CinemaCon Predictions: 'Superman,' Michael Jackson, Tom Cruise, Lots of Sequels, and Plenty of “Window” Talk

Happy Wednesday, folks, and apologies for the delay!

It was a grim weekend at the box office, where WB’s horribly titled gangster movie The Alto Knights utterly bombed, and Disney’s live-action Snow White generated more articles about “What Went Wrong” than it did ticket sales. I didn’t see either movie, but that’s not why Hollywood should be concerned. Hollywood should be concerned that I didn’t care about missing either one, and that’s the real problem — apathy.

Instead, I spent the weekend watching A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read, the five-part docuseries on Max about the infamous murder case that divided my home state of Massachusetts. I thought I might be all Karen Read-ed out, but I was wrong, as I found this docuseries fairly gripping.

Not only did I get a front-row seat to the trial through Read’s eyes — and kudos to director Terry Dunn Meurer for getting such incredible access — but I also learned a lot about Officer John O’Keefe, the Boston cop who tragically lost his life that night. If you don’t know much about this case, check out the Max series and hit me up with your own theory about what happened that fateful night.

I also rewatched Dito Montiel’s crime comedy Riff Raff, which held up better than I suspected it might. I gave it 2.5 stars last year out of TIFF, and I stand by that assessment, but the film played a bit better on my television than on the big screen, and I really liked the ensemble — especially Lewis Pullman and Michael Angelo Covino.

Late Sunday night, I watched the first two episodes of Guy Ritchie’s new Paramount+ series MobLand, though it’s under embargo until Friday, so come back at the end of the week for more on that one.

On Monday morning, I woke up to confirmation of my scoop from six weeks ago about Linda Cardellini starring in Peacock’s Friday the 13th prequel series Crystal Lake. Huzzah! I had a feeling she wasn’t going to turn that one down…

The following morning, Amazon MGM formally confirmed that David Heyman and Amy Pascal would produce the next James Bond movie — though their deal is said to be a one-off. They don’t have the keys to the Bond kingdom just yet, as Amazon wisely wants to wait and see what they do with the movie before entrusting them with the entire 007 universe — TV series and all.

Tonight, you’ll read about my predictions for CinemaCon, the star-studded industry confab that kicks off next week in Las Vegas. Plus, I review Seth Rogen’s new Apple TV+ series The Studio, which actually features an entire episode set at CinemaCon.

There are also items about Austin Butler teaming up with Jeremy Allen White, Jessica Chastain making art deals for Adam Driver, Lizzo returning to Amazon, the leads of Universal’s new Mummy movie, Kevin Hart’s latest Netflix comedy, Emmy Rossum’s new Hulu series, a Hawk Tuah documentary, and the trailer for Jai Courtney’s upcoming serial killer thriller Dangerous Animals.

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