Oscar winner Russell Crowe (Gladiator, The Loudest Voice) will star alongside Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Sony Pictures’ Marvel film Kraven the Hunter, from director J.C. Chandor (A Most Violent Year, Margin Call), Deadline can confirm.
Details with regard to the film’s plot and the character Crowe is playing are being kept under wraps. But Kraven (Taylor-Johnson) is known as an iconic and notorious Marvel antihero, who in the comics has established himself as one of Spider-Man’s most formidable foes, also encountering Venom, Black Panther and many others. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created the character, which was first introduced to The Amazing Spider-Man comics in 1964.
Art Marcum & Matt Holloway and Richard Wenk penned the script for the superhero pic, which is slated for release in theaters on January 13, 2023. Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach are serving as its producers. Sony and Marvel are presumably looking to build a franchise around Kraven, with Taylor-Johnson last year signing a multi-picture deal.
Crowe is perhaps best known for his Oscar-winning turn in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, and his Oscar-nominated performances in the films A Beautiful Mind and The Insider. He is currently directing and starring in the thriller Poker Face, with Liam Hemsworth and RZA. He will next be seen as Zeus in Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder, which is set for release in July, and in Peter Farrelly’s The Greatest Beer Run Ever for Skydance and Apple TV+. Other recent credits include Unhinged, True History of the Kelly Gang and the Showtime miniseries The Loudest Voice, in which he portrayed Fox News founder Roger Ailes.
Crowe is represented by Brillstein Entertainment Partners.