The 15 Most Anticipated Movies at CinemaCon, and Our Trip to Las Vegas!

26:04There once upon a time, there were$10 blackjack tables in Las Vegas. Right. They're long gone. I thought there might still be$20 tables. No$20 tables. Right. found only 25 50 and 100 on that main center center room in caesars and then i'll just i mean i just full body panicked i that is really stressful to me i didn't want to do it you would not sit you would not take any money out you would not take the money you watched me play for 40 minutes and it was totally fine it was totally fine nothing bad happened i was i was really stressed out the whole time and then i did take like a full hour after like my my heart rate didn't drop until halfway through the next presentation.

26:41This is when we were joking the other day about how on the pod, I'm the neurotic one, but in real life, you're the neurotic one. Listen, I just... That was the most clear example of that I've seen in a while. I know what I want. I know what I don't want. I know what I am comfortable with. I know what I'm not comfortable with. And I just really, really didn't want to do that. And then... Did you learn anything sitting there watching? Sort of, but it made me more stressed because, you know, I do know the basic rules of blackjack, but then obviously, like I'd never played with a dealer before, and there are some of the casino rules, and then also with other players at the table, you have to sort of be aware of what's going on there, and I had no idea about that strategy.

27:20They speak very fast. They do. So it did kind of feel like there was a whole language that I didn't know. There is a very important communal aspect at the table because whatever cards you are receiving are impacting, obviously everybody else sitting at the table. So having to interact with others but not knowing the language is like my nightmare. You're at a minimum table. It's the middle of the day. Everyone there is friendly. Actually, the guy sitting with us, it was his first time in Vegas, too. But he had warmed up at Mandalay Bay. And it was his 21st birthday trip. It was a very nice dealer.

27:53I wish I remembered her name. Temi. She was wonderful. She was from Los Angeles. Yeah, and we did a lot of LA talk. And that made me a little more comfortable. I do think it's both revealing and psychotic that that... situation is where you're most comfortable i felt so calm yeah you were just and you were great and you you won six dollars total but i thought that you did it i basically punted all my earnings at the end great confidence um yeah that's that's that that didn't work out no um i but you're very comfortable in that situation and then me being like let's go to the club let's go to a party and you're just like you know stone-faced absolutely not true and matt can confirm that i I was game for everything.

28:32You were. Let's take a quick break, and we'll bring in Matt Bellany to talk about the most exciting movies at CinemaCon, our time at a very special show, and a lot more. Okay, Matt Bellany, host of The Town. What is your title at Puck? I'm a founding partner of Puck, which is a fancy way to say I was employee number one. Okay, wow. Employee number one, amazing. Obviously, you host an incredible show where you cover the inside stories of Hollywood, we were together in Las Vegas. It was special. For multiple days at CinemaCon. You're not supposed to go to Vegas for more than 48 hours. Matt and I at least broke that rule by roughly 24 hours.

29:11Almost 48 hours. Yeah, and honestly, like, it wasn't bad this year. It wasn't bad. Normally, I'm just like, get me the hell out of here. But I had a great time. I think maybe because Amanda was there and it was your first time and I sort of felt like I got to relive Vegas through your eyes. Craig was there at CinemaCon for his first time. It was like, we did fun stuff We went to David Copperfield Yeah, we gotta talk about David Copperfield Let's talk about David Copperfield for a minute For the young children listening at home First of all, this was my idea You guys were unwitting or willing participants But this was my idea I've never seen him before I love magic I love Vegas I thought it would be a cool, half-ironic thing to do And I think we ended up enjoying it?

29:56Question mark? We had a fantastic time. I will also say you emailed us as soon as you found out we were going to be at CinemaCon and said, do you want to go see David Copperfield? And it was an instant yes from both of us. And in terms of like having a bit for the week, you know, anyone I spoke to, I would say, oh, it's my first week in my first time ever in Vegas. And I'm going to go see David Copperfield. And everyone was like, perfect. You know, it really, you couldn't have scripted it better for me. And honestly, like, I was a little nervous, to be honest, because I started reading some, there's some Reddit activity about him.

30:28He'd been kind of quasi-canceled and like, but not really. And maybe he lost a step. He is 68 years old. But we went, we, you know, there was magic. There was an alien at one point. There was a spaceship. We had a front row seat. It was honestly, the first 30 minutes of the show, I was like, this is actually legitimately good. It was typical Las Vegas illusionist work, you know, moving large objects, card tricks, popping balloons inside of balloons. There were like— Predicting numbers. Yes, numbers. Yeah, reading people's heads. Again, another thing, for the first 30 minutes, you turned to me just with joy in your eyes.

31:07Vegas brings out your childlike wonder. Yeah, I did. I think I said I would die from magic to you, which I would. You just kind of like a really excited golf clap, like kind of shrinking into yourself because you were so excited. No, I'm like Matt. I really like magic. I think it's fun to go see magic. The final 30 minutes with the alien, my take on it is when Steven Spielberg does that, it's really cool and emotionally affecting. And when a magician in Las Vegas does it, it's fucking weird. It's kind of psychotic. I mean, it was just an unexpected turn. It does take a turn. It takes a real turn.

31:39And for a while, So I don't want to spoil the show for anyone who is going to go to Las Vegas and see David Copperfield. But I do want people to understand that it is an animatronic alien. Highly reminiscent of Baby Yoda, but with teeth. Right? And I think Baby Yoda doesn't have teeth. Blue is the name of this alien. Blue 32. Blue 32. BLU. Yes. But about the same size as I understand Baby Yoda to be based on never having seen that show. But seeing a lot of these. And a quasi-surrogate for David Copperfield's absent father. Correct. We should say that. Yes. That's why I make the Spielberg comparison.

32:15It is a deeply emotional backstory that is maybe not as true as I had thought it was going to be when he first started telling the story mid-show. Yeah, and not something that you expect in a magic show. No. Right. But he is, David Copperfield is having an extended scripted conversation with a small blue baby Yoda-esque alien that can, I think, move its arms and head. And tentacles. And has basically alien veneers, but also can't walk. So then David Copperfield has to carry him around the theater. And they embrace at one point. They do hug. A couple times. If this sounds creepy, it's because it is creepy.

32:57It was a good time, though. It's interspersed also with quasi-old footage of his father who was in the military and was stationed at Roswell. Right, but I don't actually think that was old footage because, again— It clearly was not. Well, I know Matt afterwards was like, maybe— I thought maybe he was superimposed into old footage. You think he has that kind of VFX budget? Listen, based on what I saw of the various magic curtains that are all really grimy, I don't think they have the budget. You guys are really spoiling David Copperfield for all the fans. He has an island. He has a compound in Vegas.

33:29He's been a successful magician for 30-something years now. He's putting that money elsewhere. Okay. But I did think that the actor who played his dad was very attractive. And looked like him. He did. Yeah, well, I think they spent some time casting it appropriately. Well, when they first showed that image of his parents, I was like, God, his parents are hot. This is unbelievable how attractive these people are. Anyhow, nevertheless, we've spoiled most of the David Copperfield show in Las Vegas. I will recommend it. Big spoiler also. He has great hair. I don't know what he's doing. Right. Wig or dye job or he went to Turkey.

