The 15 Most Anticipated Movies at CinemaCon, and Our Trip to Las Vegas!

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Big Picture – Episode: The 15 Most Anticipated Movies at CinemaCon, and Our Trip to Las Vegas!

Release Date: April 5, 2025
Host/Authors: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins, featuring guest Matt Bellany

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I. Introduction to the Episode

In this episode of The Big Picture, hosts Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins, along with Matt Bellany from The Town Podcast, dive deep into their experiences at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. They explore the latest movie announcements, industry insights, and share personal anecdotes from their trip. The conversation is enriched with perspectives on the current state of the movie industry, the challenges faced by theatrical exhibitions, and the anticipation surrounding upcoming film releases.

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II. Trip to CinemaCon Las Vegas

Amanda Dobbins [01:58]:
"Matt Bellany from the Town Podcast will be joining Amanda and me for a Home and Home double podcast to talk about the annual theatrical trade show called CinemaCon."

The trio recounts their first-time experiences at CinemaCon, highlighting the bustling atmosphere filled with major studios presenting their upcoming projects. Sean notes the subdued excitement among attendees due to the industry's current struggles but underscores the thrill of witnessing new trailers and previews.

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III. State of the Movie Industry: Box Office, Streaming, and Theater Challenges

Sean Fennessey [38:54]:
"Box office is in the shitter right now. It's like 12.4% down for the year domestic."

The hosts discuss the precarious state of the box office, emphasizing a 12.4% domestic decline and persistent existential threats to theatrical exhibitions. Sean highlights the tension between studios and theater owners, particularly regarding streaming's impact and the shortening of theatrical windows. The discussion underscores how studios, despite their ostensible commitment to theaters, are simultaneously undermining them by accelerating releases to premium video-on-demand (PVOD) platforms.

Amanda Dobbins [39:10]:
"We have existential dread throughout, and there always is at this convention."

The conversation delves into the challenges posed by streaming services and the reduction of exclusive theatrical windows, which many believe are detrimental to theater businesses. Sean mentions how studios like Universal are pioneering shorter windows, balancing theatrical profits with increased PVOD revenues, often at the expense of theater owners.

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IV. Major Movie Announcements and Trailers Reviewed

a. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Sequel

Amanda Dobbins [10:06]:
"Spoiler alert. Not very good. Nevertheless, we did see some very exciting new trailers and previews of movies that are coming over the next 12, 24, 36, 48 months."

The hosts reveal the surprising announcement of a sequel to Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth. Initially rumored to be an April Fool's joke, it was confirmed as a genuine project. The sequel is set eight years after the original, exploring a different phase in Booth's life. The announcement sparked mixed reactions, with Matt expressing cautious optimism about Fincher's involvement.

Amanda Dobbins [15:25]:
"I did, too."
Referring to enjoying David Fincher's The Killer, both hosts express their support for Fincher's new endeavors despite initial skepticism.

b. One Battle After Another

Amanda Dobbins [84:27]:
"It's a tried and tested formula for a sequel. You know that robot make the villain the hero."

The hosts discuss One Battle After Another, a high-budget action film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. They analyze the trailer, noting its ambitious battle sequences and the involvement of respected trailer cutter Paul Thomas Anderson. While Sean appreciates the scale, Amy critiques the film's formulaic approach but remains optimistic about its potential success.

c. Universal's Presentations: Jurassic World and Wicked Part 2

Amanda Dobbins [22:16]:
"A Working man was the number one movie at the box office last weekend. This weekend we shall see. Not a good year at the box office. We'll get into that soon. Snow White bombed."

Universal presented two significant films: Jurassic World and Wicked Part 2. While Jurassic World received praise for its scary and exciting trailer, Wicked Part 2 faced skepticism due to the absence of a signature song from its predecessor. Despite mixed feelings, both films are expected to perform well given their established franchises.

Sean Fennessey [48:54]:
"Ana de Armas was walking the casino floor at one point. Very rare. That usually doesn't happen."

They also reminisce about celebrity sightings at CinemaCon, including Ana de Armas, adding a personal touch to their industry-focused discussions.

d. Sony's Beatle Movies

Sean Fennessey [52:07]:
"I would bet that. I would say they're going to do one every Friday for a month."

Sony announced the release of four Beatles movies over the next three years, potentially releasing one each week. The hosts express concerns about market saturation and competition among the films. They speculate on the chronological storytelling approach, aiming to honor each Beatle's legacy while maintaining audience interest.

Amanda Dobbins [53:27]:
"We can guess."

They discuss the strategic planning behind the release schedule and the potential impact on theaters, highlighting the logistical challenges of rolling out multiple films in a short timeframe.

e. Amazon MGM's Presentations: Project Hail Mary and Mission Impossible – Final Reckoning

Amanda Dobbins [31:09]:
"Matt Bellany, host of the Town. What is your title at Puck?"

Amazon MGM showcased two major films: Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling and Sandra Hooler, and the eighth installment of the Mission Impossible franchise, Final Reckoning, directed by Christopher McQuarrie. Project Hail Mary received acclaim for its compelling trailer and ambitious storytelling, reminiscent of classic space epics. Meanwhile, Final Reckoning promises more of Tom Cruise's signature high-octane stunts, although the hosts note a lack of groundbreaking moments compared to previous entries.

Sean Fennessey [84:55]:
"You and I have the same two in one. They're just so."

The presentation of Mission Impossible – Final Reckoning included an extended speech by director Christopher McQuarrie, emphasizing his collaboration with Tom Cruise. Despite a lengthy presentation, the hosts felt the trailer offered limited insight into new plot developments, fostering anticipation for future movie releases.

f. Disney's Presentations: Fantastic Four and Thunderbolts

Amanda Dobbins [60:11]:
"Zootopia 2 is a pretty big movie. I'm curious if it will have a similar Moana effect."

Disney introduced Fantastic Four, slated for a July release, and Thunderbolts. While Fantastic Four garnered excitement due to its integration with the Marvel Universe, concerns were raised about its overloaded premise and tonal inconsistencies. The hosts debate the casting choices and the film's potential to rejuvenate interest in the franchise.

Sean Fennessey [60:31]:
"I didn't see it."
Commenting on the Thunderbolts trailer, Sean likens it to a Suicide Squad ripoff, noting the formulaic approach but recognizing its appeal to certain audience segments.

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V. Experiences and Anecdotes

a. Casino Visit and Personal Dynamics

Matt Bellany [25:52]:
"I guess not."
Reflecting on his first visit to a casino with Amanda, Matt shares his discomfort and stress during their blackjack experience. Amanda contrasts this by highlighting her ease and enjoyment, showcasing the differing personalities and approaches to Las Vegas nightlife among the hosts and their guest.

Amanda Dobbins [26:00]:
"I did."
Amanda recounts guiding Matt through the casino floor, demonstrating her assertive nature and ability to navigate stressful situations, while Matt humorously laments the high withdrawal fees and his own anxiety.

b. David Copperfield's Show in Las Vegas

Sean Fennessey [32:56]:
"Yes, we gotta talk about David Copperfield."
The hosts describe their visit to David Copperfield's magic show, blending humor with critique. While impressed by the initial performances, they express discomfort with the show's deeper, more emotional components, likening them to Steven Spielberg's storytelling style, which felt out of place in a magic act.

Amanda Dobbins [34:58]:
"We had a front row seat. It was honestly the first 30 minutes of the show, I was like, this is actually legitimately good."
Amanda praises the technical prowess of the show but critiques the emotional narrative, finding it unnerving compared to the whimsical aspects of traditional magic performances.

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VI. Conclusions and Insights on the Future of Cinema

Sean Fennessey [44:45]:
"And it mostly works. And so the. The theatrical experience, like, to me, is not really going anywhere anytime soon."
The hosts conclude that despite the industry's challenges, the theatrical experience remains valuable. They acknowledge the shift towards high-budget, spectacle-driven films and the necessity for studios to balance artistic integrity with commercial viability.

Matt Bellany [45:53]:
"And there are fewer movies for us to talk about, to be excited about. And they've made a lot of big bets and not a lot of middle bets because the middle bets are harder to market now."
Matt articulates the concerns around the consolidation of movie slates into major tentpoles, leaving fewer opportunities for mid-range films. This consolidation affects diversity in movie offerings and the overall vibrancy of the cinematic landscape.

Amanda Dobbins [44:47]:
"They've made a lot of big bets and not a lot of middle bets because the middle bets are harder to market now."
Amanda echoes Matt's sentiments, highlighting the studios' focus on blockbuster franchises at the expense of varied and potentially innovative films, impacting both theaters and audiences alike.

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Notable Quotes

• Sean Fennessey [38:54]: "Box office is in the shitter right now. It's like 12.4% down for the year domestic."

• Amanda Dobbins [10:06]: "Spoiler alert. Not very good. Nevertheless, we did see some very exciting new trailers and previews of movies that are coming over the next 12, 24, 36, 48 months."

• Matt Bellany [45:53]: "It's a little bit of speaking a foreign language to me, but it looked like a Suicide Squad ripoff."

• Amanda Dobbins [31:09]: "There’s nothing that looks even close to this." (Referring to Project Hail Mary)

• Sean Fennessey [84:57]: "This movie is not coming out until March 2026. It's going to be one year."

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Final Thoughts

In this comprehensive episode, Sean, Amanda, and Matt provide an in-depth analysis of CinemaCon's offerings and the broader movie industry's landscape. They balance industry jargon with personal stories, making the discussion both informative and relatable. Key takeaways include the resilience of theatrical experiences despite market downturns, the strategic maneuvers of major studios in response to streaming's dominance, and the anticipation surrounding high-profile film releases. As they navigate through trailers and presentations, the hosts offer a nuanced perspective on what the future holds for cinema enthusiasts and industry stakeholders alike.

For those keen to stay updated on upcoming films and industry trends, this episode serves as an insightful guide, blending expert analysis with entertaining anecdotes from the heart of Hollywood’s trade show circuit.

Transcript

[Amy Poehler]

Hi everyone, it's Amy Poehler and I'm launching a new podcast called Good Hang. In preparation for that, I asked some of my friends to send in some videos and give me some advice.

[Sean Fennessy]

Just be yourself and the guests will come.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Don't be the celebrity that this is their like sixth thing they're doing.

[Matt Bellany]

I love true crime and cooking podcasts. Is there any way you could combine the two?

[Amy Poehler]

Well, everyone has an opinion and a.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Podcast, so join me for Good Hang. It's rough out there, we're just trying.

[Amy Poehler]

To lighten it up a little. This episode is brought to you by HBO's biggest series, the Last of Us. Returning with a new season on Max. Starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, the show picks up five years after the events of the first season as Joel and Ellie are drawn into conflict with each other in a world even more dangerous and unpredictable than the one they left behind. CNN calls the Last of Us exquisite, fully realized and worthy of the hype. Based on the groundbreaking video game the Emmy winning HBO original series, the Last of us premieres Sunday, April 13th on Max. And listen to the official the Last of Us podcast. Wherever you get your podcasts, this episode is brought to you by the Wells Fargo ActiveCash credit card. This is an ad for the Active Cash credit card from Wells Fargo. That's a mouthful, but that's because it packs a lot in. Earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases with it, big or small. So whether it's buying tickets to the game with your mom or grabbing a coffee with your dog, earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases made with it. Say it with me. The Active Cash credit card from Wells Fargo. Learn more@wells Fargo.com ActiveCash terms apply. I'm Sean Fennessy.

[Matt Bellany]

I'm Amanda Dobbins and this is the.

[Amy Poehler]

Big Picture, a conversation show about Cinemacon and our trip to Las Vegas in little bit. Matt Bellany from the Town Podcast will be joining Amanda and me for a Home and Home double podcast to talk about the annual theatrical trade show called Cinemacon. Scuttlebutt behind the scenes in the movie industry. How things are going right now. Spoiler alert. Not very good. Nevertheless, we did see some very exciting new trailers and previews of movies that are coming over the next 12. 24. 36. 48 months.

[Matt Bellany]

Keep going.

[Amy Poehler]

60 months.

[Matt Bellany]

72. What's three divided by? I don't 3. 3 times 12.

[Amy Poehler]

They don't seem as excited about the things this year, so they had to talk about things for the next decade. We'll talk about that with only 36.

[Matt Bellany]

Only 36 months till the Beatles.

[Amy Poehler]

Only no, 48, I think. No, 36. You're right. Yeah.

[Matt Bellany]

I just did the math. 12 times three.

[Amy Poehler]

I wanted to say thank you to you.

[Matt Bellany]

Oh, you're so welcome.

[Amy Poehler]

Thank you for filling in for me on the show while I was in Boston. Thanks to Yasi and Jomi and Jack and Jade and the who. The entire. All of Gen Z. Yeah. And those Gen Z frauds like Jomi.

[Matt Bellany]

No, he's. He's borderline, and he's representing an important demographic, just as you are a cusp. Millennial Gen X. I'm not.

[Amy Poehler]

I'm 1982. So I am.

[Matt Bellany]

I am a millennial, but emotionally, I.

[Amy Poehler]

Am emotionally from the greatest generation, and I am culturally from Gen X, and I am literally from. I think it's millennium.

[Matt Bellany]

I think it's important to honor those of us in the middle.

[Amy Poehler]

Okay. You know, this is probably the longest I've ever been away from the podcast, not counting holidays and the birth of my child.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah, the birth of your child. Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah. So it felt like a lot happened while I was gone in the news.

[Matt Bellany]

Did you enjoy that, or did you feel stressed all the time, like you needed to call me up and yell about something?

[Amy Poehler]

I didn't feel that. No. I was really busy. I wasn't on vacation. I was in Boston. Thank you to the fine people of the city of Boston, who I've been known to show a lot of support to historically. They were amazing. For the live Rewatchables event that we did with Chris, Ryan, and Bill and Ryan. Rosillo, me, Chris, Bill and Ryan had never done a pod before. Oh, so that was great. Rosillo absolutely cooked. He is the man.

