The 15 Most Anticipated Movies Out of CinemaCon and Our Trip to the Sphere!

20:39Matt Belloni:Yeah. Well, I talked to a lot of the exhibitors and a lot of the executives. They are optimistic. This was definitely the best mood I have seen at CinemaCon since I started going. And that was a long time ago. Certainly pre-COVID. Since COVID, it has been like the, you know, beaten up stepchild. These executives, they just don't know what's going to hit them next. And it was not just COVID. It was the studios pivoting to streaming. And it was all the different changes to the model and the windows and all that stuff that we talked about on the town. And I think that there was cautious optimism this year.

21:16Matt Belloni:And these theaters, they don't have the luxury of thinking five years down the road. They are trying to not go bankrupt this year. And many of them believe they will survive this year now. Yes. Interesting. So the group of people that are there, this is increasingly, I would say, a press friendly event. And it's meant to generate a lot of hype coming out of it. Used to not be. I know. Used to be very press unfriendly. Since I've been going, it has gotten dramatically more friendly to the press. But, you know, it really is meant to be there for, and, you know, not just AMC and Regal and the chains that you know about, but a lot of independent theater owners, a lot of small consortiums of theater groups.

21:52A lot of, you know, a legendary Canadian exhibitor was honored when we were there. That's the thing. There's a lot of time spent talking about the people who run the theaters before presenting.

22:02Matt Belloni:They have a propaganda video that goes along with it. Yeah. Yes. Some of it is charming. some of it's very boring um but it it's like we are attending the most high touch star laden plumbers convention in the world i mean that's really what it is and it's an it's a very nice event it's very well run but it's like going to a trade show and then all of a sudden the rock comes out yes exactly or tom cruise or you know the most famous people in the world attending holy shit that's that's nicole kidman and sandra bullock like standing next to each other here's Tom Hanks standing next to Tim Allen. Over and over again.

22:36This year, the star power was high. Oh, yeah. But there is also a lot of actual trade show stuff and panels and things happening. You hosted, too. You hosted, too. There are a lot of things about popcorn machines and movie theater carpeting. No, I haven't.

22:52Matt Belloni:You guys need to walk the trade show. I've walked the trade show before. I mean, the flavors of nachos that are available, unbelievable. You needed that before your margarita. Well, I know I needed the Cheetos popcorn that I've seen at the theaters, but still have not tried. Yeah, like the varying shades of carpets. Yes. And things like that. But so all of that is happening in, you know, individual ballrooms and beyond the main stage presentations that we're seeing. And then obviously also there are lots of meetings and people talking. And Matt has a lot of reporting on the machinations behind the scenes, which feels like where a lot of the real conversations and a lot of the power is concentrated.

23:32And then, you know, we get investor day presentations and they have that feeling of what is being shown to the world and also what is being studiously avoided at all times.

23:46Matt Belloni:But but to Sean's point, the press is a big component of that. Yes. pre-social media, pre-video streaming, all of it, it really was for the theater owners. Right. And they would feel free to show them stuff that they weren't going to debut in months. Now, you have to be so careful with what you show and who you showcase because you know that this is the first time that the narrative is being created around it. Like, there is now a narrative around the Tom Cruise movie because we have seen, even though they released nothing, Public has not seen Tom Cruise. Only we have seen it. Only we have seen it.

24:24Matt Belloni:But that was never a factor. And the amount of press, and now there's rumors that the studios are flying in influencers to be there. We heard some people. You could tell based on where we were sitting. There were people that were going absolutely nuts for an Evil Dead reference. And things that you're like, what? Yep. And that was never the case before. Yes. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that per se. In fact, it probably behooves them to keep exposing more and more people to some of this stuff to keep building word of mouth. The thing is, is there's a real distortion effect because when you invite people whose job it is to cover only Marvel, when you launch a trailer inside of a room for people who only care about Marvel, you're obviously going to get overstated enthusiasm for certain things.

25:10It's a good strategy, but it's just not an honest representation of how the public at large will understand it.

25:15Matt Belloni:And what I used to like about CinemaCon is that it was a tough room. Like, these were not people that stood up and applauded for every trailer. They were like, okay, is this going to be commercial? Is this going to fill my theater? And it's sort of like, it's merging with Comic-Con a little bit. A thousand percent. Yes. These fans are there with the express purpose of promoting the content. Yes. And it's taking away a little bit of the objectivity and the stuff that I like, which was really the ability to evaluate. Right. Hopefully we'll be able to do some of that here. We're also going to do an episode of The Town together.

25:52Yes. And when we do that, we will go through each studio presentation, bit, you know, section by section, and talk about what we thought worked well. But for this conversation, I at least wanted to know who you guys feel like is best positioned right now and maybe who's in a bit of a tough spot out of the six majors who presented. Right. Who would you rather be? If you were the head of one of the studios this year, who would you want? With the understanding that we're on the brink of consolidation between Warner Brothers and Paramount, of course. Well, I mean, I don't want to be either of those people.

26:22And I think that even though, you know, Pam Abdi and Mike DeLuca came out and did a victory tour, and that was a major part of their presentation. You rarely see mention of Oscars.

26:33Matt Belloni:They went on and on about all their Oscar nominations. Many times. These theater owners do not give a shit about Oscar nominations. If you are not filling their theaters, like, they hated Inora. They thought Norah was garbage because it didn't do any business. Yeah, that's a good point. Right. So, you know, they won Oscars and congratulations to Mike and Pam. They're very good at their jobs. But I think that for many reasons, I would prefer to be Donna Langley right now, which I think what's interesting is that we would have said that before we even saw the presentations. Right. Some of it is just what is on.

27:07What do you got? The schedule and how guaranteed. and they have a Steven Spielberg movie and a Christopher Nolan movie coming out this summer, plus the Minions movie, plus, you know, plenty of other, plus Super Mario, which, so they're doing fine. Donna Langley also came out to God Save the Queen. She did. She is a dame. I know that she is dame Donna Langley. So, you know, that seems fun. Just if we're choosing to be people. But, you know, Universal has its own strategy, is not in the merger game, has figured out the balance between franchises and big-name directors, and not just auteurs, but auteurs who put butts in seats.

27:50And it is their year. Last year's Universal Slate, they had the second Wicked sequel, but much of it was just like, wait till 2027.

28:00Matt Belloni:They were vamping a little. They brought their full orchestra to the stage. Exactly, you know, and I enjoyed that from a showmanship perspective, but this is the year where they're just like, here are our goods. Like, we've got it. Yeah, I think they're in generally a good spot because it's just a very smartly, creatively led company. But they're also in a tricky spot because they're not as big as Disney and they're about to be a lot smaller than Warner Paramount and they can't compete with specifically what Netflix does. So it's unusual. Like, they're going to have to jump from lily pad to lily pad if they're going to keep playing the director-led Christopher Nolan game.

28:32There's only one Christopher Nolan. Maybe Denis Villeneuve's coming up behind him as another brand name who's under 70 years old that can do that. But it's few and far between. You've got to be really, really savvy. They have Jordan Peele. They have Jordan Peele. And now they're trying to do it with the Daniels. Nobody believes in that idea more than I do. That's my favorite thing. So I'm pumped that they're doing that. But it's going to be hard to consistently nail it. I just think for our show, Universal, that makes a lot of sense. I get it. You ask who I want to be. And also that's part of the thing where you're saying that the theater owners are only thinking short term.

29:06There was a... So for this year on that stage, that seemed like the strongest position. But to your point, you know, what we know about 2027 and 2028 will be an interesting discussion.

29:20Matt Belloni:Well, Universal has Shrek 5 in 2027. That's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't want to pre-draft or my next year draft, but that is a consensus number one. Are you personally a Shrek person? No. I don't know what that means. Well, let's start with this. Have you seen the films Shrek, Shrek 2? I have seen them all. You've seen them all, even Shrek 4? I believe so. Wow, okay. I like them. In fact, I distinctly remember seeing Shrek 2 in the theater and loving it. So I would like to let you know you are officially a Shrek person. Can we have Matt Bellany Shrek person here on the Chiron? But isn't there a weird fetish community around Shrek?

29:57Matt Belloni:He's become this icon. Just be careful with fetish. Yeah, I think that to a younger generation. He's a millennial icon. I think he's more cusp millennial Gen Z. I think young millennial. I think young millennial. Okay, so when Bobby Wagner, his parting gift to us was making us watch Shrek 2, I believe. Which is hilarious. It was, yeah, it's funny. Some of the references are dated now because it's very much of the moment. Listen, I saw Shrek in theaters. I remember, you know, the donkey. It's good stuff. I don't think I've seen all four of them. Also, I love the industry narrative behind Shrek is still amazing.

30:35Matt Belloni:The fact that Jeffrey Katzenberg gets fired by Disney, has to sue them for money. And what does he do? He goes and creates an animation company. And not their first, but one of their first movies was a movie where the king is a tiny guy just like Michael Eisner. And he is power mad. And he uses all the fairy tale characters that Disney has dined out on for decades. And he kind of perverts them. and then he goes and makes one of the biggest franchises of all time. Yeah. Okay. You want to be Universal. Who do you want to be? Disney. Yeah. I mean, as much as I would love. Yeah! For the purposes of this show, I get Universal, but.

31:13Some of it's about lifestyle choices, you know? It is. That's where I would rather be dealing with the Minions.

31:18Matt Belloni:Yeah, and I want the Spielberg movie to work. Yeah. It is still a big risk. Even though we loved, we talked about, we loved the new trailer. What they showed us, yeah. And it's much better. It's still a risk. Disney has come the closest to de-risking the movie business. Not certainly hasn't solved it and questions about some of their titles. But if you look at what they're doing, Toy Story 5 cannot miss. That is going to be gigantic. And I'm not just saying that because I have it number one in our draft. Okay, that was your first pick. It was my first pick for a reason because it is if Zootopia 2 can do 1.9 billion, what can Toy Story 5 do?

31:59Yeah, and nothing that they showed us indicates that it's anything less than just a Toy Story movie. They nailed those movies.

32:06Matt Belloni:This one is a great idea. I cannot believe they have not had an iPad in these movies before. And it's going to be gigantic. Moana looks like it's going to work. Not for me, but sure. Not for me. No, but people see these movies. But no one cares what we think. Exactly. That's fine. And Avengers... Hopefully just when it comes to Moana live action. I was getting my daughter ready for school this morning and I was like, okay Alice, here's what I did this week I watched clips from Toy Story 5 The Mandalorian and Grogo and Moana and her response was, can I go next time? so, you know I know, I tried to explain CinemaCon to my 10 year old, very difficult so you saw all, no I didn't really see the movies, I saw like 17 minutes of the Mandalorian movie, oh is it good?

