That Viral Alien Theatrical Play Is Coming Back

That Viral Alien Theatrical Play Is Coming Back

This year marks the 40th anniversary of sci-fi horror classic Alien, which has since inspired a slew of sequels, prequels and played a vital part in shaping the genre since. The blockbuster franchise was even the subject of a New Jersey high school’s theatrical production, titled Alien: The Play, last month. The play became the talk of the internet and even received praise from the 1979 film’s director Ridley Scott and star Sigourney Weaver.

Thanks to its viral attention, the students of North Bergen High School will be returning to the stage to reenact the space thriller for a special encore performance next week! Check out the announcement from the Alien Anthology’s Twitter below:

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never wanted to attend a high school production more! The encore performance will be returning to North Bergen, New Jersey on April 26, also known as Alien Day. That's the official day dedicated to the franchise for special releases and named after the moon that Aliens is set on, LV-426.

The general admission tickets went on sale this morning at 10 a.m. and have already sold out. However, there will be resident tickets made available in the next couple days on the North Bergen Theater and Arts Foundation website. Following the announcement on Twitter, fans have been asking for a livestream of the encore performance as well, but it’s unclear whether the production will opt for recording it so it can reach a wider audience for Alien Day.

When Alien: The Play went viral online after its initial performances on March 19 and 22, it caught the attention of Ridley Scott, who personally penned a letter to the students to show how impressed he was with their imagination and the production value on a small high school theater budget. He also included word that his production company Scott Free would be sending along some financial help for an encore performance.

Sigourney Weaver also showed her support for Alien: The Play with a video complimenting the production's amazing alien design. While the director and iconic Ripley star heard of the first performances after the fact, maybe this time they will make it out to go see it live… that is, if they can score tickets.

Proceeds from ticket sales are going back to future plays, art projects and student scholarships. The teachers involved in the production have also created a foundation to support the kids in light of all the attention Alien: The Play has been receiving.

Since the encore performance is being promoted by the Alien Anthology and 20th Century Fox, who knows, there may be more surprises to the New Jersey show come next Friday! There is still reportedly a sequel to Alien: Covenant on the way, though it looks to be still in early stages of development.

One Of Toy Story 4's New Characters Has A Pretty Heartbreaking Backstory

One Of Toy Story 4's New Characters Has A Pretty Heartbreaking Backstory

Pixar seems determined to top the emotional gauntlet that was Toy Story 3. The newest film in the franchise, Toy Story 4, is said to have brought poor Tom Hanks to tears in the recording studio, and the film isn't pulling any punches with its new characters. The doll Gabby Gabby is voiced by Christina Hendricks, and apparently the toy has never felt the love of a child because of a factory defect.

My character Gabby Gabby is a baby doll who was sadly made with a broken voice box. Because of this defect, she has never known the love of a child or been able to fulfill her destiny to love one back. She has spent her whole life in an antique store looking out at the real world.

In addition to old favorites like Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and Jessie, Toy Story 4 will feature a bunch of new toys who will either help or hinder the heroes. One of the new characters is Gabby Gabby, who looks like she's based on one of those older "talking" dolls. The first trailer for the movie seems to position her as the villain (she does have an army of ventriloquist dummies after all), but she's got a backstory that will bring you to tears.

Christina Hendricks voices the new character and she told People that Gabby Gabby has a tragically ironic origin that prevents her from doing the thing all toys are meant to do. She has a broken voice box and has thus never been loved or given love to a child. Not only that, but she lives in a boring antique shop!

It doesn't sound like the other two new characters will be as tragic as Gabby Gabby. Keanu Reeves voices Duke Caboom, a Canadian daredevil modeled after Evel Knievel. Caboom is a friend of the returning Bo Peep, and he's enlisted by Bo and Woody to help on their mission. However, he's got a fear of failure that he'll have to confront to get the job done.

The final new character is the tiniest toy in the franchise, Giggle McDimples. Voiced by Ally Maki, the one-inch Giggle is the police chief of a toy haven called Miniopolis. She's Bo Peep's best friend and a "mega boss," according to Maki.

Toy Story is known for introducing great characters, so hopes are high for these three new toys! Despite an especially rough development process, the movie looks great and we'll see if it forces us to use every tissue in the house by the time the credits roll.

Toy Story 4 is all set to hit theaters on June 21. For everything else popping up this year in theaters, check out our 2019 movie release guide.

New John Wick 3 Trailer Has Halle Berry's Dogs Going For The Crotch

New John Wick 3 Trailer Has Halle Berry's Dogs Going For The Crotch

John Wick is a man with a price on his head and a lot of people looking to collect it. That's the basic set up of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum. A brand new trailer dropped today which has given us a better look at what's in store for our favorite assassin, as well as a first look at several new characters, and a few old friends, who will be joining this adventure. Also, we get to see some dogs who are going to totally tear some shit up, which is always fun. Check it out.

At the end of John Wick: Chapter 2 Wick had broken the rules of the Continental and thus ran afoul of the entire organization of assassins that worked within it. Now, everybody is out to get him.

We see John Wick going to a woman named Sofia, played by Halle Berry, for help. She's clearly not happy to see him as the first thing she does is shoot him herself. In the end, she seems to agree to help him, but not out of the goodness of her heart. She's not happy about it. As with all aspects of the John Wick franchise, there's history here. However, she does appear to send her dogs after a couple of hired guns, and one of them, if he survives, is likely to wish he was dead, based on where it looks like the dog is about to bite.

We get to see old friends like Ian McShane's character, who seems to be willing to help John Wick here, even though were told at the end of the last film that all Continental services would be off limits to Wick. We also see the return of Lawrence Fishburn's character from the last movie.

In addition to Halle Berry's character, we also see a couple of new antagonists who will be gunning for John Wick. Asia Kate Dillon plays an assassin known as The Adjudicator and Mark Dacascos plays a John Wick fan called Zero who is now on the hunt to kill him.

Needless to say, if you've been a fan of the previous John Wick movies, and if you haven't been, what's wrong with you, then it looks like John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum is going to have everything you could possibly want. And by "everything" I mean lots of beautifully choreographed action scenes involving guns, lots of guns.

In addition to the new trailer, an entire collection of new character posters were released showing off everybody of importance in the new film. Each one uses the tagline "Tick Tock Mr. Wick" implying that time is against our hero. However, Jason Mantzoukas is also playing a character called the Tick Tock Man. As he wasn't in the trailer, we know very little about him. Check out all the posters in the gallery below.

Yes, Sonic Is An Alien In His New Movie

Yes, Sonic Is An Alien In His New Movie

This year a couple of classic fluffy ‘90s video game characters are hitting the big screen in their first live action iterations. Ahead of Detective Pikachu’s release next week, the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog darted its way onto the internet this morning and it looks like there are quite a few changes from the video game fans know, love … or love to hate anyway.

Besides the character’s glaring buff and blue human legs, it looks like Sonic will also be an alien in his first big-screen iteration. In the trailer, the speedster says “looks like I’m going to have to save your planet”. Followers of his games probably don’t remember the blue hedgehog being an extraterrestrial before, but looks like he will be in the upcoming movie!

Back in 2018 when the film was seeking approval to be filmed in the town of Ladysmith, British Colombia, the film’s location manager, Abraham Fraser confirmed this Sonic is not of this world when he briefly explained the film. In his words:

Sonic is a video game character, who is an alien. The story is kind of ala E.T.. In the sense of a small town coming together to help the sheriff save our alien from the bad guys, which are the government chasing them. It’s very heartwarming. And I think it’ll be a big hit.

