Tarantino and DiCaprio surprise audience

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Sony Pictures teases varied slate

Leonardo DiCaprio (right), a cast member in the upcoming film ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ addresses the audience as the film’s writer/director Quentin Tarantino looks on during the Sony Pictures Entertainment presentation at CinemaCon 2018, the official convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners, at Caesars Palace on April 23, in Los Angeles. (AP)

LOS ANGELES, April 24, (Agencies): Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman Tom Rothman assured theater owners Monday that his studio is dedicated to appealing to a range of audiences — from global franchises such as “Spider-Man” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” series to family films, action pics, comedies and even Quentin Tarantino’s Leonardo Di- Caprio and Brad Pitt film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” Both Tarantino and DiCaprio surprised the audience of exhibitors with their appearance at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, but unlike most of the films Sony would hype Monday with new footage and celebrities, they had nothing to show.

They haven’t shot a frame yet. “It’s hard to speak about a film that we haven’t done yet,” DiCaprio said on stage. The “hush-hush” film will take place in Hollywood in 1969 at the “height of the counter-culture explosion,” the famed director said. “This is probably the closest to ‘Pulp Fiction’ that I’ve done,” Tarantino said, of the kind of Los Angeles film he hopes to make. He said Pitt and DiCaprio together will be “the most exciting star dynamic duo since Robert Redford and Paul Newman.”

Tarantino also took the opportunity to remind the theater owners at the convention, that he too is an exhibitor — he owns the historic New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles. The studio also rolled out intense new footage from “Venom,” which Tom Hardy said he wanted to do for his son, and “The Girl in the Spider’s Web,” with “The Crown” star Claire Foy in the role of Lisbeth Salander who, Rothman said, makes “Wonder Woman look like a Powerpuff Girl.” “The thing I think makes this special and truly, truly compelling is that you can’t describe her,” Foy said. Director Fede Alvarez, who was behind the horror hit “Don’t Breathe,” said that there is an audience demand for “good-quality filmmaking.” “I believe in movies that provoke. Movies you cannot ignore. Movies that hit the cultural conversation. I’m confi- dent this movie will hit all fronts,” Alvarez said of “The Girl in the Spider’s Web.” Rothman also said that a “Jumanji” sequel, with Dwayne Johnson, will be coming in December 2019. “Don’t rush to give all those screens to ‘Star Wars’ again,” Rothman said. The Johnson-led reboot, “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” became a massive hit in the early part of the year, making over $956 million worldwide

Massive
The CinemaCon convention features massive presentations from each of the major studios, in addition to a few of the smaller ones, like Amazon, with sizzle reels and stars to wow the theater owners with what’s coming up and why theaters should be excited about the fresh movies on the horizon. Alternating at times between a variety show and a business meeting, Sony’s presentation featured everything from Will Ferrell promoting the comedy “Holmes & Watson” by singing “My Heart Will Go On” and talking about winning $50,000 playing roulette earlier in the evening, to actress Gina Rodriguez, in support of the action pic “Miss Bala,” stressing the importance of the Latino moviegoing audience. “Latinos make up every one in four tickets sold,” Rodriguez said.

“To give them a project like this feels like such a gift, such a blessing for your audience.” According to the Motion Picture Association of America, Latinos made up 18 percent of the population in 2016, but represented 23 percent of frequent moviegoers. Sony showed rough footage from its animated “Spider-Man: Into the Spider- Verse,” which features the voice of Shameik Moore as Miles Morales/ Spider-Man at hits theaters at Christmastime. “I’m not the only kid who imagined himself being ‘Spider-Man,’” said Moore. And Matthew McConaughey was on hand, too, to tease the gritty period piece “White Boy Rick,” in which he plays a hustler and a schemer and allaround bad, but well-meaning dad to a teenage boy who ends up becoming an undercover FBI informant. “Wait till you see this performance,” McConaughey said of the unknown actor, Richie Merritt, who plays the lead.

From studio executives, to the filmmakers behind the projects, all stressed the quality and diversity of the upcoming films. “We’re dedicated to the range of audience, including having a staunch, and increasingly rare dedication to originality,” Rothman said. “We are not all superheroes all the time. But we are in the global franchise business.” DiCaprio, a Los Angeles native, said he was excited to be working with Pitt, and described Tarantino’s screenplay as “one of the most amazing” he’d ever read. The presentation came as Sony kicked off CinemaCon with an array of stars and never-before-seen footage of its upcoming slate of movies.

Hollywood decamps to the Nevada desert for four days every year for the gathering, where theater operators are offered exclusive previews of the movies they can expect to be showing over the coming year. Sony sparked controversy in 2017 when its movies chief Tom Rothman — who was back this year — came to the stage to present new footage from “Blade Runner 2049.” The internet streamer has found itself in confl ict with movie theater operators in the past because its original content goes straight to viewers’ TVs and mobile devices. “I love movies and I love movies in movie theaters. They are my favorite place in the world,” said Tarantino, who last directed Pitt in “Inglourious” (2009)

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