IF, A Quiet Place, Gladiator 2 And More From The Paramount 2024 CinemaCon Panel Live Blog

There is a pre-panel presentation, but Paramount will begin shortly. 

There's some weird delay. We got stuck on a reel that basically toured the Paramount lot in L.A. (very beautiful). But now, finally, Paramount is underway with a montage of their history. We're off and running! 

Huge emphasis on Gladiator to start the show. Great choice! Roman soldiers are marching on stage to introduce Paramount's leader. Tons of spectacle. Really fun! "Are you not entertained?" 

First up is John Krasinski, who is beaming in from London to promote two of his movies. IF is his directorial effort. "IF asks the important question, what if everything you imagined as a kid was real," Krasinski teases. 

Then he talks about the third Quiet Place movie before showing the brand new trailer for IF. Look for it online. The movie looks beyond charming, overloaded with imagination, and a hilarious bit about a farting Gummy Bear. I promise, it works! 

Mean Girls and Bob Marley: One Love got Paramount off to a fast start. They take credit for removing Mean Girls off streaming and putting it into theaters, while also deciding to make Bob Marley a Valentine's Day release... which worked out at the box office,. 

Some breaking news: 

Paramount is making The Running Man. Glen Powell will star, and Edgar Wright will direct. 

Ridley Scott is making a Bee Gees movie.

Paramount is making a G.I. Joe and Transformers team up movie. 

And Paramount confirms that Damien Chazelle's next movie will film in 2024, and be released in 2025!

They tease the next Mission: Impossible movie, but no footage, and no title confirmation. Interesting.... 

OK, first movie segment. Scarlett Johansson recorded an introduction for the animated feature, Transformers One. And on stage... Chris Hemsworth! 

Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4) directs the film. Hemsworth voices young Optimus Prime, while Brian Tyree Henry will voice Megatron. They are both on stage to introduce footage. GREAT voice casting. 

Oh, I didn't realize that Transformers One was more of a family comedy. It's an origin story for the main Transformers characters, and the tone is light, goofy, comedic, and family friendly. Keegan Michael Key voices Bumblebee and gets a lot of laugh lines. But this feels more like Minions than Transformers. Interesting. Prepare for a family adventure. 

We actually got to put 3D glasses on and watch a full clip from Transformers One, and while the tone was lighter than I expected, the animation was FANTASTIC. It was predominantly a chase scene about a train, but the way the camera and action moved was heart racing, and the world looked vast and gorgeous. That clip was much better than the trailer, so I feel much better about Transformers One after seeing that. Still family friendly, but the lore looks majestic in scope. 

Aang: The Last Airbender, Smurfs, and a new SpongeBob movie have been confirmed, all coming to theaters. 

Next, A Quiet Place: Day One! Lupita Nyong'o and the new Human Torch, Joseph Quinn, are on stage. 

We just saw an extended trailer of A Quiet Place: Day One. The hook of the movie is that the noisiest city on the planet, New York City, had to learn how to be quiet. There are a lot of great moments in the trailer of mass scale destruction, as it appears the movie will drop us immediately into the thrust of the invasion. Creatures look cool. Nyong'o and Quinn appear terrified. I'm all in. 

Sonic 3 just showed a trailer, that was heavy on Jim Carrey and showed off Shadow. Short clip, but looks fun. In theaters this summer. 

Next was a look at Smile 2, coming out in October. The main character is a Lady Gaga-esque pop singer, who gets confronted by the smiling zombies in her audience, back stage, and all around a major concert venue. It looks claustrophobic, clever, and scary. 

The Paramount panel is wrapping up with Gladiator 2. We are getting the first look, still unfinished,. Ridley Scott is on screen, from London, to promote the footage. What a legend. 

Denzel Washington, Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn, Connie Nielsen, and Pedro Pascal are part of an intro reel, where they rave about teaming with Ridley, getting massive-scale sets, and huge productions. Now we are seeing a five minute reel.  

Holy shit, the Gladiator 2 footage is INCREDIBLE. Paul Mescal looks like a worthy successor to Russell Crowe. There are nods throughout to the original, but it also increases the stakes of the games. We saw new Gladiators facing animal threats in the Coliseum, including ferocious monkeys, and a rhino! Denzel Washington is a mentor for Mescal who also has ulterior motives. The scale is massive, and both Quinn and Pascal look terrifying as the powerful rulers making life miserable for the lower class. Another Ridley masterpiece? 

And that's it for Paramount! Thanks for following along.