Warner Bros. Hits a Home Run At Showest – World Premiered Footage from HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, INCEPTION, DUE DATE, More

While most of the major studios didn’t do a full Showest presentation, Warner Bros. showed up and punched everyone else in the face with a cup of awesome.  Not only did they bring a ton of stars and filmmakers, they premiered footage from Christopher Nolan’s Inception, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Due Date, Clash of the Titans in 3D, Sex and the City 2, Life as We Know it, and Alan Horn also announced we’d be getting another Final Destination movie.

Quite simply…they knocked it out of the park and showed everyone else how it’s done.  This might explain why they’re the biggest studio in Hollywood and they’re making the best movies.

But while I could go on and on about 2009 and their huge hits like The Hangover, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, The Blind Side or Sherlock Holmes, let’s get to what happened today.  For that…hit the jump.

The presentation started with Alan Horn talking about 2009 and how it was their best year ever.  Eventually he started talking about 2010 and he led everyone through a selection of what’s coming.

CLASH OF THE TITANS

The first thing he did was introduce director Louis Leterrier  and Sam Worthington for Clash of the Titans.  They talked for a few minutes and then they premiered some of the movie in 3D for the first time.  Since I was sitting very close to the screen, I can’t be completely sure about what I’m about to say…but I wasn’t impressed with the 3D.

As most of you know, the 3D was done in the last 2 months and it shows.  I’m not a fan of 3D done in post and while some of it looked cool like the Kraken, the rest was a bit blurry and not easy to follow.  As it stands, I’m more interested in watching the film in a normal theater as the movie looks like a ton of fun…but the 3D didn’t do it for me.

3D

After the presentation Alan Horn talked about how much 3D is a game changer and how they’ll be releasing a ton of movies in 2011 in 3D.  He also told us that all future Warner Bros. tent pole releases will be released in 3D.  That means movies that cost a lot of money to make.  He also spoke about filming some of the movies in 3D and doing some in post.  It will be done in a case by case basis and all I could think about was please film more movies in 3D as it looks so much better.  I think he said they will have 5 3D movies this year and 9 next year.  It’s unclear how many will be filmed in 3D and how many will be converted in post.

SEX AND THE CITY 2

From there we got the world premiere of footage from Sex and the City 2.  It started off with Michael Patrick King (director/writer/producer) coming on stage and making some funny jokes and then he introduced Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon.  Since I have never seen Sex and the City and didn’t see the first film, all I can tell you is they travel to the middle east in the sequel and it’s what happens after you have everything.  At least that’s what Michael Patrick King said.  Oh, and some former love interest of Sarah Jessica Parker comes back into her life and she has to decide what she really wants.

Since the movie is review proof as millions of women cannot wait to see the film, I’ll just say it looked exactly like you’d expect Sex and the City to look.  Sorry I don’t know more about the film.

INCEPTION

After all the estrogen left the stage, we got a first look at Inception with an awesome intro by writer/director Christopher Nolan.  He talked about how his movies are meant to be seen in movie theaters and how he was happy to be premiering some of the movie to the theater owners in attendance. He talked about how they went to six different countries to film the movie and that’s why you should see it in a theater.

While the trailer has kept the story under wraps, the footage today pulled part of the curtain back. I now know what the movie is about.  If you want to stay spoiler free…move along.

From what I could tell, Leonardo DiCaprio plays someone who can go into your dreams and extract info.  He can also protect you from people who do the same thing.  He works with a team of people and the footage looked amazing.  In the trailer DiCaprio says:

“In your dream state, your consciousness defenses lower. It makes your thoughts vulnerable to theft, called extraction. So you can actually train your subconscious to defend itself from the most skilled extractor.” Ken Watanabe then asks DiCaprio how he knows about this.  He replies, “because I am the best extractor.”  Cut to shots from all around the world and the rest of the cast like Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard and Cillian Murphy.

That’s why in the trailer you see some crazy stuff as it all takes place in the mind.  Of course some of the film takes place in the real world, but from what I could tell, there might be moments where you don’t know what world you’re in.  Also, there was a scene where someone told someone to dream bigger about a gun as he pulled out a massive weapon.  Cannot wait for this one.

Also, I spoke to Nolan today, expect the interview soon.  Again, the movie looks like nothing you have ever seen…which is why we all go to the movies in the first place.

