Fest Track On Sirk TV Print Coverage: CINEMACON 2023 [Caesars Palace - Las Vegas, Nevada] - Part II
CinemaCon has always been the paragon for the movie theater industry. The possibilities of 2023 continue to paint an even better picture. With a variety of stars and filmmakers showing some of their new contents with various studios, the exhibition space continues to look bright.
Walt Disney Studios Presentation Disney has a variety of brands coming in and knowing their product, a lot of it sells itself and is within a certain lane which certainly makes sense. The nice thing in their presentation is that even though the star power on stage was limited, content does tend to speak for itself especially in scenes. The first was a scene from “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3” which did show a context of relationship. The 2nd was a first trailer for "The Marvels". Both of these constitute Marvel's offerings for the year.
Next though the elements had to do with "The Little Mermaid" which Melissa McCarthy came onstage to introduce. There was a scene shown that highlighted her Ursula and a certain song number. McCarthy mentioned that the role was delicious in many ways.
The next entry shown was “Wish” from Walt Disney Animation. The film is set off the coast of the Iberian Peninsula and stars Ariana DeBose. It was also announced that Chris Pine would be taking on a major title character. This led into an extended clip that was shown from a musical sequence in the film. Next up was "Elemental", the new Pixar film which takes place in Element City. The film, which will premiere in Cannes screened its first 20 minutes to the CinemaCon audience.
From there the presentation moved into 20th Century Studios which included “The Boogeyman”, which screened after the presentation, as well as the new trailer for “A Haunting In Venice”, the new Poirot film directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Michelle Yeoh. The next entry was from New Regency and is an original IP. It is the first film from director Gareth Edwards of "Rogue One" fame and stars John David Washington and Gemma Chan and is sufficiently science fiction driven. The head of distribution said it would be optimized for IMAX.
The studio also debuted the new logo animation for Walt Disney 100 as well as the trailer for Taika Waititi's “Last Goal Wins” with Michael Fassbender with a mustache and an American accent. The last bit of the presentation was to highlight the one film from Lucasfilm in "Indiana Jones & The Dial Of Destiny". Harrison Ford sent a video in to introduce and highlight an extended scene shown from the film. Ford even said in the video message that “he hate snakes” which as a play to Jones was definitely more than he usually would say.
Universal Pictures & Focus Features Presentation Suffice to say in many ways, Universal pulled out all the stops while giving a view into the future. Studio head Donna Langley took to the stage lauding the fact that “The Super Mario Brothers Movie” was still #1 at the box office but that there was a balance in trying to find the kinds of movies people want to see. She then introduced a man that was all about the theatrical experience in Christopher Nolan.
Nolan came out onstage to present a specifically cut piece of footage from his new film "Oppenheimer". He spoke about how important this man's story was in the aspect of the human race and that the story needed to be told on this scale. He reinforced the texture for the diversity of formats as the key to the cinema experience. He almost made a veiled reference to an aspect of final cut before he left the stage. But the response he got from exhibitors shows how much he is a steward of the cinema experience.
Next the CEO of Illumination Chris Meledandri came out to introduce their next film (after the success of “The Super Mario Brothers Movie”) with "Migration", a road trip move of sorts but with a duck family as the viewpoint. Once he explained the narrative, the expanded footage made the context very sound with Kamal Nanjiani and Elizabeth Banks playing the lead cast as well as Danny DeVito playing an uncle duck.
Following this element, none other than Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake came out to talk about “Trolls: Band Together”. "Can't Stop The Feeling" played as they came out as Timberlake joked that he is “sick of that song”. While Timberlake played the straight man, Kendrick poked at him with puns about N'Sync while being inherently playful which he played offended before winking in of being in on it. But their interaction on stage shows why it works (and why it would make sense to do something live action together)
Right after this, continuing the Dreamworks train, Jack Black came out to introduce “Kung Fu Panda 4”. Even though there was no trailer, Black again showed his performing spirit, both hitting a high note from the “Immigrant Song” on the Colliseum stage and then actually talking about the story of “Kung Fu Panda 4” (where he probably revealed too much). However he did it with such gusto that he had the whole audience in cheers before he sashayed off the stage in his black and white ensemble. The funny element is that he never once said anything about his turn as Bowser in “The Super Mario Brothers Movie”, which just shows how much of a cool player he is.
Uber-producer Jason Blum and “Halloween” trilogy director David Gordon Green came out to introduce new footage for "The Exorcist: Believer" which will be the first in a trilogy of films. It brings original cast member Ellen Burstyn back and focuses on two girls who are friends who become possessed. They showed the first trailer which shows the same indie, visceral approach that Green’s “Halloween” films had.
With the 10th entry in the Fast franchise, 4 of the cast came out to talk about the path that has been traveled. Michelle Rodriguez even tried a cartwheel as she came onstage and looked like she was having a great time. Jordana Brewster spoke for the most part talking about the building of the franchise before Vin Diesel emerged from the other side of the stage.
