The final day of CinemaCon 2023 opened big by getting small. Though Belgium’s finest non-chocolate export, the Smurfs, are only three apples tall, an enormous star will be leading the voice cast of the forthcoming The Smurfs Movie: Rihanna.
The 35-year-old nine-time Grammy winner made a surprise appearance at Caesars Palace’s Colosseum stage on Thursday, wearing, as she put it, “her pajamas,” and a third-trimester glow. Paramount Pictures announced that she will be voicing the role of Smurfette, as well as recording some original songs for the film, which she will also coproduce.
Rihanna wasn’t the only major celeb to greet the collected theater owners at the massive trade show. Martin Scorsese came out to remind everyone that while Killers of the Flower Moon might be produced by Apple Original Films, Paramount will be distributing it in theaters this October.
He was eager to applaud the work of Lily Gladstone, who stars in the movie, alongside “two guys I’ve worked with on a few previous occasions”: Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. The CinemaCon crowd were the first to see a trailer, and I will tell you that, if nothing else, it gets one thing across very well—this is a movie from the guy who brought you Casino and Goodfellas.
Though set in Oklahoma in the 1920s (and Scorsese was sure to thank the Osage Nation for welcoming him during production), the new trailer cuts together like an action-packed gangster picture. In lieu of the Rolling Stones, the striking imagery moves to an electrified beat of Native American drumming and chanting, with the camera doing anything but standing still. “When this money started coming,” a tribal elder says about discovering oil on the land the US government dispatched them to, “we should have known it would come with something else.”
The other monster on Paramount’s slate is Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One. Though Tom Cruise did not make a visit to Las Vegas (I owe a colleague $1 on a lost a bet), he did send along a new, extended trailer and a 20-minute sequence from somewhere early in the film.
Director Christopher McQuarrie is keenly aware that cinema history has no shortage of epic car chases, but this new one measures up. In short, Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is pursuing a thief or courier named Grace, played by Hayley Atwell. (She has something called “the key.” When will a movie star a character simply named Mack Guffin?) Hunt thinks he’s got her cornered in Rome, but there is a problem. Three other factions are chasing her too—the Italian police, Interpol, and a deranged lunatic in an armored vehicle played by Pom Klementieff, who looks ripped straight out of a comic book panel. Automotive mayhem smashes all throughout Rome, with a bit on the Spanish Steps that made me—a guy who has seen 400,000 car chases this week—say “holy crap!” out loud.
Other stars who were in attendance included Seth Rogen, wearing green, but telling theater owners they’d be seeing green when his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles project came out this summer. (He wore a big, goofy grin as he said this.) Ziggy Marley introduced the first trailer to the biopic about his father called Bob Marley: One Love, and John Krasinski showed off two projects—A Quiet Place: Day One and an animated/live-action hybrid project about imaginary friends called If.
Dominique Fishback, Anthony Ramos, and director Steven Caple Jr. also came to hype up a new Transformers picture, and while it didn’t really connect with me, these three were exploding with charm. Fishback gave a shout-out to employees of Regal Cinemas, and mentioned that she used to work at the location in Battery Park in Manhattan. As one who has been shoving complimentary corn muffins in my mouth each morning with reps from these theaters, I have to say this was a very nice touch.
Jordan Hoffman
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