33:57I don't know what happened. For a 68-year-old man, there is a tremendous amount of hair on his head. It is a bouffant of hair. Thank you for bringing us. We had a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun. No, it was perfect. All week was a lot of fun. The CinemaCon in general, I think of it as two things. One, it is just like any old trade convention. It is like if you are a member of like Plumbers United and all the plumbers of the world come to Las Vegas for four days. Steak dinner Eat mediocre food Hang out Have too many cocktails And sit through boring presentations This is the same thing But for movies But also Except Ana de Armas is there Yes It's a little bit of movie nerd prom Where a lot of people you know From the business are there A lot of celebrities are there And you get to see some stuff You don't interact With the celebrities though You don't I mean that's true Ana de Armas was walking The casino floor at one point I saw her with my own two eyes Very rare That usually doesn't happen They know like Leo DiCaprio He don't do that He was probably back at his pool by 4 p.m.

34:54Yes. I remember a few years ago when I was there, I saw Lupita walking into a hallway, and I was like, good lord. Just a strikingly beautiful person. And they'll do meet and greets and stuff in private things. Someone asked if I wanted to meet the weekend. I was like, eh, I'm good. That would be an interesting podcast. We'll come back to the weekend. Anyhow, so it's this across three days, all the major studios present all of their wares, and they hope that the theatrical exhibitors will care, and of course that they will, because theatrical exhibition is in a very complicated, some might say dire state.

35:25Matt, why don't you give us a little bit of a sense of how things are going in the business relative to this experience? Not great is a good way to describe it. I mean, box office is in the shitter right now. It's like 12.4 % down for the year, domestic. This was supposed to be the rebound year. Survived till 25. Last year was not great, although it did rebound by the end of the year. Last year was surprisingly decent. Yes, it came back. you know there's just existential dread throughout and there always is at this convention as long as i've been going it's always been about how they're under threat streaming is killing their business the collapsing windows are killing their business covid all of it everything is aligned against the theaters and that is even more so now because as much as these studios are there to court these theater owners, they're also quietly undermining them.

36:16I mean, I did a panel with the head of Universal's distribution unit, and he was there saying, we are a theatrical first studio. We are there to put movies. We need to be profitable to put more money into movies, all of which is true. Yet they are a pioneer of putting their movies on premium video on demand as early as three weeks after they're in theaters, which most people in the theater business believe is significantly hurting their business. So that was basically the biggest topic of conversation this week. And I thought of something. I don't know if you've thought about this since it happened, but in 2017, Matt was actually on the big picture talking about the movie War Machine on Netflix.

36:55Do you remember this? Oh, yeah. It's a long time ago in our old office. Oh, man, yes. You came on, and we talked about the idea, really what windowing was and what it meant and what it meant for a studio like Netflix, which was just a streamer then, to make a movie like War Machine with Brad Pitt, who was one of the first major movie stars to basically make a streaming-only movie. And we were saying, like, for a company like Netflix, what makes sense in terms of when the movie should go? Listeners of the show can check that episode out. It's very weird. I think I interviewed David Michaud, the director of that movie.

37:23But back then, I don't know that I ever thought we would get to this place where after 17 days, a movie like Black Bag, which is a$50 million movie with movie stars directed by Steven Soderbergh, is available in your home. But for Universal, that's actually good business right now, financially. Oh, it's great, but it can be. It can be. For a movie like Wicked, he said on my panel, they made over$100 million on PIVOT. And they believe that they made that money and did not hurt the theater business in the process. But they don't share any of that money with movie theaters. No, they have their own taxes on that.

37:55You have to pay the distributors, but they keep more of the PIVOT money than they do from the 50-50 or so split with the theaters. So it's in the studio's interest to do these shorter windows. and in 2017, what we did not anticipate was COVID. COVID completely opened the door for these studios to say, yeah, you know that 45-day, 90-day window we used to have that we've never liked, but you guys have been able to enforce on us? We're just not going to do that anymore. And here's the new model that we're going to all adhere to. And if you guys want it, great. If not, so what? Just like speculate for me, it seems like half of the studios would be open to a 45-day window.

38:35half would not because they'd be leaving a lot of money on the table. Well, Adam Aaron at AMC claimed in an interview that he has half the studios, three, on board for a 45-day window guarantee. We can... Yeah, we were speculating. We can guess. Yeah, we know it's Disney. Disney already does that. Right. It's probably Sony because Tom Rothman is a big theaters guy and they have a Netflix pay one deal that pays them a billion or so dollars a year. so they can do that with the cushion of knowing that they've got this money out there. And no streaming service that they need to feed. Right, exactly.

39:12They have no homegrown streaming service. They probably could make more money on PIVOD, but the third one, I don't know who it is, and he wouldn't tell me when I asked. My guess is it's Paramount, but that's just a guess. But how can they even make any commitments now? Because Paramount has been sold. The new regime is coming in. I mean, yeah, they make a commitment to him, and then they're doing whatever. Sure. But the funny thing is, the guy who instituted the PIVOD strategy at Universal is going to be running Paramount, Jeff Schell. So what's he going to do? He's going to implement his old strategy.

39:46So they're probably not in. And Warner Brothers, I mean, they've got serious cash concerns. Maybe they'd be on board. I don't know. I'd be very surprised if Universal, Warner Brothers, or Amazon agreed to that. That just doesn't seem like it benefits them right now. Yeah, I mean, why would they? That's the fascinating thing. this was my first CinemaCon, and the tension between these two separate but conjoined industries that need each other, but also it is just the studios holding the theater owners hostage. Yeah, pretty much. And they're presenting and on stage being like, you're going to love it.

40:23Here's everything that we're giving to you. In your theaters. Right. We value your theaters. The theaters don't have any other choices. It's just kind of like, this is what you're going to show it, or I guess you're not going going to show it but what else is going to fill your and that's what the theaters say when they are when they start talking about why their business is so bad they talk about volume and they believe that if the volume of hollywood movies increase to back where it was pre-covid that their business will be fine their business will be growing set aside the fact that attendance had been going down down down even before covid so it's not like they were a growing business but they've raised prices they've done all the concession stuff they've done and they have adds up the wazoo before there are ways that they can make money if people are showing up and it's just that there's not enough movies in their view.

41:11Yeah, that's the thing is and that relates to the movies that were presented to us. They've been able to backstop by raising prices and creating more experiences inside of movie theaters which I honestly think is smart. I don't think it's a bad idea at all. I think Booth is a good idea. Yeah, it's a great idea. And it mostly works and so the theatrical experience to me is not really going anywhere anytime soon. It's just the scale may go significantly down. But a lot of these presentations, you know, some of these studios have like five, six, seven movies this year. I mean, going back to 10 years ago when they would have 12, 14, 18, 24.

41:43So those theater owners are right. Like there's just fewer movies to present. There's fewer movies for us to talk about, to be excited about. And they've made a lot of big bets and not a lot of middle bets because the middle bets are harder to market now. So I would say a very, very mixed bag in terms of what we saw. Like definitely a few things that would get the hardcore movie fans excited, a few things that would get the hardcore IP fans excited, but not the most rousing slate overall. Would you agree with that? Absolutely. Not a lot of sure bets in terms of butts in seats, which is everyone else at the convention's goal.

42:22a few things that we as movie nerds were really excited to see. A lot of movie stars that I was thrilled to see. Thank you all for coming. Legit major heavyweight stars. Yeah, I heard a little, ooh. When like Glenn Powell came, I was like, oh. Yeah, you know, and I knew he was coming. He was announced because Glenn Powell works very hard and shows up at everything. God bless Glenn Powell, but like, Leo and Tom Cruise were there. You know what I mean? Like this is a major, major, major event still in the business. So, but there were a few things that we were excited about. worrying that the things that you and I are excited about as movie nerds and the things that seem like sure bets do not overlap in the Venn diagram.

