By the way, the title is an old-school kaiju title implying a team-up. However, it’s also modern online slang implying a “ship” or a romantic relationship between two characters. It’s legitimate in terms of kaiju franchise lingo. It’s also a good-natured nod to those who would like to see King Kong and Godzilla be more than, to quote the Michael Jackson/Stevie Wonder duet, just good friends.

The trailer gives us a sweep from modern times back to the pyramids, with voiceover intoning, “For most of human civilization, we believed that life could only exist on the surface of our planet.”

“What else were we wrong about?”

In an eerie introduction to the underground world of monsters, we follow our human characters down under the Earth’s crust, as we hear, “This world has more secrets than we could possibly imagine.”

We see another warlike ape, with an entire civilization appearing to back him up, ready to attack. As we hear, “Kong can’t stop this on his own,” we get the response: “He won’t be alone.”

That’s when Godzilla awakens, breaking through the nice — trading in blue radiation for pink this time around.

Adam Wingard returns to direct this installment. Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry and Kaylee Hottle will reprise their roles from “Godzilla vs. Kong.” Wingard is also set to reunite with his “The Guest” leading man Dan Stevens, as well as Fala Chen and Rachel House. Simon Barrett is writing the screenplay. Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Eric McLeod, Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni will produce.

“Godzilla Vs. Kong” was the opening shot in the slow COVID-era theatrical recovery. It debuted in theaters and on HBO Max just as vaccines were being distributed. WB (and the entire theatrical industry) pitched it as a definitive “This is what we go to the movies for!” blockbuster.

It was also one of the big COVID-era releases that arguably performed better at the box office than it might have had it opened in conventional circumstances. It was coming off the underwhelming “Godzilla: King of the Monsters.” Most in-development sequels to flop predecessors don’t magically hit paydirt next time out.

Yes, the hook of Godzilla throwing down against King Kong was more general audience-appealing than Godzilla versus King Ghidorah. Still, there was a strong possibility that “Godzilla Vs. Kong” might have taken a tumble on par with “Justice League” (-25% from “Batman v Superman”) and earned under $300 million. Instead, the film earned $100 million domestically and $470 million worldwide, saving the movies.

Now the MonsterVerse has goodwill from the last installment. Moreover, Wingard’s ’80s action movie himbo version of King Kong is a proven crowd-pleaser, returning in the new trailer with his axe from his Godzilla confrontation — and a giant mechanical glove that looks like something ripped off a Transformer.

Will “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” be a Shane Black-style action comedy with the dinosaur and the monkey teaming up to stop drug runners? Probably not, even if it’s what we deserve.

Legendary and WB have played their big trump card, namely Kong and Zilla beating the hell out of each other. What else do they have beyond more of that, and will audiences care to find out? Stay tuned for when the film opens on April 12, 2024.

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The streaming vs. theatrical debate swings back and forth like a pendulum. With the 2022 box office on the rebound and packed movie slates being presented to theater exhibitors in Las Vegas this week, it’s clear that the pendulum has swung back toward theaters for the moment as streaming services struggle.

David Zaslav himself, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, made the pilgrimage to Vegas to underscore his commitment to making movies for theaters — on the heels of strangling HBO Max in its crib in favor of just plain “Max.” 

“Courage — it’s one word we all share,” he said in an emotional address to the room of 3,000 theater owners. “We’ve got to rally right now. People need to escape, to be inspired.” 

Moviegoing, he said, “can be bigger and stronger than it has ever been.” He added: “We’re all in.”

Or as Sony Pictures chief Tom Rothman put it more mordantly: “For the past three years, as the punditocracy pissed on your business, we at Sony held fast. We are the only studio that held entirely to theatrical… Well, whaddaya know?” (Sony doesn’t have a streaming service to pivot to, but never mind.) 

The Warner Bros. presentation hammered the point a little harder than it needed to, with what amounted to four and a half hours of movie presentation (including an intro from the National Association of Theatre Owners), which featured teasers of a gorgeous “Wonka” starring Timothée Chalamet and a peek at Greta Gerwig’s clever “Barbie.” 