[Matt Bellany]

Have never met him still. I honestly never want to meet him. It's like it is a real Don't. Don't meet your heroes. Don't, you know, don't take away the magic. Incredible stuff. And I've only listened to his podcasts about movies, AKA Rewatchables, and. Or his travelogues and history lessons.

[Amy Poehler]

There's so much more there. Just the time in the green room with him was enough for a great pod, to be honest. I know Craig can attest to that. We had a really good time in Boston. We also did the Rewatchables Film Festival, where me, Bill, and Chris talked before and after a handful of movies. Heist movies, Boston movies. And we did it at the Coolidge Corner Theater, which is an absolutely awesome theater in Brookline that both Chris and Bill had a Big personal relationship to. Since they lived in Boston. Honestly, just amazing people showing up for like a 10:15pm screening of Heat. Stay until 1:45, haranguing Chris Ryan in the alleyway behind the theater. Afterwards, you know, I signed lots of physical media. People just showed out. It was really. It was a nice time. We had a good time.

[Matt Bellany]

That's. You found your people.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, well, they came to us. We demanded they come to us.

[Matt Bellany]

Listen not to. You know, gender is a construct. How many women in that screening?

[Amy Poehler]

I counted. There were one. Two. Two. Two. There were two. No, no. Yeah, there were plenty of women. There were. There were a number of women.

[Matt Bellany]

Were they.

[Amy Poehler]

There's some dob mob there.

[Matt Bellany]

Thank you so much. Love you. Dob mob. Were they. Were they dobmob in the, like, I'm here with my, like, dirtbag partner.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, they were dob mob in the way that Charlene is dob mob to Krisha Herless.

[Matt Bellany]

Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

Which is a segue to my next conversation, which is rip to Val Kilmer.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Legendary film star.

[Matt Bellany]

Very sad.

[Amy Poehler]

One of the great movie stars of our youth. Someone who we have talked about ad nauseam on this show and especially on the rewatchables. Some of his best movies have been featured on that show. He died sadly at 65 this week. Obviously had been dealing with a lot of physical maladies over the last five, 10 years, and so has not been as much in the spotlight. Although quite memorably in your beloved Top Gun Maverick, where he has a crucial scene in that movie and gives a great performance opposite Tom Cruise. What's your lasting memory of Val? What's your favorite Val?

[Matt Bellany]

It is Iceman, you know, and that is because it has become such a central part of. In my household, we watch it a lot, but also growing up and I watching the original Top Gun, which we love very much. And then in the same way that I thought Top Gun Maverick was like a very beautiful expansion of and meditation really, on, like, Tom Cruise and movie stars and aging and time and all of that stuff. The way that. That Kilmer character and performance is astonishing and, like, really moving. And he gets an amazing performance out of Tom Cruise opposite him, who led Cinemacon in a moment of silence for him. He did, which was like, a little awkward, but very touching also. So, I mean, Iceman, for sure. We were reminiscing about love at first sight, which definitely jumps out to me. Obviously, you'll talk about Heat. I really did like his documentary. That Val. Yes, Val, that he participated in a few years ago because it was Done with his cooperation, you know, which always has its pluses and minuses. But he was a unique guy, a real. An actor, an artist. And talking about or, you know, first of all, the way that he communicates in that movie is obviously affected by his illnesses over the last 10 to 15 years. So that's very interesting. But the way that he reflects on being a leading man in the 90s, what fit, what really didn't fit, gave you a sense of him in a cool way.

[Amy Poehler]

It's interesting. He is someone who was a lockdown, actual leading man. Put him on the poster movie star for a significant portion of time in the 1990s and even going back to the mid-80s when he broke out with Real Genius and Top Secret and all of those comedies. But he was often at his best playing number two, you know, in Heat, he's number two. In Tombstone, he's number two. In Top Gun, he's number two. He was a high, high, high, high level supporting player. And we always, you know, joke about Brad Pitt as the character actor in the Leanie Man's Body. I wouldn't say Val Kilmer was a character actor specifically because he had a kind of valness to everything that he did, even when he transformed into Jim Morrison. But he was really good at supporting stars who maybe had less personality than he did. I really, I loved watching him in movies all the way up to Maverick. I loved watching him in those strange Francis Ford Coppola movies that he was making in the 2000s. You know, he's really very talented actor, very eccentric person in a compelling way. Rest in peace to the great Val Kilmer. Couple more quick things. Sundance announced while I was gone that it is moving to Boulder, Colorado in 2027. Next year will be the last year at Park City. Any thoughts?

[Matt Bellany]

For people who like mountains, that's great news.

[Amy Poehler]

And so you're not one of those people?

[Matt Bellany]

No, I'm not.

[Amy Poehler]

This might augur my return to Sundance.

[Matt Bellany]

Probably not for me, unless we'll go for the show. It's fine. It's very cold.

[Amy Poehler]

I'd like to say to the fine people of Colorado, I love your state. I hope you'll welcome me in the future. I've been many times. Maybe that's a long term destination for me.

[Matt Bellany]

You know, you do talk about that a lot.

[Amy Poehler]

It's in play.

[Matt Bellany]

That's fine for you. I'd prefer wine country for you if I'm coming to visit, which is. Yeah, but is the invitation even going to be extended? Not really. Sure.

[Amy Poehler]

Hard to say. Okay, this is actually the big news. This is the very, very big news. And before that.

[Matt Bellany]

No, it's one of two. Okay, okay.

[Amy Poehler]

It's one of two.

[Matt Bellany]

First is news. We have news and trailers.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes, yes. Well, this is.

[Matt Bellany]

How you doing? Status check. Ten minutes in. How you feeling?

[Amy Poehler]

Let's break it down.

[Matt Bellany]

Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

We were at Cinemacon together. And this is every major movie studio, with the exception of one studio, presenting every single thing that it's going to be releasing really over the next couple of years, but specifically in the next 12 months. And on the second day while that.

[Matt Bellany]

Is happening, which also happens to be April 1, also known as April Fool's.

[Amy Poehler]

Day, we get word, I think, originally via an exclusive from the Playlist, which is a reputable Hollywood news site, but by no means one of the, like, leading trades, that there is, in fact going to be a quote, unquote, what was described as a sequel to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino's ninth feature film that came out in 2019 that is legendary to us and that we love and that that film is going to happen at Netflix. Directed by David Fincher, starring Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth. Now, when I was in Boston, I heard a rumor that David Fincher was developing a sequel movie at Netflix that was going to star Brad Pitt. This was not. I don't usually report on these kinds of things. It's not really. I hear stuff all the time. There's no way for me to verify that I don't have David Fincher's phone number. But I was like, that's interesting. And I spent some time with Chris talking about this rumor, and I was like, is this a Fight Club sequel? Is it a Benjamin Button sequel? Is it the World War Z sequel that they had talked about doing? I did not hear anything about Quentin Tarantino when I heard this rumor. We never even thought it could be a Cliff Booth thing because it just seems weird. Come to find out, not only was it announced on April 1st and seemed fake, it is, in fact the exact opposite. It is very real. It is borderline confirm real. And I got word from someone who is in the Tarantino camp that is not Quentin that day. That was like, it's so funny that everyone is so afraid to be wrong about this because of the day when this was announced, because this is real. And I was sitting in my seat at Cinemacon when it happened. Kind of like basically trying to play it cool.

[Matt Bellany]

Yes, I think he's been trying to.

[Amy Poehler]

Play it cool for, like, 72 hours.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah, it was right before Warner Brothers.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes.

[Matt Bellany]

And so there was big Superman energy lurking and. Yeah, you just kind of held up your phone to me without comment and just showed me like the tweet.

[Amy Poehler]

I think I was catatonic.

[Matt Bellany]

I mean, there was a lot going on. You know, it was a big one. And we'll. And we'll talk more about like the environment, but yes, you were. And you also were protecting your heart, I think.

[Amy Poehler]

I think that's what it was. You're right.

[Matt Bellany]

When you first got the news, you didn't say to me, you know, I heard a rumor about this. You just kind of held it up.

[Amy Poehler]

Someone was talking on stage. I didn't want to interrupt.

[Matt Bellany]

No, I think it was still before.

[Amy Poehler]

Was it?

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

I thought we had already seen one battle after another sequence when this happened. Maybe I'm wrong. It doesn't matter. Maybe I thought it was mid presentation when I saw it.

[Matt Bellany]

Okay, that's fine. Because you're, you know, living. This is the type of thing that you actually do remember detail for detail.

[Amy Poehler]

That's a good point. You know, any meaningful interaction between us.

[Matt Bellany]

Absolutely not.

[Amy Poehler]

No. In the garbage.

[Matt Bellany]

And then you did about 15 minutes later say to me, this person.

[Amy Poehler]

I heard this rumor.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah, no, no, no, no. Yeah, yeah. Someone in the camp was like, this is really funny because it actually is true. It's not just. And then we started getting texts from Ben and other people being like, is this for real? And then by that evening, yeah, let's.

[Amy Poehler]

Just say I've accumulated more information about what this is. It definitely seems like this movie is happening now. David Fincher's laundry list of movies that never made it to the big screen or to the Netflix streaming service is pretty long. He is one of the development kings and a lot of stuff has been scuttled over time. So, you know, this is not. I don't know if this is like a locked picture that is going into production in July, but it seems like it is. Okay, here's what I can say. This probably should not be thought of as a sequel.

[Matt Bellany]

Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

It should be thought of as more of a follow up that is connected to, but not the same as. The example that was cited to me was think about how the Big Sleep, the Raymond Chandler adaptation starring Humphrey Bogart, is in the same world as Farewell, my lovely, the 1975 Robert Mitchum movie, because they play the same character in that movie, but it's different actors, different directors, different time in the storyline. They're different. They're not really sequels. They are the Further Adventures of Philip Marlowe.

[Matt Bellany]

So it's sort of extended cinematic universe.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah. In the parlance of our times. Yes. So this will be like the Further Adventures of Cliff Booth is my understanding of it. The only other important information that I have learned that I think is confirmed is that the movie takes place in 1977.

[Matt Bellany]

Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

Which is roughly eight years after the events of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. So a different time in Cliff Booth's life.

[Matt Bellany]

Mm.

[Amy Poehler]

Unclear if Rick Dalton will be returning in this story. You know, what's been reported in the trades is that this is basically a version of a restructuring something of the movie critic, which is the movie that Quentin Tarantino was thinking about directing as his tenth and final film. That movie, over time, it seems like, became more of a Cliff movie and less of what it had originally started out as. So we. I don't totally know what this is going to be. I assume you're excited about this.

[Matt Bellany]

It seems fine to me. Seems great. I don't have a lot of the anxiety that other people do about. I mean, sure, you know, we're going to talk all about how, quote, unquote, cinema's, you know, going into a trash can. But I like most David Fincher movies. I really enjoyed the Killer.

[Amy Poehler]

I did, too.

[Matt Bellany]

I saw it on the theater screen, so that was fine for me. I don't have a physical media collection to worry about.

[Amy Poehler]

I'm. I'm concerned about. I know.

[Matt Bellany]

You did bring this up within an hour. I'm just like, I will never have. The 4k of this.

[Amy Poehler]

Mank and the Killer are not available on physical media.

[Matt Bellany]

That is.

[Amy Poehler]

That's fucking bullshit.

[Matt Bellany]

Do you think Fincher has, like, he doesn't care? No, he doesn't care. That's why Fincher is my guy.

[Amy Poehler]

I just. I'm not saying he's not cool or even right. I am a loser. But it is something I want.

[Matt Bellany]

So Fincher doing whatever the hell he wants and not caring is great with me.

[Amy Poehler]

Okay.

[Matt Bellany]

If it's okay with Quentin. If it's okay with Fincher, sure. Make a good movie starring Brad Pitt. Like, what do I care?

[Amy Poehler]

I'm pretty much in the same boat. I don't have the same Netflix anxiety that a lot of people do. The truth is, is that in all likelihood, we will be able to see it on a big screen. Not everyone in America will be able to. But you know what? Things are changing. The imax, Narnia, Greta Gerwig. Circumstance with Netflix could portend a shift.

[Matt Bellany]

Meryl Streep is a lion. What's going On.

[Amy Poehler]

I don't know. We can talk about that another time.

[Matt Bellany]

Aslan is a lion.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes.

[Matt Bellany]

Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah. Chris mentioned this to us when we talked about it some time ago. Do you remember that?

[Matt Bellany]

I've read this book, but not since I was, like, seven.

[Amy Poehler]

So, yeah, it seems like this movie is happening. We'll talk about it a lot more and some of that Netflix stuff next week when I think we'll do maybe more of a movie, State of the Union and where things are at right now, because it's connected to a larger discussion.

[Matt Bellany]

Save the take.

[Amy Poehler]

We should have. I'll save the take.

[Matt Bellany]

It's not a good one, but save it.

[Amy Poehler]

The one I was disappointed to be in Boston for was the One Battle After Another trailer.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah, we discussed it here on the Big Picture.

[Amy Poehler]

You did, you did. You cited it ever so briefly, and I'm sure that the listeners of the show were absolutely contented with the way that you discussed it.

[Matt Bellany]

I said it was good.

[Amy Poehler]

Well done. There's more to say about One Battle after another now that we've seen even more from the film at Cinemacon, so we can kind of table it until then. Needless to say, Paul Thomas Anderson, who cuts most of, if not all of his trailers, is arguably the greatest trailer cutter in the history of movies. And so that this one rocked. I have a lot of thoughts about what this movie could be and what's inspiring it. We'll get to.

[Matt Bellany]

Where were you when the trailer dropped?

[Amy Poehler]

Walking the streets of Boston with Bill and Chris.

[Matt Bellany]

Okay, so are. Do you guys, like, pull over to the side of the sidewalk?

[Amy Poehler]

No, Bill is.

[Matt Bellany]

Take me through it.

