Universal Teases “Odyssey,” “Disclosure,” “Werwulf”
Universal Pictures held its CinemaCon presentation this afternoon, with a number of brief updates and some footage screened.
First up, Kristen Bell has been cast as Mrs. Claus in “Violent Night 2” which showed off a clip including David Harbour’s Santa using a cookie cutter to create a rather nasty-looking ‘gingerbread’.
Next, an R-rated official Snoop Dogg biopic was announced, produced by Snoop himself and directed by Craig Brewer. Jonathan Daviss (“Outer Banks”) will star as Snoop.
Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” screened footage confirming Charlize Theron plays Calypso in the film in a scene where Matt Damon’s Odysseus washes up on her island.
Then it showed elements from the previous marketing, including the banquet scene with Menelaus (Jon Bernthal) and Telemachus (Tom Holland), along with the Trojan Horse scene. Nolan said the filming was extremely tough, with on-location filming in unpredictable environments using bulky IMAX equipment.
Steven Spielberg was on hand to promote “Disclosure Day” and has confirmed that the film’s entire third act is being omitted from the movie’s marketing. Spielberg, who also won the America250 Award from the Motion Picture Association, confirmed his next film will be a western.
Over five minutes of footage was shown from the film with Josh O’Connor playing a former cryptosecurity expert who becomes a whistleblower about extraterrestrial activity. Emily Blunt portrays a Kansas meteorologist who has an on-air breakdown, saying strange alien-like vocal patterns that O’Connor’s character realises is structured mathematical language.
Other scenes including a fighter jet moving over a band of light, flashbacks to the lead characters in clinics, and a scene with a deer approaching a bedroom – one eye distinctly not of this Earth.
A first look at “Minions & Monsters” took place and follows the Minions heading west to Hollywood on a mission to find another ‘monster’ leader to serve. They showed a wild train robbery sequence as the locomotive tears through early-era Los Angeles.
Robert Eggers’ “Werwulf” showed off footage in 4:3 aspect ratio. It is set in a gothic mud-soaked village where townsfolk are investigating and setting traps for a brutal werewolf terrifying their town. Willem Dafoe plays a local elder, while Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s character undergoes a violent transformation inside a barn.
Finally, trailers were shown for a new “Sense and Sensibility,” and the Jessica Chastain-led horror “Other Mommy” about a child who is stalked by a monster that looks exactly like her mother. “One Night Only” also showed off footage that follows two people – Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner – in a world where premarital sex is only legal for one day.