43:01I totally agree. I mean, that's the thing. The big movies that I think the studios are presenting to us, the sort of the linchpin film, the most important film that they all had, I don't know if any of them, save maybe one, made any of our lists in terms of what we're anticipating. No, but I will say that the one, I don't know if we want to talk about the movies yet, I actually am more interested in the Jurassic World movie now than I was before. That trailer was good. It was scary. My only problem with that movie is, which stars Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali. They were both there. Gareth Edwards, the director of Rogue One, was there.

43:36I saw Mahershala in the lobby that morning. Okay. Yeah. But then we'll talk about him when he left. This is another universal property. To me, every Fast and the Furious movie is the same and every Jurassic World movie is the same. and they're not necessarily bad. I think the Fast and Furious movies are much worse, but they're just, there's a big dinosaur. There's a dinosaur we've never heard of. There are children in peril. And then there's one plucky person who needs to save everyone and one dorky scientist. Like that's, it is, they're formulaic. It's probably going to be a better made movie because the director is really talented.

44:06The creator is like legitimately one of the best looking science fiction movies of the last 10 years. But I'm not like crawling out of my skin to see it. You just described every movie though. Like every heist movie, it's like a crew has got to get together to steal them. Like, every rom-com. Are they going to get together? Like, yes, they are. I don't mind the formula. In fact, sometimes I'm very comforted by it. So I'm with Matt. I was more excited by the trailer. I was open to it. I didn't think their banter worked that much, but that's... Oh, on stage, they were a little awkward. Yeah. And it's always funny how it comes back to Scarlett being a badass and, like, demanding a lot.

44:38Yes. Like, there were multiple references to her contract and, like, what she will and won't do. And I know she's famously as, like, you know... Hard charging. Yeah, she ended up suing Disney and all that stuff. But they, I don't know. Hopefully their chemistry in the movie is better. She looked exciting in the movie. So I'm open to it. So that's from Universal. Universal kind of had a double barrel. They had two of the biggest movies that they were pushing. Jurassic is in July, on July 4th weekend. Then they have Wicked Part 2. Actually, I had to leave before the Wicked Part 2 presentation. I wasn't going to say that on the podcast.

45:13I covered for you. And I covered for you at the Universal party. A dear friend lives in Las Vegas. We've known each other since fourth grade. I had to see the man. You know, it's that simple. Matt and I stayed. Cynthia. Because we care about cinema. Yes, you do. Yeah, Cynthia and Ari were there, but they did not sing. Okay. They did hold hands. They held hands and they. Did they save space? Yeah, they made even jokes about it. Okay. They're good at what they do. They sold what they needed to sell. And then they showed a trailer, which I thought looked fine. Yeah. I mean, the problem Universal has with Wicked 2 is that it doesn't have that signature song.

45:49So the entire campaign for the first movie was built around that song, which is interesting because it's the last five minutes of the movie. So you're essentially giving that away. Yes. But they knew what they had. They knew everyone loves that song. And it worked. It worked. So what do they have this time? They have more Wizard of Oz stuff, which we saw. But they don't have that signature song. So it's ultimately. So that's, I think, why they didn't sing. Because they didn't want people to be like, oh, well, that's not Defying Gravity. Interesting. Well, I'm not really excited about Wicked Part 2 at all.

46:20Nor am I, but it'll make money. It'll make money. Other movies that were not hyping per se, but were hyped. We'll talk in depth on the town about the Superman presentation. Oh, I have thoughts. But Superman was obviously the centerpiece of the Warner Brothers presentation, which ultimately I thought was better than I was expecting on the whole in terms of the movies that they showed. But there was a lot of time devoted to Superman. Yeah. Maybe not a lot of time well spent in that presentation. the footage that we saw honestly dimmed my enthusiasm for the movie a little bit me too but I will say that I talked to a lot of people it was the one movie that sparked a lot of conversation I think for my world because there's so much writing on it like the whole reinvention of the DC universe the embattled heads of the studio sort of need this to work and DC of it all but it's a weird mix it's this weird mix of earnest Superman with silly dog with kind of the irreverent robots and there's a monster.

47:19There's a Godzilla monster in it that we don't know how much is going to be in the movie. It just looked like a very overloaded premise. And, you know, James Gunn was there with Peter Safran and the cast and he talked about this desire to create, like, you know, a more Silver Age-feeling Superman. Like your old-fashioned style, hopeful Superman movie with lots of characters and a kind of shiny zaniness surrounding this, you know, embodiment of hope. I'm a little nervous about it. Yeah. Well, I am allergic to the James Gunn formula, which is sort of zany quippiness with, like, animals and then a lot of sentimentality.

47:59And it definitely fits the formula. And that formula has worked in many other movies. For three straight Guardians movies. So does it work when it's applied to Superman is the thing that all of you super, you know, super heroes can talk about. Chris Pratt sells that really well. He does. That's exactly what I said. He's so right for that James Gunn tone. Will David Cornswet be right for that? Or maybe Rachel Brosnahan, who is better at that kind of stuff and was very fun and I love her. I do too. But I don't know that Superman fits that. We're going to find out. Let's talk about Sony. They presented four films that are coming out in three years.

48:38That was their big announcement, which we already knew. But they're coming out in the same month in three years. Four Beatles movies. It sounds like one per week. I would bet that. I would say they're going to do one every Friday for a month. Now, they have not said that. It could be they all drop on the same day, which seems very bizarre for theaters because then you've got to choose. But even if these movies are sequential for a month, if the first one's a huge hit, the second one's going to be competing with the first one for those theaters. And then after that, Or if it's not a hit, then you've got a Horizon situation times four, where you've got to put these movies in theaters after nobody wants to see them.

49:18It's a huge gamble. Sam Mendes is the director. You'll talk a little bit more when we get into Anticipated, how you feel about the casting of these movies. Yeah. Which of these do you think comes first in the pecking order? Which Beatle gets his first movie? Well, I assume that they'll do it chrono—I hope they'll do it chronologically, but maybe they won't. One assumes. Maybe they'll release it. Yeah, one assumes. so you probably have to start with John or Paul right and also in terms of if you're trying to fight the the problem that Matt is describing you want to bring someone in with John and Paul and then you got to close with the other no disrespect to Ringo I would say we know which one is not first yeah who are yeah I agree it feels like Paul first John last right I mean I I would think so.

50:05Oh, I don't know. You think Paul asked? There's speculation that they will tell the story of the Beatles sequentially, meaning the Paul story will be the first four or five years, rise to fame, that kind of thing. And then they bring the other stuff in so that John's movie is about his relationship with Yoko and his death, ultimately. And then Ringo means the aftermath and the breakup, so it's sort of told through his perspective. That makes sense to me. Okay. Maybe they'll jump around or maybe it'll be the same story, but just from different perspectives. I don't know. You could see it being Paul to start getting the band together.

50:41George disillusionment and breakup and resentment and all that stuff. No offense to George, but he was mad. And then John. I mean, they'll all feature in all of them, right? So John afterwards, death. Do you have three years of podcasting in you about this? actually four when you include the awards run like this is going to go through i do march of 2029 you and i uniquely do but i did also think to myself i was like i will be 43 years old when these movies come out it's just nobody wants it nobody wants to hear from a 43 year old mom for five years straight about the beatles i just hope paul is still alive so he can promote it um the other sony announcements that were also big were that sony sorry spider-man beyond the Spider-Verse is coming in 2027, which is a long ways away from that last Spider-Verse movie.

