Sony At CinemaCon: Will Ferrell Sings Celine Dion; ‘Holmes & Watson’, ‘White Boy Rick’ & More

Sony At CinemaCon: Will Ferrell Sings Celine Dion; ‘Holmes & Watson’, ‘White Boy Rick’ & More

Refresh for updates: We’re live from the third mezzanine row of Caesars Palace Colosseum and Sony is the first up at bat with their CinemaCon presentation. Last year, the cool stuff was the riveting sci-fi footage from Alcon’s Blade Runner 2049 which Sony had foreign on, but this year everyone is looking out for Venom. Star Tom Hardy promised on Instagram that there was an “inbound CinemaCon new trailer” for the Spider-Man spinoff.

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Sony began with the funny and had Holmes & Watson star Will Ferrell take the stage. He immediately belted out “My Heart Will Go On” and shouted at the audience that they were in “The House that Celine built” after which he led the crowd in a series of “Hail Caesar!” cheers.

Ferrell then confessed, “I had an hour to kill before and I probably shouldn’t be sharing this, but I was doing some gambling and I literally won $50K playing roulette. I know I’m a person of means, but I won $50K and I’m not giving any of it back.”

The SNL alum threw it to a sizzle of his Talladega Nights and Step Brothers work with John C. Reilly which bled into their Holmes & Watson trailer. If Warners couldn’t pull of a Sherlock Holmes prequel, it looks like Sony is going to pull off a hysterical Sherlock Holmes period comedy as we see these two go wild in period England, specifically cracking a case of killer bees and battling them in a room. Truly one of the standouts in Sony’s reel tonight which included a clip from Hotel Transylvania 3, Miss Bala and Goosebumps: Haunted Halloween.

Sony worldwide marketing and distribution president Josh Greenstein followed touting how the studio’s mission to build “a diverse slate with cutting edge filmmakers…that’s our passion getting people off the couch and into your movie theaters.”

Greenstein took a moment to emphasize to those exhibs in the room the importance to “draw on data in digital platforms to drive ticket sales,” said the exec, “it’s crucial for our mutual success.”

Another great first look: the trailer to the Sept. 21 Studio 8 release White Boy Rick about the youngest drug hustler who was also an informant for the government. Gritty, raw, reminiscent of Martin Scorsese crossed with John Singleton. Matthew McConaughey and Section 8 boss Jeff Robinov introduced with the former saying that they found Richie Merritt, the actor who plays the title character in the principal’s office of a Baltimore school — and the principal vouched he’d be bad enough for the role. McConaughey’s Richard Wershe Sr. is a “schemer, not the best dad” whose son Rick Jr. “becomes the breadwinner” of the family. Lots of drug cutting, dollars bills and a fierce Jennifer Jason Leigh.

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