Posted in: Focus Features, Movies, Universal | Tagged: cinemacon, movies, universal

CinemaCon 2022: Universal and Focus Bring A Lot and Very Little Part 1

The CinemaCon presentation for Universal was a long haul that went on for two and a half hours and seemed almost never-ending. That likely has something to do with the way that the studio has decided to set everything up. They bring up theater workers to present with talent and while that is very cute to watch, the banter and everything means that the sections between each movie seems to go on for a long time. The studio seemed to do both a lot and a little at the same time which was very impressive. We will do our best to go over everything that we saw, but might we recommend the liveblog we did of the entire panel. It's all archived for you to read if you're interested. Also, the panel was long so this recap had to be split into two parts to keep from being massive. Sorry not sorry.

First out the gate for Universal was Nope and not anything we can talk about in detail. Director Jordan Peele requested our discretion when it comes to the footage that we saw. What we can say is that the movie looks insanely wild and if he manages to pull off the tone he's teasing, this could be really awesome. Jamie Lee Curtis showed off the first footage for Halloween Ends and while most of the trailer was footage from previous movies, we did see some new footage. It featured a fight between Laurie and Michael and she stabbed him in the hand. At one point, she flips the knife in her hand and looks down at him, as if the hunted-by-the-monster might be turning into the monster? This franchise is BC writer Jeremy Konrad's thing, not mine, but Curtis seems to really appreciate this role and what it has done for the genre.

Staying in the horror genre, we got a first look at M3GAN which is going to be doing the Child's Play creepy doll/toy thing but make it more realistic and lean way into the uncanny valley. The footage we saw specifically of the way the filmmakers made M3GAN was very creepy. This is a January horror movie so it could go either way. Beast, the new movie from Universal starring Idris Elba as a father trying to save his family being hunted by a killer lion, ended with a shot of Elba's character punching said lion in the face. Nothing else needs to be said.

One of the bigger surprises of the presentation was Easter Sunday from comedian Jo Koy. As someone unfamiliar with his comedy, he really won me over with basically a full set on stage and the movie itself looks very cute. He wanted to tap into the idea of family dynamics so that anyone could look at this movie and relate to what is on screen. A sharp change in tone in the Universal presentation to The Last Voyage of the Demeter is based on a single chapter in Dracula and it can be summed up as a period vampire movie on a boat. It looks pretty nuts, but they didn't give us a ton of footage to go off of. Monster movie fans should file this one away in the back of their minds.

Next, we moved on to Minions: The Rise of Gru and I just turned to my photographer, who is a massive Minions fan, who informed me that "maybe 20% of the footage they showed us was new including some fun with the Minions on a plane." This is something that happened a few times during the panel. They would speak as if this were brand new footage, but there were clearly a bunch of trailers that just had a few new scenes. Next, we had an actual big announcement during the Universal presentation of Bros which will be the first gay romcom. The entire cast is LGBTQ, even the people who are straight in the movie, and Billy Eichner, who is starring, writing, and executive producing, seemed very passionate about how this was monumental in terms of representation, but also something that anyone could relate to. There were some great jokes within the trailer that are going to hit hard for people within the community.

Staying on the comedy line of thought, we have Ticket to Paradise with George Clooney and Julia Roberts as divorced parents who hate each other but have to work together to try and sabotage their daughter's shotgun weather and hijinks happen. Clooney and Roberts have always had a great back and forth and this probably isn't going to change anyone's life, but we get to see the always stunning Kaitlyn Dever and Billie Lourd in this film which is a massive bonus.

An abrupt shift to a movie that is going to make me a little sick to my stomach is She Said which is based on the book by the two journalists who broke the Harvey Weinstein case. Needless to say, it looks very intense and is the kind of thing that is aching for some awards contention which is why it's coming out in the fall. However, it also looks like everyone is putting in some great work from the brief footage we got to see and this is a story that needs to be told as many times as possible because no one should ever forget what that man did or how many people enabled him.

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