Movie News: WARNER BROS. PICTURES’ CINEMACON PRESENTATION HITS THE JACKPOT IN LAS VEGAS

SUICIDE SQUAD Cast (Jai Courtney, Cara Delevigne, Joel Kinnaman, Will Smith, Jay Hernandez, Adam Beach, Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje, Karen Fukuhara, Margot Robbie & Jared Leto)

Big Movies, Big Stars and Big News Take

Center Stage at the Studio’s Big Picture Presentation

BURBANK, CA, April 12, 2016 – Warner Bros. Pictures showcased an impressive lineup of talents and highly anticipated films at this year’s CinemaCon, which generated tremendous excitement for the Studio’s wide-ranging slate. Chairman and CEO Kevin Tsujihara opened the program and announced that Ben Affleck—who will again play the role of Batman in the upcoming Justice League movie—will direct, as well as star in, a new stand-alone Batman feature.

The Studio’s presentation was highlighted by trailers and film clips—including some never-before-seen footage—and appearances by some of the major stars and filmmakers involved in each of the movies. It also served to illustrate Tsujihara’s statement about the diversity of the slate: built on the foundation of the key franchises of DC Super Heroes, animated LEGO^® features, and “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” but also encompassing a broad scope of dramas, action adventures, horror thrillers and comedies.

There were also speeches from Sue Kroll, in her new post as Warner Bros. Pictures President of Worldwide Marketing and Distribution, and Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, who was recently named President of Worldwide Distribution.

LEGEND OF TARZAN (Christoph Waltz, Alexander Skarsgard, Margot Robbie, Samuel L. Jackson)

Remarking on the Warner Bros. event, Kroll said, “CinemaCon is always one of the high points of our year: when we get to introduce our upcoming slate to our partners in the exhibition community who are responsible for bringing our films to audiences worldwide. It was wonderful to have this opportunity to showcase the broad range of films Warner Bros. has on the horizon, as well as some of the extraordinary artists behind them.”

Kwan Vandenberg added, “We appreciated the enthusiastic participation of actors and filmmakers from every title, who added tremendous star power to the presentation. CinemaCon gives us a chance to reinforce our commitment to the big-screen experience on a global level.”

Kicking off the film presentation with a bang, Ben Affleck and Amy Adams introduced a thrilling reel spotlighting the Studio’s ambitious slate of DC films. The roster includes the new Justice League film, as well as stand-alone features for Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg. Director Zack Snyder closed the reel with a greeting from the Justice League film set, surrounded by his stars.

THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE (Will Arnett and directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord)

The DC preview also included a glimpse of the summer’s hotly anticipated action adventure “Suicide Squad” and, immediately following, writer/director David Ayer took the stage and introduced the main ensemble cast, led by Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie and Joel Kinnaman. The extended version of the “Suicide Squad” trailer was met with loud applause and the buzz surrounding the film was palpable.

Host Mario Lopez then took the attendees through the rest of the summer line-up, including advance footage from the wide range of titles. The stars and filmmakers who excited the crowd about their upcoming films included: Russell Crowe for the action comedy “The Nice Guys”; Emilia Clarke for the drama “Me Before You” (from New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn Mayer); James Wan, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson for the supernatural thriller “The Conjuring 2” (from New Line Cinema); Teresa Palmer and David F. Sandberg for the horror thriller “Lights Out” (from New Line Cinema); Kevin Hart and Rawson Marshall Thurber for the action comedy “Central Intelligence” (from New Line Cinema and Universal Pictures), which included a taped greeting from Dwayne Johnson; Alexander Skarsgård, Margot Robbie, Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz for the adventure “The Legend of Tarzan” (from Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures); and Todd Phillips and Bradley Cooper for the comedic drama “War Dogs,” which is based on real events.

FANTASTIC BEASTS & WHERE TO FIND THEM 

(Colin Farrell, Alison Sudol, Eddie Redmayne & Dan Fogler)

Looking past the summer, Warner Bros. unveiled some of the films on the drawing board from the Warner Animation Group, or WAG for short. Three of the brilliant minds in the WAG think tank—Christopher Miller, Phil Lord and Nicholas Stoller—came to the stage to introduce a special reel featuring a few of the titles in the pipeline, anchored by three new films in the LEGO^® movie franchise: “The LEGO^®Batman Movie,” “The LEGO^® Movie 2” and “Ninjago.” Stoller, who co-directed the next WAG film on the slate, “Storks,” was joined by fellow director Doug Sweetland and voice talents Andy Samberg and Katie Crown to present new footage from the heartwarming and hilarious family adventure.

ME BEFORE YOU (Emilia Clarke) 

The animation portion wrapped with never-before-seen footage from “The LEGO^® Batman Movie,” which gives the breakout star of the hit “The LEGO^® Movie” a film of his own. Drawing laughter and enthusiastic applause, the clip was presented by producers Lord and Miller, joined by the voice of LEGO^® Batman himself, Will Arnett, who made a surprise appearance to the delight of everyone there.

