Tag: Sony PIctures

Posted on in Film News

‘Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse 2’ Adds Issa Rae As The Voice Of Jessica Drew’s Spider-Woman

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse made huge waves in the animation community as the Sony Animation Studios project was not only different stylistically, but also a huge departure from other Spider-Man projects they’ve tackled in the past and earned them an Oscar for Best Animated Feature back in 2019. 

Of course, a direct sequel and spinoffs have been subsequently announced and Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse 2 is already being worked on. The follow-up film even has a script co-written by Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings screenwriter Dave Callaham. 

One casting addition that was announced earlier today by The Hollywood Reporter is that comedic actress Issa Rae (Lovebirds) will voice the role of Jessica Drew aka Spider-Woman in the sequel. 

It’s expected that Oscar Isaac will reprise the role of Miguel O’Hara aka Spider-Man 2099 in Spider-Verse 2 after being teased at the end of the first film with technology that allows him to move between the Spider-Verse.

The Marvel Comics heroine has been the incarnation of of the superhero that everyone has assumed will be the lead in Olivia Wilde’s Spider-Woman film for Sony Pictures, but hasn’t been announced officially by the studio. Unlike other Sony characters, Jessica Drew didn’t first appear in the pages of Spider-Man comic books as she started as a Nick Fury/S.H.I.E.L.D. villain brainwashed by HYDRA, making her a shared character with Marvel Studios. 

Jessica Drew has ties to the big Skrull event Secret Invasion that will be covered in a Disney+ series and was an agent of S.W.O.R.D., making her a strong contender to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe soon. It remains to be seen who will play the live-action incarnation of Jessica Drew and if Marvel Studios will even be involved with the Olivia Wilde project. While Oscar Isaac voices Spider-Man 2099 and Hailee Steinfeld voices Spider-Gwen they have their own hard-canon roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Moon Knight’s Marc Spector and Hawkeye’s Kate Bishop, respectively.

There is also a an all-female Spider-Verse spinoff project in the works that will likely have Rae’s Jessica Drew on the roster too.

The animation and live-action Spider-Man universes haven’t been directly tied to each other, yet.

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse 2 will release on October 7, 2022.

Bitten by a radioactive spider in the subway, Brooklyn teenager Miles Morales suddenly develops mysterious powers that transform him into the one and only Spider-Man. When he meets Peter Parker, he soon realizes that there are many others who share his special, high-flying talents. Miles must now use his newfound skills to battle the evil Kingpin, a hulking madman who can open portals to other universes and pull different versions of Spider-Man into our world.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 

Posted on in Film News

Sony Pictures Says They Have An “Excellent Relationship” With Marvel Studios & Kevin Feige – Will They Announce An Extended Deal?

While there has been tension in the past, new comments from Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group President Sanford Panitch suggest that the working relationship between Sony and Marvel’s Kevin Feige is “excellent.” This comes from an interview Panitch had with Variety where he mentioned their big Spider-Man plans will be revealed after the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home in December.

PANITCH: “The great thing is we have this very excellent relationship with Kevin. There’s an incredible sandbox there to play with. We want those MCU movies to be absolutely huge, because that’s great for us and our Marvel characters, and I think that’s the same thing on their side. But we have a great relationship. There’s lots of opportunities, I think, that are going to happen.”

Despite those rosy comments, things weren’t always pleasant between the two companies.

In the early days of Marvel shopping the film rights to studios, Sony Pictures famously rejected a deal that could have landed-up the bulk of the Marvel Comics character lineup when Marvel first approached the studio about tackling Spider-Man movies. Those executives obviously had zero imagination about what the future held for the superhero genre and cinematic universes.

