CINEMACON 2014 STARTS WITH A BIG BANG FROM PARAMOUNT
WORLD’S LARGEST CONVENTION OF FILM WORLD PACKS IT OUT IN LAS VEGAS
Hello to OC Screenwriters and our web followers around the country and to all the ships at sea.
Day One at CinemaCon 2014 in Las Vegas, where its been home for more than thirty years, kicked off at Caesar’s Palace, with a preview of the entire week and in addition to the film stars, the largest film convention in the world, with every major studio and producers, directors and stars attending from around the world, soon to be standard technological achievements in everything from cameras used in filming to advanced popcorn poppers was teased to an audience of more than 20,000.
Paramount lit the fireworks that started CinemaCon. The annual convention where theatre owners from all over the world gather in Las Vegas and meet and greet the stars and hear what product will be offered over the next six months from the studios, had Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Will Arnett delighting the huge crowd with story after story of their upcoming films for Paramount to be released by summer.
Paramount presented its product reel of glimpses from summer films that included Transformers: Age of Extinction, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Hercules, and 3D SpongeBob.
Rob Moore, executive vice chairman of Paramount, introduced their upcoming films and welcomed stars to the stage to greet the audience of National Association of Theatre Owners, and Mitch Nuehauser, the CinemaCon managing director dropped down from the ceiling wearing a Ron Burgundy costume from the film.
Dwayne Johnson walked through the crowd and took the stage, and had a few words about his role as Hercules. “Before we started shooting Hercules, I agreed the goal was for me t completely disappear into the character, including hair, makeup, and prosthetic penis.”
"Before we started shooting Hercules, Paramount, MGM and I made a pact," he told the crowd. "The goal was for me to completely disappear into the character -- hair, makeup, prosthetic penis."
Johnson, in the clips of the film screened, battled enormous armies and giant boars, and wore a lion’s head as his battle helmet.
Will Arnett introduced “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, which have come a long way from their earlier relatives of the early 1990’s. The film clips were awesome, as the Turtles are computer graphic created and the whole group were wisecracking and funny as most teens are.
Mark Wahlberg said he took the role in Transformers to work with Michael Bay, and that it wouldn’t let anyone down and would blow us away. And that is exactly what happened when a portion of the film was screened, and this is like no Transformer movie ever seen. Bay has raised the bar a great deal and the creations were beyond imagination.
In the film, Wahlberg is an inventor who discovers a Transformer, and his daughter becomes a hostage, and Wahlberg has to rescue her. Easy enough? No way. These Transformers go way beyond the determined menace of even the Terminator. This film will be huge.
Special treats today will include studio film previews of the summer, and the latest technological advancements, including laser projection, which will leave digital far behind, and also a special showing of new 4D, yes that’s right, 4D.
And no good convention that celebrates Hollywood would be without cocktail parties, food created by chefs from around the world, and music by well-known recording artists.
You heard it first, right here!
Day Two starts at 8 AM.
Lorenzo Porricelli reporting for OC Screenwriters
CinemaCon - 2014
