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Prior to Universal Pictures chairman Donna Langley being lauded at tonight’s Pioneer of the Year Dinner, the studio held its CinemaCon splash for industryites with a heavy spotlight on their
Illumination Entertainment unit. The big news centered around _The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. _Mike Fleming reported that Benedict Cumberbatch had landed the title role. In addition,
_South Park_‘s Trey Parker has signed on to play Gru’s villain in _Despicable Me 3, _Balthazar Brat, a has been ’80s kid pop star turned bad. In addition, Gru will get a new, fastidious
wavy-haired blonde doppelganger, Dru, who will also be voiced by Steve Carell. _Despicable Me 3 _comes out on June 30, 2017. Each studio has their specialty in their CinemaCon presentations
i.e. Warner Bros. with star appearances, Disney in showing _Finding Dory _and _Captain America: Civil War. _Uni has trotted out mostly filmmakers like _Jason Bourne _producer Frank Marshall,
_Girl on the Train _director Tate Taylor, _Warcraft _helmer Duncan Jones and Illumination Entertainment chief Chris Meledandri. But the one star Uni strutted out was introduced Michael
“Let’s Get Ready to Rumble” Buffer, and that was their _Ride Along _B.O. king Kevin Hart who took stage with Vegas showgirls in tow. Like most of these studio sessions, the emphasis was on
the 2016 slate, with touches of what’s yet to come. WATCH ON DEADLINE Universal president of domestic distribution Nick Carpou started the event. Uni has the most to crow about at CinemaCon
after hitting industry records last year with $6.89B at the domestic B.O. and $4.4B overseas. “Together we are giant,” Carpou told exhibs in the audience. He then introduced Langley “as
your true host today”. The execs on stage agree 2015 will be a hard act to follow. Unlike other studios who have recycled trailers already online in their presentations, Uni showed us clips
that have never been seen before. Legendary’s ambitious _Warcraft _movie was the first footage projected. Uni and pic’s producers hope the videogame’s faithful show up for this big screen
adaptation. Taylor spoke about _The Girl on the Train,_ Uni’s first DreamWorks release in a while._ _“Every so often there is that book, that everyone reads on the train, in their
tub…finally I decided to read this title and couldn’t put it down. From the first page, it grips you. When a book stays on NY Times book list for a year, and gets talked about with passion
you know it’s worthy,” said the director. The trailer has all the touchstones of an autumn thriller hit ala _Gone Girl: _earth tones, great acting in Emily Blunt and New York City backdrops.
It hits theaters on Oct. 7 Said Marshall about _Jason Bourne:_ “Reason why we haven’t had a movie in a few years, is because we wanted to get the story right…it’s a great new story that’s
contemporary with a fresh new take, a mixture of the old and the new.” He’s guaranteed “the best Bourne chase ever”. Uni showed off a kinetic, action-paced trailer laced with _Bourne
_adversary Tommy Lee Jones — it makes _Spectre _look like a movie one goes to sleep to. Hart took the mic with stand-up heft, in a way that he hasn’t yet at CinemaCon “I just get up here and
start cussin!… What I’m about to show you is groundbreaking…” said Hart, “I’m going to introduce to you _What Now? _My last tour because I don’t know if I’m going to go out and do it
again.” Before showing stand-up clips, the sequence was preceded by a _Bond _parody, Hart-style with Halle Berry and Don Cheadle. Hart wrestles with a Russian gangster who looks a lot like
Viggo Mortensen. There were a number of Illumination goods that Meledandri had to show off. First up, the new 10 minute short _More Minions _that will precede July 8’s _The Secret Life of
Pets._ Meledandri said that by the film opening three weeks after _Finding Dory, _it will have the added benefit of trailoring on the Pixar pic. It’s a similar tactic that Uni employed last
year with _Minions _following in the wake of Pixar’s _Inside Out. __ _He also showed the first 10 minutes of the animated musical _Sing. _It begins with beautiful black and white fully-drawn
stills. Matthew McConaughey plays a Koala bear, Buster Moon, who is making a living by the seat of his pants as live theater operator. He holds a singing contest and draws a huge line down
the street. However, Moon doesn’t realize that his googly-eyed lizard secretary listed the price at $100K. But Moon isn’t the only story here. There’s a hysterical bit with the animals
auditioning with pop hits, i.e. a female pig crooining Katy Perry’s “Firework” and a gorilla with a silky smooth voice much like Sam Smith’s (. Like Zootopia animals are the stars, but they
sing their hearts. There’s a gorilla with a voice as smooth as Sam Smith’s.