How To Train Your Dragon 3 Just Crossed Another Box Office Milestone

How To Train Your Dragon 3 Just Crossed Another Box Office Milestone

Although Dumbo didn’t soar quite the way Disney probably hoped when it opened this past weekend, another family friendly film continues to fly high at the box office over a month after its release. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, the final film in DreamWorks Animation and Universal/Comcast’s venerated series, crossed another milestone at the box office this past weekend: $500 million worldwide.

If you’re going to go out, do it on a high note, and How to Train Your Dragon 3 is doing just that, earning over half a billion dollars worldwide to date, according to Forbes. The animated threequel actually crossed a pair of box office milestones this weekend, with its roughly $4.2 million domestic haul, good for 7th place in its 6th weekend in release, pushing it past $150 million domestically.

These box office milestones are just the latest accolades that The Hidden World can claim after a domestic debut of $55.5 million that broke records for the franchise on opening weekend. The Hidden World is also the third-biggest film of 2019, and Toothless and Hiccup’s soaring performance thus far ensures that this $129 million film will be viewed as a success, but it may not wind up being the biggest movie in the franchise overall.

The first film in this franchise, 2010’s How to Train Your Dragon, finished its run just shy of the $500 million mark, earning $494.9 million worldwide with $217.6 million of that coming from the North American box office, according to Box Office Mojo. By passing the $500 million milestone, the third film has now eclipsed the original’s worldwide total, but is still a ways away from matching it domestically.

The original had a pretty close split in terms of domestic and overseas box office revenues, but the sequels have been much more heavily weighted towards the international box office. How to Train Your Dragon 2, which opened in 2014, still stands as the biggest film in the series overall, with a huge $621.5 worldwide haul, with less than 30% of that, $177 million, coming from the domestic box office.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World has yet to match either the domestic or worldwide total of its predecessor with the biggest difference coming internationally, where How to Train Your Dragon 2 made close to $100 million more than the third film. So with The Hidden World winding down its run here and abroad, that $621.5 million may be out of reach.

It should be noted though that the second film also cost a fair bit more, so that narrows the gap between the two when all the numbers are being counted. And with over $500 million worldwide, sterling critical and audience reviews, and perhaps an Oscar case, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is a great and successful way for this franchise to fly off into the sunset.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is now playing. Check out what we thought of the film and keep up with our 2019 release schedule to see all the movies headed your way this year.

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How Tim Burton Is Different From Every Other Director Danny Elfman Works With

How Tim Burton Is Different From Every Other Director Danny Elfman Works With

The collaboration between Tim Burton and Danny Elfman is one of the great director/composer relationships in modern cinema. The two men first came together for Pee-wee's Big Adventure back in 1985, and while they’ve both worked with other filmmakers in the time since then, that does nothing to undercut the fact that they’ve made 17 features together (18 if you count Henry Sellick’s The Nightmare Before Christmas). Clearly it’s a special relationship for both men, and as I recently learned during an interview with Elfman, it’s one that is unique in some very key ways.

Specifically, it comes down to the amount of time that Danny Elfman and Tim Burton actually spend talking about the work. When working with other filmmakers, having discussions about music and the proper approach can take multiple days of analysis, but that just apparently isn’t the way that Burton functions. As I learned from the legendary composer during the recent Los Angeles press day for Dumbo, going through a score discussion with the director apparently barely takes more than an afternoon. Said Elfman,

The spotting sessions we do, where we go through the whole film and talk a little bit about each piece of music, Tim is quicker than any director I've ever worked with. I'm working right now on a film where the spotting session will take two days. We did half of it last week, and I do half of it tomorrow. And with Tim, if it's a two hour movie, the spotting sessions are two-and-a-half hours. If it's an hour and 45 minute movie, it's two hours and 15 minutes.

That’s pretty intense, but one could argue that it very much speaks to the power of the collaboration between the two men.

When I followed up by asking why it is that Tim Burton is able to plow through those spotting sessions, Danny Elfman’s explanation was simple: he doesn’t like to dissect, and instead is more interested in just jumping around and just expressing where it is that he wants specific cues. Music is apparently a detail of the filmmaking process that he doesn’t put a tremendous amount of thought into – but Elfman also made it clear that part of that extends from the fact that there is a lot of trust in their collaboration:

He doesn't want to talk about it. It's just like, 'Okay let's start the music here. And then skip to the end of the scene.' He skips to the end. 'I think this is a good place to come out.' And then he might have like three words. He goes, 'Keep it kind of understated here. Okay, next.' It's like, 'Oh yeah, make sure you play the something here. Okay, next.' He doesn't analyze. Some people get very analytical, and they really want to talk about the psychology of a scene, and Tim doesn't. He's like, 'You know, there's music. You'll find it. When you find it, I'll know it.'

What’s extra funny about this, though, is that it’s not exactly a recent development that began with their work together on Dumbo. This whole conversation was accessed when I asked Danny Elfman about the evolution of his relationship with Tim Burton since they first started working together in the mid-1980s – and the four time Oscar nominee explained that things have basically been the way they are now since the very beginning. Said Elfman,

It's still more or less the same, other than he's much more sure of himself and what he likes and doesn't like then when we started, obviously, in Pee-wee's Big Adventure, and he was just like, 'Oh, great. Music. Cool.' And now he's much more selective. But other than that, the process is really similar. He doesn't talk about the movie a lot, and he doesn't talk about the music a lot.

It’s pretty incredible to learn this when you consider the power of their work together – but also clearly a situation of “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.”

Audiences can now hear the latest score from Danny Elfman in theaters everywhere, as Dumbo is now playing in wide release. And for those of you interested in playing it at home, the MP3 album is available now, and CDs will be released this Friday, April 5th.

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This Rotten Week: Predicting Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Ma and Rocketman Reviews

This Rotten Week: Predicting Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Ma and Rocketman Reviews

Man (or kaiju), there is quite a bit to look forward to with this week’s run of movies. It’s got big ol' monsters, a suburban teen horror and a biopic about one of the greatest living entertainers. Get ready for Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Ma and Rocketman.

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 what This Rotten Week has to offer.

Watching the Godzilla: King of the Monsters trailer, which shows off some of the large-scale fighting sequences between the ancient monsters who’ve come to life on Earth, it’s tough to imagine there’s any planet left for survivors to live on when the credits start to roll. It sure looks like every little speck of everything is wiped out except for, of course, the key human characters who help drive the plot line. Millie Bobby Brown and Vera Farmiga's characters mostly look fine, but everything else gets annihilated.

This is the third movie in this particular Monster-verse franchise, following Godzilla (75%) and Kong: Skull Island (75%). King of the Monsters will unleash a whole host of “new” creatures on the world, like Mothra and Ghidorah, with Godzilla called back out to fight them off. These movies mix somewhat tongue-in-cheek stylings with somewhat grounded reimaginings, and this one doesn’t look any different. The trailer looks enjoyably ridiculous, and that might not be the worst thing when it comes to the critics if they feel like they're in on the perceived joke.

In Ma, a group of high schoolers seem to stumble upon a Shangri-La-Like drinking environment when they start partying in the basement of some old woman who once bought them liquor. That sounds like a pitch for a teen comedy, but the darkness comes when the woman (the titular Ma) ends up being a total psycho apparently hellbent on taking revenge on the kids of those who mistreated her back in her own high school days. If the binge-drinking doesn't kill those teens, something will.

