CinemaCon Day 4 Recap - 20th Century Fox Kills With First Looks At THE PREDATOR & BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE
20th Century Fox kicked off the last day with a killer presentation which, while lacking in any X-Men news, did feature first look trailers for The Predator and Bad Times at the El Royale. Check it out!
20th Century Fox kickstarted Day 4 with an interesting presentation that was undoubtedly overshadowed by the news of their upcoming merger with Walt Disney Studios. Unfortunately, however, with the acquisition still under review, the studio opted not to provide us with any new information. But based on their presentation, it was hard not to get the feeling that they already had one foot out the door.
Read my recap of the 20th Century Fox presentation, including footage descriptions for The Predator and Bad Times at the El Royale, below:
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Deadpool 2
To kickstart our last day, 20th Century Fox got the party started with a fun live performance from a group of Vegas dancers, dressed in Deadpool-themed outfits. A pre-recorded video begins playing shortly after they finish up their routine.
Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) greets the audience and implores them to show his upcoming sequel on more screens and as the tape zooms out a bit, we see Chris Aronson, in a Greatest Showman costume, stumbling out of the giant king-sized bed with Deadpool telling him he's f**ked and going to be late to the presenation. As Aronson scrambles for his things, Hugh Jackman walks out of the bathroom in a robe and converses with Deadpool, who jokes "Looks like Comcast really dodged a bullet, huh?" The two exit to get some breakfast and a few seconds later we see someone in a Pluto costume get up from behind the bed and follow them.
The final trailer then plays and that's a wrap on Deadpool 2 for the day, which was a little surprising considering how many of the film's posters were on display all week.
Alita: Battle Angel
Director Robert Rodriguez was next onstage to showcase his upcoming winter release, Alita: Battle Angel and revealed that James Cameron had actually penned the script almost a decade ago and had intended on directing, but because of the advances in technology by the time the script was complete, he opted to do Avatar instead.
Rodriguez introduces a new trailer and two clips. The new trailer features some extended footage as we see Alita (Rosa Salazar) get discovered by Christoph Waltz's character before getting to see several action beats of her kicking all sorts of ass. It also reveals that Mahershala Ali is playing one of the film's villains as he tells someone that Alita must be destroyed to save the world.
The first clip opens with Alita waking up in bed and examining her hands, from both sides. She begins to examine her entire body and looks a little surprised that she actually has a body. She ultimately races to the mirror and stumbles a bit, getting used to her new legs, and then sees herself for the first time in the mirror. The scene presumably takes place shortly after Waltz's character found her torso and resurrected her by giving her a new body.
The second clip is more action-heavy, taking place shortly after Waltz's character refused to give Alita a more combat-ready body that she felt she was destined to have. She heads to The Underworld to act out by confronting a massive robot monster. After telling him he's going to die, she attacks and a pretty solid fight ensues. She's a little too difficult for the monster to handle and her agility helps her dodge and strike at will. He eventually launches some spiked chains at her, but she effortlessly doges everything before winding up for a fatal blow.
The Hate U Give
Director George Tillman Jr. and star Amandla Stenberg were next to preview their upcoming drama The Hate U Give, which is based on the best-selling Angie Thomas novel of the same name.
The intense trailer opens with a father explaining to his kids that a day will come when they'll get pulled over for no reason and that they must put their hands on the dashboard so the police can see them, otherwise something bad will happen. It then cuts to present day where we meet Starr Carter, a young girl that lives in a poor, mostly black, neighborhood, but goes to a private prep school on the otherside of town with mostly white classmates.
She does her best to balance the two worlds, but everything comes to a head when one of her childhood best friends is killed by a cop after getting pulled over. She was a passenger and the only witness to the crime. The movie will follow her journey as she finds her voice and attempts to get justice for her friend.
Bad Times at the El Royale
Since Drew Goddard's Bad Times at the El Royale is currently filming, I don't think anyone expected to see a trailer so soon, but 20th Century Fox surprised us all with an extended first look and it was pretty damn awesome. THe movie takes place "over the course of a faithful night" where "everyone will have one last shot at redemption."
The extended sneak peek opens with a man burying a huge sum of money under one of the floorboards in a room at the El Royale and then making it look like he was never there, however, someone has followed him and promptly murders him. It then cuts to an undetermined time in the future as we see Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, and Jon Hamm check into the same hotel, which takes them longer than you might think. A lot of creepy things begin to happen as we realize there's more to the hotel than meets the eye and several more guests arrive, including Dakota Johnson, Nick Offerman, Cailee Spaeny, and Russell Crowe. It's all capped off by a very cool, but almost scary, entrance from Chris Hemsworth, who's rocking a pretty stellar stache.
Think Baby Driver meets Pulp Fiction, seriously, absolutely can't wait for this movie.
The Darkest Minds
Even though X-Men: Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants had little-to-no presence all week, Fox did manage to give us a little X-Men lite with an extended preview of The Darkest Minds. The movie stars Amandla Stenberg as Ruby, a 16-year-old telepath who leads a rebellion against those in power that have tortured their special generation.
Widows
Next up was the trailer for Steve McQueen's upcoming heist thriller, Widows. The trailer opens with a look at four couples as they share intimate moments before we see the four husbands partner up to carry out a heist. As you can probably tell, the four, including Liam Neeson and Jon Bernthal, don't make it back alive and the women are left to mourn.