After a few minutes Diesel simply went off teleprompter speaking directly to the theater owners on the basis that when he came to CinemaCon previously for Fast V, there was trepidation that the franchise could move forward but he said they always go to the max to deliver. He said that the franchise would not be here without the people in this specific audience. And he teased the fact that there likely will be a Part 2.
It is hard to top the onset of Vin Diesel but after a quick reset there was a stunt team demo which was both understandable. David Leitch, fresh off the success of "Bullet Train" came out to introduce the tease for "The Fall Guy" (coming in 2024) touting the fact of his stunt background making it a good match. He then brought out Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling (who was already in town for "Barbie" with Margot Robbie). Like that outing, Gosling showcased his dry humor here which seemed a fun and interesting balance to Emily Blunt which should be explored in the film. They spoke a bit about the story (which will not be revealed here) as they went a little bit off script before a combination of bits from scenes from a makeshift trailer was played.
Finally Donna Langley came out to introduce a bit on a film that was still in production: “Wicked”. Set as a two part film event, she introduced some behind the scenes footage which included a first look at some of the interaction between Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo as Glinda and the Wicked Witch respectively as well as a word from director John M. Chu.
Paramount Presentation The context of Paramount is recognizing what can be done and what has been done. An interesting thing is that they didn't come right out and say "Top Gun: Maverick" saved cinemas. That narrative has already been written but what was interesting is Brian Robbins as the new head of the cinema group says that the approach needs to change in new ways to get people to the theater (which is different than what most other studio presentations said). He wasn't overtly specific but the says it was about having the right people thinking on this issue.
The first film was introduced with a dance team (it could have been Jabbawokeez) played to the new "Mutant Mayhem" Ninja Turtles film shepherded by Seth Rogen. Robbins had said he reached out to Rogen about this IP personally because he thought Rogen was the right person to make it. Rogen had been a fan and talked about wanting to get back to these turtles being teenagers which meant casting younger kids, putting them in the booth and letting them find the rhythm. He says alot of the good stuff got captured but alot of stuff was too much for a teenage rated outing. He then introduced a clip which showed off more characters not seen before.
The animation element continued with Nickelodeon Animation. The interesting new progression was the announcement of “Transformers One”, the first animated foray in nearly 40 years on the big screen with an insane voice cast including Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry and Scarlett Johannsen (which was by far the biggest announcement). In the next two years, an “Avatar: The Last Airbender” animated movie will also hit theaters as well as a new Spongebob Squarepants movie which will take Spongebob and his friends down into the lower sea with the subtitle "The Search For Squarepants".
One of the bigger reveals on the animation side also was Rhianna playing Smurfette in “The Smurfs Movie” in 2025 which will try to break down where Smurfs come from. Rhianna, in her third trimester, came out to see the crowd to big applause saying she wanted to make something for her kids and will bring her own spin to it. She will also be doing some music as well as producing the film.
On the live action side, "Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts" which just held a party in the front area of Caesars the night before, brought its director and stars Dominque Fishback and Anthony Ramos. Fishback had a great theater connection in that she worked at Regal's Battery Park theater a couple years back as she is from Brooklyn so finding herself on the Coliseum Stage was surreal. Anthony Ramos, who is also from Brooklyn. said he used to rush home to see the animated series "Beast Wars" so it sounds like this was the perfect entry point for him into the universe. Director Steven Caple Jr. (who also directed “Creed II”) says they shot around the world including Iceland and Peru and that he wanted to make sure it wasn't green screen only. Ramos also said the film is set in the later 1990s after the events of “Bumblebee” so the soundtrack will definitely reflect that.
John Krasinski then came out with the aspects of two films. One was “A Quiet Place: Day One” which takes place on the first day of the invasion in “The Quiet Place” but set in NYC following a character played by Lupita Nyong'o and directed by Michael Sarnoski (who directed “Pig”). Even though it wrapped a couple weeks ago, Krasinski showed an early trailer. Afterwards, he joked that he was jealous he didn't get to make the film before talking about the film he just turned in his director's cut for. “IF” stars Ryan Reynolds and is called IF which stands for imaginary Friends. The structure and the star power in some of the friends come through including such actors as Awkwafina and Steve Carell. Reynolds says in the BTS footage that he saw it as a live action Pixar film.
Martin Scorsese then came onstage to speak about his film Killers Of A Flower Moon which will be released by Paramount exclusively before it goes to Apple TV+ showing the first look at a teaser from the film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro and set in the Osage Nation.
Lastly a new intense trailer was introduced for Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning. Robbins came back out asking the audience if they wanted more. Even though he said that Tom Cruise and Chris McQuarrie couldn't be there, they did send 20 minutes of a sequence from the film to tide the exhibitors over and give a taste of the film.
This evolved aspect continues to serve CinemaCon well with all the events held within Caesars Palace. With the exhibition industry seemingly returning to pre-pandemic levels and with a star power many said topped previous years, CinemaCon, as it continues next year with a new leader in Michael O'Leary, continues to have a bright future.
By Tim Wassberg