Warner Bros. closed the presentation with a look at the most magical film of the year, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” written by Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling, which will bring moviegoers to a new place and time in the wizarding world. Four of the film’s stars, Eddie Redmayne, Alison Sudol, Dan Fogler and Colin Farrell, came to the stage to introduce the new teaser trailer and a look behind the scenes of the film, which has already captivated fans.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

It's that time of the year again-when we rush to watch The Hobbit despite the tough Christmas schedule, overwhelming crowds, grueling traffic and of course making to sure to watch before MMFF hits- or else we could be watching the movie in 2015.

Although this yearly tradition of catching the Peter Jackson helmed installment will sadly be the last one, it is with a bitter sweet feeling that we enter the movie house, take our seats and sip on our Biggie from Wendy's as we look up at the screen to catch a piece of J. R. R. Tolkien's heritage to the world.

Why all the drama? Well - if you guys didn't know yet- Paul and I are big LOTR/The Hobbit/Tolkien/Peter Jackson fans. As boyfriend and girlfriend we would watch the LOTR Trilogy on DVD (extended DVD) and we would spend hours watching the behind-the-scenes footages and documentary on anything and everything in the creation of the films. We know people like Fran Walsh, Allan Lee and we could point out Peter Jackson's cameos in the films. 

So as big fans of the franchise here is our review on The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies: trust me, as a writer, with some script writing experience back in High Scool it really is hard to think about how you will adopt a well known and well loved story, much more cut it into three parts. How do you start and end each installment? Especially taking into consideration that there is a year in between each parts? It is with this thought in mind that I have to say that I am still conflicted with how The Battle Of The Five Armies started- right where The Desolation left off, Smaug flying into Lake Town to unleash his wrath. That was sort of a dissapointment for me since Smaug was such a big deal in the second movie, that his quick demise in the third really was a bit of a let down. I was even worried that he would have no lines and I wouldn't be able to hear Benedict Cumberbatch in the film :( 

Thankfully the writers gave him a couple of amazing bad ass lines so that's good. I think that adding that bit where Bard uses his son as a "kalso" to fire the black arrow was a bit of a nail biter. That was a good bit to add, it had a sort of Abraham-Isaac feel into it that just gave me the willies. 

Needless to say that Smaug I was dissapointment that Smaug's death was rushed. I kinda liked him. 

Oh and I should mention that I was also not to happy with the movie tag like being: "The Battle Of The Five Armies" in my opinion, sticking to the original "There And Back Again" would have been a better choice and would it would have been a great nod to the original story. 

So going back to the film- 

There was a bit of comic relief provided by Alfred, the former right hand man / Deputy of the Mayor. This was a good addition, especially considering how grim the content of the last movie would be. The audience laughed at his subtle and cowardly antics and every laugh was a good trade off to the rest of the emotions that you would surely feel when you see the movie. There are a bit of surprise deaths in the movie but since I've read the book I was already expecting them even if I was willing for them not to happen-don't worry no spoilers here. :) 

Peter Jackson and his team took a lot of liberties with changing up the story which I think is an okay deal, I'm not a purist who would complain at every non-book change. I believe that Jackson et al. have made a great adaptation of the books to the films. So much so that even non-readers would be able to enjoy it. 

So some book-movie changes coupled with my thoughts: For one, Legolas isn't even in the book. Yes fan girls and boys the hunky elf, played by an older Orlando Bloom does not make any appearance in any shape or form in the book, his appearance in the movies was more so for the fans really, so at least they have someone they know or who looks familiar that they can watch on screen and so that the fan girls and boys can cheer and swoon on him too :p 

Tauriel (the she-elf), also not in the book. Tolkien is not known for his leading female characters and of course in this day and age a bad ass chick is always a plus on a movie ensemble cast. 

Not really sure what to make of the whole Tauriel-Filly love team though, yeah for Aragorn and Arwen it works but for these two...not so sure. It was like Jackson et al. just throwing a random love team in the bunch plus an awkward love triangle with Legolas too. But I guess it was still effective since two people I know posted Tauriel's heart breaking lines in the film on Facebook after seeing the movie. Not putting the lines here though-to avoid spoilers :) 

Watching the movie, I remembered all those fairy tales that I read as a child, of a King consumed by greed, willing to forsake and sacrifice everything for the sake of gold and treasure. Although no childhood fairy tale can bring to the screen bad as* fight scenes that only Peter Jackson can-okay I'll have to admit that some of the fight scenes were too far fetched and were literally defying the laws of physics but still bad as* enough for you to gush and cheer. ^_^ 

The movie like other Hobbit/LOTR movies was over 3 hours long but you really won't feel the length of the movie since it was one bad as* fight scene after the next! there was absolutely no dull moment. Definitely an epic end to the trilogy! 

And in classic Jackson style he joins The Hobbit trilogy with The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy by littering the movie with Easter Eggs and teasers, making you just want to watch The Fellowship of The Ring right after The Battle of the Five Armies. 

Here are some actors and roles I loved - aside from Bilbo and Smaug ^_^ 

Luke Evans (Dracula Untold) really did a good job playing Bard- he really had that traditional hero role pinned down and it is also an added plus that he's a loving dad of three children ^_~ 

Good representation on the race of Men of which few are hard to come by these days- in books or in real life!