I like how director Tate Taylor thought to himself, you know who would be perfect as a psychotic, manipulative, borderline serial killer of teenagers? Octavia Spencer! He worked with her before, of course, having directed her in both The Help (80%) and Get on Up (76%), while also helming Girl on the Train (45%). Her latest character looks downright freaky, though I’m a bit torn on how critics will receive a story about kids getting worked over this way by a batshit crazy lady. Random thrillers aren't usually kind to Hollywood's elite, as seen by Dennis Quaid's The Intruder (30%).

The musical biopic is all the rage right now. We are fresh off the Queen-ly waves made by the Freddie Mercury-inspired Bohemian Rhapsody, which earned Rami Malek a Best Actor Oscar a few months ago. Now we get a look into the early years of Taron Egerton's Elton John as he goes from a struggling and shy kid to the flamboyant, eccentric, and world-renowned musical phenom that we know him as today.

Unlike the aforementioned Bohemian Rhapsody (61%), which left critics feeling somewhat meh with its retelling of Mercury’s life, Rocketman has come out of the gate quite strong. It’s sitting at 88% through 80 reviews, with critics praising the style, tone and performances from the leads. Taron Egerton plays Elton after starring in the Kingsman (74%, 52%) movies and voicing Johnny in Sing. He also worked with director Dexter Fletcher on Eddie the Eagle, and this latest looks like a complete hit that doesn't seem to suffer some of the more negative critiques facing more sanitized biopics of late.

Recapping last week:

We went two for three with the predictions last week, and it's been a relatively impressive run in the short-term. Aladdin (Predicted: 57% Actual: 58%) was a near direct hit, missing by only a percentage point while keeping Will Smith’s *Rotten” streak alive. He hasn’t had a positively reviewed movie earning a "Fresh" Tomatometer score in seven years now, though this one at least came close.

As the score would indicate, critics were rather mixed on the final result for the live-action remake of the Disney classic. Smith had some rather large shoes to fill, considering what Robin Williams did with just the voice role in the original. It landed for some critics but not others ,and the range of complaints and compliments varied.

I had a head start with Booksmart (Predicted: 99% Actual: 97%), since a number of reviews were in already up at the time of post. The drama was sitting at 100% through the first 50 or so reviews, and dropped only a few percentage points over the course of the next week. This will now go down as one of the best-rated wide releases of the year and it likely enters the discussion for the short list of all-time great high school, one-nighter movies.

Finally, Brightburn (Predicted: 37% Actual: 59%) was a mighty miss. Though technically rotten on the Tomatometer, this comic-adjacent scored higher than I thought, with more than half the critics finding something to like about the twist on the superhero genre. Considering the film basically just went Bizarro Superman, but not so Bizarro to wow everyone, this score can probably be considered a win.

Next time around, we’ve got Dark Phoenix, Late Night and The Secret Life of Pets 2. It’s gonna be a Rotten Week!

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John Wick Director Reveals How Brandon Lee’s Death From The Crow Impacted The Franchise

John Wick Director Reveals How Brandon Lee’s Death From The Crow Impacted The Franchise

There are few stories in Hollywood as tragic as the death of Brandon Lee. The young actor was filming the movie The Crow in 1993 when a problem with a prop gun caused him to be shot by a squib load. Lee would die from his wound. Most of the production on The Crow had been completed and so what filming remained had Lee's stunt double stand in for him. That stunt double was named Chad Stahelski, and he would go on to direct movies of his own, like the John Wick franchise.

Chad Stahelski had been friends with Brandon Lee before making The Crow, and so the death certainly had an impact on him. He doesn't blame anybody specifically for the accident, saying that it was a combination of several small mistakes, rather than an individual screw up. According to Stahelski...

Brandon’s accident was a lot of little dumb things that got by, but it’s groupthink. All the people involved were very, very smart. You just get tired, you make one little mistake, it compounds.

There's an interesting irony in the fact that both The Crow and the first John Wick movie are about characters who act as avenging angels punishing those that did them wrong.

While it's been 25 years since Brandon Lee's death, the event still has had reverberations through Hollywood. Stahelski's own John Wick movies use a lot of guns, and thus safety is a major concern in order to be sure nothing like what happened to Lee happens again. According to the director's comments to Yahoo, a lot of the safety protocols that are in use today exist because of the accident.

You know where that leads to? John Wick is 90% guns, firearms. A lot of the safety or the methodology we use, it came about because of that accident. It’s retroactive, which sucks, it’s like most fucking things in life. No one wants to change anything until something bad happens. But I know a great deal about that story, and there’s no one thing that you could point a finger at, it was a lot of little dumb mistakes that shouldn’t have happened.

Brandon Lee clearly had talent and a lot of promise and a wonderful career in front of him when this terrible random act took all that away. The Crow was evidence of that if nothing else.

There's been an ongoing attempt to remake The Crow in recent years but the project has been perpetually stalled for one reason or another. The original film's tragic history is clearly part of the reason many fans are against the concept of a remake. Whatever actor tries to take on that role has huge shoes to fill.

I can't help but notice that if Brandon Lee were still with us he'd be the same age as Keanu Reeves. Someplace there's an alternate universe where Chad Stahelski is directing his friend Brandon Lee in the John Wick franchise, and the third entry is about to hit theaters.

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum opens tonight.

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Netflix's Wine Country Trailer Reunites SNL's Funniest Ladies For Day Drinking

Netflix's Wine Country Trailer Reunites SNL's Funniest Ladies For Day Drinking

Whenever you get together with a group of friends for a day of drinking, there are bound to be some laughs. In Netflix’s new original movie Wine Country, those friends just happen to be played by some of the funniest women in showbiz, so the laughs are going to flow even more freely than the alcohol. The trailer for Wine Country reunites Saturday Night Live’s funniest ladies for some day drinking in Amy Poehler’s directorial debut. Take a look:

With a cast like this, you would expect to find a lot of laughs in Wine Country, and fortunately this first trailer provides just that. The basic premise of a group of old friends coming together to celebrate one of their own turning 50 by planning a trip to Napa is ripe with comedic possibility. We quickly see that you don’t have to be in your 20s to be a sloppy and entertaining drunk.

In addition to the physical comedy, which actresses like Maya Rudolph do so well, on display in this trailer, it also has some really funny lines. The bit about the “lavender popping corn” is great and really highlights some of the absurdity and pretentiousness that you might find at a fancy restaurant. With a script from SNL writer Emily Spivey and The Last Man on Earth writer Liz Cackowski, there should be plenty of smart comedy in this movie.

It was also a fun wink (intentional or not) to Parks and Recreation fans to see Amy Poehler’s character in this film, Abby, handing out itineraries for the wine country trip. They were just folders, but you can’t help but think of Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope, who was a huge fan of planning everything out and micro-managing with massive binders full of information.

While there will clearly be plenty of great humor from this cast, it is evident from this trailer that Wine Country will also have plenty of heart. The drunken falling down, wine-fueled shenanigans and debauchery is only the surface level stuff, and as Tina Fey’s blunt Tammy warns, the alcohol will let out plenty of truthful confessions and that will put a strain on their friendships.

The characters in Wine Country are enjoying a vacation, but they are also dealing with some of the real issues people encounter as they get older and discover how old friendships are both difficult to maintain, but also hugely important. Those emotional beats should help give Wine Country something heartfelt to say in addition to the good laughs.

Amy Poehler has assembled many of her old friends and put together a positively stacked cast of actresses for Wine Country. Joining SNL actresses Ana Gasteyer, Rachel Dratch, Maya Rudolph and Amy Poehler onscreen are two SNL writers that have helped make everyone so funny over the years, Paula Pell and Emily Spivey. Naturally these two writers have some of the trailer’s funniest lines. Plus, former SNL writer and cast member Tina Fey is briefly in the trailer, but looks to have a fun role.

