The first footage of Sylvester Stallone's superhero film, Samaritan, was shown to CinemaCon attendees in Las Vegas. Samaritan is based on the comic book of the same name by Bragi F. Schut Jr. and Marc-Oliver Frisch and follows an aging superhero who has been hiding out for the past 20 years. A young boy discovers his identity and attempts to convince him to return to his superhero roots to fight an emerging threat. The film is directed by Julius Avery (Overlord) and stars Stallone, Javon 'Wanna' Walton, Pilou Asbæk, and Martin Starr.
Stallone has posted numerous set pics and videos throughout the production of Samaritan on his Instagram, with an official Samaritan image popping up earlier this year. No footage has been released outside of those early peeks on social media, but Stallone has been open and passionate about working on the project. Samaritan wrapped filming in November of 2020, but due to the pandemic, the release date has been pushed to August 26th, 2022.
During the United Artists presentation at CinemaCon, the annual trade show for theater owners to preview upcoming releases, the first footage for Samaritan was shown to attendees. Screen Rant was on site to see the presentation and captured what was shown in detail. While not a complete or final trailer, the footage is a good tease of what the film will be, and the description gives a peek under the hood of Stallone's foray into the genre. Read the footage description below:
"Stallone begins picking up trash (he's a sanitation worker), but he takes something out of the truck because he likes collecting stuff. We see a montage of the city and world getting worse, with Stallone's character living his day-to-day life, ignoring all the bad. Samaritan is a superhero who "died 30 years ago," he says, but clearly not. A kid finds Stallone/Samaritan, and they argue about him coming out of retirement. Stallone then gets hit by a car and his body is weirdly contorted. Then he snaps his body together and says he's not as strong as he used to be - he's superhuman. We see several shots of action, along with Stallone's Samaritan helmet being crushed. The kid asks him why he disappeared, but he doesn't clearly respond. Several more action shots, then it ends in a warehouse with Stallone (without his Samaritan suit) breaking out of a crushed car and fighting people hand-to-hand as well as with a sledgehammer, all while being shot by another few dozen guys; he has super strength and is invincible to bullets. Scene ends with him being completely surrounded and the warehouse exploding."
CinemaCon was canceled last year due to Covid-19 concerns but is back this year with many presentations from big-name studios, so expect more news to filter through in the coming days that will highlight big, upcoming releases like Samaritan. This is Stallone's first real superhero movie, outside of 1995's Judge Dredd, and a small role in James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and voicing King Shark in The Suicide Squad. After leading the action genre in the 80s and 90s, Stallone is finally dipping his toe in the superhero genre at the ripe age of 75.
While this footage description sounds cool, it's hard to know for sure without seeing it personally. Stallone in a superhero role feels long overdue, and Samaritan is off the traditional Marvel/DC pathway, so it will be interesting to see how it shakes out. Director Julius Avery showed promise with Overlord, so hopefully, he's able to make an impression here, elevating his style to suit the needs of the genre. Stallone is nothing if not invested in what he's doing, and he's been passionate about the project from the start.
Source: Screen Rant