32:51yeah, it was good. Well that's the thing about being Disney is, you know, I think there's late this year seems strong but very uninspiring creatively right and I'm not judging the creativity I'm judging

33:01Matt Belloni:the performance likely performance and to your point about the de-risking it's just it's been a trend over the last 15 years that they're engineering purposefully a kind of loss of originality it's really like hopeful to me that Hopper's worked you mean imaginary yeah imaginary yes Hopper's worked but Hopper's gross 350 million dollars that for Disney that's not enough that's modest yeah I agree but Did you see Hoppers? I did, and I liked it a lot. Yeah. And people liked it who saw it. So, like, I'm not... Hoppers is a success for them. It's going to do well, and it's going to do well on Disney+.

33:33And it will do great on Disney+.

33:34Matt Belloni:And they may, in five years, be able to do another one, which is The Judge, you know. Just like we'll get in Kanto 2 at some point, but we didn't know. We thought that was not a success at first. Yeah, Coco 2 is coming. They're still doing that stuff. Yeah, yeah. So that's... I just feel like Disney is still the machine. It's diminished. They don't have three Marvel movies this year. They have one. but it's going to be huge. I actually had to leave. I couldn't see the Avengers stuff. So maybe your willingness to be Disney is that you didn't have to deal with all of the people cheering. And I didn't have to see the Avengers trailer twice.

34:07Let's just talk about that right now because I think that's one of the most anticipated things coming out of this. Educate me. Amanda and I did see it. Twice. So during the Disney, the closing moments of the Disney presentation were Kevin Feige was introduced. He came and spoke about this upcoming film. He introduced Joe and Anthony Russo, the filmmakers who made two Captain America movies and the last two Avengers films. They're making this Doomsday movie. Don't forget the erasure of the electric state will not be tolerated on the show. And Cherry and a number of other films. The Gray Man. The Gray Man, yes.

34:39And didn't they do that TV show that was the international spy TV show? Yeah, that no one watched. What was that called? It was called Citadel or something? No, Citadel. Citadel. Okay, I was close. they've had a complicated previous eight years and I would say that it was not the most enthusiastic response from the theater owners when they walked out yeah because they've been doing few directors have made more money for them in the last 10 years than those two guys but I mean we know who's running the show they introduced Robert Downey Jr. who was playing Victor Von Doom Dr. Doom in this new film a character whose name has I don't think ever been uttered in any Marvel movie in this iteration.

35:24Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Well, it indicates, I think, a little bit of the challenge of what we saw, which is we saw, after Downey came out, he introduced Chris Evans, and we watched the full trailer. And the trailer, I think, did what it needed to do, but what it did, we've already seen before. Which is to say, it's a movie about a group of disparate heroes coming together to fight a big villain. But the Thanos thing in the Infinity Saga, they took 10 plus years, 14 years, years and years to build that story out over time and build anticipation. In this trailer, where you see the Fantastic Four, the Fox X-Men characters, the Avengers from the previous films, the characters from Black Panther, you know, Shang-Chi, Gambit introduced in the Deadpool and Wolverine movie, all these characters they all need to come together and fight Dr.

36:22Doom and that's cool like I read comic books as a kid I'm a huge comic book movie fan in general I've been way down on what they've been doing the last five years but we don't like what is the conflict why are these people coming together and more importantly why do we care

36:38Matt Belloni:because the goodwill that led to Infinity War and Endgame was the momentum of all those movies we cared about and also the build up of those characters Can I say that it did feel like the B-team of people? Because it is Thor narrating, but you're seeing Asuri as Black Panther. You're seeing Florence Pugh, who I like a lot, but she had Black Widow, which was a COVID thing, and she was not Black Widow. She stole the movie from Scarlett Johansson, but that's fine. And then Thunderbolts. All of the other characters seem like they are newer. We've spent less time with them in this franchise. They've had less time to develop them, and they do feel like the replacements.

37:22In many cases, they are the replacements, whether that's because of story or life reasons. And so it felt like reheating a little. Yeah. I mean, the two major, major characters that are back are Thor and Captain America. How did they deal with the Iron Man paradox? He's just not there. He's just not there. He's just not there. I mean, he died at the end of Endgame. But so did Chris Evans. And they buried him. And in fact, one thing that they did show, which drew a huge pop from the crowd, but which I found to be incredibly cynical and lame, was there's a moment where Thor sees Steve Rogers and he's blown away and he says, how?

37:54You know, how can this be? Because he's gone. It's Palpatine Returns. It is very Palpatine Returns. Somehow he returns. And as they're approaching each other, he reaches the hammer out and Captain America catches the hammer. Which is, of course, something that was a high point moment in Endgame.

38:11Matt Belloni:But that's fan service. And that's all that is. And it worked in the room. It played to the maniacs that we were sitting with. They loved it. I think there is a group of maybe 40 primarily young men who were there just to start yelling. And they did. to be there. Well, I don't know. We cannot say. I didn't interact with them except to be like, I'm just saying it costs a lot of money to go to CinemaCon if you are not pressed. It's true. So, yeah. Anyhow, I thought what we saw probably did what it needed to do just to kind of feed those who are already locked in. I'm very curious to see if it will convert the skeptical and there have become more skeptical over the last five years.

38:53Or just the casuals who are out.

38:54Matt Belloni:Yes. Like who haven't followed the new movies and they're like, what? I don't even know the Fantastic Four. Those people, though, were still like, oh, Captain America, I like him, and I'll go see that. And I think in that way, it was effective enough. But creatively, I was like, man, this feels so bad. And then even they brought, so Downey's back playing a new character. They bring Chris Evans out, who is dressed just like Sean. It was really kind of alarming. And then they tried to do their, like, some banter, you know, to bring back some Avengers. And much like at the Oscars, it just felt totally flat.

39:27they don't have any of the chemistry so even there where you're trying to recreate the buddy-to-buddy, we're all on a team together and it's like, oh you guys you don't have that for this movie I think the press they got out of it was very effective but I just need to see more we're going to watch it, we're going to talk about it on the show of course, it's going to be one of the biggest movies of the year obviously just from effects it looked incredibly ugly I thought it just looked bad They all do, but I thought that it looked ugly.

39:59Matt Belloni:The big industry narrative is the Doomsday versus Dune 3. So can we talk about that for a second? Because obviously Avengers is going to be way bigger. The last one grossed almost$3 billion. So even if this one grosses half of the previous Avengers, it's still a massive film. It's still going to probably be the number one or two, probably number two movie of the year. But I think that the Dune 3 footage was so good that they showed and the goodwill and relevance of that franchise where it doesn't feel thirsty. It doesn't feel like these guys are grasping at straws. This movie has Zendaya, Timothee Chalamet, Robert Pattinson, Jason Momoa.

40:40Matt Belloni:Who am I forgetting? Florence Pugh. Robert Pattinson. More relevant stars. Josh Brolin. More relevant stars for right now. And that footage they showed kicked ass. It was amazing. Yeah, I mean, I'm happy to spoil my number one most anticipated movie out of CinemaCon because of what we saw. They showed us the first seven minutes of the film. They also put the biggest stars on stage. Zendaya and Timothee Chalamet were there with Denis Villeneuve talking about the movie along with Jason Momoa. And the first seven minutes are amazing. It was Saving Private Ryan in space with spaceships. Yes. And some lasers.

41:15It was a real, like, we got the goods. this movie's not coming out for eight months and we don't care we'll show you exactly what we have because we know that it plays now those movies are darker they're more violent they're not pop they're not pop they've never grossed a billion dollars either of those movies but we've been making this comparison about like that series is Oscar chances around The Lord of the Rings but it actually felt more like The Lord of the Rings to me watching this sequence because I was like this movie should exist like there's more story to tell like they have to finish this which was the one hurdle that I thought the movie might have had.

41:49Right. Where it was like, are we going to need to feel like we need to see how this concludes? And they sold that really well with what they had. So I thought it was really special. I don't know if a movie that dark can be that big. But the thing that Disney did was they introduced something called Infinity Vision. Oh, man. Are we going to talk about this? To combat, yes. Infinity Vision.

42:08Matt Belloni:So just for prelude here, one of the reasons why I'm so bullish on Dune 3 is that it has the IMAX screens globally for three weeks. Pre-negotiated, IMAX loves Denis. He shoots an IMAX. So over that holiday week, we should say they're both coming out December 18th. As of today. As of today, yes. And Disney, instead of moving Avengers, which many people think they should have moved it a week in advance, they would have a week all to themselves. There's nothing on that date on December 11th. I thought they would. I thought for sure as soon as Jumanji. Yes, when Jumanji moved, I was like, okay, well, this makes sense.

42:44Matt Belloni:Because now Jumanji is in that Christmas corridor. They have not done that yet. Instead, they introduce Infinity Vision. Which is a new, quote, certification that Disney has acquired for their films. I love it. When they are displayed in non-IMAX and presumably Dolby movie theaters, where they're improving the sound in the picture for, I guess, laser projection in other movie theaters. Now, of course, there are more non-IMAX screens than there are IMAX screens, but they don't charge the same amount typically and they're not the preferred ability to see a movie. And IMAX, for better or worse, has become the brand.

43:19Matt Belloni:When you look at billboards, sometimes IMAX is larger than the actual title of the movie now. We'll never forget the amateur. Yes, they have the branding. Exactly, including on many Disney billboards. Let's just be clear about that. But they know they're not getting those screens. They want Avengers fans to feel like they are going to see the movie on the biggest possible format, hence Infinity Vision. You excited? Yeah, I'm reading from my notes taken at the time. Infinity Vision, in quotes, is this because they can't get IMAX? It was so obvious and desperate and instant. And, you know, cynically clever because they are in front of theater owners.

43:56And so it is acknowledging in a way this idea that premium screens do matter and that they understand that and are going to are playing into that branding as well.

44:07Matt Belloni:It's also picking up on something that is a narrative within the theatrical industry, which is they believe that there should be a competing brand to IMAX. The others, whether it's Xfinity or not Xfinity, X whatever the Regal brand is, or I don't even know. Or there's many different brands of large format screens, and it's confusing to the consumers. And they recognize this. So they have talked about coming up with a name for non-IMEX PLFs. Should it be Inventive Vision? No. I mean, we bumped into another executive in line leaving the Caesars Palace who was laughing at it. Like, they were all laughing at it.

44:50I think it's one of those things that feels cynical and cheap to hard-bitten people like us, but they could work over time. It could work. Because Disney is pretty smart about this stuff. It 100 % could work in this context. I'm not going to bet against it. it just in the room we were just like come on dude like really anyhow um a couple quick quick things before we get into our list that i wanted to hit on um to me the video game era is here based on the presentations almost every single studio had major video game titles to either celebrate that premiered or coming soon or in development a lot in development just that sony there was talk about the completion of the legend of zelda yeah production applause for that big applause they also announced bloodborne and hell divers adaptations hell divers coming i thought I thought those were Coachella bands.

