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'Spider-Man' Sequels and Bad Bunny Kick off Buoyant CinemaCon Summit

Puerto Rican rapper Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, appeared on stage at CinemaCon VALERIE MACON AFP
Puerto Rican rapper Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, appeared on stage at CinemaCon VALERIE MACON AFP
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'Spider-Man' Sequels and Bad Bunny Kick off Buoyant CinemaCon Summit

Puerto Rican rapper Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, appeared on stage at CinemaCon VALERIE MACON AFP
Puerto Rican rapper Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, appeared on stage at CinemaCon VALERIE MACON AFP

Hollywood bosses showcased new "Spider-Man" sequels and brought rap superstar Bad Bunny on stage to kick off a bullish meeting of movie theater industry leaders in Las Vegas Monday.

The CinemaCon summit draws Tinseltown executives to giant casino ballrooms each year, where owners of theaters -- from global chains to tiny independents -- are treated to never-before-seen footage and A-list appearances.

After a subdued edition last August, big-screen operators were back in a buoyant mood, with box office hauls now recovering from successive Covid-hit years -- not to mention news that streaming juggernaut Netflix recorded its first subscriber loss in more than a decade, AFP said.

"What are you doing here? Everyone said you're dead, everyone said you're finished," joked Tom Rothman, chairman of Sony Pictures, to cheers from theater owners.

Theaters have particularly been encouraged by hits like Sony's recent "Spider-Man: No Way Home" -- the third-biggest US box office success of all time, grossing $1.9 billion worldwide.

Phil Lord and Chris Miller, directors of Oscar-winning 2018 animation "Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse," unveiled unfinished footage from the first 15 minutes of their sequel "Across the Spider-Verse," out next summer.

It featured various male and female Spidey heroes hopping between dimensions -- and will be followed by another animated sequel, the newly announced "Beyond the Spider-Verse," in 2024.

In its opening-night presentation, Sony also presented footage from Brad Pitt action thriller "Bullet Train," based on a Japanese novel and out in July.

Early scenes showed Pitt's wise-cracking hitman pacing through neon-lit Tokyo streets before brawling with music superstar-turned-actor Bad Bunny on a train.

"That's not my first fight," joked the chart-topping Puerto Rican rapper, who was also unveiled as the first Latino to lead a live-action Marvel superhero film -- "El Muerto," out in January 2024.

Viola Davis appeared on stage to accept the event's inaugural "trailblazer" prize -- while plugging her upcoming film "The Woman King," a historical epic about the female warriors of the west African kingdom of Dahomey, out in September.

"I wanted to be a producer who championed those stories with people with a history that looked like me," said the "Fences" Oscar-winner.

She called the new film -- in which she also stars -- her "magnus opus."

Reese Witherspoon appeared by video to introduce her adaptation of best-selling novel "Where The Crawdads Sing," a creepy drama set around a murder in the North Carolina marshes, out this summer.

The presentation also confirmed new "Ghostbusters" and "Venom" sequels, and ended with a video message from boxing great George Foreman ahead of a new biopic about his career.

- 'Zeitgeist' -
This year's CinemaCon brings A-listers back in-person to Las Vegas, with Robert De Niro, Rachel McAdams and director David Cronenberg among those due to attend.

The stars stayed away last year when anxiety was high over the latest Covid-19 wave, and the mood was gloomy as Hollywood studios released films directly on streaming platforms, bypassing theaters.

Major studios have since cheered theater owners by largely reverting to an exclusive "window" when movies can only be seen on the big screen -- albeit for 45 days or less, down from around 90 days pre-pandemic.

Appearing by video, "Dune" director Denis Villeneuve said he was still "worried about the theatrical window getting shorter and shorter," and called for a return to longer windows to keep the movie-going experience "unique" and "precious."

Villeneuve spoke from Budapest, where preparation for his sci-fi epic sequel "Dune: Part Two" was going "full speed ahead," with the film due October 2023.

The Canadian director said he was "sad, horrified and worried" about the war in Ukraine, which led to Hollywood pulling films from Russian screens.

Warner Bros international chief Andrew Cripps said pirated copies of "The Batman" were playing at Russian theaters despite the embargo, but added that "we've all learnt to live with uncertainty in recent years."

Warner, which merged with Discovery this month to create Hollywood's newest giant, will present its upcoming films Tuesday, before Disney -- which skipped last year's event -- follows Wednesday.