But the message resonated across all four days of the convention, with everyone from Sony’s Rothman to Paramount’s Brian Robbins to NATO’s outgoing chief John Fithian (“incredibly bullish,” he stated) and even Martin Scorsese emerging as the leading cheerleaders for theatrical releasing. 

Here are the facts, though: Domestic U.S. box office in 2022 brought in $7.3 billion for the industry, still 35% behind where it was in 2019 before the pandemic. No one I spoke to wanted to commit to whether the box office will hit that bar of where it was four years ago, $11.4 billion — which would only represent returning to pre-pandemic par, not actual progress. 

So, even with the enthusiasm so palpable at CinemaCon, the unease beneath it is really clear.

Here are my takeaways.

Will audiences show up for mid-range movies? 

If 2022 proved definitively that audiences would show up for tentpoles like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water,” and horror like “M3GAN” and “Smile,” this year will test the proposition beyond that. Will audiences come back to the cineplex for all the other kinds of movies: comedies, animation, dramas and rom-coms?

Everyone will go see “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” and they might even see it more than once. But the studio presentations featured movies across the range of genres (with one notable exception, see below for that) including feel-good family fare like “The Little Mermaid”; tons of animation (Pixar’s “Elements,” Illumination’s new “Trolls”); lots and lots of horror (more “Conjuring,” a new “Exorcist”); R-rated comedy in Lionsgate’s “Joy Ride” and Sony’s Jennifer Lawrence sex romp “No Hard Feelings.” Also: fantasy, action, superhero adventures, a musical “Color Purple” that will appeal to musical lovers and Black audiences and a “Bob Marley” biopic coming from Paramount.

But it remains to be seen whether audiences will get off their couches and abandon streaming to see smaller movies that don’t absolutely need to be seen on the big screen. What Hollywood and exhibitors really need is for the moviegoing habit — already in decline before the pandemic — to be reignited by a consumer audience eager to get out of their houses and experience entertainment with a group of strangers. It’s possible. It’s just not that likely. 

How much box-office revenue is needed to sustain the exhibition ecosystem? 

That’s a billion-dollar question. Projections for 2023 box office range anywhere from $9 billion-$10 billion, which still puts it below 2019. The head of the largest theater chain in America, AMC CEO Adam Aron, said in an interview with TheWrap he’s “reasonably confident” his company is “out of the woods,” but affirmed that “we need more movies,” noting that it’s probably two more years before the box office reaches pre-pandemic levels.  

Paramount president of distribution Chris Aronson (who showed up in a “Power Rangers” outfit, nice one, Chris) gave a hard truth to the room, which he can get away with: “2022 made us fall in love with going to the movies again,” he said. But attendance was going down and prices going up even before the pandemic. “Admitting the status quo” is key, he said. “We’ve got to change it… Make the audience offers they can’t refuse.” By which he meant offer variable pricing so that not every movie ticket costs the same, an experiment he tried for “80 for Brady,” successfully.

But his boss Marc Weinstock, head of Paramount’s global distribution and marketing, put it more broadly: “Our job is to create FOMO, and to make people feel like they have to go to see a movie right now.”  That really is the challenge. 

What’s the problem with dramas?

The one category that seems to be really struggling are adult dramas. They have all but disappeared from the screen along with, let’s just say it, sex. I don’t recall seeing one single sexy scene in four days of trailers and teasers. Hollywood is afraid of sex. That’s pretty clear, with the #MeToo of it all, the lack of clarity around gender roles, the rise of intimacy coordinators, with executives and directors getting accused of harassment and with who is on top and who is allowed to be on top. Cis sex is definitely OUT. Even flirting is out. That’s a shame. (“Joy Ride,” a comedy, has a close-up view of female genitalia that is intended for shock value and is anything but sexy.)

But the track record for even non-sexy dramas featuring adult human actors isn’t great. “She Said” was a bomb at $6 million U.S. box office; “Banshees of Inisherin” made only $10.6 million in the U.S. and $50 million worldwide despite its award nominations and wins. Even Steven Spielberg’s childhood reverie “The Fabelmans” made only $45 million worldwide and a pale $17 million domestically.

