Kraven the Hunter star Aaron Taylor-Johnson describes working with Russell Crowe on the Marvel and Sony supervillain thriller as "a dream come true"

Sergei and his father Nikolai. — (Image credit: Sony)

Sony's new Kraven the Hunter movie is mere days away at this point... While much of the promotion for the film is leading with its R-rating and gritty approach to action, director J.C. Chandor has also described the movie as "a family drama," with a lot of the tension coming from the relationship between Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Sergei Kravinoff and his gangster father Nikolai, as played by Russell Crowe. For both Chandor and Taylor-Johnson, the movie represented a chance to work alongside one of their big screen idols.

"He's a legend," Taylor-Johnson said of Crowe in an exclusive interview with GamesRadar+. "I grew up idolizing him. He was a real hero of mine. So to be able to play father and son and have this conflict and drama in there was a dream come true." Taylor-Johnson went on to describe the Gladiator star's performance as "menacing" and the actor himself as "an absolute professional."

Director Chandor added that Crowe's presence on set helped the cast and crew to up their game while making the movie. "We were probably 30 days into shooting, so we'd all gotten a little familiar. You get into a pattern. And then that dude showed up... I was saying earlier that it was sort of like what must have happened when Michael Jordan walked into a gym at practice. Everyone sort of operates at a different level."

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Will Salmon is the Streaming Editor for GamesRadar+. He has been writing about film, TV, comics, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he launched the scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for well over a decade. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places too.