A blue hedgehog being of this world does make a lot more sense in an animated video game world than in a live-action one, but the movie does look to be ignoring the roots of the Sega game, even if they aren’t widely known. According to the “Sonic Bible”, which contains the complete background of the character, here is the iconic video game character’s true origins:

Sonny Hedgehog was born on Earth in the early 21st century, in the town of Hardly, Nebraska, population 1,226. He and his mother and five sisters live underneath a scraggly hedge beside the local burger joint, and subsist on burger scraps, milkshakes and the occasional slug or bug that crawls their way.

How will Sonic the Hedgehog be explaining Sonic’s home world? Is there a planet somewhere full of blue hedgehogs who where running shoes and speed around all day? I’d think an origin story about the hedge they lived under being contaminated with some chemical planet might have sufficed. Take a look at the trailer below:

Sonic the Hedgehog will star Ben Schwartz as Sonic, Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik and James Marsden as a cop named Tom. The movie will center on Sonic in the rural town of Green Hills as he tries to escape from the government who are trying to catch him. Sonic hits theaters on November 8.

Quentin Tarantino Might Actually Make Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Longer

Quentin Tarantino Might Actually Make Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Longer

The subject of how long a movie could and should be has come up more than a couple of times in recent news cycles. And no one knows about it better than Quentin Tarantino, as he’s already dropped a stealth experiment in re-editing a previous film with the extended mini-series version of The Hateful Eight, and a longer cut of Django Unchained mentioned as in the works.

And now that he’s premiered his new film Once Upon A Time In Hollywood to an eager and accepting crowd at the Cannes Film Festival, he’s preemptively talking about making this latest film longer than it already is.

The current cut of Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film sits at the running time of 2 hours and 39 minutes. And that'a because, as Tarantino himself stated in a recent interview, he had a specific mantra when it came to how he and editor Fred Raskin decided how to put it all together. It coincides with his wishes to extend Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, which he expresses in the remarks below:

I wouldn’t take anything else out. I’m going to explore possibly putting something back in. If anything, I wanted to go to Cannes too short. if I’m going to err, I’m going to err on too tight.

As the story goes, Quentin Tarantino and Fred Raskin aimed for a cut that not only satisfied what Tarantino wanted out of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, but also outpaced the “old Quentin movie” time frame of 2 hours and 45 minutes. Now that the job’s been done though, it feels like QT is ready to take the audience’s reactions, and his own mental notes, to put some more material back into his next blockbuster picture.

He has a lot of material to work with too, as IndieWire’s coverage on Quentin Tarantino’s latest mentioned that Fred Raskin had crafted an initial 4 hour and 20 minute cut, which basically had “everything” intact. So we could see the length of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood jump anywhere from a couple of minutes to a whole lot of time, depending on where Quentin Tarantino wants to go with the film.

We wouldn’t expect all that much to be added back in, as after all, this is supposed to be a theatrical experience. But as with Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight (and hopefully fulfilling a promise he made years ago, Kill Bill), Once Upon A Time In Hollywood could find itself expanded into a much longer experience in the streaming and home video afterglow. That's provided it’s a success in the box office, as originally intended. Which, after watching the most recent trailer below, feels like a distinct possibility.

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood shakes up history on July 26th, but if you’re looking for something a little more immediate at the box office, check out our 2019 release schedule and see what’s headed down the road.

The 14 Best Horror Movies Based On A True Story

The 14 Best Horror Movies Based On A True Story

I know what you're thinking: Horror movies that are "based on a true story" are bologna. Well, of course, Hollywood has a way of stretching the truth, especially when scaring audiences is involved, but that does not mean the claim is always a lie either.

Some of the best horror movies of all time have fact-based origins. For instance, the creepy child's plaything from Annabelle Comes Home, the latest upcoming entry in The Conjuring Universe, was inspired by an allegedly possessed Raggedy Ann doll. That is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to art imitating bizarre, disturbing reality.

But of these films that sport the "inspired by true events" claim, which can also claim to be the best horror movies around? I have chosen 14 of some of the best films that made a scary movie-going experience out of a true disturbing event.

The Strangers (2008)

Let me clear this up for you right off the bat: No, The Strangers is not based on a specific, true story of a young married couple teasingly stalked and killed by masked assailants.

While many have speculated what famous murder cases could have inspired this gorefest starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, director Bryan Bertino claims the inspiration was a group of mysterious strangers who knocked on the door of his childhood home in Texas, who turned out to be looking for empty houses to rob.

Bryan Bertino decided to flip that idea on its head by making the thieves masked serial killers and changing the purpose of their shocking, gory visit into, as what is now regarded as one of the best horror movie quotes in recent memory reveals, “because you were home.” So, it's based on a true story, perhaps just not what you would guess.

It does make sense that The Strangers is really just inspired by a plausible concept based on something that happened to the director, because I cannot imagine a trio of killers preying on two helpless victims in a cabin in the middle of nowhere taking that long to finish the job.

The Entity (1982)

In The Entity, single mother of four Carol Moran (Insidious star Barbara Hershey) is a victim of sexual assault. As if that could be any worse than it already is, her attacker is an invisible apparition of great evil and unstoppable strength.

Fusing a very real and prevelanet horrific crime with supernatural elements is creepy enough, but what makes the story of The Entity even more shocking is that it is inspired by the case of Doris Bither, who in 1974 claimed she suffered physical attacks from not one, but three ghosts that also attacked her children.

Without considering the bizarre origins of the story, The Entity remains a shocking and thought-provoking story, as the best horror movies tend to be, about a woman’s struggle to prove that the terrifying, violent offenses committed onto her are real.

Fire in the Sky (1993)

Say what you want about UFOs and alien abductions, according to Travis Walton, it happened to him.

The 1993 film Fire In The Sky is based on the memoir of the same name and recounts the most famous and best-documented alien abduction in history. In 1975, Arizona logger Travis Walton went missing for five days. When he returned, he claimed that he was taken by extraterrestrials.

D.B. Sweeney portrays Walton in the film, which does not take the concept of alien abduction lightly. It shows in graphic detail the torturous experience Walton alleges that he endured in traumatically graphic detail. It just barely earns its PG-13 rating.

The Girl Next Door (2007)

Not to be confused with the 2004 comedy about a high schooler in love with an adult film star, The Girl Next Door is based on Jack Ketchum’s novel, which was inspired by the tragic story of Sylvia Likens.

In 1965 in the state of Indiana, Likens was subjected to almost three months of abuse, neglect, humiliation, and torture by her sociopathic caregiver. She eventually succumbed to her injuries and died at just 16.

The events depicted in the The Girl Next Door are just as unsettling and unspeakable as the original shockingly sadistic case. While a fan of the genre would say that is a key point of acclaim for the best horror movies, I would say you may be better off reading about it than seeing it. It is not for the faint of heart.

The Amityville Horror (1979)

One of the most prolific cases of supernatural haunting comes from one now legendary house in New York.

It inspired the 1977 novel The Amityville Horror, which was made into a film two years later, starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder as George and Kathy Lutz, who find a great deal on a house after a man murdered his family in it years earlier. Soon, they begin to conspire that the crime was influenced by a demonic presence in the house and worry they will fall victim to it next.

While there is truth to the story of a man murdering his family in the infamous Amityville house, there is no real evidence to support an actual haunting occurred there. Yet, that has not stopped Hollywood for continuing to use the story as franchise material.

The original film, however, still pops into conversation as one of the best horror movies, mostly by those who still believe in its ghostly legend.

Child’s Play (1988)

Before there was Annabelle, there was Chucky. However, did you know that both of these fearful playthings are inspired by alleged fact?

In Child’s Play, regarded as one of the best horror films of all time, serial killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) inserts his soul into a cute, red headed doll to continue his murderous tirade after death. The inspiration was a doll of unnerving design named Robert, owned by then six-year-old Gene Otto in 1906.

Robert the Doll was made for Gene by his family’s Bahamian servant, who happened to be skilled in voodoo. Her skills apparently proved effective as Robert would take enjoyment in taunting children and mutilating Gene’s other toys, among other unexplainable phenomena.

