After box office returns rebounded strongly in 2022, the film industry is taking a victory lap this week at CinemaCon. The annual Las Vegas event started as a place for major movie studios to preview films to theater owners, but it has since become something closer to Comic-Con: A platform to roll out new teases and trailers for upcoming projects, with stars and directors showing up to personally promote them, both directly to the chains that will eventually screen them and journalists eager to report on the latest nuggets of info.
This year’s CinemaCon started with presentations from Sony and Warner Bros., While not all of the footage shown in the Caesar’s Palace ballroom is readily available online, there’s already a handful of exciting announcements from the event worth mentioning as we get closer to 2023’s packed slate of films. Here’s the biggest info from Sony and WB’s panel events you need to know about.
WB Continues to Insist The Flash Rules
With just under two months until the June 16 release of The Flash, WB is now in full-court press mode for the latest DC installment. WB executive David Zaslav stated he’s watched The Flash three times and called it “the best superhero movie I’ve ever seen.” A new trailer for the film dropped online and heavily featured the film’s supporting superhero cast of Supergirl (Sasha Calle) and the Bruces Wayne (Michael Keaton, Ben Affleck). While James Gunn was too busy doing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3. press to attend, co-DC Films head Peter Safran was on hand to declare the film as a way to “forward into [his and Gunn’s] DC Universe,” only adding fuel to the suggestion that Flash may serve as a hard reboot.
We’ll soon know for ourselves whether or not The Flash is good: it’s screening tonight for CinemaCon attendees. Anticipate journalist reactions to hit at some point during the Suns/Clippers game.
*__Barbie __*Fever Hits a New High
Barbie stars Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling (clad in a “From Director Greta Gerwig tee” and electric pink Acne Studios jacket), America Ferrera, and writer/director Greta Gerwig were on hand during WB’s presentation to talk about the upcoming summer blockbuster and provide a bit more context to film’s unexpected plot. While the film’s first trailer keyed into the perfect vibes of Barbie land, the latest look shows that not all is as it appears, and Kate McKinnon’s Weird Barbie tasks her to head into the real world to figure out what’s up. Gerwig said that The Wizard of Oz serves as a major influence, but the quote of the day came from Gosling, who stated, “Up until this point, I only knew Ken from afar. I didn’t know Ken from within. I doubted my Ken-ergy. I didn’t see it. But Margot [Robbie] and Greta [Gerwig] conjured this out of me.”
Fall Brings a Double Shot of Timothée Chalamet with *__Dune: Part 2 __*and Wonka
WB is banking big on Timmy this fall, with the anticipated release of the second half of Dune and the Willy Wonka prequel Wonka. Dune director Denis Villeneuve highlighted the film’s increased scale, which was shot exclusively with IMAX cameras.The brief teaser showed Chalament’s Paul attempting to ghost-ride an Arrakis sandworm.
The Wonka footage featured Chalamet meeting the very first Oompa Loompa, played by… Hugh Grant.
“The Slap” Be Damned, Bad Boys 4 Is Well Underway
There was a lot of hand-wringing about the future of Will Smith’s career in the wake of The Slap, but the superstar actor is already back at work on a sequel to one of his most successful franchises. CinemaCon started with a taped message from Smith and Martin Lawrence, who are currently on set filming the fourth installment in the Bad Boys franchise. Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who revived the franchise with Bad Boys For Life in 2020, are back at the helm, and it’s expected to arrive sometime next year.
Sony’s Spider-Man Extended Universe Grows
The upcoming Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Kraven served as a one-two punch for the studio to show they still have some superhero IP in the tank worth getting excited over. The 14-minute preview for the Spider-Verse sequel showed quieter moments as Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) reconnect a year after the first movie’s events.
If the Spider-Verse clip was light on action, the first look at Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Kraven was the exact opposite. Similar to Venom, it’s a standalone film focusing on one of Spider-Man’s rogues. This time instead of a wise-cracking symbiote, it’s the titular hunter who’s something of a fan-favorite Spidey foe. The footage showed Taylor-Johnson going full John Wick as he stabs, kills, and bites the nose off his foe’s face before getting a tease of the Rhino (who sadly won’t be reprised by Paul Giamatti). When asked whether or not the film would be rated R, Taylor-Johnson gleefully exclaimed, “Fuck yeah.”
The Equalizer 3’s First Trailer Stages a Man on Fire Reunion
Director Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington are back for another film in the long running action franchise (which now even has a CBS TV series spin-off). The Equalizer 3 trailer is appropriately action packed, but beyond the pleasures of watching Denzel dispatch bad guys, the other draw here is the Man on Fire reunion with Dakota Fanning joining the cast. Sony released the first look, which you can watch now ahead of its September 1 release.
Ridley Scott and Joaquin Phoenix Stage an Epic Historical Tale in Napoleon
The muted response to (the supremely underrated) The Last Duel hasn’t stopped Ridley Scott from launching another historical epic. Sony will release the film before it hits Apple TV+ later this fall, which features Joaquin Phoenix as the French emperor. Sweepingly epic in scale, initial footage showed Napoleon overseeing a massive battle on a frozen lake as bloodshed and carnage unfolded. The film will also explore the leader’s relationship with his wife, Josephine, played by Vanessa Kirby.