Summary
CinemaCon is this week, which you probably noticed because all your favorite film-influencers (filmfluencers?) have been Tweeting up a storm about the amazing trailers and reveals they’re seeing. My timeline is full of people describing cool things and new movie announcements that, for all I know, could be totally made up.
It’s a weird industry event that isn’t like your typical fan conventions, such as Comic-Con or D23 Expo. Ostensibly meant to be a gathering of distributors and theater owners who are there to get a tease of what’s to come this year, CinemaCon has taken on a new life ever since they started inviting media and influencers to cover the reveals.
There’s no footage, screen shots, or clips to verify anything the attendees are learning about this week, and all the coverage from it amounts to written descriptions of trailers and somewhat-detailed accounts of what the big wigs at Sony, Warner Bros., and Paramount said on stage. We’ll get to see these trailers eventually, but it’s a frustrating week for anyone who doesn’t want to get their movie news through a game of social media telephone.
Still, there’s been some reveals I’m pretty excited about, assuming they’re true. Some got to see footage of Alien: Romulus, this year’s new big screen entry in the Alien series, and it sounds like it’s making good use of practical effects to capture the grotesque body horror that the original Alien is known for. Disney brought a clip from Moana 2, a movie that’s rumored to be made out of leftover parts from a canceled Disney Plus show. I haven’t felt very confident about it, especially since Lin Manuel Miranda is not returning to create the film’s music, but CinemaCon attendees report that the songs showcased in the clip feel very authentic to the original Moana.
Sonic 3 got a juicy reveal. Jim Carrey is back, despite claiming he’s retired, and he’s packed on some lbs to play Eggman this time. Shadow is seen riding a motorcycle, though he doesn’t speak in the clip. Director Jeff Fowler said on stage that they won’t be revealing who is playing Shadow, which is a very Nintendo move that I don’t appreciate.
The rumored Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin film was officially announced, which will be the first R-rated TMNT movie. Paramount also announced the next Star Trek film, which will see the Abrams-era cast return, a remake of The Running Man from Edgar Wright starring Glen Powell, the GI Joe/Transformers crossover teased at the end of Rise of the Beasts, an animated Avatar: The Last Airbender trilogy, and an animated Transformers movie called Transformers One.
There were two Deadpool & Wolverine promos. One featured the duo chatting about Secret Wars (and teasing Doctor Doom) and another was a nine-minute sequence that showed Deadpool getting recruited by the TVA to protect the sacred timeline. It included an image of Thor crying over Deadpool’s body.
That’s the big news from this week at CinemaCon. Now I’ve reported what other people wrote about what they saw. Maybe it’s all made up. Heck, maybe I made some of it up myself! There’s no way to know, which is the fun of CinemaCon, I guess.