With the technophobic Child’s Play remake on the horizon, I now wonder what is scarier: stuffed doll possessed by evil or robotic doll with fatally faulty programming?

Wolf Creek (2005)

While Crocodile Dundee was a film that greatly helped the tourism industry in Australia, Greg McLean’s 2005 cult slasher film was the film that could have come close to ruining it.

Wolf Creek, about three travelers terrorized by a crazed pig hunter, claimed to be based on true events when first released. While not entirely a lie, the real Australia-based hitchhiker murders that inspired the film occurred far from the scenic national park the title borrows from… and misspells (Wolfe Creek).

Nevertheless, the film has earned acclaim as one of the best horror movies of its kind for its ultra realistic depictions of violence and, especially, for its sinister antagonist, Mick Taylor (John Jarratt).

The Conjuring (2013)

Famed paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren’s most famous case is, most likely, the case that inspired The Amityville Horror.

Of course, no confirmed evidence of that haunting exists (as I have mentioned) and the story has already been done to death in Hollywood. Thus, James Wan thankfully chose the Warrens’ 1971 investigation of the Perron Family’s house as inspiration for The Conjuring.

Featuring interviews with the actual Perron Family in the film’s marketing is what helped convince audiences to buy into its “based on a true story” claims and made it one of the highest-grossing horror movies of all time.

The Conjuring would spin off its own universe, which has gone on for some time. However, the one that started it all is still regarded as one of the best horror movies in recent memory.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Wes Craven was smart to not market his slasher-fantasy hit as inspired by true events because no one would have believed that a badly burned, clawed, wisecracking boogeyman would be real.

That being said, claiming it to be based on true events still, technically, would not have been a lie.

Wes Craven wrote the script for A Nightmare on Elm Street after reading an L.A. Times article about a teenage boy suffering from nightmares that kept him desperate to stay awake, until he eventually died in his sleep.

Craven took the concept of a fatal nightmare, added villain Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) as an antagonist, and one of the best horror movies of all time was born.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

A large part of the appeal of the late Tobe Hooper’s breakout hit was the claim in the marketing and in the film’s opening narration that the events depicted in the movie actually happened. No, there is no record of a massacre involving a chainsaw that took place in Texas in the early 1970s.

Instead, Tobe Hooper’s initial inspiration came from the cruel and gross crimes of Ed Gein, who has inspired several antagonists on film. Yet, Leatherface may be the killer’s most iconic cinematic counterpart due to his weapon of choice.

So, where did the chainsaw element in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre come from? Tobe Hooper and his wife were in a crowded department store when he saw the bladed tool on a shelf and thought to himself, I bet I could use that to get through this crowd a lot easier.

Jaws (1975)

Steven Spielberg’s masterful creature feature (and the first blockbuster) was inspired by Peter Benchley’s novel, Jaws. But even Benchley needed inspiration from somewhere.

Benchley stated in the introduction of his man vs. shark novel that his initial inspiration was a 1964 newspaper article about a fisherman who caught a 4,500-pound great white off Long Island. The story got him to wonder what would happen if such an animal became a more local nuisance.

Many also cite the infamous 1916 shark attack off of Jersey Shore. While the incident is mentioned in both the book and movie, Peter Benchley has said that the mere reference of the event should is not to be taken as a sign that it inspired the plot of Jaws.

Or, perhaps, he and Steven Spielberg would rather one of the best horror movies of all time, and one of their most iconic creations, not be linked to tragedy. That is quite challenging for a shark movie.

Psycho (1960)

Leatherface is not the only killer on our list to be inspired by Ed Gein. The prolific murdered also paved the way for Alfred Hitchcock’s most iconic creation.

Much like Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins’ bone chilling role in Psycho), Ed Gein was very close to his mother Augusta, who sealed him off from the rest of the world for much of his life. After she died, leaving him a state of crippling loneliness, he eventually began identifying as a woman, taking up cross dressing and skinning female victims to create a bodysuit to help assume his gender of choice.

All I can say, in regards to the life of Ed Gein AND the plot of Psycho, mothers, please be careful how you raise your children. They may end up inspiring some of the best horror movies of all time.

Nosferatu (1922)

You may recognize Count Orlok from Nosferatu by his brief cameo in a SpongeBob Squarepants episode, or by the name of his original source material: Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Believe it or not, Count Dracula was an actual person: a Romanian prince named Vlad who took on the name Dracula, which meant “son of Dracul,” his father. Of course, he was Drac was not an undead creature of night, but he apparently did have a taste for human blood.

F.W. Murnau, unable to obtain the rights to the name Dracula, adapted Stoker’s novel into the 1922 silent film Nosferatu, which I still believe is one of the best horror of all time and my top pick for vampire movies.

The Exorcist (1973)

Director William Friedkin never regarded his Oscar-nominated adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s novel as a horror film, despite being regarded now as one of the best horror movies ever.

What interested Friedkin about The Exorcist, inspired by the actual exorcism of 14-year-old boy Roland Doe in a St. Louis hospital, was the unique opportunity he saw in it. He wanted to use the fictionalized take of the St. Louis possession (changed to a 12-year-old girl played by Linda Blair) and make a film that commented on the mystery of faith.

Perhaps that unique approach to the thriller, as well as its fact-based origin, is what has kept audiences intrigued and in fear more than 40 years since The Exorcist was first released.

What do you think of our list? Can you think of more horror movies "based on a true story" that deserve a spot? There are plenty more out there, but hopefully this provides a few for you to choose from.

Chris Evans Doesn’t Think Thanos Is An ‘Evil Guy’

Chris Evans Doesn’t Think Thanos Is An ‘Evil Guy’

Avengers: Endgame has officially been in theaters for one week, and moviegoers are still recovering from the blockbuster's wild events. The Russo Brothers pulled no punches with the final installment in the Infinity Saga, giving fitting endings to a variety of characters. The blockbuster also took bold narrative choices with Thanos, who was the undeniable protagonist of the last film.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been criticized for the handling of its villains before, but Josh Brolin brought a nuanced performance to the Mad Titan, which helped to elevate the overall quality of Avengers: Infinity War. But according to Captain America actor Chris Evans, he's not a villain at all, but a misguided and extreme figure. As Evans puts it:

It’s easy, when the villain is so clearly bad, to hate him. Marvel Studios have done this strange thing with Thanos where they gave him a logical point of view, in my opinion. He’s a sort of masked misanthrope or something cloaked in a binary logic about the greater good. He’s not just this evil guy. He thinks he’s doing a good thing, which makes him sympathetic to some degree. Brolin really grounds him in this kind of human way so you don’t see a monster or a villain. You see a person who thinks they’re doing something good.

Listen to Cap, everyone. While he didn't share a ton of scenes with Thanos throughout the last two Avengers movies, he sees how significant the performance and writing were toward his characterization. Josh Brolin brought humanity and heart to Thanos, while the audience watched him lose everything to accomplish his goals.

Chris Evans' comments come from Avengers: Endgame - The Official Movie Special (via ComicBook), and show how much thought the actor has put into his tenure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Aside from the transformative performance as Steve Rogers, the actor is also privy to the work of his co-stars, and the work crafted by The Russo Brothers and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.

Related: The 25 Most Emotional Moments In Avengers: Endgame

Thanos was ultimately a character who had quite the tremendous arc, despite not appearing in nearly as many movies as a villain like Loki. While his goal was mass murder, he didn't do it out of malice. Instead, he believed he was saving the galaxy from overpopulation and mass famine. And he succeeded, but at great cost. He had to kill Gamora to acquire the Soul Stone, and all of The Black Order died at the hands of The Avengers.

Josh Brolin's character went more unexpected places in Avengers: Endgame, although the survivors were the true focus of the sequel. And despite losing so much, his resolve never faltered. Because without his signature terrifying world view, who is Thanos?