Wine Country arrives on Netflix and in select theaters (Netflix may soon have its own!) on May 10. Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to see all the biggest movies headed to theaters this year, and for all the joys of day drinking with none of the consequences, stay tuned to CinemaBlend.

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Why The Intruder Also Doubles As A Comedy Between Its Thrills

Why The Intruder Also Doubles As A Comedy Between Its Thrills

The horror genre isn’t what it once was. While there were boxes it may have needed to check before, when you walk into the theater for thrills, you can expect the unexpected. Get Out offered audiences frights about race relations and Happy Death Day 2U was a Back To the Future-esque ride.

Deon Taylor’s The Intruder may offer moviegoers more comedic beats then one might expect from a creepy tale about a couple who becomes entangled in the grip Dennis Quaid’s Charlie Peck has on his longtime home shortly after selling it to them. Audiences might be a shocked at how much humor can be found amidst the chills and jump-scares.

During a recent Los Angeles press day for The Intruder, I asked director Deon Taylor about how these comedic moments found a place in the movie. Here’s what he said:

I think it has a lot to do with my DNA as a filmmaker. I really like laughing, I love funny things, I love humor and I think a lot of times when there is a lot of pain, there’s also a lot of humor. When we were making the movie, I think the humanity of it: flawed characters, argumentative moments, playing the fun side of Charlie Peck in the first two acts. Because you don’t really take him serious until you start going ‘wait a minute, he’s actually really scary. He’s a creepy dude.’ It gives you a really good playing field for fun and (the cast) takes advantage of it.

The director has tackled a balance between comedy and horror before in his 2016 film Meet the Blacks, so it makes sense he’d want to move some of the fun over to his latest project. Warming up the film with humor in the beginning to break the tension before bringing on the intense chills is a smart move, and it looks like it came naturally for the filmmaker.

It also helped that he had Michael Ealy and Meagan Good on board, who had previously starred together in Think Like a Man. Ealy told CinemaBlend about how their ties infused some humor on set:

I think our relationship prior to this movie enabled me to actually feel comfortable to improvise certain jokes and throw out certain things and to be snarky, vulnerable and be the actual Scott character. That was key for me and Meagan was helpful because she’s silly and off camera we were constantly clowning each other.

Take a look at the exclusive interview below:

The Intruder premiered Thursday night in theaters alongside Long Shot and UglyDolls and topped numbers among the newcomers, per Variety. The title is a contender to fight for the top spot at the box office this weekend under the reigning success Avengers: Endgame will certainly find in its second weekend in theaters. Stay tuned with CinemaBlend to see how it all goes down.

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How Much Hellboy Made On Opening Night

How Much Hellboy Made On Opening Night

The newly rebooted Hellboy made his debut to audiences last night and while things are looking good for the big red guy to be the top performer of this weekend's new releases, the early screenings totals certainly didn't blow anybody away, as the film apparently earned about $1.4 million last night.

While making over $1 million over just a couple showings per screen last night is certainly nothing to sneeze at, it's a far cry from the numbers that comic book movies tend to put up. For comparison, last weekend, Shazam! ended up doing a better than expected $5.9 million, or more than four times what Hellboy did last night.

To be fair, Hellboy was never projected to do as well as Shazam! the expectations has been that the movie will likely do about $17 million domestically this weekend and the Thursday night numbers would still put it on track to do about that much. Variety points out that Resident Evil: The Final Chapter did about $1 million on its opening night on the way to a $13.6 million opening weekend, so Hellboy is on track to improve on that. Still, if Shazam! sees a second weekend drop of 50% or less, or even slightly more, it will still win the weekend box office.

Of course, if the numbers do shake out as expected, it will put the new Hellboy movie behind the two previous films in terms of box office. Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy saw an opening weekend of gross of $23 million when it hit in 2004. The follow up, 2008's Hellboy II: The Golden Army, improved on that with $34.5 million.

Clearly, expectations had to have been higher for the reboot. Unless the brand new Hellboy was incredibly inexpensive to produce, it's going to have a hard time making its money back unless the film is a massive hit overseas. Guillermo del Toro tried and failed multiple times to find a studio willing to finance the third film he always wanted to make. The fact that a studio was willing to produce a reboot means somebody thought it was a safer bet than making another film in the existing series.

Hellboy's box office concerns match the film's critical problems. Hellboy currently has a 12% positive rating on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes. Critics pretty much universally loathe the movie. While I don't think Rotten Tomatoes has quite the power to sway audiences that some give it credit for, it's certainly true that numbers like that don't help the situation any.

Baring surprises, it seems that Hellboy will continue his struggle at the box office. The character may not be as popular as your average marvel or DC hero, but he certainly has big fans that would love to see him succeed. Those fans may need to continue waiting.

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DC's Super Pets Movie Has Been Pushed Back

DC's Super Pets Movie Has Been Pushed Back

Early this year, Warner Bros. planted its flag on the calendar, setting release dates for a few of its upcoming DC films, including Matt Reeves’ The Batman, James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad soft reboot and the newly-announced animated movie DC Super Pets. The latter of those films was set for release on May 21, 2021 but has now been pushed all the way back into the following year.

Warner Bros. has pushed its DC Super Pets movie back an entire year and the movie about the crime-fighting pets of DC’s biggest superheroes will now release on May 22, 2022 according to Deadline. No specific reason has been given as of yet to why DC Super Pets has been pushed back so far.

Earlier this week, on the heels of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’s successful box office debut, John Wick: Chapter 4 was announced and slated for release on May 21, 2021. That would have had it opening the same weekend as DC Super Pets, although I doubt that was the reason for the move. There may be some small overlap, but in general an animated kids movie and an R-rated action film aren’t competing for the same audience.

DC Super Pets now lands in a 2022 calendar that is largely populated by untitled films from the various studios and franchises. The dates have been claimed, but we don’t know what will be coming out on them as of yet. But we can now look forward, way forward, to seeing something quite different from DC in the form of DC Super Pets in three years time.

It's worth clarifying that DC Super Pets, from directors Jared Stern and Sam Levine, is not based on the Capstone Publishing line of the same name, though there could be some similarities. That imprint followed the crime-fighting adventures of the pets of DC characters like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Among the furry heroes were Superman’s Krypto the Super-Dog, Batman’s Ace the Bat-Hound, Wonder Woman’s kangaroo Jumpa, Aquaman’s seahorse Storm and the space squirrel and Green Lantern B’dg.

From 2012-2013, a series of animated shorts based on the characters aired on Cartoon Network’s DC Nation block. It will be interesting to see how this DC Super Pets movie compares to the previous comics and animated shorts, but feel free to check out a clip of DC Super Pets from Cartoon Network below to see what the previous onscreen incarnation was like.

While we all love cohesive cinematic universes like the MCU, it is exciting that something as obscure and silly and fun as DC Super Pets is going to eventually make its way to the big screen. Last year’s big screen DC animated film, Teen Titans Go! To The Movies only made $52 million. But its budget was only $10 million and it gave audiences, especially the younger ones, something different from the standard superhero blockbuster.

Hopefully DC Super Pets can continue that trend and like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, give us some variety in our cinematic superhero adventures.

DC Super Pets may be delayed until 2022, but 2021 still has two huge DC movies with The Batman on June 25 and The Suicide Squad on August 6. That’s all a long way off though so check out our 2019 Release Schedule for movies you can see this year.

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The Russo Brothers Confirm A Major Captain America Theory We Had After Avengers: Endgame

The Russo Brothers Confirm A Major Captain America Theory We Had After Avengers: Endgame

The following story contains spoilers from Avengers: Endgame.

