Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
Before introducing the upcoming slate, Brian Edwards, President and CEO of Paramount Pictures, brags about Top Gun: Maverick earning $1.5 billion worldwide, becoming the studio’s biggest film.
Announcements of films in pre-production featured a Smile sequel, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Dear Santa reteaming Jack Black and the Farrelly Brothers, and Gladiator 2 with Denzel Washington.
Co-producer/co-writer Seth Rogen presented Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. This new iteration of the heroes on a half shell is set for release on August 4. Rogen talks about loving the characters and how they leaned into the teenage aspect of the characters. The extended footage shows the turtles taking on a superfly criminal (voiced by Ice Cube) and his crew.
Set for release July 19, 2024, Transformers One is the first animated Transformers feature in decades. It features a star-studded cast with Chris Hemsworth as Optimus Prime and Bryan Tyree Harris as Megatron. They are joined by Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Jon Hamm, and Laurence Fishburne.
In 2025, The SpongeBob Movie: Search for Squarepants will see SpongeBob against the Flying Dutchman in May. Avatar: The Last Airbender gets its first animated feature and the audience got a look at the main characters. On Valentine’s Day. The Smurfs return in an animation/live action hybrid and the movie answers the question, What is a Smurf? Smurfette is going to played by Rhianna.
On September 29, Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie sees the pups power up. The trailer shows them get superpowers from a meteorite. The villain (voiced by Taraji P. Henson) wants that power. Chris Rock voices her cat.
Set in 1994, a little after the events of Bumblebee, director Steven Caple Jr.’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts sees the Transformers unite to take on a planet eater in the trailer introduced by stars Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback. The next war to save the planet hits theaters June 9.
Paramount is distributing the Apple Original Films release, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. The film is the sixth pairing of Scorsese Leo DiCaprio and the tenth with Robert De Niro. The footage looks very impressive in this true-crime historical story, based on a book of the same name, about a series of murders of Osage Indians occurring after an oil boom on their land makes them wealthy.
Director Renaldo Marcus Green’s One Love just wrapped production. The Bob Marley biopic is a big scale epic about the man, the changes he tried bringing, and those that fought against it. Hitting theaters January 12, 2024.
John Krasinski does double duty. He serves as producer and came up with the story with co-writer/director Michael Sarnoski for A Quiet Place: Day One, set for release March 8, 2024. The production wrapped two weeks ago so all we got was a teaser showing Lupita Nyong’o starring in this prequel as the alien invasion hits in New York City and the commotion it causes. Krasinski also presented a behind-the-scenes featurette about IF, his next writer/director project. Set for May 24, 2024, this live action/CGI hybrid stars Ryan Reynolds as a man who can see people’s imaginary friend as can a little girl named Bea. Imaginary friends are voiced by Steve Carell, Jon Stewart, Vince Vaughn, and Maya Rudolph,
Hoping Tom Cruise can hit another billion at the box office again, Paramount releases Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One on July 14. A 20-minute sequence shows Peggy Carter being interviewed by Italian authorities. Ethan Hunt (Cruise) poses as her lawyer, but she escapes him and the building. She steals a police car, and he follows on a motorcycle. The bad guys chase her. The authorities chase him. After catching up, Ethan cuffs himself to her. They drive off, losing the cars’ doors. She has to drive and then they have to switch vehicles and end up in a jalopy. Director Christopher McQuarrie captures a memorable driving sequence.
