'Fast and Furious 8

LAS VEGAS Thursday was showtime at CinemaCon, as 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures went all out for their presentations on the final day of the annual movie-theater-industry convention.

Between the A-list stars, the dancers, the hip-hop legends, and the extended peeks at some beautiful movies, attendees got some particularly big thrills before Hollywood was finally done courting them this week.

Here are a few highlights.

Stars and legends

Its a CinemaCon tradition for movie stars to make a very brief appearance paying homage to theater owners and introducing clips from their films before they quickly depart. And Thursday had plenty of that, whether it was Michael B. Jordan and the rest of the Fantastic Four, Chris Pratt with Jurassic World, or 50 Cent, Jude Law, Rose Byrne and Jason Statham talking to Melissa McCarthy on screen to introduce Spy. All were on stage for about two minutes, max, before heading out.

But the most unlikely and perhaps best received stars were Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, who spent well over five minutes on stage praising the authenticity of Straight Outta Compton, a dramatization of the early days of their pioneering hip-hop act N.W.A.

Premium Peanuts

The most extensive introduction was not for the years biggest-budget extravaganza, but rather an animated film about a little boy who just cant win. To promote Peanuts, Fox started its presentation with a DJ who remixed the comic strips classic TV theme, along with a group of high-energy dancers who performed in front of psychedelic visuals based on the Peanuts characters.

The film itself mixes modern computer-generated animation with Charles M. Schulzs classic style and plenty of bad luck for poor Charlie Brown.

Big sequels get dates

In modern Hollywood, studios declare they are making a movie not by finishing a script or hiring a director, but declaring a release date. Everything else comes later.

And while it seems like a no-brainer that there will be more Fast and Furious and 50 Shades of Grey movies given the success of the most recent installments of each, questions have swirled given problems behind the scenes on both. 50 Shades director Sam Taylor-Johnson left the series after clashing with the books writer E.L. James. And Furious 7 director James Wan isnt expected to return either after a challenging production, adding to the problems Universal already faces with Paul Walkers death.

But Ms. Langley confirmed Thursday that sequels Fifty Shades Darker will come out Feb. 10, 2017, and 50 Shades Freed will be released Feb. 9, 2018, as the studio looks to make both Valentines Day events like Fifty Shades of Grey.

In addition, star Vin Diesel appeared to talk about the success of Furious 7 and announce that an eighth movie in the auto action franchise will be released April 14, 2017.

Visual stunners

While much of the footage at CinemaCon consisted of extended versions of trailers that have already been released, Fox and Universal gave CinemaCon attendees first-ever looks at several visually stunning films.

At the top of the list is The Revenant, director Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritus follow-up to Oscar-winning best picture Birdman, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and scheduled for release in December. Set in the old West, the movie is being shot in the wilderness entirely with natural light. While theres no official trailer yet, early looks at Mr. DiCaprio on horseback in the snow and on mountains wowed the crowd.

Also impressive was Ridley Scotts The Martian, in which Matt Damon plays an astronaut accidentally left on Mars following an aborted mission. Left to fend for himself on a barren red landscape where he cant breathe, Mr. Damon tries to grow crops and find a way to contact Earth, where NASA thinks hes dead. The Martian, which comes out in November, also took the prize for best slogan of any movie at CinemaCon: Help is only 140 million miles away.

Finally, director Guillermo Del Toro showed up to give a first look at his October gothic horror romance Crimson Peak. Precisely designed props, settings, and, yes, scares were key, said Mr. Del Toro, and he and his team spent eight months making as many in physical form as they could, rather than using digital effects. That includes a four-story mansion especially made for the movie, which stars Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain.

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Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/04/24/fast-and-furious-8-gets-a-date-while-ice-cube-dr-dre-help-bring-cinemacon-to-a-close/