Warner Bros.
With so many moviegoers flocking to theaters over the long Thanksgiving weekend, Warner Bros. is taking advantage of that by releasing teaser trailers for two of its 2018 family films, the recently acquired Paddington 2 and the intriguing comedy Smallfoot.
Warners just picked up distribution rights to Paddington 2 after Canal Plus pulled out of their deal with the Weinstein Company amid the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Producer David Heyman already had a relationship with Warners from making eight Harry Potter movies and Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity with the studio.
Obviously, Paddington 2 is the sequel to the 2014 worldwide hit, which grossed $268 mill. globally and $76.3 mill. of that amount in North America, which led to the greenlighting of the sequel.
Both movies are based on the beloved fictional bear that isn’t Winnie the Pooh but was created by author Michael Bond and artist Peggy Fortnum in 1958, leading to appearances in hundreds of books and a number of television shows before the 2014 movie.
The sequel is again directed by Paul King and features the voices of Ben Whishaw (as Paddington), Imelda Staunton and Michael Gambon, as well as the entirety of Sally Hawkins, Hugh Bonneville and Julie Walters.
Unlike the very British import, Smallfoot comes from Karey Kirkpatrick (Over the Hedge, Chicken Run) and co-director Jason Reisig (another DreamWorks Animation vet), and it features the voices of Channing Tatum, Zendaya (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Gina Rodriguez, Danny DeVito and more.
Smallfoot is about a band of Yeti, one of whom believes that the elusive “humans” really exist.
These are two of Warners’ primary family films for the year, other than the Fantastic Beasts sequel and a Teen Titans Go! animated movie.
Paddington 2 is already playing in the UK and other countries, and it will expand to more territories over the rest of 2017. It was originally scheduled for Jan. 12 when the Weinstein Company was releasing it, but it hasn’t been determined and confirmed that Warners will stick to that date. Smallfoot is scheduled for release on Sept. 28, 2018.
You can watch both of the new teaser trailers below.
Edward Douglas | East Coast Editor