There were almost no major studio releases in this category shown at CinemaCon. One Disney movie that qualified, a feel-good soccer movie starring Michael Fassbender, “Next Goal Wins,” felt like it would be a strong candidate for Disney+. It seems that Sony is seeking to take the spot of producing R-rated fare for theaters, and had two films that might qualify: Jennifer Lawrence’s sex romp “No Hard Feelings” and the Glen Powell/Sydney Sweeney rom-com “Anyone But You.”

The rest was rated R for violence, not sex: Ridley Scott and Joaquin Phoenix’s battle epic “Napoleon,” Denzel Washington’s red-band trailer for “The Equalizer 3” and the promise of more “Bad Boys” movies. Even Sony’s big superhero announcement was that Aaron Taylor Johnson’s “Kraven the Hunter” would be an R-rated gorefest, as evidenced by the blood-soaked teaser.

Note to Hollywood: if you want adults to go back to the theater, you’ll need to make some of those must-see experiences with human actors, projecting feelings other than terror and pain. 

As Zaslav put it: “This is our time. What stories are we going to tell? And what impact did that have?” 

The post CinemaCon Takeaways: Theatrical Films Are Back – With Big Caveats for Mid-Size Movies  appeared first on TheWrap.

The trailer, which will debut in theaters with “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” next week, introduces viewers to the tenth annual Hunger Games competition, telling a story of how the future President Snow (played in the four “Hunger Games” movies by Donald Sutherland) mentored a promising 12th district competitor and, well, if you’ve seen the movies or read the books you can presume it doesn’t end well for the good guys. Snow will be played by Tom Blyth while Rachel Zegler (“West Side Story”) will play Lucy Gray Baird.

“It’s the ones we love the most that destroy us,” bellows Donald Sutherland reminding us of the previous films.

Francis Lawrence, who directed “Catching Fire” and the two “Mockingjay” films after Gary Ross got the franchise up and running, is back in the director’s chair for “Songbirds” with a screenplay by Michael Lesslie (“Thirteen Lives”) and Michael Arndt (“Toy Story 3”). Arndt co-wrote “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” adaptation under his pseudonym Michael deBruyn.

The film is based on the prequel book by Suzanne Collins, who’s once again involved as an executive producer. Producers are Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson and Francis Lawrence.

The big question between now and Nov. 17 is whether audiences will show up for another “Hunger Games” movie nearly a decade after “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part II” and sans Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen. A huge part of the franchise’s appeal was the star+marquee character pull of Katniss, who was essentially sold as a weapon-wielding, ass-kicking alternative to Kristen Stewart in the “Twilight” films.

That audiences weren’t as enthralled with the dark, brutal and frankly uncompromising series finale doesn’t help matters, as going back to the well usually requires a certain amount of lingering appreciation. Relative quality notwithstanding, “The Hunger Games” franchise became less popular as the movies became, like Suzanne Collins’ books, less about pretty people slaughtering each other amid fantastical locales and more about the inherent anti-fascism politics.

Lionsgate is hoping that Rachel Zegler starring as a metaphorical past-tense incarnation of Katiness Everdeen is a star+character+IP victory. No, Lucy isn’t quite the same character as Katniss, and it’s arguably not her story (no spoilers), but that shouldn’t stop Lionsgate’s marketing departments.

Most importantly, the smartest thing Lionsgate has done thus far is not positioning this flick as the start of a trilogy or a new franchise. It’s being positioned as another “Hunger Games” movie, with the literary source material to justify it, so there is less harm if the film is a modest hit or an outright miss. If audiences show up, we might get another one. If not, we won’t. How quaint and old-fashioned!

“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” opens exclusively in theaters on Nov. 17, and the cast also includes Peter Dinklage and Viola Davis.

The post ‘Hunger Games’ Prequel Trailer Revives the Franchise With Rachel Zegler (Video) appeared first on TheWrap.

But before all of that, Chris Aronson showed up to give a little spoonful of tough love.

In his time as head of domestic distribution at 20th Century Fox and now at Paramount, Aronson has been known at CinemaCon both for his humorous entrances at studio presentations and his very candid takes on the movie theater business. This year saw more of both as Aronson emerged from a sewer manhole with some pizza to promote “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” prompting the film’s writer-producer Seth Rogen to joke that it was “quite appropriate” to see a Hollywood exec doing that.

