CinemaCon movie preview: Cate Blanchett, daredevil Tom Cruise and Freddie Mercury reincarnated

IT’S the insider event that gets cinema owners pumped for the year’s most anticipated blockbusters, with the stars serving up their latest offerings. Here’s what’s coming out and when.

FROM a daredevil Tom Cruise and a reincarnated Freddie Mercury to our everywhere woman Cate Blanchett, the stars were on parade in Las Vegas this past week as Hollywood’s major studios showed off their upcoming wares at CinemaCon.

The annual event lures cinema owners from across the US to get them hyped up about the movies they’ll be selling tickets to in the year ahead — and often provides fans a first look at highly anticipated blockbusters.

And it wouldn’t be Vegas without a showgirl busting out a tune.

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Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett offered a glimpse of their all-lady heist flick Ocean’s 8 at Warner Bros’ CinemaCon presentation. Picture: lberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Introduced by her Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (in Australian cinemas July 19) co-star Amanda Seyfried as “the coolest grandmother ever”, Cher wrapped up Universal Pictures’ presentation with a surprise performance of ABBA’s Fernando.

Not to be outdone, Will Ferrell waltzed on stage at the Sony presentation doing his best Celine Dion warble.

Australian Oscar winner Blanchett pulled triple duty.

Cher (seen here at Sydney’s mardi gras) made a surprise appearance to sing an ABBA number from the new Mamma Mia! movie, in which she stars. Picture: AAP Image/Joel Carrett

Will Ferrell also came on stage warbling — a Celine Dion number — in a nod to the event’s venue, Caesars Palace. Ferrell was plugging Holmes and Watson. Picture: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

She graced the Warner Bros presentation twice, hitting the urban jungle with Sandra Bullock in Ocean’s 8 (June 7), then the actual jungle as the voice of the scaly Kaa in Andy Serkis’s “darker retelling” of The Jungle Book story in Mowgli (October 18).

Asked her first thoughts on joining the star-studded Ocean’s 8, Blanchett replied: “Honestly, I thought it was nuts.”

The following day, she and Jack Black spruiked The House With a Clock in its Walls (September 20), which director Eli Roth likened to Spielberg’s ’80s kids’ flicks.

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Blanchett came back for seconds with Jack Black to spruik their spooky kids’ flick The House With a Clock in its Walls. Picture: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

The event’s last day finally provided some upbeat news about the trouble-plagued Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody (November 1).

There was positive reaction to a trailer that showed star Rami Malek embody Freddie Mercury from early rejection — “not with those teeth, mate” — to stepping on stage at Live Aid.

Malek said he has received an email from Queen guitarist Brian May saying the film moved him to tears and that Mercury would be proud.

Earlier in the week, Bradley Cooper melded music and romance in A Star is Born (October 4), which he directs and stars in with Lady Gaga, who demanded he sing live in the film.

“It’s a big swing,” Cooper admitted, “but you can’t control what moves you.”

There was a strong response to Rami Malek’s embodiment of Freddie Mercury in the trailer for Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. Gwilym Lee plays guitarist Brian May. The trailer has yet to be released to the public. Picture: Alex Bailey/Twentieth Century Fox

Eddie Redmayne joined a handful of his Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (November 15) co-stars to share news that will delight Harry Potter fans: “In this film I get to go to Hogwarts!”

Unfinished footage of the Gold Coast-filmed Aquaman (December 13) — the headline outing for DC’s underwater Justice Leaguer — was revealed by Aussie director James Wan, who hoped it showed “a glimpse of the fun I’m going for”.

“I’m a blunt instrument and I’m damn good at it,” declares Jason Momoa’s hero in one scene.

Reaction was mixed, with one report saying the challenger to the throne storyline sounded a little too like Marvel’s recent hit Black Panther.

Aussie director James Wan (centre) reunited with his Aquaman cast (from left) Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Patrick Wilson, Amber Heard and Jason Momoa. Picture: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (June 21) star Chris Pratt had a simple request for exhibitors: “The last time I was here I introduced you to Jurassic World, and that went on to become the fourth biggest movie in history. So let’s do that again, please?”

Bryce Dallas Howard promised the sequel gets “right to the good stuff: dinosaurs eating people”.

Tom Cruise didn’t skydive into Vegas, but he did show off a scene from Mission: Impossible — Fallout (August 2) which required him to jump from a plane 106 times.

“A terrible idea, by the way,” Cruise quipped. “Scared the hell out of me.”

Paramount debuted a clip from its Transformers spin-off Bumblebee (December 20) — could it really be more ET than the usual crash-bang carnage?

Tom Cruise showed off his insane new Mission: Impossible stunts and met breakout comedy star Tiffany Haddish at the Paramount Pictures presentation. Picture: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Jurassic World stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard promised more “epic” dinosaur action in Fallen World, the sequel to their T-Rex sized 2015 hit. Picture: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Quentin Tarantino and Leonardo DiCaprio made a surprise visit to plug their yet-to-be-filmed Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (August 2019). Set at the height of the hippie counterculture in 1969, Tarantino said it will be close in tone to Pulp Fiction and that DiCaprio and Brad Pitt make for “the most exciting dynamic star duo since Robert Redford and Paul Newman”.

There was no mention of Australian star Margot Robbie, who is thought to be in negotiations to play the female lead.

Quentin Tarantino and his star collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio got exhibitors excited for a movie they haven’t even started shooting yet — Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, set at the height of the hippie counterculture. Picture: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

The trailer for Spider-Man spin-off Venom (October 4) revealed for the first time the black, sharp-toothed alien that makes its home in Tom Hardy’s body. Co-star Michelle Williams said she’s avoided superhero movies until now because she “didn’t want to play a damsel in distress”.