[Amy Poehler]

Bill was showing us various haunts that he had visited over time, explaining, like, oyster shacks and clothing stores that had popped up or that were great in 1997. And he was. He was going down memory lane.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah. But he's also a PTA enthusiast and a trailer enthusiast. So you become aware that the trailer.

[Amy Poehler]

I waited till I got back to my room to watch it on a laptop. I didn't want to watch it on my phone.

[Matt Bellany]

Okay. Well, I guess the trailer gods respect that.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah. And I was home for one day between Las Vegas and. And Boston. And so in that one day, I think I watched the trailer on my large television five times.

[Matt Bellany]

Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

So I've seen it a lot.

[Matt Bellany]

Has your. Did you watch that, like, with your daughter, or was that after bedtime?

[Amy Poehler]

No, there's a lot of machine guns in that trailer.

[Matt Bellany]

I know. I don't think I discovered that when I watched the teaser in my son's bedroom.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, it's not. That's a little loud. Yeah. Couldn't be more excited. The Avengers doomsday casting announcement.

[Matt Bellany]

Yes.

[Amy Poehler]

I was on a plane when this.

[Matt Bellany]

Happened, so I sort of became aware of this. I just started seeing pictures of directors chairs.

[Amy Poehler]

Yep. That was nice.

[Matt Bellany]

And I was like, what's going on here? And then it was just a bunch of people that were gonna. That had been in Marvel movies in the past and were gonna be in one again. And then I logged back out.

[Amy Poehler]

You pretty much summed it up. I mean, there's not really much to say. They just showed directors chairs over the course of several hours that featured the names of actors who would appear in the upcoming Avengers movie. I think that this was the lowest I've felt about Marvel. I think that this was one of the most cynical, lame things that they've done. And we'll get to some of the Marvel stuff that we saw in Las Vegas.

[Matt Bellany]

I didn't see it.

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, that's right.

[Matt Bellany]

I left.

[Amy Poehler]

That's right. You weren't there for Disney. I can tell you. Matt and I can tell you all about. Wasn't bad at all. I don't really have anything negative to say about it, but this was really sweaty and kind of desperate and weird to me. And a little bit like, we don't have it. And it's because they know that they don't have right now. Culturally, they don't have it. And a lot of the things that we saw over the last few days, there's, like, a domino effect potentially in play here. If a couple things miss. Where all of a sudden, what I suggested on the Black Panther pod, where I was like, I don't know, man. They got, like, one more chance here before this becomes no longer the most important thing about moviegoing. So we'll see. We'll talk about Fantastic Four and Thunderbolts in a moment, too. The studio. This is a TV show. You watch tv.

[Matt Bellany]

I watched this show, and I'm not caught up because this is the show in our household where we, like, actually watch it together. In my household is incredibly rare because we don't.

[Amy Poehler]

Is Zach not caught up on Emily in Paris?

[Matt Bellany]

No, to his. It's his loss. You know, there's a whole Loro Piano plotline.

[Amy Poehler]

Do you know about this? Definitely.

[Matt Bellany]

Okay. Do you know what Loro Piano is?

[Amy Poehler]

I do, yeah.

[Matt Bellany]

Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Matt Bellany]

Do you own.

[Amy Poehler]

It's Because I have absolutely not.

[Matt Bellany]

Okay. I was gonna, like. You were really gonna just jump a level in my respect.

[Amy Poehler]

That's something I Would have owned in 2013.

[Matt Bellany]

Really?

[Amy Poehler]

Sure. When I cared about that kind of thing.

[Matt Bellany]

All right, well, I mean, then you would still have it. And then I could be like, could I have it? And if you're not wearing it anymore.

[Amy Poehler]

Was it extant in 2013?

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Okay.

[Matt Bellany]

I mean, I don't know the ownership structure at that time.

[Amy Poehler]

I put you on the Emily in Paris. Sorry, that's not what I intended.

[Matt Bellany]

You know, I just saw a goodie. We were talking about Marvel director chairs for, like, 25 minutes. You know, finally something I'm passionate about.

[Amy Poehler]

72.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah. What were we actually? Oh, the studio. Really good. Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

It's a great TV show. I recorded an episode of the Prestige TV Podcast with Joanna and Bill about it. I really, really like it. I also. I really like the episodes in the middle of the season quite a bit, and I haven't watched past episode five. But for listeners of this show, if you are not familiar with it, you probably are, but if you're not, it's basically made for you. If you like this podcast, it is about the inner workings of a Hollywood studio and the executives who make movies and the daily emotional meltdown of IP and what we need to do to make money versus loving films and trying to get them made. I feel a little bit indicted by the show in a very nice way. I think people should watch it.

[Matt Bellany]

It's a complete delight. Well made. Great performances, you know, filmed on locations like Real Play. It's. It's just wonderful. Probably some Loro piano on that.

[Amy Poehler]

I would imagine the costuming is fantastic on the series. Couple of box office things. Statham is back.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

A Working man was the number one movie at the box office last weekend. This weekend we shall see. Not a good year at the box office. We'll get into that soon. Snow White bombed.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Rachel Zegler's political opinions were blamed for that. In one of the lamest tarnishings of someone's reputation I've ever seen.

[Matt Bellany]

Was really pathetic.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah. Very sad. I haven't seen the Snow White film. My daughter has. She said, dad, Snow White was beautiful.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah. She is beautiful.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah. I think she meant the experience of Snow White was beautiful.

[Matt Bellany]

That's right. That was also her review of Singing in the Rain. That was a beautiful.

[Amy Poehler]

We're working on vocabulary, so adjectives, you know, developing skills.

[Matt Bellany]

I think that that's a really great way to describe. I want her to have beautiful experiences.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes. You know, she also felt that the Evil Queen was someone she didn't want to spend any time with.

[Matt Bellany]

Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

And her favorite dwarf is Grumpy.

[Matt Bellany]

Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

Which I think checks out.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah, I was going to say based on what's surrounding her in her everyday life.

[Amy Poehler]

What do you mean? You know, that's not very nice. Coyote vs. Acme, sold to Ketchup Entertainment for $50 million.

[Matt Bellany]

Listen, Ketchup Entertainment brought us good, Rich.

[Amy Poehler]

Yep. So what was the Robert Rodriguez, Ben Affleck film that they also brought us?

[Matt Bellany]

Oh, I saw that in theaters.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah. What's that movie called?

[Matt Bellany]

I don't remember.

[Amy Poehler]

The Revisionist Reflection Reviver.

[Matt Bellany]

So what?

[Amy Poehler]

Okay, Revolutions.

[Matt Bellany]

Is it an insurance? No, the insurance is the accountant. Sort of.

[Amy Poehler]

Don't even try.

[Matt Bellany]

What was it about?

[Amy Poehler]

It's about a guy, like, imagining a kind of past and future for himself inside of this like, technological corporate system. Doesn't matter. It's not important. We'll get to it one day.

[Matt Bellany]

Okay. I mean, I did see it. We talked about it.

[Amy Poehler]

Hypnotic. Thank you to Craig Holbeck. The name is. The film is called Hypnotic. Also the name of a absolutely disgusting liqueur drink. It was released in the 2000s. Hip hop themed. You remember?

[Matt Bellany]

No, I never did. Yes, No, I do that. But I did. I didn't try it.

[Amy Poehler]

Okay, last thing. Jen Salke out at Amazon.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

This feels like it happened 300 years ago especially. She was not present at Cinemacon.

[Matt Bellany]

Name was not mentioned.

[Amy Poehler]

She was oversaw all of film and television. Actually. If you listen to the town, you can hear Matt Bellany talk about this in depth. Her legacy as a filmmaker. We were talking about the Amazon film slates when we talked about the handmaiden on 25 for 25 because at that time, when she was not running the studio, they were making or acquiring a lot of really good movies. I would not say that Amazon, MGM's movie output in the last six years, seven years, was really all that strong. Couple of hits here and there, couple of prestigious films. Couple, you know, your women talkings, you know, your nickel boys. There still were some films. They were quality, but they were few and far between new leadership. We'll see what they do. We're going to talk about their slate a little bit here and on the town later. Let's talk about our trip to Vegas very briefly before we bring in Matt to also discuss.

[Matt Bellany]

Right. Because Matt and Craig, producer Craig, you're back there. Were very supportive. You know, I.

[Amy Poehler]

They were.

[Matt Bellany]

I came in and this was my first ever trip to Las Vegas. And I said, I really need a mom's night out. Energy from the three bros. And you mostly delivered.

[Amy Poehler]

I. I was present we didn't go to a club. No, we went. We went to industry parties.

[Matt Bellany]

Yes.

[Amy Poehler]

And you were. You were feted as the queen that you are.

[Matt Bellany]

Thank you.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, no, we had fun. We. We stayed at Caesar's palace, which is where the convention is. And you. The one thing I want to discuss very briefly before Matt comes in is we walked the casino floor together. Yeah, you'd never. Have you ever been in a casino?

[Matt Bellany]

I guess not.

[Amy Poehler]

That's insane.

[Matt Bellany]

Well, you know, I'd never been to Vegas before. I've never been to Atlantic City.

[Amy Poehler]

So I tried to bully you in the casino.

[Matt Bellany]

I mean, you did bully me. Like, you actually, you marched me to the atm.

[Amy Poehler]

I did.

[Matt Bellany]

And you made me withdraw cash. And then you were.

[Amy Poehler]

I wasn't holding a gun, just for.

[Matt Bellany]

The record, but like, you did actually just like march me there. And then you stood over my shoulder and were like, that's not enough. Why are you being a coward when I was withdrawing it? And also, obviously, the fee was like, you know, 45%.

[Amy Poehler]

It was very high.

[Matt Bellany]

So I was really outraged by that too. Craig was like, oh, I just brought $200 in cash. That is the move, guys. I'd never been. No one told me, you know, it's not true.

[Amy Poehler]

I did tell you, but okay, I said, Bring $200 to lose. That is what I told you before. We.

[Matt Bellany]

And I said to you, which bore out, I don't want to lose $200. That's not fun to me. So you bullied me. You. You're like, we'll go, we'll play blackjack. Because I like. Do you know the, the basic rules of blackjack? Because my grandmother's boyfriend taught me, but he did.

[Amy Poehler]

Very, very cool story. Thank you. Thank you, George.

[Matt Bellany]

Thanks for everything you do. You said, we're going to go. And then you made me withdraw cash. And then you walked the floor and you were like, well, tough news. The lowest minimum is $25. And we. You had really. You had said, maybe we'll find a 15. Like, maybe a 10. So 25, that's a 200 to 303. I'm not gonna do the math. That's a big increase.

[Amy Poehler]

The. The minimums have gone up significantly over the last 20 years. Okay, there. Once upon a time, there were ten dollar blackjack tables in Las Vegas.

[Matt Bellany]

Right.

[Amy Poehler]

They're long gone. I thought there might still be 20 tables. No $20 tables. I found only 25, 50, and 100 on that main center, center room in Caesars.

[Matt Bellany]

And then I'll just. I mean, I just full body panicked. I. That is really stressful to me. I didn't want to do it.

[Amy Poehler]

You would not sit. You would not take any money out. You would not.

[Matt Bellany]

I did take the money out.

[Amy Poehler]

You watched me play for free. 40 minutes. And it was totally fine. It was totally fine. Nothing bad happened.

[Matt Bellany]

I was. I was really stressed out the whole time. And then I did take, like, a full hour after, like, my. My heart rate didn't drop until, what, halfway through the next presentation.

[Amy Poehler]

This is when we were joking the other day about how on the pod, I'm the neurotic one, but in real life, you're the neurotic one. Listen, that was the most clear example of that I've seen in a while.

[Matt Bellany]

I know what I want. I know what I don't want. I know what I am comfortable with. I know what I am not comfortable with, and I just really, really didn't want to do that. And then.

[Amy Poehler]

Did you learn anything sitting there watching?

[Matt Bellany]

Sort of. But it made me more stressed because, you know, I do know the basic rules of blackjack. But then obviously, like, I'd never played with a dealer before, and there are some of the casino rules, and then also with other players at the table. You have to sort of be aware of what's going on there. And I had no idea about that strategy. They speak very fast.

[Amy Poehler]

They do.

[Matt Bellany]

So it did kind of feel like there was a whole language that I didn't know.

[Amy Poehler]

There is a very important communal aspect at the table because whatever cards you are receiving are impacting obviously, everybody else sitting at the table.

[Matt Bellany]

So having to interact with others but not knowing the language is like. Is like my nightmare.

[Amy Poehler]

You're at a minimum table. It's a middle of the day. Everyone there is friendly. Actually, the guy sitting with us was. It was his first time in Vegas too, you know, but he had warmed.

[Matt Bellany]

Up at Mandalay Bay. It was his 21st birthday trip. We had. It was a very nice dealer. I wish I remembered her.

[Amy Poehler]

Tammy. She was wonderful. She was from Los Angeles.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah. And we did a lot of LA talk, and that, like, made me a little more comfortable. I do think it's both revealing and psychotic that, like, that situation is where you're most comfortable.

[Amy Poehler]

I felt so calm.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah, you were just. And you were great. And you. You won $6 total. But I thought that you did it.

[Amy Poehler]

I basically punted all my earnings at the end.

[Matt Bellany]

Great confidence. Yeah. Yeah, that's. That didn't work out.

[Amy Poehler]

No.

[Matt Bellany]

But you're very comfortable in that situation. And then me being like, let's go to the club, let's go to a party. And you're just like, you know, stone faced.