Avengers: Endgame is in theaters now, so you can see if Chris Evans' comments were correct. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

Bond 25 Production Suspended After Daniel Craig Suffers Injury

Bond 25 Production Suspended After Daniel Craig Suffers Injury

Production on the as-yet-untitled James Bond 25 has reached a standstill as lead actor Daniel Craig apparently has injured himself badly on set and needs time to recover.

Daniel Craig and the rest of the cast and crew for Bond 25 were in Jamaica filming scenes for the upcoming 007 thriller, due to reach theaters in 2020. According to The Sun, Craig slipped while running in his signature Bond suit, and he fell awkwardly, causing himself an enormous amount of pain. It’s believed that Craig injured his ankle while running, and the actor was flown to the States for X-rays to determine the extent of the damage.

According to the report, Daniel Craig was filming one of his last scenes in Jamaica, with filming set to resume in London’s Pinewood Studios afterward. For the time being, that schedule has been put on hold as the crew decides what to do next. The Sun notes that production bosses hope that Craig’s injury doesn’t cause a long delay.

Daniel Craig has been recognized as the more physical James Bond from the moment he joined the franchise in 2006’s Casino Royale, and he has endured his fair share of bumps, bruises and bodily harms as a result of playing 007. As is documented in The Sun, Craig lost two teeth after absorbing a blow to the face while filming his first-ever stunt scene as 007.

Since then, Craig also has suffered a muscle tear while filming Quantum of Solace (during which he also sliced off the tip of a finger), and sustained a serious knee injury while filming a fight scene for Spectre, which caused production to shut down for weeks.

Who is on set telling Daniel Craig to slow it down a tad? Maybe the studio needs to hire a coach who encourages Craig to give the stunt guy more work? Granted, without Craig in the role, we wouldn’t get memorable action set pieces like this:

But does Daniel Craig still feel like this physical pain is worth it? The 51-year-old actor hemmed and hawed about returning to 007 in the press, leading to rampant speculation that he’d be replaced by an alternate Bond. Even now though it hasn’t been officially stated by anyone, many seem to believe that Bond 25 will be Craig’s final turn in the tuxedo, and on-set injuries probably help convince him to hang it up.

Cary Fukunaga directs Bond 25, with a story we know very little about. The cast was in Jamaica to announce the start of production, knowing that the location has a lot of personal and professional connections to author Ian Fleming and the Bond movie series, as a whole.

We’ll see how Daniel Craig fell when Bond 25 opens in theaters on April 8, 2020.

Plot Twist, Detective Pikachu Could Have Starred Danny Devito

Plot Twist, Detective Pikachu Could Have Starred Danny Devito

The upcoming film Detective Pikachu is based on an unusual video game in the Pokemon franchise. When the game was first announced, a grassroots campaign sprung up around the idea of having Danny DeVito voice the little yellow fuzzball for the English language version of the game. When fans learned a movie based on the game was also being made, the demand for DeVito only increased. While the role ended up going to Ryan Reynolds, it turns out that the idea of casting DeVito was at least briefly considered by the filmmakers. According to producer Cale Boyter...

We definitely thought about it and how it might inform the spirit of it. Danny is incredible by the way. I am a huge fan of Danny DeVito.

Danny DeVito's gruff voice is probably the last one that you'd expect to come from the cute little Pokemon, but, of course, that's the joke. He has the perfect voice for a gravely noir detective character, and Detective Pikachu is certainly meant to be having fun with that concept. A Pikachu that sounded like DeVito would certainly come across as something out of a Raymond Chandler novel. Also, hearing Danny DeVito say "pika, pika" would be pure comedy.

How close Danny DeVito actually came to being cast is far from clear, but we do know that this wasn't simply a brief consideration that was discarded quickly. VFX Producer Greg Baxter told GameInformer that his team actually went as far as to add dialogue from several different potential voice actors to an early version of Pikachu in order to get an idea what it would look like. It turns out DeVito was one of the voices used. According to Baxter...

It was really very funny, so I couldn’t speak to all the reasons why it wasn’t Danny DeVito cast. I love Danny and some point maybe after the movie comes about, we can share those early tests. It’s absolutely hilarious.

It would be great to get those tests as part of the special features on a future Detective Pikachu Blu-ray. There were probably several other great actors used as tests that would sound hilarious coming from Pikachu. Until then, we can get an idea what DeVito might have sounded like thanks to fans who added the actor's voice to the character back when the Detective Pikachu video game was coming out. Check it out.

Why Danny DeVito ultimately wasn't chosen for the role we don't really know, though the producer says that the "spirit of Danny DeVito" is still part of the character, whatever that means. I suppose we'll find out when Detective Pikachu hits theaters in May.

Daniel Craig Has Been Working Out For 12 Hours At A Time For Bond 25

Daniel Craig Has Been Working Out For 12 Hours At A Time For Bond 25

If you're a good worker, you do what you have to in order to get the job done. Maybe it's putting on a tie around the office and being a good listener, or making sure your emails have that polished sheen of professionalism that gets the point across. The point is, when you give 150% to your chosen profession, you're going to do what needs to be done. And if you're Daniel Craig, it's apparently working out in multiple 12 hour power sessions to become physically fit for his fifth, and presumably last, outing as James Bond in Bond 25.

Apparently some of Craig's co-workers on the set of the latest 007 film have noted that the man who's played the suave asskicker since 2006's Casino Royale has paid important attention to keeping his physique in tip top shape. On top of working out for basically half a day, Daniel Craig has also been keeping a strict diet regimen that is helping give him the look that he's rocked in all of his outings as the character.

Keep in mind, this isn't just Daniel Craig cramming in a bunch of exercise to get ready for Bond 25. The man certainly hasn't let himself go by any means. True, it's been almost four years since Spectre brought the action, but with work in other projects like Steven Soderbergh's Logan Lucky, and this year's Knives Out with Rian Johnson, it's safe to assume that Daniel Craig hasn't been slacking off.

Still, James Bond movies must attempt to go above and beyond what the public is expecting. So this report from the Daily Mail stating that Mr. Craig is undergoing several 12 hour workout sessions in a week is no surprise. It's certainly not the most insane plan we've seen, as Dwayne Johnson probably has Daniel Craig beat out in that respect. But it definitely highlights why Bond 25 is probably going to be Craig's last time out in the role.

Playing a character like James Bond is much like the experience that Hugh Jackman had while playing Wolverine in his X-Men films and spin-offs. There's opportunity to stretch the acting legs in-between goes, but ultimately there comes a time when you want to ditch the diets and the workouts and just play the field of acting in a much less physically demanding way. Perhaps the most important part of such a decision, especially in the Bond franchise, is to quit while people still believe you're able to do the stunts.

When all is said and done with Bond 25, Daniel Craig will have given roughly 15 years and five movies to the franchise that helped skyrocket him to the megastar that he is today. And he'll have paid for it with the crazy sorts of diet and exercise routines that he's currently working with. It's an insane method, but the results for sure cannot be argued with.

Bond 25 will cross the gunbarrel in theaters on April 8, 2020; but you can see Daniel Craig much sooner when he takes part in Knives Out on November 27th, 2019.

Rian Johnson Doesn’t Mind If Star Wars: Episode IX Retcons The Last Jedi

Rian Johnson Doesn’t Mind If Star Wars: Episode IX Retcons The Last Jedi

Wherever you fall on Star Wars: The Last Jedi reception scale, there’s no question that it’s one of the most divisive films in the Star Wars franchises, if not at the top of the list. Building off what J.J. Abrams established in The Force Awakens, Rian Johnson was brought in to write and direct The Last Jedi, and many of his creative choices were met by controversy by portions of the Star Wars fanbase. With Abrams now overseeing Star Wars: Episode IX, Johnson is okay if this next movie ends up retconning portions of The Last Jedi, specifically Rey’s parentage.

