The big ol’ film convention Cinemacon is back, which is essentially Upfronts For Movies. Warner Bros. — fresh off being bought by Discovery — debuted a giant slate of films that mostly involved superheroes, and then Harry Styles, though I know the entire Internet would argue he is also superheroic. Olivia Wilde delivered the most head-scratching moment for me, by saying that in her movie we will witness the birth of Florence Pugh as a full-fledged movie star, which… perhaps she was in the bathroom the first several times Florence Pugh was born unto movie stardom? The woman has an Oscar nomination, for God’s sake. And not even for the movie in which people thought she was a revelation (that would be Midsommar) but for a star-studded Little Women. And there’s Black Widow, a role in Jeremy Renner’s Marvel show, and her own on the way. Admittedly, Olivia Wilde works my nerves a little — full disclosure — so my reaction may well be ungenerous. But I was a little like, “… Pal, Florence Pugh might put YOU on the map more than you will put her there.”
The Rock got to trot out clips of his DC flick Black Adam, and the animated League of Super Pets, a shirtless (and via satellite) Jason Momoa introduced the Aquaman sequel, and there was Elvis and Salem’s Lot and the second Shazam. But they also had to promote next summer’s The Flash, for example, which was hotly anticipated and heavily delayed, and is now under the shadow of Ezra Miller’s legal woes in Hawaii — so they made sure to remind people that Michael Keaton will don the Batsuit in it, as will Ben Affleck. Speaking of Batman, there’s going to be another one with Robert Pattinson, and if you thought we needed another Willy Wonka movie, I’m gonna disagree but Timothee Chalamet is doing Wonka anyway. The Hollywood Reporter Tweeted, “In the footage, Chalamet is heard singing, ‘You have never had chocolate like this,’ before he breaks out of a choreographed dance and heads down a pothole.” Do you think… is it even REMOTELY possible that this is less stupid in context than it sounds?
