Paramount Kicks off CineEurope With 'Captain America,' 'Cowboys & Aliens' and 'Puss in Boots' Footage

AMSTERDAM -- Paramount Pictures kicked off the 20th anniversary of exhibitors conference CineEurope with exclusive footage of several of its would-be tentpoles this year including Captain America: First Avenger, Cowboys & Aliens and Puss in Boots.

CineEurope attendees got a sneak peek of Marvel's latest with Captain America footage that highlighted the film's 1940s period setting and included the transformation of star Chris Evans from 90 lbs. weakling Steve Rogers to buffed-up stars-and-stripes superhero. The Cowboys & Aliens footage included a first look at the gooey E.T. invaders depicted by director Jon Favreau, who sent a video message to CineEurope attendees says his Transformers meets True Grit sci-fi Western, starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, would provide "everything an audience is looking for in a summer blockbuster."

Dreamworks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg took the stage himself to introduce some 15 minutes of Puss and Boots footage, most of it in 3D, before sitting down for a Q&A session with Puss star Antonio Banderas. Katzenberg said the Spanish star had been pushing for an origin story for his furry character, made famous by the Shrek franchise, since 2004.

"It was in Cannes and he said to me 'we make a Puss movie, baby,' and the way he says it, you just have to do it."

Other Paramount personalities joining CineEurope via video included Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese, who talked up family film Hugo Cabret, his first 3D feature.

"The experience of working in 3D was like rediscovering the movies all over again," Scorsese said.

But the biggest laughs came from Sacha Baron Cohen, who sent a video to support his new comedy The Dictator, due out May 2012.

Speaking in character as the mad potentate of a fictional North African nation, Cohen joked his country had recently become a world leader in the film business "thanks to our $2 billion film fund and to kidnapping James Cameron and his two children. We have already started production on several new movies including You've got Mail Bomb and Non-Consensual Sex In The City."

Plugging The Dictator, Cohen quipped that the movie "has not begun shooting yet but already has a 98% approval rating" before advising CineEurope attendees to go to the nearby Novotel Hotel "where you will receive promotional materials, a Rolex and a girl of your choice, or a boy if you are Belgium. And information on the whereabouts of your families."