After making its CinemaCon debut last year, Angel Studios returned to the Las Vegas trade show on Wednesday morning to showcase the films it is bringing to the big screen in 2025 with the support of its most loyal followers, the Angel Guild.
While its 2024 films didn’t reach the stunning heights of the studio’s claim to fame, “Sound of Freedom,” the studio is using the profits from that film to flex its muscles, attracting some big-name Hollywood stars and veteran filmmakers to its upcoming titles.
That includes its first animated feature, “The King of Kings,” a kid-friendly retelling of the Gospel narrated by Kenneth Branagh as Charles Dickens, who is retelling the story of Jesus to his child. The cast also features Oscar Isaac as Jesus and Pierce Brosnan as Pontius Pilate, with Uma Thurman, Mark Hamill, Ben Kingsley and Roman Griffin Davis rounding out the cast.
For its summer releases, Angel is releasing on Memorial Day weekend “The Last Rodeo,” a film from “Fried Green Tomatoes” director Jon Avnet that stars Neal McDonough as a retired bull rider who risks his life to get back in the game and win the money he needs for a life-saving brain surgery for his grandson.
In August comes “Sketch,” a family-friendly dark fantasy starring Tony Hale as a man whose daughter draws violent pictures of monsters. But when a classmate throws the notebook in the pond, the monsters come to life. The film had its premiere at TIFF last year to positive reviews from critics.
In October comes a film in a similar vein to Angel’s 2024 film “Bonhoeffer”: “Truth & Treason.” It tells the true story of Helmuth Hübener, a German teenager who became the youngest person to be executed by the Nazis for his resistance efforts, secretly dispersing leaflets revealing the lies of Joseph Goebbels’ propaganda regarding the war.
Finally, to close out the year, Angel Studios will bring back Alejandro Monteverde, the director of “Sound of Freedom,” for his new Nativity epic “Zero A.D.” The film focuses on the darkest aspect of the story of Jesus Christ’s birth: King Herod’s order to his troops to slaughter newborn children after hearing of news from the Magi that a child destined to be King of the Jews was born.
“Avatar” star Sam Worthington appears in the film as a military captain tasked with carrying out the atrocity, and stars alongside Deva Cassel, Ben Mendelsohn, Gael García Bernal and “Sound of Freedom” star Jim Caviezel.
The studio teased, “This week at CinemaCon reaffirms the strength and influence of the Angel Guild — more than one million members dedicated to shaping the future of entertainment and ensuring that stories that amplify light shine where they belong — on the biggest screens, in front of the biggest audiences, the way they were meant to be experienced.”
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