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LAS VEGAS — Lionsgate brought a ton of talent to the stage at the final presentation of CinemaCon.
Kevin Hart was a playful master of ceremonies at the event at Caesars Palace on Thursday. The presentation included the debut of Lionsgate’s animated logo, appearances by Liam Hemswoth, Elizabeth Banks, Morgan Freeman, Isla Fisher, Harrison Ford and Joss Whedon and new footage from The Escape Plan and the highly anticipated sci-fi film Ender’s Game.
“You all can do better than that. Stop being racist. Clap your hands, people,” Hart said when he took the stage.
Hart, whose film Let Me Explain comes out July 3, was quick to loosen up the crowd with plenty of jokes, plugging his own film repeatedly.
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“I bought this suit yesterday, very expensive suit. You know how I can buy it? Because I’m very successful,” he joked.
Hart then introduced Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer, who announced that they’ve struck a deal for Hart’s next project, which will be called Quick & Easy.
“The one point that was quick and easy to agree upon is that Kevin should have his own driver,” Feltheimer said, alluding to Hart’s recent DUI charge.
Feltheimer then gave the audience the first look at Lionsgate’s new animated logo.
Next, Freeman and Fisher came onstage to introduce a trailer from Now You See Me, hitting theaters May 31. The film follows a team of illusionists who pull off bank heists.
A new trailer for Escape Plan, the prison-set action film starring Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, debuted, with the former California governor sporting a salt-and-pepper beard and the two participating in plenty of explosive work and fighting.
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Whedon also appeared onstage to plug his black-and-white film Much Ado About Nothing, which hits theaters June 7.
“Nothing I do is subtle,” said Whedon. “That’s probably all I have in common with Shakespeare.”
Trailers also were shown for Hart’s Let Me Explain, the horror pic You’re Next and the action ensemble sequel Red 2.
Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-chairman Rob Friedman introduced the stars of Ender’s Game — Asa Butterfield and Hailee Steinfeld — who teased the first footage to be seen in front of an audience.
The trailer, which will play in theaters beginning May 17 in front of Star Trek Into Darkness, showed a rich, detailed sci-fi world where a young man is tasked with preparing for a future invasion.
After the trailer, Ford took the stage to talk about the sci-fi film.
“I was attracted to it not just for the scale of it and the power of it visually, but there’s a great human story here,” he said.
The presentation wrapped up with The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the sequel to 2012’s box-office hit. The sequel opens Nov. 22.
Hemswoth, Banks and director Francis Lawrence took the stage to introduce the trailer, which already had hit the web but had not been shown on a big screen yet.
Email: Rebecca.Ford@thr.com; Twitter: @Beccamford
rests in your hands.””]
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