’90s nostalgia reigns at final day of CinemaCon
Vanilla Ice hit the stage at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, backed by female dancers and animated footage of Scrat and friends, to perform “Ice Age Baby” in support of the upcoming movie “Ice Age: Collision Course.”
What’s “Ice Age Baby,” you ask? It’s the rapper’s signature 1990 hit, but with the second “Ice” in the chorus replaced with the word “Age.”
It certainly wasn’t the most original thing attendees saw during the final day of CinemaCon, the annual convention of the National Association of Theater Owners. But it did set the tone for a day steeped in nostalgia.
The biggest news didn’t reach nearly as far back into the past as Vanilla Ice, although audience members did both “stop” and “listen” to James Cameron.
The director said he was no longer making the three previously announced sequels to his 2009 smash hit, “Avatar.”
He’s making four.
“So far, the art I’m seeing is, in pure imagination, really far beyond the first film,” Cameron said. The first of those movies, he added, is being targeted for a December 2018 release.
Introducing footage from “Independence Day: Resurgence,” Jim Gianopulos, the chairman and chief executive officer of Fox Filmed Entertainment, promised the 20-years-later sequel is “everything you loved about the first film.” Well, except for Will Smith, who chose not to return.
Jeff Goldblum led what he deemed “a Cobb salad of some of the cast” — including “Independence Day” returnees Brent Spiner and Vivica A. Fox and franchise newcomer Sela Ward — onstage to address the movie exhibitors in pure Goldblum-ian fashion: “Hello, you exhibitionists. Do I have that right?”
Oh, Jeff Goldblum, where have you been hiding?
In another ’90s flashback, Keanu Reeves announced he’s reuniting with his “Matrix” co-star, Laurence Fishburne, for the sequel to the surprise hit “John Wick.” In an early look at the 2017 release, Reeves’ former hitman tells a colleague, “Whoever comes, I’ll kill them. I’ll kill them all.”
He then proceeds to shoot many, many people in the face.
Elsewhere, Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick and Adam DeVine shticked around as they presented the trailer for — and a preposterously filthy naked massage scene from — their R-rated summer comedy, “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates.”
Fox Searchlight offered a “first look” at “The Birth of a Nation.” Well, first for everyone other than those who saw the entire movie in January when it was the sensation of the Sundance Film Festival. The emotionally charged story of slave-revolt leader Nat Turner looks like a shoo-in for a best-picture Oscar nomination.
Footage from “La La Land” dazzled. The glossy musical tribute to Los Angeles, due out in December, stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling and was written and directed by “Whiplash” Oscar nominee Damien Chazelle.
Tyler Perry promoted “Boo! A Madea Halloween,” a movie inspired by a gag in the Chris Rock comedy “Top Five.” Perry said it was his 21st film for Lionsgate, the studio that, moments later, confirmed its groan-worthy movie based on the board game “Monopoly.”
Attendees also saw a tense new trailer for “X-Men: Apocalypse,” footage from Tim Burton’s adaptation of “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” and the first look at Michael Fassbender in the video game adaptation “Assassin’s Creed.”
And, shortly before a “suspicious item” led to the evacuation of the Colosseum during a screening of “Now You See Me 2,” David Copperfield returned to Caesars Palace, where he performed for 15 years in the bygone Circus Maximus.
To help cast members Jesse Eisenberg and Dave Franco introduce Lionsgate’s magical sequel, Copperfield crumpled a piece of tissue paper and made it levitate and dance up an audience member’s arm.
If only he could have made plans for that “Monopoly” movie disappear.
Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com. On Twitter: @life_onthecouch
