slaughters another in an office with a crossbow, and moves like an animal through hallways – sometimes on all fours. It’s a bloody romp, loaded with a couple of f-bombs. The Rhino is the villain of the film, with a tease showing a man’s arm transforming into the character. The trailer will be released this summer. 

David Harbour and Orlando Bloom come to the stage to discuss Gran Turismo. Harbour wondered how people were going to make a movie “out of a racing game,” he admits. Harbour explains the story turned out to be based on a real, true story, despite the game not having any story to it other than racing. Bloom explains how Gran Turismo is so realistic that drivers and teams used it to train. This movie is based on the true story of “how being good at a game can completely change your life.” Harbour adds that there’s a big difference between playing a video game and driving the real cars. The star of the film does his own driving, as well. Harbour wants to see the footage which is about to play, so he heads to audience as it plays. A gamer’s family, with a father played by Djimon Hounsou, is not approving of how much he has been playing video games. He is deep into Gran Turismo. Hw goes from the games to the real thing under the idea of Orlando Bloom;’s character. Harbour is fully skeptic, saying, “Your kids a scrawny little gamer.” The gamers have to get physically fit, the challenges present themselves, and plenty of racing sequences grace the screen. The stakes are emphasized by an outlining of the risks. The gamer makes the team and it’s time for a real race, with the other drivers not being a fan of a video game player getting a spot in the real thing. 

Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell takes the stage to talk about their upcoming film Anyone But You. It concludes with a trailer for the R-rated comedy. It is followed by Jason Reitman sending a video message, along with the new age Ghostbusters cast. They ultimately introduced Sony chairman Tom Rothman. “The movie looks huge,” Rothman said about the new Ghostbusters film. “For the past three years…we at Sony held fast. The only major studio dedicated entirely to theatrical. We were sure, in conviction, that movies and movie theaters would not just survive but triumph. Sony won with our share of sequels and super heroes, yes, and we’re very proud of them but also many original films….We continue to mix our strong IP driven movies…we mix that IP with multiple original films in multiple genres. The more they say those genres are dead, the more than we like it. Originality, it’s always a risk, but I always think the bigger risk is boring the audience to death with sameness.” He goes on to say that “true movie stars matter more than ever. They’re just rarer than ever.” He is using this opportunity to call back on his many times working with Denzel Washington, ultimately to introduce Antoine Fuqua to the stage. 

Fuqua presents CinemaCon’s Lifetime Achievement A\ward to Denzel Washington, teeing up a reel of the actor. “I’ve been blessed beyond measure and this is just another example of it,” Washington declares. He goes on to bring Dakota Fanning, who he co-starred with in Man on Fire and will reunite with for Equalizer 3, to the stage. Fanning shared her excitement for the upcoming film and can’t find the words to describe an opportunity to work with Washington twice. The first trailer for Equalizer 3 plays, the film due in theaters in September. The footage is loaded with expected Equalizer action, including Washington’s hero predicting the number of seconds it will take to beat the men around him,

Rothman concludes the presentation with a film from Sony and Apple Original Films. He is promising a “full throttle marketing campaign,” and “robust theatrical run,” for the movie before it goes to Apple TV+. It’s a Ridley Scott film debuting in November. Rothman says Scott “can do things cinematically that few,” others can do. Rothman tees up the footage, “The Russian and the Austrian armies have joined forces against Napoleon…Napoleon has hidden his cannons and invited the attack because, to a military genius as he was, there are fields and then there are fields.” It’s the first look at Napoleon on the screen. The footage is grand in scale, showing Phoenix’s Napoleon allow men to march towards him and encourage his own to let the others think they have the high ground. According to Rothman’s earlier sentiment, the charging horses and grand landscape was largely captured in camera. A cold, brisk shoot out begins as the horses approach and a line pf men defend themselves. It’s a messy, brutal fight. Napoleon sends his men from the trenches into the battle, crashing down a hill and charging toward their enemy as he and others watch from the treeline. It’s a dark, snowy setting. The weather is a character in itself. A massive army of men on horseback charges in, causing a retreat. Seeing camera movements from above follow the sequence. It’s chaos captured in frame,. Napoleon proudly watched as his men drive the others out, uncovering their cannons, and leaving the enemies trapped on a frozen lake. The cannons shatter the ice, causing many to fall in. Blood in the water gives the scene the first amounting of color. Men claw for the surface but ultimately find themselves slipping into the water and fading away.