WB CinemaCon Recap: DC Comics, LEGO and More

The DC Comics film slate was a major focus at the WB CinemaCon presentation

Opening with a quick sizzle reel of the upcoming Warner Bros. slate, the WB CinemaCon presentation brought to the NATO event quite a bit of new footage from a wide variety of features including the studio’s full DC Comics slate, Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, the Stephen King adaptation IT and lots more!

Going in Style stars Alan Arkin, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine recorded a special message that was played at the presentation’s start for exhibitors, jokingly revealing that the stars follow theater owners like some people follow sports players. They even collect and trade movie exhibitor trading cards, specifically naming certain representatives in the audience.

Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception) then took the stage to introduce his WWII drama, Dunkirk.

“They were faced with the choice between surrender and annihilation,” he said, “and the fact that this story ends in neither surrender nor annihilation is why I believe Dunkirk to be one of the greatest stories in human history.”

A scene was showcased, but it was the same prologue that was available publicly last December, showing in select IMAX theaters before screenings of Rogue One.

On the heels of the new trailer for the Stephen King adaptation (Watch the IT trailer here), the WB CinemaCon presentation moved into horror territory with a look at IT, the horror thriller Unforgettable and the The Conjuring spinoff prequel Annabelle: Creation. It offered a bit more footage than today’s trailer, including some additional shots of Pennywise. One of them had him standing outside with a triangle made of dozen balloons blocking his face. Annabelle, meanwhile, teased the origins of the killer doll and offered a creepy scene where a young girl approaches a real-life Annabelle at her window. When Annabelle turns around, though, her face is horrific and distorted. Unforgettable, starring Katherine Heigl and Rosario Dawson, marks the directorial debut of producer Denise Di Novi. You can check out the previously released Unforgettable trailer right here.

The WB CinemaCon presentations continued with extended looks at the bestseller adaptation Everything, Everything (May 19), and the comedies Bastards (December 22) and The House (June 30). The former stars Ed Helms and Owen Wilson as two kids in search of their father while the latter features Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler as a suburban couple who turn their basement into an illegal casino in order to help pay their daughter’s tuition.

While some other footage was showcased in the Sony CinemaCon presentation earlier this week (Sony is distributing internationally), the WB CinemaCon presentation offered a few more tantalizing glimpses at Blade Runner 2049. In the new footage, we see the moments just before the Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford encounter from the trailer. Gosling’s character approaches what looks like a bell jar and, touching a panel, a miniature hologram within begins to play Frank Sinatra’s “One For My Baby”. The footage also ended with a new shot: a closeup of a tiny carved horse (like the origami from the original, but sculpted).

“This is impossible,” says Gosling’s character.

From there, the WB CinemaCon presentation ran an LEGO sizzle reel, fully touting the term “LEGO Cinematic Universe”. Joining previous hits The LEGO Movie and The LEGO Batman Movie, September’s The LEGO Ninjago Movie expands the toy franchise with a martial arts themed entry that features the voices of Dave Franco, Justin Theroux, Olivia Munn, Jackie Chan, Fred Armisen, Abbi Jacobson, Kumail Nanjiani, Michael Pena and Zach Woods.

DC Comics films closed out the WB CinemaCon presentation. Leading man Jason Momoa took the stage to introduce a video comprised of behind the scenes interviews and animated concept art. Director James Wan described his vision for the film, which began with the image of a spaceship approaching from the distance. Slowly, the audience realizes that it’s not a spaceship at all, but rather someone mounted on a shark and armed for underwater combat. Then imagine not just one of these shark riders, but an army of them, swimming into conflict with other underwater characters that also make use of incredible sea creatures.

Describing Aquaman as an origin story, Wan says that he wanted to let audiences see Atlantis as his hero sees the underwater city for the first time. There was also concept art for Black Manta (very true to the comics, only slightly bulkier like a real deep sea suit) and a look at an alternate Aquaman costume that harkens back to the classic design, including an orange scaled top.

Set to Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze,” the Aquaman footage teased incredibly elaborate underwater kingdoms and finally concluded with an image of skeleton (perhaps a zombie?) in Aquaman’s armor.

Wonder Woman footage then began with a message from an absent Gal Gadot. Director Patty Jenkins joined a very bald Chris Pine on stage, though, to introduce an extended look at the June 2 release.

“She must never know the truth about what she is,” says a voice at the beginning of the footage.

We see Wonder Woman going through training, as most recent trailer. It seems that after Pine’s Steve Trevor comes to the island, she decides that it’s her duty to find and destroy Ares, the God of War, and hopefully end World War I. At one point, someone suggests that they get the men who can do it.

“I’m the men who can do it,” says Wonder Woman defiantly.

She leaves Themyscira alongside Trevor in a small boat. He tries to give her the boat’s makeshift bed, but she wants to know why he won’t lay down and sleep next to her. Awkwardly trying to explain how he feels it would be inappropriate to lay next to a woman to whom he is not married, Trevor learns that she doesn’t even know what marriage is.

“Don’t you have a father?” he asks her.

“My mother sculpted me from clay and I was brought to life by Zeus,” she explains earnestly.

“Well,” says Trevor, unsure of what to say. “That’s neat.”

The pair later wake up in a harbor in London where the pollution from the city has led to a dark, desaturated cityscape.

“It’s hideous,” says Wonder Woman, potentially offering a meta wink to fans who have had a similar complaint about the lack of color in the DCU.

“Yeah,” Pine admits. “It’s not for everybody.”

Another scene has the title heroine (in disguise as Diana Prince) protecting Trevor from armed attackers in an alleyway. Here, we see the lasso of truth in action. It glows brightly as she lassos an escape thugs.

One final sequence offered some great footage of Wonder Woman in action in her classic costume, breaking into an enemy base and, at one point, racing across a rooftop. There’s a lot of quick bullet time effect, showing off the epic nature of the comic book adaptation.

The WB CinemaCon presentation then concluded as the Zack Snyder and his Justice League cast took to the stage. Strangely, no one from the cast said a single word, but Snyder introduced an extended version of the recent Justice League trailer. In this version, Affleck’s Batman has additional dialogue at the beginning. Alfred tells him that he’s been spending so much time trying to build a team. He admits that he’s been working too long to tear things apart and now he needs to brings things together.

We see Bruce Wayne working on a trooper carrier, checking its armaments as Wonder Woman enters. He says that he’s amazed she made it in so easily because he spent a billion dollars on security.

“Well you go your money’s worth,” she said. “It took me almost a minute.”

Also added to the trailer as a scene where the bat signal shines in the distance from where Wayne is standing alongside Diana Prince and Barry Allen.

“That’s your signal!” shouts Allen, incredibly excited but also suddenly embarrassed that he just let slip Wayne’s identity in front of this woman (who he doesn’t seem to know yet). Wayne glares, but Allen can see no harm was done.

“So cool,” he says to himself.

Look for Wonder Woman in theaters June 2, Justice League on November 17 and Aquaman on December 21, 2018.

CS also recorded a FB Live reaction to the presentation, which you can check out in the player below:

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