While everyone up in Park City is working their way through indie films that are about Important Things and could be potential Oscar Winners, the studio gravy train will always be franchises, sequels, tentpoles and blockbusters. So here's some reminders of where most of the money in Hollywood is spent each year.
Kicking things off we have our first look at "Cloudy 2: Revenge Of The Leftovers," the sequel to the surprise smash hit "Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs." As usual there's a celebrity voice cast of new and returning folks like Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Will Forte, Kristen Schaal, Terry Crews, Andy Samberg, Neil Patrick Harris and Benjamin Bratt. As for what it's all about, we'll let the synopsis do the heavy lifting:
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 picks up where Sony Pictures Animation's hit comedy left off. Inventor Flint Lockwood's genius is finally being recognized as he's invited by his idol Chester V to join The Live Corp Company, where the best and brightest inventors in the world create technologies for the betterment of mankind. Chester's right-hand-gal – and one of his greatest inventions – is Barb (a highly evolved orangutan with a human brain, who is also devious, manipulative and likes to wear lipstick. It's always been Flint's dream to be recognized as a great inventor, but everything changes when he discovers that his most infamous machine (which turns water into food) is still operating and is now creating food-animal hybrids – “foodimals!” With the fate of humanity in his hands, Chester sends Flint and his friends on a dangerously delicious mission, battling hungry tacodiles, shrimpanzees, apple pie-thons, double bacon cheespiders and other food creatures to save the world again!
Meanwhile, Universal is hoping that more audiences are into sci-fi Tom Cruise than Jack Reacher Tom Cruise, as the actor returns this spring with "Oblivion." From "Tron: Legacy" helmer Joseph Kosinski, the film sees Cruise as a lonely drone repairman on the remains of an Earth devastated by an alien invasion. But when he rescues a beautiful woman (Olga Kurylenko) from a crashed ship, he soon uncovers secrets that call into question everything he knows. Also, Morgan Freeman will be saying significant things. Here'a new look at Cruise, and is that a Wii controller in his hand?
'Cloudy 2' arrives on September 27th, "Oblivion" on April 12th in IMAX and April 19th everywhere. [USA Today/Live For Film]