45:34These are not games I've played, but they got big pops also from the same cohort who popped over Marvel. Warner Brothers has got Mortal Kombat 2 coming soon. Universal celebrating the Super Mario Galaxy movie where there's going to be more of those. Paramount has Sonic 4, Street Fighter, which had a huge presentation. Call of Duty directed by Peter Burke, written by Taylor Sheridan. We can talk about what that means when we talk about Paramount. And Angry Birds 3. You didn't even put on there Minecraft 2. And Minecraft 2 coming from Warner Brothers 2. Yeah. This is, if there is a little loss of interest in superheroes, a lot of it is going in this direction.

46:08And it feels like people are on board with it.

46:11Matt Belloni:They're following the money. Yeah. I mean, look at the big hits. We just came off Mario, Minecraft, huge last year. Yeah. Makes sense. The other thing is Windows, which you've talked about quite a bit. In fact, the first time you ever came on this show several years ago, when we talked about War Machine on Netflix, we talked about Windows. Oh, yeah. When does War Machine, how many theaters will it play on, if any? You know, what does Windows mean? And now we're kind of like slowly creeping back to where things were. And I think everybody is finally off of the streaming methadone. Well, they've either leaned in or they've gotten out.

46:46Matt Belloni:There's a delineation. Apple is basically out of theatrical until they tell us differently. Netflix clearly out now that they're not buying Warner Brothers. the other remaining theatrical studios are all pretty much falling in line with this 45 days to pvod or you know premium video on demand where you pay money to rent the movie or buy it and then 90 or more to subscription streaming streaming service and we saw david ellison commit to that on stage he actually said starting today which was a big deal to some theater owners because he talked a lot about it, but he hasn't actually done it until now.

47:26Matt Belloni:If they succeed in buying Warner Brothers, presumably the policy would be the same there. Sony, in their recent deal with Netflix for the output on pay one, they have committed to 120 days to Netflix, which is four months, which is pretty significant. It's not quite how it was in the 90s, but it's closer than it has been the last five years. I actually personally believe 120 should be the benchmark. I agree. I think three months is too soon. Yep. I'm with you. People will wait. It's like they have to break the habit that they create. And that's clearly what they're trying to do. But I also think that the premium video on demand window is less important.

48:02Matt Belloni:45 days to me is fine for that. Because it is an affirmative choice you have to make to buy or rent the movie. When things go to Netflix or Disney Plus, people consider that free. Yep. It's all you can eat. They see it on their TV. that to me reduces the value of movies movies and theaters um but and universal recently changed their windows where they were the most aggressive and they kind of kicked this all off during covid and they are now going to give all their movies starting in a little bit five weekends to pvod which is about 45 days so that's a big big change it is a big any any thoughts on that because basically every studio chief addressed this issue when they spoke this week except amazon and Amazon they say they're doing windows actually what they said about Project Hail Mary is that they're lengthening the window yes but obviously they are I'll give them a little slack because basically it's a new administration totally they seem to be making a sincere effort to make a theatrical push but if they start to struggle they might pull back and make a change and they pissed off the theaters with Red One the rock movie because they put that in theaters for Thanksgiving and then all of a sudden it was on the service for Christmas which not a very big window I mean, Amazon is an interesting one because there are a couple movies that we are anticipating, Sean and I at least, that I would put under the rubric of made by directors featuring like real directors featuring actors, like people talking ideas.

49:30And they were not mentioned. And that's, you know, maybe that's because they are. Well, certainly Artificial by Luca Guadagnino, which is absolutely silent. And then after last year, Luca Guadagnino's After the Hunt was presented big time. Like, was Julia Roberts? Julia Roberts was. I don't think she was in the building. She wasn't there. She was on screen. They lost a lot of money on that movie. Exactly. They lost a lot of money on that movie. But that's also, that is not a big, like, event 40X theater spectacle movie. So I think you guys are, like, obviously right. And in terms of the industry and getting people into movie theaters.

50:04It's also a Sam.

50:05Matt Belloni:It's a Sam Altman movie. Well, sure. So if they would have shown footage of whoever is playing Sam Altman, who is it? Andrew Garfield. Andrew Garfield. That would have become a thing. Yes. But more to the point, that seems like a movie that is, you want to see everything in the theaters, but it's not as reliant as a big spectacle movie is in theaters. And I still worry about the health of those movies long term. And those are movies that probably people, I don't think that they'll go to the theater just because they have to wait four months instead of three months for it. I think the middle continues to fall out.

50:45And so I agree with you guys, but it just underlines that the strategy is giant spectacle or nothing. There was one notable thing that I'm sure we'll talk about on the town as well, which is that Warner Brothers announced the name of the smaller internal shingle that they're launching, Clockwork, which has got the same – Is that a reference to something? I haven't asked them. Clockwork Orange. Oh, is that what it is? It's orange, yes. Oh. The logo. The logo is in the same font. I didn't realize that was a Warner's movie. It is. All the Kubrick movies, those Kubrick movies are all Warner's films.

51:14So he's a Warner's filmmaker. And I guess maybe that gives you a little bit of an indication of the style and tone of the films that you can expect from that shingle. they wish hopefully so they announced that they're making the sean baker movie right tiamo and i think to the the point that you're making about artificial and movies like artificial yeah i think we've been kind of excited about what a24 and neon have been able to do and a24 especially in the last 24 months has put out three or four movies right grossed 100 million dollars that like they feel like adult plays they're they're connecting with the audience that you're describing this is warner's doing that and now it feels like we're back in 2003 with paramount Advantage and, you know, Sony Pictures Classics and Warner Independent and all of those shingles that the studio has built up to have this kind of secondary business.

51:57Like Focus obviously still exists. Searchlight still exists. So that was notable. It's on a smaller scale, but they did take some time out to at least talk about these things at the presentation and Neon got its own time to present films at this convention. A24 still doesn't do it. I feel like they should at this point, honestly.

52:12Matt Belloni:They've done stuff at CinemaCon and I would like to see them do a full presentation. They should. Yeah. They probably think they're too cool for that. Possibly. But you know what? Good for them. Yeah. I think when you're putting Robert Pattinson and Zendaya in your movie and putting it on 3 ,000 screens, like... We should work with them, you know? Your Jimmy Chalamet movies grossing$200 million, like you got The Rock in multiple movies. Right, though that didn't help them make any money. But just a note on that. I think Warners, A, they want to make more movies. And when you have multiple labels like this, It gives you the freedom to do movies at different sizes.

52:46Matt Belloni:It also gives them the freedom to push back maybe a little more on star salaries and the cost of some of these movies. This is for this label, this brand. Yeah. We only do it at this size. This is what Focus does. We're like, oh, at Universal, we love your script, but we see this as a Focus movie. Right. So ratchet back those expectations, and let's bring this budget down by half. And Warners, I mean, they famously spent a lot on these auteur movies, and they get a lot of attention in the media. the business press when they do that. So maybe this is an opportunity for them to make those movies, but at a lower cost.

53:19Matt Belloni:Yes. Okay. And also bring someone like Sean Baker into the studio system. Somebody who's been a little bit, you know, I would say suspicious of how that system works. And then you get to know him and all of a sudden he's directing Minecraft 3. Well, we'll see about that. I would like to see a Sean Baker version of Minecraft. I think it would have a lot of sex in it. I think the audience of Minecraft would also like to see a Sean Biker Minecraft. As they get older, yes. Any other thoughts? Chicken, what's the? Chicken jockey. The chicken jockey would have a whole new meaning. Pam Abdi did apologize to the theater owners for the chicken jockey popcorn phenomenon.

53:55Any other presentation thoughts before we get into our most anticipated?

54:01Matt Belloni:I mean, Tom Rothman at Sony told the theater owners to get off the ad crack. Yes. Which I thought was a nice line. He was very forceful in encouraging them to improve their business. I mean, the whole dynamic between studios and theaters is so effed up. I mean, it's very, very codependent and unhealthy. Unhealthy. A lot of bad boyfriend energy. Imagine if you were the CEO of a theater company and your entire business is dependent on something you do not control. The amount of movies and the quality of those movies. It's a terrible business. It's a terrible, it's really tough. And the marketing of those movies.

54:40Matt Belloni:And then on the other side. Yeah, but when it hits, it hits so hard. Exactly. And it's easy money. When it hits, it's easy money. And you can charge$10 for popcorn that costs you 20 cents. It's part of why it's just fun to talk about this business is because it's so unpredictable. And so that no one really feels like they know what they're doing at any given time. That's part of why this event is fun. Just to hear people talk about like, well, we're betting on this. Really? You're betting on that? But then if you're Tom Rothman and you're going to spend$250,$300 million on a Spider-Man movie and put that kind of effort into making it something that people are going to love.

55:10Matt Belloni:And then they show up to the theater and they've got 30 minutes of ads and the floor is sticky and the seat is broken and it's not a good experience. He doesn't control that. He has no ability to control the actual environment in which his movies are consumed. It's got to be so frustrating. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Zep Bound Terzapatide may be able to help. ZepBound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off.

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57:34Matt Belloni:orders over$75, plus free returns. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions. This podcast is brought to you by Carvana. Selling your car should feel like one less thing on your list, not one more. With Carvana, it is. Just go to carvana.com, enter your license plate or VIN, and get a real offer down to the penny. No back and forth, no surprises, just an experience you can trust. Like your offer? Accept it. schedule pickup and we'll come to you with a check in hand your car your timeline your terms visit carvana.com to sell your car today carvana pickup fees may apply Okay, let's talk about actual movies now.

58:16We each chose five. We all get off the ad crap. We sort of cheated. Well, unfortunately, we're on podcast, so we're not off the ad crap either. Amanda, would you like to start? Absolutely. Number five. You want to go from five to one? Yeah, I do. Okay, good. That's how we do things on this. My number five, even though I did not get my hoped-for photo op with a minion, is Minions vs. Monsters, which we were treated to not one, but two clips of. And possibly like a full recap, it was really sort of Spielberg interviewing Paul Thomas Anderson after one battle after another. And here's another thing that happens.

58:53And I was like, no, no, no, I'm going to bring my four-year-old. You don't have to tell me anymore. This was Chris Melodandre from Illumination talking about his film very excitedly. But Craig and I both thought that these two clips were electric. And this is a movie about minions, but also about the birth of cinema. It is in many ways, Minions singing in the rain. It's a love letter to cinema. It's the Babylon of animated movies. It sure is. Even to the recreation of the scene that Spike Jones is directing in Babylon, they're doing that with Minions. So I'm on board. I'm really, I am delighted.

59:30They make me laugh. They just, they really make me laugh. You were surprised to learn that I'm a Minions fan.

59:35Matt Belloni:A little bit. Yeah, but they're funny. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the Minions as well. Yeah. But I kind of enjoy them for what they are. They're Tom and Jerry cartoons. Yeah, it's silent comedy. Yeah, of course. But so I'm, of all of the offerings for families and children that were presented, I'm clearly Team Minions vs. Monsters. The Illumination movies in general, and I think Minions are the most pure distillation. Yes. They are engineered for constant stimulation. even the camera angles and something's going on and they're coming at you or they're coming from the right or left and I know that people in the animation community look down on that a little bit they say it's cheap not cheap like inexpensive just kind of cheap enjoyment and throw away they don't last I don't care they work they work and they do last kids watch them over and over again on the services they work they really those movies do matter to young people in a way that very few do not going to be as enthusiastic as you but you know I'm glad that you have something that you love.

