Warner Bros. Unveils Footage from 2015 Slate at CinemaCon

On Tuesday (April 21), Den of Geek had an opportunity to jet quickly into Las Vegas and check out the Warner Bros. Pictures presentation at CinemaCon, a trade show for movie theater owners held annually in Sin City. For five days each year, exhibitors are treated to lavish parties, star-studded events, seminars and most importantly, major presentations from every major film studio of footage from their upcoming films. The footage is shown either in the form of extended trailers or sometimes even whole sequences from movies, with none of it available to the public until after CinemaCon is finished.

So thanks to good fortune (and the help of Warner Bros. publicists), we managed to grab a seat for the Warner Bros. event, hosted by the company’s head of domestic distribution, Dan Fellman, studio CEO Kevin Tsujihara and TV personality Mario Lopez. Almost every film’s footage showcase was accompanied by an appearance from cast members and/or filmmakers, who would come onstage, say a few scripted words, thank the exhibitors and hustle off as the lights went down.

Warner Bros. does have a huge and impressive slate, with Tsujihara noting that the studio is making more movies while others are cutting back. He also stated that three tentpole franchises – DC Entertainment, Lego and J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts– will be the cornerstone of the Warner slate in years to come.

As for the year ahead, everything from May’s Hot Pursuitto August’s The Man from U.N.C.L.E. to December’s whaling epic In the Heart of the Sea was given a look. While we’re not going to recap everything, several films did stand out in particular:

The Vacation remake looks raunchy and hilarious, with the CinemaCon audience treated to a scene involving Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Chris Hemsworth and the latter’s very prominent junk that had the audience in stitches (almost as funny was a later scene involving a bath in a secluded spring). This is a hard R comedy for sure that looks worthy of its predecessor;

After a long string of disappointments, Johnny Depp may be returning to form with Black Mass, in which he plays the notorious Boston crime boss Whitey Bulger. A first unveiling of footage showed Depp wearing baby blue contacts and a frightening, psychotic stare as he terrorizes a fellow criminal across a dinner table over a recipe. We haven’t had a truly great crime epic in a while so let’s hope that Depp finds his footing and makes this the one we’ve been waiting for. Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart) directs and spoke briefly to the audience (Depp was not present);

Creed is a semi-sequel to the Rocky movies, in which the son (Fantastic Four's Michael B. Jordan) of Apollo Creed seeks out the long-retired Rocky Balboa (do I need to name the actor?) and asks him to become his trainer so he can follow in his father’s vaunted footsteps. Directed by Ryan Coogler (who made Jordan a star with Fruitvale Station), the footage for this was gritty, heartfelt and surprisingly dramatic, with great interplay between the always excellent Jordan and his would-be mentor. Clearly the Rocky franchise was exhausted long ago, but this is a clever way to revive it. Coogler, Jordan and Sylvester Stallone were on hand to introduce the footage;

Finally, we got a first look at Point Break, the remake of the famous 1991 surfing criminals action thriller that starred Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze. This time around it’s Luke Bracey as FBI agent Johnny Utah, who infiltrates the gang led by Bodhi (Edgar Ramirez), who are into much more besides surfing. All kinds of extreme sports are utilized in the film, including wing suit flying and cliff jumping, with professionals from each field employed to deliver the frankly jawdropping stunts in as realistic a manner as possible.

The presentation was capped off by a look at the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer, but sadly it was just the same one that debuted online….boo to Zack Snyder for not letting a little more footage off the leash for CinemaCon.