51:34That movie was supposed to come out last year. Yes. And that Spider-Man Brand New Day, which is the new Tom Holland live-action Spider-Man movie, is coming next year, which is really soon. That movie's supposed to come out July 24th, I think, next year. They haven't started filming? Tom Holland is in Greece making the Odyssey right now? That's not usually a good sign. We'll see what happens with that. Well, although they did it with Jurassic for this summer. They did. They filmed that last summer. So maybe if Tom Holland goes directly from Odyssey to Spider-Man, they can pull it off. Earning that paycheck.

52:03Lionsgate, not a ton of huge announcements. The biggest one was probably that. How dare you? Ballerina? Are you kidding me? Well, we knew that was coming. I know, but the footage was good. The fights were good. Was the footage good or was the fight good? The footage was the fight. I mean, it was essentially a long fight scene. Now, I say this, and I don't know if we're stepping on our picks, but like, I say this as someone who has not ever watched a John Wick movie. So I'm not the best person to evaluate the spinoff. But I thought it was great. The fight scene was very good that they showed. They used that fight scene to then also announce simultaneously.

52:37John Wick 5 is in development right now. I assume it sounds like Keanu and Chad Stahelski will come back. Plus, an animated John Wick prequel is happening. Yeah, I don't understand that. A spinoff of the Kane character from the last film is also going to happen with Donnie Yen. Plus it looks like there's a lot more of Keanu in Ballerina than we may have initially thought. Yes. My understanding is they had to reshoot a lot of that movie. So they added a lot of stuff. We shall see. Paramount. Let's just table Paramount. Because they have a couple of big titles. And we'll focus on those when we do our picks.

53:13The big movie out of Amazon was Masters of the Universe, which is a 2026 movie. That's rude to everyone else who showed up at the Amazon presentation. The disrespect to Ryan Gosling right there. Well, I'm trying to hold it. That's what I actually gasped, by the way. Oh, you did? Yes. I'm trying to hold it for both of your sakes. Thank you so much. And for my sake as well. Masters of the Universe is, of course, He-Man, which five-year-old me was very emotionally invested in. And they very smartly included audio clips from the original TV cartoon of him saying, I have the power! By the power of Greyskull, I am Nicholas Galatstein.

53:49I'm just going to be totally honest with you guys I'm in That's good That was for you So we mostly observed from the press section And also in the press section There was a group of about 10 to 15 Mostly young men I didn't speak to them They seemed to be about 25 And they were hooting and hollering for this movie and for the Spongebob movie and for kind of all the fan IP stuff. There was a generational divide in the press area this year. Yeah, but this did seem to work for them. It's Travis Knight, Phil Knight's son, who's directed a lot of animated films. Honestly, his animated features are quite good.

54:34We'll see. But he did a Transformers movie that you also liked. Bumblebee is solid. I thought he, didn't he do? He didn't do the most recent animated one. Oh, he didn't? No, not animated. I thought he did the one with Anthony Ramos. Yes, Bumblebee. No, Bumblebee was the one with Haley Steinfeld. No, he didn't do... The one last summer that was actually pretty good. I did like that one too, but that one is not him. That's the guy who directed Creed 2. Oh, Cable. Yeah, Stephen Cable. Thank you.

55:05He's very good at directing things like Transformers, which sounds like a stupid thing to say. And this movie, I think, is for a very particular type of fan. but the thing that I thought looked cool about it was practical sets, practical costumes they're like carving stuff it wasn't a CGI green screen mess interesting experiment in 2026 what would you like to see them carve? well they're clearly carving Skeletor's face which I'm just delighted about I don't get it honestly I don't get him he looks like an 80s villain I'm a little dubious of him I agree, Nicholas Gautzen we'll see I've never bought it I mean, they showed a lot of footage of him working out.

55:45So he's trying. The ice video had him literally pumping iron. And he has definitely, you know, like, expanded to fill the contours of, like, the He-Man costume. But, like, I hope he's healthy. Craig, what are your thoughts on that bulking? It's a little swollen. He needs some time to cut, in my opinion. Yeah. Okay. In addition to that, we had a very brief presentation by Neon where they just showed two trailers to two upcoming movies. I actually didn't go to that one. It was at the beginning of the Lionsgate presentation. So they're... Oh, I showed up. I thought I saw all of Lionsgate, but I didn't see that.

56:16Their present of distribution came out at the very beginning Tuesday morning and showed the trailer for Life of Chuck, which is the new Mike Flanagan movie that won the Audience Award at TIFF last fall and then also Together, which was probably the breakout at Sundance this year. Dave Franco and Alison Brie, who are a real-life couple in a horror movie. I thought that trailer was really good. Love Dave Franco. He's very funny. He made another appearance at CinemaCon that was very funny. And then the last studio that we should talk about is Disney. They had a lot of big movies. Some of them we'll talk about in our most anticipated.

56:50The one that got the loudest cheers was Fantastic Four First Steps, which is their big July Marvel tentpole. Things in Marvel land are obviously very bad right now. Brave New World did very poorly. They've got Thunderbolts before Fantastic Four, which I thought looked pretty fun. Sure. Okay. I mean, I'm not a Marvel person, And so I look at these things and it's a little bit of speaking a foreign language to me. But it looked like a Suicide Squad ripoff. It is very Suicide Squad-y. And very Guardians, kind of bumbling superheroes. Yes, not as much your flavor. Not my flavor. I did see that they pretended to lead Wyatt Russell in from the casino floor.

57:33Yes. That's funny. He was fake drunk and had lost thousands of dollars at the tables. Even though he seems like an incredibly even-killed nice guy. First Steps made noise because we saw Silver Surfer, Julia Garner's Silver Surfer in the movie. And those 25-year-old men you're describing were very, very excited. Very excited. I was at home at this point because of child care. But our group chat with the Ringerverse crew, really, like I saw a lot of mentions of Silver Surfer just from afar. And that footage has not been made public yet? It has not. Okay. And Silver Surfer, who is the Herald for Galactus, the world-eating giant that is in the movie.

58:12Oh, wow. Okay. Is it worlds or universes? Planets. Galactus eats planets. So he will be the big threat. The movie has a very retro-futuristic style. I have been dubious of this from the first image that I saw. I'm still pretty dubious of it. I got an Incredibles vibe from it. Yeah, I think that's right. The Incredibles, I think, is very closely modeled on the original Fantastic Four, so I think that makes sense. I think this movie's going to be a big hit, so I'm not trying to undermine that aspect. Disney clearly cares about it the most. Yes, yes. Feige introduced it. They have been putting, I think, their most important marketing stuff behind it.

58:51It looks more interesting than Thunderbolts to me. It's definitely more high stakes. I have my doubts on the look and the storytelling style that they're going for, but that may just be personal taste. And in terms of actors, like Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby are, I think, a step above the Thunderbolts crew. No disrespect to Florence Pugh, but at least Pedro Pascal people think is a star. Yes. This will be an interesting test of that theory. This is not a Mandalorian helmet or a Last of Us situation. This is a real, like, he's got to carry this movie as Mr. Fantastic. And he has materialists this summer, too.

59:24He does. He's going to be a human being with his face on camera in two movies. And how much do we think the mustache will help or hurt that effort? Is he a human as a Fantastic Four? He is a human. He's been affected by materials in space that have transformed him into a man who can stretch his arms and legs and body. And mustache. So he's like a mutant. He's not a mutant. We'll discuss that later. Are you a comic book person? I don't know. You seem to know that he was a human being. I mean, I know the basics of the Marvel business. And I know just enough about all the movies. You have a child that is older than your children.

