Week in review: 3/24 - 3/28

The great critic debate -- should critics write, or rather, write much more, about form? -- waged on in earnest this week. To briefly recap: Last week, music critic Ted Gioia published an invective against contemporary music journalism, decrying the lack of technological knowledge among writers more concerned with "lifestyle reporting" (nattering away about pop stars' salacious personal lives) than providing insight into or intelligently commenting upon the formal aspects of a song, how the thing is structured and actually made.

Gioia's screed resonanted with critics across multiple platforms, including film. A number of movie critics have chimed in, debating issues such as:

• Is it important for a film critic to have a background in filmmaking?

• How much of her review should a critic devote to a discussion of formal elements?

• How relevant are a critic's emotional "feelings" about a film?

• Even if a critic does believe she should devote more space in her review to an analysis of form, do readers want to read it?

It's a fascinating debate, and in particular, we thought rogerebert.com Editor-in-Chief Matt Zoller Seitz's impassioned response was well worth the read. We've also got NYT's David Carr weighing in on the pressures journalists face to drive traffic to their sites, a relevant companion piece.

Below, you'll also find info on Disney President Anne Sweeney's successor (Sweeney is leaving to pursue her dream of TV directing; we're all for it.); a bittersweet obit on the late James Rebhorn, written by the deceased actor before he passed; the appointment of a pretty cool and eminently likable female director to Critics Week jury president; the first word on a beloved cartoon character's real-life, not fictionalized, origins story; a PR nightmare at the recently wrapped CinemaCon; and some great celebrity drawings that beg to be made into a line of T-shirts or displayed in ostentiously expensive frames.

Thoughts on our picks? Let us know what we missed in the comments below!

Please, Critics, Write about the Filmmaking, rogerbert.com

Risks Abound as Reporters Play in Traffic, NYT

Disney Names Ben Sherwood as Anne Sweeney's Successor, The Hollywood Reporer

'Homeland' Actor James Rebhorn Wrote His Own Obituary, The Hollywood Reporter

Andrea Arnold Tapped Jury President of Critics Week's Grand Prize, Variety

Winnie the Pooh Origin Story Developing at RatPac, Variety

Theater Owners Chief: '12 Years a Slave' Was 'Too Intense' to Watch in Cinema, The Hollywood Reporter

 Agata Marszalek, Illustrator, Subtraction.com

Fox offers a look at X-Men, dragons, apes and more

Thanks to the studio previews at CinemaCon, the box-office prospects for 2014 are looking rosier than they did a few days ago. Every major studio has several surefire blockbusters in the pipeline, and one of the most promising lineups was revealed by Jim Gianopulos, CEO and chairman at 20th Century Fox.

The studio added some extra showmanship to its preview event, bringing to the Caesars Palace stage an array of bikinied and feather-adorned samba dancers who gyrated while Ester Dean and rapper B.o.B. performed a song from the upcoming Rio 2.

Fox is in the lucky position of having three well-established tentpoles returning this summer. X-Men: Days of Future Past, with original director Bryan Singer back at the helm, unites the new and older casts of the X-Men franchise in an apocalyptic time-travel thriller. A sequence screened in Las Vegas showed young mutants squaring off against giant lethal metallic creatures and jumping through holes in the space-time continuum, and judging by the trailer which followed, that's just one set-piece among many.

Footage from How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes promise a repeat of the pleasures and thrills of the original box-office hits. And for summer counterprogramming, Fox has The Fault in Our Stars, based on a successful young-adult novel and starring Hollywood's latest It Girl, Divergent lead Shailene Woodley as a teenage cancer patient who falls in love. Woodley was on hand to introduce some clips, and said she's such a fan of the property she would have worked as a production assistant if it turned out she wasn't right for the role. This poignant romance should be catnip for teen girls and will likely be Woodley's second box-office hit of the year.

The event included an intriguing preview of the bestselling mystery Gone Girl, starring Ben Affleck as a man under suspicion for the murder of his wife. But most intruguing of all was the first peek at Secret Service, Matthew Vaughn's action tale of a clandestine operation that bypassses the bureaucracy of stodgy institutions like the CIA. Fox screened an instant-classic scene in which deceptively prim and proper Colin Firth takes on a gang of young British hooligans in a pub with startling efficiency. (It's kind of a companion piece to a similar scene shown from Denzel Washington's Sony vigilante film, The Equalizer.) Secret Service wasn't on anyone's radar, but it sure is now after the rousing reception at CinemaCon.

And, oh yes, Fox has more tentpoles in the pipeline: Night at the Museum 3, Taken 3, The Penguins of Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda 3. The titles zipped by at the end of the program, almost as if Fox wanted to save some juice for CinemaCon 2015.

—Kevin Lally

Warner Bros. brings out the stars

One of the biggest attractions of CinemaCon for motion picture exhibitors is the chance to ogle stars off the big screen. Well, Warner Bros. delivered ample star wattage at its Thursday afternoon "Big Picture" presentation of upcoming product at the Caesars Palace Colosseum. Making the trip to Las Vegas were Johnny Depp, Morgan Freeman, CinemaCon Stars of the Year Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, Melissa McCarthy, Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis and the iconic Clint Eastwood, along with directors Wally Pfister (Transcendence), Gareth Edwards (Godzilla), R.J. Cutler (If I Stay), Steven Quale (Into the Storm), Ben Falcone (Tammy) and Frank Coraci (Blended), and Into the Storm co-stars Richard Armitage and Sarah Wayne Callies ("The Walking Dead"). Whew!

First up was footage from Transcendence, the directing debut of Christopher Nolan's longtime cinematographer Wally Pfister, starring Depp as a dying scientist whose brain is merged with a computer. Depp, always a man of few words, nodded at Freeman and said, "This is God, by the way." Pfister, meanwhile, assured the theatre crowd that "every film I've shot is designed to be viewed on the largest canvas possible." In the spirit of his colleague Nolan, a producer on the project, Transcendence is big-scale sci-fi with larger questions on its mind.

The self-effacing Edwards called himself the world's second biggest Godzilla fan after producer Thomas Tull, and told exhibitors they were part of the team bringing the revival of the rampaging lizard to a hoped-for successful fruition. Judging from the pulse-pounding footage shown, with especially intense work by Bryan Cranston (currently back in New York performing in the LBJ play All the Way), this iteration will be much more satisfying than the 1998 reboot.

Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore were certainly impressed. "Never mind Blended [the comedy they came to promote]. How about that f---ing Godzilla!" Sandler exclaimed. And a very pregnant Barrymore declared, "I'm creating life and I started crying at the destruction in that trailer!" Blended is their third film together, and Barrymore called Sandler "the greatest partner a girl could ever hope for," as Sandler murmured approval. Sandler then joked that they were there in Vegas to find out who fathered Barrymore's child. "She's not raising this baby alone!"

Eastwood came to the stage to a standing ovation, and not only thanked the audience but their parents who once came to the Vegas event when it was called ShoWest. He also gave a shoutout to the theatre's Dolby Atmos sound system for "blowing me out of my seat." Actually, he joked, "it's the first time I've been able to hear a film."

The veteran star was there as the director of Jersey Boys, the film of the hugely successful Broadway musical about The Four Seasons, which adds period realism to the piece while retaining the device of having the individual group members narrate their own story direct to the camera.

