The Sony Pictures presentation at CinemaCon has offered up peeks at a handful of the studio’s upcoming projects, including The Social Reckoning, Taika Waititi’s Klara and the Sun, and Grandgear.
The Social Reckoning
Over fifteen years after the release of The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin is back with The Social Reckoning, which he wrote and directed. Jesse Eisenberg won’t be back as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg; instead, Jeremy Strong (Succession) will take on the role.
Sony brought the first trailer for The Social Reckoning to CinemaCon. It’s a David-versus-Goliath story about a whistleblower (Mikey Madison) who exposed them to the press. Jeremy Allen White plays the journalist. The Social Reckoning looks very different in style from David Fincher’s The Social Network. The crowd got a look at Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg, who is delivering a very different performance from Eisenberg. The trailer features many scenes of his interactions with a character played by Bill Burr, who is trying to do damage control. The trailer ends with music from The Social Network.
In addition to Strong, the cast includes Mikey Madison (Anora) as whistleblower Frances Haugen and Jeremy Allen White (The Bear) as Jeff Horowitz, the Wall Street Journal reporter who wrote a series of articles exposing troubling revelations about Facebook’s inner workings and global impact. Bill Burr (The Mandalorian) and Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners) will also appear in the movie.
The official logline reads: “A companion piece to the hit film, The Social Network, Sorkin’s original screenplay tells the true story of how Frances Haugen (Madison), a young Facebook engineer, enlists the help of Jeff Horwitz (White), a Wall Street Journal reporter, to go on a dangerous journey that ends up blowing the whistle on the social network’s most guarded secrets.” The Social Reckoning will hit theaters on October 9.
Jumanji 3
Another Jumanji movie is also on the way, with Dwayne Johnson back as Dr. Xander ‘Smolder’ Bravestone, alongside Karen Gillan as Ruby Roundhouse, Kevin Hart as Franklin ‘Mouse’ Finbar, and Jack Black as Professor Sheldon ‘Shelly’ Oberon. The film is intended to be the franchise’s finale.
During Sony’s spot for the latest Jumanji movie, Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black took the stage. The trio paid tribute to the late and great Robin Williams, saying they are using the original dice from the 1995 adventure film throughout the next chapter. The crowd also got a sneak peek at the trailer, revealing the film’s title: Jumanji: Open World. Sony also shared the film’s premise, saying, “a repairman played by Lamorne Morris opens up a Jumanji video game that brings all the characters into the real world. It’s the first time the movie players play with the video game characters in the real world. The catch is they are demo versions, with Bravestone (Johnson) having a terrible Spanish accent. They also run like 90s video game characters.”
In addition to the central foursome, which includes Karen Gillan, the new movie features several returning cast members. Alex Wolff, Madison Iseman, Ser’Darius Blaine, Morgan Turner, Bebe Neuwirth, Danny DeVito, Lamorne Morris, Marin Hinkle, Nick Jonas, Awkwafina, and Rhys Darby are all set to reprise their roles. New additions include Brittany O’Grady (The White Lotus), Burn Gorman (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice), Dan Hildebrand (Game of Thrones), and Jack Jewkes (Criminal Minds).
Based on the children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg, the original Jumanji starred the late Robin Williams and revolved around a supernatural board game. Flash forward to 2017, and the board game has become a video game that traps four teenagers in adult avatars played by Johnson, Hart, Black, and Gillan. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was a surprisingly big success, grossing over $962 million worldwide. A sequel, titled Jumanji: The Next Level, followed in 2019 and grossed over $800 million.
Klara and the Sun
Sony also gave the CinemaCon crowd a look at Taika Waititi’s Klara and the Sun, based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. The footage shows Klara (Jenna Ortega), a robot companion (artificial friend), who befriends a young girl. However, as she learns about the household, she realizes how expendable she is, with Amy Adams threatening to send her back because she’s “under warranty.”
Directed by Taika Waititi. Screenplay by Taika Waititi and Dahvi Waller, based on the book by Kazuo Ishiguro. Produced by David Heyman, Garrett Basch and Taika Waititi. Executive producers are Gary Barber, Alex G. Scott, Jeffrey Clifford, Rosie Alison and Kazuo Ishiguro. The film stars Jenna Ortega, Amy Adams, Mia Tharia, Aran Murphy, with Steve Buscemi and Natasha Lyonne.
The film will be released on December 25.
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