[Amy Poehler]

It's absolutely not true. And Matt can confirm that I was game for everything. You were. Let's take a quick break and we'll bring in Matt Bellany to talk about the most exciting movies at Cinemacon, our time at a very special show, and a lot more. This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn. When you release a movie, the first thing you want to do is make sure people know about it. And even more importantly, you want to make sure that people who like the genre know it's out. Because horror fans are more likely to go see new horror movies. Disney fans will go see new Disney movies. Rom com fans will go see new Rom com movies. Targeting the right audience is key when it comes to marketing. If you're selling expensive new kitchen appliances, you probably want to sell to people who actually like to cook, not people who rely on food delivery services for every meal. And that's the tricky part, making sure your message gets to the right people. You have to use the right tools. If you're in B2B marketing, that means using LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn has a network of over 130 million decision makers and the targeting tools to make sure you're connecting with the right ones. You can target your buyers by job title, industry, company role, seniority skills or company revenue so you can stop wasting your time and budget on the wrong people. LinkedIn will even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign so you can try it yourself. Just go to LinkedIn.com thebigpicture that's LinkedIn.com thebigpicture Terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads.

[Amanda Dobbins]

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[Amy Poehler]

More at applecard.com okay, Matt Bellany, host of the Town. What is your title at Puck?

[Sean Fennessy]

I'm a founding partner of Puck, which is a fancy way to say I was employee number one.

[Amy Poehler]

Okay. Wow. Employee number one. AM Obviously you host an incredible show where you cover the inside stories of Hollywood. We were together in Las Vegas. It was special for multiple days at Cinemacon. You're not supposed to go to Vegas for more than 48 hours. Matt and I at least broke that rule by roughly 24 hours. Almost 48 hours.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. And honestly, like, it wasn't bad.

[Amy Poehler]

It wasn't bad.

[Sean Fennessy]

Normally I'm just like, get me the hell out of here. But I had a great time. I think maybe because Amanda was there and it was your first time and I sort of felt like I got to relive Vegas through your eyes. Craig was there at Cinemacon for his first time. It was like we did fun stuff. We went to David Copperfield.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah, we gotta talk about David Copperfield.

[Amy Poehler]

Let's talk about David Copperfield for a minute. For the young children listening at home.

[Sean Fennessy]

First of all, this was my idea. You guys were unwitting or willing participants, but this was my idea. I've never seen him before. I love magic. I love Vegas. I thought it would be a cool half ironic thing to do and I think we ended up enjoying it. Question mark?

[Matt Bellany]

We had a fantastic time. I will also say you emailed us as soon as you found out we were going to be at Cinemacon and said, do you want to go see David Copperfield? And it was an instant yes from both of us. And in terms of like having a bit for the week, you know, anyone I spoke to, I would say, oh, it's my first week in, in my first time ever in Vegas and I'm going to go see David Copperfield. And everyone was like, perfect. You know, it really, you couldn't have scripted it better for me.

[Sean Fennessy]

And honestly, like, I was a little nervous to be honest, because I started read some, there's some Reddit activity about him. He'd been kind of quasi canceled and like, but not really. And, and maybe he lost a step. He is 68 years old. But we went, we, you know, there was magic, there was an alien at one point, there was a spaceship.

[Amy Poehler]

We had a front row seat. It was, it was honestly the first 30 minutes of the show, I was like, this is actually legitimately good. It was typical Holly Las Vegas illusionist work. You know, moving large objects, card tricks, popping balloons inside of balloons.

[Matt Bellany]

They were like predicting numbers.

[Amy Poehler]

Numbers, yeah.

[Matt Bellany]

Reading people's heads again. Another thing, for the first 30 minutes, you turn to me just with joy in your eyes. Vegas brings out your childlike wonder.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, I did. I think I said I would die for magic. You did. Which I would just.

[Matt Bellany]

You just kind of like a really excited golf clap. Like kind of shrinking into yourself because you were so excited.

[Amy Poehler]

I'm like, matt, I really like magic. I think it's fun to go see magic. The final 30 minutes with the alien. My take on it is when Steven Spielberg does that, it's really cool and emotionally affecting. And when a magician in Las Vegas does it, it's fucking weird. It's kind of psychotic.

[Matt Bellany]

I mean, it was just an unexpected turn and it's.

[Sean Fennessy]

It does take a turn.

[Matt Bellany]

It takes a real turn and for a while. Listen, I don't want to spoil the show for anyone who is going to go to Las Vegas and see David Copperfield, but I do want people to understand that it is an animatronic alien, highly reminiscent of baby Yoda, but with teeth. Right. And I think Baby Yoda doesn't have.

[Amy Poehler]

To the name of this alien. Blue.

[Sean Fennessy]

Blue Blu.

[Matt Bellany]

Yes, but about the same size as I understand Baby Yoda to be based on never having seen that show, but seeing.

[Sean Fennessy]

And a quasi surrogate for David Copperfield's absent father.

[Matt Bellany]

Correct?

[Sean Fennessy]

We should say that.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes. That's why I make the Spielberg comparison. It is a deeply emotional backstory that is maybe not as true as I had thought it was going be when he first started telling the story mid show.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. And not something that you expect in a magic show.

[Amy Poehler]

No.

[Matt Bellany]

Right. But he is. David Copperfield is having an extended scripted conversation with a small blue baby Yoda esque alien that can, I think, move its arms and head and tentacles or his antenna. Right, right. And has like basically alien veneers, but also can't like walk.

[Amy Poehler]

Walk.

[Matt Bellany]

Right. So then David Copperfield has to like carry him around and they embrace at one point. Yes, a couple times.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

If this sounds creepy, it's because it is creepy. It was a good time, though.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's interspersed also with like quasi old footage of his father who was in the military and.

[Matt Bellany]

Right, but I actually think that was.

[Amy Poehler]

Old footage because it clearly was not.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah, well, I know Matt.

[Sean Fennessy]

Afterwards, I thought maybe he was superimposed.

[Matt Bellany]

You that kind of VFX budget. Listen, I don't. Based on what I saw of the various magic curtains that are all really grimy, I don't think they have the budget.

[Amy Poehler]

You guys are really spoiling David Copperfield.

[Sean Fennessy]

David Copperfield, he has an island. He has a compound in Vegas. He's been a successful magician for 30 something years.

[Matt Bellany]

Now he's putting that money elsewhere.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay.

[Matt Bellany]

But I did think that the actor who played his dad was very attractive.

[Sean Fennessy]

And looked like him.

[Amy Poehler]

He did. He did.

[Matt Bellany]

Spent some time casting it appropriately.

[Amy Poehler]

Well, when they first showed that image of his parents, I was like, God, his parents are hot. This is unbelievable how attractive these people are. Anyhow. Nevertheless, we've spoiled most of the David Copperfield show in Las Vegas. I love it.

[Sean Fennessy]

Big spoiler. Also, he has great hair. I don't know what he's doing right. Wig or dye job or he went to Turkey. I don't know what happened.

[Amy Poehler]

Year old man. There is a tremendous amount of hair on his head.

[Sean Fennessy]

It is a bouffant of hair.

[Amy Poehler]

Thank you for bringing us. We had a lot of fun.

[Sean Fennessy]

We had a lot of fun.

[Matt Bellany]

It was perfect.

[Amy Poehler]

All week was a lot of fun. Cinemacon in general, I think of it as two things. One, it is just like any old trade convention. It is like if you are a member of like Plumbers United and all the plumbers of the world come to Las Vegas for four days, steak dinner, eat mediocre food, hang out, have too many cocktails and sit through boring presentations. This is the same thing, but for movies, but also.

[Sean Fennessy]

Except Ana de Armas is there.

[Matt Bellany]

Yes, right.

[Amy Poehler]

It's a little bit of movie nerd prom where a lot of people, you know from the business are there, a lot of celebrities are there and you get.

[Matt Bellany]

You don't interact. You don't interact with the celebrities though. You do. I mean, that's true.

[Sean Fennessy]

Ana de Armas was walking the casino floor at one point.

[Amy Poehler]

I saw her with my own two eyes.

[Sean Fennessy]

Very rare. That usually doesn't happen. They know like Leo DiCaprio.

[Amy Poehler]

He don't doubt.

[Sean Fennessy]

He's probably back at his pool by 4pm Yes.

[Amy Poehler]

I remember a few years ago when I was there, I was. I saw Lupita walking into a hallway and I was like, good lord.

[Sean Fennessy]

Like just strikingly stuff in like private things. Like someone offered, asked if I wanted to meet the weekend. I was like, I'm good.

[Amy Poehler]

That would be an interesting podcast. We'll come back to the weekend. Anyhow, so it's this. Across three days, all the major studios present all of their wares. And they hope that the theatrical exhibitors will care. And, of course, that they will, because theatrical exhibition is in a very complicated, some might say dire state. Matt, why don't you give us a little bit of a sense of how things are going in the business relative to this experience.

[Sean Fennessy]

Not great is a good, good way to describe it. I mean, box office is in the shitter right now. It's like 12.4% down for the year domestic. This was supposed to be the rebound year. Survived till 25. Last year was not great, although it did rebound by the end of the year.

[Amy Poehler]

Last year was surprisingly decent.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes, it came back. You know, there's just existential dread throughout, and there always is at this convention. As long as I've been going, it's always been about how they're under threat. Streaming is killing their business. The collapsing windows are killing their business, Covid. All of it. Everything is aligned against the theaters. And that is even more so now, because as much as these studios are there to court these theater owners, they're also quietly undermining them. I mean, I did a panel with the head of Universal's distribution unit, and he was there saying, we are a theatrical first studio. We are there to, you know, put movies. We need to be profitable, to put more money into movies. All of which is true. Yet they are a pioneer of putting their movies on premium video on demand as early as three weeks after they're in theaters, which most people in the theater business believe is significantly hurting their business.

[Amy Poehler]

So that is was basically the biggest topic of conversation this week. And I thought of something. I don't know if you've thought about this since it happened, but in 2017, Matt was actually on the Big Picture talking about the movie War Machine on Netflix. Do you remember this? Oh, yeah. In our old office.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, man.

[Amy Poehler]

You came on and we talked about the idea, what really what windowing was and what it meant and what it meant for a studio like Netflix, which was just a streamer then to make a movie like War Machine with Brad Pitt, who was one of the first major movie stars to basically make a streaming only movie. And we were saying, like, for a company like Netflix, what makes sense in terms of when the movie should go? Listeners of the show can check that episode out. It's very weird. I think I interviewed David Michaud, the director of that movie. But back then, I don't know that I ever thought we would get to this place where after 17 days, a movie like Black Bag, which is a $50 million movie with movie Stars, directed by Steven Soderbergh, is available in your home. But for Universal, that's actually good business right now financially.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, it's great. It can be.

[Amy Poehler]

It can be.

[Sean Fennessy]

For a movie like Wicked. They, he said on my panel they made over $100 million on P VOD and that they believe that they made that money and did not hurt the theater business in the process.

[Amy Poehler]

But they don't share any of that money with movie theaters.

[Sean Fennessy]

No, they had their own taxes on that. You have to pay the distributors for that. But they keep more of the P VOD money than they do from the 50, 50 or so split with the theater. So it's in the studio's interest to do these shorter windows. And in 2017, what we did not anticipate was Covid. Covid completely opened the door for these studios to say, yeah, you know that 45 day, 90 day window we used to have that we've never liked but you guys have been able to enforce on us. We're just not going to do that anymore. And here's the new model that we're going to all adhere to. And if you guys want it, great. If not, so what?

[Amy Poehler]

Just like speculate for me. It seems like half of the studios would be open to a 45 day window, half would not because they'd be leaving a lot of money on the table.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, Adam Aaron at AMC claimed in an interview that he has half the studios, three on board for a 45 day window guarantee.

[Amy Poehler]

We can, we can.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah, we were speculating.

[Amy Poehler]

We can guess.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, we know.

[Matt Bellany]

It's Disney.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, Disney already does that.

[Matt Bellany]

Right.

[Sean Fennessy]

Um, it's probably Sony.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Because Tom Rothman is a big theaters guy and they have a Netflix pay one deal.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessy]

That pays them a billion or so dollars. Dollars a year. So they can do that with the cushion of knowing that they've got this.

[Amy Poehler]

Money and no streaming service that they need to feed.

[Sean Fennessy]

Right, exactly. They have no homegrown streaming service. They probably could make more, more money on, on P Vod. But he's the third one. I don't know who it is and he wouldn't tell me when I asked.

[Amy Poehler]

My guess is it's Paramount, but that's just the guess.

[Sean Fennessy]

But how can they even make any commitments now? Because Paramount has been sold. The new regime is coming in.

[Matt Bellany]

I mean, yeah, they make a commitment to him and then they're doing whatever, you know, I'm sure it's.

[Sean Fennessy]

But the funny thing is that the guy who instituted the P VOD strategy at Universal is going to be running Paramount. Jeff Shell.

[Amy Poehler]

Right.

[Sean Fennessy]

So what's he going to do? He's going to implement his old strategy. So they're probably not in. And Warner Brothers, I mean, they've got serious cash concerns. Maybe they'd be on board. I don't know.

[Amy Poehler]

I'd be very surprised if Universal, Warner Brothers or Amazon agreed to that. That just doesn't seem like it benefits them right now.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah. Would they? That is the fascinating thing. This was my first CinemaCon, and the tension between these two separate but conjoined industries that need each other. But also it is just the studios holding the theater owners hostage. Yeah, pretty much. You know, and they're presenting and on stage being like, you're gonna love it. Here's, you know, everything that we're giving in your theaters.

[Sean Fennessy]

We value your theaters.

[Matt Bellany]

The theaters don't have any other choices. You know, it's just kind of like, this is what you're gonna show it, or I guess you're not gonna show it, but what else is gonna fill your.

[Sean Fennessy]

And that's what the theaters say when they are. When they start talking about why their business is so bad, they talk about volume. And they believe that if the volume of Hollywood movies increased to back where it was pre Covid, that their business will be fine, their business will be growing. Set aside the fact that attendance had been going down, down, down even before COVID So it's not like they were a growing business, but they've raised prices, they've done all the concession stuff they've done, and they have, you know, ads up the wazoo before they are aware ways that they can make money if people are showing up. And it's just that there's not enough movies in their view.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, that's the thing is. And that relates to the movies that were presented to us. They've been able to backstop by raising prices and creating more experiences inside of movie theaters, which I honestly think is smart. I don't think it's a bad movie at all.