Improv queen Melissa McCarthy had some fun banter with her Tammy director, co-writer and spouse Ben Falcone, joking, "For the first time, I can now say I'm sleeping with the director." Falcone retorted that McCarthy was one of three cast members he slept with; McCarthy counted four on her bedpost. The film, meanwhile, looks like another well-tailored vehicle for the ribald, uninhibited screen personality that has made McCarthy a surprise box-office force.

One preview that certainly lived up to the advance hype of its director and stars was Into the Storm, a realistic depiction of devastating Midwest tornados whose persuasive visual effects may be too painful a reminder for Americans who've lived through these extreme weather catastrophes.

The Warner event ended with a prerecorded video from director Peter Jackson and a film tribute to the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit series of films that has grossed a remarkable $4.9 billion worldwide. The once-dubious gamble to turn the comparatively thin Hobbit volume into a trio of films has certainly reaped big dividends.

Warner Bros. Entertainment CEO Kevin Tsujihara also made his first CinemaCon appearance, noting that the decision of other studios to cut back on their release slates offers "a great opportunity for us to expand our footprint." With an annual schedule of 22 films, Warner Bros. is one of the true believers in theatrical exhibition.

—Kevin Lally

Glimpse of Pixar's 'Inside Out' among the highlights at Disney CinemaCon preview

For this viewer, the brightest news of Disney's morning preview presentation at CinemaCon was a clear signal that Pixar is back in brilliant form after the disappointments of Cars 2, Monsters University and even the Oscar-winning Brave. Executive VP of theatrical distribution Dave Hollis showed a sequence from Inside Out, the label's 2015 release directed by Pete Docter of Up fame, and the concept is an inspired true original. Much of the film takes place inside the mind of an 11-year-old girl, with characters named Fear, Sadness, Joy, Disgust and Anger representing her ever-shifting emotions. (They're voiced, respectively, by Bill Hader, Phyllis Smith of "The Office," Amy Poehler, Mindy Kaling and Lewis Black.) The hilarious segment shown to CinemaCon attendees not only features those characters, but the folks inside the brains of her parents too. Young Riley's family has just moved cross-country, which has put her in a foul mood, and the dynamics of a typical parent-child spat over the dinner table are ingeniously dissected through the interactions of these brain avatars. Despite this, ahem, heady premise, the audience at Caesars Palace immediately grasped the idea and responded with warm and hearty laughter. Damn you, Pixar, for making us wait till 2015 for this one.

With Captain America: The Winter Soldier already getting great advance word, Disney has yet another very promising Marvel movie on tap for August 1: Guardians of the Galaxy. The Marvel blockbusters have always maintained a sense of humor even when the fate of the world is at stake, but this one ups the irreverence factor with its motley quintet of rule-breaking, outcast superheroes. While the Avengers' circle of larger-than-life warriors looks to spin off into the next decade, this new addition to the Marvel movie universe may bring a second set of sequels and spinoffs. It's a tantalizingly different side of Marvel, led by comic actor Chris Pratt (CinemaCon Breakthrough Performer of the Year and the voiceover star of The Lego Movie).

Those looking for details on the seventh Star Wars film were left in the dark; as Disney chairman said in the voice of Yoda, "Patience you must have." Neither did the studio show any footage from its Christmas Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods, which stars Johnny Depp, Meryl Streep, Chris Pine, Emily Blunt and Anna Kendrick as familiar faces in what Hollis called "the Avengers of fairytales." But an extended look at Cinderella revealed a lavish, stylish and straightforward live-action retelling of the tale that's already a Disney animation classic.

The lone celebrity on hand was Jon Hamm, in Las Vegas to introduce a screening of his first starring vehicle, Million Dollar Arm, and to collect a CinemaCon "Excellence in Acting" Award. ("Thanks for not nominating Bryan Cranston," he joked about his eternal Emmy losses.) This very heartwarming comedy-drama is based on the true story of a sports agent who traveled to India to find and train cricket players to become Major League Baseball pitchers; The Scout meets Slumdog Millionaire was probably the logline. Horn reported that the film is "the highest-testing movie I've ever experienced"—even higher than Harry Potter, which he shepherded at Warner Bros. CinemaCon press is under orders not to review the films screened there, but I can say that the movie delivers on many levels, thanks in large part to the craft of screenwriter Tom McCarthy, the writer-director of such excellent, humanistic films as The Station Agent, The Visitor and Win Win.

Sony also previewed its upcoming product on Wednesday afternoon, with no surprise celebrities to excite the crowd. But its lineup of comedies—22 Jump Street, Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel in Sex Tape, Seth Rogen and James Franco assigned to kill Kim Jong-un in The Interview—appears pretty surefire. The supernatural chiller Deliver Us from Evil looks like it could tap that unquenchable thirst for movie horror if marketed well, the new version of the musical Annie seems disarming, and you don't want to mess with Denzel Washington as The Equalizer.

President of worldwide theatrical distribution Rory Bruer introduced 30 minutes of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, including a James Bond-worthy opening sequence with Peter Parker's late father and mother on a doomed plane and one in which Jamie Foxx's Electro ravages Times Square. (What do all these tentpoles have against New York City, anyway?) The 3D looked sensational, and the clips were a robust showcase for the Dolby Atmos immersive sound system installed at the Caesars Palace Colosseum. In the spirit of Disney's perpetual Marvel machine, Sony is planning its own spinoffs of its lone Marvel property, and this latest Spider-Man outing should fuel that long-range plan.

—Kevin Lally

Angelina Jolie surprises and 'Fifty Shades' teases at Universal CinemaCon preview

Nikki Rocco, the veteran president of distribution at Universal Pictures, told movie exhibitors exactly what they wanted to hear at CinemaCon in Las Vegas during this morning's preview presentation. "Hits don't just come at summer and Christmas," she proclaimed. "A year has 52 weekends."

For years, John Fithian of the National Association of Theatre Owners has been calling for a more evenly spaced out schedule of quality releases throughout the year, and Universal has benefited mightily by following just that strategy. The studio's January hits Lone Survivor and Ride Along held the number one and two spots at the box office two weeks in a row, the first time a distributor had done that in two decades. And next month, Universal looks to have a monster hit in Neighbors,
if the CinemaCon audience's response to that R-rated comedy's raucous trailer is any indication. Anyone who's ever coped with a noisy, inconsiderate neighbor will relate to the movie's extreme take on that scenario, as a bunch of entitled, boorish frat boys (led by Zac Efron) move next door to Seth Rogen, wife Rose Byrne and their infant.

Univcrsal has another likely hit in A Million Ways to Die in the West, Seth McFarlane's western sendup that looks like a 21st-century Blazing Saddles with more shock violence and a higher raunch factor. Also very intriguing was Luc Besson's Lucy, starring Scarlett Johansson as a drug mule who ingests a substance that gives her super-intelligence and fierce fighting skills. It all looks patently absurd but unabashedly entertaining, as Johansson completes a movie trifecta with her Marvel Black Widow and the seductively lethal alien she plays in Under the Skin.

