CinemaCon 19: Universal Studios Panel

Apr 3, 2019

Today, to kick off Day 3 of CinemaCon we were given the “Black” carpet into The Colluseum for Universal Pictures. The studio kicked off with two separate montage clips which featured a slew of past and future Universal films. They moved right along and had Tiffany Haddish and Kevin Hart come out on stage to promote The Secret Life of Pets 2. The cast included Patton Oswalt who voices Max the dog (After Louis CK was fired due to his recent backlash in 2018). It was also revealed that Harrison Ford would be making his animated feature film debut in the film as a gruff farm dog.

The studio then showed trailers from their upcoming slate including A Dog’s Journey the sequel to A Dog’s Purpose. They showed a trailer for the comedy Little which is basically reverse Big starring an all-female cast of African-American actresses. And also showed a new trailer for Yesterday. About what would happen if one day someone wakes up and The Beatles never existed but they remember all their biggest hits. Then, they become the greatest singer/songwriter of all time based on their famous songs.

Next, the segment turned to their partners at Blumhouse. Jason Blum came on stage to once again congratulate the massive success from 2018’s Halloween as well as the recently released Jordan Peele horror film Us. He announced a new project that is in the works called The Hunt. Then a trailer was shown for the upcoming Octavia Spencer thriller Ma.

Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg next came on stage to promote Good Boys. They revealed a slightly alternate trailer for the raunchy comedy.  With the younger cast finally allowed to see the trailer for their own film. Dreamworks Animation came on stage next to show the trailer for their upcoming film Abominable. Then, we moved right along to Focus Features as they debuted the trailer for Downton Abbey the feature film. The segment of the show was rounded out with trailers for Last Christmas. As well as a trailer for Queen and Slim.

Finally, director David Leitch and stars Dwayne Johnson & Jason Statham appeared on stage to promote Hobbs & Shaw. After a few minutes of witty banter between the actors, a brand new trailer was shown. The trailer featured 5 different trucks attached to each other one at a time; while attached to a helicopter they are trying to take down. The crowd in CinemaCon went wild for yet another installment in the Fast & Furious franchise

To end the show an extensive behind-the-scenes video was shown for the studios upcoming musical adaptation of Cats. While they are still filming the project; it was revealed that the cast will be using motion capture to do the film. However, the dance choreography was also extremely extensive for the actors which included a cast of Taylor Swift, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, James Corden, and Jennifer Hudson. Finally, Jennifer Hudson herself closed out the show by performing live the song Memory from the musical itself.

And that was it for Univiersal Pictures! Stay tuned all week for more coverage from CinemaCon…

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