When Marvel Studios became successful, Sony Pictures still scoffed at the idea of teaming together to the point that Sony Japan had to tell their film division to a make a deal with Marvel happen after Amazing Spider-Man 2 failed to get audiences jazzed about their Spider-Man cinematic universe. Even after the billion-dollar success of Spider-Man: Far From Home, the deal between Disney and Sony dissolved which led to the potential of Sony Pictures moving forward with Spider-Man 3 without the help of Marvel. Luckily, Tom Holland able to get the two studios back to table and is the reason why Spider-Man: No Way Home exists.

After past attitudes mentioned above, it’s not hard to imagine that Sony could be under the impression they can simply copy the Marvel model for themselves without the help of Marvel Studios. The success of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and it’s Oscar win could give the studio a boost of confidence to go solo again. It wouldn’t be the first studio to do so, and Sony already attempted to create their own cinematic universe with plans to make a Sinister Six movie that was one of the main teases from Amazing Spider-Man 2, alongside introducing future Rogue One actress, Felicity Jones, as Felicia Hardy aka Black Cat (another character that was set to get a solo film).

One of the theories about Spider-Man: No Way Home is that it could be a way for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man to ease his way out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe gracefully with one final film.

The vagueness of the statements from the studio executive aren’t particular helpful either. We’re still kind of in the dark what Sony plans to do after Spider-Man: No Way Home, Panitch suggests they’ll be revealing their big plan after the release of the third Marvel-made solo Spider-Man film, but haven’t been clear if they’ll continue to have Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in the MCU or agree to give Marvel access to other incarnations of the character (Miles Morales etc) allowing them to keep Holland for their own cinematic universe installments.

There is some hope from fans that everything can simply just be consider part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but we’ve examples in the past even at different divisions of Marvel where that wasn’t a simple thing. Marvel Studios Nate Moore mentioned off-handily that the Disney+ shows were the first time that the television and film universes have been cohesive, alluding to the Marvel Television/Loeb era being nixed from MCU hard-canon.

Keeping in mind how the Jeph Loeb era of Marvel shows were blocked from official canon, I personally don’t see how Kevin Feige would suddenly allow Sony’s spinoff films to be so easily accepted to the Marvel Cinematic Universe without his personal oversight on their development and production. Unless Marvel Studios makes or produces these new Sony/Marvel movies I don’t really see how they become part of the hard-canon MCU. Considering that Kevin won’t really be able to oversee quality control, as seen with a bonkers project like Venom.

Speaking of Venom, Sony recently confirmed that Spider-Man won’t appear in the Venom sequel and it’s unclear if films such as Morbius or Kraven The Hunter will include Parker either. Michael Keaton’s Vulture from Spider-Man: Homecoming showing up in the Morbius trailer has only added to the confusion and fan speculation, the Vulture being a Sony-owned character.

There is also uncertainty about Olivia Wilde’s Spider-Woman project being part of the MCU, as Marvel wasn’t mentioned as a production partner when it was originally announced and Sony still hasn’t even given the project a title, let alone confirmed that Marvel is working with them on it.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see if the Marvel and Sony will announce they’ve officially extended their working relationship to other films. There have been rumblings that they’ve worked things out but according to Tom Holland himself he’s finished his existing contract obligations and is willing to re-up if asked to.

If they have a plan it seems odd that Holland doesn’t have a new Spider-Man contract already.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

Sony Pictures Exec Reaffirms Spider-Man Won’t Appear In ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ While Hyping The Sequel – “You Don’t Miss Spider-Man”

Sony Pictures is mapping-out their own cinematic universe featuring the multiple heroes and villains they’re able to give feature films and television shows to thanks to owning the Spider-Man rights. It’s become increasingly confusing what their ultimate plan is going to be with the various spinoff films as the original Venom was rumored to include a cameo from Tom Holland but that never happened and fans have been sort of kept in the dark officially about other Sony/Marvel projects too.

While we might eventually see Holland start to appear in these movies at some point, new quotes from Sony Picture Motion Pictures Group President Sandford Panitch during an interview with Variety gives us the impression that they studio hopes their spinoff films don’t even need Spider-Man to hook audiences.