When the latest Marvel Studios movie drew to a close, Captain America (Chris Evans) embarked on one final mission. He agreed to be the one who traveled back in time to return the Infinity Stones from the moments in which they were borrowed, thereby eliminating any multiverses that might have sprung away from the main timeline.

In doing so, this means that Cap had to travel to the remote planet of Vormir to return the Soul Stone. And that should mean that Steve Rogers would encounter – for the first time in decades – the arch-nemesis who helped bury him in the ice way back in 1945: Red Skull. We have seen the Skull in both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, where he stands guard over the pit where a sacrifice must be made to retrieve the Stone. So when ReelBlend sat down with Joe and Anthony Russo to talk Endgame spoilers, we asked if this meant that Cap encountered Red Skull again, and what the rules of Soul Stone returns actually are:

Joe Russo: He would have to encounter Red Skull. And nobody knows what the rules are when you return the Soul Stone.

Anthony Russo: Nobody knows. But knowing Red Skull, he probably has a no-money-back policy.

Captain America’s final trip through time is the biggest gap in storytelling that Avengers: Endgame doesn’t bother to address. Hulk sends Cap back in time using the technology that Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) perfected. And he expects to bring Steve Rogers back… only, that doesn’t happen.

Instead, Bucky (Sebastian Stan) and Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) notice that Old Man Rogers is waiting for him. It turns out, after returning the Stones, Cap decided to go back in time and live his life in full with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), and choosing not to elaborate on the steps that he took to bring the Stones back.

That leaves a LOT of story left to tell, and Marvel actually has ways to tell it. After all, with Disney+ as a new streaming service, Marvel fans already expect to see new stories branching out from Avengers: Endgame starring Tom Hiddleston as Loki, as well as Stan and Mackie. Why couldn’t Chris Evans choose to keep playing Captain America, just going on adventures in the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s and beyond?

Also, Marvel Studios easily could bring back the One Shots that they used to include on DVDs and Blu-rays. Who doesn’t want to see a short film that shows Steve encountering Red Skull, one last time?

The Russo brothers confirm that the meeting takes place in their version of the story, but they stop short from telling us when we might ever see it happen. To hear the rest of our conversation with the brothers, where we talk all things SPOILERY for Avengers: Endgame, press play on this bonus segment of the ReelBlend podcast.

As for Avengers: Endgame, that blockbuster is shattering records left and right, passing $2 billion in 11 days. Staggering. Have you seen it yet? What did you think?

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Seth Rogen Says The Lion King Footage Makes Him ‘Weep Uncontrollably’

Seth Rogen Says The Lion King Footage Makes Him ‘Weep Uncontrollably’

Disney is obviously a massive filmmaking presence, which is always finding ways to enthrall audiences (and make tons of money in the process). Over the past few years, the House of Mouse has capitalized on the trend of nostalgia, adapting classic animated blockbusters into live-action. This all started with Maleficent, and the next big Disney remake is coming down the line is Jon Favreau's The Lion King.

Anticipation for The Lion King has been steadily building over the past few years, after Jon Favreau revealed the all-star cast assembled to popular Pride Rock. One of the brilliant casting choices is Seth Rogen as Pumbaa the warthog, pairing the comedian with fellow funny man Billy Eichner as Timon. But Rogen can barely get through watching footage without breaking out into hysterics. When explaining the pressure of giving The Lion King new life, the 37 year-old actor said:

I once heard it referred to as the crown jewel of the Disney movies, and for me at least, it’s for sure the one that hit me the hardest, that taught me the most lessons about life and death and many things in between. Whenever Jon has shown me [footage], I weep uncontrollably because it does just hit a raw nerve in some ways and taps directly into these feelings from my childhood, but updates them with a scope that is heavily impactful to me as an adult.

Same, Seth Rogen. Because while he's privy to way more information and content than the general public, the brief Lion King trailers have overwhelmed moviegoers with nostalgic feels. So he's not the only one who needs a tissue.

Seth Rogen's comments to EW show how everyone involved in The Lion King understands what an important story is being told. The 1994 original animated blockbuster was an insane success, making tons of money at the box office and earning two Oscars in the process. It has a special place in the hearts of countless families, and showed what the Disney Renaissance was truly capable of.

Related: Seth Rogen Is Seriously Psyched About His Lion King Role

As such, seeing the iconic characters (including Pumbaa) brought to live through cutting edge visual affects is an emotional experience. Shots from the first trailers instantly bring you back to childhood, as Jon Fravreau pays tribute to the Academy Award winning original. But he's still finding ways to surprise the audience, so it won't be a shot-for-shot remake of the animated classic.

As a reminder you can check out the first full trailer for The Lion King, and find yourself transported back to the 1990's in the process.

I'm not crying, you're crying. Actually, Seth Rogen is probably crying.

While the nostalgic feels are already strong for The Lion King, one can imagine that it's an even more emotional experience if you're actually in the cast. Hearing his voice come out of Pumbaa's CGI mouth must be jarring, as he was clearly touched by the original film. Now Rogen has the chance to have the same magical affects on the younger generation, while also paying tribute to the original with older moviegoers.

Very little has been shown of The Lion King, but Seth Rogen is expected to sing out, Louise when it comes time to the classic tune "Hakuna Matata". The trailer is relatively short in length, showing the beautiful world created by Jon Favreau and his animators. But since the new adaptation will arrive in theaters in a few months, we should expect Disney to reveal more shortly.

Seth Rogen's trepidation over The Lion King does make sense, because everyone in the cast has some big (albeit animal) shoes to fill. Disney's original Lion King is one of the most beloved movies in the entire vault, with gorgeous animation and music by Elton John. Movies like The Lion King and Beauty and The Beast helped establish that animated movies could be award contenders, and now we've got an annual category for said film at the Academy Awards.

In the 1994 classic, Pumbaa the gassy warthog is voiced by Broadway talent Ernie Sabella. Sabella had great chemistry with OG Timon, the incomparable Nathan Lane. It's their give and take that made the two comic relief become beloved parts of kids' childhoods. Luckily for Seth Rogen, he was given a solid scene partner in Difficult People's Billy Eichner. Both actors are filmmakers in their own rights, although audiences aren't familiar with their singing voices.

Not much has been seen from Timon and Pumbaa in the new Lion King yet. But there's only been a limited amount of footage offered the generations of fans ahead of the film's release. The duo were seen in the closing moments of the first full trailer, singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" as the screen went to black. It's just a tease of what we should expect, and Seth Rogen's signature growl seems like a great choice to play Pumbaa. And it's not like fart jokes are unfamiliar territory to the comedy megastar.

Director Jon Favreau actually shared a new glimpse at the dynamic duo of Lion King characters today on social media. Check it out below, and prepare for your heart to be full.

After a long day of no worries and eating bugs, sometimes you have to cuddle up for some shut eye. The above image shows Simba (Donald Glover) in his adult form, avoiding his problems with his two best buddies. But you can see some longing in the character's eyes, likely because he knows he must return to Pride Rock. All he needs is a certain pop star lioness to get him back into shape.

Fans are eager to see how the new Lion King movie differs from the original, and which iconic beats end up staying in the movie. There are new characters being introduced, as well as music from the long running Broadway show. But the trailers show a real reverence for the first movie, and some shots that are nearly identical.