1:00:02I'm not anti. I see the ones that are popular. I like the, you know, the big, like, Joker I thought was great. And I see some of the Marvel standalones, Guardians, I thought was really fun. But, like, I don't know the lore. Okay. Like, that just went right over my head. This movie, in theory, you don't have to know the lore for because they're introducing all these characters for the first time. That's another reason why it's fairly important. Other quick Disney stuff that we saw, you know, obviously a lot of kids' fare that we won't spend too much time on. But Zootopia 2 is a pretty big movie.

1:00:32I'm curious if it will have a similar Moana effect because that's a movie that was pretty popular when it was released but has had an incredible lifespan on Disney Plus. And a lot of kids have seen it in the – it's got to be – is it seven or eight years since Zootopia? I believe that was 2015. Wow. Ten years. 2016. 2016. So nine years since the original film. It's been over two decades since Lilo and Stitch came out. That's the one I don't understand. Craig is like, this is going to be huge. Everyone loves this. I think so as well. It is not for my generation. I think it looks stupid. I think that Stitch looks like inane.

1:01:07Why do people love this? I'm in a private, basically movie fantasy league. And most of the people, and this league includes producers, writers, directors, podcasters, the whole nine. People who like spend all their time thinking about this stuff. Most of us took Lilo and Stitch because we think this is going to be a big hit. In our draft on the town, Lucas took it. And I was not interested in taking it at all. I think he's probably gonna win on that one. It's just, it's the similar thing to Inside Out to me where young millennials and Gen Z grew up with this movie. I did not, I did not. Even older millennials.

1:01:41I think I saw it in theaters. Did you? Yeah. Oh, interesting. I was like on the end. I also just want to say, David Copperfield's animatronic alien, not unlike the real life Lilo. No. Good point. Or is it Stitch? Stitch. No, it's Stitch. Lilo's the girl. Freakier Friday. Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lange show their faces. franchise that has passed me by. That is not relevant to me at all. This was the one thing I saw where I was like, oh, I wish I'd stayed to see them in person. I think this movie is going to work in theaters. I think people are going to see it. I do. I think that there's a real untapped female market for this movie that's going to do very well.

1:02:16You're probably right. Disney certainly thinks so. People I've talked to there said this is going to work. I don't know. Is the Lohan Renaissance real? It's one thing to watch a Christmas movie on Netflix. It's another to go to theaters. Weirdly, Jamie Lee Curtis has gotten more famous since the original Freaky Friday. Yeah, she won an Oscar. She won an Oscar. She's like kind of the grand don of Hollywood right now. It's very weird. Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis in Freakier Friday. I do also think this is like for my generation, but then also people younger than me. It almost has like this. This is a huge movie for my wife.

1:02:52Yes. And you get the sense that Jamie Lee Curtis is doing this as a favor to Lindsay Lohan. I mean, she's been steadily making that Netflix comeback for the last few years. Those movies have done very well for Netflix. The Irish Wishes of the World. I know you love that one. That's Garbage Christmas, I think. Or do we make it Garbage Women? Garbage St. Patrick's Day. What did you think of the actual footage they showed? I thought it looked bad. I thought it was painful. I thought it looked really bad. Like the worst kind of body-switching humor. Yes. Just bad. Very awkward. The original film is pretty slick, actually.

1:03:25It's pretty well made. this one did not look good. I think movies like that, the switch from film to digital has really hurt them. They just look cheaper. They look like more disposable. Yes. You don't, that's not always true. Like when you're watching a David Fincher movie on digital, you're like, that's a real artist who knows how to use this. When you just shift a cheap-ish comedy into that format, you can tell and you can feel it and it feels less than, but we'll see. Yeah, you can blurb that. Sean Fenton see, Freakier Friday is not David Fincher. You're welcome, Disney. A24 and Apple did not present we did see one Apple movie which is being distributed by Warner Brothers we'll get to that momentarily any other notes quickly?

1:04:03and Eddie Q is there, we don't have to talk about it on this pod Eddie Q is there, you can give us more insight into that on the town anticipated Matt you've got your number four is my number five let's just talk about it now we're going to our list yeah let's go to our list we each chose five i want to talk about this one first because it's in close succession with disney it's avatar fire and ash this is the third avatar film the first since the way of water which made over a billion dollars and once again two billion two billion dollars was nominated for best picture james cameron was doubted he again proved the universe wrong that he is in fact in total control even i a certified james cameron religious believer was like third one it's been it's only been a few years since the last one i also thought the footage was amazing great and did you have to did they give you three glasses yes we had three glasses for two different presentations it's the same style you see everything it's like spatial like when they're flying around you're seeing people falling off the creatures like it's all there it was they introduced two new navi characters the ash people and the wind traders.

1:05:11Oh. This is clearly like an intersectional war. It's just the actual filmmaking that he is doing, there's just not anything else that looks even close to this. It's kind of amazing. Like 15 years into the 3D revolution where you could actually have stuff in 3D for narrative features, no one else is doing it like this. He's the only person who makes it look like that. How is that possible? I don't know. It's very strange. Obviously, these movies cost an incredible amount of money and they've developed these extraordinary technologies. and some people just don't like the Avatar story. Like there's no, I'm not going to be able to convince people.

1:05:42Yeah, that was my one criticism of the footage. Like I don't know how many new people they're bringing into the tent with this movie. Yeah. And I was a little confused by the new character. It almost looked like Zoe Saldana wearing a costume or something, her character. But it looked great. And there is a new visual palette to them. The last one was very much underwater and had all those creatures. This one does have fire and there's like a more earthen tone to it. It's reds and browns. Yeah. It honestly looked amazing. Listen, they're always really good. We go, we're just like, wow, can't believe you did that.

1:06:13Happily spent three and a half hours. Yeah, you're not worried this one's supposed to be longer than the last one? We were very worried about two. And then it made literally$2 billion. And then, you know, it makes the money. Then we never talk about them until the next one. But it's fine. It's interesting for this one to come three years later. That's pretty fast in the James Cameron timeline over the last 25 years. Although it was supposed to be two. I think they delayed it a year. Right, right. Right. And honestly, whether or not four and five happened, which is planned and suggested, but if this, let's say this movie makes$1.2 billion, which would still be an incredible success, but would not come close to the first two movies.

1:06:48Is there a fourth movie? I don't know. Oh, I think there is. But the question is whether Cameron directs it. Yeah. We'll see. He's getting up there. Okay. Amanda, what's your number five? My number five is really very comparable to Avatar Fire and Ash. It's Megan 2.0. This worked for me. This was part, this is a Universal movie. And so it was part of the Universal presentation, which involved a live orchestra. And so I think I was probably the only person in the room who was fully on board with all the aspects of this. But they did have like 30 Megans come out on stage and dance to Oops, I Did It Again, the Britney Spears song that is a part of the trailer, while the orchestra played Oops, I Did It Again.

1:07:32And I said, yes. I said I am a 40-year-old woman here watching these people gyrate kind of creepily, kind of funnily to one of the most important songs of my generation. Then Craig and I met two of the Megans at the party. And I forced you to take a picture of them. Yeah, we did. It's a good photo. I put it on Instagram. Oh, you did? Oh, I have to like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They were, those two Megans were committed to the bit. I don't know. I thought the first one was funny. I chuckled at the trailer. Allison Williams is like in on the joke. And I think that works. But it is a tried and tested formula for a sequel.