But after delivering the pizza to the audience, Aronson gave a brief speech in which he thanked movie theaters for helping make movies like last year’s record-breaking “Top Gun: Maverick” possible. But he also challenged them to introduce strategies that will make moviegoing more affordable for customers.

Specifically, Aronson wants theaters to introduce variable pricing, selling tickets for some non-tentpole movies at matinee prices for all screenings. This was a strategy that Paramount experimented with earlier this year with the comedy “80 for Brady” which grossed just under $40 million at the box office

“We can’t create any friction that prevents audiences from coming to see our movies in your theaters. We need to be realistic and acknowledge that pre-COVID, admissions were only going down and ticket prices were only going up,” Aronson said. “Why not make audiences offers they can’t refuse?”

The topic of ticket prices is one that executives at the National Association of Theater Owners does not talk about, with questions about pricing rejected during the organization’s press conference on Tuesday. But that hasn’t stopped Aronson from publicly talking about the concept, leading to a spirited debate between the studio exec and NATO chairman Rolando Rodriguez during a panel in 2021.

While that debate won’t go away anytime soon, Aronson turned the audience’s attention to Paramount’s slate of upcoming films that he hopes will allow the studio to meet last year’s domestic total of $1.3 billion, as led by “Top Gun: Maverick” with $718 million.

Of course, Tom Cruise is once again providing the tentpole for Paramount with “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning.” While the star was not at CinemaCon to receive a hero’s welcome from movie execs, Paramount did show off an extended car chase featuring the star and Hayley Atwell in the streets of Rome.

But a studio can’t live off of Cruise alone, and Paramount is showing its plans to diversify its theatrical slate. Ramsey Naito, who has been working with the animation teams at Paramount and Nickelodeon, gave the crowd a taste of what is in store with theatrical films based on “Paw Patrol,” “Spongebob Squarepants,” “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and the first animated “Transformers” film since 1986.

Rihanna also showed up to announce that she would voice Smurfette in an upcoming “Smurfs” animated movie and provide original music for the film. John Krasinski will also make a family film for Paramount with “IF,” starring Ryan Reynolds in a movie about imaginary friends, along with another harrowing installment of “A Quiet Place” starring Lupita Nyong’o.

But the loudest applause went to New Hollywood icon Martin Scorsese, who introduced the trailer for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Like Sony’s Ridley Scott film “Napoleon,” the project is a partnership between a legacy studio and Apple Original Films, signaling how the lines between old-school Hollywood and the streaming newcomers are starting to blur.

The post Paramount’s Presentation Is Loaded With Big Reveals – and Tough Love From Chris Aronson appeared first on TheWrap.

In addition, Paramount announced that it would move the release of the film up two days to July 12, showing the studio’s immense confidence in the film. Universal made a similar move with “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” that paid off with a $146 million extended opening weekend.

In a 20-minute preview, we see Hayley Atwell playing a woman named Grace as she is interrogated in Rome by the Carabineri about multiple passports with her face and various aliases and the “powerful enemies” she has made. When the cops get a call that her “lawyer” has arrived, the lead investigator is attacked by the leader of a mysterious organization (Esai Morales) who knows everything about him.

Meanwhile, Grace meets her “lawyer,” who is none other than Ethan Hunt. He knows about a mysterious key that Grace left in the coat pocket of an unknowing man. He also knows that Grace has quietly been living a life of crime as a thief and wants to know about a mysterious contact who hired her to steal the key and deliver it to someone in Venice.

But before they can speak further, Grace manages to slip away from Ethan, and another “M:I” chase scene is on in the Eternal City. Grace steals a police car while Ethan gives chase on a motorcycle.

But the chase doesn’t last long as Grace, not used to these sorts of things, crashes into a car filled with henchmen from Esai Morales’ evil organization. With Grace wanted both by the evil org and the authorities, she and Ethan make their escape again, but not before Ethan handcuffs himself to Grace to make sure she doesn’t get away this time.

Of course, handcuffs sort of make it hard to drive through narrow Roman streets with armed mooks. Grace tries to handle it, but eventually orders Ethan to take the wheel. The two find a side street to switch cars, but instead of getting a Ferrari, Ethan and Grace get a tiny Fiat 500 with a supercharged engine under the hood.

