‘F*ck Yes, It’s Gonna Be Rated R’: Aaron Taylor-Johnson on His ‘Kraven the Hunter’
Craving answers about “Kraven the Hunter“? Aaron Taylor-Johnson‘s got one very important bit of information for you: “Fuck yes, it’s gonna be rated R,” he said (from afar) during Sony’s presentation Monday night at CinemaCon 2023.
That prerecorded video set the tone for the very, very bloody first footage, which Sony rolled to the riled-up attendees — movie theater owners, mostly — at the Caesar’s Palace Colosseum in Las Vegas. What we got wasn’t technically a trailer, we were told: Sony executive Sanford Panitch said the full “Kraven” trailer will be released in theaters this summer.
The teaser (let’s call it) ended with the reveal of the film’s baddie, the classic Spider-Man villain The Rhino; the audience seemed to dig that. (In the comics, like Rhino, Kraven is a Spider-Man villain; in his own film, Kraven will take on an anti-hero/protagonist role. Think Walter White with a thing for hunting big game — you know, kind of like a rhino.)
“Kraven the Hunter,” based on the Marvel Comics, is Sony’s first-ever R-rated Marvel movie. (“Deadpool” was a Fox film, before the Disney acquisition.)
Per Sony’s logline: “Kraven the Hunter” brings viewers on the epic journey that leads Sergei Kravinoff to become one of Marvel’s most iconic villains. “Kraven” is directed by J.C. Chandor; its screen story and screenplay come from Art Marcum & Matt Holloway and Richard Wenk. The movie is produced by Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and David Householter.
In addition to Taylor-Johnson in the title role, “Kraven the Hunter” also stars Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott, and Russell Crowe. “Kraven the Hunter” will debut in theaters on October 6, 2023.
Sony is very entrenched in the Marvel-movie business. Beyond the “Spider-Man” films themselves and a pair of “Venom” movies (with a third on the way), Sony is also distributing “Madame Web” and “El Muerto.”
Sony has 23 theatrical films slated for 2023, also including “Love Again,” “Knights of the Zodiac,” “The Machine,” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “No Hard Feelings,” “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” “Insidious: The Red Door,” “Gran Turismo,” “They Listen,” “Equalizer 3,” “The Book of Clarence,” “Dumb Money,” “Journey to Bethlehem,” “Thanksgiving,” “Napoleon,” and a new “Ghostbusters” sequel.
