Can someone please tell J.C. Chandor to slow it down a bit? His “Kraven The Hunter” hasn’t even been released yet, and he’s already talking about making a sequel (via Newsweek).
Of course, Chandor does say that it’ll all depend on if ‘Kraven’ is a hit at the box office, but there have already been a few red flags indicating that it might not be. Regardless, Chandor already knows the title of the sequel, and he’s clearly been talking about it with his lead Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
"It's essentially this building of a villain," Chandor says. "The final piece in that, for Aaron [Taylor-Johnson] and for me, was in “Kraven's Last Hunt,” which, if this thing works and is a success, that's where we'd have this story end. It's obviously very tragic and sad. The journey getting there is a wild crazy ride with a lot of fun, but the character we're trying to create is one who could realistically, if this film is a success, end with Last Hunt."
‘Kraven’ has still not been screened for most press, and the embargo is currently dated to lift the day before it gets released on December 12. Will this much-mocked R-rated film prove the skeptics wrong? There have been so many delays, not to mention reshoots that reshaped a good chunk of the film that many are just not convinced it’ll turn out to be a good film.
Recently, there’s been a campaign from Sony to try and rub off the toxic buzz that’s infected ‘Kraven.’ For example, last week, the studio released the film’s first 8 minutes online. Then you had Chandor and Taylor-Johnson practically pleading in interviews to “give the film a chance”
‘Kraven’ cost $130M to produce — higher than Sony’s other comic book bombs, “Morbius” and “Madame Web”. The trailer has also been largely mocked online. It doesn’t help that it’s currently tracking at a $20M opening weekend. Suffice to say, things have been looking rather dire.
I hope it all works out for ‘Kraven’ as I’ve been championing Chandor for over a decade now, but he really shouldn’t get involved in comic book movies, his strengths should be fully focused on original storytelling. Chandor’s first four films as a director were all worthy of a watch (“Margin Call,” “A Most Violent Year,” “All is Lost” “Triple Frontier”).
“Hope,” Na’s first film in ten years — his last one being the exemplary “The Wailing” —is a gloriously messy, blood-soaked sci-fi epic that may become a cult classic despite—or because of—its polarizing nature.