For 2015, Universal has no less than four franchises in play. The glimpses of the seventh Fast & Furious movie revealed more jaw-dropping stunt work (with cars parachuted out of a plane, for some reason the script will surely explain) and shots of the series' late star, Paul Walker. The studio had surprisingly ample footage to show from Minions, the Despicable Me spinoff which traces the history of those giddy yellow creatures who live to serve a demanding master; the fun sight gags, including one involving the construction of the Pyramids, augur another worldwide smash. The studio is also reviving one of its biggest blockbusters in 2015 with Jurassic World, and teased the sequel to its sleeper musical winner Pitch Perfect with footage from the original.

Universal Pictures chairman Donna Langley was very enthusiastic about the studio's prestige Christmas picture, Unbroken, the story of Olympic runner Louis Zamperini, who was captured and brutalized by the Japanese during World War II. Amazingly, Universal has owned the rights to Zamperini's story since 1957, when it planned to star Tony Curtis as the war hero. Laura Hillenbrand's 2010 bestseller about Zamperini revived interest in the project. which finally came to fruition thanks to a "force of nature" (in Langley's words) named Angelina Jolie, who directed.

Jolie appeared onstage, stunning in a white pantsuit, and introduced an extended trailer with quiet eloquence. Unbroken, she said, delivers a message "we need now more than ever," chronicling "the journey of a man through darkness into light." The clips revealed a big-scale, harrowing but inspirational film, photographed by the great Roger Deakins. It's the kind of movie the Academy loves, so don't be surprised if Jolie vies for a second Oscar next year in a new capacity.

The session ended with the world premiere of scenes from Fifty Shades of Grey, the movie of the huge bestseller that made kinky sex a fashionable turn-on for millions of women. "How do you make a movie of Fifty Shades of Grey?" Langley asked. "Very carefully." The clips were distinctly PG-rated, but who can say how far this eagerly awaited movie will go to be faithful to the spirit of the book? In any event, leads Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan are very attractive and seem to have good chemistry; whether that chemistry steams up the screen next Valentine's Day is a question that will no doubt bring long lines to multiplexes on opening weekend.

—Kevin Lally

Exhibitors challenge movie critics (and vice versa) at CinemaCon

The non-International Day programming at CinemaCon 2014 in Las Vegas began with a fun, loose event that instantly energized this annual gathering of the National Association of Theatre Owners. Matt Atchity, editor-in-chief of the highly influential movie review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, and senior editor Grae Drake hosted a session entitled "Rotten Tomatoes vs. the Audience: The Relevance of Film Critics Today," with a panel including veteran critic Leonard Maltin, USA Today's Claudia Puig, Scott Mantz of "Access Hollywood," and former Associated Press critic Christy Lemire.

With Drake as witty intermediary in the audience, exhibitors were encouraged to come to the mike and defend a film they felt didn't get a fair shake from critics or call out a movie they thought was overrrated. The results bore out Maltin's observation that our passions about movies are a very subjective thing indeed. One woman said she just didn't get all the fuss over Gravity; another volunteer said he found 12 Years a Slave sluggish and not that revelatory. Others rose to the defense of box-office bombs John Carter and Battleship. Puig and Lemire both came down hard on the oeuvre of director John Lee Hancock (Saving Mr. Banks, The Blind Side), decrying his sentimental tendencies, and the murmurs in the audience revealed a true divide between critics and theatre folk.

One volunteer wrestled with his feelings over Ridley Scott's The Counselor, admitting he enjoyed the overwrought melodrama even though he knew it was a bad film. Maltin reassured him, saying there aren't enough "so bad it's good" movies. "There's nothing to be said for mediocre films," he observed. "If you're going to see a bad movie, make it as bad as The Counselor."

Asked whether film critics need to adjust their criteria when evaluating a movie aimed at a certain demographic such as the Twilight series, Maltin answered, "I can't pretend to be a teenage girl or an action-movie junkie. People know a critic's mindset." Just as a critic is mindful of the audience, "the audience is mindful of us too," he argued.

One audience member asked whether critics truly have any impact on box office. For a Transformers or a Twilight with a built-in audience, no, but the enthusiasm of critics saved a movie like The Hurt Locker from obscurity and eventually brought it to the Oscar podium, Maltin noted. But The Hurt Locker was still a box-office underperformer, the exhibitor pointed out. True, the panel relented, but critics can still "start the conversation" that turns a movie like Slumdog Millionaire with no apparent audience hook into a box-office success.

It's a new age for film criticism, the panel observed, with "so many more people writing with a wide audience than ever before." Maltin noted that in this digital, web-connected age, "everybody's a moviemaker, everybody's a musician, everybody's a writer." Thanks to this "democratization of creativity," knowing who to trust isn't as clear as when the dividing lines between professional and amateur critic were clear. "The challenge is sifting through and finding the smart ones."

—Kevin Lally

Digital cinema reaches the end game

"Digital Cinema: Reaching the End Game" was the title of the address by IHS Technology film and cinema director David Hancock during the opening International Day session at CinemaCon in Las Vegas—and end is certainly the operative word. The statistical expert reported that 87% of the world's movie screens have now converted to digital projection. China is 100% converted, Western Europe is "nearly done" at 90%, and North America is also around the 90% mark, though that final 10% is stubbornly holding out at their peril, Hancock noted. Latin America trails at 68%, with some nations desperately behind the curve, like Venezuela at an alarming 23%.

Nearly half the world's screens—some 53,000—are now 3D-capable, and Hancock opined that 3D has left the novelty phase and is entering its maturity. "It's now another film choice," he observed, noting that in this new climate 3D needs to be perceived as a true added value, as was the case with the runaway 3D smash Gravity.

Hancock also touched on other notable recent trends. Theatre circuits' new branded premium large-format initiatives are starting to encroach on the territory previously dominated by the pioneer of giant screens, IMAX, in a dramatic way. In 2012, IMAX screens represented 87% of the large-format market; in 2013, that figure dropped to 65%.

Another topic was the development of laser projectors, technology which is being showcased by both Christie and Barco at CinemaCon. Wearied by the recent digital conversion mandate, exhibitors aren't keen to embrace another expensive new technology in the near future. But Hancock did foresee theatres taking a look at laser in 2017 when their service contracts for Series 1 digital projectors expire, and again in 2019 when their Series 2 deals end.

CinemaCon's morning seminars also included a wake-up call from Malcolm MacMillan and Patrick Bjorkman at Glasgow-based Peach Digital, which oversees web strategies and implementation for 15 exhibitors in seven countries. They noted that 80% of people in the developed world use the Internet, more than use a car. And within that vast majority, the use of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets (compared to desktops and laptops) is growing dramatically. Yet only 34% of cinemas have mobile solutions for their customers, compared to 88% of travel businesses and 70% of retail businesses. That's a lot of wasted potential, since "every device is a point of sale," they declared. Peach Digital was clearly using CinemaCon to pitch their consulting services, but the need is there. Like the digital revolution, reaching customers where they virtually live is yet another challenge cinemas must meet in this rapidly evolving technological world.

—Kevin Lally

Bullock, McCarthy, Stiller and Wiig tickle the audience at CinemaCon

Welcome to the comedy stylings of Melissa McCarthy, Sandra Bullock, Ben Stiller and Kristen Wiig! Twentieth Century Fox tapped four of its 2013 comic talents for the Thursday morning presentation of its upcoming slate, presided over by CEO and chairman Jim Gianopulos. Bullock and McCarthy's first-time pairing, The Heat, was very well-received at the theatre owners convention Tuesday night, and the two stars' wacky, easygoing rapport was again on display on the Colosseum stage at Caesars Palace.