One of the big questions regarding Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens was who her parents were. Upon touching Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber at Maz Kanata’s cantina, Rey was bombarded by a flurry of Force visions, one of which showed her being left on Jakku as a child, and her family was never shown. For the next two years, fans wondered about the secrets of Rey’s past, like if she was related to the Skywalker family. Then came Star Wars: The Last Jedi, during which Kylo Ren told Rey to admit what she knew along: that her parents were “nobody,” with Ren saying that they were “filthy junk traders” who sold her for drinking money and were long dead in a pauper’s grave on Jakku.

Well, this plot twist was among the many aspects of Star Wars: The Last Jedi that was met with mixed reactions, and some fans have questioned if J.J. Abrams will retcon this reveal in Star Wars: Episode IX and make Rey’s parents significant people. That remains to be seen, and Rian Johnson has largely remained out of the loop on Episode IX’s development, only having a couple of conversations with Abrams. However, when asked by MTV News if he’d be okay with Abrams retconning the lineage of Rey’s parents in Episode IX, Johnson responded:

I want to let go of all my expectations. I want to sit back. I want to be entertained. I want to be surprised. I want to be thrilled. I want [J.J. Abrams] to do stuff I wasn’t expecting him to do and just go along for the ride. For me, that’s why I go to the movies, you know?

Rey’s parents being turned from nobodies to important individuals would certainly qualify as a surprise. Shortly after Star Wars: The Last Jedi came out, Rian Johnson revealed that the reason he went that direction with Rey’s family was because every other idea he came up with her parents’ identities just didn’t work for him. This creative choice was also a sharp contrast from what we’ve seen from the Skywalker family over the years, with Rey’s impressive Force powers existing for some reason other than having a notable genealogy. That’s assuming, of course, that this sticks for Episode IX. After all, this is a franchise known for its surprises, and it wouldn’t be the first time someone learned that what they’d been told about their family was false.

No doubt changing Rey’s parents would please a portion of the Star Wars fanbase, although I do hope that Star Wars: Episode IX doesn’t go all out on retconning every element of Star Wars: The Last Jedi that was deemed controversial. At the very least, if Rey’s parents were actually identified and even declared to still be alive, she would at least have the opportunity to reunite with them, something she was desperate to do in The Force Awakens. On the other hand, The Last Jedi was about Rey proving her self-worth and skill, and how she didn’t need a notable family line to become a Jedi/Resistance hero, so reversing all that undercuts the message.

In any case, Rian Johnson’s time with this era of Star Wars movies is done, but once he’s finished making Knives Out, he’ll shift to his own Star Wars trilogy, which will focus on new characters and explore other corners of the galaxy far, far away. As far as Episode IX is concerned, he’ll watch it just as a normal fan would (though I suspect he’ll get to attend one of the earliest screenings), and if J.J. Abrams has retconned anything that Johnson set up in The Last Jedi, Johnson will be okay with it so long as he’s entertained and thrilled.

In addition to being the final installment of the current Star Wars trilogy, Star Wars: Episode IX will also be the final chapter of the entire Skywalker Saga, so there’s a lot of plates this movie has to spin. The only official plot detail revealed so far is that it will take place one year after The Last Jedi, which ended with The Resistance nearly being wiped out by The First Order, but the few survivors, including Rey, managing to escape to fight another day. Along with a swarm of familiar faces returning for Episode IX, including Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Mark Hamill and, for his first Star Wars movie appearance in nearly 40 years, Billy Dee Williams, the cast also includes newcomers like Keri Russell, Naomi Ackie, Richard E. Grant and Dominic Monaghan.

While there’s always the chance that Daisy Ridley and the other stars of the current Star Wars trilogy could perhaps return to this franchise several decades down the line, just like Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford did, since Episode IX is wrapping up the Skywalker saga, that means fans should go in assuming this will be the last time we see all these characters. Here’s hoping then that each of their stories concludes in a satisfactory manner, and that if Rey’s background is indeed altered, it at least blends nicely with her overall narrative arc and doesn’t come off as a haphazard switch meant to please folks who were angered by the reveal in The Last Jedi.

Star Wars: Episode IX will be released in theaters on December 20. As for what else is hitting the silver screen in the near future, look through our 2019 release schedule for that information, and Star Wars fans shouldn’t forget that The Mandalorian will also premiere on Disney+ in the near future, maybe even by the end of the year.

How The Men in Black Universe Could Grow, According To Its Producer

How The Men in Black Universe Could Grow, According To Its Producer

When Men In Black International opens later this summer, it will be the first time that the lead agents aren’t played by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. The idea behind MiB always seemed bigger than the one that carried three movies, but it wasn’t until Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth slipped into the tuxedos for director F. Gary Gray that he producers began thinking of ways to expand this fascinating universe.

The bulk of the early Men In Black movies took place in New York City. The franchise will branch out globally in Men In Black International, with Tessa Thompson’s agent heading to London to team with Hemsworth’s alien tracker. We have been filing reports from the UK set of the upcoming blockbuster, but it was during a conversation with longtime producer Walter Parkes that he said the creative team has its eye on the future. Parkes told CinemaBlend:

We imply that we have [headquarters in] other places and in prior drafts of the script we did [see them. But in terms of effective storytelling, we just didn’t find a way to come about that. But, if the film’s successful, we’ll certainly be going to new headquarters throughout the world.

There’s no way that a secret organization tasked with exploring and containing alien activity could or should be contained to New York City. Naturally, one way to increase the scope of your story is to expand out to new international cities. This inspires storytellers to come up with new creatures that match the cities in which you want to set your action. Think about action sequences in Egypt at the Pyramids, or along the Great Wall of China. The possibilities are endless.

The way that Walter Parkes phrased it, Men In Black International is benefitting from the current evolution of franchise storytelling, which wasn’t nearly as powerful or cohesive when the first few Men In Black movies were happening. He went on to say:

What you say about the expansion of the cinematic universe is absolutely true. I think that’s one of the most exciting things about the last 15 years that these big [franchises] exist. And what excites me is that it’s expansion -- not so much in other movies, but in other media. You know, there’s digital expressions of this, and VR expressions of this... So I think you can build out the universe, even around this movie. And I think that’s very much what modern franchises do.

That’s a very exciting premise. Who wouldn’t want to play a Men In Black VR game, or interact with the series on social media in original ways? The possibilities are unlimited, so long as you were eager to get creative.

The latest trailer for F. Gary Gray’s Men In Black International certainly looks plenty creative:

And we will see if the new movie makes enough for the cast and crew to continue telling stories in this universe for years to come. The new movie drops on June 14. Are you planning on checking it out?

Avengers Endgame Box Office: Iron Man, Cap And Friends Do 10X Their Nearest Competitor

Avengers Endgame Box Office: Iron Man, Cap And Friends Do 10X Their Nearest Competitor

Well, we all knew Avengers: Endgame was going to have a good weekend. You can't mix this much hype with really good reviews and spectacular word of mouth and expect the buzz to die down after one weekend. Avengers: Endgame was winning this weekend. The question was just by how much. Well, the results are in, and the answer is by a lot. Avengers: Endgame did more than 10X the business of its nearest competitor The Intruder which came in a very, very distant second.

You can check out the full results of the weekend box office below, including how newcomers Longshot, UglyDolls and The Intruder stacked up...

So, let's finish out the Avengers conversation before we move on. The film is on pace to surpass $2 billion at the worldwide box office by the end of this weekend. That's absolutely incredible, and everyone involved with the MCU, especially the Russo Brothers who are on this week's ReelBlend, and this movie in particular should applaud themselves. Not only did they create a movie that's playing really well with fans, they somehow created one that's surpassing the crazy numbers put up by Infinity War. Spectacular. Hard stop.

