Lionsgate showed CinemaCon attendees previews of The Killer’s Game, Mel Gibson’s Flight Risk, Good Fortune & more

Last Updated on April 14, 2024

Lionsgate had a whole lot of interesting projects to promote at CinemaCon today. Alexandre Aja’s Never Let Go, The Crow remake, the Margot Robbie-produced Monopoly, Guy Ritchie’s In the Grey and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Highlander, Borderlands, a Blumhouse reimagining of The Blair Witch Project, the John Wick spin-off Ballerina, the Michael Jackson biopic Michael, they all got a moment in the spotlight in one way or another. And that’s far from the complete list. Attendees also got to see trailers and previews of multiple other films, and we’ve got a bit of a round-up compiled below.

The Killer’s Game: An action comedy directed by stuntman J.J. Perry and starring Dave Bautista, Sofia Boutella, Terry Crews, Pom Klementieff, and Ben Kingsley. Based on Jay Bonansinga’s novel, The Killer’s Game follows a veteran assassin (Bautista), who is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and authorizes a hit on himself to avoid the pain that is destined to follow. But soon after, he finds out that he was misdiagnosed— and must fend off an army of former colleagues trying to kill him. A trailer for this film was shown during the panel, and JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray reports that “The person in charge of the contract is Pom Klementieff, who hates Bautista because he killed her father and she calls in all the assassins in Europe to kill him. Looks like a hardcore, R-rated action flick and might be Bautista’s John Wick.“

Flight Risk: A “very slick action thriller” directed by Mel Gibson and starring Mark Wahlberg. CinemaCon attendees got to see a trailer for this one, and Bumbray writes that it “seems commercial. Michelle Dockery is a US Marshal flying a witness (Topher Grace) to testify against the mob, but the pilot of the plane is a psychopathic hit man played by Mark Wahlberg playing WAY against type. He even shaved his head to look like he has a bald pate. Looks like a really tight kickass thriller, and Gibson REALLY makes Walhberg look crazy in this. Scored by a cover of Talking Heads’ ‘Psycho Killer.’“

Also promoted was director Joe Carnahan’s Shadow Force, which is about “an estranged couple with a bounty on their heads who must go on the run with their son to avoid their former employer, a shadow ops unit sent to kill them.” The film stars Kerry Washington and Omar Sy, and Bumbray said it’s “another cool looking action flick in the John Wick vein.“

A trailer for The Strangers: Chapter 1 was shown, but it may have been the same trailer we’ve already seen online. Directed by Renny Harlin and shot simultaneously with two sequels (Chapter 2 and Chapter 3), The Strangers: Chapter 1 centers on a character played by Madelaine Petsch (Riverdale) as she drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend (Gutierrez) to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest. When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers. Lionsgate plans from there to expanding the story in new and unexpected ways with its sequels. JoBlo’s own Lance Vlcek, who attended the panel with Bumbray, reports that these films are being sold as “an origin story of how the Strangers came to be.“

Another trailer shown during the panel was for the comedy Good Fortune, which was directed by Aziz Ansari – who also stars in the film alongside Seth Rogen and Keanu Reeves. Bumbray reports, “Ansari is a broke guy who goes to work for a rich asshole, played by Rogen. Reeves plays an angel! Even has wings. He’s a f*ck-up angel who wants to save Ansari from killing himself. So what he does is he swaps Ansari and Rogen’s lives. But, Reeves thinks Ansari will realize ‘wealth won’t solve his problems’ but Ansari loves being rich and won’t go back to where he was before. The idea backfires so much it costs Reeves his wings, so now the three guys, Rogen, Ansari and Reeves are all stuck together. Looks hilarious and might become a HUGE hit. Reeves is really hilarious in it.” After the trailer was shown, Ansari took the stage. He said he “hates that comedies are no longer going to theaters. So he wanted to prove you could make a big comedy with stars that will be hit. He wanted it to be in the vein of big comedies like Anchorman and 40 Year Old Virgin. Keanu – the man Chad Stahelski couldn’t break while making the John Wick movies – actually broke his knee by tripping on a run in his dressing room. He did the whole movie with a broken knee but you can’t tell. He wanted to do everything and just plowed through.“

What do you think of the Lionsgate line-up that was promoted at CinemaCon? Which of these movies are you looking forward to? Let us know by leaving a comment below.