1:08:10That robot. Make the villain a hero. It's T2. It's Terminator 2. I said this on a podcast three months ago, and I was mocked, and I will not be mocked now. They're doing T2. It's just, is that new villain as interesting as the T-1000? Well, that's a high bar, speaking of James Cameron. Probably not that high, but this is a June movie. I thought it looked fun too. Yeah. Okay, so I already gave your four. Your number five, you want to lay out again for Ballerina? I thought it looked cool. Yeah. I mean, so sue me. I think Ananda Arma's kicking ass for two hours is worth paying for. The problem I have is that I have not seen the others, so I should probably spend the next two months doing that.

1:08:55Were you going to see Ballerina? Yeah. Just for the pod, or were you going to see it with your heart? I'll see it with half my heart. You know who's going to see it? Craig? Oh, I was going to say, I was like, your daughter? Because it's called Ballerina? I was like, I have some notes. No, On to Armistice is Craig's favorite. But I think your knowledge of some of the production troubles is tainting your view. I think you're right. I think you're right. And I try to put that aside, because I mean, we both know that many great movies have had troubled paths to the screen. Honestly, what they did, and at least the rumor that Chad Stahelski, who has directed all of the John Wick movies, came in to do some fight choreography and amp up the action sequences.

1:09:35That's only good. I mean, he's just amazing at that. I would say in the extended universe of IP franchises that have come along in the last 25 years, John Wick is in a fairly holy place. It's really, really good. If this movie isn't good, it taints that a little bit, but if it is, I'll celebrate it. I like her as an action star also. She was the best part of No Time to Die. Oh, really? You don't think so? I thought she was fine, but that whole segment where he goes to Mexico was a little bizarre. Like, they could have cut that out of the movie. Well, totally. I think it would have been a way less fun movie without that part.

1:10:11It would have been very serious, and it felt like they were like, oh, shit, we need something fun to happen here. Yeah. I don't know. I was like, why isn't the movie more like that? Why don't we cut Robbie Malick out of this? You know? But that's my opinion. Okay, my number four is The Running Man. This was one of the big presentations at Paramount, and seemingly it's an important movie for them. It's coming out in November. It's directed by Edgar Wright, starring Glenn Powell. It is an adaptation of a Stephen King story, which was once an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Famously. You've never seen the original?

1:10:41I've seen it. I like it fine. Okay. It is not in my upper echelon of Arnold, nor do I think he's well cast in it. That is Richard Dawson's blasphemy. It's in his Hall of Fame. It's on his Mount Rushmore. Dawson is hilarious and great in that movie. Taking over for Richard Dawson as the host of the game show is Coleman Domingo, who is also there. I think a good pick. He was great. I mean, he was great on stage. He was great on stage. He looks great in the trailer. I thought this trailer was excellent. Edgar Wright, obviously born to do crazy action sequences that have a kind of winking sensibility.

1:11:15You know, this is a big one for Glenn Powell too. Do you think this is a serious action movie or do you think it is a winking action movie? Because I couldn't quite tell from the trailer. I think ultimately the former, but with a lot of the latter mixed in. I think because the stakes are really high and there's a lot of really grisly death in the movie. Right. I was surprised by how gory it was. It looks like it's going to be very gory. Maybe a little too gory for you? It's just, his winking gun thing is a little, like I let it slide in John Wick because there's so much other, but I'm bummed out by it.

1:11:47Yeah, it's going to be very, very violent. Craig was super into this. And he doesn't even know the original. I'm in the tank for Edgar. I really like his movies, but I thought it looked, even by his standards, it's like really kinetic and fast moving and exciting so i believe in glenn i do know the original matt that's why i was excited you do i don't i won't let you slander me on this oh i didn't know you knew the original i did the rewatchables on it oh okay yeah i i apologize i mean it looks way different and more exciting than the original right craig it does yes uh okay and he's and craig is is officially a great a glenn powell fan yes yes and he's you know he is slowly maturing into what we always thought could happen yeah um hold it i'm i believe in my stack yeah we never sell we never sell glenn uh number four amanda after the hunt luca guadagnino back after you all disrespected him that's fine uh he was in the room iowa debris was in the room andrew garfield was in the room wearing a new piece of jewelry but i could see it from it was Not the pendant, but it was a gold chain that I could see from the back of the press.

1:12:50You think he hit the David Yerman store at the forum shops? I hope so. Yeah. Well, I hope he has a sponsorship. Come on. He's doing good work. Good point. Julia Roberts, the star of the movie, was not in attendance. She was not. But she was in the trailer, and she does her signature Julia laugh while wearing clothes that were alarmingly similar to what I was wearing at the time of the presentation, which is just like the pants were not the same, but like way too close for comfort. Obviously, she looks much better in them than I do. listen I you know I'm in on this really? listen I love him he's one of my favorites the actual movie doesn't it look like a poor man's tar?

1:13:27sure but like I would that sounds like one of the best movies of 2025 I know okay but the politics of it seem weird it's like it's a little tired oh political correctness gone amok and who's really you know the victim here you gotta really nail that to pull that off so it was a blacklist script that was written at a time when campus culture, cancel culture, that those things had a different energy than they have, say, right now. I'll just say from a filmmaking perspective, I think it's the only movie that we saw aside from the PTA movie that was shot on film. And you could tell watching it. It just looked different on that big screen.

1:14:04Obviously, Luca is an incredibly talented filmmaker. Politically, whether it hits or not, it's kind of important to the movie's success. It's the whole movie! Yeah, well, I mean, it's 90 % of the movie. The other half is is Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield. So, and I owe it every. So I'm open to it. It's fine. I'm excited. Open mind, but I was a little, I was a little bit of an eye roller at some of the, it's also has a little bit of vibe of Disclosure. Remember that movie? The Demi Moore, where it's like, oh, we're going to do the sexual harassment movie, but we're going to make it about the woman as the harasser.

1:14:38Yeah, yeah. You get a little bit of that here. Yeah. We'll have to wait and find out. That is an Amazon MGM movie, right? Yes. And that's coming out in October. I'm cheating on my number three. I've chosen two films. Okay. One of those films is an honorable mention from Matt. I'm very, very, very cautiously getting interested in Deliver Me from nowhere. Now, I hate biopics. I hate music biopics. Oh, really? Why? Yes. Because I think they just boil everything down to the barest essentials and have no nuance about what an artist's life is like. And I don't like them. I do like hearing great songs loud in a movie theater.

1:15:18Everybody else does too. This is very soon after a complete unknown for this movie to come along. Bruce Springsteen obviously walked the path that Bob Dylan carved in the American post-folk movement. This movie stars Jeremy Allen White It's directed by Scott Cooper Whose movies I don't always love to be honest with you It's about a very specific time in Bruce Springsteen's Career when he was getting ready to Write and record the album Nebraska Jeremy Strong also Stars as John Landau His manager slash guru I would like for this movie To be great I was like Literally in real time like from one second to another was like oh no oh yes oh no oh yes the performances were cool it looked like it he looked right that was my big problem with the footage on stage when they're showing him with e street i thought he looked right yes but but off stage they don't even make any effort oh yeah physically physically look and and i know that shouldn't matter and it's not a caricature but it kind of did matter to me i was like oh that's the guy from the bear yeah like It's so weird.

