Every year at CinemaCon, Warner Brothers presents a splashy presentation called The Big Picture and 2025 was no different. Throughout the presentation, WB touched on its upcoming slate and while there were plenty of films to get excited about, there were 5 films that stood out;
ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
You’ve got to give props to Warner Brothers for championing independent filmmakers and Paul Thomas Anderson is certainly one of the more prominent ones. With a handful of celebrated indies under his belt (BOOGIE NIGHTS, MAGNOLIA, and THERE WILL BE BLOOD being some of the most notable), his movies are always worth getting excited about. On hand to represent Anderson’s latest were stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, and Regina Hall. They dished on working with Andeerson and talked a little bit about the timely political nature of the film. They then dropped an extended clip featuring a disgruntled DiCaprio who becomes more and more irritated as he engages in an obnoxious phone call. Funny stuff! What followed was a montage of clips that sort of played like an extended trailer. Not surprisingly, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER looks great! The film has been test-screened so I was hopeful that maybe we would get a little bit more but ultimately, a full screening of this film was probably too much to hope for. That said, this footage won the presentation for me.
F1
TOP GUN: MAVERICK director Joseph Kosinski is back with a Formula One sports film called F1. This one stars Brad Pitt as a veteran driver looking to make a comeback. Interestingly enough, the trailer for this film makes it look a bit like the early 90s racecar drama, DAYS OF THUNDER, which just so happened to star MAVERICK superstar, Tom Cruise. In fact, the plot structure of this film is so reminiscent of that movie that I thought perhaps this would turn out to be a DAYS OF THUNDER stealth sequel. That is not the case, however. This is an original film dropping in a summer full of sequels, superhero movies, and remakes. Kosinski and legendary Producer Jerry Bruckheimer were on hand to suggest that their goal with F1 is to give audiences an authentic, all-immersive thrill ride that puts you directly in the driver’s seats of these vehicles. They then went on to treat attendees to the first 10 minutes of the film. This is something similar to what Kosinski and Paramount Pictures did with TOP GUN: MAVERICK a few years back so there was clearly no reason to think lightning wouldn’t strike twice. In the FI intro, Pitt engages in a high octane race. At the very least, the footage certainly went a long way to showcase the all-immersive nature of Kosinski’s and Bruckheimer’s opening comments setup. If the rest of the film measures up to the first ten minutes, audiences are in for a real treat this summer.
FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES
The footage we were witness to for another sequel no one is asking for went a long way to get me excited about a movie that I was pretty indifferent to when it was first announced. Don’t get me wrong…I’m certainly not a FINAL DESTINATION hater. In fact, I’ve liked a couple of the entries in this series quite a bit, especially part 2, but I just felt like this series had run its course. New Line Cinema President Richard Brenner was on hand to give a sneak peak of the film to all the horror fans in the audience and…It didn’t disappoint. I won’t delve into serious spoilers only to say that the sequence in question involves a peanut allergy, an MRI machine, and an individual with multiple piercings. It was brutal and grotesquely hilarious in equal measure. At the very least, it got a rise out of the crowd. Death returns to cinemas this summer and quite frankly, I’m greatly looking forward to all of the carnage.
WEAPONS
BARBARIAN writer/director Zach Cregger returns this fall with a new movie called WEAPONS. We were treated to a look at the film and to call the premise at the heart of this project intriguing would be an understatement. WEAPONS revolves around a class of young school children mysteriously vanish one evening and how a shocked community attempts to deal with the creepy and unnerving situation. This movie features an impressive ensemble including Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, and Alden Ehrenreich. The team behind WEAPONS promise a twisty, turvy sequence that will keep audiences on their toes. BARBARIAN was a modest hit and Cregger is certainly poised to be another master of modern horror along contemporaries like Jordan Peele. Here’s hoping this movie is as intriguing as it looks.
SUPERMAN
DC is back with yet another new take on a little known comic book property called SUPERMAN. There’s a lot riding on this film as the DC universe has struggled to find its footing but hopefully, beloved James Gunn (the madman behind Marvel’s GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY films) is up to the daunting challenge. This version of SUPERMAN will forego the origin story and settle in on a Supes that’s already been around for a while. Gunn and Peter Safran were on hand to talk up the movie. Of course, they weren’t there just to talk. They were also there to show. And with that, we were treated to a sequence that gives us our first real look at the Fortress of Solitude. It was basically an extended sequence that the first trailer touches on. A beaten down Superman is rescued by his hyper canine pal and dragged to the fortress where he’s nursed back to health by androids. The footage really amped up the sci-fil element and sense of humor. It also doubles down on Krypto which has been a sore spot for some fans. Personally, I enjoyed the footage. David Cornswee looks like a solid Superman bringing that sort of idealistic vibe many of us want from the character. Rahcel Brosnahan looks great as Lois, too. The footage certainly went a long way to go further into the tone of the world Gunn is building and as expected, it offers that quirky sense of humor you’d come to expect from Gunn. There have been multiple cinematic iterations of Superman and I’m hoping this one hearkens back to Richard Donner’s version. We’ll find out this summer.
Strangely enough, Gunn and Safran didn’t dish on any of the other projects that DC has in the pipeline. Instead, they focused their portion of the WB presentation on this one movie. Like I said, there’s a lot riding on it.
Warner Brothers also gave attendees a glimpse at a new animated FLINTSTONES feature as well as an advanced peek at Maggie Gyllenhaal’s THE BRIDE. Overall, it was a great presentation but no surprise there. After all, it was Warner Brothers.
*CinemaCon is an annual convention held in Las Vegas, NV. Formally ShoWest, this get-together is designed to give cinema exhibitors from around the world a peek at upcoming movie theater tech, theater cosmetics (seats, screens, etc.), snack bar upgrades, concession goodness, and of course, big studio product. The convention takes place at Ceasar’s Palace with the majority of the studio presentations taking place in the luxurious Colosseum.