[Matt Bellany]

Right.

[Amy Poehler]

I think it's a good idea.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, it's a great idea.

[Amy Poehler]

And it mostly works. And so the. The theatrical experience, like, to me, is not really going anywhere anytime soon. It's just the scale may go significantly down, but a lot of these presentations, you know, some of these studios have like, five, six, seven movies this year. I mean, going back to 10 years ago when they would have 12, 14, 18, 24.

[Matt Bellany]

Right.

[Amy Poehler]

So those theaters are.

[Sean Fennessy]

Right.

[Amy Poehler]

Like, there's just fewer movies to present. There's Fewer movies for us to talk about, to be excited about. And they've made a lot of big bets and not a lot of middle bets because the middle bets are harder to market now. So I would say a very, very mixed bag in terms of what we saw. Like, definitely a few things that would get the hardcore movie fans excited, a few things that would get the hardcore IP fans excited, but not the most rousing slate overall. Would you agree with that?

[Matt Bellany]

Absolutely. Not a lot of sure bets in terms of butts in seats, which is everyone else at the convention's goal. A few things that we, as movie nerds were really excited to see. A lot of movie stars that I was thrilled to see. Thank you all for coming.

[Amy Poehler]

Legit, major heavyweight stars.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, I heard a little, ooh, when, like, Glen Powell came, I was like, oh, yeah.

[Matt Bellany]

You know, And I knew he was coming. He was announced because Glen Powell works very hard and shows up at everything.

[Amy Poehler]

God bless Glen Powell. But, like, Leo and Tom Cruise were there. You know what I mean? Like, this is a major, major, major event still in the business, so.

[Matt Bellany]

But there were a few things that we're excited about, worrying that the things that you and I are excited about as movie nerds and the things that seem like sure bets are, you know, do not overlap in the Venn diagram.

[Amy Poehler]

Totally agree. I mean, that's the thing. The big movies that I think the studios were presenting to us the sort of the linchpin film, the most important film that they all had. I don't know if any of them, save maybe one in any of our lists in terms of what we're anticipating.

[Sean Fennessy]

But I will say that the one. I don't know if we want to talk about the movies yet. I actually am more interested in the Jurassic World movie now than I was before. That trailer was good. It was scary.

[Amy Poehler]

My. My only problem with that movie is which star. Scarlett Johansson and Marshal Ali, they were both there.

[Sean Fennessy]

They were.

[Amy Poehler]

Gareth Edwards, the director.

[Matt Bellany]

I saw Mahershala in the lobby that morning.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah. But then he will talk about him.

[Amy Poehler]

This is like. This is another Universal property to me. Every Fast and the Furious movie is the same, and every Jurassic World movie is the same. And they're not necessarily bad. I think the Fast and Furious movies are much worse, but they're just. There's a big dinosaur, There's a dinosaur we've never heard of. There are children in peril, and then there's one plucky person who needs to save everyone, and one dorky scientist. Like, that's. It is they're formulaic. It's probably going to be a better made movie because the director is really talented. The creator is like, legitimately one of the best looking science fiction movies of the last 10 years. But I'm not like, crawling out of my skin to see it.

[Matt Bellany]

You just described every movie, though. Like, every heist movie. It's like a crew's got to get together to steal them. And like every rom com. Are they going to get together? Like. Yes, they are. I don't mind the formula. In fact, sometimes I'm very comforted by it. So I'm with Matt. I was more excited by the trailer. I was open to it. I didn't think their banter worked that much, but that's.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, on stage they were a little awkward. Yeah. And. And it's always funny how it comes back to Scarlet being a badass and, like, demanding a lot.

[Matt Bellany]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessy]

Like, there were multiple references to her contract and, like, what she will and won't do. And I know she's famously as like.

[Amy Poehler]

You know, hard charging.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. She ended up suing Disney and all that stuff, but they. I don't know that. Hopefully their chemistry in the movie is better.

[Matt Bellany]

She looked. She looked exciting in the movie. And like. So I'm open.

[Amy Poehler]

So that's from Universal. Universal kind of had a double barrel. They had two of the biggest movies that they were pushing. Jurassic is in July until July 4th weekend. Then they have Wicked Part 2. I actually had to leave before the Wicked Part 2 presentation.

[Matt Bellany]

I wasn't gonna say that on the podcast. I covered for you. And I covered for you at the Universal party.

[Amy Poehler]

A dear friend lives in Las Vegas. We've known each other since fourth grade. I had to see the man, you know, it's that simple.

[Matt Bellany]

Matt and I stayed Cynthia, because we care about cinema.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes, you do.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah. Cynthia and Ari were there, but they did not sing.

[Amy Poehler]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

Which they did hold hands.

[Matt Bellany]

They held hands.

[Amy Poehler]

And did they save space?

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah, they made even jokes about it. You know, they're good at what they do. They sold what they needed to sell. And then they showed a trailer which, like, I thought looked fine.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. I mean, the problem universal has with Wicked 2 is that it doesn't have that signature song. So the entire campaign for the first movie was built around that song, which is interesting because it's the last five minutes of the movie, so you're essentially giving that away. But they knew what they had. They knew everyone loves that song, and it worked. So what. What do they have this time? They have more wizard of Oz stuff which we saw, but they don't have that signature song. So it's ultimately. So that's, I think, why they didn't sing because they didn't want people to be like, oh, well, that's not Defying Gravity.

[Amy Poehler]

Interesting. Well, I'm not really excited about Wicked Part 2 at all, so.

[Matt Bellany]

Nor am I. But it'll make money.

[Amy Poehler]

It'll make money. Other movies that were not hyping, per se, but were hyped. We'll talk in depth on the town about the Superman presentation. I have thoughts, but Superman was obviously the centerpiece of the Warner Brothers presentation, which ultimately I thought was better than I was expecting on the whole in terms of the movies that they showed. But there was a lot of time devoted to Superman, maybe not a lot of time well spent in that presentation. The footage that we saw honestly dimmed my enthusiasm for the movie a little bit.

[Sean Fennessy]

Me too. But I will say that I talked to a lot of people. It was the one movie that sparked a lot of conversation, I think, from my world. It's because there's so much writing on it, like the whole reinvention of the DC universe. The embattled heads of the studio sort of need this to work and DC of it all. But it's a weird mix. It's this weird mix of earnest Superman with Silly Dog, with kind of the irreverent robots. And there's like, there's a monster, there's a Godzilla monster in it that we don't know how much is going to be in the movie.

[Amy Poehler]

It just looked like a very overloaded premise. And, you know, James Gunn was there with Peter Safran and the cast and he talked about this desire to create like, you know, more Silver Age feeling Superman, like your old fashioned style, hopeful Superman movie with lots of characters and a kind of shiny zaniness surrounding this, you know, embodiment of hope. I'm a little nervous about it.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah, Well, I am allergic to the James Gunn formula, which is sort of zany quippiness with, like, animals and then a lot of sentimentality. And it definitely fits the formula. And that formula has worked in many other movies. For three straight Guardians, when it's applied to Superman is the thing that all of you super, you know, talk about.

[Sean Fennessy]

Chris Pratt sells that really well.

[Amy Poehler]

That's exactly what I said. He's so right for that James Gunn tone. Will David Corenswet be right for that?

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Or maybe that maybe Rachel Brosnahan, who is better at that kind of stuff and was very fun And I love her.

[Amy Poehler]

I do too.

[Sean Fennessy]

But I don't know that Superman fits that.

[Amy Poehler]

We're going to find out. Let's talk about Sony. They presented three film, four films that are coming out in three years. That was their big announcement, which we already KN that they're going.

[Sean Fennessy]

But they're coming out in the same month in three years.

[Amy Poehler]

Four Beatles movies. It sounds like one per week.

[Sean Fennessy]

I would bet that. I would say they're going to do one every Friday for a month. Now, they have not said that it could be. They all drop on the same day, which seems very bizarre for theaters because then you got to choose. But even if these movies are sequential for a month, if the first one's a huge hit, the second one is going to be competing with the first one, those theaters. And then after that, or if it's not a hit, then you've got a horizon situation times four, where you gotta put these movies in theaters after nobody wants to see them.

[Amy Poehler]

It's a huge gamble. Sam Mendes is the director. You'll talk a little bit more when we get into anticipated how you feel about the casting of these movies.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Which of these do you think comes first in the pecking order? Which Beatle gets his first movie?

[Matt Bellany]

Well, I assume that they'll do it. Chrono. I hope they'll do it chronologically, but maybe they won't. Maybe they'll release it. Yeah, one assumes. So you probably have to start with Jon or Paul. Right. And also in terms of. If you're trying to fight the. The problem that Matt is describing, you want to bring someone in with John and Paul, and then you got to close with the other. No disrespect to Ringo.

[Sean Fennessy]

I would say we know which one is not first.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, I agree. It feels like Paul, Paul first, John last. Right.

[Matt Bellany]

I. I mean, I would think so.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, I don't know.

[Amy Poehler]

You think Paul.

[Sean Fennessy]

So there's speculation that they will tell the story of the Beatles sequentially, meaning the Paul story will be the first five, four or five years, rise to fame, that kind of thing. And then it. They bring the other stuff in so that, you know, John's movie is about his relationship with Yoko and his death, ultimately. And then Ringo means like the aftermath and the breakup. So it's sort of told from his perspective. That's. That makes sense to me.

[Amy Poehler]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

Maybe they'll jump around or maybe it'll be the same story, but just from different perspectives. I don't know.

[Matt Bellany]

You could see it being Paul to start getting the band together. George Disillusionment and breakup and resentment and all that stuff. No offense to George, but he was mad. And then, and, and, and then John. I mean, they'll all feature in all of them, right? So, John, afterwards, Death, do you have.

[Amy Poehler]

Three years of podcasting in you about this? Actually four, when you include the awards run like this is gonna go through March of 2029.

[Matt Bellany]

You and I uniquely do. But I did also think to myself, I was like, I will be 43 years old when these movies come out. It's just nobody wants it. Nobody wants to hear from a 43 year old mom for five years straight about the Beatles.

[Sean Fennessy]

I just hope Paul is still alive so he can promote it.

[Amy Poehler]

The other Sony announcements that were also big were that Sony, sorry, Beyond the Spider verse is coming in 2027, which is a long ways away from that last.

[Sean Fennessy]

That movie was supposed to come out last year.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes. And that Spider Man Brand New Day, which is the new Tom Holland live action Spider man movie is coming next year, which is really soon. That movie supposed to come out July 24, I think next year. They haven't started filming. Tom Holland is in Greece making the Odyssey right now.

[Matt Bellany]

Hmm.

[Amy Poehler]

That's not usually a good sign. We'll see what happens with that.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, although they did it with Jurassic for this summer.

[Amy Poehler]

They did.

[Sean Fennessy]

They filmed that last summer. So maybe if Tom Holland goes directly from Odyssey to Spider man, they can pull it off.

[Amy Poehler]

But earning that paycheck? Lionsgate. Not a ton of huge announcements. The biggest one was probably that how dare you, Ballerina.

[Sean Fennessy]

Are you kidding me?

[Amy Poehler]

Well, we knew that was coming.

[Sean Fennessy]

I know, but the footage was good.

[Amy Poehler]

The fights were good. Was the footage good or was the fight good?

[Sean Fennessy]

The footage was the fight. It was essentially a long fight scene. Now, I. I say this, and I don't know if we're stepping on our picks, but like I say this, as someone who has not ever watched a John Wick movie, so I'm not the best person to evaluate the spinoff, but I thought it was great.

[Amy Poehler]

The fight scene was very good that they showed. They used that fight scene to then also announce Simultaneously, John Wick 5 is in development right now, I assume. It sounds like Keanu and Chad Stahelski will come back. Plus, an animated John Wick prequel is happening.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, I don't understand that.

[Amy Poehler]

A spin off of the Kane character from the last film is also going to happen with Donnie Yen, so.

[Sean Fennessy]

Plus, it looks like there's a lot more of Keanu in Ballerina than we may have initially thought.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes, My understanding is, is they had to reshoot a lot of movies, so they added a lot of stuff. We shall see Paramount. Let's just. Let's just table Paramount because we. We have. They have a couple of big titles and we'll focus on those when we do our picks. The big movie out of Amazon was Masters of the Universe, which is a 2026 movie.

[Matt Bellany]

That is.

[Amy Poehler]

That's wow.

[Matt Bellany]

To everyone else who showed up at the Amazon presentation.

[Sean Fennessy]

The disrespect to Ryan Gosling right there.

[Amy Poehler]

Well, I'm trying to hold it. I'm trying to hold it.

[Matt Bellany]

That I actually gassed, by the way you did.

[Amy Poehler]

I'm trying to hold it for both of your sakes and for my sake as well. Masters of the Universe is of course, he man, which five year old me was very emotionally invested in.

[Sean Fennessy]

And they very smartly included audio clips from the original TV cartoon of him saying, I have the power.

[Amy Poehler]

By the power of Grayskull, I am Nicholas Galitzine. I'm just gonna be totally honest with you guys. I'm in.

[Matt Bellany]

Oh, no, that's good. That was for you. There was. So we mostly observed from the press section and also in the press section there was a group of about 10 to 15, mostly young men. I didn't speak to them. They seemed to be about 25. And they were hooting and hollering for this movie and for the spongebob movie and for kind of all the fan IP stuff.

[Amy Poehler]

There was a generational divide in the press area.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah. But it's. This did seem to work for them.

[Amy Poehler]

It's Travis Knight, Phil Knight's son, who's directed a lot of like, animated films. Honestly, his animated features are quite good. We'll see. This is. This is.

[Sean Fennessy]

But he's in a Transformers movie that you also liked.

[Amy Poehler]

Bumblebee is solid.

[Sean Fennessy]

I thought he didn't he do.

[Amy Poehler]

He didn't do the most recent anime.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, he didn't? No, no, no, not Animated. I thought he did the one with Anthony Ramos.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes, Bumblebee.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes. No, Bumblebee was the one with Hailee Steinfeld.