1:00:36Do you think that we can like get the kids together to go see this movie? Yeah, I think so. Like, you know, all at once, a big trip. Alice will be thrilled to watch it. I don't know.

1:00:45Matt Belloni:Is your 10-year-old still locked in on Minions? Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah. He's in. But where is he on Babylon? Not so good. Have you seen Babylon? Oh, I'm registered in the hive. Oh, I'm a fan. Great. We've talked about this on the town. Do you? Craig and I were both in. I'm a pretty regular listener, and I don't know. Well, every time on The Town you talk about it, you're like, I'm not a critic. You're not going to go too far into the opinions. But so now I'm pushing you here in big picture land. So Babylon Hive. I am. I thought it was great. It's so fun. And I partly love it because the ending is so crazy and bad and weird and, like, should not have happened.

1:01:23Matt Belloni:And what is Avatar doing in this movie? But up until then. I can explain it all to you, Babylon. I'm sure you have five theories on it, all of which have been discussed. I just enjoyed it for how crazy it was totally yeah I'm like I can't believe this movie happened I think the middle two hours are a masterpiece yeah okay number five Matt what do you got yeah can I throw a wrench into this yes yeah all five of my picks are Jeremy Strong yeah okay so let's be good this happened all five of my picks this happened during the Sony presentation and I got there too late to attend the Sony presentation you missed me embarrassing myself I started I just said holy shit I started laughing out loud at how great it was this is Jeremy Strong playing Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Reckoning the follow up to The Social Network which is written by Aaron Sorkin and now directed by Aaron Sorkin questions about that element of it they showed extended footage which is it the trailer I think it was a proper trailer interesting there were some elements that felt choppy, especially the scene they showed where Jeremy Allen White and Mikey Madison are having their first kind of discussion.

1:02:36Matt Belloni:She's a reporter. No, she's a source. He's a reporter. Weird cuts on it. Did not sort of disjointed. But then they get to Jeremy Strong. This is either going to win him the Oscar he deserves or he will be the record holder for Razzies. They will create a new category of Razzie if this movie does not go well. I am hopeful and I dare say confident that he will nail this and that the movie will be good enough to get him the Oscar. It is amazing how much he's like Zuckerberg. I feel sick to my stomach right now, but not like out of not because that sounds bad. I just I have so much invested in this and I'm also so stressed out and unsure about the quality of it.

1:03:19And I wasn't even serious.

1:03:21Matt Belloni:He is 1000 % locked in on this role. He has the voice mannerisms. He looks like a robot. He has the haircut. He walks the same way that Zuckerberg walks. It's not like Jesse Eisenberg where that was sort of a... It was an interpretation. It wasn't a mimicry. Right, exactly. And he had that kind of scowl that I don't think Zuckerberg has. This is like on another level. That's the thing is that the social network is an adaptation of a book that is then reimagined by a filmmaker. And so it's not, it doesn't feel like docudrama. It feels like a character study. This looks like a docudrama. It does.

1:04:02This looks like a recreation of events. And Aaron Sorkin, a less skilled director, obviously, than David Fincher. It's also a movie that's clearly going to be happening on two tracks. One is Frances Haugen and the Wall Street Journal reporter to whom she blew the whistle. And Zuckerberg and his, the world that he has built and him trying to prevent it from coming apart because of this whistleblower.

1:04:24Matt Belloni:And there's a legal proceeding at the center of it again, which is the core structure. I think it isn't the testimony in front of Congress. Is that what it is? I believe it is, and he's being prepped for it. And there's a funny line where he calls himself a professional defendant. And this is where Sorkin cannot be matched. Well, that's the thing. You know that stuff is going to work, and that's the stuff in the trailer that really pops. I think the Jeremy Strong thing is going to work. He's got the posture down. He's got the tone of voice down. He's got the weird blondish hair color. you know he's got that kind of like pasty skin like all of that is working it's a thousand memes like waiting to happen yeah and I you know look as a succession devotee like I love Jeremy Strong his self seriousness I find fascinating and funny and I enjoy it I can only imagine him on set the other stuff just felt a little anonymous to me and there's nothing anonymous about the social network you know like that is a that's a very specific and defined tone and execution of a story so maybe anonymous is best case for Sorkin directing Yeah, I mean, look, Jeremy Allen White and Mikey Madison are both good actors.

1:05:25And it doesn't feel like they're like misstepping in their performances or anything like that. It just looks a little bit standard. It looked honestly a little bit like TV miniseries to me, to be honest. Whereas the other stuff felt it was like Bill Burr and Jeremy Strong going at each other. And it had real vitality to it.

1:05:40Matt Belloni:Yeah, the risk is that it feels like a polemic. Like Sorkin lecturing us about the dangers of the internet. which the social network had some of that in it, but it was done in a way and Fincher had a detachment from that sort of preachiness that it worked. And I don't know if he's going to be able to nail that. Even when we were looking up the music, the music is not Reznor. Even though they use the dun, dun, dun. They use that. Yeah, which is that. Reznor and Ross tone is hit on the title card, but it's Alexander Desplat this year doing the score. Which is a huge difference. Not Reznor and Ross, it is.

1:06:15That is a major difference. Yeah, so... I've been skeptical. I stay skeptical. I'm fascinated. It's at least two full episodes of this podcast.

1:06:24Matt Belloni:So, yeah. So I am copping out by picking Jeremy Strong as my... That's a great one. That's five through one. Okay. Great one. But I do have other movies that I like. So you go next. My number five, I'm not sure if it's specifically the movie that I am most anticipating, but it is representative of an idea. And it was a very good presentation, which is Spaceballs, the new one, which is the Spaceballs sequel, which you didn't even know was happening, right? when we were sitting there? No, I think that was someone behind us who was like, they're doing a new one? I knew that there was a new Spaceballs.

1:06:52I didn't know who we were with it. Didn't know where there was a new Spaceballs. I know some things. Okay. But it's always funny to me

1:06:57Matt Belloni:when family members of mine, like where news from my world gets to them. And I got a text from my sister last night. They're doing another Spaceballs? The biggest, I guess, news item out of this is that Rick Moranis is coming back for this film. He's not acted in a film in over 30 years. He was there. They had a great bit during the presentation about not allowing him to speak. That was very effective. film's directed by Josh Greenbaum it's written by Josh Gad I guess in concert with Mel Brooks it's like Josh Gad's dream to do this Bill Pullman is back Daphne Zuniga is back Bill Pullman's son Louis Pullman is in the cast I thought all of the effectively like promo material that they made for this presentation don't forget Kiki Palmer she wasn't there but she's in the film as well was all really funny was pretty much in the spirit of the original which for a person like me is a sacred totem of my childhood And that's saying something at CinemaCon.

1:07:48Matt Belloni:You mentioned it before, but most of the banter is inane and unfunny. Yes, poorly written, poorly executed. They did a really nice job with that. They included Mel Brooks in it. He recorded a video for it. So bad that when De Niro presented for Little Fokker, or for Fokker-in-law, he literally said, I did not write this. Yes. Although I found that entertaining, what they did, nevertheless. I think that was after he had to say, I prefer the Minions, which was scripted. And then aggregated as if Robert De Niro came out, like as a pro Minions over Madagascar. I was like, guys, that was bad writing.

1:08:19Anyhow, Spaceball is the new one, which looks fun. And who knows if it'll actually end up working. I think it's also an indicator of where a lot of this stuff is, which is like Masters of the Universe from Amazon, Doomsday and Mandalorian and Grogu from Disney. A lot of the like recycled, you were six years old in 1988 and here's what you probably like now at 45 years old and we're going to force you to watch it. Some of these works, some of them don't. Master of the He-Man was very important to me as a young child. I'm not totally sold on that movie based on what they showed us. The less said, the better.

1:08:51Yeah. But it is a whole space for your youth kind of thing.

1:08:56Matt Belloni:I'm surprised that you put it on your most anticipated because to me that struck me as a very fun and effective presentation of a movie that looks like a sad retread. We'll see. I think it's more of an opportunity to talk about a lot of other movies here at number five. But like I'm more excited about Rob Eggers' werewolf personally than I am the new Spaceballs movie. But they showed us a trailer from Werewolf and it's like it's a really gnarly werewolf movie from Rob Eggers. Like you know what it is. It's probably going to work really well. We saw the Nosferatu trailer a couple of years ago at Cinemacon and tore the house down.

1:09:33And then that movie went on to be a big hit. So, okay. Number four, Amanda, what do you got? Yes, I've collected three films together. One Night Only, Verity and Other Mommy. Uh, which I'll call gals having fun. And one, one night only also includes Callum Turner. So that is the new romantic comedy, sex comedy from Will Glock who did, uh, anyone but you and was introduced with like a, an Oscars esque montage about love at the movies. And we have to save romantic comedies. Uh, and apparently we're saving them with one night only, which I'm very excited about it stars Monica Barbaro and Calum Turner, who I'm on record as supporting both of them, honestly.

1:10:19Yes, you are. And the premise is that two people meet on the one night a year where it's legal to have premarital sex.

1:10:27Matt Belloni:Yeah, I did not get that from the footage. You explained that to me after that. It's basically the purge for rom-com. Yes. And so they don't totally communicate that in the trailer. That's right. And it is pretty high concept. And I think the effectiveness of the movie will be as much about like, do they communicate and like tease out the premise and the ideas as much as the performances? Those are two attractive people that I like. They seem to have decent chemistry. Yeah, that seems like enough. That premise seems asinine to me. Oh, I think it would be funny. It's interesting that they're trying to make it work in a non-dystopian setting.

1:11:01It basically looks like any other rom-com with that idea attached to it.

1:11:05Matt Belloni:But that premise is basically like The Handmaid's Tale. Yes. Yes, I know. But then don't you kind of want to know more? I do. Oh, okay. Well, that's fine. I just want to see them meet you and have fun and like complications and then they get together. There are complications. They only have so much time to have sex before it's not legal anymore. Or they get murdered or whatever. Yeah. Well, I'd like to see how they pull it off. Do you think that film ends with a mass slaughter? I really don't know, but I'm curious. So we'll see how that goes. There are some jokes about his ears also. Yeah, but the ears work for him.

1:11:33And her nose size. I thought I enjoyed that. Yeah. And Josh O 'Connor's ears. Listen, it's fine. It's okay. Great time to have big ears. It's wonderful to be Irish. Okay, the next Verity is the latest Colleen Hoover adaptation. This is directed by Michael Showalter, stars Anne Hathaway, Josh Hartnett, Dakota Johnson. This is like the high-touch Colleen Hoover trash, you know? And if it works, I'm excited. I'm not opposed. It had real kind of M. Night Shyamalan, What Lies Beneath vibes, you know? like kind of a spooky thriller as opposed to some woman hit a guy with her car kind of energy, you know, or like all the other Colleen Hoover movies are just like, why did you fall down the staircase energy?