McCarthy teased Bullock, joking that she's never cared for anyone she's worked with, but three-quarters into the shoot she realized "you're not terrible." She then compared their partnership to various movie teams, finally concluding they were most like "Tom Hanks and that volleyball." (At a later press conference, Bullock sincerely stated that the kind of instant chemistry they experienced is "a rare happening.")

Not to be outdone, later on Ben Stiller responded to Gianopulos' comparison of Stiller's imaginative direction of his The Secret Life of Walter Mitty to that of last year's Fox preview closer, Ang Lee's Life of Pi, by joking, "Yes, the two of us are constantly being compared, especially that year when he did Sense and Sensibility and I did The Cable Guy." The shtick continued: "We're both Asian and both of us were bar-mitzvahed in Israel."

Co-star Kristen Wiig interrupted Stiller's talk, claiming the actor-director told her the Fox preview was the next day and that he had tried to lock her in a closet. "She's not used to performing in front of a live audience," Stiller explained.

But seriously, folks, the footage Stiller showed from his dream project, based on the James Thurber tale of a milquetoast with an extremely active fantasy life, was quite dazzling. With its December release date, Fox is clearly positioning it as a 2013 awards contender. Stiller described it as "funny, serious, epic, small in places, kind of realistic and also a fairytale... I love a film you can't categorize." Judging by the excerpts shown, it's a major artistic leap for a director known for such zany comedies as Tropic Thunder and Zoolander.

Gianopulos' preview also included trailers from Fox's two powerhouse animation suppliers, DreamWorks and Blue Sky, who he reminded the audience are responsible for the top two franchises in animation history, Shrek and Ice Age. Also highly intriguing was the trailer from the Cormac McCarthy-penned thriller The Counselor, whose formidable cast includes Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem.

In the afternoon, the Lionsgate presentation was emceed by an actual standup comic, Kevin Hart, who reminded the audience perhaps five dozen times that his new concert film, Let Me Explain, is coming out via the studio on July 3. He also honed in on the not very diverse racial makeup of the Vegas audience: "The five black people in the room, they're with me. I snuck them in."

Celebrating a year in which this "new major" topped $1 billion in box office, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer and other execs brought out an array of talent including CinemaCon 2013 award winners Harrison Ford, Morgan Freeman, Elizabeth Banks, Hailee Steinfeld and Asa Butterfield, along with Liam Hemsworth and Isla Fisher. Joss Whedon, director of last year's mammoth The Avengers, was there to drum up interest in his black-and-white, modern-dress, micro-budget version of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, which has the tagline "Shakespeare knew how to throw a party." Whedon insisted that just as some people said, "I don't like superhero movies, but I liked The Avengers," folks with an aversion to Shakespeare will have a similar reaction to this "hilarious, timeless text."

Following the world premiere of the trailer for Ender's Game, the cult sci-novel that has spawned 15 sequels, Harrison Ford greeted the crowd with "Hello, my old friends" and praised his latest project as "a very strong, emotional, exciting movie." He also thanked exhibitors for upping their game in recent years and "making the movie experience more enjoyable."

Another premiere trailer was Escape Plan, a prison thriller re-teaming veteran action icons Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the latter sporting a new look—a salt-and-pepper beard.

The final trailer of the final preview event of CinemaCon 2013 was from the film voted by Fandango users as the most anticipated movie of the year: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. This time directed by Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend), it looks like it delivers everything fans of the novel and the first movie are expecting. The teaser trailer will debut on May 3 with the release of Iron Man 3.

 

 

Disney recruits Depp, Sony sends out Sandler at CinemaCon

Another day at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, another two studios previewing their lineups for 2013 and beyond. First up was Alan Horn, the genial chairman of Walt Disney Studios, who offered a film-by-film description of just about everything Disney has in the pipeline.

Inspired by its massive 2012 hit The Avengers, Disney touted "the greatest team ever assembled"—i.e, its collection of Marvel, Pixar, Disney, DreamWorks and Lucasfilm brands. Horn touched on them all, promising 14 to 15 pictures a year from the studio, with eight of them designed as tentpoles. He contrasted the different corporate cultures overseen by Disney; perhaps flashing back to his former studio Warner Bros.' 300, he likened Marvel to Sparta, populated by tough characters, while Pixar is more like Athens, a laid-back campus where "people hug each other all the time."

Horn trumpeted the projects from those two divisions: Marvel's Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America:The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man and The Avengers 2, and Pixar's Monsters University, Planes, The Good Dinosaur, Finding Dory and Inside Out. Highlights from the Disney label include the animated Frozen, Saving Mr. Banks with Tom Hanks as Walt Disney, Angelina Jolie in Maleficent, Brad Bird's Tomorrowland, and yes, another Pirates of the Carribean movie. 

Before screening Pixar's Monsters University in its entirety in 2D, Horn introduced Lone Ranger producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski, who in turn brought our their stars, Johnny Depp (in cowboy-dude gear) and Armie Hammer. Depp's only words concerned the height of his co-star. "We're not short," he insisted, as Hammer tried to maneuever his legs to reduce his stature.

Disney showed two sequences from The Lone Ranger: an exciting chase atop a train and its aftermath, and a later scene in which the Ranger's life is saved by the Indian Tonto's mystical healing. The film is clearly another big-scale extravaganza in the spirit of the team's Pirates franchise, but this time applied to the origin story of two classic western characters. Verbinski, who won an Oscar for the animated western Rango, seems to be striving to make an authentic genre film here, not a campy sendup, but one with state-of-the-art visual effects that were never in John Ford or Howard Hawks' tool kits.

Later in the day, Sony Pictures worldwide distribution president Rory Bruer showcased a large assortment of trailers for the studio's roster—but not before being interrupted by trumpters in Roman dress and attendees carrying chariots containing Grown Ups 2 stars Adam Sandler, Kevin James, David Spade and Salma Hayek. Sandler worked the crowd, urging them to "get it done" and hit the box-office bull's-eye for Grown Ups and other Sony titles he asked Bruer to list. Grown Ups 2 is a "f---ing four-quadrant movie!" he shouted.

Extended looks showed big hit potential for White House Down, Will Smith and his son Jaden in the sci-fi survival thriller After Earth, Tom Hanks in the true story of Somali pirate-fighting Captain Phillips, and Matt Damon in the class-conscious sci-fi tale Elysium from District 9 director Neill Blomkamp. Big exclusives included a first look at footage from David O. Russell's December release American Hustle, starring Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Jennifer Lawrence, and a glimpse of George Clooney's The Monuments Men. Clooney and fellow producer Grant Heslov addressed the crowd on a location video, jokingly confusing the event with ComicCon and mixing up Sony and Warner Bros., the studio that made their Oscar-winning Argo.

Getting perhaps the biggest reception was the extended trailer for Seth Rogen's wildly profane directing debut This Is the End, in which Rogen and his comedy buddies (James Franco, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, Jay Baruchel, Michael Cera, Craig Robinson, Aziz Ansari, etc.) play themselves being confronted by the apocalypse. Forget The Hangover—this could be the most outrageous movie of the year.