CinemaCon concludes Thursday, when Paramount will present the first full screening of long-awaited sequel "Top Gun: Maverick."

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Entertainment

Perry Bamonte, Keyboardist and Guitarist for The Cure, Dies at 65

Perry Bamonte of The Cure performs at North Island Credit Union Amphitheater on May 20, 2023 in Chula Vista, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
Perry Bamonte of The Cure performs at North Island Credit Union Amphitheater on May 20, 2023 in Chula Vista, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Perry Bamonte, Keyboardist and Guitarist for The Cure, Dies at 65

Perry Bamonte of The Cure performs at North Island Credit Union Amphitheater on May 20, 2023 in Chula Vista, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
Perry Bamonte of The Cure performs at North Island Credit Union Amphitheater on May 20, 2023 in Chula Vista, California. (Getty Images/AFP)

Perry Bamonte, keyboardist and guitarist in The Cure, has died at 65, the English indie rock band confirmed through their official website on Friday.

In a statement, the band wrote that Bamonte died "after a short illness at home" on Christmas Day.

"It is with enormous sadness that ‌we confirm ‌the death of our ‌great ⁠friend and ‌bandmate Perry Bamonte who passed away after a short illness at home over Christmas," the statement said, adding he was a "vital part of The Cure story."

The statement said Bamonte was ⁠a full-time member of The Cure since 1990, ‌playing guitar, six-string bass, ‍and keyboards, and ‍performed in more than 400 shows.

Bamonte, ‍born in London, England, in 1960, joined the band's road crew in 1984, working alongside his younger brother Daryl, who worked as tour manager for The Cure.

Bamonte first worked as ⁠an assistant to co-founder and lead vocalist, Robert Smith, before becoming a full member after keyboardist Roger O'Donnell left the band in 1990.

Bamonte's first album with The Cure was "Wish" in 1992. He continued to work with them on the next three albums.

He also had various acting ‌roles in movies: "Judge Dredd,About Time" and "The Crow."

Entertainment

First Bond Game in a Decade Hit by Two-month Delay

'007 First Light' depicts a younger Bond earning his license to kill. Ina FASSBENDER / AFP
'007 First Light' depicts a younger Bond earning his license to kill. Ina FASSBENDER / AFP
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First Bond Game in a Decade Hit by Two-month Delay

'007 First Light' depicts a younger Bond earning his license to kill. Ina FASSBENDER / AFP
'007 First Light' depicts a younger Bond earning his license to kill. Ina FASSBENDER / AFP

A Danish video game studio said it was delaying the release of the first James Bond video game in over a decade by two months to "refine the experience".

Fans will now have to wait until May 27 to play "007 First Light" featuring Ian Fleming's world-famous spy, after IO Interactive said on Tuesday it was postponing the launch to add some final touches.

"007 First Light is our most ambitious project to date, and the team has been fully focused on delivering an unforgettable James Bond experience," the Danish studio wrote on X.

Describing the game as "fully playable", IO Interactive said the two additional months would allow their team "to further polish and refine the experience", giving players "the strongest possible version at launch".

The game, which depicts a younger Bond earning his license to kill, is set to feature "globe-trotting, spycraft, gadgets, car chases, and more", IO Interactive added.

It has been more than a decade since a video game inspired by Bond was released. The initial release date was scheduled for March 27.

Entertainment

Movie Review: An Electric Timothee Chalamet Is the Consummate Striver in Propulsive ‘Marty Supreme’

Timothee Chalamet attends the premiere of "Marty Supreme" at Regal Times Square on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in New York. (AP)
Timothee Chalamet attends the premiere of "Marty Supreme" at Regal Times Square on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in New York. (AP)
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Movie Review: An Electric Timothee Chalamet Is the Consummate Striver in Propulsive ‘Marty Supreme’

Timothee Chalamet attends the premiere of "Marty Supreme" at Regal Times Square on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in New York. (AP)
Timothee Chalamet attends the premiere of "Marty Supreme" at Regal Times Square on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in New York. (AP)

“Everybody wants to rule the world,” goes the Tears for Fears song we hear at a key point in “Marty Supreme,” Josh Safdie’s nerve-busting adrenaline jolt of a movie starring a never-better Timothee Chalamet.

But here’s the thing: everybody may want to rule the world, but not everybody truly believes they CAN. This, one could argue, is what separates the true strivers from the rest of us.