1:12:13Like maybe a little bit more. All the Colleen Hoover stories are always just like, ah, man, tripped over some chicken wire. Well, why did that happen?

1:12:21Matt Belloni:I thought abusive husbands were a thing. And then people were abusive to each other. Yeah, this has a little bit more of the houseman. We had an ongoing discussion this week about what our actual opinions of the housemaid was. And I'd just like to stay on the record, as I did originally. I had a good time. I'm pro-housemaid. I'd like to have a good time at Verity. And it seems like that's possible. Other Mommy is a Jessica Chastain horror movie, I guess. Oh, Blumhouse. Yeah, Blumhouse, about a woman whose home is seemingly invaded by a clone of her, but evil. So it's like single white female, but supernatural mommy.

1:13:07Well, I think that's exactly right. And Jessica Chastain is playing both. And it was one of those watching the trailers where like the concept and the performance of the other mommy just like really spoke to me. And I was like, well, this is a big picture bit already. Just a silent smile. Yeah. You know, hang in their other mommy. Hang out in another mommy. Or, you know, you can identify the other mommies all around you as you are going about your own mommy life.

1:13:32Matt Belloni:So I will never not chuckle when I hear that title. It's really, really good. So I'm excited for other people to at least to be more aware of other mommies so that it can become like a cultural touchpoint, which is kind of all those movies need at this point that it just has like a little bit of like pop culture stickiness. I agree. It comes also from Rob Savage, who made host the Zoom horror movie during COVID, which was very effective. He's a super talented dude. So it should be fun. Also, Chastain's got a lot of history. You know, she made Mama some years ago. with a horror movie. Anytime you get an Oscar winner into a horror movie, it's usually...

1:14:08Matt Belloni:A good thing, yeah. Okay, I like that one. Matt, do you actually want to give us four more? I'm just going to give you something that I liked and that I'm optimistic about. Okay. And I'm going to put Digger on there. It's on my list too. The Tom Cruise movie. Let's talk about it. Lots of discussion about this. Alejandro Arnirito coming off of Bardo, maybe not his best movie. This is him, you know, getting back into the big star game, big studio movie with Warner Brothers. I thought the footage was good I thought Cruise as this like cantankerous oil man type southern accent, profane looks nothing like Cruise old, fat, bald and then it's essentially, it seems like a movie where he's trying to cover up the fact that his company blew up an iceberg in the Arctic that is gonna destroy the world I think you nailed the premise Amanda and I are quite dubious of Ina Ritu on the show.

1:15:02Not the hugest fans of his. Oh, wow. Why not? I tend to think he's takes himself too seriously. I think his filmmaking style is ostentatious but a little empty. Anyhow. Even Man Fighting a Bear in The Revenant? You're not into that? Never been a fan. I didn't care about that. He's just a little bit of a blank spot for us in general. Bardo was objectively bad. Quite bad. I haven't hated all of his... I liked Amorize Peros. we heard Tom Cruise on stage say that he loved Amoris Carls and that's one of the reasons why he wanted to do that this is the film and the presentation that Tom Cruise showed up for this year and I enjoyed Birdman a lot too I have a little more time for Birdman but it doesn't hold up in my mind this film it feels like Birdman at scale that it's like about the male ego at large I'm a little skeptical of how the movie will turn out but I'm very excited to see Cruise and I thought what Cruise was doing was like great change of pace Like really good idea to just get out of your persona.

1:16:01Finally. Do something super big. One thousand percent. And it was funny. Like it was funny. He was funny. He was funny. He was doing, you know, McConaughey times a thousand, but in a fat suit. And I was like very amused by it. And even he landed the jokes. The rest of the jokes were kind of hit and miss, even though it's a great cast. It feels over the top a little.

1:16:20Matt Belloni:John Goodman. It does. Certainly doing a bit. Yeah. Playing the president of the United States. Yeah. I have been wary since they debuted the poster that has a comedy of catastrophic proportions on the poster. Anytime you have to announce yourself as a comedy or anytime you have to to explain what you're doing before you do it, which is kind of the inner it to bit. He's just like, hey, look at me like I'm, you know, look at my tracking shot. Look at this fancy. This is about like what the camera can do and the making of art. Or this is about a primal, you know, male urge in the in the wilderness.

1:16:53it's he doesn't always bear it out so I'm I'm nervous about that part of it also looked quite washed out you know I just I made a joke I made a joke on X that it looked like a Roy Anderson movie who's you know this Scandinavian filmmaker who tends to make movies where everybody in those worlds look like white and gray yes and everybody in this movie mostly because it was old men who were making decisions and the movie looked like they were in a Roy Anderson movie certainly like the boardroom scene yeah the palettes match it as well yeah We'll see. For Cruise alone, it's a must-see movie. It's going to be one of the most discussed movies of the year.

1:17:28I need them to bring it to Venice. Don't be cowards, Warner Brothers. I know that they won't. I know. I know. They got burned on Joker, too. But Cruise, give him the Venice moment. What else are you going to do to sell that movie?

1:17:41Matt Belloni:You know how many film festivals one battle after another went to? Zero. I do remember that. I know. I just, I don't think. I know. That's the thing is, and this movie could go in any direction. could be a huge Oscar movie and a bomb at the box office. Could be a hit at the box office and an Oscar movie. Could be a hit at the box office and not an Oscar movie. Like, it could be any number of permutations, which is really interesting. My fear with it is the same fear as Social Reckoning in that it'll be a polemic. In that the allegory, obviously, is, you know, the environmental catastrophe movie.

1:18:10Matt Belloni:This movie reminded me of Don't Look Up. Yep. The Adam McKay movie, which also did not have much nuance to it. No. But tons of people watched it because it had a big star. and had two big stars. Three if you include Chalamet. Yeah, sure. Or Meryl Streep. But it was on Netflix. Yeah. So I don't know if this is entirely... That was 2021. Yeah. It was still different. And this movie, look, it's got stealth bomber footage and it does have scale. It feels bigger. So I'm fascinated by it. I put it at number two on my list just out of a perverse curiosity. I'm like, I just need to see this. I'm really interested in it.

1:18:46Okay. My number four is a movie called Hope, which I don't even... I don't know. Did you see that footage? No. No, because it was Neon. It was the end of Neon. Yeah, I did not. So, you know, Neon is in this interesting position where they're the kings and queens of Cannes. They've got six films going to Cannes this year.

1:19:00Matt Belloni:Not a good week for them, though. So the day of their presentation, Warner Brothers announces that Sean Baker is doing his follow-up. Not for Neon, but for Clockwork, Warner's label. Same day, the Long Legs sequel was announced at Paramount. That's Neon's most successful movie. Mm-hmm. And they didn't get the sequel. Yes, and they've also put out the two following Oz Perkins films, and they're not getting that Oz Perkins movie. Nevertheless, I thought their presentation was solid, especially because they're a much smaller company. They really touted their success over the last few years. They were another studio who talked about Academy Awards.

1:19:35They said they are the most awarded independent studio of the decade. Oh, take that, A24. With 57 nominations. Yeah, their sizzle reel. It was just Oscars, Oscars, Oscars. It was. The movie that they showed that I was most excited about, and I know that you're going to want to talk about one of their movies too, but it's called Hope, which is by a South Korean director named Nahong Jin. And you might hear that and think, oh, an artsy Cannes movie. This movie is going to Cannes, but it is a post-apocalyptic action movie starring several Korean performers and also Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander.

1:20:04And the footage that they showed was just fucking sick. Like it was just great action movie footage. I was so excited. I was like, I can't wait to see that at Cannes. I wished I had not seen the monster at the end just because, you know, I want to be excited, but I totally agree. Are they still married?

1:20:18Matt Belloni:Oh, yeah. Oh, Alicia McKendrick. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good for them. I think they live in Portugal a lot of the time. Oh, wow. Sounds like a great life. That's the last I heard. They're barely seen in that trailer, though, which is kind of fascinating. It's mostly, you know, I think the film is set in Korea, and it is mostly about what is happening in this post-apocalyptic world. But it was just really, really good stuff from a filmmaker who hasn't made a movie in 10 years. And his last movie, The Wailing, is one of the more acclaimed Asian horror thrillers of the century. So I'm very excited about that movie.

1:20:51Yeah. Okay. My number three. Number three. Okay. So my number three is The Thomas Crown Affair, directed by Michael B. Jordan, who was their Academy Award winner, Michael B. Jordan. And that was very exciting. First thing you see during their promo. First thing you'll see for the rest of his career. Yes. Which is still wonderful. And he hadn't even acknowledged that on stage. He was like, that's still crazy. But so this was kind of Amazon's centerpiece, and they are releasing it in March 2027, which is one year after Project Hail Mary. So it's the same CinemaCon to release Strategy Playbook as Project Hail Mary.

1:21:28This is also one of my sacred texts, right? And so this next— So, well, but here's the— It literally means nothing to me. Here's the real heresy. Thomas Crown Affair in 1999. Not the Steve McQueen. I get it. I, for whatever reason, have seen, well, I mean, I know the reasons.

1:21:45Matt Belloni:Pierce Brosnan love. Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo. And seeing, you know, a beautiful woman in a chunky turtleneck not taking any shit at a young age was important to me. And also then she, you know, went to Cipriani's and went to Martinique and understands art, you know, like a lot of important touch points. So I've seen that movie a million times. That's one of my most important texts. We have two more movies coming out this year that are either that are new installments or new adaptations or new versions of my most beloved holy films, which are obviously Devil Wears Prada 2, which comes out in a few weeks.

1:22:31and my emotions go up and down. And, you know, do I feel happy that it's finally getting its place in the sun or is it going to be ruined? I don't totally know how I feel, but Devil Wears Proud of 2 was the opener of the Disney presentation and is getting a huge push. I thought what we saw was fine. Like I said, I'm... I'm not trying to hurt you, but I really was like, okay, this is what you got? What were you expecting?

1:22:57Matt Belloni:I don't know. I don't know. You just want to see Meryl Streep being mean to people, right? Yeah. I guess so. And she was being mean to people. Yeah. Just felt a little low energy. Well, the Miranda performance is not gigantic. In context, it works. Have you rewatched the original yet? If she were dressed as Dr. Doom, that might have been effective. Have you rewatched the original? Not in some time, but I will before. I just remember Emily Blunt was great in it. Yeah, she's wonderful. She gets the best line in this one, too, actually. Have you not heard of Christmas? Well, that's true of all of them, except for when Miranda is doing all of her one-liners.