The chase resumes as Ethan is forced to drive down the famous Spanish Steps through dozens of tourists, even rolling the Fiat end-over-end with Grace landing in the driver’s seat. Grace spins and drives in circles as Ethan frantically yells out directions and helps her evade the cops. As the sneak preview ends, Ethan and Grace find themselves seemingly cornered before Ethan puts the car in reverse with a wild plan in mind.

Steven Spielberg publically crowned Cruise as the man who saved movie theaters, and he wasn’t entirely off. Yes, strong performances by “Godzilla Vs. Kong,” “A Quiet Place Part II” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” offered reasons for hope in 2021, but the success of “Top Gun: Maverick” was also tied to the kind of older, irregular moviegoers whom many thought had been lost to streaming forever. The film’s blow-out success rippled over the summer, helping to raise interest and awareness in adult-skewing films like “Elvis,” “Where the Crawdads Sing” and “Bullet Train.”

Five years ago, “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” was coming off two much-liked predecessors and a star who had mostly burnished his comparatively damaged off-screen reputation, variables that led to a $220 million domestic and $792 million global total.

That was, sans inflation, a global record for Cruise — “War of the Worlds” grossed $235 million/$595 million in 2005. In the summer of 2018, it was considered a positive development that the real-world, practically-crafted action thriller was competitive against superheroes and dinosaurs. This year? Christopher McQuarrie’s actioner is among those pegged to be one of the biggest earners of the summer.

Is that likely? The “Top Gun” bump may only send the relentless spectacle, one likely to end on a downer cliffhanger, so high here and abroad. But after the miracle that Cruise and friends pulled off with “Top Gun: Maverick” ($716 million domestic from a $162 million Fri-Mon debut and $1.49 billion worldwide without a penny from China), well, the only question is on which side this one falls closest.

That’s especially since the film cost, partially thanks to COVID-related delays and upcharges, a reported $290 million. To be fair, some of that is circumstantial and there’s no law saying “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 2” has to cost that much.

Even right down the middle gets this Paramount/Skydance offering to $1.1 billion, which is mostly a testament to how ridiculously last year’s Pete Mitchell passion play performed last year.

The post ‘Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part I’ Gets 20-Minute Sneak Preview Set in Rome appeared first on TheWrap.

Kingsley Ben-Adir stars as Bob Marley alongside Lashana Lynch, James Norton, Tosin Cole, Anthony Welsh, Michael Gandolfini, Umi Myers and Nadine Marshall.  Robert Teitel, Jeremy Kleiner, Dede Gardner, Ziggy Marley, Rita Marley, Cedella Marley are producers.

We saw a massive concert audience waiting for the man himself to appear, followed by Marley preaching the value of reggae music amid otherwise conventional musical biopic imagery set to “Jammin with You.” A moment of gun violence kicks off the “downfall” portion of the trailer, while Marley intones that “My life is not important, my life is for the people.”

“One Man, One Message, One Revolution, One Legend, One Love” the onscreen text declares. It closes with Marley happily stating “One Life, One Love, One Destiny.”

Paramount is obviously hoping that “Bob Marley: One Love” performs closer to the likes of “Elvis” or “Straight Outta Brooklyn” than “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody” or “Respect.”

The post Ziggy Marley Introduces ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ First Look appeared first on TheWrap.

Written and directed by Michael Sarnoski (who helmed Nicolas Cage’s “Pig”), the New York-set prequel will star Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, Djimon Hounsou and Denis O’Hare. The producers include Krasinski, Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller. Allyson Seeger and Vicki Dee Rock will executive produce.

The footage audiences saw a bustling New York City where Nyong’o is half-asleep on a bus while petting her cat. She steps to the back of the bus only to realize that the world has almost instantly plunged into hell, with ravaged buildings and catastrophic explosions. The rest is a quick montage of Nyong’o trying to survive as the aliens essentially destroy the world. The film is billed as “the day the world went quiet.”

“A Quiet Place Part II” opened with an extended look at the day the sound-sensitive aliens arrived, which at the time felt like a glorified backdoor pilot for exactly this kind of spin-off. It worked within the context of the film, while also allowing Krasinski’s killed-off patriarch to reprise without negating his mournful fate in the first “A Quiet Place,” so win/win.