[Amy Poehler]

No, he didn't do.

[Sean Fennessy]

No, that was the one last summer. That was actually pretty good.

[Amy Poehler]

I did like that one too. But that one is not him. That's the guy who directed Creed 2, whose name is Stephen Cable. Thank you. He. He's very good at directing things like Transformers, which sounds like a stupid thing to say. And this movie, I think is for a very particular type of fan. But the thing that I thought looked cool about it was Practical sets, practical costumes. They're like carving stuff. It wasn't a CGI green screen mess. Interesting experiment.

[Matt Bellany]

Set visit for you just to go carve. What would you like to see them carve?

[Amy Poehler]

Well, they're clearly carving Skeletor's face, which I'm just delighted about.

[Matt Bellany]

All right.

[Sean Fennessy]

I don't get it. Honestly, I don't get him. He looks like an 80s villain.

[Amy Poehler]

I'm a little dude. Dubious of him. Yeah, I. I agree. Nicholas Cowsen. We will.

[Matt Bellany]

I've. I've never bought it. I mean, they showed a lot of footage of him working out, so she's trying.

[Sean Fennessy]

Had him literally pumping iron.

[Matt Bellany]

And he has definitely, you know, like, expanded to fill the contours of like the he man costume. But, like, I hope he's healthy, you know.

[Amy Poehler]

Craig, what are your thoughts on that bulking?

[Sean Fennessy]

It's a little swollen. He needs some time to cut, in my opinion. Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Okay. In addition to that, we had a very brief presentation by Neon where they just showed two trailers to.

[Sean Fennessy]

I actually didn't go to that one.

[Amy Poehler]

It was at the beginning of the Lionsgate presentation. So there.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, I showed up. I thought I saw all of Lionsgate, but I didn't. I didn't see that.

[Amy Poehler]

Their president of distribution came out at the very beginning Tuesday morning and showed the trailer for Life of Chuck, which is the new Mike Flanagan movie that won the audience award at TIFF last fall. And then also Together, which was probably the breakout at Sundance this year. Dave Franco and Alison Brie, who are a real life couple in a horror movie. I thought that trailer was really good.

[Sean Fennessy]

Love Dave Franco.

[Amy Poehler]

He's very funny. He made another appearance at Cinemacon that was very funny. And then the last studio that we should talk about is Disney. They had a lot of big movies. Some of them we'll talk about in our most anticipated. The one that got the loudest cheers was Fantastic four First Steps, which is their big July Marvel tentpole. Things in Marvel land are obviously very bad right now. Brave New World did very poorly. They've got thunderbolts before Fantastic Four, which I thought looked pretty fun.

[Sean Fennessy]

Sure.

[Amy Poehler]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

I mean, I'm not a Marvel person, so I look at these things and it's a little bit of speaking a foreign language to me, but it looked like a Suicide Squad ripoff. It is very Suicide squatty and very Guardians. Kind of bumbling. Bumbling superheroes.

[Amy Poehler]

Not as much your flavor.

[Matt Bellany]

Not my flavor. I did see that they pretended to lead Wyatt Russell in from the casino floor.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes. He was fake drunk and had lost thousands of dollars at the tables. Even though he seems like an incredibly even killed and nice guy. First steps made noise because we saw a Silver Surfer, Julia Garner's Silver Surfer in the movie. And those 25 year old men you're describing were very, very, very excited. Yes, very excited.

[Matt Bellany]

I was at home at this point because of childcare, but our group chat with the Ringerverse crew really, like, I saw a lot of mentions of Silver Surfer. Just, just.

[Sean Fennessy]

And that footage has not been made public yet.

[Amy Poehler]

It has not.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

And Silver Surfer, who is the herald for Galactus, the world eating giant that is in the movie. Oh, wow.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay.

[Matt Bellany]

Is it world or universes?

[Amy Poehler]

Planets. Oh, Galactus eats planets. So he will be the big threat. The movie has a very retro, futuristic style. I have been dubious of this from the first image that I saw. I'm still pretty dubious of it.

[Sean Fennessy]

I got an Incredibles vibe from it.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, I think that's right. The Incredibles, I think, is very closely modeled on the original Fantastic Four. So I think that makes sense. I think this movie is going to be a big hit. So I'm not trying to like, undermine that aspect.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, Disney clearly cares about it the most.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes, yes.

[Sean Fennessy]

Feige introduced it. You know, they. They have been putting, I think their most important marketing stuff behind Looks more interesting than Thunderbolts.

[Amy Poehler]

To me, it's definitely more high stakes. I just. I have my doubts on the look and the storytelling style that they're going for, but that may just be personal taste.

[Sean Fennessy]

And in terms of actors like Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby are, I think, a step above the Thunderbolts crew. No disrespect to Florence Pugh, but like, at least Pedro Pascal people think is a star.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes. This will be an interesting test of that theory. You know, this is not a Mandalorian helmet or a Last of Us situation. This is a real, like, he's as Mr.

[Matt Bellany]

Fantastic and he has materialists this summer too. So he does really. He's gonna be a human being with his face on camera in two movies.

[Sean Fennessy]

And how much do we think the mustache will help or hurt that effort?

[Matt Bellany]

Is he a human? As a Fantastic Four, he is a human.

[Amy Poehler]

He's been affected by materials in space that have transformed him into a man who can stretch his arms and legs and body and other. And maybe other animals.

[Sean Fennessy]

And mustache.

[Matt Bellany]

And mustache, but. So he's like a mutant?

[Amy Poehler]

He's not a mutant. Okay, we'll discuss that later.

[Matt Bellany]

Are you a comic book person? Well, I don't know. You seem to know that he was a human.

[Sean Fennessy]

I mean, I know the basics of, like, the Marvel business, and I know. I know just enough about all the.

[Amy Poehler]

Movies to have a child that's older than your children.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. I'm not anti. Like, I see the ones that are popular. I like the. You know, the big, like, Joker I thought was great. And I see some of the Marvel standalones. Guardians I thought was really fun, but, like, I don't know the lore.

[Matt Bellany]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

Like, that just went right over my head.

[Amy Poehler]

This movie, in theory, you don't have to know the lore for. Because they're introducing all these characters for the first time. That's another reason why it's fairly important. Other quick Disney stuff that we saw, you know, obviously a lot of kids fare that we won't spend too much time on, but Zootopia 2 is a pretty big movie. I'm curious if it will have a similar Moana effect, because that's a movie that was pretty popular when it was released, but has had an incredible lifespan on Disney. And a lot of kids have seen it in the. It's got to be. Is it seven or eight years since Zootopia?

[Sean Fennessy]

I believe that was 2015.

[Amy Poehler]

Wow. 10 years.

[Matt Bellany]

2016.

[Amy Poehler]

2016. So nine years since the original film. It's been over two decades since Lilo and Stitch came out.

[Sean Fennessy]

That's the one I don't understand. Craig is like, this is gonna be huge. Everyone loves this.

[Matt Bellany]

I think so as well.

[Sean Fennessy]

It is not for my generation. I think it looks stupid. I think that Stitch looks inane. Why do people love this?

[Amy Poehler]

I'm in a private, basically, movie fantasy league, and most of the people. And this league includes producers, writers, directors, podcasters, the whole. The whole nine people who, like, spend all their time thinking about this stuff. Most of us took Lilo and Stitch because we think this is gonna be a big hit.

[Sean Fennessy]

In our draft on the Town, Lucas took it, and I was not interested in taking it at all. I think he's probably gonna win on that one.

[Amy Poehler]

It's just. It's this similar thing to Inside out to me, where young millennials and Gen Z grew up with this movie.

[Sean Fennessy]

I did not. I didn't.

[Matt Bellany]

Even older millennials. I think I saw it in theaters.

[Sean Fennessy]

Did you?

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, interesting.

[Matt Bellany]

I was like, on the. And I also just want to say David Copperfield's animatronic alien. Not unlike the real life. Lilo.

[Amy Poehler]

No, good point.

[Matt Bellany]

Or is it Stitch?

[Amy Poehler]

Stitch.

[Sean Fennessy]

No, it's Stitch.

[Matt Bellany]

Stitch.

[Amy Poehler]

Freakier Friday. Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lancashire.

[Sean Fennessy]

Another franchise that has passed me by. That is not relevant to me at all.

[Matt Bellany]

This was the, the one thing I saw. I was like, oh, I wish I'd stayed to see. To see them in person.

[Amy Poehler]

I think this movie's going to work in theaters. I think people are going to see it. I do. I think that there's a real untapped female market for this movie that's going to do very well.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, you're probably right. Disney certainly thinks so. People I've talked to there say this is going to work. I don't know. Is the Lohan Renaissance real? It's one thing to watch a Christmas movie on Netflix. It's another to go to theaters.

[Amy Poehler]

Weirdly, Jamie Lee Curtis has gotten more famous since the original Freaky Friday. Yeah, sure, she won an Oscar. She's kind of the. The grand dame of Hollywood right now. It's very weird.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis in Freakier Friday.

[Matt Bellany]

I do also think this is like, for my generation, but then also people younger than me. It almost has, like, this is a.

[Amy Poehler]

Huge movie for my wife. Yes.

[Sean Fennessy]

And you get the sense that Jamie Lee Curtis is doing this as a favor to Lindsay Lohan.

[Amy Poehler]

I mean, she's been steadily making that Netflix comeback for the last few years. Those movies have done very well for Netflix. The Irish Wishes of the World. I know you love that one.

[Matt Bellany]

It's that. That's garbage Christmas, I think.

[Sean Fennessy]

But what did you.

[Matt Bellany]

Or did we make it garbage women.

[Amy Poehler]

Garbage St Patrick's Day.

[Sean Fennessy]

What did you think of the actual footage they showed?

[Amy Poehler]

I thought it looked bad.

[Sean Fennessy]

I thought it was painful.

[Amy Poehler]

I thought it looked really bad. Okay. I think the movie.

[Sean Fennessy]

The worst kind of body switching humor and just bad.

[Amy Poehler]

Very awkward. Not very. The. The original film is like, pretty slick, actually. It's pretty well made. This one did not look good. I think movies like that, the switch from film to digital has really hurt them. They just look cheaper. They look like more disposable. You don't. That's not always true. Like, when you're watching a David Fincher movie on digital, you're like, as a real artist who knows how to use this. When you just shift a cheapish comedy into that format, you can tell and you can feel it and it feels less than. But we'll see.

[Sean Fennessy]

You can blurb that. Sean. Fantasy Freakier Friday is not David fincher.

[Amy Poehler]

You're welcome. Disney A24 and Apple did not present. We did see one Apple movie, which is being distributed by Warner Brothers. We'll get to that momentarily. Any other notes Quickly.

[Sean Fennessy]

And Eddie Q. Is there. We don't have to talk about it on this podcast.

[Amy Poehler]

Eddie Q is there you can give us more insight into that on the town anticipated. Matt, you've got your number four as my number five. Let's just talk about it now.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, we're going to our list?

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, let's go to our list. We each chose five. I want to talk about this one first because it's in close succession with Disney. It's Avatar, Fire and Ash. This is the third Avatar film, the first since the Way of Water, which made over a billion dollars and once again, $2 billion was nominated for Best Picture. James Cameron was doubted. He again proved the universe wrong, that he is, in fact, in total control. Even I, a certified James Cameron religious believer, was like, third one. It's only been a few years since the last one. I honestly thought the footage was amazing.

[Matt Bellany]

Did you have to. Did they give you 3D glasses?

[Amy Poehler]

Yes, we had 3D glasses for two different presentations.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's the same style. You see everything. It's like spatial. Like when they're flying around, you're seeing people falling off the creatures. Like, it's all there.

[Amy Poehler]

It was. They introduced two new Na'vi characters, the Ash people and the wind traders. Oh, this is clearly like a. An intersectional war. It's just the actual filmmaking that he is doing. There's just not anything else that looks even close to this.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's kind of amazing. Like, 15 years into the 3D revolution where you could actually have stuff in 3D for narrative features. No one else is doing it like this.

[Amy Poehler]

He's the only person who makes it look like.

[Matt Bellany]

How?

[Sean Fennessy]

How is that possible?

[Amy Poehler]

I don't know. It's very strange. Obviously, these movies cost an incredible amount of money and they've developed these extraordinary technologies and some people just don't like the Avatar story. Like, there's.

[Sean Fennessy]

No.

[Amy Poehler]

I'm not.

[Sean Fennessy]

That was my one criticism of the footage. Like, I don't know how many new people they're bringing into the tent.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessy]

With this movie.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

And I was a little confused by the new character. It almost looked like Zoe Saldana wearing a costume or something. Yeah, her character. But it looked great. And there is a new visual palette to them. The last one was very much underwater and had all those creatures. This one does have fire and there's like a more earthen to.

[Amy Poehler]

It's red and browns and. Yeah. It honestly looked amazing.

[Matt Bellany]

They're always really good. We go. We're just like, wow, can't believe you did that. Happily spent three and a half hours yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

You're not worried? This one's supposed to be longer than the last one.

[Matt Bellany]

We were very worried about too. And I made literally $2 billion. And then, you know, it makes the money. Then we never talk about them till the next one.

[Amy Poehler]

It's interesting for this one to come three years later. That's pretty fast. In the James Cameron timeline over the last 25 years, it was supposed to be two.

[Sean Fennessy]

I think they delayed it a year.

[Amy Poehler]

Right, right. And honestly, whether or not four and five happened, which is planned and suggested, but if this, let's say this movie makes $1.2 billion, which would still be an incredible success, but would not come close to the first two movies, is there a fourth movie? I don't know.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, I think there is, but the question is whether Cameron directs it.

[Amy Poehler]

Directs it? Yeah. We'll see. He's getting up there. Okay, Amanda, what's your number five?