1:23:31Did she die or something? And then the other is the new Sense and Sensibility coming from Focus. and you know we have a copy of uh emma thompson's screenplay and diaries from sense and sensibility behind me uh that because i read it every year that movie came out in 1995 so it was the right age and it was that movie and clueless all in one year and i was just like wow look at the

1:23:57Matt Belloni:possibilities of cinema i could not be more different movies i know i have seen but they're both awesome adaptations and um i've seen sense and sensibility like at least 50 times for what it's just become a comfort rewatch so it's it's a very specific to me issue of being like okay you're redoing these things that i know so intimately and i have such a personal relationship with and that's not normally the case with hollywood they normally just make comic book movies so thomas ground affair is the one that i'm feeling the the surest about i thought it looked very fun it's it's the the action of it is updated and kind of expanded and it seems a lot more like high octane but that is cool and great people comparing it to tenet and some of the action style of tenet which which i think is interesting um the he stars opposite adria Arjona, who I am a huge fan of.

1:24:56Replaced. Replaced, yeah.

1:24:58Matt Belloni:She replaced Taylor Russell. Like pretty far into shooting. Not that far, but like enough where they saw what they had and replaced her. I like her work and she was there as well. So I'm looking forward to it. I think, and it just, it feels like it's since 1999 was also a remake. It's not as high stakes. But that's the problem I have with that movie. I like the footage also. And I thought MBJ looks great in it. It's like definite movie star performance. Good fit for him as a material. Definitely. And Amazon lucked out that he just won an Oscar. Like elevates that movie a lot. Like that IP though.

1:25:37Matt Belloni:Is that meaningful IP to the general public? I don't know. Was it in 1999? I think you just got to make a cool movie and hope people care. So this movie was called Art Heist. Well, you would care about that too. Well, sure. Michael B. Jordan stars in Art Heist. Yeah. Art Heist is kind of one of, that's one of Amanda's things. That is. And there are many versions of them. Other Art Heist. I do feel like the McQueen and then the Pierce Brosnan of it all. Thomas Crown Affair is sort of a reference point at this point. I guess. Maybe I'm downplaying it and it's more meaningful than that. I just know how desperate Amazon has been to mine the MGM library.

1:26:18Matt Belloni:and like so much of that stuff is encumbered or that's been remade in the 2010s. This is what they got. And they just went all in on it. And I just don't know if they, I think they think it's more important than the audience does. We're going to find out. Yeah. We're going to find out. Footage was good. It was good. That was encouraging. If it's a good movie, it doesn't matter. Okay, Matt, you want to shout something else out? Yes. I mean, should we talk about Disclosure Day? Let's talk about it. I'd love to. I didn't put it on my list, but I was hoping that you would put it on yours. uh and full disclosure i have it in my box office draft so i am personally invested in doing well but i i think that people of our age and our sensibility we want this movie to be good and we wanted the first trailer to be impressive and it wasn't and this has made me calmer yeah they they um are trying to be very careful about what they show us and in fact steven spielberg who was interviewed on stage and received a prestigious award from cinema con prestigious award uh no not from cinema from the chairman of the motion picture that's right the mpa yes chief got up there we were merica 250 award yes which is a real thing it's just a real thing a one-time award they were clear to tell us well maybe in 250 years there'll be another one you know this is not some bullshit cinema con award that everybody gets the rock has gotten it 10 times right this isn't a unique award.

1:27:44Right. So he was given this award and then he was interviewed by Coleman Domingo and during his conversation with Coleman Domingo he said that there's nothing from the third act of the movie in the trailer but there is more in this new trailer that we saw. It feels weird to be like, should we spoil this or not?

1:27:59Matt Belloni:Let's not. Because there is a reveal at the end. There's a very cool shot, which I'm shocked is not in the third act. Yes. Which I think is actually encouraging that we have gotten up to this point. Though I still wish I hadn't seen it. But that's fine. I know. But I think what it does is actually, and we talked about this, it alleviates I think some of the anxiety from the first trailer that it explains maybe something you didn't totally click with. I'm right there with you. I hope this movie's great and I hope it's successful and we'll see when it comes out. Can I make a controversial statement?

1:28:31Matt Belloni:I wish there was a bigger star in this movie. Right. I don't know. No disrespect to Josh O 'Connor. Good actor. Loved him on the crown. Not a movie star. and if this movie had a Michael B. Jordan or a Ryan Gosling or a Leo or someone, I mean, I know there's issues with the age range. It seems like they were looking for a 35-year-old. I know. Who's a 35-year-old movie star that can carry this? Because you have this generation. Well, they just all graduated. Who is our oldest 34-year-old movie star? I mean, Timothee Chalamet is the only. Yeah, he's 30. He plays a little younger, and I think he's supposed to be the same age around Emily Blunt.

1:29:10Matt Belloni:I know she's a little older. Yeah. I just, I need, I want this movie to feel bigger. I want it to feel like the Spielberg movies of the 80s and 90s. You got to remember that, like, this is the person who used Richard Dreyfuss as his avatar. Like, he likes a slightly, like, pointy-headed, you know, anxiety-riddled, kind of smart, motor-mouth-y person in a lot of his movies. But he's made movies with Hanks, Leo, Cruise. Totally. Like, also recognizes the value of a big movie star. And if I know nervous, like everyone around this movie feels a little nervous. Like we put this movie in the summer.

1:29:45Matt Belloni:Does Steven Spielberg still matter in a way that will put butts in seats on that scale? And they have made the bet that Spielberg plus Aliens is that summer movie. I think it should have been Spielberg plus Aliens plus A-list movie star. Would have ensured a higher likelihood of success. And no disrespect to Emily Blunt either. she is up there in female leads but I don't think she is on that A level she is not Zendaya she is not even like you know that generation above her where those stars were more meaningful she is it's really only Robert Pattinson though who is a like mid to late 30s star who fits in this spot he would have been great you could see him in that spot and he was booked he was booked he was schedules can be reworked he had to go see Arrakis you know I'm excited.

1:30:37I mean, I hope that it works. I don't know from a box office. I'm excited. I know that I'm going to go and be like, wow, movies.

1:30:44Matt Belloni:I want to be there and I want to see this movie today. Yeah. I just, I hope they do a great enough job to make this a mainstream movie. Yeah. Mainstream hit. Okay. Number three for me is, I'm just, I'm going to borrow your trio idea here. Yeah. But I'll primarily say Resident Evil, which was the trailer for the film was presented. Zach Kregor's new sort of adaptation of the video game. This is his follow up to weapons. And it has been described as a Mad Max Fury Road journey through a zombie apocalypse starring Austin Abrams. I thought the footage was sick. It seems like it's going to be a really, really gross, violent, scary, fast moving monster movie.

1:31:33and I'm in. It's a big-ish bet for Sony. The movie did not feel that big. Oh, they needed to be a hit. But they want it to be really big.

1:31:41Matt Belloni:I mean, they're looking at the weapons numbers and they're like, okay, that, but we have a franchise. Like, this should do double. Yeah, Craig introduced the movie and he did not, he said that he had played it for hours and hours and hours and hours over the years and has been addicted to it. But my understanding is is that it's not like a proper adaptation with characters you know and love and moments that you'll recall. I'm sure there will be plenty of stuff for the fans. It's probably better. But I agree. That was sort of my takeaway was the idea of just like using this as a launch point instead of trying to be too faithful to it makes me more excited for the movie.

1:32:14Similarly, we saw some absolutely brutal, violent, disgusting footage from Evil Dead Burn, which is, as we like to say on the show, my birthday movie comes out July 24th, my birthday weekend. I will be there like a sicko. It was gross enough that I like checked out because I couldn't watch what was going on. I started playing words with friends. I had to ask you, which one was that again? Because I had to remove myself from the experience. Yes. Good job then.

1:32:39Matt Belloni:For those of us who really care about Evil Dead, it was very good. It's funny, for someone like me who does not engage with horror movies at all, this is the only time of the year when I actually see horror trailers, or to the extent I'm actually looking at them, I'm often looking down on my phone. They're really gross now. They're really gross. Well, this is coming on the heels of the big success of Final Destination Bloodlines, which we saw a bit of last year. And I looked away. And I said on the show, I was like, this is going to be a fucking thing. Like they clearly unlocked something with this.

1:33:11The last Evil Dead movie did really good business. Evil Dead Rise. You know, Sam Raimi, who made the original films, is producing these movies. And he just had a hit with Send Help. He knows what these people want. He knows what I want. So that one's going to work. And then the third one I want us to talk about that is kind of in this like expanded genre freakout zone. is Whale Fall. That's right. Did you leave before Whale Fall? I did not see Whale Fall. Is that the Ridley Scott movie? No, that's the Dog Stars. Starring Jacob Elordi, who looks quite tall. Two months later is Whale Fall, which is adapted from a novel.

1:33:42We've not read it. We made a bit of a joke about this movie when we did our box office or summer preview. It's got to be a novel because no one titles their book or their movie Whale Fall. But what they showed us, speaking of Austin Abrams, is a scuba diver doing battle, trying to survive against a squid and a whale. Yes. And this ain't Noah Baumbach. And... It was awesome. It was... The footage was sick. It was... And everyone was so stressed out.

1:34:10Matt Belloni:But are they like killer whale? Like, is it supernatural? Like... No. No. So it's like... It's underwater. It's like a nature thriller. Yeah. It's an under... Nature thriller. Oh, I like that. And the footage was real good. And honestly, Disney was getting a little sleepy in there during the presentation at that point. Yeah. And then everybody was... Is that a 20th title? It's a 20th title. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Yes. And, you know, we were joking. It's got to be. The premise of the movie is that the guy gets caught inside the whale. Whoa. And he's got to get out. And then that raised for me a lot of questions about what happens inside the whale.

1:34:44Right. And they showed us some of what happens.

1:34:46Matt Belloni:Is that scientifically accurate? Sure. I don't know. So, I don't know. I did get some more whale facts after this. We're going to get some emails. And apparently. From the whaling community? Yeah. A whale's throat is only the size of a grapefruit, which I did think of while watching this film. It's, you know, maybe it's a muscle that expands. Pinocchio has got to be based on something. I agree. Yes, he goes inside a monster. There's also something about various stomach compartments and how we digest, how whales digest things. I don't know how that's going to be portrayed. And you see all that in the movie?

1:35:19Not quite. At least what we saw. Brian Duffield, the director, did weigh in on Instagram to let me know that there is gravity inside the whale. Huge. Or that there is some. He just wrote, there is gravity. I didn't actually follow up to interrogate how the gravity acts.

1:35:39Matt Belloni:Presumably, the movie will explain that. Yes. And I'm told that the book, the novel on which it's based, also does explain it. I'm not going to read the novel. I'm not either. I'm excited about the movie. I don't need the Andy Weir 30-page discussion of how it works. I just agreed. I just need to see it. I thought this looked awesome. And I was glad that Whale Fall is already like a pet project of the big picture because the footage backed it up. You're going to see a double feature Whale Fall and Heather Mommy. Yeah. Have a great time. Okay. So your number two is my number one. And we've already talked about it a little bit here.

