‘Fantastic Four’ Footage, Cast Impress Exhibitors at CinemaCon

Coming off a record-setting $5.5 billion year at the worldwide box office, 20th Century Fox brought an impressive slate of movies and stars to CinemaCon on Thursday — including the quartet of “Fantastic Four” actors.

The studio acknowledged that this version of “Fantastic Four” is being closely watched by its core audience. “The fanboys will let you know if you don’t get it right,” said new studio co-chair Stacey Snider before introducing the quartet comprising Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara and Jamie Bell.

(In 2005, the studio also released a “Fantastic Four,” which grossed $330.6 million worldwide in box office.)

“We’re not supposed to say much about this,” Teller told the audience before the footage played. “Fantastic Four,” which will be released on Aug. 7, is a reimagining of Marvel’s superhero team. It centers on four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate universe, which changes their physical form. The film is directed by Josh Trank from a screenplay by Jeremy Slater, Simon Kinberg and Trank. It is based on the Marvel comicbook by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

The trailer showed Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Jordan) and Sue Storm/Invisible Girl (Mara) in flight and plenty of fight scenes for Thing (Bell).

“That was really fantastic,” said studio chief Jim Gianopulos.

The studio also elicited an impressive reaction to footage of Ridley Scott’s “The Martian,” with Matt Damon speaking via video about his stranded astronaut character trying to survive on Mars while awaiting a rescue. “It’s space; it doesn’t cooperate,” his character said at one point.

In a presentation for Melissa McCarthy’s comedy “Spy,” 50 Cent generated major laughs claiming that he actually was the actress in disguise. Rose Byrne, Jude Law and Jason Statham also appeared and bantered on stage — mostly about Statham’s turn as a comic performer. “It’s Jason Statham as you’ve never seen him,” Byrne said.

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