And Marty — played by Chalamet in a delicious synergy of actor, role and whatever fairy dust makes a performance feel both preordained and magically fresh — is a striver. With every fiber of his restless, wiry body. They should add him to the dictionary definition.

Needless to say, Marty is a New Yorker.

Also needless to say, Chalamet is a New Yorker.

And so is Safdie, a writer-director Chalamet has called “the street poet of New York.” So, where else could this story be set?

It’s 1952, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Marty Mauser is a salesman in his uncle’s shoe store, escaping to the storeroom for a hot tryst with his (married) girlfriend. This witty opening sequence won’t be the only thing recalling “Uncut Gems,” co-directed by Safdie with his brother Benny before the two split for solo projects. That film, which feels much like the precursor to “Marty Supreme,” began as a trip through the shiny innards of a rare opal, only to wind up inside Adam Sandler’s colon, mid-colonoscopy.

Sandler’s Howard Ratner was a New York striver, too, but sadder, and more troubled. Marty is young, determined, brash — with an eye always to the future. He’s a great salesman: “I could sell shoes to an amputee,” he boasts, crassly. But what he’s plotting to unveil to the world has nothing to do with shoes. It’s about table tennis.

How likely is it that this Jewish kid from the Lower East Side can become the very face of a sport in America, soon to be “staring at you from the cover of a Wheaties box?”

To Marty, perfectly likely. Still, he knows nobody in the US cares about table tennis. He’s so determined to prove everyone wrong, starting at the British Open in London, that when there’s a snag obtaining cash for his trip, he brandishes a gun at a colleague to get it.

Shaking off that sorta-armed robbery thing, Marty arrives in London, where he fast-talks his way into a suite at the Ritz. Here, he spies fellow guest Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow, in a wise, stylish return to the screen), a former movie star married to an insufferable tycoon (“Shark Tank” personality Kevin O’Leary, one of many nonactors here.)

Kay’s skeptical, but Marty finds a way to woo her. Really, all he has to say is: “Come watch me.” Once she sees him play, she’s sneaking into his room in a lace corselet.

This would be a good time to stop and consider Chalamet’s subtly transformed appearance. He is stick-thin — duh, he never stops moving. His mustache is skimpy. His skin is acne-scarred — just enough to erase any movie-star sheen. Most strikingly, his eyes, behind the round spectacles, are beady — and smaller. Definitely not those movie-star eyes.

But then, nearly all the faces in “Marty Supreme” are extraordinary. In a movie with more than 100 characters, we have known actors (Fran Drescher, Abel Ferrara); nonacting personalities (O’Leary, and an excellent Tyler Okonma (Tyler, The Creator) as Marty’s friend Wally); and exciting newcomers like Odessa A’Zion as Marty’s feisty girlfriend Rachel.

There are also a slew of nonactors in small parts, plus cameos from the likes of David Mamet and even high wire artist Philippe Petit. The dizzying array makes one curious how it all came together — is casting director Jennifer Venditti taking interns? Production notes tell us that for one hustling scene at a bowling alley, young men were recruited from a sports trading-card convention.

Elsewhere on the creative team, composer Daniel Lopatin succeeds in channeling both Marty’s beating heart and the ricochet of pingpong balls in his propulsive score. The script by Safdie and cowriter Ronald Bronstein, loosely based on real-life table tennis hustler Marty Reisman, beats with its own, never-stopping pulse. The same breakneck aesthetic applies to camera work by Darius Khondji.

Back now to London, where Marty makes the finals against Japanese player Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi, like his character a deaf table tennis champion). “I’ll be dropping a third atom bomb on them,” he brags — not his only questionable World War II quip. But Endo, with his unorthodox paddle and grip, prevails.

After a stint as a side act with the Harlem Globetrotters, including pingpong games with a seal — you’ll have to take our word for this, folks, we’re running low on space — Marty returns home, determined to make the imminent world championships in Tokyo.

But he's in trouble — remember he took cash at gunpoint? Worse, he has no money.

So Marty’s on the run. And he’ll do anything, however messy or dangerous, to get to Japan. Even if he has to totally debase himself (mark our words), or endanger friends — or abandon loyal and brave Rachel.

Is there something else for Marty, besides his obsessive goal? If so, he doesn’t know it yet. But the lyrics of another song used in the film are instructive here: “Everybody’s got to learn sometime.”

So can a single-minded striver ultimately learn something new about his own life?

We'll have to see. As Marty might say: “Come watch me.”