20th Century Fox launched the final day of CinemaCon with a look at its diverse 2013 slate. Starting with the animated projects coming up from their Blue Sky Studios, Fox unveiled a new Blue Sky logo that will debut in theaters with the forthcoming Epic. The new version features Ice Age‘s Scrat climbing up a blue surface which, when the shot pulls back, is revealed to be the edge of the “B” in the word “Blue.”
Epic, which hits theaters on May 24, showed off the most recent trailer, which you can check out by clicking here.
Rio 2 then debuted an early teaser that has the feathered cast dancing to an instrumental Brazilian tune against a black background. Slowly, more more characters join in until Tracy Morgan’s Luiz finally marches in with a pair of sunglass on his rear end designed to look like the film’s logo. It then cuts away to Jemaine Clement’s Nigel, who schemingly remarks, “Keep smiling. I’ll be pooping on your party promptly.”
Although the film won’t hit theaters until 2015, the Blue Sky portion of the presentation ended with the very first look at Peanuts, timed for a November release to match the legendary comic strip’s 65th anniversary, the trailer begins with a shot of the sun rising over a hill, pulling back to reveal that it’s not a hill at all: it’s the top of Charlie Brown’s head. The design work is incredibly faithful to Charles Schultz’s illustrations with only the slightest bit of “realistic” texturing.
On the heels of Blue Sky’s presentation came Fox’s other major animation studio, DreamWorks Animation with trailers for both Turbo and Peabody & Sherman.
You can watch the former by clicking here and catch the film in theaters on July 17.
The latter, meanwhile, matched the version previously revealed by Fox at their DreamWorks Animation preview, although it’s been updated to reflect the new release date of March 7, 2014 and it now includes an additional tag at the end where Mr. Peabody is sitting receiving therapy from Sigmund Freud (voiced by Mel Brooks).
The DreamWorks Animation portion then ended with the first-ever teaser for How to Train Your Dragon 2. Opening on Toothless and a fully armored Hiccup gliding through a cloudy sky, the scenes follows the pair as they fly, revealing both characters’ prostheses. Hiccup then gives Toothless a knowing nod and lets go, plummeting through the air. Toothless follows, both of them falling together until Hiccup suddenly activates squirrel suit wings in his armor and the vertical fall becomes a horizontal race. The teaser then ends with Hiccup on the ground, removing his armored mask to reveal that’s he’s quite a bit older than in the first film. He’s still a young man, but now looks to be in his late teens or even early 20’s.
Fox’s live-action projects then took over the stage with Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock arriving to screen the Red Band trailer for their upcoming The Heat. Hitting theaters June 28, you can watch the trailer for yourself by clicking here.
Trailers then followed for Shawn Levy’s The Internship (which you can watch right here) and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (which you can watch here and view the new photo below). Those films arrive on June 7 and August 7, respectively.
Four brand-new trailers then followed. The first, for Brad Furman’s Runner Runner, begins with Justin Timberlake’s character losing money on an online gambling website. He goes to track down the site’s owner, believing that he’s been cheating and winds up forming an uneasy partnership with the immensely powerful man behind a criminal empire, played by Ben Affleck. Timberlake’s character winds up working for him, “cleaning up his affiliate business.” One scene has Timberlake getting beaten up by a group of guys and then coming to Affleck who, in full villain mode, delivers a quick monologue about how other jobs may be better suited for him. If he wants to own his own island, though, he’ll go get beaten up if he’s asked to and then come back and ask for more.
Also starring Gemma Arterton and Anthony Mackie, Runner Runner hits theaters September 27.
Ridley Scott’s The Counselor then followed, showing off the film’s impressive pedigree. Scripted by Cormac McCarthy, the film’s cast includes Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz, all with extremely distinctive looking characters. Bardem, especially, is physically transformed with big, spiky hedgehog hair and brightly covered, garish outfits. Pitt’s character looks very similar to his Killing Them Softly character in parts, but one shot has him dressed in an all-white cowboy outfit.
The film also teased a number of sexually-charged moments, including what looks to be a love scene between Cruz and Diaz and a sort of car lapdance on the part of Diaz on the hood of Bardem’s convertible. The Counselor hits theaters November 15, 2013.
Walking with Dinosaurs offered a very intriguing look at the December 20 release. It’s unclear whether or not the whole film will play this way, but the trailer has CGI dinosaurs against live-action backgrounds and the narrative looks like it plays out without any dialogue, teasing lots of epic shots of prehistoric beasts and their life in the wild.
James Mangold’s The Wolverine finished off the trailers with a new one that features lots of quick shots and no dialogue with on screen text that reads, “The Hero. The Fugitive. The Warrior. The Survivor. The Legend.” before finishing on The Wolverine. Although it’s a quick shot, one of the big treats is the full reveal of Will Yun Lee’s Kenuichio Harada in his full Silver Samurai costume.
Stealing the show, however, was an extended look at Ben Stiller’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. With cinematography that’s equal parts Jacques Tati’s Playtime and Sam Mendes’ Away We Go, the fanciful comedy drama plays up the beautiful sadness of Stiller’s protagonist’s world.
In the first scene, Walter Mitty is looking at Kristen Wiig’s character’s profile on eHarmony. He’s clearly got on a crush on her, but is hesitant to send her a message. When he finally tries to, his computer gives him an error. On the way to work, he calls customer service (the rep on the phone is played by Patton Oswald) and, asked to expand his profile, he reveals that he hasn’t really done anything of interest his entire life. Later, he’s seen with his sister looking at a travel journal that his father gave him before he died, realizing that it’s still empty.
Wiig’s character works with Mitty for LIFE magazine, but the offices are shutting down and doing one final issue. Sean Penn’s character, an arctic explorer named Sean O’Connell, wants one of his photos printed, but the slide is missing and it’s Mitty’s job to find it.
We meet Mitty’s boss, played by Adam Scott, who does an exceptional job portraying a real jerk. At one point, he makes fun of Mitty’s fondness for David Bowie, mocking “Space Oddity.” Wiig comes up to him later and tells him that she really like this song.
Deciding to have an adventure, Mitty commits to traveling to the Greenland to get the photo directly from O’Connell. We see him in a small bar, trying to hire a helicopter pilot, but finding that the guy is really drunk. He looks to the stage and imagines Wiig’s character singing “Space Oddity,” which plays as he runs to the helicopter, deciding to fly anyway.
Having to make a jump from the helicopter to a boat on the open water, Mitty leaps into the ocean by mistake and suddenly sees a fin in the water. A man on the boat shouts that it’s a porpoise and he should be safe, but it’s really a shark. Luckily, he’s hoisted out of the water just in time.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty hit theaters Christmas Day and buzz from the audience following the footage suggest that it’s going to be a serious Oscar contender.
