CinemaCon Day 3 Recap - Universal Brings The Heat With JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM, GLASS, & HALLOWEEN
In what was easily the best presentation of the week so far, Universal Pictures debuted the opening scene from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and shared trailers for Glass, First Man, & Halloween
Universal Pictures had arguably the best overall presentation of the week, showcasing a very promising upcoming slate with extremely strong new footage from a handful of major upcoming blockbusters, including Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Glass, First Man, and Halloween.
Read my recap of the Universal Pictures presentation, which includes a full detailed footage description of the Fallen Kingdom footage, below:
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The Secret Life of Pets 2
Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish kickstarted the Universal presentation by introducing Illumination Entertainment, who went on to reveal the voice cast for The Secret Life of Pets 2, which is due out summer 2019.
In an unexpected announcement, they revealed that Harrison Ford has joined the cast, which will make this the first animated role ever for the legendary actor. Tiffany Haddish, Patton Oswalt, Nick Kroll, and Pete Holmes have also joined the cast in key roles. Meanwhile, Kevin Hart, Jenny Slate, Eric Stonestreet, Ellie Kemper, Lake Bell, Dana Carvey, Hannibal Buress, and Bobby Moynihan will all reprise their roles from the first installment.
The Minions 2
Universal and Illumination then confirmed the development of a new Minions movie and while we didn't see much else, they did confirm that it's currently eyeing a summer 2020 release. Kyle Balda and Brad Ableson are co-directing with a script from Brian Lynch.
Look for it in theaters July 3, 2020, which is more or less the same release window as the previous four films in the franchise.
Sing 2
Universal and Illumination continued on to confirm the development of a sequel to their 2016 smash hit, Sing and said it's still in the very early stages of development. They previously announced a December 25, 2020 release date, which it seems like they'll still meet, but don't be surprised if this ends up getting delayed ever so slightly.
A director has yet-to-be revealed, but we can probably expect most, if not all, the cast to return to voice their respective characters.
The Grinch
Next up was our first new footage of the day as Universal and Illumination shared a new extended trailer for The Grinch, featuring a new look at the animated antihero, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch (Avengers: Infinity War), as he gets up to no good during the Christmas holiday.
The footage gave us a rare sneak peek into his origin story, which sees him grow up in an orphanage, and then flashforward to present day where he's seen living alone with a friendly dog that he repeatedly takes advantage of. There's a scene where the pair play chess and since he's losing, he distracts the dog and tosses a few of his pieces off the board to gain the upperhand. Then, of course, when Christmas rolls around, he decides to take matters into his own hands.
First Man
Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, and director Damien Chazelle were next onstage to really kickstart the Universal presentation by bringing us the first look at their upcoming Neil Armstrong biopic, First Man, which looked absolutely fantastic.
The trailer takes us through a series of key moments before Armstrong (Gosling) and company ultimately made their way to the moon, including tender moments with his wife (Foy) and daughter, scenes of people doubting the U.S. and Armstrong's ability to get to the moon, scenes of him training for the voyage, and a tense scene where he and his family question whether or not he'll ever return. The final scene gives us a point-of-view look at Armstrong on the cusp of taking his first step on the moon.
The movie is due out October 12, 2018 and should be a strong awards contender this fall if it matches up to Chazelle & Gosling's last collaboration.
The House with a Clock in Its Walls
Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, and director Eli Roth were up next and livened up the place considerably with Black and Blanchett joking that they felt lied to after signing on for the film because they didn't end up getting horrifically killed onscreen by Roth.
Before introducing a new extended trailer, Roth explained how he always wanted to make a film like this and that he really wanted to give it a classic Spielberg/Amblin feel, which, judging by the new footage we got to see, he seems to have accomplished. The new footage was a lot of fun and we received confirmation that Black was playing a warlock in the movie, amongst other things. Expect it to have a good run this September.
The First Purge
Producer Jason Blum and director Gerard McMurray were next and brought with them new footage from The First Purge, which is due out in theaters on the Fourth of July.