Look Who’s Talking

This
Friday, exhibition history is being recorded at Prestonwood Creek in North Dallas, Texas. Universal Studios’ Oblivion
will be presented at Look Cinemas in the first auditorium built from the ground up with the revolutionary audio format in mind. The opening also marks the premiere of the very first film that was natively
rendered – or mixed and conceived from the start – in Dolby Atmos.

“We wanted
this to be the finest presentation house in the country,” explains Tom
Stephenson, founder and chief executive of Look Cinemas. “Simply put, it offers the best possible way in which to watch a movie. Everybody
gets that the theatrical experience is about the screen, digital projection,”
he adds, “but to Look Cinemas, the audio side was terribly important as well. For
us, Dolby Atmos is the best immersive, multi-dimensional sound experience ever created.”

Since
Stephenson and his team were building their state-of-the-new-art, 11-screen,
1,900-seat complex, co-located with two top-chef restaurants that also serve
three dine-in auditoriums, from the ground up, they saw and seized upon an additional
opportunity. “We asked the Dolby tech guys how could we build the most perfect
auditorium for them. They really helped us out. The auditorium became a little
bit shorter and a little bit fatter, more of square shape,” if you will. “Everything,
including speakers on the sides and ceiling, was designed to show off Dolby
Atmos to its greatest advantage. It wasn’t just a matter of re-adapting another
room,” though this is something that Dolby has been doing with much success around
the globe, “but
to be purposely building an auditorium for this technology.”

The process
resulted in a wider 70-foot wall-to-wall and 50-foot floor-to ceiling screen (21
by 15 m). “I literally mean that,” Stephenson keeps his finger less than 8 inches
(20 cm) apart. “Obviously one of the great things about Dolby Atmos is how pure
and great the audio is. While this is terrific in the actual auditorium,” he
laughs, “you don’t want it to end up in the next auditorium. We spent a lot
more time and money and worked with sound engineers to make sure that sound didn’t
bleed through.”

“We call
it ‘Evolution,’ and the tagline is ‘It’s Not Just a Theory,'” Stephenson
concludes his observations. “Sight, sound and screen technology have evolved
and we believe that our cinema is literally the next stage in great presention
and the next step in a long, great history of theatrical exhibition creating
better and better spaces to enjoy movies in.”

Here’s looking
at you, Tom.

 

Universal and Warner Bros. celebrate record box office at CinemaCon

On day 2 of CinemaCon in
Las Vegas, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. both touted their box-office
performances in 2012, and each had bragging rights to a record. Adam Fogeleson,
chairman of Universal Pictures, reported the biggest year in the studio’s 100-year
history, with eight films surpassing $200 million at the worldwide box office.
This, despite the very expensive summer flop Battleship, a miscalculation from
which the studio “learned a lot,” Fogelson admitted, while taking pains to
point out that Universal is sticking with director Peter Berg for his next
movie.

Fogelson also revealed
that there would be sequels to the 2012 releases Snow White and the Huntsman
and Pitch Perfect, the latter a modest sleeper hit which Fogelson said has
become the fourth-biggest domestically downloaded movie.

At the morning
presentation, Fogelson chose to highlight Universal’s five summer releases,
with four of them seemingly competing for loudest trailer of the week.
R.I.P.D. and Kick-Ass 2 each combine comedy and frenetic action, while 2 Guns
is a variation on the mismatched-cops genre, teaming up Denzel Washington and
Mark Wahlberg, the respective stars of Universal 2012 hits Safe House and Ted. Sequences from Despicable Me 2, with those irresistible yellow minions, got a warm response from the audience; the sequel to the Illumination Entertainment animated hit adds the voices of Kristen Wiig as Steve Carell's potential love interest and Al Pacino as a villain called El Macho.

The finale paid homage to the success of the Fast & Furious franchise, which has earned $1.5 billion
for Universal and has grown exponentially with each film (due in large part to its massive social-media following). Stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Tyrese Gibson, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Sung Kang and Gina Carano took to the stage. Fan favorite Rodriguez returns to the series after an absence and has a major fight scene with Carano, the mixed-martial-arts pro turned Haywire star, and Rodriguez volunteered that in real life Carano would "kick my ass." Gibson teased the handsome Walker about certain hygiene issues, while Diesel lavishly praised the studio and producers for the ethnic mix of the cast. He also revealed that there will be a Fast & Furious 7 in 2014.

Warner Bros. had even more to celebrate: a $4 billion worldwide gross in each of the past four years, and 12 consecutive years of $1 billion domestic box office. Warner Bros. Pictures president Jeff Robinov offered advance looks at a lot of the upcoming slate, with a taped introduction by Baz Luhrmann for his riotously lavish 3D The Great Gatsby and live appearances by directors Todd Phllips (The Hangover Part III), Zack Snyder (Man of Steel) and Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim).

Phillips got laughs joking about him mother's complete lack of interest in movies, before declaring that "comedies need to be seen in a theatre with groups of people who can laugh together." As for any fears of going up against Fast & Furious 6 on May 24, Phillips shrugged off the competition: "It's f---ing Vin Diesel."

Snyder presented the world premiere of the trailer for Man of Steel, and emphasized that his impressive-looking reboot of the Superman franchise was shot on film; for him, celluloid was crucial to his goal to make "a big giant movie movie."

Del Toro testified that making Pacific Rim "has changed my life," giving him the opportunity to
utilize "a scope and a palette I haven't tried before." The film, he said, came "from the deepest part of my being...the ten-year-old kid who is in love with giant monsters." The ever-enthusiastic del Toro said he never grew tired of watching his footage during the long production process: "Every week I was smiling like a goddamn moron."

Some brief 3D footage from Alfonso Cuarón's outer space thriller Gravity intrigued, and two other surprises emerged: The trailer for We're the Millers, starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis, got big laughs and could be a hit comedy raunch-fest. And footage from the missing-child drama Prisoners looked very promising; acclaimed Quebec director Denis Villeneuve makes his Hollywood debut with a cast including Oscar nominees Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis.

Tomorow: CinemaCon's 2012 Filmmakers Panel, with Guillermo del Toro, Sam Raimi and Oliver Stone.

Roundup of Tweets and news coming out of CinemaCon

Film Journal is blogging straight from the CinemaCon convention, but news about the industry meetup is also making waves around the web. Here's a roundup of the news coming out of CinemaCon.

The MPAA plans to revise movie ratings to give more detailed information, and urged more family-friendly films. Obviously, this horror film enthusiast was not pleased:

(via @PNemiroff)

Distribution could go all-digital by the end of 2013, which is much faster than originally planned.

Instagram photos with minions are this year's CinemaCon souvenier. Twitter user and LA Times reporter Amy Kinla likes the minions at CinemaCon:

(via @AmyKinLA )

And she wasn't the only one who had thoughts on Despicable Me 2:

(via @slashfilm)

Universal announced that Fast & Furious 7 is coming out next July. Dwayne Johnson is in Fast & Furious 6, which is coming out this summer, and will likely be on board for the sequel too.

(via @TheRock)

Regal Cinemas caught some blurry footage of the stars of Star Trek Into Darkness, Chris Pine and Alice Eve.