[Matt Bellany]

My number five is really very comparable to Avatar Fire and ash. It's Megan 2.0. This worked for me. This was part. This is a Universal movie. And so it was part of the Universal presentation, which involved a live orchestra. And so I think I was probably the only person in the room who was fully on board with all the aspects of this. But they did have like 30 megans come out on stage and dance to Oops, I Did It Again, the Britney Spears song that is a part of the trailer while the orchestra played Oops I Did It Again. And I said yes. I said, I am a 40 year old woman here watching these people gyrate kind of creepily, kind of funnily to one of the most important songs of my generation. Then Craig and I met two of the Megans at the party and I.

[Sean Fennessy]

Forced you to take a picture.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, we did.

[Matt Bellany]

And it's a good photo. I put it on Instagram.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, you did? Oh, I have to like that.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah, yeah, they were. Those two Megans were committed to the bit. I don't know. I thought the first one was funny. I chuckled at the trailer. Allison Williams is like, in on the joke. And I think that works.

[Sean Fennessy]

But. But it is a tried and tested formula for a sequel. You know that robot make the villain the hero.

[Amy Poehler]

It's T2. It's Terminator 2. I said this on a podcast three months ago when I was mocked, and I will not be mocked now. It's. They're doing T2.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, it's just. Is that new villain as interesting as the T1000?

[Amy Poehler]

We. Well, that's a high bar. Speaking of James Cameron probably not that high, but this is a June movie. I thought it looked fun, too. Yeah. Okay, so I already gave your four. What? Your number five. You want to. You want to lay out again for Ballerina? You know, I thought it looked cool. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

I mean, so sue me. I think Ana de Arma's kicking ass for two hours is worth. Worth paying for. The problem I have is that I have not seen the others, so I should probably spend the next two months doing that.

[Amy Poehler]

Were you going to see Ballerina?

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Just for the pot. Or were you going to see it with your heart?

[Matt Bellany]

I'll see it with half my heart.

[Amy Poehler]

You know who's going to see it? Craig.

[Matt Bellany]

Oh, I was going to say I was like your daughter because it's called Ballerina. I was like, I have some notes I got on.

[Sean Fennessy]

The Armist is Craig's favorite. But. But I think your knowledge of some of the production troubles is tainting your view.

[Amy Poehler]

I think you're right. I think you're right.

[Sean Fennessy]

I know. I try to put that aside because, I mean, we both know that many great movies have had troubled past screen.

[Amy Poehler]

Honestly, what they did. And at least the rumor that Chad Stahelski, who has directed all of the John Wick movies, came in to do some fight choreography and amp up the action sequences, that's only good. I mean, he's just amazing at that. I would say in the extended universe of IP franchises that have come along in the last 25 years, John Wick is in a fairly holy place. It's really, really good. If this movie isn't good, it taints that a little bit. But if it is, I'll celebrate it.

[Matt Bellany]

I like her as an action star also. She was the best part of no Time to Die. We were.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, really?

[Matt Bellany]

Oh, don't. You don't think so?

[Sean Fennessy]

I thought she was fine, but that whole segment where he goes to Mexico was a little bizarre. Like, they could have cut that out of the movie and not.

[Amy Poehler]

I think it would have been a way less fun movie without that part. It would have been very serious. And it felt like they were like, oh, shit, we need something fun to happen here.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah, I don't know. I was like, why isn't the movie more like that? Why don't we cut Ravi Malek out of this? You know? But that's. That's my opinion.

[Amy Poehler]

Okay. My number four is the Running Man. This was one of the big presentations at Paramount and seemingly is an important movie for them. It's coming out in November. It's directed by Edgar Wright starring Glenn Powell. It is an adaptation of Stephen King story, which was once an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, famously.

[Sean Fennessy]

You've never seen the original?

[Amy Poehler]

I've seen it. I like it fine.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

It is not in my upper echelon of Arnold, nor do I think he's well cast in it.

[Sean Fennessy]

That is Richard Dawson blasphemy.

[Amy Poehler]

It's in his hall of fame. It's on his Mount Rushmore. Dawson is hilarious and great in that movie. Taking over for Richard Dawson as the host of the game show is Colman Domingo, who is also there, who is.

[Sean Fennessy]

I think, a good pick.

[Matt Bellany]

I mean, he was great.

[Amy Poehler]

He was great on stage. He looks great in the trailer. I thought this trailer was excellent. Edgar Wright, obviously born to do crazy action sequences that have a kind of winking sensibility. You know, this is a big one for Glenn Powell, too.

[Sean Fennessy]

Do you think this is a serious action movie or do you think it is a winking action movie? Because I couldn't quite tell from the trailer.

[Amy Poehler]

I think ultimately the former, but with a lot of the latter mixed in, I think because the stakes are really high and there's a lot of really grisly death in the movie.

[Sean Fennessy]

Right. I didn't surprise how gory it was.

[Amy Poehler]

It looks like it's gonna be very gory. Maybe a little too gory for you.

[Matt Bellany]

It's just his winking gun thing is a little. I like. I let it slide in John Wick because there's so much other. But it's. I'm bummed out by it.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, it's. It's gonna be very, very violent.

[Sean Fennessy]

But Craig was super into this. Like, this is. And he doesn't even know the original.

[Amy Poehler]

I'm in the. I'm in the tank for Edgar. I really like his movies, but I thought it looked even by his standards, like really kinetic and fast moving and exciting. So I'm.

[Matt Bellany]

I believe in Glenn.

[Sean Fennessy]

I do know the original, Matt. That's why I was excited. You do?

[Matt Bellany]

I don't.

[Sean Fennessy]

I won't let you slander me on the show. Oh, I didn't know you knew the original.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, we did the rewatchables on it.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, okay. Yeah, I. I apologize.

[Amy Poehler]

I mean, it looks way different and more exciting than the original. Right, Craig? It does. Yes. Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

And he's. And Greg is. Is officially a Glen Powell fan.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes. Yes. And he's, you know, he is slowly maturing into what we always thought could happen.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Matt Bellany]

Hold it. I believe in my stock.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, I believe in that. We never sell. We never sell. Glenn, number four.

[Matt Bellany]

Amanda, after the hunt. Luca Guadagnino back after you all disrespected him. That's fine. He was in the room. Iowa debris was in the room. Andrew Garfield was in the room wearing a new piece of jewelry. But I could see it from. It was not the pendant, but it was a gold chain that I could see from.

[Amy Poehler]

You think he hit the David Yurman store at the foreign shops?

[Matt Bellany]

I hope so. Yeah. I hope he has a sponsorship. Come on. He's doing good work.

[Amy Poehler]

Good point.

[Matt Bellany]

Julia Roberts, the star of the movie, was not in attendance. She was not, but she was in the trailer. And she does her signature Julia laugh while wearing clothes that were alarmingly similar to what I was wearing at the time of the presentation, which is just like, the pants were not the same, but, like, way too close for comfort. Obviously, she looks much better in them than I do. Listen, I'm in on this.

[Sean Fennessy]

Really?

[Matt Bellany]

One of my favorite. Listen, I love him, okay? But he's one of my favorites.

[Sean Fennessy]

The actual movie, doesn't it look like a poor man's tongue car? Like, sure, but, like, that sounds like.

[Amy Poehler]

One of the best movies of 2025.

[Sean Fennessy]

I know, okay. But the politics of it seem weird. It's like, it's a little tired. Oh, political correctness gone amok. And who's really, you know, the victim here? And I just. It. You got to really nail that to pull that off.

[Amy Poehler]

So it was a blacklist script that was written at a time when campus culture cancel culture. That those things had a different energy than they have, say, right now. I'll just say from, like, a filmmaking perspective. I think it's the only movie that we saw, aside from the PTA movie, that was shot on film. And you could tell watching it, it just looked different on that big screen. Obviously, Luca is incredibly talented filmmaker. Politically, whether it hits or not is kind of important to the movie's success.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's the whole movie.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah, well, I mean, it's 90% of the movie. The other half is. Is Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield, so. And I owed every. So I'm. I'm open to it. I, I. It's fine. I'm. I'm excited.

[Sean Fennessy]

Open mind. But I was a little. I was a little bit of an eye roller at some of the. It's also has a little bit of vibe of disclosure. Remember that movie, the Demi Moore where it's like, sure, we're going to do the sexual harassment movie, but we're going to make it about the woman as the harasser? If you get a little bit of that here?

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, we'll have to wait and find out. That is an Amazon MGM movie, right?

[Matt Bellany]

Yes.

[Amy Poehler]

And that's coming out in October. I'm cheating on my number three. I've chosen two films. One of those films is an honorable mention from Matt. I'm very, very, very cautiously getting interested in delivering me from nowhere now. I hate biopics. I hate music biopics.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, really?

[Amy Poehler]

Why? Because I think they just boil everything down to the barest essentials and have no nuance about what an artist's life is like. And I don't like them. I do like hearing great songs loud in a movie theater. Everybody else does too. This is very soon after a complete unknown for this movie to come along. Bruce Springsteen obviously walked the path that Bob Dylan carved in the American post folk movement. This movie stars Jeremy Allen White. It's directed by Scott Cooper, whose movies I don't always love, to be honest with you. It's about a very specific time in Bruce Springsteen's career when he was getting ready to write and record the album Nebraska. Jeremy Strong also stars as John Landau, his manager slash guru. I would like for this movie to be great. I was like, literally in real time, like, from one second to another was like, oh, no. Oh, yes. Oh, no. Oh, yes.

[Sean Fennessy]

The performance, watching the trailer, it looked.

[Amy Poehler]

Like he looked right.

[Sean Fennessy]

That was my big problem with the theaters.

[Amy Poehler]

On stage, when they're showing him with E Street, I thought he looked right.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes, but. But off stage, they don't even make any effort.

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Physically. Look, and. And I know that shouldn't matter and it's not a caricature, but it kind of did matter to me. I was like, oh, that's the guy from the Bear.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Like, it's. It's so weird. Like, you wouldn't. You would almost not even know it was a Springsteen thing until the music kicks in. And, like, I don't know. That. That part of it was weird to me.

[Amy Poehler]

I know. I. I'm one that actually makes me more interested in the movie, that it's not just like, you know, glory days for three hours. That's actually not what I want to see, but that is probably what most people would want to see anyway. I'm pairing that with Roofman, which is just. I have a movie that I have no expectations for, box office wise.

[Sean Fennessy]

That was the Channing Tatum.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes. Channing Tatum stars as a man who robs McDonald's and is a family man who gets sent to prison, but he's.

[Sean Fennessy]

Got A heart of gold.

[Amy Poehler]

He's got a heart of gold. Very straight down the middle. If this movie was not directed by Derek Stean France, I probably wouldn't be excited about it. But I love Place beyond the Pines. This is a very specific kind of thing that he knows how to do about sad guys trying to get reconnected with their families. This is his whole thing.

[Matt Bellany]

It looked good. It looked fun. Channing Tatum was there.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessy]

I think that is the best version of Channing Tatum is the sort of hunky loser type, kind of a lunk.

[Amy Poehler]

Agree.

[Sean Fennessy]

And that's what he's doing.

[Matt Bellany]

Second back.

[Amy Poehler]

Magic.

[Matt Bellany]

I mean, he is a hunky loser in that too.

[Amy Poehler]

Magic.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

That's what he does. Well, he's like, presents as a stupid guy, but then by the end, you're like, that guy's pretty smart. That's like his whole mo. But anyway, I thought that looked very charming. Amanda, what is your number three?

[Matt Bellany]

The Venetian scheme. Oh, you know what? Like I said, we went mad.

[Amy Poehler]

Really nagging. Your list.

[Sean Fennessy]

Excuse me.

[Matt Bellany]

This is our podcast.

[Sean Fennessy]

I know. I'm a guest. I'm wearing out my welcome. There's a reason why I haven't been since 2017.

[Matt Bellany]

I put on my town hat when I did my town prep, and I'm ready. Okay. This is a pro Wes Anderson podcast.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

All right.

[Sean Fennessy]

I will defer to you.

[Matt Bellany]

He means a lot to me. I chuckled during the trailer, which I really don't even think.

[Sean Fennessy]

Were you chuckling at the dialogue or were you noticing something in the background that was perfectly ajar and was. Probably cost $10,000 from some specialty shop in Manhattan?

[Matt Bellany]

17 years old when I saw the Royal Tenenbaus. Okay. Like, you'll never get me away from it. It's. It's important to me. I like spy movies. I like parodies of spy movies. It's great. I'm excited.

[Amy Poehler]

I thought it looked good too. Yeah, I'm. Obviously.

[Matt Bellany]

I know it's. You know, I know what I'm doing when I put the Phoenician scheme on this list.

[Amy Poehler]

Matt, I'm gonna have to ask you to hold your three and your two, because they're gonna come up on our list very shortly.

[Matt Bellany]

3, 2, and 1. Listen, we're all aligned where it matters. I was just having a little fun in the.

[Amy Poehler]

I'll do my number two, and then we can collaborate on the final three.

[Matt Bellany]

Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

My number two is weapons. I wouldn't say that this was the movie that had the most hay made about it. It's an interesting one. It was supposed to come out in January, and when the bride moved and one battle after another moved on the Warner Brothers schedule, this is the movie that got moved into that August window.

[Sean Fennessy]

They like it. They think it's good.

[Amy Poehler]

So it's Zach Kreger. It's his first movie since Barbarian. I love Barbarian. I love Zack. The footage that they showed, I thought was, like, electric. I thought this was a really, really good horror movie. Tr. With a great premise, which I'm not going to spoil anything. I'll just say that in a small town, in a classroom, one night or a class, one day, an entire class disappears. All the kids leave their house in the middle of the night and they're gone. Julia Garner is the teacher of this class. Josh Brolin is a parent in the community. It's a really good cast. Deeply unnerving.

[Matt Bellany]

It was a great trailer and also so great that I said allowed to. I will never see that because it looks incredibly upsetting.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah. So Craig was there earlier that week presenting his future Resident Evil movie that he's doing for Sony. The fact that this movie got moved into a summer window, this is basically the Long Legs slot. This is kind of where Long Legs came out last year. That early August look could probably be a similar sort of situation. I'm very excited about this movie.

