Sony Pictures brought out their A-list lineup for today's CinemaCon panel, including stars Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt who presented footage from their upcoming sci-fi thriller Passengers, an early look at upcoming films including Ang Lee's Billy Flynn's Long Halftime Walk, Antoine Fuqua's The Magnificent Seven, and Paul Feig's Ghostbusters reboot. But the studio saved their big news for last, dropping the official titles for two of their most anticipated projects in development: the 21 Jump Street/Men in Black crossover, which will be titled MIB 23, and the biggest drop of the night, the Marvel Studios co-produced Spider-Man standalone film, which is offcially titled Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Cop Car helmer Jon Watts is set to direct Spider-Man: Homecoming from a script by Vacation scribes John Francis Daley and Johnathan M. Goldstein. During the title announcement, Sony exec Tom Rothman said Homecoming carries a double meaning as a reference to both the high school event and the character's homecoming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sony is co-producing the movie with Marvel studios, who is introducing Tom Holland's web-slinger in Captain America: Civil War. Marvel chief Kevin Feige recently clarifed the terms of that deal for us, saying that while Homecoming will be a Sony Pictures production, the studios are working in tandem on the film with Marvel Studios acting as the "creative producers".
As for the 21 Jump Street/Men in Black crossover, which I honestly still can't believe is happening, The Muppets helmer James Bobin was recently rumored to be in talks to direct. Phil Lord and Chris Miller will remain on board as producers (they're a little busy to with the Han Solo origin story to direct). Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are not returning for MIB 23, so the film will presumably act as a sequel to 22 Jump Street and a reboot for the Men in Black franchise.
For the panel's other highlights, Sony announced that today was the first day of principal photography on the Stephen King adaptation The Dark Tower. The studio was was pushing Zombieland 2, The Equalizer 2 and Robotech. They also set the Emoji Movie, which will take place inside of a phone, for Summer 2017, announced an animated nativity movie told from the POV of the animals, which is set for the 2017 holiday season, and confirmed the Animated Spider-Man Movie for December 2018.
In terms of footage, the Jon Spaight's scripted Lawrence/Pratt sci-fi project Passengers and Antoine Fuqua's western The Magnificent Seven were both met with positive response. Check out some of the reactions below.