1:16:29You would almost not even know it was a Springsteen thing until the music kicks in. And I don't know. That part of it was weird to me. I know. That actually makes me more interested in the movie, that it's not just glory days for three hours. That's actually not what I want to see, but that is probably what most people would want to see. Anyway, I'm pairing that with Roofman, which is just a movie that I have no expectations for box office-wise. That was the Channing Tatum. Yes, Channing Tatum stars as a man who robs McDonald'ses and is a family man who gets sent to prison. But he's got a heart of gold.

1:17:03He's got a heart of gold. Very straight down the middle. If this movie was not directed by Derek C. in France, I probably wouldn't be excited about it. But I love Place Beyond the Pines. This is a very specific kind of thing that he knows how to do about sad guys trying to get reconnected with their families. This is his whole thing. It looks good. It looks fun. Channing Tatum was there. Yes. I think that is the best version of Channing Tatum is the sort of hunky loser type. Yes. kind of a lunk. Agree. And that's what he's doing. Second best. Well, I mean, I guess hunky loser. I mean, he is a hunky loser in that too.

1:17:33In Magic Mike, yeah. That's what he does well. I accept. He's like, presents as a stupid guy, but then by the end, you're like, that guy's pretty smart. That's like his whole MO. But anyway, I thought that looked very charming. Amanda, what is your number three? The Venetian scheme. Ugh. You know what? Like I said, we were - Mad really negging your list. Excuse me. This is our podcast. I know. I'm a guest. I'm wearing out my welcome. There's a reason why I haven't been on since 2017. I put on my town hat when I did my town prep, and I'm ready, okay? This is a pro Wes Anderson podcast. Okay, all right.

1:18:06I will defer to you. He means a lot to me. I chuckled during the trailer, which I really don't even think we need a trailer for. Were you chuckling at the dialogue, or were you noticing something in the background that was perfectly ajar and probably cost$10 ,000 from some specialty shop in Manhattan? I was 17 years old when I saw The Royal Tenenbaums. Okay? Like, you'll never get me away from it. It's important to me. I like spy movies. I like parodies of spy movies. It's great. I'm excited. I thought it looked good, too. Yeah, thank you. I'm obviously in. I know it's, you know, I know what I'm doing when I put the Phoenician scheme on this list.

1:18:42Matt, I'm going to have to ask you to hold your three and your two, because they're going to come up on our list very shortly. Three, two, and one. Listen, we're all aligned where it matters. I was just having a little fun. All right. In the... I'll do my number two and then we can all collaborate on the final three. My number two is Weapons. I wouldn't say that this was the movie that had the most hay made about it. It's an interesting one. It was supposed to come out in January and when The Bride moved and One Battle After Another moved on the Warner Brothers schedule, this is the movie that got moved into that August window.

1:19:09They like it. They think it's good. So it's Zack Greger. It's his first movie since Barbarian. I love Barbarian. I love Zack. The footage that they showed, I thought was like electric. I thought this was a really, really good horror movie trailer with a great premise, which I'm not going to spoil anything. I'll just say that in a small town, in a classroom one night or a class one day, an entire class disappears. All the kids leave their house in the middle of the night and they're gone. Julia Garner is the teacher of this class. Josh Brolin is a parent in the community. It's a really good cast.

1:19:43Deeply unnerving trailer. It was a great trailer and also so great that I said, allowed to, I will never see that because it looks incredibly upsetting. Yeah. So, Craig was there earlier that week presenting his future Resident Evil movie that he's doing for Sony. The fact that this movie got moved into a summer window. This is basically the long legs slot. This is kind of where long legs came out last year. That early August look could probably be a similar sort of situation. I'm very excited about this movie. Great. I'm not a horror person. I know, you know, Zach Craig got$20 million for Resident Evil.

1:20:18So they have seen this and they think this is going to be a hit. So I'm going to agree with you with the caveat that it's just not for me. Okay. I would say there are three movies that are the intersections of our anticipation and excitement and that I think represent ultimately maybe what Hollywood, if they tried a little harder, could be more regularly. So three different versions of a certain kind of a movie. Sean and I made our lists and so we were divvying them up. So there's one movie that's not on my list, but it would be if we weren't divvying them up. So we can save it. Your two and one would be on my list if you weren't taking it.

1:21:04Yeah, also you and I have the same two and one. So would you like to say anything to me? Would you like to apologize in front of that one? I think that we both have our Venn diagram crosses in subtle ways. one of them being Tom Cruise, the other being Ryan Gosling. Sure, yeah. Let's talk about Ryan Gosling first. The big surprise I felt of the entire week was that Amazon MGM opened their presentation with basically like a six-minute reel. Cold open, too. Cold open. No announcements, nothing. Yes, which no other studio did this whole week of Project Hail Mary, which is an Andy Weir novel. He's the same novelist who wrote The Martian.

1:21:43somewhat similar story about a man alone in space trying to solve a problem. Regular guy, yeah. Yeah, Ryan Gosling. I'll try not to spoil too much about it. People who have read this book swear by this book. They love this book. The movie is directed by Lord Miller. Gosling is the star, along with Sandra Cooler. You may remember from Anatomy of a Fall. And what I said on X.com is it looks like a movie movie. This felt like a movie from like 2002 from 1987. It was like it's a big scale story but very simple. And in watching the trailer, you were just like, I'm just so interested in what happens next, which is very rare these days.

1:22:18I feel like, especially us, we're so cynical about every movie that comes along. And they sold the shit out of this movie. This was electric to me. I will say, so Amazon presented on Wednesday night and I had had two cocktails in rapid succession right before the 8 p.m. presentation. They knew what they were doing. It was... The nighttime thing. This is the latest presentation ever, I think at CinemaCon I was told and I think and I had I had titrated just right and then I sat down and they played this trailer that I mean the whole room was like oh you know so excited and then Gosling walked out and that is when I like fully gasped so they have this movie's not coming out until March 2026 it's gonna be one year yeah and they moved it right I don't remember what the original plan was the most shocking thing to me about this movie was when it said Lord and Miller because I mean I've never seen I would not think that they would even want to do a movie like this.

1:23:13Maybe this is their version of Solo that they didn't get to make. I think there's something to that. I mean, they did do the 21 Jump Street movies, which are live action, obviously. They're best known, I think, for the animated movies, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Spider-Verse. Those are comedies. This is not a comedy. It clearly has comic elements, though. Maybe even more so than what they showed us, I would say. Yeah, because they're playing up how big it is. Yes. And, you know, they said that basically none of the VFX were finished. but they showed us one sequence in space that looked incredible and very sophisticated visually and like done.

1:23:45Like I turned to you when we were watching it and I was like, is this movie done? Why do we have to wait a year to see this movie? Sounds like they have a lot more work to do but it's very exciting. Obviously Amazon is incredibly excited about it. It's the kind of movie that like, movies need movies like that to do well. Absolutely. I am definitely rooting for this movie. I hope that Lord and Miller like get more movies like this. It would be great if comedy filmmakers turned into blockbuster filmmakers. Agree. let's talk next about Tom okay so Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning is your number one it's Matt's number two by the way Project Hail Mary was my number one that was your number one yeah this is the eighth Mission Impossible film yeah could be the last one come on Christopher McQuarrie was presented by Tom Cruise with the director of the year award at CinemaCon which as we know is one of the most important awards in all of Hollywood in all of Hollywood perhaps the world he did give literally like a 12 minute speech reading very awkward yes reading off of q cards yeah someone clearly told tom that he needs to come to cinema con because he needs to present to mccrory yes and that resonated with him oh i can do that i'll go yes because i'm going for him and he's my collaborator but like nobody else got their award like remember last year they gave kevin costner a fake award on stage and he was teary and thanked everyone yes like i think they did give jim brooks his award they did you're right on stage and what was his like the cinema verite or something made up thing again extremely important yes but like it was a long speech about Chris McQuarrie who nobody cares about I wanted to hear Tom Cruise talk about Mission Impossible he glanced at moments from his career but it was the same five or six you know you hear the Sherry Lansing you know supported me since TAPS like he has a couple of things he returns to but the truth is is that like McQuarrie literally is the most important director in his life in the last 20 years they've made the most movies together he's the first person he calls when one of his movies is going sideways and he's now been directing him in what I think are these genuinely great Mission Impossible movies.