[Sean Fennessy]

Great. I'm not a horror person. I know, you know, Zach Krager got $20 million for Resident Evil. So he. They. They have seen this, and they think this is going to be a hit. So I. I'm going to agree with you. Yeah. With the caveat that it's just not for me.

[Amy Poehler]

Okay. I would say there are three movies that are the intersections of our anticipation and excitement and that I think represent ultimately, like, maybe what Hollywood, if they tried a little harder, could be more regularly. Three different versions of a certain kind of a movie.

[Matt Bellany]

Sean and I made our lists, and so we were divvying them up. So you're. There's one movie that's not on my list, but it would be if we weren't divvying them up. So we can save it.

[Amy Poehler]

Your 2 in 1 would be on my list if you weren't taking it.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah. Also, you and I have the same two in one. They're just so. Would you like to say anything to me? Would you like to apologize in front of everyone?

[Sean Fennessy]

I think that we both have our Venn diagram crosses in subtle ways. One of them being Tom Cruise, the other being Ryan Gosling.

[Amy Poehler]

Let's talk about Ryan Gosling first. The big surprise I felt of the entire week was that Amazon MGM opened their presentation with basically like a six minute reel cold open.

[Sean Fennessy]

Too cold open. No announcements, nothing.

[Amy Poehler]

Which no other studio did this whole week. Week of Project Hail Mary, which is a Andy Weir novel. He's the same novelist who wrote the Martian. Somewhat similar story about a man alone in space trying to solve Regular guy. Yeah, yeah, Ryan Gosling. I'll try not to spoil too much about it. People who have read this book swear by this book. They love this book. The movie is directed by Lord Miller. Gosling is the star along with Sandra Hooler. You may remember from Anatomy of a Fall. And what I said on x.com is it looks like a movie movie. This felt like a movie from like 2002, from 1987. It was like, it's a big scale story but very simple. And in watching the trailer you were just like, I'm just so interested in what happens next, which is very rare these days. I feel like, especially us, we're so cynical about every movie that comes along. And they sold the shit out of this movie.

[Matt Bellany]

This was electric to me, I will say so. Amazon presented on Wednesday night and I had had two cocktails in rapid succession right before the 8pm presentation.

[Sean Fennessy]

They knew what they were doing. It was the nighttime thing.

[Amy Poehler]

This is the latest presentation ever, I think at Cinemacon. I was telling.

[Matt Bellany]

And I think. And I had titrated just right. And then I sat down and they played this trailer that. I mean the whole room was like, oh, you know, so excited. And then Gosling walked out and that is when I like fully gasped. So they have me. This movie is not coming out until March 2026.

[Amy Poehler]

It's going to be one year.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. And they moved it. Right.

[Amy Poehler]

I don't remember what the original plan was.

[Sean Fennessy]

The most shocking thing to me about the this movie was when it said Lord and Miller. Because I mean, I've never seen. I would not think that they would even want to do a movie like this. Maybe this is their version of Solo that they didn't get to make.

[Amy Poehler]

I, I think there's something to that. I mean they did do the 21 Jump street movies, which are live action. Obviously they're best known, I think for the animated movies. Cloudy with Spider Verse.

[Sean Fennessy]

Those are comedies. This is not a comedy.

[Amy Poehler]

It clearly has comic elements though. Maybe even more so than what they showed us.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, because they're playing up how big it is.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes. And you know, they said that all like basically none of the VFX were finished. But they showed us one sequence in space that looked incredible and very sophisticated visually and, like, done. Like, I turned to you when we were watching it, I was like, is this movie done? Like, why do we have to wait a year to see this movie? Sounds like they have a lot more work to do. But it's very exciting. Obviously, Amazon is incredibly excited about it. It's the kind of movie that, like, movies need movies like that to do well.

[Sean Fennessy]

Absolutely. I am definitely rooting for this movie. I hope that Lord and Miller, like, get more movies like this. It would be great if comedy filmmakers turned into blockbuster filmmakers.

[Amy Poehler]

Agree. Let's talk next about Tom. Okay, so Mission Impossible, the Final Reckoning is your number one. It's Matt's number two. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

By the way, Project Hail Mary was my number one.

[Amy Poehler]

It was your number one. This is the eighth Mission Impossible film.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Could be the last one.

[Sean Fennessy]

Come on.

[Amy Poehler]

Christopher McQuarrie was presented by Tom Cruise with the Director of the year award at CinemaCon, which, as we know, is one of the most important awards in all of Hollywood.

[Sean Fennessy]

In all of Hollywood, perhaps the world.

[Amy Poehler]

He did give literally, like a 12 minute speech.

[Matt Bellany]

Reading.

[Sean Fennessy]

Very awkward speech.

[Matt Bellany]

Yes.

[Amy Poehler]

Reading off of cue cards.

[Sean Fennessy]

Someone clearly told Tom that he needs to come to Cinemacon because he needs to present to McQuarrie. And that resonated with him. Oh, I can do that.

[Amy Poehler]

I'll go.

[Sean Fennessy]

Because I'm going for him and he's my collaborator. But, like, nobody else got their award. Like, remember last year they gave Kevin Costner a fake award on stage and he was teary and thanked everyone.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes. Like, I think they did give Jim Brooks his award. You're right.

[Sean Fennessy]

And what was his, like, the Cinema Verite Awards.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessy]

Made up things.

[Amy Poehler]

Again, extremely important.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessy]

But, like, it was a long speech about Chris McQuarrie, who Nobody cares about. I wanted to hear Tom Cruise talk about Mission Impossible.

[Amy Poehler]

He glanced at moments from his career, but it was the same five or six. You know, you hear the Sherry Lance, you know, supported me since Taps. Like, he has a couple of things he returns to. But the truth is, is that, like, McQuarrie literally is the most important director in his life. In the last 20 years, they've made the most movies together. He's the first person he calls when one of his movies is going sideways. And he's now been directing him in what I think are these genuinely great Mission Impossible movies. If this is in fact the last one, I would say what they showed us was pretty close to what we've Seen before. There were a couple of new wrinkles, a couple of new sequences, but it's a. A loaded cast. A couple of more people who. Who were the two people who were added? One was. Oh, my God, what's Ron from Parks and Recreations.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, Nick Offerman.

[Amy Poehler]

Nick Offerman was featured. There was one other guy who was like, in a room wearing a general's uniform that I was like, oh, him too.

[Matt Bellany]

Milchick from.

[Amy Poehler]

From Severance is in it. Tramell Tillman was in it. But yeah, there was someone at Tramil Tillman from Severance, which was exciting. But there was one other person who was named on Is Escaping Me. But aside from that, it doesn't even matter. It's just like, it's gonna be a Mission Impossible movie.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, and they also interspersed clips, as they did in the previous trailer, from old Mission Impossible movies. Yes, they're trying to Endgame, I think.

[Amy Poehler]

Specifically the first one and showing us the arc because there's a lot of stuff of the knock list sequence breaking into the CIA and kind of cutting back and forth to that.

[Matt Bellany]

But, I mean, I get emotional every time I see him, say, I need you to trust me one last time.

[Sean Fennessy]

You know, like, it's a great line.

[Matt Bellany]

And it was the whole week, sort of. This was the Thursday morning presentation, which was the last day. And we all knew Tom Cruise was gonna come out, but they waited until the last 20 minutes. And I just like, you know, and I stayed an extra day to see Tom. It's all built to going to see Tom imperil himself for our benefit and entertainment. And I can't wait.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, I will say. And we maybe say this for the town, but, like, the presentation wasn't great. It was okay and, like, compared to past Cinemacon moments with Tom Cruise. I was there for Fallout where they showed the plane stunt and, like, just really blew everyone away. The. The, you know, motorcycle thing. This one doesn't seem to have that moment.

[Amy Poehler]

They didn't give us that. I wonder if they gave away the game too much by showing us the. The other. The new plane stunt early in the making of. Even before the trailer. And now we saw it in the trailer and then we see it again. So if the. The. The. The two red and yellow planes, the sort of Red Baron plane fight, if that is the big sequence, then we've already seen it. I would be surprised if there wasn't something else, though, that they're holding back.

[Sean Fennessy]

There was a. A quick flash of him jumping into the water from a, like, speeding boat.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes, that Was cool.

[Sean Fennessy]

That was very cool. Clearly, he would have died in real life.

[Amy Poehler]

But most of the time it might be the aircraft carrier that we saw. That might be the thing that.

[Matt Bellany]

Well, there's a whole water.

[Sean Fennessy]

There's a submarine. They added submarines into the first one. I mean, that's the fascinating thing about this movie, is how much have they pivoted since the last one didn't do that well, because these were supposed to be one long story. The end of the last one is Isai Morales. Like, he's still the villain.

[Amy Poehler]

Yep.

[Sean Fennessy]

The whole thing is about that Internet. What's it called?

[Amy Poehler]

The. I mean, the entity.

[Matt Bellany]

The entity.

[Sean Fennessy]

Is that still going to be it or.

[Matt Bellany]

And the cruciform key. Yeah. And he does. The cruciform key is shown in the trailer. He, like, grabs it and then he dies off to, I don't know, find it at the bottom of the ocean.

[Amy Poehler]

I think this is just a fascinating moment for Cruise, this movie in particular, because, you know, this next movie is with Inaritu next year. Is this, like, is there going to be a break in franchise filmmaking for him? Will he go to a different phase or not? It's possible. If this movie does really well, I think it will have this kind of dual effect of. I could say that I'll table this sort of thing for now and focus on other kinds of movies which people like you and I have been begging him to make for 10 years. Or if it works, does Paramount need him to make nine asap? We'll see.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. I don't believe this is the last Mission Impossible. I just don't. It's, like, fiscally irresponsible to not do. Like, you can't. You have to have it in. Maybe it won't happen right away.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah. But people will want it.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah. Okay. Number one. This is my number one. This is Matt's. Number three. Where would this be for you?

[Matt Bellany]

Definitely. Number two.

[Amy Poehler]

We saw an extended sequence from one battle after another. It feels like a moment shortly after the moment in the trailer where Leo is trying to make a connection with the revolutionaries over the phone and he's forgotten the password. What this told me, without ruining anything for anybody, is that this is. While it is a big, heavy movie with lots of set pieces and locations, that it's basically a weird, zany comedy. And the tone is very fast and funny and a little goofy.

[Sean Fennessy]

Absurdist.

[Amy Poehler]

Absurdist.

[Sean Fennessy]

Like the way. Almost the way that Boogie Nights was. Absurdist.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessy]

Where they're. They all believe they're in the most serious movie that they've ever been in, but we. We see through that.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes. I don't want to ruin it for anybody, but this. Basically. Not that I needed any confirmation on my excitement, but I was like, we're good. This is gonna be good. I know this is gonna be good.

[Matt Bellany]

Yes. You referenced Wolf of Wall street to me in terms of, like, the tone of the Leo performance of. That's big and a lot going on, but also it's funny.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

So this is a huge gamble. Obviously, there's been. You've been writing about what's been going on at Warner Brothers over the last few months and the bets that Pam and Mike are making. I will say they lifted the sinners embargo this morning, two weeks early, because they premiered it last night and everybody came out screaming. It's great. I did see it a few weeks ago. It is great. I don't. I'm very curious to see how that movie performs, but there's a world where maybe this movie does a little bit better than they thought. They also showed us some of the Bride, which I thought was going to be like a fiasco based on some of the reporting, and I thought it looked kind of cool.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah. We turned to each other and we were like, yeah, again, we're wearing our big picture hats right now. Matt, he's, you know.

[Sean Fennessy]

No, no, I. Listen, I thought, congratulations to Jesse Buckley, by the way. It did look different. The Bride certainly looks different. The thing that was interesting about one battle after another to me is that it feels bigger than the initial trailer. When I saw that first trailer, I was like, how did this movie cost $150 million? Like, what. What are they doing here?

[Amy Poehler]

Yep.

[Sean Fennessy]

It can't just be Leo. But then this. This footage they showed, there were helicopters, there were multiple battle sequences. There were things.

[Amy Poehler]

The Sean Penn military element is clearly a big part of that budget that you're talking about.

[Sean Fennessy]

And that, to me, at least both creatively, I was more interested in this. I thought it looked better to me. And I think from a studio perspective, like you. You get it a little bit more.

[Amy Poehler]

It might be easier for them to sell than we. Than we're thinking, because it's pta and it was funny.

[Sean Fennessy]

I mean, this is a Lebowski esque performance from Leo.

[Amy Poehler]

It looks like it does.

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

That sounds good.

[Matt Bellany]

And he was there. He was.

[Amy Poehler]

He was there. We'll talk about that on the town. Should we go to our episode of the Town? Amanda? You want to do that right now? Great. Matt, thank you so much for coming. On the show today.

[Sean Fennessy]

Thanks, guys. I look forward to being back in 2031.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, I don't know. We should definitely try to do Cinemacon again sometime soon. For the rest of our conversation about the presentations and what to expect from movies in the next 12 months, go listen to the town as soon as possible. Hopefully. We're double posting. Thanks to Jon Jones for filling in as producer today. Thanks to Matt and Craig Horlbeck. Next week on the show, we were going to do best movies of the year, but I think we're going to to pivot a little bit.

[Matt Bellany]

It's a little thin on the ground.

[Amy Poehler]

It's a little. It's a little thin on the ground. Well put. We are going to talk about a Minecraft movie, speaking of Warner Brothers. And we'll have like a little bit of a movie State of the Union because there's a lot of shifting tides at the moment that we need to sort through and we will recommend some of the best movies that we've seen. Right. I've been catching up on some stuff.

[Matt Bellany]

I added one to the list.

[Amy Poehler]

You did?

[Matt Bellany]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Okay. I'm glad you did one. All right, guys, thank you. See you soon.

[Sean Fennessy]

Sa.