Lionsgate 2024 CinemaCon Panel Live Blog

We are back in Caesar's in Las Vegas for the Lionsgate panel, and hope to see new footage from the upcoming Borderlands movie, The Crow, The Strangers: Chapter 1, and... hopefully ... the John Wick spinoff Ballerina with Ana de Armas. Stay here for live updates!

The presentation has begun, but in true CinemaCon fashion, we begin with a visual presentation about innovations coming to theaters. Today, it's Laser By Barco.

Lionsgate should begin shortly.

OK, Lionsgate begins with a celebration of their 2023 films. The reel included plenty of Saw, The Hunger Games, and, of course, John Wick: Chapter 4!

LOTS of Ballerina clips mixed in to the opening reel, so I definitely anticipate seeing something from the 2025 movie this morning.

Lionsgate talks about using 2023 to set up longer-term plans for their three major franchises: John Wick, The Hunger Games, and Saw. And they say that the audience response to those sequels in 2023 has convinced them to continue telling stories in those worlds.

In addition:

Destin Daniel Cretton is going to do Naruto;

Now You See Me 3 is in development with Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer at the helm;

Jason Blum is taking a new spin on Blair Witch, and;

Margot Robbie is going to make a Monopoly movie with her production shingle!

After that slate of announcements, we are moving on to Guy Ritchie's The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. In addition, Lionsgate will release Ritchie's In The Grey early next year., It also stars Henry Cavill and Eiza Gonzalez, but adds Jake Gyllenhaal and Rosamund Pike into a stylish-looking heist thriller about sexy thieves. It looks confident, funny, sleek, sexy... right up Ritchie's alley. Cavill, Gyllenhaal and Gonzalez are criminals who operate "in the grey." Looks fantastic.

Henry Cavill has joined the presentation! He appears to be Mr. Lionsgate, preparing to appear in Ministry, In The Grey, and The Highlander series, with director Chad Stahelski. It's suggested from the stage that Highlander is going to be multiple movies. Let's see what Henry says about it.

Guy Ritchie's In The Grey, with Cavill, Gyllenhaal, and Gonzalez, hits theaters on January 17, 2025.

Cavill on Highlander. Says that these movies will dig much deeper into the lore of the characters and the world in ways the previously films did not. He also teases:

I'm sold.

Onto The Strangers: Chapter 1!

Just saw the full trailer for The Strangers: Chapter 1. It looks like a stylish remake of the original movie, where home invaders wearing creepy masks terrorize a young couple in the woods. The tagline sticks to the unpredictable nature of it all, "They don't need a reason." Looks scary,. In theaters May 17.

Time for Borderlands. The cast recorded videos, and now we are getting a longer version of the existing trailer. The story is a treasure hunt that takes place on the weirdest, most dangerous planet in the universe. Jack Black steals most of the show by voicing the robot Claptrap. The trailer very much seems to want to capture the anti-hero, rock opera tone of Guardians of the Galaxy. We'll see if Eli Roth can do James Gunn.

Borderlands has a ton of energy. It's a full-throttle rock concert of a movie. At least, based on the trailer. High-octane sci-fi. Eli Roth name drops The Fifth Element, Aliens, Raiders of the Lost Ark and more as inspiration. He says that Cate Blanchett's favorite movie is Escape From New York. If Borderlands captures an ounce of that, it could be a lot of fun!

Time for The Crow! Coming to theaters on August 23.

Lots of emphasis on a return to the source material, the graphic novel, and how that differed from the movie released 30 years ago.

The new trailer they just showed for The Crow was infinitely better than the initial one. Hard R, red-band type stuff. Spends a lot of time building up the relationship between Bill Skarsard and FKA twigs, so that when she is murdered, we feel that loss. And then he;'s told, "The Crow will guide you to put the wrong things right. Kill them. Kill them all."

And after that, it becomes a vengeance flick. The trailer had an extended, incredible truck fight. Think "Deadpool fighting thugs" in the first movie. And it ends on a visceral rebuilding of his body after he gets run over by traffic. It was memorable. The trailer looks great, and I'm suddenly way more bullish on The Crow than I was.

Halle Berry is now on stage to promote her terrifying horror movie Never Let Go, which looks disturbing as hell. It's from the director of The Hills Have Eyes and Crawl, so no real surprise there. Berry says that she wanted to do the role because she's an adrenaline junkie, she grew up on The Shining, and she wanted to be part of a story that she's never seen before: A mother with two children who never leaves the house in which they were born. She makes it sound so creepy.

Halle Berry talks Method acting, to figure out how to play a mother who keeps her children in a house in the woods for a decade. She says she actually learned to skin a squirrel as part of her preparation. Now that's dedication!

Here's one I didn't know about. Dave Bautista is going to be doing a movie with Lionsgate called The Killer's Game. He plays a trained assassin so falls in love with Sofia Boutella (Rebel Moon). But he's diagnosed with a lethal disease, so he puts a contract out on himself. Then, he learns his diagnosis was wrong, but the hit (placed by Pom Klementieff) remains. Action-packed, bloody and funny.

Mel Gibson is back in business with Lionsgate. He has a new movie called Flight Risk, with Mark Wahlberg. It's a thriller set on a charter flight. We got an early look, and it has Wahlberg with an exaggerated country accent flying a prisoner (Topher Grace) to New York for trial. Wait until you see Wahlberg's hair piece in this. Legendary.

Here's one I knew nothing about, Aziz Ansari directs and stars in Good Fortune, with Seth Rogen and Keanu Reeves. Ansari is a broke L.A. assistant who gets visited by Gabriel (Reeves), a "budget Guardian Angel" who helps the main character learn the value of his life.

Ansari and Rogen end up switching lives, to see how the other half lives. But there's a twist. Several twists. It looks like a very funny and savvy commentary on the human condition, as only Aziz, Seth Rogen, and Keanu could manage. Big surprise. It looks really great.

Aziz Ansari is now on stage, and immediately starts ripping Henry Cavill, exhibitors who pack strip clubs, and more. He's crushing.

Aziz tells a story of Keanu Reeves getting injured on the set. The dude survived multiple John Wick movies, multiple Matrix movies, Speed... you name it. But on the way back to his trailer, Reeves tripped on a rug and broke his knee cap! It put him on crutches, but he still managed to film all of his Good Fortune scenes except for a dance sequence. Which Keanu still tried to do. Ansari calls him an actual angel.

Finally... Ballerina!

This is a John Wick spinoff, and it had been delayed for quite some time. The movie is set between the story of John Wick 3 and 4. Director Len Wiseman got the chance to go back into the movie and add set pieces once the movie got delayed.

Ballerina trailer confirms that Keanu Reeves will play John Wick again in the movie.

It's a vengeance story. It involves The Continental, and key members from the John Wick franchise. And it looks action-packed. Ana de Armas fits into that world perfectly, She looks lethal as hell. It looks like Wick will train her during her mission. Not sure how large his part will be.

The panel extends with Michael, the Michael Jackson movie, that Antoine Fuqua will direct. Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King introduces a first look, even though the movie remains in production. (Fuqua is on the set and couldn't be here.)

King says that Michael will dig into Jackson's life on stage and off, and will not avoid the more suspect aspects of the musician's life. He admits that it's a tremendous amount of material to cover, talking about Jackson's life and career. But he's confident in their approach.

Michael looks solid. Classic biopic formula, but the actors they found to play Jackson fit the bill, and Jackson has thousands of hits. Should be a massive movie for next year.

And that's it for Lionsgate, so thank you for following along with the live blog!