1:36:12And I assume that Dune Part 3 is also on your list for the most anticipated. Unreal. You know, like it does seem like they got it, right? They know what they're doing. They know what they're doing.

1:36:22Matt Belloni:This guy knows how to make this feel big and important and cool looking with still a focus on the actors. You get a sense of the place of this whole planet. Javier Bardem is leading the army that we see in this footage. Right. And there are particular soldiers that we follow. Some live, some die. There's a gun that appears that is like no other gun I've ever seen. and then it's attached to something that may or may not be alive, but looks like a spaceship? Yes. Yeah. Do we get the sense that that's a creature or a spaceship? I don't know. We don't know. And how you interpret, I interpreted it more as creature, but I could be wrong.

1:37:05Matt Belloni:Oh, I interpreted it as spaceship. Sure. Or base. This is why it's so exciting. Yeah. Like military base that is buried in the ground. So they shoot the gun up first to kind of clear the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then they rise up and then all the people get out, maybe. It's just one of those things where I could feel myself going like this, leaning further and further as they were showing the footage. And I didn't have that much. You know, we sat through a lot of presentations. We were in those seats up in the rafters in the Dolby Coliseum for hours over the last three days. And, you know, sure, we're burnt out cynics or whatever.

1:37:36But when something is, you know when something is hitting. And this was just hitting. Everyone was mesmerized.

1:37:41Matt Belloni:I could water through the kitchen sink at this presentation and finished with this. They did. They did. Okay. Do you have one more you want to throw out there before we get into the final? I do. I just want to say something brief about Spider-Man Brand New Day. Yes, please. Which I actually liked and appreciated that at these things, we typically see the spectacle and the most impressive sequence like Dune 3. They instead, for this one, went with a college party scene. And I thought that was actually cool and made me way more interested in this version, you know, this continuation of Spider-Man because it's what we liked about the first of this Tom Holland Spider-Man.

1:38:23Matt Belloni:He feels like a real guy. Yep. And he feels like these are real, like, whereas it was high school before, now it's college. And they don't remember him. So he's sort of starting over and he sees that, like, MJ has moved on. and it just there's an authenticity to Spider-Man that you don't often see in the superhero movies and certainly it sounds like you didn't see in the Avengers footage that made me much more interested in this. Yeah, I wasn't wowed by what they showed us but I hear what you're saying and it's directed by Dustin Daniel Cretton who this is his first time working on the Spider-Man movies John Watts has moved on and you know he made Short Term 12, right?

1:38:58Like he came up as an indie character drama person and so that part of the movie I think is going to be good. Tom Rothman went out of his way to be like there's never been a Spider-Man movie like this and we've done things you'll never see before. And then they just showed us some character stuff footage. But I like that. I guess I do too, but I have some... It's given me Spider-Man 3 vibes of the Raimi thing where there's like five villains and we don't really know what the story is. And it's going to get a little... I'm just a little bit concerned about that, but that's as a fan. I mean, I love the Holland Spider-Man movies.

1:39:29I think he's nailed it as the character. We were huge fans of No Way Home. Like, yeah, I'm generally on board with the project. I just I think I was like, maybe sell me harder on the spectacle in that room. I agree with you. But I think some of that is why I think Spider-Man is the best of the film superheroes. And it's really just the best character. It's a teenager. So it's so relatable. There's always something.

1:39:52Matt Belloni:Who hasn't been in a college party where the girl is unattainable and your friends try to urge you? There's always something grounded. whereas like with Captain America I don't know what's relatable about him coming back to life as a super soldier and grabbing a hammer you know like same I guess but not at all so yeah I just feel like I know they're going to nail the spectacle and I didn't know that they were going to actually take some time to make me care about it yeah I think it's a good pick and I'm glad that we're talking about it because it's obviously going to be one of the biggest movies of the year let's talk about your number one what's up to my Nolan bros yeah I am back in the club The Odyssey.

1:40:29You were out? Well, you know, I think the first two hours of Oppenheimer are excellent. And then I have some notes about what Robert Downey Jr. is doing in the last decade of his life. And they continue. Not the final decade of his life. No, the most recent decade of his life. Unless you know something we don't. No, and as the Nolan fanboyness has grown, I'm allergic to that type of fandom generally. But they showed the Trojan horse sequence from the Odyssey, and I was just like, yes! I think it looks awesome. And I mean, Dune does as well. It's kind of splitting hairs what's first and second for me.

1:41:14But I think that I had forgotten how much exciting material to work there is work within the Odyssey. You know, I remember it as like a doorstop textbook that I had to read several times throughout my education. and it is, it was thrilling. And there is still that, you know, that excitement of seeing something that you've only read about in like boring verse being portrayed so excellently, you know, spectacularly on the screen. Amazing cast. You know, I'm excited that like every movie star in the world is going to be in one movie. That's Amanda Cork. He did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's great.

1:41:56It is great marketing. I didn't feel they needed to bring any of them to CinemaCon. Totally. It was just him. What a flex. It was a flex. But I thought everything looked great. It's Matt Damon in a Christopher Nolan movie. And his archery skills seemed decent. I thought it was all very credible. They all looked awesome. So apparently, I hadn't seen what we saw in theaters, but other people have seen it. Well, this was longer. This was more than what they showed in the 70mm. So in the 70mm screenings, they showed this six-minute sequence of the Trojan horse moment, which of course is not in the Odyssey.

1:42:28and his motive. It's referenced. Yeah, it's referenced. But it's, I mean, it's crucial to concluding what happens in the Iliad, which sets up the Odyssey. And so it's told as a kind of a memory from Bernthal's character to Tom Holland's character. And it's just high level swords and sandals siege warfare. I mean, it really is like. It looks real.

1:42:48Matt Belloni:It looks real. Yeah. And I talked to Nolan a little at the Universal Party afterward. And he's like that. And he said, that's the appeal. Like everybody's read the story. Yeah. But like, how did they pull that horse from the ocean and get it into the bounds of the fortress? And you see hundreds of men pulling this horse. It's super cool. Yeah. And, you know, I had never really thought about like the Dunkirk-esque quality of all the guys in the horse as it's like sailing on the ocean, you know? But it's, and there are echoes of his other work and it was very exciting. I'm ready. It was. Music was great too.

1:43:25It was. you know most anticipated movie

1:43:28Matt Belloni:of the year I think yeah safe to say certainly for us I mean I don't know about the general public they're probably more I wonder Spider-Man it's gotta be Spider-Man or Doomsday or Doomsday yeah yeah I'm fascinated to see how well a movie like this can do because the truth is is when you go back through Hollywood history there are a lot of Swords and Sandals movies but not a lot of big ones and not a lot of ones that have stood the test of time and you know Troy is probably the most recent example of one that is like really huge I guess you can make the case for 300 as well How dare you insult the Ben-Hur remake.

1:43:59Right, exactly. Exactly my point. So this will be an interesting test of that.

1:44:06Matt Belloni:Was Jerry Butler in that one? I believe he was. In the Ben-Hur remake? Yeah. That was an infamous bomb that MCM made. Ben-Hur remake. I believe it was around. Wasn't it Toby Kebbell? Wasn't he the Ben-Hur character? Let's see. Jack Houston? Toby Kebbell? Yeah, I don't think it's... No Jerry Butler. But I will say that I thought the man on the poster was Jerry Butler. Maybe I'm mixing up 300. Yeah, I think that you took their intention. I didn't see Jerry. 300, actually. That's a big one. Yeah, it kicked off the Zack Snyder thing for sure. Some honorable mentions. Intrigued, but holding my judgment on J.J.

1:44:46Abrams' The Great Beyond. See, I was totally not interested in that. I felt like they were really trying to not show us anything. But then why show anything at all? Well, because they have a big November movie that they got to get people interested in. But is it big?

1:44:59Matt Belloni:See, that's the thing. I don't know. Was it you that... Someone told me that they felt like J.J. is sliding into Shyamalan territory. Where it's like... That's not me, but that's a... It's like, okay, maybe. It felt very Twilight Zone-y. And I'll say like, it also felt kind of... But that's Shyamalan. Yeah, but it felt in the spirit of Alias and Lost, which is really... Most of J.J.'s best stuff is in television. and it's in television that's clearly inspired by Rod Serling. And he's very good at that kind of character-based genre. So, like, I want it to be good. Like, I like the Star Trek movie.

1:45:33Matt Belloni:But he's made stuff that feels big. And this does not feel big. It's a bunch of people hugging each other. I know, but I also got the feeling that, I mean, maybe you're right. Either there's nothing there or we saw just absolutely nothing. Most of what we saw was, like, a computer quoting H.G. Wells. We were just looking at a screen. It was very clearly like teaser trailer, kind of like Easter egging, not give stuff away, which I found like slightly irritating because, you know, I don't I don't know whether I want another puzzle box, whatever. But I also didn't get the sense that we were shown everything.

1:46:08So we'll see. A couple of other honorable mentions. You know, I don't mind saying it. This is the only Paramount movie I think that's come up so far. I got a little misty-eyed watching Mr. Irrelevant, the John Tuggle story, which is a football drama. I did too! I am abstaining because I actually walked out for this portion, so I did not see this. David Cornswit plays its true story about the last man taken in the NFL draft, John Tuggle. Who's a New York Giant, but David Cornswit, an Eagles fan, a Philly boy, came on and did an intro with a lot of dedicated affiliated Philly explanation as to why he was ultimately willing to play a New York giant.

1:46:50I thought he did a great job. It was real, just like classic Americana Disney live action circa 1997 sports movie. And then it's coming out on Christmas Day. And I will watch that with my family.

1:47:01Matt Belloni:With Michael Shannon as Bill Parcells. And it is Paramount. So they're going to plug the shit out of it during football. And it's like real like middle of the country. like it's just gonna you know it's gonna be hokey and it's gonna be manipulative and it honestly looked good if you like a movie like that it's gonna work I liked it I didn't know anything about this movie so it was one of the few real surprises that I saw this movie what did you think of the I Play Rocky trailer this is the not enough Tracy Letts yeah our buddy Tracy Letts is in the film and he seemed to be very funny I thought the guy that they found to play Sly was really good this is the movie directed by Peter Farrelly about the origin story of the movie that became the franchise that Amazon bought in its MGM deal.

1:47:49Matt Belloni:Yes. And they have so exploited Rocky with the Creed movies, someone in a room said, what else can we do? And then now we have the origin story movie. Yeah. I mean, is it a movie I think needs to exist? Not exactly. And also, what are the stakes? Yeah, we know that Rocky went on to work. I think it basically just rests on that guy's shoulders. If you like watching that guy as Sly and you have warm feelings towards 1975, Sylvester Stallone. And his meeting with the studio maybe went bad. Yes. That's the stakes. And they want to recast him. Yeah. But there's no, like, Rocky works because there's a boxing match at the end.

