Cinemacon 2016: Sony Presentation with Spider-Man, Passengers, and more!

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

The Sony Pictures presentation at Cinemacon was one jam-packed affair as they showed off quite a bit of their future offerings and then a second helping to boot. As is their typical style, the studio put all their chips on the table and gave an in-depth look at their wares, much more so than any other studio thus far. There's lots to cover, so you can check out the cliffsnotes version above or read the full report below. The choice is yours!

BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALFTIME WALK

Ang Lee's latest effort looks to be a full on emotional rollercoaster and visceral experience, which is made all the more interesting as the subject matter is an unlikely choice for such massive big-screen treatment. Based on the novel of the same name, the film follows a squad of Soldiers who are on a Victory Tour, culminating at a football game, just before returning back to Iraq to finish their tour. We got an early look at the film, which showcased Lee's approach to taking what would normally be a small drama and making it into a massive epic. Although we didn't see it in 3D or the high-frame rate it's being shot in, the footage was no less amazing and heartwrenching, which is sure to bring the feels in a big way, while putting Lee back in the Oscar race yet again. Great-looking stuff. BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALFTIME WALK opens on November 11th, 2016.

PASSENGERS

I didn't expect it, but PASSENGERS ended up being the most impressive film put on display for Sony's presentation. Although some of the effects weren't complete, the concept, style, and tone of the film were outstanding, capitalizing on the setting and the two greatest assets it has on deck: Stars Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence. Putting two beautiful, fit, and talented individuals on a spaceship traveling to another colonized planet on a 120 year trip all alone together has a lot of potential and it looks like they're not wasting a shred of what they have to work with here.

JLaw stars as an elite NYC journalist who is taking the trip in order to write about the experience, while Pratt's character is a down-on-his-luck mechanic looking for a new start. Trouble arises when Pratt's character awakens early from statis during the 120 year trip and spends a year by himself before Jennifer Lawrence's character also awakens early. They're 90 years from their destination and, faced with living out the rest of their lives on the ship, the two make the most of it, eventually falling in love. However, the ship soon finds itself in trouble and it's up to them to save everyone onboard, including themselves.

The chemistry between Pratt and Lawrence is electric and it's not surprising given that they are both big personalities in real life. Beyond that, the look of the film is sleek as hell with some truly cool and inventive sequences, including one where gravity is reversed on the ship, happening while JLaw is swimming in a pool. She's trapped in a bubble of water as a result and must fight to get out of it without the benefits of gravity to save her. Digging what I saw a lot and I think this will be a destination movie for the holiday season both for younger and older crowds. PASSENGERS opens on December 21st, 2016.

BABY DRIVER

We just got a small glimpse of this one, the latest film from director extraordinaire Edgar Wright. Starring Jamie Foxx, Jon Bernthal, Kevin Spacey, Ansel Egort, Lily James, Jon Hamm, and Eiza Gonzalez, this looks like a fun little heist flick, which will certainly be made all the more exciting and cool with Wright's stylistic touch. Can't wait. BABY DRIVER opens in 2017.

TRAINSPOTTING 2

Yeah, nothing to see here, other than the announcement that the film starts shooting this May and has the entire cast reuniting for a story that follows the same characters from the original set 20 years later. With Danny Boyle at the helm, I think we can anticipate something interesting and hopefully as crazy as the first film. TRAINSPOTTING 2 is coming in 2017.

ANIMATED SLATE

Sony's animated slate has quite a few things up its sleeve, including another SMURFS film, which will ditch the live-action hybrid aspect and instead focus on a tale set within the world of the Smurfs. SMURFS: THE LOST VILLAGE will also star Demi Lovato as, who else, Smurfette.  In addition, the studio will produce an animated version of the Nativity story, titled THE NATIVITY STORY, which will retell the famous story from the animal's perspective. Also coming is THE EMOJI MOVIE, which they worked hard to sell. The story goes that your phone emoji's retreat into their own little worlds inside your phone, with each pixel representing a new and different world for them to explore, so…yeah…👆😕

Also, since you decided to go see it multiple times, we're now getting a HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3, so…that sucks. Thanks for that. In addition, the Animated SPIDER-MAN film, which was ironically announced at LAST year's Cinemacon was mentioned once again, but without any updates whatsoever. Guess they could've waited an extra year and we never would've known the difference, eh? But, hey, it's still coming and Phil Lord and Chris Miller are still involved, so there's that.

SCREEN GEMS

Sony's genre wing had a healthy line-up of films to put on display, which will certainly make fans of the various franchises and B-horror flicks quite happy. First up was the promised final entry of the RESIDENT EVIL franchise with RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER and, if I'm being honest, they've all kind of blended together. We saw some footage of zombies and a few creatures and Milla Jovovich doing bad ass things, but If you were to give me a genuine quiz of all the films lined up together I would fail that shit. I simply can't tell them apart anymore, but hey, I know fans love 'em and can respect that, so that group can rejoice that another (final?) one is on the way.