Now, the key here is following Endgame, observers need to adjust their expectations for future Marvel movies. This was, in my ways, the end of an era. There are numerous characters in the MCU that we'll almost certainly never see again. It took a decade of churning out a lot of really good movies that built on top of each other in order to generate this excitement. Now, it's not like the MCU is starting from scratch, but the engine really needs to be restarted and the momentum needs to go in a new direction. So, expectations will continue to be very high, but we should be comparing those future movies against some of Marvel's other offerings... not against Endgame.

After Endgame, it was basically a three way fight for second place among the week's newest movies. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have predicted The Intruder to come out on top, but with disappointing openings from the Seth Rogen/ Charlize Theron comedy Long Shot, as well as the new animated feature UglyDolls, that second place was wide open for the taking. I'm not sure we'll really learn anything from this Long Shot result. The comedy romance is a bit of a departure from what we're used to from both lead actors. As such, we'll probably see both return toward what's comfortable, and given this will likely do well streaming and probably didn't cost that much to make, it's kind of a net neutral. As for UglyDolls, it was relatively cheap to make for an animated movie ($45M), but it's going to be a long road to get to profitability here. Consequently, we may see STX hold off on any animated features in the near future.

Finally, quick shoutouts are in order to both Little and Breakthrough, which just keep rolling. Both films are clearly filling voids in what's being offered right now, and we'll likely continue to see productions like these pop up in order to fill those gaps. Not everyone wants to see the same stuff, and the wider variety as an audience we can get, the healthier the movie industry will be.

This Rotten Week: Predicting Shazam!, Pet Sematary, And The Best Of Enemies Reviews

This Rotten Week: Predicting Shazam!, Pet Sematary, And The Best Of Enemies Reviews

As we make our way into the fourth month of the year, we have a wide variety of features going into wide release. This week we have another big superhero blockbuster, terrifying burial ground, and a civil rights story. Get ready for Shazam!, Pet Sematary, and The Best Of Enemies.

Just remember, I'm not reviewing these movies, but rather predicting where they'll end up on the Tomatometer. Let's take a look at This Rotten Week has to offer.

Most superhero stories are geared toward a young man’s fantasy. Get super powers, overcome obstacles, save the world. It’s a pretty standard formula. And then sometimes you get a story in which the hero IS a kid who can transform into an adult with the super powers. That’s the fantasy cranked up another notch. Such is the case with Shazam! in which young Billy Batson must merely yell out the titular word and become a Superman-like hero. How he explores these new powers (with all of their ups and downs) is the theme of this latest addition to the DC Universe. It looks pretty great.

After stumbling out of the gate, the DC Universe is making something of a comeback. Three of their last four movies - Wonder Woman (93%), Aquaman (65%) and now Shazam! - have scored well with critics. Only the absolute mess of Justice League (40%) sandwiched in there was a stumbling block. Critics are really taking to this latest offering, appreciating the candid nature of the story and the fun-loving tone.

Don’t let the comical misspelling of “Cemetery” fool you. There’s nothing funny about Stephen King’s story of an ancient burial ground that can revive the dead and turn the reanimated bodies into all-encompassing evil. Such is the case with Pet Sematary, in which the Creed family makes the bad mistake of buying a new house that just happens to have serious evil in the backyard.

Stephen King’s classics still hold up as horror fare, evidenced by the remake of IT (85%) two years ago. His storytelling and high concept plots translate well to the big screen and this latest fits the bill as well. Early sentiments are overwhelmingly positive with the Tomatometer sitting at 85% through more than 40 reviews. I don't think it drops all that much over the course of the week but it will just a bit. Pet Sematary looks creepy as hell and critics seem to enjoy the ride.

Based on a true story, Best of Enemies centers around the desegregation movement and the relationship between a Ku Klux Klan leader and an African-American civil rights activist - clashing over a local school system in the early 1970s. From an historical perspective, this flick looks like it hits all of the right notes without ever getting into the nitty-gritty. My fear with this kind of film is, in an effort to make it mass appeal to a large audience, the tone becomes more comedic/melodramatic rather than what was found in reality.

I don't think it looks bad, but rather a movie that doesn't really want to offend anyone. And I think the critics see it for that and the score doesn't quite get to "Fresh" status.

The Rotten Watch went one for two last week with The Beach Bum (Predicted: 47% Actual: 52%) falling within my range of succes. Harmony Korine’s story of Matthew McConaughey doing something like a career-achievement role as a stoner author living through a psychedelic background didn't land with the whole crowd. Moondog and his exploits weren't for everyone, and critics were basically split it right down the middle.

Coming in with some rather high expectations, Dumbo (Predicted: 67% Actual: 50%) ended up being a disappointment for Tim Burton and company. Despite the hype around the live action remake, critics weren't over the moon with the result, mostly agreeing it was a big time missed opportunity considering the source material. It finished right down the middle with both the positive and negative reviews carrying mostly the same theme. Most say it was underwhelming across the board.

Next time around we’ve got After, Hellboy, Little and Missing Link. It’s gonna be a Rotten Week!

X-Men: Days Of Future Past Almost Featured Cable

X-Men: Days Of Future Past Almost Featured Cable

2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past was an especially interesting entry in the X-Men film series, as not only did it continue the storyline that began with X-Men: First Class by jumping to 1973, it also reunited with many of the original X-Men cast members as they struggled for survival in a dystopian 2023. This group of heroic mutants was accompanied by some new faces, and originally Nathan Summers, better known as Cable, was supposed to be one of those faces.

Given how Cable is best known for growing up in a future, apocalyptic timeline and time traveling to the present day Marvel universe, it would have been fitting to have him involved in X-Men: Days of Future Past, even if unlike his comic book counterpart, he wasn’t the one traveling backwards in time. As for why he didn’t appear in the fifth main X-Men installment, it turns out that Cable’s co-creator, Rob Liefeld, pushed for him being taken out, providing the following explanation for why:

He was originally in Days of Future Past in the Bishop role and he got killed. And then there was a note that came back that said he's kind of too big of a character to do this with, and poor Bishop got slaughtered instead. But I swear to you... So, summer 2012, I was like, you can't, you can't have Cable. Like, as much as I want to see him, fans will freaking go nuts if they see him and you kill him immediately. He's too big.

Considering Cable’s decades of popularity, I can’t say I blame Rob Liefeld for wanting the character to sit out X-Men: Days of Future Past. Sure, audiences finally would have been introduced to him on the big screen, but their time with him would have been short, as Cable would have been among the mutants killed by the Sentinels in that dystopian future, like Sunspot, Blink and Warpath. There wouldn’t have been any time to properly develop the character, and someone like that needs a bigger platform to shine on.

Instead, as Rob Liefeld told ScreenRant and as audiences saw in the final version of X-Men: Days of Future Past, Cable was replaced by Bishop, another mutant with a history of time travel. On the one hand, Cable is arguably more popular than Bishop, so it makes sense that the latter would take priority over the former. On the other hand, Bishop also has his fair share of fans and his own interesting story that stretches across several time periods, and Days of Future Past did not delve into that at all since he was such a minor character.

So the tradeoff might not have appealed to all X-Men fans, but had Cable stayed in X-Men: Days of Future Past, like Bishop, he would have been killed off, with no time dedicated to fleshing out his backstory. Ultimately, this replacement was probably the right call, but hopefully if/when the X-Men are incorporated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there will be an opportunity to spotlight Bishop in a fitting way.

Fortunately for Cable fans, they only had to wait four more years after X-Men: Days of Future Past to see him finally make his live action debut. After being teased at the end of Deadpool, Cable, played by Josh Brolin, finally joined the fray in Deadpool 2. Like his comic book counterpart, he hailed from an apocalyptic future, but his reason for going back in time in this movie was to kill Russell Collins, a.k.a. Firefist, the mutant who murdered his wife and daughter, as a child.