Sanford Panitch is quick to point out that Sony Pictures doesn’t see their cinematic universe as a “Spider-Verse,” but actually their own Marvel universe while alluding to these projects holding their own without the iconic superhero. This is highlighted when Panitch admits that Tom Holland’s Spider-Man won’t be appearing with Tom Hardy’s Venom in the upcoming sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage. But also teased the two characters may meet up, eventually.

PANITCH: “We don’t really think of our 900 characters as the Spidey-verse. We have a Marvel universe. The volume of characters we have — you know, wait until you see this next Venom. You don’t miss Spider-Man…It’ll be exciting if they do meet, right?”

This sentiment was recently echoed not too long ago by Venom 2’s director Andy Serkis while speaking with IGN about the first-look trailer. Serkis mentioning that these the characters in the Venom sequel aren’t aware of Spider-Man and “treating this very much as it’s own world.”

SERKIS: “Obviously, there are links between Venom and Spider-Man in the Marvel Universe and the Spider-Man story, but in this, we’re treating this very much as it’s his own world, the Venom story is his own world. There are nods and little moments just like this, the newspaper Daily Bugle, of course, but on the whole, he’s unaware, they’re unaware, at this point of other characters like Spider-Man. So that’s the way we’ve chosen to play this particular episode of the movie but well, we’ll wait and see, what little things you can pick out of it.”

The original Venom, earned a massive $856 million at the global box office without Spider-Man, so it’s possible the studio believes other films could replicate this success on their own.

VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE – Tom Hardy returns to the big screen as the lethal protector Venom, one of MARVEL’s greatest and most complex characters. Directed by Andy Serkis, the film also stars Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris and Woody Harrelson, in the role of the villain Cletus Kasady/Carnage.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in News

Sony CEO Yoshida Kenichiro Says Sony Pictures Isn’t For Sale

Every couple of months film and business trades run speculative interviews with analysts or “activist investors” claiming that Sony Pictures is poised for a big sale to places like Apple, Amazon, or Netflix. None of this is anything but opinion dressed-up as an editorial/interview, instead of based on concrete information or reporting. It usually comes after a shift in the industry like the Walt Disney Company acquiring 21st Century Fox or when telecoms company AT&T got their hands on a media giant like Time-Warner.

After the WarnerMedia-Discovery and Amazon-MGM deals being announced this month, it seems like we should prepare for another run of wild claims and speculation that Sony Pictures is next to be sold-off.

However, that doesn’t seem to be case, according to the person that actually runs the company. There is now a real statement coming from Sony CEO Yoshida Kenichiro while speaking with the Financial Times (via The Hollywood Reporter), Kenichiro says that while they’re open to partner with streaming services they’re not going to sell the film division.

KENICHIRO: “There is drastic realignment in the media industry, but I think our strategy of creating content as an independent studio while working with various partners will work.” 

It’s worth mentioning that Sony did strike deals with Netflix and Disney recently, but that has to do with post-theatrical window streaming rights of feature films and they’ve been working towards a television deal with Amazon that includes the Spider-Man spinoff series Silk. These deals will expand their presence in the streaming space, far from an actual acquisition. One of the big reasons for moves like this is that Sony doesn’t have their own streaming service, so, licensing their content to multiple suitors isn’t that surprising as the media landscape changes.

The Hollywood Reporter also added a comment from Sony Pictures Entertainment chief Tony Vinciquerra from the investor day presentation, where he sounded confident that the shows and films in development based on the PlayStation IP will continue the momentum as they have at least ten projects in the pipeline. Those PlayStation projects include Tom Holland’s Uncharted film, an HBO series based on The Last of Us, and a Ghost of Tsushima movie from John Wick franchise director Chad Stahelski.

VINCIQUERRA: “The PlayStation project has tremendous momentum with the establishment of PlayStation productions and ten projects already in development.”