(via @RegMovies)

There's also plenty of new technology and updates coming out of CinemaCon. Our roundup of new products has everything anyone equipment-shopping would need to know, and here are a few announcements coming out of our newsroom:

Christie launches Superior Performance Xenolite lamp series

RealD introduces precision white screen technology

IMAX and Paramount Pictures strengthen partnership with five-pic pact

Follow this link for even more news coming out of CinemaCon.

Paramount previews 'Star Trek,' 'World War Z' and 'Pain & Gain' at CinemaCon

Paramount Pictures gave movie exhibitors a more than generous sampling of their next three films at the Monday opening-night event at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. Star Trek Into Darkness co-writer
Damon Lindelof filled in for director J.J. Abrams, who sent word that he's so immersed in post-production chores he couldn't make the trip to Vegas. (Abrams also took full credit for "Lost" in a jokey letter read by Lindelof, his collaborator on the hit ABC TV series.)

Lindelof then brought out four cast members of Into Darkness: Chris Pine (Captain Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Mr. Spock), Alice Eve (new character Dr. Carol Marcus) and John Cho (Sulu). Pine promised that Kirk would show "a lot more vulnerability" in this chapter of the rebooted series, while Quinto talked about his quest to reveal the "interior life" of his famously undemonstrative character. Eve goodnaturedly complained about on-set teasing from her more seasoned Star Trek co-stars, while Cho admitted to being pranked into believing that a laser research facility where the movie shot had made him radioactive.

Lindelof confessed that he and Abrams had been skeptical about the decision to release the movie in 3D, but called himself a convert to the immersive qualities of the technology. The proof was there onscreen, as the studio showed two exciting sequences totaling 18 minutes: a chase scene on a wild red planet that climaxes with Spock about to be toasted alive by an erupting volcano; and a marvelously nail-biting set-piece in which Kirk and new villain Benedict Cumberbatch are propelled at high speed from one spacecraft to another, not always dodging space debris along the way. Watching these clips, I was reminded how astute the casting of the reboot is, with very likeable actors capturing the spirit of the iconic 196os performers.

None other than Brad Pitt made an appearance onstage to promote three harrowing sequences from his ambitious zombie movie World War Z. Zombies are hotter than ever thanks to the cable hit "The Walking Dead," but this movie's zombies are different: They move very fast and gather in massive clusters like an army of cockroaches or soldier ants. The result is some of the most disturbing horror imagery this writer has seen for quite a while; it's definitely scary, but is it too intense for a general audience? As for Pitt, he said that he sought to make a movie his sons would want to see "before they turn 18."

Finally, Transformers director Michael Bay introduced a full screening of Pain & Gain, his $25 million change of pace from his usual action blockbusters. It's one of those movies you'd never believe if it weren't based on a true story, with both Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson in distinctly unheroic roles as bodybuilders who get caught up in half-baked kidnapping and extortion schemes. Mixing comedy and nasty violence, this kinetic "small film" may actually have some critics re-evaluating the profitable Mr, Bay.

Tomorrow at CinemaCon: product presentations from Universal Pictures and Warner Bros., and a screening of the buzzed-about Sandra Bullock-Melissa McCarthy comedy The Heat.

Universal gathers its stars at CinemaCon

Of the six studio product previews at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Universal Pictures (which sat out last year's inaugural show) brought in the largest star contingent. The Thursday afternoon program, very capably and genially hosted by chairman Adam Fogelson, offered yet more proof that this is going to be a very big summer at the movies.

The session began with a smartly assembled reel marking Universal's 100th anniversary, which reminded the audience just how many iconic classics the studio has produced in the past century, from its 1930s horror legacy to the Spielberg parade of hits to the current Bourne action series. Then it was on to the first industry trailer, for Battleship, which has already made $150 million in overseas markets prior to its mid-May domestic premiere--an unusual release strategy. The trailer cheekily includes skeptical comments from The Hollywood Reporter, Slash.com and Stephen Colbert about the board game adaptation, before establishing its action bona fides. After the clip, stars Taylor Kitsch (late of John Carter) and Brooklyn Decker came out to vouch for the film's military muscle, courtesy of our very own Armed Forces.

For my money the most entertaining celebrity to appear on the Colosseum stage was Charlize Theron, who accompanied Twilight star Kristen Stewart, director Rupert Sanders and producer Joe Roth to promote Snow White and the Huntsman. Fogelson asked her what persuaded her to play the Evil Queen, and the statuesque blonde recalled stating that if she was going to sign on, "we gotta go balls to the wall." A few risque jokes later, Theron revealed that her interpretation of the Queen was inspired by Jack Nicholson in The Shining. That's the kind of statement, she joked, that gets you thrown out of studio casting sessions and back doing independent films "for dirt and water."

Stewart acknowledged that the phenomenal success of her Twilight series has been "really unique," and called the role of Snow White "the perfect choice for me." The combination of the cast and the vision of first-time feature director Sanders (a top talent in the world of commercials) led her to choose the project "from the gut."

Fogelson told the audience that his July 6 release Savages, Oliver Stone's gritty tale of young American marijuana dealers who must deal with a vicious Mexican cartel, is the Stone we know from movies like Natural Born Killers. Stone appeared on stage with three members of his cast: Kitsch (again), Salma Hayek and John Travolta. The veteran director approached the project as more than just an action thriller (though the trailer certainly promises nasty thrills), striving for an authentic portrait of California's desire for weed clashing with Mexico's crime epidemic.

Travolta said he had wanted to work with Stone for over 25 years, and that their first project together reminds him of his 1994 triumph, Pulp Fiction.  The cast also includes Blake Lively and Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass), and Travolta found it especially gratifying working with "beautiful and decent people doing awful things."

No doubt the biggest thrill for many in the audience was the chance to see and hear from "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane. who is making his feature directing debut this summer with the R-rated comedy Ted. MacFarlane also provides the voice for the titular teddy bear who comes alive thanks to a lonely child's wish and grows to irresponsible adulthood along with his human best bud, Mark Wahlberg.

Fogelson seemed generally nervous about what might come out of MacFarlane's mouth, and indeed at one point a dare by the comic auteur threatened to take this CinemaCon ceremony into NC-17 territory. But both MacFarlane and co-star Mila Kunis (who turned up earlier in the week to promote Disney's Wizard of Oz prequel) agreed that MacFarlane's outrageous comic sensibility also possesses "a very sweet backbone."

In any event, Fogelson confided that he's never heard his boss Ron Meyer laugh so hard at a Universal picture, and the trailer for Ted had the CinemaCon audience exploding with laughter too.

The final celebrity sighting of the program was CinemaCon Male Star of the Year Jeremy Renner, who's taken over the Bourne franchise from Matt Damon. Renner professed no hesitation about succeeding Damon, mainly because he liked the material and director Tony Gilroy and there's no point trying to anticipate people's reactions. Like his Mission: Impossible--Ghost Protocol co-star Tom Cruise, Renner insists on doing many of his own stunts, since he feels authenticity is crucial to the Bourne series.

The Universal program generously also included first glimpses of projects that are far, far from competion: the musical Les Miserables, the Tom Cruise sci-fi thriller Oblivion, the supernatural cop comedy R.I.P.D., The Fast and the Furious 6 and a rare Universal 3D project, 47 Ronin, which Fogelson described as like "300, The Matrix and The Last Samurai picking up swords and beating the shit out of each other."

