LAS VEGAS, April 27, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson topped a
superhero-packed bill as Warner Bros presented its upcoming slate of
blockbusters at CinemaCon on Tuesday, while Baz Luhrmann's "Elvis" graced the
Las Vegas casino stage at the movie industry summit.

  Johnson -- Hollywood's top-grossing actor -- appeared unannounced to
promote his upcoming DC film "Black Adam" at the annual gathering, where
Warner bosses also confirmed a sequel to Robert Pattinson's "The Batman" is
on the way.

  Further superhero sequels "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" and "Aquaman and the
Lost Kingdom," as well as new standalone film "The Flash," were also
presented to movie theater executives and managers, who gather each year at
Caesars Palace casino to be courted by Hollywood's top studios and A-listers.

  Johnson described his character in "Black Adam" as "the Dirty Harry of the
superhero world," with ambiguous morals.

  "Heroes don't kill people," says one villain in never-before-seen footage,
to which Black Adam replies: "Well I do."

  Warner and Johnson are banking on "Black Adam" -- out in October --
becoming a major draw for their DC superhero film universe, which has grossed
billions without reaching the heights of the rival and record-breaking Marvel
films such as "Avengers: Endgame."

  Johnson surprised attendees by pretending to speak from Hawaii via video,
before suddenly appearing in the Caesars Palace ballroom.

  - 'The original superhero' -

  Beyond the superhero fare, which dominates modern megaplexes, Baz Luhrmann
took the stage to discuss "Elvis."

  Luhrmann called the film -- out in June, starring Austin Butler as Elvis
Presley and Tom Hanks as his domineering manager -- as less a biopic and more
the tale of "America in the 1950s, 60s and 70s."

  "At the center of culture, for the good, the bad and the ugly, is the
figure Elvis Presley," said Luhrmann, describing the music icon as "the
original superhero."

  "What this movie is about is America in those three epochs: Elvis the
rebel, Elvis the highest paid actor in Hollywood and Elvis the living legend,
the icon, trapped in that hotel not 10 minutes from here," he told the Las
Vegas crowd.

  Early footage was shown from "Wonka" -- starring Timothee Chalamet as Roald
Dahl's chocolatier before he opened his factory -- and Olivia Wilde's "Don't
Worry Darling," a twisty thriller inspired by mind-bending movies such as
"The Truman Show" and "Inception," out in September.

  - Bowie and body horror -

  Earlier Tuesday, an experimental new David Bowie documentary featuring
never-before-seen footage and the late music superstar's own narration was
previewed by indie studio Neon.

  "Moonage Daydream" will premiere at next month's glitzy Cannes film
festival before hitting theaters in September. It is the first film to be
approved by Bowie's estate, which gave director Brett Morgen access to
thousands of hours of archives.

  "Bowie cannot be defined. He can be experienced," said Morgen.

  "We've crafted 'Moonage Daydream' to be a unique cinematic theatrical
experience -- to offer audiences that which they can't get from a book or an
article."

  Neither biopic nor traditional documentary, the film blends Bowie's songs,
concert clips, extensive fan footage and a series of surreal, trippy and
abstract images.

  Neon also previewed "Crimes of the Future" from David Cronenberg, the
director of "Crash" and "The Fly," who pioneered the "body horror" genre.

  The film starring Kristen Stewart, Viggo Mortenson and Lea Seydoux imagines
a world in which humans are forced to speed up their evolution with grisly
organ transplants and body modifications to survive their changing
environment.

  Cronenberg told AFP the film, which will also premiere at Cannes, was "a
difficult film maybe, an extreme film, an unusual film."

  CinemaCon runs until Thursday.