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Universal Filmed Entertainment Group chairman Donna Langley put her best foot forward in a difficult week for the studio to host a high-octane, star-studded CinemaCon presentation on Wednesday.
Highlights included Christopher Nolan showing footage from his summer tentpole Oppenheimer, appearances by Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Jack Black, Will Ferrell, Justin Timberlake, Anna Kendrick, Michelle Rodriguez, a live performance by a stunt team, and the announcement by Vin Diesel that Fast X Part 2 will open in summer 2025.
Three days after the shock firing of her boss NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell, Langley looked relaxed as she walked on to stage at The Colosseum in Caesar’s Palace.
In a year when UFEG will release 27 films, Langley wasted little time referencing Universal/Illumination’s global smash The Super Mario Bros. Movie at the start of the session, noting it “will be the first movie to cross $1bn at the worldwide box office, which will happen this week”.
After Nolan, Illumination head Chris Meledrandri showed a clip from the animation powerhouse’s upcoming December 22 tentpole duck family story Migration written by Mike White and directed by Benjamin Renner.
Will Ferrell, cradling a dog, came on to talk up R-rated comedy Strays and show a clip. The film opens on June 9.
Blumhouse founder and producer Jason Blum, whooping frequently, thanking the crowd of exhibitors for making his horror film Megan a $176m global hit. “There is a need for originals to break through so we can make franchises,” he said. The Megan sequel will come out on January 17, 2025.
Blum was joined by Halloween franchise director David Gordon Green to talk up his The Exorcist: Believer and show a clip from the horror, which will open on October 13 and features Ellen Burnstyn from the 1973 original.
Jack Black, Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake were the highlights of the DreamWorks Animation segment, which included footage from June 30 release Ruby Gillman, Teenage Krakan.
Kendrick and Timberlake introduced first – and incomplete – footage from Trolls Band Together, the follow-up to Trolls World Tour, which Universal sent straight to PVoD in April 2020 after cinemas shut down during the pandemic.
Timberlake referred to the 2020 film’s “little detour to streaming” and added, “Look, the pandemic did crazy things to all of us” and declared the third entry in the family animation series would return to the big screen. It is currently in post.
Black, kitted out in a black and white suit, outlined the plot to March 2024 tentpole Kung Fu Panda 4, in which Po must overcome villainous adversary The Chameleon.
Fast X franchise “leader” Diesel delivered a long, seemingly ad-libbed speech extolling the virtues of theatrical distribution ahead of the tentpole’s May 19 launch. He thanked Langley and her Universal team for releasing F9: The Fast Saga in cinemas during the pandemic (the May 2019 release grossed $726m worldwide) and said the Fast films have each delivered the most successful film in each of the participating director’s careers. Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson and Jordana Brewster also appeared on stage prior to Diesel’s address.
Next up was a performance by the EightySeven North stunt team involving dirt bikes, a miniature car, tumbling gymnasts, swords, sticks and smoke.
Gosling and Blunt then joined director David Leitch to promote March 2024 comedic action tentpole The Fall Guy, in which Gosling plays a stuntman and Blunt a film director who used to date each other.
The show climaxed with rough footage from John M. Chu’s upcoming 2024 release Wicked, the first in a two-part adaptation ot the Broadway musical based on The Wizard Of Oz. Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Michelle Yeoh, and Jeff Goldblum star.
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– Armessa Movie News