The 20th Century Fox CinemaCon presentation included looks at upcoming films like Ice Age: Collision Course, X-Men: Apocalypse and Independence Day: Resurgence
The 20th Century Fox CinemaCon presentation took place at Caesar Palace‘s Colosseum on Thursday, opening with a montage celebrating the studio’s massively-successful Ice Age franchise. Set to a parody cover of Vanilla Ice‘s “Ice Ice Baby” (changed to “Ice Age Baby”), the studio then welcomed the rapper to the stage for a live performance. You can check it out in the player at the bottom of this page.
“Now that’s what I call a cold open!” said Fox domestic distribution president Chris Aronson.
The Fox CinemaCon presentation then led immediately into a new look at next month’s X-Men: Apocalypse with a special extended trailer, said to be created specifically for the event. Among the footage’s highlights were new looks at Apocalypse’s (Oscar Isaac) origins in ancient Egypt, a cage match fight between Kodi Smit-McPhee’s Nightcrawler and Ben Hardy’s Angel, and an overall focus on Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique. It looks like a good portion of the story involves Mystique leading the X-Men when James McAvoy’s Professor Charles Xavier is out of commission.
“Not all of us can control our power,” says Tye Sheridan’s Cyclops.
“Then don’t,” shoots back Mystique.
Another reveal that should have X-Men fans excited is Evan Peters’ Quicksilver revealing that he now knows Michael Fassbender’s Magneto is his biological father.
The Fox CinemaCon presentation then moved on to the studio’s R-rated comedy Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. The July 8 release stars Zac Efron and Adam DeVine as a pair of party-loving brothers who are told that they’re only welcome at their sister’s destination wedding in Hawaii if they tone down their act and bring respectable dates. When the brothers announce publicly that they’re looking for the perfect dates, they unwittingly become the victims of two girls (Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza) who aim to take advantage of the situation for a free Hawaiian vacation and who may very well prove to be the cause of more trouble than Mike and Dave ever could have on their own.
A special never-before-seen clip was screened for the Fox CinemaCon audience, showing Kendrick’s character, Alice, bribing a resort masseuse (played by Silicon Valley‘s Kumail Nanjiani) to give Jeanie, the bride to be (played by Sugar Lyn Beard), a happy ending. Nanjiani’s character then disrobes and the scene cuts together shots of the naked Nanjiani climbing all over Jeanie who, with her head down, is completely unaware that anything strange is going on. As the scene ends, DeVine’s Mike bursts through the door at an inopportune moment and is horrified to see his sister moaning with delight.
“Did I mention that Fox was nominated for 30 Academy Awards last year?” joked Aronson as he returned to the Fox CinemaCon stage at the conclusion of the clip.
Next up was an extended look at Independence Day: Resurgence with another extended trailer cut together specifically for the Fox CinemaCon presentation. This one actually includes a quick shot of Will Smith’s Captain Steven Hiller, albeit as a photograph. In the sequel’s continuity, the war hero died not long after the events of the original Independence Day. Since the “War of 1996,” however, things have been going pretty well for the planet Earth. Using technology recovered from the alien attackers, the world has come together with a defensive fleet of hybrid alien tech fighter jets and a base of operations on the Moon. Unfortunately, that might not be enough when the aliens return.
“They’re touching down over the Atlantic,” says a voice in the trailer.
“Which part?” someone asks.
“All of it.”
The key word for Independence Day: Resurgence is “big” as the footage seems to promise all sorts of alien attackers and the hint that, even if humanity wins, there might not be much left of it.
“We never had a chance,” says Jeff Goldblum’s David Levinson.
“We didn’t last time either,” says Bill Pullman’s President Thomas J. Whitmore.
Then, to much applause in the Colosseum theater, the trailer ended with a great Goldblum one liner as he looks at the massive amounts of alien destruction.
“They do like to get the landmarks,” he points out.
From there, the Fox CinemaCon presentation moved on to DreamWorks Animation and, specifically, their November 4 release, Trolls. Star Anna Kendrick introduced the world of the film, explaining that the characters live in a happy society with special watches that go off every hour on the hour, reminding them to hug each other. The only trouble is that there’s another race of creatues, the Bergens, who like to eat trolls and who wind up forcing Kendrick’s bubbly troll Poppy to have to work alongside Justin Timberlake’s pessimistic troll, Branch.
In the scene that was showcased, Branch and Poppy are camping out in the woods together, midway through their journey. She starts to saying goodnight to everyone and everything she can think of, much to Branch’s chagrin. Then her hug watch goes off.
“Don’t even think about,” Branch grumbles.
She begins to sing “Dream a Little Dream of Me” to herself, but Branch shuts her up, saying that he prefers the sound of silence.
Happy to oblige, Poppy begins to sing Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” with lots of forest creatures and anthropomorphic plantlife chiming in.
Next up, the Fox CinemaCon presentation entered the world of Assassin’s Creed with a special video message from star Michael Fassbender, introducing a first trailer for the video game adaptation.
The trailer begins with Fassbender’s character, Callum Lynch, waking up in some kind of a cell. Marion Cotillard’s character is there and tells him that he was executed yesterday and, officially, no longer exists. Then we see Lynch enter the Animus which, in the film, features a large mechanical arm that holds its user in place and seems to move as Lynch does allowing his body to go through the same jumps, flips and other parkour moves that he utilizes while in the past.
Set to Kanye’s “I Am A God,” the trailer offers quite a lot of action-heavy footage from within the Animus, which looks straight out of the game. Ariane Labed’s Maria is also heavily featured.
“We work in the dark,” says Lynch, “to serve the light.”
The final scene offers an extremely long shot as Lynch steps off the roof of a building and begins to plummet straight down.
The Fox CinemaCon presentation then delivered a first look at the studio’s Christmas Day comedy release, Why Him, introduced by stars Bryan Cranston and James Franco (showing off a fantastic chemistry that looks like it could really make the film something special). The plot is fairly straightforward and plays sort of like Meet the Parents meets What About Bob?, told from the father’s (Cranston) perspective. In the film, his daughter (played by Zoey Deutch) is getting ready to marry Franco’s character, an eccentric but well-meaning man of wealth who goes out of his way to please his financee’s family in some strange ways. In one scene, Franco has had tattooed on his back the family’s most recent Christmas card.
Fox Searchlight then took the stage, introducing The Birth of a Nation writer, director and star Nate Parker to reveal the trailer for his Sundance hit. You can click here to check it out.
Before making their big Avatar sequels announcement (read all about it right here), the Fox CinemaCon presentation finished up with a look at Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. A new extended trailer was showcased that, building on the previously-released first trailer, really played up the film’s colorful cast of characters. There’s Georgia Pemberton’s Fiona (who has the power to make plants grow), Cameron King’s Millard (an invisible boy with a penchant for mischief), Pixie Davies’ Bronwyn (an adorable little girl with extreme strength), Ella Purnell’s Emma (who can start fires), Milo Parker’s Hugh (described by Eva Green’s Miss Peregrine as “our resident lord of the bees”) and Lauren McCrostie’s Olive (who, weightless, has to be grounded to the Earth with lead boots). Miss Peregrine herself has the power to transform into a bird, but it’s leading man Asa Butterfield whose mystery power is supposed to save the day when the school comes under attack by Samuel L. Jackson’s Barron, a villain whose history does not appear in the original Ransom Riggs novel.
Following the Fox CinemaCon presentation, ComingSoon.net spoke backstage with the casts of both Independence Day: Resurgence and Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. Check back soon for the full interviews!
Which of these Fox CinemaCon films are you most looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below!