Also showcased was a cheap, found footage horror romp called KEEP WATCHING that stars Bella Thorne and Chandler "Coral" Riggs. Not impressed, but hey, it's just not my bag. Next up was a peek at WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS, the latest in a string of seductive thrillers with an all-black cast, this time with Morris Chestnut and Regina Hall. Then, we got a glimpse of the latest installment of the UNDERWORLD series with UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS, which has vampires, lycans, swords, leather, guns, and frosted tips for star Kate Beckinsale. Lastly, for Screen Gems was Fede Alvarez's DON'T BREATHE, which stars Jane Levy and Dylan Minnette as a group of theives that break into a creepy blind man's home (Stephen Lang) and find themselves trapped in deadly game of cat and mouse. Out of all of Screen Gems flicks, this one looks the most promising, with Alvarez looking to maintain the same intensity he had with the EVIL DEAD reboot.

THE DARK TOWER

Although we saw no footage, due to the fact that they informed us that the film started filming on the day, the good news is that the film is, in fact, finally happening with stars Idris Elba, Matthew McConnaughey leading the charge. Fans of Stephen King's Dark Tower series should rejoice and keep their fingers crossed.

THE SHALLOWS

We saw a new trailer for the Blake Lively film that pits the lovely actress against a very ugly great white shark in a claustrophobic thriller that focuses on the terror of survival as well as copious shots of Lively's perfectly shaped ass. Everyone wins here. THE SHALLOWS takes to the seas on June 24, 2016.

INFERNO

The next chapter in the DA VINCI CODE series has star Tom Hanks reuniting with director Ron Howard in this much darker-looking tale from author Dan Brown. INFERNO also stars Felicity Jones, Ben Foster, and Omar Sy and based on the footage we saw it definitely looks like the biggest and most "apocalyptic" of the series thus far. Nothing too involved, though, just a lot of running, looking incredulously at shit, and once scene of a building exploding blood. The usual Biblical stuff. INFERNO opens on October 28th, 2016.

GHOSTBUSTERS

We got an early peek at the upcoming Paul Feig reboot, including a scene where Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, and Kate McKinnon investigate a haunted tour house and are confronted by a spooky blue ghost (as seen in the trailer), which ends up barf-sliming Wiig. You can see how they're trying to differentiate the characters with Wiig being the "stuffy one", McCarthy being the "smart and nerdy" one and McKinnon being the "goofy tomboy" one. If that feels stereotypical, well, don't blame me, I didn't write it. That said, the scene is fine, although nothing that would make you say, "Yes, I am now onboard for this." It's got a lot of ground to cover in order to prove it's worth on that front. And I'm hardly a detractor of the all-female reboot. I just want one thing: the movie to be good.

After the clip we were shown a new extended trailer and I found the longer scenes with Chris Hemsworth to be the funniest of anything we've seen out of all the women and it appears that he'll be playing a larger role as a possessed villain than just a terrible assistant to the Ghostbusters. We also saw Dan Aykroyd's cameo as a cab driver, which was what it was. More than anything it served as a reminder that we'd rather see him more involved in the film than just pulling up for a "gotcha" cameo. The action and effects look pretty strong here, though, and that could go a long way in helping the film find it's footing. We'll see. GHOSTBUSTERS can be called on July 15th, 2016.

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

Director Antoine Fuqua's updated retelling of the famous 1960 classic (and remake of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai) was shown next with a trailer that captures exactly what you'd expect from an Antoine Fuqua directed western. Lots of stylistic, badass action with Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Peter Sarsgaard, Matt Bomer, Byung-hun Lee, and Haley Bennett, all cut to some badass hip-hop music, explosions, gunshots, takedowns, and quips. If you're looking for a fun, kickass western later this year, then this is the one for you. Or, you could take Chris Pratt's word for it, which was that the movie is "fucking awesome". You heard the man. THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN rides into theaters on September 23rd, 2016.

Lastly, Sony gave a quick title card flash of their future titles, as they did the year prior, with no information other than a title and maybe a teaser image or two. Here's the rundown:

Elizabeth Banks' CHARLIE'S ANGELS, Ryan Reynolds' LIFE, Joe Carnahan's BAD BOYS 3, the 21 Jump Street/MIB hybrid sequel MIB23, the long-awaited Dragon Tattoo sequel THE GIRL THAT PLAYED WITH FIRE, Denzel Washington's THE EQUALIZER 2, the Scarlett Johansson comedy ROCK THAT BODY, the animated PETER RABBIT, James Wan's ROBOTECH, a rebooted JUMANJI, Denis Villeneuve's BLADE RUNNER sequel, and an adaptation of THE NIGHTINGALE.

The closer for the presentation was the reveal of the new solo SPIDER-MAN film, which is SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING, which was explained to have multiple meanings, one of which was that it represented the character returning to the graces of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After seeing CIVIL WAR, I can certainly agree it's a fitting title.

And that's a wrap for Sony. Obviously A LOT of stuff tossed at us and I'm sure some of it they'll be "re-selling" next year as it's a very big slate to keep on the up-and-up. One thing's for sure…there's no lack in choices in Sony's line-up.

For more of our Cinemacon coverage, including interviews, videos, and more, click HERE!