Having never seen a Purge movie, it was a little hard for me to assess the extended sneak peek we received, but it did look interesting to say the least. Marisa Tomei (Spider-Man: Homecoming) was easily the most recognizable face onscreen and it looks like the entire idea of the Purge was her character's brainchild, which started with noble intentions since it looked like no one thought anyone was going to really do anything to one another, but takes a serious turn for the worst when trained soldiers enter the arena to stir up some s**t.
Halloween
It's been a long time since Laurie Strode first crossed paths with Michael Myers and now, forty years after their first encounter, the duo are back on the bigscreen for an adventure that looked every bit like the true sequel fans have been clamoring for since the 1978 classic.
Jamie Lee Curtis, in a stunning red pant suit, gave us an introduction for the new Halloween film, which she admits is "hella scary," and will "scare the living s**t out of all of you."
The trailer opens with a group of investigators approaching a captive Myers, hoping to get more insight into his past crimes, but get no reaction. They try to show him his mask, but instead of getting anything from him, every other inmate begins to act out, hooting and howling, at its mere sight. We then cut to a scene of Laurie's granddaughter and her friends talking about the various different versions of the story they've heard before we cut to the star of the piece, a much older Laurie Strode, talking to an investigator and sharing something unexpected. She tells him that she's been praying that Myers would escape captivity for years just so that she could kill him herself, revealing a small montage of her transformation into a Sarah Connor-esque heroine, and then, right on cue, we see a prison transfer bus crash and news reports that Myers has escaped.
We don't get to see his first victim, but he does enter a ladies' room and drops a bunch of bloody teeth into a stall with a young women screaming in terror. Laurie is seen trying to send her family away, but they don't seem to understand magnitude of the threat and then we see her protecting her granddaughter, shooting at what looks to be Myers, but only turns out to be a reflection. Laurie tells someone that the boogeyman is real and the final scene is a babysitter (Virginia Gardner) putting a young kid to sleep and then going to close the closet door, which she fails at thrice before opening it to see what was blocking it and I won't tell you who's standing there, but just be prepared to scream.
Night School
After the extremely heavy trailer for Halloween, Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish returned to liven up the place and brought a funny extended trailer for their upcoming comedy Night School.
Producer Will Packer, who is currently on a pretty solid hot streak, was also onhand to preview the comedy, which looks set to have a strong run this fall and should receive a pretty exception boost from the first-time pairing of Hart and Haddish, who seemed to have pretty strong chemistry on and off the screen.
Mortal Engines
Producer Peter Jackson sent in a pre-recorded message from New Zealand to introduce a new extended look at Mortal Engines, which featured a lot of unfinished footage, but also gave those of us that haven't read the novels a much better idea about the film's plot.
The movie looked pretty massive in scope and had some strong action sequences, but it'll be hard to get a proper read on this film till we get a fully finished theatrical trailer sometime this summer. Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan), Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar), and Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving) feature prominently in the new trailer and it looks as though Weaving is playing villain yet again as we see him chase down Hilmar's character before she narrowly escapes and then kick Sheehan's character down a massive engine, which leads to him joining the group of fugitives.
The movie comes out on December 14th, in what's turning into a very crowded holiday season.
Glass
"First name: Mister. Last name: Glass."
Director M. Night Shyamalan and stars Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, James McAvoy, and Sarah Paulson were next onstage to bring us our first look at one of the most highly-anticipated films of 2019, the upcoming superhero thriller Glass. Jackson gets the honors of introducing the trailer, "It's about time I got the title role in my own motherf**king movie," which was met with a round of applause.
The trailer opens with a voiceover from Dr. Ellie Staple (Paulson), a psychologist that specializes in a very specific kind of delusion of grandeur, treating individuals that suffer from believing that they are superheroes. We cut to Glass (Jackson), Crumb (McAvoy), and Dunn (Willis) all sitting there looking at her slightly skeptical. It's unclear how they all got to this treatment facilitiy, but Dunn does appear to be there voluntarily whereas the other two are clearly prisoners.
We're given a few brief flashbacks to Unbreakable and also see The Horde holding four high school cheerleaders captive somewhere and telling them that the beast is coming, which is terrifying to say the least. We even get to see some more of Crumb's personalities slip through while he's in captivity. Casey Cooke (Anya Taylor-Joy) also returns in the trailer and, in a surprising twist, is seen briefly visiting Crumb in captivity, which might just be a misdirect.