The Lion King will arrive in theaters on July 19th, with Seth Rogen in tow. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

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Avengers Infinity War Cast List: All The Confirmed Marvel Heroes And Villains

Avengers Infinity War Cast List: All The Confirmed Marvel Heroes And Villains

There's no denying it: Avengers: Infinity War will feature the largest cast for a Marvel movie yet. Building off everything that's happened in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since it launched in 2008, the movie will see the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and more to fight the threat this franchise has been teasing for half a decade: Thanos. He's one of the greatest villains in the Marvel comics, and he'll finally prove why he's so formidable on the silver screen.

There's still a lot that hasn't been revealed yet about Avengers: Infinity War, including how it connects to 2019's Avengers 4. Fortunately, one area where there's plenty of information is castings. While Marvel is remaining tight-lipped on the new characters who will appear (including who Peter Dinklage and Terry Notary are playing), there have been numerous confirmations about characters who will be returning. Let's take a look at all the MCU heroes and villains who will definitely be back for Avengers: Infinity War.

Thanos

Thanos stayed on the sidelines for five years now, but in 2018, he'll finally prove why he's the overarching antagonist of the MCU. After several of his minions failed to retrieve the Infinity Stones on his behalf, the Mad Titan decided at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron to take his Infinity Gauntlet out of the vault and secure them himself. If he succeeds, Thanos will be able rewrite all of reality, and like his comic book counterpart, he may be doing this to court Death.

Iron Man

Iron Man has been part of the MCU since the beginning, so it would be weird if he didn't participate in Avengers: Infinity War. Tony Stark has been through a lot over nearly a decade, from becoming a superhero and walking away from war profiteering to working with the government on registering enhanced individuals. Tony is still continuing his Iron Man duties and trying to keep the world safe, so bet on him being at the front lines and breaking out his best tech yet to fight Thanos.

Captain America

Captain America has been one of the MCU's most cherished heroes for decades, but as of Captain America: Civil War, Steve Rogers has abandoned his patriotic mantle and is on the run due to his anti-registration activities. Despite his current predicament, Steve is still someone who will do the right thing no matter what. So when Thanos comes to Earth, he'll jump back into action to keep the innocent safe, which hopefully means picking up his vibranium shield again.

Thor

Even though he hasn't been involved with the Avengers for a while, Thor's been keeping himself busy. Along with departing Earth at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron to learn about the Infinity Stones, he also has to deal with what's coming up in Thor: Ragnarok, which includes finding Odin, surviving Sakaar and preventing Hela from destroying all of Asgardian civilization. The God of Thunder will be put through the ringer this fall, but rest assured, he'll be ready for battle during Avengers: Infinity War.

Hulk

Like Thor, Hulk's been out of the game for a little bit, but moviegoers will reunite with him in Thor: Ragnarok, where he'll battle Thor on Sakaar and then team up with the God of Thunder. Then he'll take part in both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4, which, according to Mark Ruffalo, form with Ragnarok to make a standalone Hulk story. That's fine and dandy, but no doubt what many Marvel fans want most from the Green Goliath in this tale is for him to go mano a mano with Thanos.

Spider-Man

Spider-Man is a still new to the MCU, but his decades-long popularity has ensured that he's already a major player in the MCU. After being recruited by Tony Stark in Captain America: Civil War, Peter Parker is returning in Spider-Man: Homecoming to put his technologically-enhanced Spider-suit to good use and a gang of thieves with their own special tech, led by The Vulture. We don't know yet how that story will play out, but it certainly looks like it will strengthen Peter's character, making him a more effective superhero for when Avengers: Infinity War rolls around.

Star-Lord

Peter Quill was taken from Earth almost 30 years ago, and although he's led a life of excitement since then, he still hasn't returned to home. With two adventures under his belt with the other Guardians of the Galaxy, the self-named Star-Lord will finally have to head back to Earth in Avengers: Infinity War when Thanos starts wreaking havoc. Since he's been gone for so long, it will be interesting to see how Peter reacts to modern day pop culture, like learning how the Zune isn't the most popular music player like he was led to believe.

Gamora

Gamora was the first of Thanos' "children" to leave his side, and it's a good thing she did, because now she's putting her skills to good use as a Guardian of the Galaxy. Because of her time with the Mad Titan, Gamora will prove invaluable in fighting him and his forces during Avengers: Infinity War. Of course, since she was also Thanos' favorite daughter, that makes her betrayal sting even more for him, so if they cross paths, you can bet that "daddy" is going to have some words for Gamora, to put it as lightly as possible.

Drax

Drax the Destroyer helped with destroying Ronan, the Kree fanatic who killed his wife and daughter. However, Drax told Gamora at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy that Ronan was just a pawn, and for his vengeance to truly be carried out, he would need to kill Thanos. Drax's desire for revenge wasn't mentioned in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but you can bet that if sees Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, he'll try his hardest to eliminate the intergalactic warlord.

Nebula

It took Nebula a little longer to leave Thanos' side, and even longer for her to work out her issues with Gamora. Fortunately the sisters were on good terms by the time Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 concluded, but rather than stick with the Guardians, Nebula departed to begin her quest to kill Thanos. She'll have to contend with Drax trying to fulfill that same objective, but at least we can count on Nebula being an ally during Avengers: Infinity War rather than trying to hurt the other Guardians.

Rocket

Rocket is arguably the biggest smart-ass in the MCU. Yes, dare I say it, even more so than Tony Stark. But after two Guardians of the Galaxy movies, he finally seems to realize that his connections to his fellow Guardians aren't easily broken. Now that his relationship fears have been dealt with, we can count on him providing his weaponry expertise in the showdown against Thanos. There's also concept art of Rocket fighting alongside Thor, so expect him to insult the God of Thunder's hair, or something along those lines.

Groot

It was fun seeing Baby Groot in action during Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but one of the sequel's mid-credits scenes showed that the walking and talking tree is still growing and currently in his teenage phase. Groot will still be in his adolescent phase during Avengers: Infinity War, though perhaps something in either this movie or Avengers 4 will trigger a growth spurt. In any case, if we're lucky, maybe we can see him and Hulk battling some of Thanos' goons side by side, though so far the only other Marvel hero seen alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy in this movie is Thor.

Mantis

Mantis spent most of her life being forced to serve Ego, but now that Peter Quill's father is no more, she has joined the Guardians of the Galaxy. It's unclear if her empathic abilities will come in handy during Avengers: Infinity War, but at least she can now help other with her power rather than serve a sinister Celestial. We also don't have to worry about her being killed off, as she'll be back with the other Guardians in Guardians of the Galaxy 3.

The Collector

Thanos isn't the only one who wants to gather the six Infinity Stones together. Taneleer Tivan, a.k.a. The Collector, has also been eagerly seeking those powerful artifacts, and even though he lost the Orb, a.k.a. Power Stone, when his collection was destroyed, he presumably still has the Aether, a.k.a. the Reality Stone, which he received in Thor: The Dark World. So far, we've only seen The Collector as an eccentric alien who enjoys gathering things for his museum, but maybe we'll see him show off some of his incredible powers in Avengers: Infinity War.

Vision

Vision is one of the newer superheroes in the MCU, but as far as Thanos is concerned, he's arguably the most important Avenger. Vision was born in Avengers: Age of Ultron when the Mind Stone was implanted in the synthetic body that contained J.A.R.V.I.S.'s programming. It's thanks to the Mind Stone that he's so powerful, but it also means that Thanos will immediately seek Vision out to rip the Stone from his forehead. One would assume this would kill Vision, but we won't know for sure until next year.

Loki

Loki struck an alliance with Thanos in The Avengers to secure the Tesseract, a.k.a. the Space Stone, in exchange for the Chitauri army conquering Earth for him. Not only did the Asgardian God of Mischief fail to deliver the Tesseract to the Mad Titan, his invasion was vanquished and he lost the Mind Stone in the process. Since then, Loki has taken over the Asgardian throne in Thor: The Dark World and will play an integral role in Thor: Ragnarok, but we don't know yet how he'll fit into Avengers: Infinity War.

