Lionsgate hosted a high-octane CinemaCon presentation on Wednesday morning, showing first footage from Michael, Ballerina, and Good Fortune, and announcing a partnership with Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap on Monopoly.
The studio also brought Halle Berry, Aziz Ansari, Henry Cavill and Eli Roth on to the stage at The Colosseum in Caesars Palace and talked up Borderlands, The Crow, and a trio of Guy Ritchie features.
Michael producer Graham King took to the stage at the session finale to introduce extended first footage from his Michael Jackson biopic, showing Jackson in his youth and later in life as the world-beating performer entertaining crowds on what appeared to be the Bad tour.
The late Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson stars as the adult Jackson and the cast includes Colman Domingo and Nia Long as his parents.
King, whose credits include the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody about the life of Queen singer Freddie Mercury and The Departed, said he has always been drawn to characters who are multi-dimensional and complex.
“Creatively as you can imagine, Michael Jackson ticks all those boxes,” he said, adding that the biopic will present an objective take on Jackson’s public career and private life, and will feature more than 30 songs.
“The movie will get into all of it,” King promised. He did not elaborate on how or if the biopic would tackle the controversies and allegations that blighted Jackson later in life.
Antoine Fuqua is in production around Los Angeles on Michael based on a screenplay by John Logan and the film is scheduled to open worldwide through Lionsgate and Universal Pictures International on April 18, 2025.
First footage from Len Wiseman’s June 6, 2025, release of John Wick spin-off Ballerina showed Ana de Armas in the title role as a vengeful ballerina assassin. Sequences showed the character fighting adversaries against a snowy backdrop, and as a young girl tutored by Anjelica Huston as The Director. A brief appearance of Keanu Reeves as Wick drew cheers from attendees.
Adam Fogelson, chair, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, hosted the session and showed high-octane footage from Eli Roth’s sci-fi action comedy and video game adaptation Borderlands starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Roth took to the stage to talk up the August 19 release with CinemaCon Rising Star of the year Ariana Greenblatt, who was 13 when the film shot in 2021 before she starred in last year’s smash Barbie.
Comedian, actor and filmmaker Aziz Ansari appeared on stage and delivered a brief comedy routine and talked up his upcoming comedy Good Fortune in which he stars alongside Seth Rogen and Reeves as the Archangel Gabriel who helps a man that is down on his luck.
“I do not buy this idea that theatrical comedies are not a thing,” said Ansari. “It’s not true. There’s been four of them since the pandemic and one of them made $1bn, so I think we’re OK.”
Halle Berry joined the session to promote Alexandre Aja’s horror Never Let Go opening on September 27. Berry, who also serves as executive producer, revealed she has always been an adrenaline junkie and learned how to skin a squirrel to play a mother of two children in a forest home who are haunted by an evil spirit.
Fogelson also cued up footage from Rupert Sanders’ The Crow reimagining starring Bill Skarsgard and FKA Twigs. Inspired by the 1994 original starring the late Brandon Lee, the revenge saga has been moved from June 7 to August 23.
Early in the presentation Henry Cavill talked up April 19 Second World War action release The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare on April 19, and two others films for the studio.
The British actor stars alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Eliza Gonzalez in In The Gray, which is in post and opens on January 17, 2025. Fogelson cued up early footage.
Cavill is also preparing to work on the Highlander reboot from Chad Stahelski, who has an overall deal with the studio and oversees the Highlander and John Wick franchises.
Mark Wahlberg sent a recorded message from Australia to introduce the first trailer from Mel Gibson’s thriller Flight Risk, in which he plays a psychopath.
There was also footage from Dave Bautista’s hitman action comedy thriller The Killer’s Game starring Ben Kingsley and Sofia Boutella; and Joe Carnahan’s thriller Shadow Force starring Kerry Washington and Omar Sy as an estranged couple and their son who go on the run from their former Special Ops employers. Mark Strong also stars.
The 2024 pipeline includes two from Kingdom Story Company, Lionsgate’s faith-based partner behind last year’s $52m domestic hit Jesus Revolution. Unsung Hero opens on April 26, and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever on November 8. Horror title The Strangers: Chapter 1 opens on May 17.
Coming in the near future, besides Highlander, the studio is working with Destin Daniel Cretton on the adventure fantasy Naruto, and with Ruben Fleischer on Now You See Me 3.
Fogelson opened the session by hailing 2023 hits John Wick 4, The Hunger Games: The Ballard Of Songbirds & Snakes, and Saw X.
With regard to the Monopoly deal, Lionsgate and Hasbro are partnering with Robbie, Tom Ackerley, and Josey McNamara’s LuckyChap to produce Monopoly.
Hasbro Entertainment will also produce the project after Lionsgate extended its development rights to the popular board game with its purchase of eOne, which was completed last December.
LuckyChap most recently produced Barbie, the highest-grossing release of 2023 on more than $1.45bn worldwide, as well as Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn and the upcoming Sundance selection My Old Ass starring Aubrey Plaza and Maisy Stella.
James Myers is overseeing Monopoly on behalf of Lionsgate and Robert Melnik led the dealmaking.
At the start of the session Lionsgate announced it is teaming up with Blumhouse on a reimagining of The Blair Witch Project.
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