Word has been brewing for months that Lionsgate had something significant on its hands with the Julia Roberts drama “Wonder.”
The studio’s President of Domestic Distribution David Spitz coughed up the goods at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday, in the form of a full trailer (which is not yet available for public consumption).
Spitz said “Wonder” got the highest scores from test audiences over any other film in Lionsgate’s history. Roberts is the marquee name, but the heavy lifting here is done by “Room” breakout Jacob Tremblay.
Stephen Chbosky directs the boy in a wrenching story of a kid starting the fifth grade who suffers facial deformities thanks to life-saving surgeries he’s had over his few years.
Bolstered by mom Roberts and dad Owen Wilson, Tremblay is heartbreaking as a little guy struggling with why he looks this way — and how to grapple with mean boys, terrified girls, condescending adults and the cruelty of being so visibly different.
“You can’t blend in when you were born to stand out,” one kind classmate tells Tremblay, who prefers to hide in an astronaut helmet at home and in the hallways.
“Wonder” opens Nov. 17. Bring your tissues.