The presentation kicked off with a montage of footage from past films including Star Trek,True Grit, The Fighter and many more. After running through some of the studio’s biggest and best, the piece concluded by honoring Paramount’s 100 years of excellence and announcing, “the next 100 are just taking flight.” Quite appropriately, the reel then rolled into the trailer for Paramount’s November 2nd release, Flight, followed by the trailers for Paranormal Activity 4, The Guilt Trip, Not Fade Away and then a brand new trailer for Jack Reacher, starring Tom Cruise and opening December 21, 2012. Unlike the first trailer for Jack Reacher, which functioned more as a character introduction, this one delves into the story, offering up footage of Robert Duvall as Cash, a former US Marine, and Rosamund Pike as Helen Rodin, the lawyer hired to defend the military sniper who gunned down five victims. The rest of the material is an extension of what debuted back in July, consisting of longer chases in that hot red Chevrolet Chevelle SS and more combat in the vein of the “Mission: Impossible” films. The trailer’s standout moment comes at the end when Reacher (Cruise) evades the cops by casually stepping into a crowd and receiving a hat from a helpful bystander. When the coast is clear, he turns to the man and playfully shrugs. Next up was the trailer for the delayed G.I. Joe: Retaliation. We got quite a bit of promotional items in anticipation of the film’s original June 29, 2012 release, so nothing in this piece stood out as new material. More should surface as we approach the film’s March 29, 2013 debut.
Then came the big one, Star Trek Into Darkness. Paramount played the clip from “Conan.” You know, the one where J.J. Abrams announces he’s ready to show a piece of Star Trek Into Darkness only to reveal a mere three frames? Sure the clip would launch into a longer version, I sat pen in hand, ready to scribble down the details only for the segment to cut to black and move right into the next portion of the reel. And so the anticipation continues. May 17, 2013 can’t come soon enough. Nothing new to report on the Anchorman: The Legend Continues front. The film made its mark in Paramounts 2013 presentation in the form of the teaser trailer released back in May. The same goes for Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, which was represented by the trailer unveiled in September.
The next two items in the rotation were simply music and text. At that point we’d yet to move into the 2014 portion of the presentation, so perhaps Paramount has a 2013 debut planned for Jason Reitman’s Labor Day. That one will feature Kate Winslet as a single mother who opts to give a wounded man a ride who turns out to be a convict. Alexander Payne’s drama Nebraska, about an alcoholic taking a road trip with his estranged son from Montana to Nebraska to claim his Publisher’s Clearing House winnings, got a similar treatment, showing off the film’s title with a country tune playing in the background. The 2014 section kicked off with the next entry of the Transformers franchise. Obviously there was no footage to show, but the title does reveal a clever logo, the right half of the standard transformers symbol acting as the stem of the number four. SpongeBob SquarePants fans are in for a nice surprise. Your favorite pineapple-dwelling sea sponge is getting his own 3D feature film. The quick teaser announced that SpongeBob is due to travel from his world to ours, revealed a quick shot of SpongeBob, Patrick and Squidward with muscled up bodies rendered with a CGI-like animation, and then returned to the classic SpongeBob style so we can watch him eat a container of corn, explode and wind up with a bin full of popcorn. Darren Aronoskfy’s Noah was up next, the footage showing off a hairy and dirty Russell Crowe as well as a number of other prime characters. We also got a look at the ark and, contrary to more idealistic versions of what was necessary to survive the epic flood, this one doesnt look much like a ship, rather a gigantic wooden box. Stealing the spotlight from the structure and the film’s stars is the country of Iceland. The piece is packed with scenic shots including some of the lushest environments and stunning skies. Next up was another spot for Michael Bay, a quick title for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
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