LAS VEGAS — Director Zack Snyder debuted the newest trailer for his Superman reboot Man of Steel to a rapt crowd during the Warner Bros. presentation at the filmmaking industry conference CinemaCon late Tuesday afternoon. The studio immediately placed it online, and you can watch it above. Prepare yourself for the goosebumps. (If you want to see it on the big screen, you can catch it in front of Universal's Oblivion on Friday.)
Warner Bros. is clearly bullish on the film, allowing the trailer to play for an unusual three minutes (most trailers are no longer than two-and-a-half minutes, but studios get to break that rule once every year). But the studio also unspooled a thorough preview of its upcoming 2013 slate, including extended sneak peaks at The Great Gatsby, The Hangover Part III, and Pacific Rim (although the latter's footage had already screened last month at the fan convention WonderCon).
Fascinatingly, these were all somewhat overshadowed by the footage from the August comedy We're the Millers, starring Jason Sudeikis and Jennifer Aniston as a fake family cobbled together to smuggle marijuana across the Mexico border. That sounds a bit...complicated, but in practice the film looked agreeably spry and silly. And then there was the moment that will likely be known forever as the "Tarantula bite balls scene." You've likely never heard of actor Will Poulter, who plays the fake Millers' son, but believe me, after this scene, you will never forget him.
The most welcome footage, however, came from first look glimpses at two other Warner Bros. titles. The first was a far too short trailer for Gravity, the intense sci-fi drama from Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men) starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts stranded in space after a disastrous accident. The footage was heavy on the accident, and used an intriguing (and dizzying) series of shots directly from Bullock's character's point-of-view, as she spun uncontrollably in the vast reaches of space.
Convention-goers also got a lengthly look at the fall drama Prisoners, about a Boston man (Hugh Jackman, looking trim and beard-y) who becomes desperate after his young daughter and her best friend suddenly both go missing. The clips include the awful moment when both girls' parents (Jackman, Maria Bello, Viola Davis, and Terrence Howard) realize they've disappeared, followed by an intense scene between Jackman and the cop (Jake Gyllenhaal) assigned to help find the girls. Man, when Wolverine really gets angry, there's nothing quite like it. The footage was especially impressive considering the film is still in production.
Warners also showed off glimpses at 300: Rise of an Empire (with Eva Green bringing some welcome female bad assery to the cornucopia of masculine abs and meaty gams); The Seventh Son (which looked like a mash-up of The Hobbit, Snow White and the Huntsman, and Game of Thrones, which I'm totally cool with, since it stars Kit Harington); and Getaway (which featured Selena Gomez continuing her post-Disney serious actor phase, and I know this because she was wearing a hoodie).