Ryan Gosling takes a giant leap for mankind in the Neil Armstrong biopic First Man (October 11). The actor joined his Oscar-winning La La Land director Damien Chazelle to unveil the trailer, which shows the astronaut telling his son that he may not make it back alive.

Industry bible Variety is already predicting Oscars galore.

Disney didn’t need to bring stars on stage to pitch their slate, the stars are right there in the titles: Mary Poppins Returns, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Aladdin, The Lion King, Dumbo.

Ryan Gosling met Jamie Lee Curtis at the Universal presentation on Wednesday. His film First Man is screaming “Oscars!” while her Halloween comeback will make audiences scream. Picture: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

The latter trio are live-action remakes of animated classics. Jon Favreau looks to have pushed the photorealism of his animals to new heights in The Lion King (July 2019), while the first peek at Tim Burton’s lavish Dumbo (March 2019) elicited “awwws” from the crowd.

Will Smith replaces Robin Williams as the Genie in Aladdin (May 2019). A Disney exec called his take “a little Fresh Prince, a little Hitch and a whole lot of attitude”.

Perhaps the weirdest title spruiked at CinemaCon was the pairing of the Jim Henson Company with comic favourite Melissa McCarthy.

Don’t book your kids tickets just yet: The Happytime Murders (September 6) is an outrageous, f-bomb laden filth-fest. Its tagline: “No Sesame, All Street”.

Melissa McCarthy has a surprise coming our way with her adults-only puppet movie The Happytime Murders. Variety says “The whole thing makes Ted look like Fraggle Rock”. Picture: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

ALSO PREVIEWED AT CINEMACON

Solo: A Star Wars Story (May 24)

The storied moment where Han Solo makes a bet with Lando Calrissian (played by Donald Glover) to win the Millennium Falcon was shown. One reaction: “Glover has so much swagger ... I can’t imagine him not out-charming Han in the entire film.”

Book Club (August 9)

Jane Fonda, Mary Steenburgen, Diane Keaton and Candice Bergen join forces in a comedy Deadline calls “a winner for older audiences”.

Crazy Rich Asians (August 30)

LA Times reporter Jen Yamato called the movie adaptation of the hit novel “the kind of big, beautiful, vibrant rom-com Hollywood needs”.

Halloween (October 18)

Forty years after she starred in the horror classic, Jamie Lee Curtis was back with the trailer for a sequel she promised “will scare the living s--- out of you”.

Constance Wu stars in Crazy Rich Asians, a rom-com adaptation that is already a beacon for Asian screen representation. Picture: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Claire Foy picks up where Noomi Rapace and Rooney Mara left off, playing Lisbeth Salander in The Girl in the Spider’s Web. Picture: Isaac Brekken/Getty Images

The Girl in the Spider’s Web (November 8)

The Crown star Claire Foy swaps Buckingham Palace for grimy crime on the streets of Sweden. Sony boss Tom Rothman said this Lisbeth Salander will make “Wonder Woman look like a Powerpuff Girl”.

Widows (November 29)

The one word everyone agreed on after seeing footage from this Viola Davis-starring crime thriller — about the wives of deceased crooks who take matters into their own hands — was “intense”.

Robin Hood (November 29)

Jamie Foxx introduced a trailer for the umpteenth take on the Nottingham outlaw. Deadline reported it looked “faster, snappier” than the old Russell Crowe or Kevin Costner incarnations.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (December 13)

Footage of this “different kind of Spider-Man story” was said to reveal stunning animation and much humour.

Alita: Battle Angel (December 20)

Director Robert Rodriguez emphasised his film’s “strong, relatable female protagonist” and showed off some visually engaging, action-packed footage.

Homes & Watson (Boxing Day)

Will Ferrell re-teams with his Talladega Nights co-star John C. Reilly to take the mickey out of Sherlock Holmes. Tagline: “The World’s Greatest Dicks”.

Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-it Ralph 2 (Boxing Day)

Footage from this animated sequel brought the house down, especially a sequence where Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) is inducted into the Disney Princess club.

Mortal Engines (Boxing Day)

Producer Peter Jackson sent a video message from NZ, sharing footage from his post-apocalyptic YA adventure. It reportedly showed “a malevolent Hugo Weaving waging war on anybody who gets in his way”.

Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson and James McAvoy will join super-forces in M. Night Shyamalan’s trilogy-closing Glass. Picture: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Glass (January 17)

A conclusion to the freaky superhero trilogy from M. Night Shyamalan that began with Unbreakable and Split. Samuel L. Jackson said: “It’s about time I got the title role in my own (trademark expletive) movie!”

Shazam! (April 4, 2019)

This DC adventure is said to be a superhero version of the Tom Hanks family favourite Big.

Wonder Woman sequel (October 2019)

Warner Bros revealed the follow-up to the DC heroine’s hit debut will be set in the 1980s.

Isla Fisher was also in the house at CinemaCon for the Warner Bros presentation — she stars in the comedy Tag. Picture: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Jumanji sequel (December 2019)

Sony Pictures announced a sequel to surprise mega hit Welcome to the Jungle for next year. Meaning Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan and Jack Black will be back in action before you know it.

Avatar 2 (December 2020)

Producer John Landau said James Cameron is currently shooting motion-capture scenes in a “huge water tank”. And star Kate Winslet has “nailed” the Na’vi language.