Doctor Strange

Most of the special abilities in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have stemmed from science or cosmic forces, but Doctor Strange fully pulled back the curtain on magic and mysticism. Now that he's the master of New York's Sanctum Sanctorum, Stephen Strange has been keeping track of individuals who could threaten Earth, and Thanos is likely at the top of the list. The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy certainly aren't lacking for brute force, but maybe Doctor Strange's magic could be integral to defeating the Mad Titan.

Black Panther

T'Challa inherited the Black Panther mantle after his father was killed in Captain America: Civil War, and now that T'Chaka's murderer (Helmut Zemo) is in prison, the prince has gone back to his homeland, Wakanda. The Black Panther movie will follow T'Challa as he battles sinister forces aiming to bring down the Wakandan kingdom, but he won't have long to rest after afterwards, because he'll be participating in Avengers: Infinity War only a few months later.

Black Widow

Black Widow has been one of the MCU's most popular superheroes since being introduced in Iron Man 2, and while she still hasn't been given her own solo movie yet, she remains an important character in these ensemble pieces. When we last saw Natasha Romanoff, she'd gone on the run after helping Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes escape. Black Widow is skilled at staying hidden, but we suspect that when Thanos arrives on Earth, she'll return to help her comrades.

Scarlet Witch

Scarlet Witch is one of the most powerful humans on Earth, but she was still captured during Captain America: Civil War's airport battle. Thankfully, Steve Rogers freed her and the other anti-registration supporters from The Raft. It's unclear whether Wanda Maximoff accompanied Steve and Bucky Barnes to Wakanda, or decided to avoid the authorities solo, but when Avengers: Infinity War unfolds, hopefully her psionic abilities will help even the playing field in this epic battle.

Falcon

Falcon has been loyal to Steve Rogers ever since they met in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, so it was no surprise to see the winged hero fight by the Star Spangled Avenger's side in Captain America: Civil War. Now that Sam Wilson is no longer imprisoned on The Raft, it's likely he's continuing to fight the good fight with Captain America in secret, but you can count on Sam busting out his wings and Redwing drone to battle Thanos' minions.

Winter Soldier

At the end of Captain America: Civil War, Bucky Barnes was still on the run from the world's governments for his past crimes as the brainwashed Winter Soldier. Seeking refuge in Wakanda with Steve Rogers, Bucky decided to go back into cold storage until the Wakandan scientists could figure out how to overwrite HYDRA's lingering programming. While there's been some fan speculation that Bucky could reawaken during the Black Panther movie, it's more likely he'll be thawed sometime during Avengers: Infinity War.

Nick Fury

Even though he's no longer S.H.I.E.L.D.'s director, Nick Fury has been continuing his spy activities following Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He reemerged in Avengers: Age of Ultron to help evacuate Sokovia, but his whereabout since then haven't been revealed. Hopefully Avengers: Infinity War will shed light on what he's been up to, but at the very least, it will be good to see him reunited with the superhero group he recruited years ago.

Maria Hill

After S.H.I.E.L.D. fell apart (well, on the big screen, at least), Maria Hill went to work for Tony Stark, and she was seen aiding Earth's Mightiest Heroes in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Despite helping set up the team's new base in New York, Maria was nowhere to be see in Captain America: Civil War, so it's unclear if she's still working with them, focusing solely on Stark Industries business or is operating elsewhere. In any case, her secret agent skills may prove valuable during the big event.

Wong

Wong was one of Stephen Strange's three mentors in Doctor Strange, and with The Ancient One dead and Karl Mordo taking power away from sorcerers, Kamar-Taj's librarian is now the former surgeon's closest magical ally. Wong is also familiar with the Infinity Stones, as he identified the Eye of Agamotto as being one of them (the Time Stone) to Stephen. With the Eye back in its resting place, perhaps Wong will be the one defending it when Thanos tries to steal it.

M'Baku

In the comics, M'Baku, better known as Man-Ape, is one of Black Panther's chief villains. All that's been revealed about the MCU's M'Baku is that he's the leader of a rival Wakandan tribe, so it remains to be seen if he'll be an antagonist in the Black Panther movie (like Erik Killmonger and Ulysses Klaue) or merely have differing views from the hero. In any case, we can expect him back for Avengers: Infinity War, and if we're lucky, he'll put aside his differences with T'Challa and defend Wakanda from Thanos' army.

Okoye

We learned a little bit about the Dora Milaje in Captain America: Civil War, and all indications are that we'll learn even more about them when Ryan Coogler opens the doors to Wakanda in his Black Panther movie. As that happens, we'll get closer to Okoye, the leader of this military group and a fiercely loyal supporter of King T'Challa. If the battle against Thanos works its way to Wakanda (as is expected), then Okoye will fight alongside Black Panther and the rest of the Avengers -- as it has recently been confirmed that actress Danai Gurira will, in fact, be part of the Avengers: Infinity War cast.

Proxima Midnight

Thanos is the ultimate big bad that the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy will have to face-off against in The Avengers: Infinity War - but the Mad Titan isn't totally alone in his quest to assemble the Infinity Gauntlet. Rather, he actually has a group known as the Black Order that is dedicated to helping him take over the universe. Proxima Midnight is one member of this four-person team and is not only an immensely skilled warrior, but can do some serious damage with the powerful spear that she likes to chuck around.

Corvus Glaive

Corvus Glaive is the second member of Thanos' Black Order, and is actually the husband of Proxima Midnight. He is considered the leader of the Mad Titan's subordinates, and serves as the purple alien's right-hand man. His name actually comes from the weapon he wields - a glaive - and just by itself it makes him a seriously scary threat. As you can see in the image above, it has the power to cut through anything, including Vision's head, presumably allowing him access to the precious Mind Stone.

Ebony Maw

Another member of the Black Order, Ebony Maw is admittedly not much of a physical threat, As you can see, he's not exactly super ripped. That, however, should not make you underestimate just how powerful he is. He may not have giant muscles, but what he does possess is a special power of persuasion - able to whisper in ears and get things done. So while Iron Man or Captain America could just punch him in the face to knock him out, they are in serious trouble if he successfully sneaks up on them and starts telling them what to do.

Black Dwarf

Also known as Cull Obsidian, Black Dwarf is the fourth and final member of the Black Order - and kind of the opposite of Ebony Maw. He is by far the biggest of Thanos' minions, and able to throw a seriously hefty punch that even Hulk would be affected by. With his might combined with his teammates' combined strength, the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy are definitely in trouble.

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Stop Asking O'Shea Jackson About Space Jam 2, People

Stop Asking O'Shea Jackson About Space Jam 2, People

Reporting on casting rumors in Hollywood can be a tricky business. While it’s true that stuff leaks all the time and winds up being true, there are many instances when false information makes its way around town despite not actually holding any water. This article is about a case of the latter – specifically involving actor O’Shea Jackson Jr. and the developing Space Jam 2. See what I mean by clicking play on the video below:

I recently attended the Los Angeles press junket for the new Jonathan Levine comedy Long Shot, and while sitting down with O’Shea Jackson Jr. I took the opportunity to ask him about projects that he has in the works… or at least a project that I thought he had in the works. While preparing for the interview, I noticed on the actor’s IMDb page that he was listed as a co-star in Space Jam 2, and given the heat that project has I was curious about what kind of significance it had for him.