They also have a string of their own Marvel films such as J.C. Chandor’s Kraven The Hunter, Olivia Wilde’s Spider-Woman, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and Jared Leto’s vampire flick Morbius. Sony Japan was behind the pressure on the film division to make a deal with Marvel Studios/Disney that led to Tom Holland appearing as Spider-Man in solo films made by Marvel and appearing in their other films as well.

Having a corner of the Marvel Comics rights and developing multiple projects based on their popular PlayStation video game franchises could keep them competitive for the foreseeable future. Franchises like Bad Boys and Jumanji seem to be audience draws the studio can rely on beyond Spider-Man projects.

SOURCE: THE FINANCIAL TIMES

Posted on in Film News

‘Kraven The Hunter’: Sony Approached Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt, John David Washington & Adam Driver – ‘Spider-Man’ Spinoff Releases January 2023

Yesterday, it was announced that Sony Pictures had selected British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass, Bullet Train, Avengers: Age of Ultron) to lead their latest Spider-Man spinoff film, Kraven The Hunter. The project will focus on Sergei Kravinoff aka Kraven, a Russian aristocrat turned big-game hunter that becomes a major antagonist of Marvel superhero Spider-Man as a member of The Sinister Six and half-brother of fellow villain The Chameleon.

Some of the names rumored for the role were indeed true, as Deadline reporter Justin Kroll tweeted a list of names that Sony Pictures had considered to play Kraven but they had passed. Those high-profile names were Keanu Reeves (John Wick, The Matrix), Brad Pitt (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Fight Club, Inglorious Basterds), John David Washington (Tenet), and Adam Driver (House of Gucci, Logan Lucky, Star Wars: The Force Awakens).

However, Aaron Taylor-Johnson reportedly “blew away” Sony brass thanks to footage from his latest project, Bullet Train.

I find it interesting that the latter two actors being co-stars in Spike Lee’s Oscar-winning film BlacKkKlansman, the filmmaker had been attached to make a Nightwatch movie for the studio with a script from Luke Cage showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker.

It’s noteworthy that John David Washington was mentioned in the group, as it could signal back to when Black Panther director Ryan Coogler talked about wanting to use Kraven and the actor’s own comments from the Tenet press tour last year mentioning his desire to play Reed Richards in Marvel’s Fantastic Four reboot from Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts.

Kraven The Hunter will be directed by J.C. Chandor (A Most Violent Year, Triple Frontier) from a scripted penned by Richard Wenk (The Equalizer, The Expendables 2) with Art Marcum and Matt Holloway tackling rewrites. The duo of screenwriters aren’t strangers to studio genre projects working on Iron Man, Punisher: War Zone, Transformers: The Last Knight, Men In Black: International, and the upcoming Tom Holland video game movie Uncharted.

Sony is attempting to build their own cinematic universe featuring various Spider-Man friends and foes. Some of those upcoming films consist of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Jared Leto’s vampire flick Morbius, Olivia Wilde’s Spider-Woman movie, and a Madame Web movie. It remains to be seen of these movies will or will not be directly connected to Marvel Studios’ cinematic universe, as hiring the former Quicksilver actor would suggest that Kraven isn’t connected to the hard-canon MCU.

The Spider-Man spinoff has landed a release date of January 13, 2023 from Sony Pictures and suggests that production could begin by 2022.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Sony & Disney Make Domestic Streaming Deal For Marvel Properties From 2022 To 2026

Sony Pictures recently signed a lucrative deal with Netflix for post-theatrical release Pay 1 window, but that doesn’t end there. Variety states that Disney and Sony have made a new streaming deal for their Marvel properties that will see their films jumping to Disney+ after their post-theatrical run at Netflix. The deal kick-ins in with 2022 releases likely starting with Jared Leto’s Morbius and subsequent Marvel releases from Sony up until 2026.

Disney will also get access to other Sony content.