That picture was tracking for a $55-$60 million opening in March of 2020 when COVID closed down the theaters, and then it opened with $57 million over Memorial Day weekend 2021. That “exactly as projected” performance was yet more evidence, following “Godzilla Vs. Kong,” that audiences would still show up for the tentpoles they wanted to see before the pandemic changed the release schedules. The $60 million-budgeted sequel earned $297 million worldwide, which was awfully close to the first film’s $341 million worldwide total back in 2018.

Unlike “Cruella 2,” “The Jungle Cruise 2” or “Wonder Woman 3,” which were announced in 2020 and 2021 to create the false impression of theatrical or streaming success, “A Quiet Place: Day One” actually earned its green light the old-fashioned way. Whether audiences care about the world of “A Quiet Place” in the abstract, as opposed to the adventures of the Abbott Family, remains to be seen. But as long as the budget is closer to the $17 million original than the $60 million sequel, it’s a bet Paramount can afford to make.

Krasinksi also introduced the first look at his next directorial effort, a star-packed and specifically kid-targeted fantasy called “IF.” The Ryan Reynolds-starring vehicle opens May 24, 2024 and features Krasinski, Fiona Shaw, Cailey Fleming, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr., Alan S. Kim, Steve Carell, Bobby Moynihan, Matt Damon, Jon Stewart, Emily Blunt, Maya Rudolph, Sam Rockwell, Sebastian Maniscalco, Christopher Meloni, Richard Jenkins, Awkwafina and Vince Vaughn.

The mix of live-action and animation concerns the world of imaginary friends. The clip is a behind-the-scenes featurette. Reynolds describes the film as a live-action Pixar flick. Krasinski says the film is about a young girl who gets the ability to see her and everyone else’s imaginary friends. The imaginary friends are, of course, represented by adorable animated characters voiced by various movie stars.

The post John Krasinski Introduces First Footage From ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ and ‘IF’ appeared first on TheWrap.

We also got a first look at the full cast, namely Hannibal Buress (Genghis Frog), Rose Byrne (Leatherhead), John Cena (Rocksteady), Jackie Chan (Splinter), Ice Cube (Superfly), Natasia Demetriou (Wingnut), Ayo Edebiri (April O’Neil), Giancarlo Esposito (Baxter Stockman), Post Malone (Ray Fillet), Seth Rogen (Bebop), Paul Rudd (Mondo Gecko), Maya Rudolph (Cynthia Utrom); alongside Micah Abbey (Donatello), Shamon Brown Jr. (Michelangelo), Nicolas Cantu (Leonardo), and Brady Noon (Raphael).

We open with April talking to the young heroes, where Mikey asks if there are more humans who will accept them. April answers honestly, “No, not at all.” They send set out to take down the crime lord Superfly who is ravaging the city. The Turtles think they have the upper hand, since they are mutants, only to run into Beebop and Rocksteady.

“Oh my god,” notes April, I”m going to win a Daytime Emmy!” Superfly shows up and makes introductions followed by a few action beats. The end shows the turtles kicking ninja-butt (with a quick Splinter cameo) while April throws cold water on the whole “get people to like you” thing. In short, it lived up the Rogen’s promises that the teen ninja heroes, voiced by actual teenagers and recording together, look, feel and act like actual kids.

Opening August 4, 2023, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” is directed by Jeff Rowe and Kyler Spears with a screenplay by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Jeff Rowe, Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit. Based on Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman’s original characters, the film is produced by Point Grey Productions (Rogen, Goldberg and James Weaver) with Ramsey McBean and Josh Fagen serving as executive producers.

As previously seen, the animation feels like a psychedelic candy-colored kid-friendly comic actioner, again showing that “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” may be the most influential animated film of the modern age. While this is the second theatrical “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” animated film and the seventh theatrical such film between 1990 and 2023, the brand has been remarkably consistent and reliable for 35 years.

One big secret? Well, each new incarnation, be it the 80’s era afternoon animated show, the 2014 reboot movie, or this new theatrical installment alongside many, many other films and television shows, is pitched to young and new fans as opposed to banking on nostalgia. Every generation gets their version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and as such the brand has yet to go out of style.

