Thus far CinemaCon has largely delivered on presenting footage from films that will be out in the next couple of months. Between both Paramount and Universal, highlights have included reels from films like Star Trek Into Darkness, World War Z, Fast & Furious 6, and R.I.P.D., all movies set to come out in either May, June or July. But for their presentation, Warner Bros. looked much deeper into their 2013 slate.
While tonight’s presentation from WB did include trailers from Man of Steel, The Hangover Part III, The Conjuring and The Great Gatsby, it was the footage that was shown from August and beyond that made it the most interesting one we’ve seen so far. Read on below to find out all about We’re The Millers, Gravity, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and more!
300: Rise of An Empire
Man of Steel isn’t the only film on Warner Bros. slate with a Zack Snyder connection. In late summer we will be seeing the sequel to the 2006 blockbuster 300 in the form of director Noam Murro’s 300: Rise of an Empire, and while we recently got to see the first few stills from the movie pop up online, as well as the first poster, tonight the studio showed off the first bit of footage to the crowds at CinemaCon.
Admittedly it’s hard to give a shot-by-shot description, as there was a great deal of action and many quick cuts, the reel did have plenty to offer visually. For starters, it’s immediately clear that Murro has worked to match the aesthetic of Snyder’s original, with a dark and gritty feel matched with scenes of intensity and battle. The footage also balanced a lot of its violence – of which there was plenty – with a good amount of sex and sensuality (again, similar to the first movie). It would also seem that the film will be giving us a bit of backstory about Xerxes, the character played by Rodrigo Santoro, as we see him both as the "living god" with a shaved head and jewelry, as well as with a full head of hair and a beard, presumably before he ascended to the throne. Given all of the promotional materials we’ve been seeing of late as well as the August 2nd release date, we can probably expect the first trailer to arrive soon.
We’re The Millers
Beyond The Hangover Part III, one of the biggest comedies that Warner Bros. has coming up in 2013 is director Rawson Marshall Thurber’s We’re The Millers, starring Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Emma Roberts, and Will Poulter. The film centers on a small time pot dealer (Sudeikis) who is hired by his boss to smuggle a shipment of marijuana from Mexico into the States, and in order to not look suspicious hires a stripper (Aniston) and two random teens (Roberts and Poulter) to pretend to be his family.
The trailer was filled with some huge laughs and was easily one of the highlights of the entire presentation. One of the biggest things to look forward to appears to be the supporting roles played by some of the funniest actors in Hollywood today, including Nick Offerman and Kathryn Hahn (who play a couple that wants to "swing" with Sudeikis and Aniston’s character) and Ed Helms (who plays Sudekis’ boss, a rich man who owns a shark-eating orca whale). The comedy is extremely raunchy and the movie will certainly be R-rated, as evidenced by a scene in which Poulter’s character is bit on the testicle and sees it swell up to a gargantuan, repulsively disgusting size. Fortunately, we won’t have to wait very long to see it, as the movie will be in theaters on August 9th. Don’t be surprised to see a Red band trailer pop up in the next few weeks.
Gravity
We’ve been waiting a very long time for Gravity, the new film from director Alfonso Cuaron, and with the film finally landing a release date back in January it was about time that we got to see some footage. In the movie Sandra Bullock and George Clooney star as astronauts working on an orbiting satellite who meet tragedy when an debris hits the vessel and leaves them stranded out in space.
While not a great deal of the movie was on display, mostly showing the explosion on the satellite that sets up the story, what can be said for the preview is that the film looks incredibly impressive visually. It began with a shot of the Earth 372 miles above the surface and immediately registered as realistic, which only added to the drama when the satellite is hit and Bullock’s character is sent sprawling. Because the film won’t be in theaters until October it may be a little while before we get to see a trailer, but hopefully it will arrive sooner rather than later.
Prisoners
One of the biggest surprises of the presentation was the delivery of footage from Prisoners, the new drama from the acclaimed director Incendies, Denis Villeneuve. The film begins as two families (the couples played by Hugh Jackman and Maria Bello and Terrence Howard and Viola Davis) gather together for Thanksgiving, but are struck by tragedy when their respective daughters go missing after being spotted playing by an RV parked on the street. A big city detective (Jake Gyllenhaal) is called in to investigate the case, however, Jackman’s character, believing the police to be moving too slowly, decides to take matters into his own hands and get the little girls back.
The movie seems to be taking aim at this year’s award season, with a prime September 20th release date already set, and from the looks of the footage alone it looks like it should have the drama and the performances to back it up. After the initial set up is shown, featuring a great tonal shift from fun family gathering to thrilling search for the girls, the reel had two heavily dramatic sequences that paired Bello and Jackman with Gyllenhaal, respectively. Bello’s scene has a tremendous emotional authenticity to it, as she asks the detective about his record solving cases and tearfully asks if he has any children of his own – a question that is met with a hard silence. By contrast, what makes Jackman’s scene so striking is the emotional weight of his anger. Set six days after the kidnapping, as the two men meet in a car to talk about the case, it’s clear that the father character is deeply disturbed by the lack of forward motion on the case and has apparently already gone out to conduct his own investigation, assaulting a possible witness/suspect in the process. The capper to the footage, however, was the eerie final shot, which featured an aerial shot of an RV peacefully driving down an open stretch of road. My recommendation? Keep an eye out for Prisoners.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
While The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is certainly the biggest movie that Warner Bros. has coming out at the end of the year, unfortunately they didn’t present any new footage from the film to the CinemaCon audience. Instead, Peter Jackson submitted a video noting that he and the rest of the crew are hard at work putting the sequel together and confirmed that Orlando Bloom’s Legolas will be in the movie along with Bard, the character from the book played by Luke Evans; Smaug the dragon, as voiced by Star Trek Into Darkness’ Benedict Cumberbatch; and Tauriel, the elf played by Evangeline Lilly, who is an original character created specifically for the movies.
For more of our CinemaCon 2013 coverage head over HERE!