The trailer ends with Glass telling Crumb that he wants to meet the beast and then aligning with him in a nefarious plot, which will also once again pit them against both Dunn and Cooke.
How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
After the intense look at Glass, Dreamworks brought out the first trailer for How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, which showcased Toothless meeting a white dragon that subseqeuntly becomes his girlfriend. However, when they started being hunted, it'll be up to the humans to protect their dragon friends.
Jay Baruchel, Cate Blanchett, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jonah Hill, T.J. Miller, Kristen Wiig, Kit Harington, and F. Murray Abraham make up the voice cast. The movie hits theaters March 1, 2019.
Skyscraper
After taking on fast cars, an earthquake, genetically engineered super monsters, and more, The Rock returns this summer to tackle his biggest challenge yet: Skyscraper.
Director Rawson M. Thurber and star Dwayne Johnson (who appeared in a pre-recorded message) introduced a new trailer for the movie, which he tells us is an entirely original concept. The movie follows Will Sawyer (Johnson), a man who lost his leg in a tragic accident, who is tasked with assessing security for The Pearl, a new one-of-a-kind skyscraper, but everything quickly goes to s**t when the building is attacked by terrorists. He finds himself on the street while his family is trapped on one of the upper levels and then manages to scale some construction equipment and takes a leap of faith and somehow reenters the building from like fifty stories up. Then, well, The Rock does what he does best.
Neve Campbell plays his wife Dr. Sarah Sawyer and it should be a real treat for Scream fans to see her back on the big screen.
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
This was actually the last film showcased, but since Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is a personal favorite, I'll save its lengthy footage description for the last slide.
To close out the event, Universal brought out Amanda Seyfried to introduce a new trailer for the upcoming sequel and then surprised everyone with a live performance for Cher that sent an audience predominantly filled with her target demographic into a frenzy.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Fun fact, while waiting to get into the Universal presentation, I actually managed to briefly run into Chris Pratt as his publicists and security team were ushering him backstage, which was a very cool start to the day.
With the movie due out in the United Kingdom on June 6th, I entered the presentation cautiously optimistic that the studio might bring the entire movie to CinemaCon, but alas, that didn't come to pass. However, they did bring the first five minutes of the movie and if the full-length feature is anything like what we saw, then fans are in for something truly special this summer.
Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard were onhand to introduce the footage and both joking about how great a summer Pratt was about to have with both Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Avengers: Infinity War.
The footage begins four years after the events of the last film as we pick up again at Isla Nublar and head underwater where we follow a small ship on a mission to retrieve the bones of the Indominus Rex. One co-pilot assures the other that anything underwater is long dead by now, which seems to ease his tensions. However, upon finding the bones, they come to realize they're not alone down there and we see a giant eyeball open in the window before it cuts to the surface where a man is frantically telling them to get out so that he can close the gate. After multiple tries, he doesn't get a response and begins to close the gate anyways. A guy from a helicopter notices something coming toward the guy on the ground and tries to warn him, but it's too late and we see a T-Rex standing right in front of him.
He begins to run as fast as he can with the T-Rex hot on his tail, in a scene that more or less pays homage to the original T-Rex chase scene from Jurassic Park, and ultimately manages to grab onto the rope ladder as the helicopter takes off without him. The T-Rex roars. However, just when the guy thinks he's safe, the Mosasaurus leaps out of the ocean and CHOMP.
The footage then transitions into an extended trailer with new footage of baby Blue meeting Owen (Pratt) and it switches to the reunion between the two in the forest where Owen tries to calm a now-savage Blue before she unfortunately gets tranqed. We also learn more about Claire's (Howard) mission, which as the trailers have revealed, turns out to be a lie since the organization she was hired by is actually seeking to sell all the dinosaurs as weapons.
If you thought the trailers have shown too much, then rest assured when I tell you that they've barely scratched the surface. Like J.A. Bayona and Colin Trevorrow have told us time and time again, the trailers have been primarily focused on the first hour and have yet to show anything from the film's final act.
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