CinemaCon Report: 'Passengers' Stars Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence Show Some Sexy Scenes
JenniferLawrence and Chris Pratt at CinemaCon on Tuesday (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
While celebrity appearances at fan-driven events like Comic-Con tend to be casual and unpredictable, those at the exhibitor gathering CinemaCon in Las Vegas are more carefully orchestrated. The appearances are briefer, and stars typically read their remarks from a teleprompter.
Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence were not about to stay on script, though. The pair — arguably the most popular actor and actress in Hollywood right now — were making their first public appearance together to promote their upcoming romantic sci-fi thriller Passengers at Sony’s Tuesday night presentation.
There’s already a lot of curiosity about the secretive plot of the film, helmed by The Imitation Game director Morten Tyldum and based on a script by Jon Spaihts (Prometheus). The film, set in the distant future, takes place on a spaceship that’s traveling from Earth to a distant colony with over 5,000 passengers, who all hibernate agelessly through the incredibly long, intergalatic journey. But something goes wrong, and Pratt’s Jim Preston is awoken from his hibernation pod with 90 years still left to go. He’s later joined by Lawrence’s Aurora.
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“My character is a writer in New York, and she wants to be first person to ever make the 120-year journey to another planet and come back and write about,” Lawrence explained to the crowd.
Pratt’s Jim is “a mechanic, and he’s the type of guy who fixes things,” the actor said. “He uses his hands. And the world that they live in, if something is broken, you don’t fix it, you order a new one. So he’s become obsolete. So he’s traveling to a distant planet, a new world, hoping he’ll be useful.”
It was around that point in the presentation though, when the actors started to go off the rails. “They couldn’t be more opposite,” Lawrence said, admitting she was mocking what was on the teleprompter. “You know this is live?” Pratt asked her. “There are people out there. But seriously… They couldn’t be more opposite.”
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Pratt then admitted he was departing from any semblance of script. “First of all, it’s awesome that you guys are here,” he told the crowd. “You guys must be bored. I hope you’re having fun and getting drunk and making mistakes — that’s what Vegas is all about.”
Soon afterwards, the Jurassic World actor made a bad crack about exhibitors needing to double up on popcorn orders “around Christmas” [Passengers opens Dec. 21], and then dropped the mic…right on Lawrence’s foot. “That was like the anti-Kanye,” he quipped. “Should we go off the stage now?” Lawrence asked Sony chairman Tom Rothman.
The audience was far from bored though, and it only got better when Rothman unveiled an extended first look at the film. It showed Jim shaken out of his slumber and forced to deal with the realization that he has to live out the remainder of his life alone on the spacecraft (with the exception of company from an android bartender played by Michael Sheen). After a year alone, he’s joined by Aurora.
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An early plot synopsis indicated that it was Jim who wakes Aurora up for company — however the footage pointed to her waking up on her own in another mishap. It could be one of the film’s primary mysteries. But regardless, things heat up between Jim and Aurora, and they share some seriously sexy moments together — most notably one in which she climbs over a dinner table to straddle her shipmate. Their interlude is interrupted when a loss of oxygen threatens their lives, and Passengers turns into a tale of intergalactic survival.
The film looks as technically stunning and beautiful as other recent space hits like Gravity and Interstellar. And of course the stars couldn’t be hotter.
Passengers opens Dec. 21.
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