Warner Bros. took a big victory lap at CinemaCon this year, well-deserved after making $4 billion at the global box office with nine straight No. 1 hits. To keep that energy going, the studio brought out the big guns with Tom Cruise for “Digger,” J.J. Abrams for “The Great Beyond,” and Denis Villeneuve for “Dune: Part Three.” Also on Day 2, Neon showcased some of its films.
In these Daily Dispatches from CinemaCon, we’re sharing the highlights of what we saw, what was announced, what we didn’t, and what was the overall vibe.
We thought Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg would be the wildest thing we saw this week, but Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell was something else. Cruise in Alejandro Inarritu’s film “Digger” plays an aging oil tycoon with gray hair, wrinkles, a big paunch belly, a firebrand Foghorn Leghorn accent, and no patience for the cataclysmic environmental event that his project has caused. The extended look at the film, which was only for the CinemaCon audience, gave a full look at one of the early scenes of the film as they explore the $18 trillion damage that could be caused around the world, as well as a trailer sizzle, but Inarritu said he’s still working on the film.
Cruise said the movie is “wild, it’s funny,” and it’s the kind of movie that “is why I wanted to make movies.” Inarritu also added that the film is about “an uncontrollable, delusional need to control things, even when we know it will fail.” “It’s about a powerful man who did not change the world but changed how people see the world… he makes the worst decision in the world, and that is very funny to see,” he said.
We also have to take you back briefly to this morning when Neon held its own mini presentation. While we got some good first looks at the Sundance horror film “Leviticus” and Chloe Domont’s “A Place In Hell,” which is a campy thriller of two rival women competing for power at a law firm, the real surprise was “Hope.” The Korean film from director Na Hong-Jin is making its premiere in competition at Cannes, and you would think it’s a means for Neon to scoop up viable Palme D’Or contenders in advance (the distributor bought it just this week). But the first teaser trailer for the film revealed a massive, effects-driven, post-apocalyptic, action epic more on par with “A Quiet Place” than, say, “Sentimental Value.” An art house film, this is not, but perhaps the style of the film will surprise us. Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender also star in the otherwise Korean-language film (and they didn’t appear in the trailer), and it will launch in theaters later this year after its Cannes bow.
Warner Bros. kicked off their presentation with some major indie news, announcing that Sean Baker’s next film is called “Ti Amo!” and would be released in 2027 by WB’s new specialized label, now titled Clockwork.
Source: indiewire.com