Earlier on Thursday, 20th Century Fox also previewed its upcoming slate, and though the program featured only one filmmaker, the lineup still impressed. Ridley Scott's Prometheus looks like a sensational return to the science-fiction horrors of his classic Alien; the bizarrely high-concept Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter has a most tantalizing trailer; Ice Age: Continental Drift seems a sure bet to continue the huge run of that animated series; Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Jonah Hill appear poised to overcome the problematic title of their alien-fighting comedy Neighborhood Watch; Taken 2 looks like it has all the elements to bring out fans of Liam Neeson's previous action hit; and the Viola Davis-Maggie Gyllenhaal drama Won't Back Down, about the inequities of our school systems, seems to have real substance to go with its inspirational message. And for Christmas, Billy Crystal and Bette Midler may experience a comedy comeback, judging by the laughs for their Parental Guidance trailer.

Fox Filmed Entertainment co-chairmen Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman also ran down a list of future movies with familiar elements: A Good Day to Die Hard, Wolverine, a Percy Jackson sequel, a new Planet of the Apes chapter, Ben Stiller and Kristen Wiig in a remake of the Fox chestnut The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and the return of comedy duo Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in The Internship.

The lone talent appearance was by director Ang Lee to introduce two sequences from his ambitious 3D production Life of Pi. Like Hugo by his fellow CinemaCon panelist Martin Scorsese, this is a big-scale fantasy film that proves 3D is being taken very seriously as an artistic tool by some of the world's leading moviemakers. The two scenes, involving a fierce storm at sea and a later onslaught of flying fish, are truly unlike any 3D imagery you've seen before--visionary depictions of Yann Martel's tale of a teenage boy trapped at sea on a small boat with a Bengal tiger. After each sequence, Lee charmingly reminded the audience, "That was unfinished," and he described his efforts to conquer "a new film language." "I hope it doesn't feel like a gimmick, but an attempt to put you in an emotional space."

Lasers, 3D, Scorsese and Lee highlight day 3 of CinemaCon

Day 3 at CinemaCon in Las Vegas featured two special highlights: an early look at the visual possibilities offered by a prototype of laser projection equipment, and a talk with two Oscar-winning directors about their experiences with 3D.

In a morning session, Todd Hoddick, VP of Barco's North American Entertainment Division, hosted a screening of content utilizing Barco's prototype DC 4K laser projector. The first clip was an excerpt from director Ron Fricke and producer Mark Magidson's globe-spanning, non-narrative documentary Samsara, which Oscilloscope Pictures releases in New York and Seattle on August 24. The footage encompassed an unidentified landscape dotted with exotic reddish-orange structures whose colors really popped on the 70-foot Harkness Unity matte white screen installed at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, sharply detailed aerial shots of skyscrapers, and time-lapse photography of pulsating traffic. The clarity and brightness of the laser technology make an ideal medium for Fricke's dazzling images. Even more awesome was RED Digital's 2K, 48-frame-per-second 3D footage of a helicopter aloft against a cityscape backdrop; one could almost believe the sharply delineated copter was hovering inside the theatre above the audience's heads.

Hoddick listed the many advantages of this evolving laser technology: improved color, higher contrast, uniformity up to the edges of the screen, unlimited dimming of 3D, low power consumption and, of course, greater brightness.  But he also expressed caution about the roadblocks ahead: removing archaic FDA restrictions on lasers, bringing down costs, and finding a business model that would make yet another expensive hardware upgrade appealing to exhibitors.

During a panel discussion immediately following the demo, Jim Reisteter, digital cinema general manager at NEC Display Solutions, assured the audience of exhibitors that this all was still in the exploratory stage and that manufacturers aren't about to pressure theatre owners who are just finishing their transition to digital projection. "Get comfortable with what you have," he urged. Michael Esch, senior director of entertainment solutions at fellow projector company Christie, concurred: "We're not trying to bombard you with technology for technology's sake."

Wim Buyens, senior VP of entertainment at Barco, said he considered it his company's "duty to come up with an upgradable solution," rather than start a laser projector from scratch. Anything else "would be disrespectful" to exhibitors, he believes.

Hoddick expects a "commercially viable" laser projector will be appearing by the end of 2013. Laser technology is yet another scary leap for the movie theatre industry, but this session proved that it can reap many tantalizing benefits (particularly on the 3D brightness front) and is well worth exploring.

The issue of 3D brightness was addressed by Martin Scorsese at a lunchtime Filmmakers Forum, moderated by Hollywood Reporter chief film critic Todd McCarthy, which also featured director Ang Lee. Scorsese warned the audience that if screens "are too dark and you can't see, why should [audiences] come back and watch another 3D film?"

Scorsese, who received the RealD Innovation in 3D Award at the lunch for his groundbreaking work on the Oscar-winning Hugo, said his interest in 3D was related to his fascination with the deep-focus shots (using wide-angle lenses) of the great cinematographer Gregg Toland of Citizen Kane fame. "In a sense, it's like 3D," he opined. Scorsese also noted that interest in 3D dates back to the early silent days, and that Russian master director Sergei Eisenstein had a book on 3D open nearby when he died in the 1940s.

Self-effacing Lee, who's preparing his first 3D film, Life of Pi, admitted that working in the format has been a difficult learning process. "It's its own thing," he said. "It's a new form of art, and we haven't gotten there yet." Lee's Pi cinematographer, Claudio Miranda, shot the 3D Tron and "he walks around like he knows," the director confided. "But we're all novices when it comes to 3D."

Before filming Hugo, Scorsese screened '50s 3D classics like House of Wax and Dial M for Murder for his crew, and decided the "stage play" look of Dial M was the way he wanted to go. His attitude toward his first 3D project was "Let's push it, let's see what happens... I kept asking for more [3D impact]."

Scorsese believes that when actors' faces lean out toward the audience in 3D, "I'm more interested in them, I'm immersed in them. It's like a moving sculpture of the actor."

The much-lauded director of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull invariably finds links to his life as an asthmatic child in New York's Little Italy. For him, 3D is like those old Viewmaster toys that "transported you to another world." Perhaps it's not so surprising after all that this enthusiastic convert to 3D finally made his first children's film.

Warner Bros. and Disney host exciting previews at CinemaCon

If the goal of the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas is to heighten anticipation for the studios' upcoming movie slates, then mission accomplished. All six major studios are represented at the show this year with product previews, and on Tuesday it was Warner Bros. and Disney's turn to show off their wares.

In 2011, Warner Bros. celebrated its third year in a row tallying $4 billion in global box office, and the upcoming movies it highlighted augur another tremendous year. First up was Tim Burton to present the extended trailer for Dark Shadows, which looks like an awful lot of fun. Burton recalled running home from school to watch the original supernatural daytime TV soap opera, which he blamed for "a generation of bad students" neglecting their homework. He admitted that he and eight-time collaborator Johnny Depp share "a strange love of weird cult phenomena," and then brought to the stage a reticent-looking Depp, who said all of two words: "Have fun."