Cable didn’t succeed in carrying out his assassination, but the adolescent Russell decided to step off the villainous path he’s heading down, thus saving Cable’s wife and daughter in the future. Sadly, the cybernetic mutant was unable to return to his family, but he’s now working to improve the present so they have a better future awaiting them.

Although Disney, which recently finalized the Fox merger, plans on keeping the Deadpool franchise going, it remains to be seen if Cable will return in either X-Force or Deadpool 3, let alone if Josh Brolin will reprise him or if someone else will take over the role. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for updates either way. In the meantime, feel free to keep up to date with what’s heading to theaters later this year in our 2019 release schedule.

Todd Phillips Releases Moody New Joker Image, Confirms Editing Is Underway

Todd Phillips Releases Moody New Joker Image, Confirms Editing Is Underway

Todd Phillips' Joker wrapped filming a few months ago, and now the director has shared a moody new image of Joaquin Phoenix in character from the production, along with confirming that he's deep into the editing process. As was to be expected from this totally non-DCEU origin story for The Joker, the photo Phillips posted gives us plenty of gritty mystery to sink our comic obsessed brains into. Take a look:

As you can see, the black and white image of Joaquin Phoenix in character as soon-to-be-Joker Arthur Fleck is giving off many vibes without him doing much of anything at all. Actually, this shot, which was helpfully posted on Todd Phillips' Instagram page, could easily be a photo of Phoenix's Oscar nominated performance as Johnny Cash in Walk the Line. Arthur is clearly dressed for success, even though he doesn't look very happy, with his dress shirt, vest, slacks and slicked back hair. But, something is off...and I'm going to say it's the slightly clown-like dress shoes with what appear to be regular, I'm-going-for-a-run socks. Yeah, nothing about that sock and shoe combo would sit well with Mr. Cash.

Upon taking a closer look at the image, Arthur, who is a bit slumped over and way too close to that TV (You'll ruin your eyesight, man!), is doing two things that lead me to believe he's already begun his downward "I'm gonna need to cause some destruction" spiral. First, he's smoking, which, sure a lot of smokers do when they're bored, but many people also head for the fire sticks when they are seriously stressed out.

Secondly, remember how he's all slumped over and sitting too close to the television? Well, an inspection of the VHS tapes on the floor, two of which appear to be labeled things like "Murray #237" and "Murray #42," make me think that this is a scene where Arthur is going over and over recordings of his favorite talk show host, and it's probably the one who will be played by Robert De Niro and somehow lead to Arthur's future as a criminal mastermind.

When Todd Phillips confirmed that Joker had wrapped filming back in December, he did note that his work wasn't quite finished yet, as he still had to put all that, greatly revised, footage together to give us a film we didn't even know we needed. And, as you can see by his caption on this post, he's been doing just that. Now that Phillips has seen fit to show us this additional snippet of production, I'm really hoping that this scene is actually in the movie. It's looks pretty heavy and seems like it could be important to the story over all, but also I'd really just like to brag about correctly guessing what this scene is about.

Speaking of what this scene may be about, we don't exactly know how all the pieces of Joker will fit together, but we do have some idea of what the movie will be about. Joker, which takes place in the early 1980s, will follow Joaquin Phoenix's Arthur Fleck, a failed stand up comedian who will be driven insane during the course of the film and turn into the crazed, clown makeup-wearing supervillain we all know and fear. And, again, while this movie is totally unconnected to what we once knew as the DCEU, there will be other familiar names from the comics appearing.

The rest of the cast of Joker will include Brett Cullen as a still-alive Thomas Wayne, Dante Pereira-Olson as a super tiny and adorable young Bruce Wayne and Douglas Hodge as trusted Wayne family ally Alfred Pennyworth. In addition, of course, to De Niro, the cast will be rounded out by Zazie Beetz's "cynical" single mom turned Arthur's love interest, Frances Conroy as Arthur's mom Penny, Marc Maron as an agent who works on the talk show hosted by De Niro's character, Bill Camp, Glenn Fleshler, Shea Whigham, Bryan Callen and Josh Pais. I don't know about you, but with Bruce still a little child person during Joker, I'm expecting most of these folks to turn up very dead by the end of the film.

We don't have too much time left now until we can feast upon Joker in theaters everywhere, because the film that finally nails down a backstory for one of DC's most popular villains will be out on October 4, 2019. More details are sure to be coming soon, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest information!

Shazam's DVD Release Should Have A Ton Of Extra Footage That Was Cut From The Movie

Shazam's DVD Release Should Have A Ton Of Extra Footage That Was Cut From The Movie

Warning: Shazam! SPOILERS are ahead!

Not everything shot for a movie is going to make it into the final cut, but thanks to DVDs, Blu-rays and digital purchases, people can oftentimes watch some, if not most of a production’s deleted scenes. Shazam! will be no exception, because according to Michel Aller, the editor of the sixth DC Extended Universe movie, the home release of Billy Batson’s origin story will be packed with a lot of deleted scenes, including potentially one involving Asher Angel’s Billy and Grace Fulton’s Mary Bromfield. Aller explained:

We had a lot of material. When you buy the DVD, you’ll be able to see, I think we have 20-24 minutes of deleted scenes. And one of the scenes that regretfully we had to pull out was a scene between young Billy and Mary, when he’s about to sneak out. It’s just a really touching scene, but it came so early in the movie, and we were trying to get to get to the Shazam character, that we couldn’t put everything that we liked at the front of the movie. So that was one scene that we pulled out. I’m glad there are DVDs out there so we can show these great scenes.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Michel Aller about Shazam!, and among the topics we discussed was just how much material was cut out of the finished movie. Sure enough, like many other superhero movies before it, Shazam! will have a solid amount of deleted scenes as part of its special feature offerings, and it appear that like there’s a good chance this scene between Billy and Mary will be among them.

Billy Batson and Mary Bromfield have always been siblings in the comics, but as opposed to going the biological route as was the case for decades, the Shazam! movie pulled from Shazam’s New 52 origin story and had her, Freddy Freeman, Eugene Choi, Darla Dudley and Pedro Pena be Billy’s adoptive siblings at the Vasquez household. While Shazam! spent a decent amount of time introducing these new people in Billy’s life, it also had to move relatively quickly to actually bring in Billy’s Shazam persona, and whatever moment Billy and Mary had before the former began his superhero journey ended up on the cutting room floor.

While we didn’t get to see Mary confront Billy as he snuck out during his first night with his new family, Shazam! did still give us a touching moment between the two, albeit with Zachary Levi playing Billy instead, when Shazam saved her from being hit by a truck and tried to console her because she was upset about potentially having to leave her family behind to attend college. And, of course, in the climactic battle, Mary and the other kids were able to also become adult superheroes when Billy shared his power with them.

We’ll have to wait to learn if the Billy/Mary scene will indeed be included on the Shazam! home media release, but another deleted scene Michel Aller expects to be shown is how Sivana originally unleashed the power of the Seven Deadly Sins. Originally he went on his murder spree at a Christmas party being held at his mansion, but during the Shazam! reshoots, the location was changed to a boardroom at Sivana industries. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more information on Shazam! deleted scenes.

Shazam! is still playing in theaters, and if you haven’t already, be sure to read CinemaBlend’s review of the movie. You can also plan your moviegoing visits later this year accordingly by checking out our 2019 release schedule.

Why Avengers: Endgame Is Marvel's Best Captain America Movie

Why Avengers: Endgame Is Marvel's Best Captain America Movie

SPOILER WARNING : So you’re scouring the internet for Avengers: Endgame content…. Here’s a friendly reminder that reading spoilers without witnessing the movie in all its glory will just ruin it for yourself. Only read on if you have contributed to the record-breaking box office haul for the Infinity Saga conclusion.

