First Look At Chris Hemsworth’s New Action Movie
Netflix just unveiled a first look at Escape From Spiderhead, their new sci-fi film starring Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, and Jurnee Smollett.
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Netflix’s first team-up with Chris Hemsworth was a huge success, with Extraction becoming the streaming service’s biggest original film ever. Now, Netflix has unveiled the first footage of their next film Chris Hemsworth, entitled Escape From Spiderhead.
Escape From Spiderhead takes place in the near future, where prisoners can become part of various drug tests to shorten their prison sentences. The film will star Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, and Lovecraft Country and Birds of Prey’s Jurnee Smollett. Escape From Spiderhead is directed by Joseph Kosinski, who previously directed Tron: Legacy, Oblivion, and has worked with Miles Teller on his last two films, Only the Brave, and Top Gun: Maverick, which is coming out on July 2, 2021.
The film is based on the George Saunders short story of the same name, which you can read here. In the story, the drugs can alter the participant’s emotions, and asks questions about free will and mind control. While it doesn’t read like a clear story to be adapted for a Chris Hemsworth sci-fi film, the screenplay from Deadpool and Zombieland writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick will likely change that.
The small clip that Netflix showed of Escape from Spiderhead doesn’t show much of the film at all, presenting Chris Hemsworth driving a speedboat with four other guys along for the ride. In the backseat is Miles Teller, who is blindfolded, and sitting next to what looks to be two twins. It’s not much, and sort of gets lost amongst all the other stuff Netflix announced today, taking up only a few seconds of the presentation, but the combination of Hemsworth and Netflix certainly makes Escape from Spiderhead a promising project to watch out for.
In July 2020, Netflix announced its most-watched films on the service. With 99 million views, the Chris Hemsworth film Extraction is the most-watched original film ever on Netflix. Extraction claims this title by a significant amount, beating #2 Bird Box, which has 89 million views, and the Mark Wahlberg action film Spencer Confidential, which is at #3 with 85 million views. Netflix’s viewership numbers are notoriously suspicious, however, as they count only a fraction of the movie watched as an entire view. But even by that metric, Extraction’s numbers are still impressive.
But Extraction wasn’t just a massive success by Netflix standards, it was also the fourth most-watched film on streaming in 2020. Extraction was only beaten by Hamilton on Disney+, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, and Dave Bautista’s My Spy, both of which are on Amazon Prime. With the success of Extraction, it’s no wonder that Netflix wants to continue making projects with Chris Hemsworth. In addition to Escape From Spiderhead, Netflix has already greenlit Extraction 2, with plans from the producing Russo brothers to possibly build Extraction into a cinematic universe.
While Netflix has only stated that Escape From Spiderhead currently has a 2021 release date, the film is still shooting in Australia, and will supposedly wrap before Chris Hemsworth starts filming Thor: Love and Thunder, also in January and in Australia. But with the gargantuan popularity of Extraction for Netflix, it looks as though we’re going to see a lot more Chris Hemsworth on Netflix in the future.
