Warner Bros.’ The Big Picture presentation really made an impact on the last day of CinemaCon 2011, as it showcased a lot of new footage from their entire 2011 line-up, including three new comedies that are likely to make an impact this summer. We also have an exclusive interview with three comedy superstars who appear in one of them.
But before we get to the big laughs, the Warner Bros. presentation kicked-off with a sizzle reel that featured the first footage from two of their fall dramas, opening with Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar biopic (still not on the release schedule), a scene of Leonardo DiCaprio as the first director of the F.B.I. giving a speech about how the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby made it crucial that they create a database of fingerprints. It also showed some of the first footage from Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion (October 21), a large-scale thriller about a virus that’s unleashed on the world, with lots of dark, dystopian scenes of people suffering and images of a glammed-down Matt Damon and Kate Winslet in a hotel room talking on the phone trying to find out who has been in her room because she thinks she’s gotten sick. Both movies looked like they would really be very much part of the discussion when awards season comes around.
We also were really excited to see our very first scenes from Final Destination 5, out on August 26, but like is often the case, the footage went by too fast to make note of what we saw! Other films teased in the presentation included Happy Feet 2 (November 18)–a number based around L.L. Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out”–New Year’s Eve (December 9)–just a list of all the actors involved–and Dolphin Tale (September 23).
What we really want to focus on right now are the three comedies in Warner Bros.’ summer line-up. The studio debuted the trailer for Todd Phillips’ The Hangover at ShoWest three years ago and it went over so well they realized what a great potential audience they have for their two new comedies, Horrible Bosses (July 8) and Crazy, Stupid, Love. (July 29).
This year, Todd Phillips kicked off the extended look at WB’s summer comedies with the world premiere of the trailer for his anticipated sequel The Hangover: Part II, which you can watch here. We have an exclusive interview with Phillips we’ll probably run early next week.
Seth (The King of Kong) Gordon is back at New Line following the hit Four Christmases starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon with a comedy that looks even funnier, Horrible Bosses (July 8), starring Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day as three friends who are being treated so badly by their bosses they plot to kill them. This one really looks like it could be this year’s “Hangover” or Wedding Crashers, because every single person at one time in their life has had that boss, the one you want to kill, and seeing this movie will offer the type of catharsis that almost guarantees this will be another blockbuster R-rated comedy for Warner Bros/New Line.
the trailer begins as we first meet Jason Bateman’s Nick, a white collar worker, and his boss, played by Kevin Spacey, who offers him a drink. Nick protests that it’s only 8:15 in the morning to which his boss says that it’s very expensive scotch and if he wants a promotion, he should be a team player so Bateman tries to chug the large glass of scotch, most of it spilling on him. His boss then tells everyone in the office that Nick has a drinking problem, and when his boss comes out to announce who he will give the promotion to the job opening of VP of Sales, he says he has decided to give the job to himself. When Bateman protests, his boss cites the drinking as why he didn’t get it.
Jason Sudeikis plays Kurt and his loathsome boss Bobby is played by Colin Farrell, completely unrecognizable with a beard, a horrifying comb-over and a beer gut! His boss is commanding him to all the fat people in the office as well as a guy in a wheelchair he refers to as “Professor X.”
Charlie Day from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” plays Dale, a dentist assistant to Jennifer Aniston’s Dr. Julia Harris, who is quite striking with dark hair rather than the trademark ‘do she made famous in the ’90s,’ and she is constantly hitting on him. While she’s working on someone’s teeth, she squirts water at Charlie’s crotch and makes a comment about being able to tell that he’s circumcised. He doesn’t want to have anything to do with it, because he tells her that he’s engaged to his girlfriend, but his boss then shows him suggestive pictures of them together she took while he had been knocked out.
The three guys realize the only way to rid themselves of their problem is to get rid of their bosses so they look for a hitman. Their first attempt is a dapper looking man who they find in the newspaper, claiming to do “wetwork,” which it turns out means that he urinates on other men, something which should have been obvious since they found him in the “men seeking men” section. They then go into a bar asking if the bartender knows anyone who can take care of their problems and he points out Jamie Foxx’s character who tells him his name is “Motherf*cker Jones.” After talking with him, they try to do the job themselves with Charlie Day attacking Kevin Spacey and failing, so the other guys lock him out of the car. In another scene, the three guys are outside Dale’s boss’ house looking into her window as we see Aniston in bra and panties posing for them while eating things like bananas, hot dogs and other things suggestively. Sudeikis notes that it can’t possibly be a proper balanced meal, but he still would do her.
There’s a lot more gags and we probably haven’t done the trailer justice, but honestly, this is one of the funniest trailers we’ve seen since that first “Hangover” one and most of the funniest moments seem to go to Day who really kills it in his second pairing with Sudeikis after last year’s Going the Distance. We expect what we saw to be toned down for a theatrical trailer, which hopefully will come out soon, but it’s the type of Red Band trailer that should quickly go viral.
Before the presentation, we had the chance to talk with Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day about making the movie (Look for our interview with director Seth Gordon next week.)