While Avengers: Endgame pulled off a lot of unexpected moments throughout its three-hour epic runtime, if there is one aspect of the film most of us went into it anticipating, it was Chris Evans’ Captain America getting a sendoff. Wow, this film made that happen in a big way!

Thankfully, Cap was in the best hands possible. The Russo Brothers started their partnership with Marvel with 2014’s Captain America: Winter Soldier (a highly-regarded fan favorite), they kept it going with Civil War in 2016 before moving on to closing out the Infinity Saga with Infinity War and Endgame.

The Russos’ had a lot of ground to cover with Endgame besides the Star-Spangled Man with a Plan, but the movie still managed to conclude the character’s arc in an incredibly satisfying way. Chris Evans was given the space to offer up his best and most well-rounded performance as the hero to date that shows off his position as one of the most deliberate superhero stories ever told on screen.

While his standalone trilogy was certainly impressive, Endgame elevates Captain America higher and caps (no pun intended) off his narrative in a way we won’t soon forget. Here’s why:

His “Giddy“ Optimism Pays Off

The downfall of a character like Captain America (and his DC brethren, Superman) is his sky high idealism and belief in the greater good. It’s a characteristic of comic book publishers’ earliest iterations and for a reason: to bring hope and escapism to readers in hard times.

While we certainly like a good dose of escapism today, it’s more difficult for us to believe in a hero like Cap, and Tony Stark’s relationship with him throughout the franchise is the perfect example of this. He’s always questioning his decisions and words of confidence.

In Endgame, Tony hits Steve with this head on in the beginning of the film, cursing his optimism since they have now lost. But there ends up being something insightful in Cap’s good intentions to “keep on keepin’ on” that shine brightly in this movie most of all. He is the rock of the squad who believes in Ant-Man’s idea, then recruits Tony and the rest of the team, yes with Black Widow at his side, but without him everyone (even her) was starting to give up.

Cap even starts to give up a bit himself, but he never lets this stop him. Where some of the other Cap films have wavered on the “why,” Endgame shows that the character’s belief in it all turning out okay really can be a strength, making it the ultimate film for the hero.

He’s Got America’s Ass

Okay so if you were looking for analysis of Cap’s booty, this isn’t it, but it is regarding the whole-ass scene that starts with this now iconic line. There’s nothing we love more seeing some clever character development, and Endgame juggles this with many of the core Avengers.

For Cap though, the parallel between who he was and who he has become between 2012’s Avengers and his last hurrah is shown much more literally. When he travels back to the New York battle to retrieve the Tesseract, he runs into himself and straight up takes him down in the best way possible. When younger Cap says “I can do this all day,” the older Cap scoffs at the line hilariously.

Not to mention that the moment in the elevator with some of those Hydra double agents serves as a fun callback to the iconic elevator fight scene in Winter Soldier. When the hero mutters “Hail, Hydra” to deceive them instead of using his energy to battle them all, it shows Cap is capable of being quippy and a really fun character at the end of the day.

While Chris Evans has a lot of seriousness to pull during the franchise, Endgame really brings together the hero’s charm. The fact that all these references pack a huge punch in just a few short minutes shows the character was never the butt of the MCU, but is a real MVP.

He Assembles The Full Team… And The Mjolnir

Then comes the moment when Captain America must face Thanos again, as the past version of the Mad Titan has found out the location of the gauntlet and seeks to become “inevitable.” It was already an exciting showdown between Thanos, Cap, Iron Man and Thor, but then Cap says these words: “Avengers Assemble.”

It’s a scene that looks to be the end of Cap as he stands alone in front of Thanos, but Rogers isn’t a “I can do this alone” kind of guy. He knows a battle is best won together, and when all the unsnapped Avengers enter the battle it’s a glorious moment unlike any other.

In a geekfest full of incredible moments such as that “girl power” shot, one of Cap's certainly steals the show as well. Right before all the unsnapped heroes show up, he gets Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir. The whole theater absolutely skips a heartbeat when this happens, and when he wields it and switches off the weapon with Thor, its big screen GOLD.

There was a bit of foreshadowing of this in Age of Ultron when he moves Mjolnir a bit, but Endgame hails Captain America as just about the most powerful original Avenger as he becomes worthy of the weapon of a god. The scene is payoff for the character in the best way because he’s always been trying to do the right thing and be a “worthy” hero… now he absolutely is.

He Makes That Date

Captain America’s story starts on an emotional high note when he must force down a plane in the ‘40s and leave behind Peggy Carter before their budding romance can really start to blossom. It’s the ultimate sacrifice for the hero that he grapples with throughout his MCU journey. He is constantly going back to the life he left behind and he has dealt with it in all of his films.

While we speculated Peggy may play a role in Endgame, her involvement in the MCU ends up giving audiences a happy ending that gives all of those emotional moments meaning and depth. After saving the world and helping bring together the Avengers, Cap goes back in time and lives the life he’s always dreamed of.

Then he remembers another one, the exact moment when Hulk, Bucky and Falcon beamed him back in time to tell them that it worked. He returned the Infinity Stones to their rightful place and took a permanent trip down memory lane to retire.

Cap then has one last thing to do: pass off the legacy of his shield to someone: either Bucky or Sam Wilson. While his love for Bucky throughout the franchise could have swayed him that way, Falcon is the clear successor and is the perfect way to end his story, even if Anthony Mackie never actually suits up as Captain America (we'll have to wait and see).

Without Avengers: Endgame, Captain America’s story just wouldn’t just be as impactful emotionally and cinematically as this movie made it. Not only is it the perfect send off for the character but his best movie to date.

Robert Downey Jr. Made The Sweetest Script Change In Avengers: Endgame

Robert Downey Jr. Made The Sweetest Script Change In Avengers: Endgame

Spoiler Warning: This article contains some spoilers for Avengers: Endgame. Enter at your own risk!

There are plenty of memorable lines in the MCU that fans love to quote, and Avengers: Endgame definitely makes some contributions to the list. The one that might go down as the most memorable, however, is "I love you 3000," which sent fans reaching for their tissues. Well, you better grab some more because it was Robert Downey Jr. who added the line, and its origins are incredibly sweet.

Okay, it's time for the unavoidable spoiler. In Avengers: Endgame, Tony Stark has a daughter with Pepper Potts named Morgan Stark. The little five-year-old is maybe the most precious thing in the movie, and she serves as a major influence on Tony's arc in Endgame.

During one scene between the father and daughter early on in the film, Morgan tells Tony "I love you 3000." It's super cute and it turns out that the line was actually one of Downey's. According to co-writer Christopher Markus, RDJ added the line because it's something that his real-life children actually say to him.

Well, as much as we'd like to take credit for what is inevitably going to be one of the most memorable lines in MCU history, that is something that Robert and his children actually say to each other. He brought it from real life onto the set.

Markus told Fandango that the line was partly Robert Downey Jr.'s based on his relationship with his children. The original line was supposed to be "I love you tons." That makes the moment in the film all the sweeter and it probably helped Downey a little bit with his performance, too.

That makes the line a little more touching, too, because it's ultimately the very last line that Tony Stark says in the movie. As a father and as the guy who helped start the whole MCU, it must have been a nice moment for Downey.

Only time will tell if "I love you 3000" goes down in MCU history as the greatest line, but Endgame has lots of other memorable lines as well. Whether it's Thanos giving another menacing monologue or Captain America's "whatever it takes" (and "America's ass"), MCU fans have lots of options when it comes to quotes to say forever.

Seeing as how the film is about to pass $2 billion in only its second week in theaters, you've probably already seen it. In case you haven't, Avengers: Endgame is in theaters right now and you better see it today because the spoiler ban apparently ends tomorrow. If you've already seen Marvel's epic blockbuster, you don't have to wait too long for more films to hit theaters. Check out our 2019 movie release guide for everything that's coming down the pipeline.