Film news: Sony Pictures unveils opening 8 minutes of R-rated action fest, Kraven the Hunter
Sony Pictures released the first eight minutes of Kraven the Hunter, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, on Monday, 11 days ahead of its landing in cinemas.
The Marvel Comics adaptation is the latest in Sony’s Spider-Man spin-off products which include the trilogy of Tom Hardy-starring Venom movies.
Film News Blitz’s David Bason takes you through the eight-minute preview and the key figures behind Kraven the Hunter.
Starring Taylor-Johnson in the title role, covers the story of how Kraven’s complicated relationship with his father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russel Crowe), leads him down a path of violence and mayhem.
His journey transcends to the point where he is considered the world’s most powerful hunter.
The opening eight minutes of the upcoming feature film show Kraven being transported to a remote prison where he is put in with a hostile cellmate.
It is later revealed that he impersonated one of the prisoners to reach his goal, Seymon Chorney, Kraven kills him and his men and manages to escape from prison by scaling walls to evade being shot or captured by the guards, before fleeing via helicopter.
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For Taylor-Johnson, portraying comic book characters isn’t new as the British actor is famed for his titular role in the Kick-Ass franchise as well as appearing as Quicksilver in the 2015 MCU offering, Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Taylor-Johnson made a rallying cry to potential cinemagoers to purchase a ticket for Kraven the Hunter when speaking to Screen Rant, saying “come see this movie, man. Come see this movie. I promise you it won't disappoint. It's got all the beats that you want and more. I think it could be an audience’s sort of villain favourite, definitely go toe-to-toe with some other people down the line, man."
Who is responsible for making Kraven the Hunter?
J.C.Chandor directs Kraven the Hunter from a screenplay written by Richard Wenk with help from Art Marcum and Matt Holloway.
Chandor’s Directing credits include All is Lost, A Most Violent Year and Triple Frontier and he has received one Oscar nomination thus far in his career for Best Writing, Original Screenplay on 2011’s Margin Call.
Fred Hechinger (Thelma) and Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) join Taylor-Johnson and Crowe in the ensemble cast.
Kraven is set to be released on December 13 worldwide, it is predicted to make $20-25 million in its opening weekend.
That would be the second-worst opening of Sony’s stuttering Spider-Man spin-off franchise, sandwiched between the critically derided Madame Web ($15 million) and Morbius ($39 million).
Moreover, a difficult opening weekend will make it nigh on impossible for Kraven the Hunter to recoup its reported $130 million production costs.
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