1:48:27Matt Belloni:Is there a boxing match at the end? We know that the movie has one. We'll see. You'll have to tune in for I Play Rocky 2. Yeah, maybe he's not going to, like, be up to snuff in the boxing scene and then he has to like really fight. I just, I don't know what the stakes are in this movie. I don't either, but you know, we will see, I guess. Other honorable mentions. I'm just, for Chris Ryan's sake, I'm just going to give some love to A Cult is My Passport, which is the new Gareth Evans shoot-'em-up movie, which looks like a John Woo movie set in 1970s Detroit, which seemed pretty appealing. I mentioned Werewolf.

1:49:05you know I think we'll maybe spend some time on Supergirl on the town but um right Clayface is a really interesting thing to me I just want to talk about it for one second it's the other DC movie that's coming out this year and it's way smaller and it's directed by James Watkins who's a horror film director and it's being pitched as a pure horror play R-rated R-rated horror movie about an actor who experiences a very traumatic accident and then develops this new power. And that's an interesting choice. And I'm so interested to see if it works because it can change the dynamic of what superhero movies have to be.

1:49:43Well, Joker grossed a billion dollars.

1:49:45Matt Belloni:So they're giving it that release slot. It's definitely not going to gross a billion dollars. No, of course not. But, and I don't think it's going to win an Oscar. Yeah. But they see a lane here where the DC audience, they can do this in a way that Marvel can't. Yeah. So why not? It looked good. I mean, I don't know if it's going to make 200 million dollars but it looked cool and that's kind of really all it needs to do for that because supergirl i have some concerns yeah um i mean this is this is just the thing about the new era of superhero movies but i guess all movies which is like is it allowed to just be really good and enjoyable to the audience that cares about it and not the broader world when you're working at a sub 100 million dollar budget and i don't know what that movie costs but i'm presuming it costs less than$100 million, I think you can.

1:50:34Then it looks great because you were like, you turned to me before, you said, I'm very excited, I watched it. And I was just like, I'm happy for you or sorry that that happened, you know? And you will decide whether it works or doesn't.

1:50:46Matt Belloni:And if the horror movie crowd shows up, it could overperform. If you get that, you get the DC incel crowd and then you get a little bit of the general audience. You know what the other thing is? Clayface is a very famous Batman villain and the trailer was not like, and Bruce Wayne is around the corner. like there was none of that fan servicey bullshit it was like we're actually just giving you a genre movie which I just thought I don't know if it's brave is the right word but I was like this is smart this is interesting this is a little different than what other studios would do with this kind of material so I want to give it a shout last one I want to shout out is Godzilla minus one which is the new movie from Takashi Yamakaze the Japanese filmmaker who won an Oscar for visual effects two years ago for the previous Godzilla movie they showed us some footage from the new film which looks fucking amazing as part of the G Kids presentation.

1:51:32They also announced that I think for Sony, is it Sony? He's doing Grand Gear, which is a new like Kaiju versus robots mega movie produced by J.J. Abrams that's coming in 2028. Also a Coachella band. Yes, exactly. Grand Gear. But all that stuff looked cool to me. So I'll give it a shout. Any other honorable mentions you want to hit? Yeah, A Place in Hell, which is the new Chloe Dumont, who did Fair Play, film from Neon starring Michelle Williams, Daisy Edgar Jones, Andrew Scott, which kind of looks like legal meet, like, me too lawyer sing-white female. Yeah. It was like fatal attraction meets disclosure.

1:52:14And I thought it looked really good. I'm really excited about it. They also, they did a little intro reel ahead of time that was a bit and it actually worked, which is a good sign, you know? And then, we haven't said Beekeeper 2. Probably the most fun trailer of the week. It was good. Yeah, a little over the top on the violence, but you know what? It's very violent. It is what it is. They're giving you what we're asking.

1:52:38Matt Belloni:Was that the one with the mallet through the face? No, that was the flamethrower in the mouth. Yes, a flamethrower in the mouth, which I've not seen before in a film. I have not seen that. Enjoyed that. I did laugh when I saw that. Also, like a glass canister full of weaponized bees and then smashing it on the ground to attack people. Just good shit. Yeah. I did not see the original. I was kind of confused by whether he's an actual beekeeper. No, you need to see the original. Don't listen to say nothing else. Go in cold, but you really have to see the original beekeeper. And then we'll discuss.

1:53:07It looks fun. I'm interested. Yeah.

1:53:09Matt Belloni:I got to say, I'm kind of Statham curious. Like, I am not a Jason Statham. One out of every four is really good. Okay. And then the other three are like, this was a huge waste of time. But if you get into the one that is good, you'll just have a grand old time. Okay. And beekeeper is good. I think so. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of ideas. I don't know whether Beekeeper 2, the trailer, communicated as many ideas. I agree with you. But I didn't know what we were getting when we saw the Beekeeper. It's true. And that's why I don't want to say any more to Matt except sit down. There are geopolitical implications.

1:53:38Oh, wow.

1:53:38Matt Belloni:So it's a homebic movie. And personal implications. Yes. Listen, there's a cold open. It has a lot to say about the world. You can't be looking at your phone. You've got to watch Beekeeper. It might be evil, but we really enjoyed it. Just two things that were not there. James Bond? Of course not. No announcement. No news. Everything you run on the internet is bullshit. They have not cast James Bond. They have not even seen the script yet from Stephen Knight. That might be happening now. Spring, summer, they're going to get into it. And we'll see news there. But they can't. They're not going to be able to debut Bond at some event like this.

1:54:20Matt Belloni:I was thinking the same thing. It's going to leak. The second it happens, I'll report. Somebody else will report it and it will blow up. It's the biggest casting thing around. People in the real world care about it. The British press is like hounding them every single day. So, not a surprise. And then no Batman part two. That was a bit of a surprise. Yeah. Well, you just hand it in the script, you know? Matt Reeves. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting to not even tout it. I know. Kind of an important one. Big franchise. Yeah. And unless there's something going on where the 2027 release date is shifting. No more.

1:54:55Was it on the list of, like, the infographic that Warner Brothers put at the end? At the end? Well, they had so many titles. They had a Game of Thrones movie. They had a Baz Luhrmann movie. They had the Ocean sequel. You know, it wasn't like they were waiting for a title or for any sort of... They just put whatever on that infographic. Yeah. The Hunt for Gollum, Man of Tomorrow. They have a ton of big movies coming out over the next two years. And Practical Magic 2, how can we forget? Sure. They were adorable. They were great. I loved it. Sandy, I was feeling it. I was loving it. And they had Nicole do, we come to this place for magic, but like Sandy did it in a cute way.

1:55:37It was fun. They talked for a very long time. They sure did. Probably longer than they needed to. But that's every presentation. And I don't personally have a lot of attachment to the original Practical Magic. Never seen it. Happy to everybody.

1:55:50Matt Belloni:Yeah. But a lot of people have. I get it mixed up with Hocus Pocus. a lot. Yeah, that witch core. But the fact that Hocus Pocus 2 was like the number one movie on Disney Plus for a long time, that's why this movie happened. Yeah, it's in that youth mining territory. And if it's halfway decent, it will play each holiday season. I'm rooting for those crazy gals. I think you're right. Anything else you want to hit before we wrap this up and we can hop over to the town? We have not discussed Mandalorian and we saw 17 minutes of it. Oh my, we saw so much of it. I thought it looked totally uninspired.

1:56:22Totally uninspired. I am like baffled as to why this is a movie, honestly.

1:56:26Matt Belloni:I was more impressed than I have been from the trailers. I thought the opening sequence was pretty cool from a Star Wars fan perspective. Do you watch the Mandalorian TV show? I mean, it just looked like an episode of the show. Like it was a little larger in scale because there were AT-ATs in it. Yeah. But then you were mad about that. You were like, why are they on a mountain? Well, it was just like, it just had no real Star Wars logic. It was like, well, why would they be sending these like droids up the side of a mountain that they could get pushed off of. Like, it's just one of those things where it's like, it didn't feel coherent in the world of Star Wars.

1:56:57It was just like, we need spectacle.

1:56:58Matt Belloni:It just felt like kind of anxious. Well, what I didn't like, and I don't want to judge the whole movie based on 17 minutes, but it feels like the opening sequence does not continue into the movie. Set up where the movie's going. It feels like a standalone. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. It was like they shot the movie and they're like, shit, we need a set piece. Yeah, they had a bad guy who looked like the most interesting man in the world. Like, that guy died in the opening sequence. Yes. So like, what is that for? And then like the movie could have started with Sigourney Weaver giving them their mission.

1:57:28Matt Belloni:I totally agree with you. Yeah, though that would not be that exciting. No, but that's what I'm saying. They probably looked at that and they were like, we got to do something here. We got to get something going. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe they didn't, but it just. And maybe it will. I don't know. Maybe there's something in there that will translate. Also, when you have Grogu, that's the premise of this, the relationship between the two of them. I felt like that Grogu was sort of just along for the ride. Well, he was the comic relief instead of the centerpiece. Like in that series, he's like the emotional core of the show.

1:58:03So because the Mandalorian doesn't have a face, so he can't express emotions. But every moment that Grogu got in the 17 minutes that we saw was a joke, basically, right?

1:58:13Matt Belloni:Well, he has a moment where he kind of battles a droid a little bit. Yeah, sure. I just thought it looked cool. It looked big. And I was worried from the trailer that it was going to feel like an episode. This felt, there was some directorial touches, that sequence where he kills all the bad guys. Yeah, that was cool. That was extremely cool. So I'm cautiously optimistic. And I'm just worried it's too violent now for my kid, which is sort of the flip side of the, they're trying to make it not like a TV show and add again. And I agree that, you know, I don't care about the TV show. I will never watch it.

1:58:45And it doesn't matter. So the distinction doesn't matter to me as much. But I was like, oh, no, I can't bring my four-year-old. It's very John Wick.

1:58:54Matt Belloni:You know, it's like bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. But it's Star Wars violence. It's blast. It's blasters. No, I know. And it's lasers and yada, yada. I thought the Ludwig Goranson score was great. Yes, that's from the show. No, I understand that. But again, I'm never going to watch the show. I don't acknowledge it here. But that was when the show came out. We were like, holy shit. Yeah, but good for him. But also, you know, with enough homage to John Williams and that universe, good job. I think in that, we'll see. I don't want to judge it too harshly. I needed it to be a little something more to get excited, and I'm not really excited.

1:59:26I think that's it. You want to jump over to the town? Yeah. Let's do it. Okay. Thank you to Matt. Thank you to Jack Sanders. Thanks to Craig Horlbeck, our traveling companion. Thanks to Lucas Kavanaugh for his production support. Next week, as I said, is our 900th episode. you can email us or you can call us and we will definitely respond to what you say and we will not delete anything that you do or send it to the FBI I promise just please be gentle in some of that correspondence and we'll see you next on The Town and then on The Big Picture next week

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