Sent As I start this recap, we are midway through day 3 of CinemaCon after a screening this morning of the live action How To Train Your Dragon and, while I can’t say too much about the film, I will simply mention it was well done and if you never saw the animated version 15 years ago, you will most probably enjoy it when it hits theaters on . To introduce the movie were writer/director Dean DeBlois, and stars Nico Parker and Gerard Butler live on stage in the Caesar’s Palace Coliseum.
After lunch, we interviewed Fathom Entertainment’s CEO, Ray Nutt, about all the exciting things they have coming up (you can check out the interview later this week on our YouTube channel).
We once again entered the Coliseum at to wait for the Universal Studios Presentation to begin. We were teased with Wicked For Good and Jurassic World: Rebirth and were treated by a 43-piece orchestra on the Coliseum stage. After said orchestra took us through a number of iconic movie scores (you can see the full list on the FlickDirect X feed), Scarlett Johansson, Academy Award Winner Mahershala Ali, and director Gareth Edwards took to the stage to discuss the latest Jurassic World film, Rebirth. Along with some witty banter, the audience was treated to some footage of the film.
Next up was a trailer for Gabby’s Dollhouse, which is sure to excite girls ages 3 and up. Awkwafina and Craig Robinson then graced the stage to discuss The Bad Guys 2 and offer a glimpse of the movie. After a reprise of the cast and director of the live-action How To Train Your Dragon (heads up…number 2 is in the works), we got a look at HIM, and Nobody 2.
Jason Blum, dressed as the Freddy character, talked about the upcoming sequel, as well as Black Phone 2, which looks scarier and bloodier than the first movie. James Wan then joined Blum to talk about M3GAN 2.0 and Soulm8te, and introduced clips of both films.
To cap off their presentation, Universal Pictures brought director John M. Chu, producer Marc Platt, and stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande out to discuss the incredible success of Wicked. They also talked about the second film before introducing a teaser for the film, which hits theaters this November.
After a dinner break, Amazon MGM Studios presented their slate of upcoming films. When the companies merged back in 2022, Amazon made a pledge to theater owners that they would release 15 theatrical movies each year beginning in 2027. Tonight they announced they are ahead of schedule with 14 films already in the can before entertaining the coliseum audience with celebrity after celebrity offering up sneak peeks of their upcoming films.
First up was Ryan Gosling with the movie adaptation of the best-selling novel, Project Hail Mary. The Armageddon/Sci-fi oriented movie looked incredible and offered something we haven’t seen much of from the other studios - original content. Continuing, we were offered a glimpse of Verity, also based on a best-selling book, and then After the Hunt, where Andrew Garfield stars alongside Julia Roberts.
Chris Pratt took the stage in an incredibly uncomfortable chair to talk about his movie with Rebecca Ferguson called Mercy. After that, we got a video of Hugh Jackman and Emma Thompson talking about Three Bags Full, also based on a book, and which I thought had to be an April Fool’s prank but actually wasn’t. Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry, and Bart Layton appeared next to discuss their movie, Crime 101, before showing the trailer, followed by Vivica A. Fox and her co-stars, who introduced their movie, based on an award-winning play, Is God Is.
To end the Amazon MGM presentation, there was mention of James Bond, of course, then a behind-the-scenes look at Masters of the Universe. Finally, Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and Daniella Pineda all appeared onstage to discuss and show a trailer of The Accountant 2, which hits theaters at the end of the month.
