LAS VEGAS – Universal Pictures has a pretty monstrous 2018. “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” “Green Book,” “Halloween,” “Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch” and “Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!” were all huge hits. 2019 has gotten off to a great start with the success of “Glass,” “How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” and “Us,” which all opened at no. 1. That being said, the studio doesn’t have as many massive franchises to hawk for the rest of the calendar year. That’s one reason there was a lot of tender loving care from the Comcast division at their 2019 CinemaCon presentation.
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The film everyone wanted to know about, however, didn’t have any real footage to show. Tom Hooper’s “Cats” is arguably one of the most anticipated films of the year and is set to be one of the must-see holiday movies. People love or despise Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s musical. There really is no middle ground, but almost everyone is curious about how Hooper is going to pull it off. Universal Studios Chairman Donna Langley couldn’t show finished footage because of the unique motion capture process the production is using (filming just recently wrapped) but did provide an extended behind-the-scenes piece that confirmed a lot of rumors about the production.
First off, the set is big. Everything around the cast is larger scale as if they were actually the size of cats (some things such as chairs or couches looked almost too big). Secondly, there was a lot of Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson and Idris Elba in the footage rehearsing or performing on set. Third, if you ever wanted to see legends such as Judi Dench and Ian McKellen just hanging out between takes this piece has it. Fourth, there was a concentrated effort to introduce Francesa Hayward who plays Victoria (they forgot to mention she’s a principal dancer with the London Ballet). Fifth, Hudson is going to make you cry singing “Memories” so prepare yourself.
Listen, we have no idea if Hudson can duplicate her Oscar nomination and win for “Dreamgirls” with “Cats,” but she’s going to get a ton of attention for her performance of the musical’s most popular song. Hudson was phenomenal singing the song live to the CinemaCon audience and this could be her long-awaited cinematic comeback.
As for the rest of the movie, we’re slightly skeptical, but the behind the scenes piece was very well done and it wouldn’t hurt Universal to release it online to generate some early excitement (especially when theater owners see how many millions of views it will generate).
As for the rest of Universal’s presentation, some quick thoughts.
“Downton Abbey”
Focus Features chairman Peter Kujawski introduced the new trailer which revealed that the film takes place in 1927, approximately two years after the original series ended. The self-contained storyline finds the King and Queen making a visit to the manor and the excitement and stress that brings to everyone involved. And, don’t worry, the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith) and Isobel Crawley (Penelope Wilton) still have time to throw shade at each other at the dinner table. Most impressively, the production looks like a movie. Ben Smithard (“Belle,” “Blinded By The Light”) turned out to be an excellent choice as the film’s cinematographer.
“Good Boys”
Producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg introduced the young stars, Jacob Tremblay, Brady Noon and Keith L. Williams, along with an extended red-band trailer that pretty much brought the house down. The comedy was a rare premiere at SXSW to not get great reviews (just a 52 on Metacritic), but you’d never know it from the preview.
“Hobbs and Shaw”
The best part of this extended preview is that not only is Vanessa Kirby in the picture, but she’s in it a lot. Honestly, we seriously cannot get enough Kirby at this point. She makes everything she’s in better and she’s got her work cut out for her with this predictable over-the-top action flick that has a “Fast and Furious presents” handing over its title. Kirby plays the sister of Shaw (Jason Statham) who is on the run from Brixton Lore (Idris Elba), an enhanced terrorist out to do…something. There were some funny bits between Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Shaw, but nothing you really hadn’t seen before.
“Last Christmas”
Paul Feig is giving the gays everything they want with Emma Thompson’s latest original screenplay. Michelle Yeoh, Patti LuPone, Henry Golding and Emila Clarke singing…well. The holiday-themed romance uses a ton of George Michael songs including a new, never heard original. The extended preview was more romantic and cute than laugh out loud funny, but Clarke and Golding have definite on-screen chemistry. Looks like a big, big holiday hit.
“Queen+Slim”
An original screenplay from Lena Waithe and the feature directorial debut of celebrated music video filmmaker Melina Matsoukas (Beyonce’s “Formation”), “Queen+Slim” stars Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith as a couple whose life gets flipped upside down after an encounter with a police officer goes wrong. Waithe referred to the film as “protest art” and from a visual standpoint, Matsoukas’s work looked gorgeous. The film just finished shooting so the preview was rough, but it’s definitely one to watch out for.
“Yesterday”
Director Danny Boyle kept referring to himself as from “Planet Brexit,” but the Oscar-winner’s biggest contribution was introducing leading man Himesh Patel who sang a beautiful rendition of the film’s title song while playing guitar too. The rest of the footage was very similar to the current trailer but did include more Kate McKinnon, which is never a bad thing.
Additionally, Univeral had something of an animal theme going on as not only did Denis Quaid come out with his own dog Peaches to promote “A Dog’s Journey,” but “Secret Life of Pets 2” stars Tiffany Haddish and Kevin Hart brought out live versions of their animated characters. Thankfully, Haddish had no problem with the puppy she was holding. The same could not be said for Hart who could barely keep his bunny from jumping over his shoulder onto the stage.
Langley did give a shout out to Sam Mendes‘ epic WWI drama “1917” which is expected to be released at the end of the year (a poster was shown behind her) , but for the most part, none of the participants on stage discussed any projects beyond 2019.