Universal held its CinemaCon presentation this evening, offering glimpses of a number of titles coming from the distributor over the next year or so.
Oppenheimer
The opening salvo saw Christopher Nolan take to the stage to unveil dramatic new footage from his sweeping biopic about American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. Nolan says: “I know of no more dramatic tale with higher stakes.”
As previously confirmed, the project was filmed entirely on 65mm – combining IMAX 65mm and 65mm large-format film and some sections in IMAX black-and-white analog photography (first time for a feature).
Nolan go so far as to call Oppenheimer himself: “the most important person who ever lived. He made the world that we live in for better or for worse. His story has to be seen to be believed.” The new trailer for the film will be attached to copies of Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and should be online within the next two weeks.
Fast X
The cast showed up with Vin Diesel calling the “Fast and Furious” films “the longest franchise in motion picture history… with the same actors playing the same characters”. Footage was shown, mostly sounding like an extended version of the most recent trailer. Alan Ritchson is revealed to be playing an agent explaining the history of Toretto & co. and says: “If it could be done in a car, they did it. If it violates the laws of God and gravity, they did it twice.”
Kung Fu Panda 4
The project is still in the early stages, but Jack Black appeared on stage and gave more details about the film, which will see Po deciding who will be the next Dragon Warrior whilst he himself is promoted to the highest master of the Valley of Peace.
He meets with a female Fox warrior named Chen, and the pair put their differences aside in order to face the Chameleon, a sorceress who can summon all the villains from past films back from the dead – namely the snow leopard Tai Lung, the peacock Lord Shen and the bull General Kai.
Wicked – Part 1
Currently very early in production in London, some rough footage from the film was shown off with a scene in which Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) gets trained by Michelle Yeoh’s Madame Morrible. The clip was part of a featurette with scenes of Elphaba in the halls of Shiz University before meeting Glinda, a glimpse of Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard and Glinda transporting by bubble. The production is going all out, to the point of planting nine million real tulips rather than using CG to portray the world.
Migration
The next effort from “Minions” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is “Migration”, set for release December 22nd. The voice cast for the project, dubbed a road trip duck family comedy, was revealed and includes Kumail Nanjiani, Elizabeth Banks, Awkwafina, Carol Kane, Keegan-Michael Key and Danny DeVito.
The Fall Guy
The first clip from David Leitch’s action film adaptation of the 1980s TV series. Ryan Gosling stars as a retired stunt performer called back into action by his ex-girlfriend (Emily Blunt), who’s about to direct her feature debut on a dystopian space opera and whose leading man (Aaron Taylor Johnson) goes missing. Winston Duke plays the film’s assistant director, Hannah Waddingham plays Gosling’s agent, and Stephanie Hsu plays a party friend of the star. That film will hit cinemas in March next year.