As it turns out, though, the Straight Outta Compton star actually has no relationship with the production at this current time, and had a rather funny reaction when I brought the movie up in conversation.

I was clearly not the first person to bring up Space Jam 2 that day, and the confusion that the fake casting rumor evoked from O’Shea Jackson Jr. was rather entertaining. While he did note it’s a project of which he’d like to be a part, at this time it is definitely not something with which he is currently involved. And this is despite the fact that the project is STILL listed on his IMDb page as one of his upcoming movies alongside Michael Dougherty’s Godzilla: King Of The Monsters and Destin Daniel Cretton’s Just Mercy:

So what is going on with Space Jam 2? The long-awaited sequel, which has been developing for many years, is set to star LeBron James as himself, essentially taking over the role that Michael Jordan played in the 1996 original, and will see him on a special adventure featuring the familiar Looney Tunes stars. With Ryan Coogler on board as a producer, director Terence Nance is attached to make the movie as his second feature after the 2012 animated An Oversimplification of Her Beauty. There have been reports that the movie will co-star Star Trek: Discovery’s Sonequa Martin-Green, who will apparently be playing James’ wife, but given the situation with O’Shea Jackson Jr., it almost feels appropriate to throw that out there with a grain of salt until she personally confirms the casting.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if O’Shea Jackson Jr.-in-Space Jam 2 is a thing that really comes together, but the good news is that fans won’t have to wait until July 2021 to hypothetically see the actor back up on the big screen. Long Shot, which stars Jackson, Seth Rogen, Charlize Theron, June Diane Raphael, Ravi Patel, and Andy Serkis, will be in theaters this Friday – and we’ll have more from my interviews with the cast and director coming very soon, so stay tuned here on CinemaBlend!

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Shazam! Producer Promises DC Movies Can Still Be Dark

Shazam! Producer Promises DC Movies Can Still Be Dark

The DC live-action universe has had a rocky life in theaters, full of very high highs and disastrous lows. Luckily for Warner Bros., things seem to be on the upswing after the poor critical and box office performance of Justice League. DC is still surfing on the high of Aquaman's success, and anticipation is at a fever pitch for David F. Sandberg's upcoming blockbuster Shazam!

Shazam! will hit theaters in a matter of days, bringing the dual-personal title character into live-action for the first time. The movie's tone is in stark juxtaposition to Zack Snyder's bleak dramas that started the universe. But according to Shazam! producer Peter Safran, that doesn't mean that the DCEU won't have dark and gritty installments. As he tells it:

I think that DC has the same idea we do now, which is every movie that they make should have the right tone for that particular character. Shazam is such a fun character. He is all about wish fulfillment. He is fun and funny, and that is the tone that you should have for the film. Aquaman has got a tone, fantastical element. Shazam! is fun and funny. Wonder Woman’s got her thing. I think they realize each tone has to be specific for each movie.

Rather than trying to make one uniform movie, it looks like the DC universe will continue giving more power to the directors. As such, a dark movie will happen as soon as the story and characters call for it.

Peter Safran's comments IGN are sure to be a relief to DC fans who enjoy all the darkness its stories have to offer. While Shazam! is light hearted, there's been tragic stories for many of the characters on the page. Especially Batman, whose origin in based in trauma and childhood loss. The Dark Knight and others simply need to be dark, and have a ton unlike the two most recent releases.

In the same interview from Shazam!'s red carpet, Peter Safrin directly addressed Batman and Todd Phillips' Joker, which is expected to be a dark drama focused on a mentally ill villain. Safrin expanded his thoughts, saying:

Listen, there are certain characters like Batman, like the Joker, that dark tone is perfect for them. It’s what you really want to see.

So while Billy Batson and Freddy may have their childhood games in Shazam!, we shouldn't expect the entire DC Universe to go family friendly. There are projects coming down the pipeline which should have their share of dark material, so the studio is going to have to flip between vastly different projects. In addition to Joker and The Batman, Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn) should utilize a mixture of drama and comedy. There's also Wonder Woman 1984 to look forward to, although that Patty Jenkins has up her sleeve for the sequel is anyone's guess.

Shazam! will bring something unique to not only the DC universe, but the superhero genre as a whole. Still functioning as an origin story, the blockbuster will follow 14 year-old Billy Batson as he's given amazing powers from a magical wizard. By saying the word "Shazam", Billy transforms into an adult sized superhero, capable of flight, super strength, and electricity manipulation. But since Billy doesn't know much about superheroes, his foster brother Freddy will step in to guide him toward his destiny.

This marks the first time that a modern superhero focus on the perspective of kids. In cinematic universes, there are tons of us regular folks who are living in a superheroic world. Children have a specific experience; for instance, Billy's friend Freddy is a superfan. Freddy has been following the events of movies like Batman v Superman and Justice League, so he'll be able to help Billy become Shazam.

Shazam! look it's going to be a super fun big screen adventure, and it's early reception has been positive. But moviegoers are still going to want dark and gritty installments later in the DC universe. Aquaman might have focused on family drama and a Game of Thrones-esque struggle for underwater power, but James Wan's blockbuster wasn't especially dark.

Darker subject material and tone will no doubt accompany Todd Phillips' Joker, which isn't going to be connected to the rest of the DC universe. Phillips will give the iconic Batman villain an origin story, and explain how a clown became Gotham's biggest threat. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, the project is expected to be decidedly darker than the most recent installments in the shared universe.

On the same page, Matt Reeves' The Batman should have some darkness to it. Gotham's Protector is usually surrounded by loss and murder, and the developing blockbuster will reportedly include a few members of Batman's rogue gallery. The project will follow a younger version of Bruce Wayne, and focus on Batman's top notch detective skills. This is a new approach to the character onscreen, so let's also hope there's the proper amount of darkness in the movie.

Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) should be an interesting movie, as it'll walk the line between serious mob drama and quirky action romp. Cathy Yan's upcoming blockbuster will once again focus on the denizens of Gotham City, including the villainous Black Mask and Bat-family member Huntress. The movie is also a spinoff for Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, who debuted in Suicide Squad. Harley's inclusion obviously means there will be plenty of comedic beats in Birds of Prey, but the characters that make up the ensemble have tragic and violent pasts. Plus, Black Mask is known as a ruthless mob boss in Gotham.

There will be plenty of room for darkness in the future of the DC live-action universe in the future. For now, fans can celebrate that the studio seems to have finally found its footing, and is producing a variety of exciting projects. And with Shazam! flying into theaters in just days, we may have another DC success story on our hands. And that's in no small part due to its unique tone.

Shazam! will arrive in theaters on April 5th. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

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Kevin Feige Has Settled A Captain America Avengers: Endgame Debate

Kevin Feige Has Settled A Captain America Avengers: Endgame Debate

Warning: SPOILERS for Avengers: Endgame are ahead!

It goes without saying that Avengers: Endgame was filled with a lot of exciting moments, but one of the biggest was when Steve Rogers called Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, to his hand and wielded it in battle against Thanos and his forces. It was a payoff four years in the making, as Avenger: Age of Ultron first hinted at Steve Rogers’ worthiness to lift Mjolnir when he slightly budged the hammer during a party in Avengers Tower.

However, since Avengers: Endgame’s release, there’s been debate among fans about how long Cap has been worthy to wield Mjolnir. Was he always able to do so, or did Cap reach peak worthiness sometime after Avengers: Age of Ultron, perhaps not until right before that shocking moment in Endgame? Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige was asked about this during a recent Reddit AMA, and this was his answer:

We think he was always worthy and was being polite in Age of Ultron.

