Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: aquaman and the lost kingdom, barbie, blue beetle, cinemacon, dc studios, dune: part two, meg 2: the trench, The Flash, The Nun 2, Warner Bros, Wonka

CinemaCon Warner Bros. Presentation: A Diverse Slate Of Big Movies

Warner Bros. hosted its CinemaCon presentation and spotlighted some big 2023 releases like Blue Beetle, Dune: Part Two, Barbie, Wonka, and more.

It's day two of CinemaCon, and it's a day where all eyes are on Warner Bros. This morning, they dragged attendees from their beds for a very early and very long panel that started with the State of the Industry and led into the presentation. The State of the Industry is always interesting in that you can get an idea of how the industry feels after something like COVID, and they seem pretty optimistic. Perhaps not back on the "nothing can hurt us" levels from 2018/2019, but they are confident. From there, we got into the panel, and they kicked it off with a sizzle reel that showed off some of the movies they would be highlighting, along with some logos of films to come, including Superman: Legacy. A few films in there haven't been announced formally yet, but people should remember a logo doesn't mean the movie will happen. I saw the Batgirl Joss Whedon logo in Hall H.

Warner Bros. Is Bringing The Music This December

The panel started with The Color Purple and showed some footage for what will be one of the big awards push movies for Warner Bros. as they head into the new year. However, it seems a bit up in the air whether or not anyone actually wants musicals anymore, which is why it's interesting that Warner Bros. is releasing not one but two this winter. Not long after talking about The Color Purple, they talked about Wonka and dropped some extended footage. If you don't know it's a musical, you wouldn't know by the footage they showed aside from what looks like dance numbers. Musicals, as always, live and die by the music and the singing of the cast, so we'll have to see how Wonka does. It has the team who made Paddington behind the camera, and they seem to be leaning into that surreal sense of whimsey.

After The Color Purple [and before Wonka but both of those are musicals], we got some more Barbie. The people involved in this film cannot stop gushing about the script, and those doing the junket are in for a treat if the way Ryan Gosling acted on stage is anything to go by. The set was "pure dopamine," according to Margot Robbie, and apparently, people from other movies were coming over to see the world they built. The people who made the Batmobile were eager to one-up themselves on the cars for Barbie. From there, we got some footage where we got to see some more of the story and what kind of humor we're going to be dealing with. This movie looks wild, and I can't wait.

After Barbie was Wonka, and then Warner Bros. plunged into the Meg 2: The Trench trailer. It features a shot of a giant shark eating a T-Rex, which is all that needs to be said about that. It was an abrupt switch to The Nun 2 and they scared the crap out of the audience by having a ton of nuns walking through the audience. We got to see some footage and learned that this movie will continue to explore the mythology of the Conjuring universe. They showed off what appeared to be an extended trailer that was enough for this writer to nope right out. Look for horror movie coverage from fellow BC writers Jeremy and Aedan; I'll be over here doing anything else; it's not my jam.

Dune: Part Two And DC Studios

Warner Bros. has a few success stories with the hybrid model, but one of the bigger ones was Dune. The film took home $400 million at the box office on the hybrid model and brought in six Academy Awards for the studio. So once we get closer to the end of the year, they will be pushing Dune: Part Two extremely hard. We got to hear from director Denis Villeneuve, and he did admit that pitching Part One as the "appetizer" to part two's "main course" might not have been the smartest move, but it ended up working out. The problem with that kind of marketing was that Part Two hadn't been greenlit yet. Once Dune: Part Two was greenlit, there was less worry from fans that they would only see half a movie.

We got to see some footage which included some of the new characters and some shots of Paul riding one of the worms for what appears to be the first time. As someone who really enjoyed part one and has only enjoyed it more as time passed, October can't get here fast enough. The footage looked like a bigger and better version of the movie we got in 2021, and you have to wonder if more is on the way.

Warner Bros. decided to close out the show with DC Studios. They worked backward, starting with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. There was a lot of talk from Peter Safran and in a video from James Gunn about how all three of the DC movies coming out this year lead into the new DC slate they are working on. So that's interesting. James Wan sent in a video with some footage saying that this film is a "bromance" with Orm and Arthur. We see some of that back and forth in the footage, so if you're a fan of sibling dynamics in films, that will be fun. Black Manta is the big bad in this one, and he's using the black trident.

Moving from December to August, it was time to talk Blue Beetle. This movie is interesting in that it was moved from an HBO Max release to a theatrical release early in its production. That was likely the thing that saved this film from the same fate as Batgirl. We got to hear from the cast and director, who emphasized that the family would play a significant role in this film. They aren't going to be people standing on the sidelines who just so happen to know Jamie's got powers. They are the ones that ultimately help guide him and help him become the hero he needs to be. We got to see an extended trailer that showed off some more scenes and gave us more details about the story. It still had the "Batman is a fascist" line which entertained me greatly.

Warner Bros. decided to close out this monster of a panel with The Flash even though the movie was set to premiere in just a few hours. However, if you were expecting star Ezra Miller to take the stage after all the extremely serious allegations against them, think again. We got director Andy Muschietti praising Miller's performance and saying that they wanted to do all of their own stunts. Multiple people throughout the entire panel praised The Flash, but we'll see if they end up sticking that landing. We learned that this version of Michael Keaton's Batman is 30 years after the events of Batman Returns specifically, which I find interesting as someone who actually likes Batman Forever [don't @ me]. We got to see the same trailer all of you got to see, and the panel ended. The first reactions to The Flash will be online when the movie ends, so keep an eye on our socials to see what we think of the film. And as a reminder, no matter how cool you might think all of this might or might not be, the allegations against Miller are very serious and shouldn't be forgotten.

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