Yesterday Paramount took everyone’s breath away, with all of the announcements that was made. There’s TMNT, Transformers, Gladiator, and so much more. After reading this make sure you go check out my recap of the presentations by Universal, Lionsgate, and Warner Bros.
John Krasinski’s If
John Krasinski took the stage and debuted the final trailer for his upcoming movie, If. The trailer shows off more of its star-studded cast. Steve Carell, Cailey Fleming, Luis Gossett Jr., Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Maya Rudolph, Mathre Rhys, Sebastion Maniscalco, Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Christopher Meloni, Keegan-Michael Key, Bradley Cooper, Matt Damon, George Clooney, John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Awkwafina, Amy Schumer, Sam Rockwell, Richard Jenkins, and Jon Stewart. The trailer shares some more story elements. We follow with Ryan Reynolds, and Cailey Fleming discovering an abundance of lost imaginary friends (Ifs). The Ifs have been abandoned and forgotten by their own kids, and it is Reynolds’s and Fleming’s goal to find these Ifs a new home.
TMNT: The Last Ronin Movie
It is a great time to be a turtles fan, because we have now gotten the announcement that a Last Ronin movie is in the works. Don’t forget we have a sequel to TMNT Mutant Mayhem coming out, along with a TV show and a video game in that same universe. It also wasn’t all that long ago we got the announcement that a Last Ronin game is in the works. For Paramount/Nickelodeon to work on this film, I would say is quite surprising. From what I’ve seen, no one would’ve expected Nickelodeon to make an R-rated live action movie. The last time Paramount made a live action turtles film was the Michael Bay movie, which wasn’t received all that well. Now the question that I have is how are they going to adapt the look of the turtles. You could either go the CGI route like the Bay movies, or you could use the costumes like they did in the original.
Transformers X G.I. Joe Movie
Along with new R-rated turtles, Paramount announced a new live action Transformers film. This time the Transformers will be with G.I. Joe. Last year’s Transformers movie, Rise of the Beasts, teased the collaboration of Transformers and G.I. Joe. Well, that has finally come into fruition. Paramount told attendees of CinemaCon that a new Transformers X G.I. Joe movie is in development. Although it might be too early to say, I think that both franchises will benefit from this. After the ugly fall of G.I. Joe, and the rebuilding of Transformers, the two can help each other up. Transformers have had a better time than G.I. Joe, but after the Michael Bay movies, Transformers have started to go through a bit of rehabilitation. Bumblebee practically restored faith in the franchise when it came out, and although Rise of the Beasts wasn’t as good. It was still better than most of the Bay films. I’m sure if the upcoming Transformers animated films go well, then I wouldn’t be surprised if Paramount put those films into the continuity. Now speaking about the G.I. Joe side of things, I think they have a really solid potential to rise to glory. If this crossover film goes well, then I think G.i. Joe could make a comeback, and branch back off into its own films.
Paramount: Sonic the Hedgehog 3
The Sonic movie universe is growing, for now we have the upcoming Knuckles TV show, and now Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Behind closed doors, Paramount presented CinemaCon their first look at the upcoming film. Jim Carrey returns as Dr. Robotnik, but this time he is more like Dr. Eggman. I say that because attendees said that he has clearly gained some weight, and has grown his hair out more. Eggman’s assistant, Dr. Stone returns to the screen, and is able to get Eggman back in the game. The footage shown, shows the return of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. Sonic is then seen fighting Shadow the Hedgehog, and attendees described the fight as an electric, anime style fight. Although we never get to find out who will be the voice of Shadow, we get the confirmation that he will be riding his motorcycle, right out of the games. The rumored casting for sonic right now, is Anakin Skywalker, Hayden Christensen.
Scary Movie and Naked Gun Reboots
Paramount not only confirmed that the Naked Gun reboot with Liam Neeson is in the works, they also announced that a Scary Movie reboot is in the works. The Scary Movie film is set for production this year, and is set to release next year in 2025. That is all the news we got about these two movies. I think, if done right, then these spoof movies could be very important for today’s time. We haven’t really gotten a good spoof movie in a long time, and if they bring it back and they have the same since of humor, then it could be really important for this time wherever a lot more people are calling a lot more stuff “woke”.
Paramount: New Animated Features
Paramount at CinemaCon then confirmed three newly awaited animated films. Rihanna came out on stage to confirm that she is going to be the voice of Smurfette. Along with that, Paramount tacked on a whole lot more to the cast with some highlights being Nick Offerman, James Corden, Xolo Maridueña, Kurt Russel, and James Goodman. The movie Is being directed by Chris Miller, the man behind Shrek the Third, and Puss and Boots. The film is set to release on Feb. 14th, 2025. Another movie they talked about is the upcoming Avatar movie. The movie as of right now is titled Aang: The Last Airbender, and it is a part of this new trilogy that is about the Avatars. They did reveal some new voice talent for the movie, like Eric Nam will be voicing the adult version of Aang, and Dave Bautista is set to play the villain. The movie is also set to have a release date in 2025. Paramount then talked a little bit about their upcoming SpongeBob movie, Search for Squarepants. Nickelodeon is still releasing the Netflix Sandy Cheeks movie, but the only reason they didn’t talk about that one is because CinemaCon is a convention run by movie theater companies, trying to promote going to the movies. The upcoming movie will follow SpongeBob heading down into the depths, to face off against The Flying Dutchman. The movie is set to release Dec. 19th, 2025.
Paramount: Transformers One
The thing to come out of Paramount’s CinemaCon presentation that I am most excited for is the upcoming, Transformers One. Behind closed doors, Paramount showed off a first look trailer for the new animated movie. The movie follows a young Optimus Prime (Orion Pax) and the brother-like bond that he has with Megatron (D-16) Optimus Prime is voiced by Chris Hemsworth, and Megatron is voiced by Brian Tyree Henry. The trilogy of animated films will focus on the fall of this friendship, and where it starts to break off is when Megatron wants to rebel and find out why no robots are allowed on the surface of Cybertron. The journey to find out the mystery of Cybertron, will soon be the breaking point that turns them from friends to rivals. Along with the trailer, there was a whole scene from the movie shown, where the two are breaking into a train facility. This time they are joined by Bumblebee (B-127), voiced by Keegan-Michael Key, and they are caught by their Autobot friend, Elita-1, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. This footage shown at CinemaCon sounds insane! Attendees have really praised the movie’s animation, and some thought of it to be really funny. Some thought of it differently, some people described it as a Minions type humor. The trailer drops online for the public on April 18th, next week.
Paramount: Gladiator 2
Paramount then closed their presentation with the first look at the upcoming Gladiator sequel. Gladiator 2 takes place 24 years after the first one and we follow Paul Mescal as Lucious, a renounced nobleman. Throughout the footage shown, Denzel Washington’s character can be seen coaching Lucious, and giving him his advice and wisdom. Pedro Pascal is another character in the movie and he is seen riding a chariot to the very arena, with a pair of these emperors, one being played by Joseph Quinn. The arena was detailed to be bloodier then ever, and the gladiators have to now face a three-headed dog, baboons, and a giant rhino.
Paramount was honestly my favorite presentation when it came to the announcements this year. Thank you so much for reading it and making your way to the end of my recap. Once again, go check out my Warner Bros , Lionsgate, and Universal recaps. Make sure you come back to the Bigstinker Blog, to get my recap of the final presentation, Disney.