Cinema Con gets sneak peek of ‘crazier, sexier’ Baywatch

LAS VEGAS— Cinema Con just got a little less dressed.

The cast of Baywatch took the stage Tuesday afternoon alongside around two dozen scantily clad men and women sporting the classic red bathing suits to preview the film for exhibitors and theatre owners at the annual convention.

Star Dwayne Johnson told the audience that their movie is going to be the craziest, sexiest, funniest R-rated comedy of the summer. Johnson called their group the “Avengers of the beach.”

He also introduced new footage in what they called a “fuchsia band” trailer, riffing on the risqué nature of the NSFW “red band” trailer.

Indeed, there was a fair amount of skin in the footage — including a naked male cadaver that Zac Efron’s character has to inspect — which highlighted both its self-aware comedy and action/adventure on the beach.

Baywatch, which picks up on the hugely popular, beach-bod-baring ’90s TV series, also stars Alexandra Daddario and Priyanka Chopra. It hits theatres on May 26.

Paramount Pictures in their presentation put the spotlight on a different kind of heat, debuting the first trailer for Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Sequel, which comes out July 28. The former U.S. vice-president, who walked out to Nelly’s “Hot in Herre,” was on hand to introduce the ad, saying that he hopes the film “will be a tool for galvanizing action in our communities.”

Audiences also got an extended look at Transformers: The Last Knight, the fifth film in the franchise, which imagines that transformers fought alongside King Arthur. Mark Wahlberg stars alongside Anthony Hopkins and comedian Jerrod Carmichael in the film out June 23.

The studio also made sure to highlight more prestigious films on the slate, like Ex Machina director Alex Garland’s Annihilation, a sure-to-be mindbender starring Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac, and Alexander Payne’s Downsizing. Matt Damon and Payne were on site to preview footage from the satirical Downsizing, out in December, which imagines a world where people can literally shrink themselves to save money and lead a better lifestyle.

Damon also joined Julianne Moore and George Clooney to discuss Suburbicon, a Coen brothers-scripted and Clooney-directed dark crime comedy set for a Nov. 3 release.

Clooney noted that their release puts them up against the superhero pic Thor: Ragnarok, which comes out the same day.

“Thor is a handsome, good-looking man with a hammer . . . and we have Matt,” Clooney deadpanned.