Fast-forward a short while later and Viola Davis' character reassembles the other three widows, including Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, and Cynthia Erivo, and they discuss carrying out the heist themselves. There's plenty of action and we see them also cross paths with a seemingly shady politician played by Colin Farrell.
The Predator
With Fox keeping a lid on their X-Men plans, the first trailer for Shane Black's The Predator was their big-ticket sci-fi item of the day and while the cast wasn't present, the trailer was more than enough to get the audience buzzing.
The trailer opens with Jacob Tremblay playing around in his dad's office and opening an unmarked package, which he discovers contains a Predator mask. He disregards the mask and instead begins playing with the other tech, including what looks like a toy ship, which is actually a controller for an actual ship that was orbiting Earth and without realizing, he causes it to crash on our planet.
Cut to Boyd Holbrook getting interrogated by a group of soldiers, including Sterling K. Brown, who is watching from behind the mirror. He tells them he's just a sniper and that he didn't see anything in the jungle, but Brown knows he's lying. We're then taken back into the jungle to see what really happened as Holbrook and his team find themselves shooting and running away from "something," but we don't get to see what it is.
The trailer then introduces a scientist, played by Olivia Munn, who explains that the unknown species seems to be upgrading its own DNA on every planet it visits, making it the deadliest threat the Earth has ever seen. Then, right on cue, we're treated with The Predator - or well, Predators - who waste absolutely no time in slicing and dicing anyone that gets in their way, in extremely bloody fashion. Holbrook and his team of mercenaries roll out to battle the threat, but it doesn't look like it'll be enough. The trailer ends with Munn demonstrating that she can also operate a firearm and when she's asked where she learned, she simply replies: "America."
Plus, in case you missed it, here's the official synopsis:
"From the outer reaches of space to the small-town streets of suburbia, the hunt comes home in Shane Black's explosive reinvention of the Predator series. Now, the universe's most lethal hunters are stronger, smarter and deadlier than ever before, having genetically upgraded themselves with DNA from other species. When a young boy accidentally triggers their return to Earth, only a ragtag crew of ex-soldiers and a disgruntled science teacher can prevent the end of the human race."
Bohemian Rhapsody
Bohemian Rhapsody was the last film on the docket and star Rami Malek was present to deliver a first look trailer, which actually looked pretty solid. The footage wasn't particularly revealing and we should expect a trailer soon, but it looks like it'll be a pretty strong biopic and should have a good run this winter.
On a sidenote, while Rami Malek looks the part and will undoubtedly deliver an outstanding performance, it was a little hard to get over the fact that they didn't cast an Indian man to play Mercury, since, you know, Mercury was Indian.
Death on the Nile
Fox closed their presentation with a quick look at title cards for a number of their upcoming projects, including the Murder on the Orient Express sequel Death on the Nile. Further details weren't provided, but we did receive confirmation that Kenneth Branagh will return to direct and star.
Expect it to hit theaters on November 8, 2019.
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Fox Searchlight's Can You Ever Forgive Me? was another title card we saw and with an October 19, 2018 release date, it was a little surprising that they didn't at least play the recently released trailer. Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant star in this upcoming biographical drama-thriller.
Ad Astra
James Gray's upcoming sci-fi thriller Ad Astra was featured both as a title card and on the program we were handed while leaving. The movie stars Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Donald Sutherland, and Jamie Kennedy, amongst others.
The movie follows Pitt's character, twenty years after his father left on a one-way mission to Neptune, as he embarks on his own mission to the planet with the hopes of finding him and possibly uncovering why his mission failed.
The Kid Who Would Be King
The Kid Who Would Be King was among the many title cards and is set to release on March 1, 2019. The Joe Cornish-directed fantasy adventure stars a cast full of fresh faces and that also features Patrick Stewart as Merlin and Rebecca Ferguson as Morgana.
Breakthrough
Not much is known about this next film, Breakthrough, but it features a cast including Topher Grace, Chrissy Metz, Josh Lucas, Mike Colter, and Dennis Haysbert, amongst others. The title card featured a May 2019 release date, which could always movie with Avengers 4 set to open at the top of the month.
Spies In Disguise
The upcoming animated adventure Spies In Disguise stars Will Smith as Lance Sterling and Tom Holland as Walter. Further plot details remain under wraps, but expect the movie in theaters April 19, 2019.
The New Mutants
While we didn't get any new footage or information about The New Mutants during the presentation as the studio reworks the X-Men spinoff for a August 2019 release, the title did feature in the quick montage of title cards we saw at the end, which would seemingly suggest that it remains a priority for the studio.
In case you missed it, the movie is currently undergoing reshoots to take it from a suspensful PG-13 horror flick into a full-fledged horror that'll be unlike anything we've ever seen in the superhero genre. For more details about the reshoots, head over HERE!
The New Mutants is currently dated for August 2, 2019, which is coincidentally just around when Disney's acquisition of Fox is expected to be complete.
Dark Phoenix
Yes, it's true. The very fiery title card for X-Men: Dark Phoenix revealed that the upcoming X-Men sequel will now only be known as Dark Phoenix. A reason for the title change remains unknown, but considering the success the studio has had with shorter titles, like Logan and Deadpool, they may have realized that they didn't exactly need "X-Men" to sell the latest installment.
While there have been a variety of rumors circulating about the reshoots, a recent report did reveal that they are no where near as extensive as some would have you believe. You can read more about what's going on behind-the-scenes HERE.
Dark Phoenix hits theaters February 14, 2019.
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