The post Seth Rogen and a Foot Soldier Dance Team Introduce Extended ‘TMNT: Mutant Mayhem’ Trailer appeared first on TheWrap.

The films were announced by Ramsey Naito, president of Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation, who kicked off the show with a preview of her division’s first feature film “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” which is co-written by Seth Rogen and tells the story of how the Ninja Turtles step out of hiding to become accepted by the humans of New York. The movie is set for release on August 4.

Then, on July 19, 2024, Paramount will release the animated film “Transformers One,” which will star Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry as a younger Optimus Prime and Megatron and tell the story of how the two went from brothers-in-arms to sworn enemies. Scarlett Johannson, Keegan-Michael Key, Jon Hamm and Laurence Fishburne round out the voice cast on the first animated “Transformers” movie since 1986.

In 2025, Paramount will have three animated films starting with a new “Smurfs” movie directed by “The Lego Movie” co-creator Chris Miller and starring Rihanna as Smurfette with original music by the pop star. The film is set for release on Valentine’s Day of that year.

Memorial Day weekend 2025 will bring a new “Spongebob” movie called “The Spongebob Movie: Search for Squarepants” with the show’s longtime writer Derek Drymon directing the film. And in October 2025, the studio will release a feature film based on the acclaimed “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” with concept art for the film revealed by Naito at CinemaCon.

Naito, who has worked at Nickelodeon Animation and Paramount Animation since 2018, was promoted to the head of both positions by CEO Brian Robbins in 2021. The new slate shows how Paramount will be relying on animation for a greater portion of its theatrical strategy in the years ahead and will see the studio enter an increasingly competitive market for family audiences alongside the growing Sony Pictures Animation, Warner Animation Group, Universal’s Illumination and DreamWorks and Disney’s century-old animation studio and Pixar.

The post ‘Transformers,’ ‘Spongebob’ Highlight Paramount’s Animated Movie Slate appeared first on TheWrap.

The rough and unfinished footage opened with a young green witch trying to master her magical training and being told by instructor Michelle Yeoh she needs to harness her emotions. The footage was mixed in with the filmmakers talking about how and why they made the movie. We get solid looks at all the major cast members, including plenty of interaction between Erivo and Grande as the former has a complicated reaction to a gesture of friendship. “Maybe, some of us are just different.” We get a bit of grand dancing, Emerald City production values (nine million real tulips planted) and flying monkey action scenes.

The final montage of fantastical (and source-faithful) images are, of course, set to the chorus of “Defying Gravity.”

“Wicked,” also known as “Wicked: Part One,” will be directed by Jon M. Chu from a screenplay by Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz. Set for release on November 27, 2024, it is the first of a two-part film adaptation of their stage musical of the same name, which was created by Holzman and Schwartz. It is based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.”

Along with Cynthia Erivo (as the future Wicked Witch of the West) and Ariana Grande (as the future Good Witch of the North), “Wicked” will feature Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh.

It has been nearly seven years since Universal first announced a “Wicked” movie, during which time “Wicked” has passed “Phantom of the Opera” as the second-biggest-grossing Broadway show (well over $3 billion) ever behind “The Lion King.” It is the fourth-longest musical in Broadway history.

Grande and Erivo won’t just be playing generic characters from “The Wizard of Oz” but rather specific and popular incarnations from both the Stephen Schwartz stage show (including the songs) and Gregory Maguire’s novels. It’s probably the closest thing going to Disney’s recent fairy tale fantasy blockbusters in terms of adapting a specific incarnation of the well-known source material. 

“Wicked” should avoid the grim fate of Tom Hooper’s “Cats”, as A) audiences like “Wicked” as opposed to just being aware of it and B) the show is centered on marquee human characters versus anthropomorphic animals. That doesn’t mean it should have been split into two parts, but that’s a conversation for another day.

“Wicked” will open at the end of next year, where it will join the likes of “Sweeney Todd,” “Les Miserables,” “Pitch Perfect 3,” “The Greatest Showman” and “La La Land” in being a big musical that scored good-to-great box office over the holiday season. In other words, it won’t have to defy gravity to be a hit.

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