Next was Dark Knight Rises writer-director Christopher Nolan, who recalled his visit to CinemaCon predecessor ShoWest in 2010 to preview Inception, which he humbly admitted must have seemed like "high-end gibberish" at the time. Nolan's $2.5 billion track record at the worldwide box office has allowed him to "craft a large-scale conclusion" to his Batman series, and to "finish it in the biggest way possible." "We're partners in putting on a show," he told exhibitors, offering the equivalent of "many thousands of live performances." For the CinemaCon audience, Nolan prepared a montage of scenes from The Dark Knight Rises that promised a movie filled with both action and stunning visual spectacle.

Rock of Ages director Adam Shankman began his intro confessing he wanted to be Chris Nolan. "You fucker!" he marveled at the preceding montage. "That's badass shit!" Shankman then described going to the Broadway production of the hit '80s hard-rock musical and noticing that every straight man in the audience was singing along and knew all the words. He predicted Rock of Ages would be the first movie musical that straight men will take their girlfriends to see.

Jay Roach, director of the Austin Powers and Fockers franchises, is back with The Campaign, a comedy co-starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis as rival candidates for U.S. Congress who get down and dirty. Judging by the raucous reaction to the trailer, this looks like a potential comedy blockbuster. The timing in this election year is perfect--perhaps too perfect. As Roach noted, during the making of the film,"we kept checking the Internet to see if we were still as funny as the real-life stuff."

Greeting the audience on tape was Baz Luhrmann, director of the new 3D version of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan. This may not be a literary adaptation for purists, but, like Luhrmann's wild take on Romeo and Juliet, it looks like a lavish, ultra-stylish treatment that fully justifies the unexpected third dimension for a romantic drama.

Warner's preview ended with a moment of movie history: ten minutes of scenes from Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, the first digital 3D feature shot at 48 frames per second (versus the standard 24 frames). The New Zealand landscapes were incredibly sharp, and more intimate scenes looked hyper-real. (In fact, I overheard some viewers griping that the images looked more like high-def TV than a movie.) The 48 FPS future is nearly here: The enhanced Hobbit opens in select engagements this December.

Tim Burton was back for the Disney preview event, showing a very amusing classroom scene from Frankenweenie, his 3D stop-motion feature version of his own early live-action short about a young boy who reanimates his dead pet dog a la Dr. Frankenstein. And so was Johnny Depp, accompanying producer Jerry Bruckheimer to talk up The Lone Ranger, which also re-teams them with Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski. This time, Depp had just a few more words to say, admitting that Jay Silverheels, the original actor who played the Masked Man's Indian sidekick Tonto, might not approve of Depp's interpretation.

Depp and Bruckheimer's appearance was preceded by a surprise visit from Kermit the Frog on a cardboard horse, putting in his bid to play the Lone Ranger, and Miss Piggy emerging from the opposite end of the stage to demand a role in Disney's Oz: The Great and Powerful. Disney production president Sean Bailey told them the roles were already cast, but reassured them with the official news that there will be a Muppets II.

Talking up Oz were director Sam Raimi, producer Joe Roth, and stars James Franco and Mila Kunis. Roth, a onetime Disney chairman and producer of the mega-hit Alice in Wonderland, called Oz "more Disney than any film I can remember." The prequel shows how the Wizard, the Wicked Witch and Glinda the Good Witch evolved into the characters we know from the 1939 classic, with Kunis turning bad after she's dumped by Franco's character, a con man/magician. "A woman gets her heart broken and she goes craaazy," Kunis told the crowd.

Pixar co-founder and Disney Animation chief John Lasseter took over the final portion of the program, first previewing a highly original and delightful-looking new feature from Walt Disney Animation, Wreck-It Ralph, which explores the secret lives of videogame characters. Ralph, voiced by John C. Reilly (who also appeared on stage), is an 8-bit villain from the dawn of videogames who longs to break out of his designated identity and do something good and heroic. Directed by Rich Moore of "Futurama," this looks like a major crowd-pleaser.

Lasseter also gave us a first glimpse at the 3D version of Finding Nemo, which looked sensational with the added dimension--like a giant fish tank up on the big screen. The 3D trailer for Monsters University, the prequel to Monsters Inc. (also getting a 3D reboot), earned big laughs, and Lasseter revealed that Pixar's dinosaur project (due May 30, 2014) finally has a title, The Good Dinosaur, and that there's a new project in the works about the eerie Mexican holiday called Dia de los Muertes, from Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich.

As a final treat, CinemaCon got to see the first half-hour of Pixar's next release, the Scottish adventure Brave, and it's another meticulous and masterly effort from this remarkable studio. In related news, Dolby revealed that Brave will be the first feature to go out with its new, highly immersive audio format Dolby Atmos, on 15 test screens.

Paramount celebrates 100 years with a surprise appearance from 'The Dictator'

The National Association of Theatre Owners' second annual CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas opened Monday with special "International Day" activities underlining the increasing importance of the overseas markets to the Hollywood studios. Breakfast keynote speaker Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, president of international distribution at Warner Bros. Pictures, noted that 2011's foreign box-office tally of $13.5 billion was 30% ahead of the U.S., and pointed to the phenomenal growth in markets like Brazil, Russia and China (the latter soaring from $400 million in box-office takings to $2 billion in a mere five years, with $5 billion predicted by 2015).

International Day lunch honored Universal veteran Jack Ledwith, Hoyts Entertainment CEO Delfin Fernandez, and visionary Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov, director of the upcoming Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Lincoln producer Tim Burton was on hand to introduce Bekbambetov and praise his visual imagination, declaring, "I can't think of any better director to make a movie about an American president than a Russian." Bekmambetov said receiving the honor was "a special moment for me," since he doesn't expect to win any critics' prizes. "I make movies for the audience."

The show officially kicked off on Monday night with a special program celebrating Paramount Pictures' 100th anniversary and previewing their lineup for 2012. Called "franchise Viagra" by G.I. Joe: Retaliation director Jon Chu, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson appeared to accept the CinemaCon "Action Star of the Decade" award. That celebrity sighting was followed by Chris Rock's very enthusiastic introduction of 25 minutes from Madagascar 3, which he promised would be the biggest hit of the summer, despite competition from "crap" like The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Returns. Rock  likened the wild 3D visuals of the movie, showcased in a surreal circus production number set to Katy Perry's hit song "Firework," to the work of Salvador Dali and David LaChappelle.

Tom Cruise appeared on tape to promote his upcoming action film One Shot, based on the bestselling book series by Lee Childs. Cruise admitted he doesn't quite match the towering height of Childs' protagonist Jack Reacher, but "Lee felt I was the guy who could drive fast cars and kick the shit out of people." The two clips screened, a five-on-one fight scene and a fierce car chase, were highly effective and muscular, with Cruise persuasively filling the shoes of the kind of hardened anti-hero Clint Eastwood used to play in the '70s. It looks like the Cruise comeback in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol was not a fluke.

The big surprise of the evening was Sacha Baron Cohen's march down the aisle of the Caesars Palace Colosseum in his white military regalia as his newest character, The Dictator. Saying he was happy to be at "Cinnabon," Baron Cohen proceeded to make irreverent jokes at the expense of DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg ("I thought I was the only dictator in the house"), John Carter, and recently fired Disney chief Rich Ross ("In my country they just shoot the executives. Oh wait, you did.") The Dictator screened for the first time at a local Rave cinema following Paramount's after-party, so web reports should be streaming in soon whether Baron Cohen's behavior on screen is as outrageous as his antics at Caesars.