The wide-ranging deal, which runs through Sony’s 2026 theatrical slate, also calls for Sony titles to run across Disney’s array of streaming and linear platforms, making it unprecedented in scope as it covers Disney Plus, Hulu, FX Networks, ABC, Disney Channels and Freeform. It also includes a significant number of library titles that will be spread among various outlets.

There are heap of Spider-Man spinoffs in the works at Sony with Tom Hardy’s Venom 3 (quietly announced with the Sony/Netflix deal), J.C. Chandor’s Kraven The Hunter, Olivia Wilde’s Spider-Woman, Madame Web, Jackpot, Nightwatch, and Sinister Six (if they end-up resurrecting it). The sequel to Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is likely part of the deal and the other animated Marvel projects in the works at Sony Animation Studios.

In September, it was reported that Amazon and Sony were in negotiations to bring their Marvel television projects such as Silk to the streaming giant that is already home to The Boys and Invincible.

It seems like a win-win for Sony Pictures as the studio didn’t have a streaming service and now has two homes allowing them to make revenue post-theatrical without having to launch a new service during a crowded market, which has been an extremely costly venture for other studios.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

Netflix Secures Multi-Year Deal Landing Streaming Rights To Sony Feature Films Starting In 2022

Many people had been curious why Sony Pictures hadn’t started-up their own streaming service or attempted to sign a deal with an existing streaming player. That has all changed as there is news today via The Hollywood Reporter that Sony and Netflix have signed a lucrative deal giving the them the streaming rights to their feature films starting in 2022 after the theatrical/home video windows.

Sony has inked a multi-year, exclusive first pay window licensing deal in the U.S. that will allow Netflix first pay window rights to Sony Pictures titles following their theatrical and home entertainment windows, the studio announced Thursday. (The typical pay one window is 18 months.)

Over the course of the deal, Netflix has also committed to financing a number of titles from the studio’s motion picture group. These will encompass the films that Sony intends to make directly for streaming from inception or decides at a later point to license for streaming. The announcement notes that Sony’s theatrical output will “continue at its current volume.

The new deal also gives them access to Sony’s Spider-Man franchise which is going to continue to expand for the foreseeable future as they’ll have dibs on future Spider-Man (mentioned by THR) and Venom films. It will seemingly include upcoming spinoff movies such as Olivia Wilde’s Spider-Woman film, J.C. Chandor’s Kraven The Hunter, Madame Web, Jackpot, Black Cat, Silver Sable, and Nightwatch.

Upcoming releases part of this deal include Uncharted, Morbius, Bullet Train, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse 2, and other films released within the deal.

There was always a hint that Netflix was going to seek a studio partnership after Disney+ became their main competition and HBO Max started throwing the new releases from the Warner Bros. slate on the streaming service.

It’ll be curious if Netflix will attempt to develop exclusive series based on Sony franchises as well. In September, it was reported that a Silk live-action series was in the works with Amazon being considered with Phil Lord, Chris Miller, and Amy Pascal producing. Cindy Moon aka Silk is a spinoff character from Sony’s stable of Spider-Man universe heroes.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

‘Ghost of Tsushima’: Sony Hires ‘John Wick’ Franchise Director Chad Stahelski To Make A Feature Film

Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions are moving forward with a feature film based on their samurai action-focused video game Ghost of Tsushima and there is word from Deadline that they’ve selected John Wick franchise director Chad Stahelski to make it.

The game is developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment and centers around samurai warrior Jin Sakai, the last surviving member of his clan, who must set aside the traditions that have shaped him as a warrior to wage an unconventional war for the freedom of Tsushima.

In 1274, a Mongolian invasion fleet led by Khotun Khan lands on the Japanese island of Tsushima. Realizing that he cannot defeat the Mongols by himself or with traditional samurai fighting tactics, Jin begins scouring the island to recruit allies and learn fighting techniques to aid in his quest to rescue Lord Shimura.

A screenwriter or idea when production would begin wasn’t mention in the report.

