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Sony Pictures gave the first major studio presentation at the 2024 CineEurope trade show on Monday.
In a short but sweet show in Barcelona — which preceded the screening of Greg Berlanti’s rom-com “Fly Me to the Moon,” starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum — Sony’s president of international distribution Steven O’Dell gave a whistle-stop rundown of the studio’s upcoming titles, revealing an enviable list of filmmakers it was working with.
Among the films referenced were Danny Boyle’s zombie sequel “28 Years Later,” starring Cillian Murphy, Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Taika Waititi’s “Klara and the Sun,” starring Jenna Ortega, and Sam Mendes’ upcoming films about the four members of the Beatles, which O’Dell said would be “distinct, but interconnected.”
Also mentioned were Jason Reitman’s “SNL 1975,” about the build up to the premiering of “Saturday Night Live,” the sequel to the Tom Holland-starring action-adventure “Uncharted,” and the much-hyped live-action adaptation of Nintendo’s hit video game franchise “Zelda,” coming off the phenomenal success of last year’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” with Universal.
Among the Sony titles to have already wrapped production and due to land this year are Taylor-Johnson’s long-awaited Marvel entry “Kraven the Hunter,” set for release in December, the Brad Pitt/George Clooney action-comedy “Wolfs,” out in December, and Tom Hardy’s return in “Venom: The Last Dance,” coming out later this summer.
O’Dell said Sony’s upcoming slate hoped to cater to what he claimed cinema audiences were now looking for in their movies. While previously demand had been largely “IP dominated,” he said that now people wanted “IP, but mixed with bold and original content.”
Interesting, he also teased one of the best known originators of bold and original content in Quentin Tarantino.
Although the director’s 10th and final film “The Movie Critic” was reportedly scrapped earlier this year, O’Dell said the studio — which released “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” in 2019 — was still hoping to work with Tarantino on his next project. “We hope Tarantino makes his final film with us,” O’Dell said.
