First footage shown at Vegas convention of ‘The Revenant,’ ‘The Martian’ and ‘Joy’

By Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Leonardo DiCaprio has gone wild.

A first look at footage from “The Revenant,” an upcoming film by Oscar-winning director Alejando Iñárritu, shows a scraggly DiCaprio in furs and skins in the snowy, bleak 1820s Canadian wilderness.

The movie due in January follows frontiersman Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) on his hunt for vengeance against comrades who wronged him.

The footage was shown Thursday at CinemaCon, a gathering of movie exhibitors in Las Vegas.

Twentieth Century Fox debuted first looks at a handful of its upcoming films, including David O. Russell’s “Joy,” Ridley Scott’s “The Martian,” and “The Peanuts Movie.”

The preview of “Joy,” which is still shooting, was merely a collection of clips showcasing the all-star cast of Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro set to ominous church bells.

The four generation family drama tells the story of Joy (Lawrence), who rises to become the head of a billion-dollar empire. It was difficult to glean a narrative from the dialogue-free clips, but the grainy esthetic recalled the look of the “Godfather” films.

In “The Martian,” an adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel, Matt Damon plays a man who is presumed dead and left behind by his mission mates on Mars. Viewers see Mark Watney (Damon) attempting to live and survive on the hostile planet while waiting for his crew (including Jessica Chastain, Kate Mara and Chiwetel Ejiofor) to receive his distress call and embark on a four-year journey to rescue him.

Scott’s film looks like a classic rescue adventure, imbued with humour and emotion and echoes of last year’s “Interstellar.”

There have been previous teasers for “The Peanuts Movie,” but the theatre owners were treated to the first trailer for the upcoming film that finds Charlie Brown yearning to speak to the Little Red-Haired Girl. The classic structure of Charles Schulz’s characters was preserved, even though the film will be presented in 3-D when it is released on Nov. 6.

“Peanuts,” Fox Chairman and CEO Jim Gianopulous said, “speaks to the part of us that will always be young.”

The audience also got a peek at the gothic horror movie “Victor Frankenstein,” starring James McAvoy as Victor and Daniel Radcliffe as Igor. The trailer showed only glimpses of the terrifying monster as McAvoy’s character screams “where is your soul” to his creation.

Fox also brought out the casts of “Spy,” including Jude Law, Jason Statham, Rose Byrne and 50 Cent, and the entire “Fantastic Four” group of Kate Mara, Miles Teller, Jamie Bell, and Michael B. Jordan.

Universal Studios will be the final studio to present films before the convention closes.

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Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr

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