Legend of the Guardians

Zack Snyder was the next on the stage and he talked about why he wanted to make Legend of the Guardians (his kids) and he showed off the trailer in 3D.  This is why you film a movie in 3D as it looked awesome.  Also, this was my first time watching the trailer on a big screen and it’s like Lord of the Rings with Owls.  While Zack isn’t the most eloquent, he more than makes up with it with awesome movies that just kick ass. Yeah, I’m a fanboy.  Deal with it.

DUE DATE

The next presentation was director Todd Phillips with Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis.  Todd came out and told a great story about how he always procrastinates and he kept putting off writing a speech so he just talked about what WB had shown so far and how awesome it looked.  Was very funny.  Then Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis did a comedy bit together which had everyone laughing.

But that was nothing, as the trailer for Due Date brought the thunder.  The place was laughing as hard as last year for The Hangover.  This is two years in a row Todd Phillips made the place erupt.

While the trailer went by very fast, it was loaded with stars like Danny McBride (who is in a wheelchair and he kicked Downey Jr.’s ass) and Jamie Foxx.  The premise of the movie is Downey Jr. and Galifianakis are forced to travel across the country together in order to make it to his child’s birth on time.  Downey Jr. is the one who is going to be a father.

I really cannot do justice to the trailer as it was loaded with Galifianakis doing crazy shit again and again and making everyone in the audience laughing out loud.  After The Hangover and Due Date, Galifianakis is going to be able to do whatever the hell he wants.  Someone smart would sign him to a big contract right now.

Also, in the trailer, we learn Galifianakis has a dog with him that constantly likes to masturbate and Galifianakis masturbates all the time as well.  Seriously, this film is going to be huge.

LIFE AS WE KNOW IT

The next part of the presentation had director Greg Berlanti come out and introduce Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel and world premiere some footage from Life as We Know it. While I didn’t know anything of the movie beforehand, I’ll say I was surprised how good it looked.  The premise is Heigl and Duhamel play two people that went out on one date due to their best friends and it was an awful, awful date that didn’t work for either of them.  But they still run into each other as their best friends have a one year old kid they both love.  Cut to the friends suddenly die in an accident and they find out they were in the will as the guardians of the kid (Sofie).  All of a sudden they are parents and they’re forced to live together and try and make the situation work.

While the premise sounds a bit sketchy, the trailer had plenty of funny and touching moments.  Trust me, I am surprised as all of you to tell you it looked good and it’s going to be a big Christmas movie.  Mark my words.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS

For the final part of the presentation, Alan Horn gave everyone a special treat as he premiered a ton of footage from the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  He started off by telling everyone that the footage was very raw and unfinished and he wasn’t exaggerating.  The footage started with Voldemort walking in the forest with all of his followers around him.  He was looking for Harry.  While I assumed the footage was going to be just from the first Harry Potter movie coming this November, I think the opening was from part 2 and it was from the big climatic battle between Harry and Voldemort! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

So we see Harry coming towards Voldemort partly beat up and with a look of nervousness.  It was then we cut away…

The thing to know is the footage was very rough.  All over Ralph Fiennes face were blue dots so they could take away his nose in post production.  It was incredibly cool to see.

I’d say in total the footage was 4-7 minutes but I could be off.  Other bits of footage were Harry, Ron and Hermione in the forest fighting as Ron tells Harry that since he already lost his family his pain isn’t as important (or something like that).  We also saw tons of pre-viz mixed in with shot footage like Harry flying with Hagrid and Voldemort chasing him with other Death Eaters.  I also saw a scene of all the Harry’s from the beginning of the book.  Other bits were the kids in London walking around, Bill Nighy  as Rufus Scrimgeour, Harry and Ginny kissing, Snape at a very large table with Voldemort and his followers telling him that Harry will be brought to a safehouse where it would be hard to get him (the beginning of movie 1), and so much more.  Some of the footage looked like it was done and some was very rough.  The only thing I knew for certain after watching the footage was the movie is going to be amazing and I am so happy the last book is in two parts.

The trailer ended with the info of when the movies are getting released and how they’re both in 3D.  Which is awesome.

FINAL THOUGHTS

WB brought the hammer down today at Showest and showed why they are the biggest studio in town.  I was impressed by so much that it’s hard to say one movie looked better than another one.  They have comedy, action, adventure and more arriving later this year. I left very impressed.

Finally, if you missed my story about how WB is going to use DC Superheroes to replace the Harry Potter franchise as their tent pole releases, click here.