1:25:43If this is in fact the last one, I would say what they showed us was pretty close to what we've seen before. There were a couple of new wrinkles, a couple of new sequences, but it's a loaded cast. A couple of more people. Who were the two people who were added? One was oh my god what's Ron from Parks and Recreation's name? Oh Nick Offerman. Nick Offerman was featured. There was one other guy who was like in a room wearing a general's uniform that I was like, oh, him too? Milchick from Severance is in it. Tramiel Tillman was in it. But yeah, there was someone at Tramiel Tillman from Severance, which was exciting.

1:26:16But there was one other person whose name is escaping me. But aside from that, like it doesn't even matter. It's just like, it's going to be a Mission Impossible movie. And they also interspersed clips as they did in the previous trailer from old Mission Impossible movies. Yes. They're trying to end game this. I think specifically the first one and showing us like the arc because there's a lot of stuff of the knock list sequence breaking into the CIA and kind of cutting back and forth to that. But I mean, I get emotional every time I see him say, I need you to trust me one last time. You know, like, okay.

1:26:48It's a great line. And it was the whole week sort of, this was the Thursday morning presentation, which was the last day. And we all knew Tom Cruise was going to come out, but they waited until the last 20 minutes. And I just like, you know, and I stayed an extra day to see Tom. It's all built to going to see Tom in peril himself for our benefit and entertainment. And I can't wait. Yeah, I will say, and we may maybe say this for the town, but the presentation wasn't great. It was okay. And compared to past CinemaCon moments with Tom Cruise, I was there for Fallout where they showed the plane stunt and just really blew everyone away, the motorcycle thing.

1:27:28This one doesn't seem to have that moment. They didn't give us that. I wonder if they gave away the game too much by showing us the new plane stunt early in the making of, even before the trailer. And now we saw it in the trailer and then we see it again. So if the two red and yellow planes, the sort of red barren plane fight, if that is the big sequence, then we've already seen it. I'd be surprised if there wasn't something else that they're holding back. There was a quick flash of him jumping into the water from a speeding boat. Yes, that was cool. Oh, that was cool. That was very cool. Clearly he would have died in real life.

1:28:00It might be the aircraft carrier that we saw. That might be the thing that... Oh, that's right. Well, there's a whole water... There's a submarine. They added submarines into the first one. I mean, that's the fascinating thing about this movie is how much have they pivoted since the last one didn't do that well because these were supposed to be one long story. And the end of the last one is Isai Morales. He's still the villain. The whole thing is about that internet. What's it called? The entity. The entity. Is that still going to be it? And the cruciform key. Yeah, and the cruciform key is shown in the trailer.

1:28:36He grabs it and then he dives off to, I don't know, find it at the bottom of the ocean. I think it's just a fascinating moment for Cruise, this movie in particular, because, you know, this next movie is with Ina Ritu next year. Is this like, is there going to be a break in franchise filmmaking for him? Will he go to a different phase or not? It's possible. If this movie does really well, I think it will have this kind of dual effect of, I could say that I'll table this sort of thing for now and focus on other kinds of movies, which people like you and I have been begging him to make for 10 years.

1:29:07Or, if it works, does Paramount need him to make 9 ASAP? We'll see. Yeah, I don't believe this is the last Mission Impossible. I just don't. It's like fiscally irresponsible to not do that. Like, you can't, you have to have it in, maybe it won't happen right away. Yeah. But. People will want it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, number one. This is my number one. This is Matt's number three. Where would this be for you? Definitely number two. We saw an extended sequence from one battle after another. It feels like a moment shortly after the moment in the trailer where Leo is trying to make a connection with the revolutionaries over the phone, and he's forgotten the password.

1:29:49What this told me, without ruining anything for anybody, is that this is, while it is a big, heavy movie with lots of set pieces and locations, that it's basically a weird, zany comedy. And the tone is very fast and funny and a little goofy. Absurdist. Absurdist. Like the way, almost the way that Boogie Nights was absurdist. Yes. Where they all believe they're in the most serious movie that they've ever been in. But we see through that. Yes. I don't want to ruin it for anybody, but this basically, not that I needed any confirmation on my excitement, but I was like, we're good. This is going to be good.

1:30:23I know this is going to be good. Yes. You referenced Wolf of Wall Street to me in terms of like the tone of the Leo performance that's big and a lot going on, but also it's funny. Yes. Yeah. So this is a huge gamble. Obviously, you've been writing about what's been going on at Warner Brothers over the last few months and the bets that Pam and Mike are making. I will say they lifted the Sinners embargo this morning two weeks early because they premiered it last night and everybody came out screaming it's great i did see it a few weeks ago it is great i don't i'm very curious to see how that movie performs but there's a world where maybe this movie does a little bit better than they thought they also showed us some of the bride which i thought was going to be like a fiasco based on some of the reporting i thought it looked kind of cool yeah we talked to each other and we were like yeah again we're wearing our big picture hats right now matt yeah you know no no i listen i thought congratulations to jesse buckley by the way it did look different the bride certainly looks different the thing that was interesting about one battle after another to me is that it feels bigger than the initial trailer.

1:31:25When I saw that first trailer, I was like, how did this movie cost$150 million? What are they doing here? It can't just be Leo. But then this footage they showed, there were helicopters. There were multiple battle sequences. There were things The Sean Penn military element is clearly a big part of that budget that you're talking about. And that, to me, at least, both creatively, I was more interested in this. I thought it looked better to me. And I think from a studio perspective, like, you get it a little bit more. It might be easier for them to sell than we're thinking because it's PTA. And it was funny.

1:31:58I mean, this is a Lebowski-esque performance from Leo, it looks like. It does. That sounds good to me. And he was there. He was. He was there. We'll talk about that on The Town. Should we go to our episode of The Town, Amanda? You want to do that right now? Yeah, great. Matt, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Thanks, guys. I look forward to being back in 2031. What is it? Uh, yeah. I don't know. We should definitely try to do CinemaCon again sometime soon. Um, for the rest of our conversation about the presentations and what to expect from movies in the next 12 months, go listen to The Town as soon as possible.

1:32:31Hopefully we're double posting. Thanks to Jon Jones for filling in as producer today. Thanks to Matt and Craig Horlbeck. Next week on the show, we were going to do best movies of the year, but I think we're going to pivot a little bit. It's a little thin on the ground. It's a little thin on the ground. Well put. But we are going to talk about a Minecraft movie, speaking of Warner Brothers. And we'll have like a little bit of a movie State of the Union because there's a lot of shifting tides at the moment that we need to sort through. And we will recommend some of the best movies that we've seen, right?

1:32:59I've been catching up on some stuff. I added one to the list. You did? Yeah. Okay. One. All right, guys. Thank you. See you soon.

1:33:19Thank you.