LAS VEGAS – If Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca are still running Warner Bros Entertainment a year from now, they will have one person to thank: the President and Chief Creative Officer of New Line Cinema, Richard Brener. Despite the surprise appearance of Leonardo DiCaprio (he simply does not appear at these sorts of events), Brener’s line-up looks like one hit after another. Quite simply, Zach Cregger’s “Weapons,” a last-minute addition to the summer release schedule and a New Line production, may make enough money to make up for any losses from some of Abdy and De Luca’s more pricey greenlights.
Hey, in the movie business, you’ll take it where you can get it.
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Cregger’s follow-up to his 2022 critically acclaimed hit “Barbarian” showed its first extended preview and simply wowed the CinemaCon attendees. The premise? A classroom of middle school kids disappears one night. No other students in the school. Just that one class. Their teacher, played by Julia Garner, finds herself at the center of a controversy over what has occurred. At one moment, Josh Brolin, playing a father of a missing kid, screams at her during a community meeting over the incident. The cast also includes Aiden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong, and Amy Madigan, but we barely remember them. It’s Cregger’s startling imagery of the kids (and their spirits? new incarnations?) in collaboration with cinematographer Larkin Seiple (“Everything Everywhere All At Once,” “Beef”) that sticks with you. This is a movie that screams A24 and NEON but with a broader potential to break out. Moving it to the August 8 release date originally held for “One Battle After Another,” may save this WBD division’s year.
Brener also screened an extended sequence from May’s “Final Destination: Bloodlines” that simply, no pun intended, killed with the convention goers. Horror isn’t this writer’s thing. We’re a little too squeamish and had our eyes and ears covered for most of it because, like most “Final Destination” movies, it tells you what’s around the corner. But co-directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein know exactly what they are doing. All we’ll spoil is that the “deaths” in this one scene involve a broken candy machine, a peanut butter cup, and an MRI that overloads to the extreme. If the rest of the picture can live up to this scene, New Line and WB will have a profitable hit and reinvigorated franchise on their hands.
New Line also has the final Warrens flick, “The Conjuring Last Rites” and “Mortal Kombat II” with Karl Urban playing fan favorite Johnny Cage. More chances to make mo’ money for the Burbank lot.
As for the movie “Weapons” replaced on the release schedule, “One Battle After Another,” DiCaprio and his co-stars, Regina Hall and Teyana Taylor, introduced an extended sequence from the reportedly $150 million Paul Thomas Anderson epic. We’re not sure Warner Bros. executives want to hear this, but despite all the action and spectacle that “One Battle” inherently has, it also screams prestige PTA and, potentially, awards bait.
The scene previewed found Bob Ferguson (DiCaprio) on a very stressful phone call with someone who knows where his daughter is located. Bob can’t remember the correct password, though, and the person on the other line is increasingly uncomfortable over his intense behavior as he begs to know where she is. This is textbook intense Paul Thomas Anderson with a stress-inducing score too boot. While this is going on, a calm and cool friend of Bob’s (Benicio del Toro) looks on, prepping for whatever mission they are about to begin. The rest of the preview hints at the revolutionary aspect of the movie and the political undertones that will certainly seem more relevant today than when it was filmed last year. Will it be the first PTA movie to make its money back since “Boogie Nights”? Anything is possible.
One movie that might overperform expectations is Joseph Kosinski’s “F1.” In another surprise, Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer screened the first 10 minutes of the formula racing thriller. Produced and financed by Apple Studios, the movie begins with one-time legendary F1 driver Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) freelancing as part of a team taking part in the annual 24 Hours of Daytona race. Sonny takes some unconventional moves and leads his team to the win. Not wanting any of the credit, he ditches the celebration and begins mapping out his next potential gig, a four-wheel race in Baja, California. Before he can hit the road, an old friend, Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), catches him at a laundry mat. Ruben, a former driver, now owns a Formula One team and is in danger of losing it if his cars don’t start performing. Sonny is technically over the hill for an F1 driver, but Ruben thinks he’s still got it. Based on the rest of the preview, we’ll assume he wears down a skeptical Sonny, who eventually agrees to return to the sport.
Koskinski has demonstrated a unique cinematic eye since “Tron: Legacy” and “F1” proves it hasn’t deserted him yet. The “Top Gun: Maverick” helmer composes some stunning race shots just in the Daytona scenes alone. Truly spectacular stuff. There is a mantra that movies about Formula One underperform, but we’ve got a hunch this one might be the exception to the rule. And hey, if it does? No skin off Warner Bros.’ back. They didn’t finance it.
Some other quick thoughts on the films WB teased:
*”The Bride”
It was super gutsy for Abdy and De Luca to spend so much time and show so much of this now – double checks – March 2026 release. Director and screenwriter Maggie Gyllenhaal was on hand with The Bride herself, Jessie Buckley. Set in the 1930s, the footage shown gave off “Batman Forever” meets “The Joker 2” meets Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon” vibes. It looks a bit like a movie meant for Netflix, and that’s who Gyllenhaal originally wrote it for. We’re happy “The Last Daughter” filmmaker is finally getting a theatrical release, but color us concerned over the end result. Then again, it doesn’t hit theaters for another 12 and 5 days. Maybe the editing room will work wonders.
*”The Cat in the Hat”
The first release of the “new” Warner Bros. Animation, this Dr. Seuss adaptation could easily be mistaken for an Illumination release (partially a compliment). The good news is that it is also peppered with Bill Hader voicing the Cat in question, and his comedic fingerprints were all over it. That can only be a good thing.
And that was it. No news on “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow,” Emerald Fennel’s “Wuthering Heights,” or Legendary Pictures’ “Animal Friends.” Now, will Abdy and De Luca survive 2025 to return to Vegas a year from now? Place your bets.
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