On Thursday morning, 20th Century Fox took over the Coliseum at Caesar’s Palace to showcase its upcoming slate of films for CinemaCon’s final day.
The presentation begins with a live dance from a Vegas group for Deadpool.
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A video begins with Deadpool greeting the crowd. He says he is “really busy making clocks or memories or whatever” and suggests the theater owners both put Deadpool 2 on more screens and use the rest of their time to cheat on their spouses.
The video cuts back on and Chris Aaronson wakes up, Deadpool tells him he’s “f—ed” and Hugh Jackman walks out of the bathroom to double down on the message. Aaronson rushes over to CinemaCon for the presentation and Deadpool and Hugh Jackman talk. “Looks like Comcast really dodged a bullet, huh?” Deadpool says, before asking Hugh if he’s still working out. They walk off and Pluto emerges from behind the bed and stumbles out of the room.
Aaronson takes the stage to introduce the most recent trailer for Deadpool 2. Stacey Snider follows and takes the stage. She acknowledges they are facing “a potential merger that will have lasting implications for the movie business. I have no more insight into this transaction than you do,” Snider said. “Going forward let’s stay dedicated to the future of cinema and passionate about the films to come….Let’s take meaningful steps to ensure that people still come together to see things that they’ve never seen before.”
A sizzle reel of 20th Century Fox’s history plays before Aaronson returns to the stage. He points out the studio made $3.9 billion at the box office in 2017 and lead the field in Academy Awards nominations with 27. He announces “CtrlMovie” which will allow audiences to choose what happens next in the movie. A white bar appears on the bottom of the screen, indicating a timer with two choices above it. The audience chooses the course of action with the popular vote affecting the story on the screen.
Alita: Battle Angel will be the first movie showcased. “Cameron ended up making Avatar because technology had advanced by the time the script was completed. Robert Rodriguez hits the stage to talk about the film.
“I was so excited to be invited aboard this project,” Rodriguez said. “To get a chance to collaborate him was just beyond a fantastic opportunity. Masterclass in big movie world-building and storytelling. Jim’s made big moves that show you worlds and ideas you’ve never seen before and are made to be seen on the big screen. That’s exactly what Alita is.”
“Alita: Battle Angel is set several centruies in the future,” Rodriguez said. “She’ll discover that her mysterious past holds the key to her epic and world changing destiny.” Alita is a completely performance captured creation. A special look is introduced…
A rich, metallic, and sprawling world is unveiled. Alita is discovered by Christoph Waltz and comes to life, looking at herself in the mirror. She doesn’t even know her own name. She makes friends, finds old ships, explores, and finds a new body or armor. Mahershala Ali rules she is the last of her kind and needs to be destroyed to protect the world. She has some pretty impressive fight moves, which includes a bunch of acrobatic flips.
In another clip, Alita goes out and seeks a fight with an eight-foot-tall monster after Christoph Waltz’s character refuses to help her get answers.
Alita wakes up in her bed. She looks at her hand, front and back, and then the other. She bends her fingers and then looks at her legs. The attention turns to the mirror, which she stumbles to, getting used to these new limbs. She feels herself — her chest, her face, and then the mirror. “Wow,” she says.
The video cuts to another scene. Alita falls into a dark space referred to as “The Underworld” by a creepy voice in the distance. A massive robot emerges. She tells him he will die here. They start and intense fight, which sees her soaring with acrobatic moves. Her flings chains at her with speared edges. She dodges, swiftly, and gets a kick on him. He falls into a wall and rocks cover him but she”s been wounded. In the second which she pauses, he emerges and continues the chase. They head further down into this world. His master “Nova” shapes her fate, now, he claims. She soars through his chains and tries land a punch in his face. The clip cuts.
The next film is The Hate U Give. “Young people today are questioning norms, they are looking for new solutions,” Amandla Stenberg said.
In a clip from the film, a father explains to his family that a day will come that they get pulled over and have to put their hands directly where the police can see them. Starr is a young girl who goes to a private school and skips slang until the weekend when she is with her friends. In a scene later, she gets pulled over with her friend who refuses to cooperate because he disagrees with the police officer. After he grabs a comb to brush his hair, he is shot. Starr struggles with it. She has to testify in front of a grand jury but it looks to be a dangerous burden.
The next movie is Bad Times at the El Royale. “Over the course of a faithful night, everyone will have one last shot at redemption,” Aarsanson said. Then, there’s The Darkest Minds. “One brave woman will lead a group of rebels to regain control of their future.” Clips from both movies play back to back.
Widows is coming in Novembers. “Tells the story of four women with nothing in comomn except a debt left behind their dead husbands’ criminal activity.”
Attention turns to The Predator. “Most deadly hunter in a whole new light courtesy of Shane Black,” Aaronson said. “He now brings his trademark mix of action humor and thrills back to the big screen with his explosive reinvention of The Predator.”
It stars Holdbrook, Munn, Rhodes, Keye, Brown, Tremble, and Strohovsky. The first look is introduced.
The trailer starts in a neighborhood. It’s Halloween. Kids are milling about. In one house, someone opens a package from JP Courier Co. The boy finds a Predator mask in it. He messes with some of the tech. He finds what he thinks is a ship but ultimately awakens a ship which crashes into earth. Holbrook is interrogated. He says he’s a sniper and didn’t see anything but Sterling K Brown knows he did. Holbrook says he feels like “an alien” on his own planet. Flashbacks of a chaotic chase through the woods flash by. Munn is a scientist, she rules that the species is upgrading on every planet it visits. Holbrook says “posing a threat is kind of the f—ing point.” Predators wreak havoc in various locations using their claws to slice people, there’s blood splatter, and the mask looks spot on. The chaos happen the woods and the lab. Holbrook has a team of what looks like mercenaries. Munn turns out to be pretty handy with a gun. Something she says she learned in America.
The last film is Bohemian Rhapsody. “A film that would captivate the audiences and generations all over the globe,” they call it. “Freddy Mercury invented playing to the masses and I believe this film does the same. This is a story that has something for everyone and inspires a generation…makes people laugh, cry, sing a long, and even stamp their feet…a true celebration…Let’s face it, to this day, every sporting event, countless commercials and films, pubs and bars, play Queen’s music inevitably…I am so honored and humbled to be part of Queen’s legacy. I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished and I hope you feel the same…A performance of this young man playing the starring role of Freddy Mercury, ranks up there with the best of ever seen.”
Remi Malick takes the stage.
Malick expresses the honor he feels to be here. “I’m proud to say, I feel this lives up to the iconicism.” He saw this as a career-defining performance or a career-killer. “He is without a doubt in my mind, the greatest performer hat has existed…there is no one like this human being,” Malick said. “He gives everyone watching this ability to embrace all of their imperfections and still sing as loudly as they can. That’s what he did for me. I’d like to think I gave a good performance and I will be very modest about it and leave it up to you…Mr. Brian May e-mailed me after seeing the movie saying how moved to tears he was. If Freddy were here to today he would be proud of what we were able to achieve.”
The footage sees various clips of Mercury singing in various place. He ends up joining the band after their singer just quit. They mock his teeth at first. They decide to be more experimental. They are shut down time and time again but continue on their way. People become curious about Freddy’s private life. His career takes off. People urge him to slow down. He takes the stage for a massive show as someone tells him he is a legend.