There is an expectation that we’ll see an Asian only cast given the setting and era.

However, given the violence involved with the samurai genre, it’s unknown if they’ll be aiming to make this an R-rated project. There is a good chance that with Chad directing that Sony might allow this to become a mature film project.

Chad is set to begin production on John Wick: Chapter 4 this June and has been developing multiple action projects including a Highlander reboot for Lionsgate.

Sony is hoping to mine a bulk of their video game IPs with an Uncharted film starring Spider-Man actor Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg on the way. Along with an HBO series adaptation of The Last of Us starring Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones, The Mandalorian) as Joel.

We’ll keep our fingers crossed their new God of War games taking place in Norse mythology get a string of R-rated movies too.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Tom Hardy’s ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ Release Date Officially Moves From June 25th To September 17th

Yesterday, Sony Pictures announced that they’ve now moved their Venom sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage from it’s summer release date of June 25th to the fall. The Sony/Marvel movie will be out in theaters on September 17th with Spider-Man: Now Way Home set for December 17th and Jared Leto’s Morbius on January 21st, 2022.

As the title suggests, Venom 2 will feature Woody Harrelson’s Cletus Kasady as the film’s villain as the dangerous murderer is the human host to Carnage. The violent Marvel supervillain will be paired up with Naomie Harris’ Frances Barrison aka Shriek. We’ll see the return of Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock aka Venom and the new addition of The Irishman’s Stephen Graham taking a role as well.

The sequel was directed by Andy Serkis, who shot second unit on Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy and most recently made Mowgli: Legend of The Jungle. It goes without saying that Serkis has a lot of experience with motion-capture and visual effects.

The first Venom installment originally dropped in October and having the release closer to the fall might be a good way for the studio to recoup their costs.

SOURCE: SONY PICTURES

Posted on in Film News

Universal Bumps ‘F9’ From May 28th To June 25th – Would Go Head-To-Head With Sony’s ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’

Deadline has revealed that Universal Pictures is looking to delay the release of F9: The Fast Saga from May 28th to June 25th. It’s an interesting spot in the summer given that Sony Pictures is already using that summer date for Tom Hardy’s Marvel flick Venom: Let There Be Carnage directed by Andy Serkis.

We have to assume that Sony Pictures will move their Venom sequel out of the way and they now have an excuse to do so. Could they push to the fall or will they hand it the December 17th spot? That holiday release has been secured for Spider-Man: No Way Home but easily could be switched over for Venom: Let There Be Carnage. They’ve already delayed Jared Leto’s Morbius into January 2022 and we could see other 2021 projects bumped to 2022 eventually. Giving the Spider-Man sequel some extra post-production time wouldn’t be the worst thing imaginable.

Vin Diesel’s Dom Toretto is leading a quiet life off the grid with Letty and his son, little Brian, but they know that danger always lurks just over their peaceful horizon. This time, that threat will force Dom to confront the sins of his past if he’s going to save those he loves most. His crew joins together to stop a world-shattering plot led by the most skilled assassin and high-performance driver they’ve ever encountered: a man who also happens to be Dom’s forsaken brother, Jakob (John Cena, next year’s The Suicide Squad). F9 sees the return of Justin Lin as director, who helmed the third, fourth, fifth and sixth chapters of the series when it transformed into a global blockbuster. The action hurtles around the globe—from London to Tokyo, from Central America to Edinburgh, and from a secret bunker in Azerbaijan to the teeming streets of Tblisi. Along the way, old friends will be resurrected, old foes will return, history will be rewritten, and the true meaning of family will be tested like never before. The film stars returning cast members Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Jordana Brewster, Nathalie Emmanuel and Sung Kang, with Oscar® winner Helen Mirren and Oscar® winner Charlize Theron. F9 also features Grammy-winning superstar Cardi B as new franchise character Leysa, a woman with a connection to Dom’s past, and a cameo by Reggaeton sensation Ozuna.

SOURCE: DEADLINE