Warner Bros. kicked off its annual “Big Picture” presentation at CinemaCon on Tuesday afternoon. Warner Bros. Executives Jeff Goldstein and Andrew Cripp came out dressed as Bettlejuice, after dressing in Barbie themed outfits last year. They start by having fun with their costumes before naming some of the successful Warner Bros. titles from 2023. “You helped bring Pink Fever to the world,” they say to the theater owners in attendance. “You helped make Barbie not just the biggest movie of last year but in Warners’ 100 years of history.” A sizzle reel looks back at the previous films before debuting footage from Furiosa, Mickey 17, Joker 2, and more.
Looking at the success of recent titles such as Dune and Wonka, the attention turns to Godzilla by Kong which has already surpassed $370 million at the worldwide box office. The major upcoming 2024 titles will be previewed during this presentation. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is confirmed to arrive in 2024’s holiday season.
Co-CEOs of Warner Bros. Motion Pictures, Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca, take the stage. The first title which will be covered in the presentation if Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. “The epic film canon [George Miller] created in 1979, it continues to deliver on all of those thrills by immersing us in the dystopian post-apocalyptic world that is often imitated but never duplicated.” Miller takes the stage with Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy.
“This takes place over 16 to 18 years,” Miller said. “We wrtoe the backstories for everybody, of Furiosa, for all those years and also for Mad MAx in the year before. When Fury Road had enough traction, we thought, ‘Oh, we’ve gotta go and do Furiosa,’ and here we are. Just finished last week.”
Taylor-Joy says, “this is the story of one woman’s commitment to relentless hope.” Adding, “I think this film more than any other film thst I’ve made, as a fan of Mad Max…I would step out of myself and go, ‘This is happening!'”
“It comes down to the script initially,” Hemsworth says of his character. “A twisted, cruel character on one hand but in order for him to lead this horde of bikers and nomadic individuals across the wasteland that there was some positiivity ahead of them, there had to be some charisma. We wanted to weave in charm…but there needed to be a darkness, too.” This informs the way Hemsworth’s character moved, dressed, and spoke with constant manipulation in mind.
Miller says they had the script for a long time. “I knew of Chris and we somehow met and we talked and in that conversation, very far reaching and multileveled, I thought, basically, ‘This guys got a lot of dimensions to him,'” Miller said of Hemsworth.
An extended sneak peek at the film plays. It is broken into parts, with the first seeing Hemsworth’s Dr. Dementus finding a young Furiosa. The second sees Furiosa becoming a fighter. The third sees Furiosa seeking revenge. It was several minutes long and action-packed. The film sees Furiosa wanting revenge for the loss of her mother and childhood, neither of which she is able to get back which puts her against Dementus.
The Watchers is up next, a horror film. Ishyana Shamyalan takes the stage, celebrating her first film. “It was very cool to have this baseline book that was there,” she said. “The sets in the movie are exactly what I saw when I was reading that for the first time. From there, it was drawing from Irish culture and those stories to build it out and make it a big thing.” The movie is going to blend thriller, fantasy, and horror genres.
Next, the Superman movie logo takes the screen. It is bright red and yellow, joined by the classic Superman theme song. James Gunn sent a video from the set of Superman, standing behind sets to record it. It’s not revealing anything about the movie, just yet. He highlights Superman being his and Peter Safran’s “first feature production” since becoming co-CEOs of Superman. “I can’t wait to be there in Vegas with all of you next year as we kick off the summer of Superman,” Gunn said. “I also wanted to thank all of you for your efforts for making Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 a hit.” To discuss the Superman documentary about the life of Christopher Reeves, Gunn introduces Peter Safran to the stage from his video.
Safran walks out with the new Superman logo still on the screen.” Thanks so much for inviting all of us back,” Safran said. “It’s our job at DC Studios to make movies worth that experierence…sweeping audiences into the skies with Superman.” He uses this to transition into a first look at the trailer for Superman: A Christopher Reeves Story.
Horizon: An American Saga is the next title. Kevin Costner says it spoke to him, with a great deal of drama stemming from American’s moving west and using resourcefulness to take land and create opportunities for their own futures. It will be a two-part saga. He says the pair are “journey movies,” rather than singular plot movies. “Horizon is a journey,” he says. “It covers about 12 years. It doesn’t really deal with the Civil War but it starts before the Civil War and runs through it.”
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