There you have it. Rather than Steve Rogers straining to simply budge Mjolnir in Avengers: Age of Ultron, to Kevin Feige and the rest of the MCU brass, he was capable of lifting Mjolnir over his head back when he and Earth’s other Mightiest Heroes had just cleaned up the latest HYDRA mess and were about to battle a genocidal robot. Steve just didn’t want to embarrass Thor, so he decided to leave the hammer where it was.

The MCU did a great job highlighting Captain America’s heroism and how he was a good man with or without the Super Soldier Serum, but the criteria for being worthy enough to lift Mjolnir has always been a little murky. Still, of all the times for Cap to finally use that weapon in battle, Avengers: Endgame, the last chapter of the Infinity Saga, was an excellent place for that to happen.

One theory I’d seen making the rounds on the internet of late is that the one thing that had previously prevented Steve Rogers from lifting Mjolnir was because he knew that his friend Bucky Barnes had killed Tony Stark’s parents as the brainwashed Winter Soldier, but he didn’t tell Tony. Once that information came out into the open in Captain America: Civil War, that was the last obstacle separating Cap from Mjolnir, but as Kevin Feige explained, that wasn’t the case at all.

Steve Rogers is the fifth person shown onscreen being capable of wielding Mjolnir, after Thor, Odin, The Vision and Hela. Alas, Steve’s time with the hammer was short, because as you’ll remember, Mjolnir was destroyed by Hela in Thor: Ragnarok, and the only reason Thor was able to use it again was because he snatched it when he and Rocket Raccoon time traveled to the events of Thor: The Dark World. Once Thanos and his minions were turned to dust by Iron Man and the universe was safe, Cap returned Mjolnir and the Infinity Stones to their proper time periods.

Even on the off chance that Mjolnir is somehow brought back into the picture in the MCU, don’t count on seeing Steve Rogers hold it again. After dropping off Mjolnir and the Infinity Stones, Steve decided to go further back into the past and live his life with Peggy Carter. Now over 100 years old in the present day, Steve passed on the Captain America mantle to Sam Wilson, and it doesn’t look like Chris Evans plans on revisiting the character again.

The MCU, however, isn’t going anywhere, even with Avengers: Endgame having wrapped up a lot of plot threads. Spider-Man: Far From Home is next on July 2, and you can scan through our Marvel movies guide to learn what’s coming after that.

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Jordan Peele Isn't Too Worried About Us Spoilers

Jordan Peele Isn't Too Worried About Us Spoilers

Although not quite as critical as something like The Sixth Sense, Jordan Peele’s Get Out is one of those movies that you really didn’t want spoiled for you. The writer/director’s follow-up Us seems very much cut from a similar cloth, with the early word indicating that there are reveals aplenty in this film. Plus, the marketing campaign is even employing the hashtag #KeepItBetweenUs. That said, Jordan Peele isn’t too worried about Us spoilers, as he explained:

People want to keep the secrets. Also, if you spoil something, your friend probably punches you in the shoulder or something. I think we've developed into a culture that respects the idea that spoilers are no fun.

Jordan Peele seems of the belief that spoilers will not be a major problem for Us, not because the film can’t be spoiled, but because audiences will do the right thing and keep the film’s secrets so that other people can enjoy it. Basically, he thinks that people know better and all you’d be doing by spoiling the film is making people angry and opening yourself up to some friendly retaliation.

In his comments to Digital Spy, Jordan Peele actually raises quite an interesting point about the culture around spoilers. With the rise of social media, the ability to spoil movies has increased exponentially. B concurrently (and perhaps consequently) a taboo has also risen about spoilers. People now generally agree that spoilers suck. Spoiling a movie for someone else is really poor form and a pretty crappy thing to do, so most people try not to do it.

Jordan Peele also mentioned that this taboo around spoilers makes it fun to have seen a movie and to know its secrets. When you do and refuse to spoil it for someone else, that lends the film an air of mystery that gets other people excited to see it as well, building the buzz and enhancing the experience.

Because of this culture around spoilers, Jordan Peele doesn’t see them as being a big issue for his sophomore film. With any luck, he’s right. If so and people adhere to common decency and wait for everyone to see Us before discussing it in spoiler-ific detail, especially in a public forum, then there is nothing to worry about and audiences can enjoy the film and have the purest way possible.

By the early reactions out of SXSW, the movie is quite the experience too. Unlike Get Out, Us is true horror movie that will have people watching through their fingers and will give people plenty to discuss when the film ends.

Us is currently enjoying a perfect 100% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes in advance of this weekend’s opening so the buzz is definitely high here that this is a good movie showing that Get Out was no fluke. The film is tracking at a $40-$45 million opening weekend.

Us opens in theaters on March 22. Stay frosty and beware of spoilers and check out our 2019 Release Schedule for all the other big movies that should be on your radar this year.

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Dan Aykroyd Wants A Ghostbusters Prequel To Happen

Dan Aykroyd Wants A Ghostbusters Prequel To Happen

Fans of the Ghostbusters movies are certainly looking forward to the upcoming sequel that will return the franchise to the world of the first two films, being directed by the son of Ivan Reitman. There have clearly been plans to bring the Ghostbusters brand back as a major franchise, and it seem Dan Aykroyd already has a host of ideas for follow ups to the new film, including a prequel series that would take the characters Venkman, Stantz, and Spengler, back to high school.

Yes, in case you were curious, it seems that the three original Ghostbusters first met in high school. While the idea for the project is still several years away, Dan Aykroyd has apparently written a treatment for the concept which could apparently work as either a feature film or a television project. According to Aykroyd...

I’ve written Ghostbusters High, where they meet in New Jersey in 1969 and we’re looking to do that as probably a glorified feature or pilot within the next maybe five years.

It's not exactly clear what Ghostbusters High would actually be all about. Assuming that it is supposed to act as a direct prequel to the original 1984 Ghostbusters, that film makes it clear that the trio had never come that close to an actual ghost before the opening scenes of the film, so the series wouldn't actually follow the three characters actually fighting ghosts, would it?

Still, for fans of Venkmen, Stantz, and Spengler, the concept probably sounds like a lot of fun. The new Ghostbusters film is expected to include much of the original cast, but it won't actually be about them, so fans who want another story that actually focuses on the original characters, this could be their best bet.

It seems the idea for Ghostbusters High would be to ultimately become a television series. Dan Aykroyd apparently gave the idea to Jason Reitman even before the current Ghostbusters movie idea became a reality. Aykroyd is clear that this idea is part of a long term plan so we shouldn't expect to see it anytime soon, but he's clearly excited by the concept...

And it would lead to a television project and I thought of [Jason Reitman] immediately for that. It’s on his desk but that’s years away from the current project. But it’s a neat idea for a prequel. Imagine casting the three characters as teenagers!

Dan Aykroyd tells 660 News that he actually envisions this series as a sort of finale on the current Ghostbusters plans. After the current film, the actor/writer/vodka entrepreneur says there are one or two other film projects that are planned, and he sees Ghostbusters High coming after those films, as a sort of finale. Of course, that also means that if the new Ghostbusters movie doesn't hit, it could scuttle the entire plan.

Do you want to see the Ghostbusters as teenagers? Let us know in the poll below.

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Chris Hemsworth Almost Quit Ghostbusters The Day Before Filming

Chris Hemsworth Almost Quit Ghostbusters The Day Before Filming

The remake of Ghostbusters from 2016 was a movie with issues. Regardless of what you thought of the final product, the movie was fighting a losing battle years before it ever made it to the screen. However, it turns out there was even more going on behind-the-scenes than we realized, as Chris Hemsworth recently revealed that he considered quitting the production the day before filming was set to begin.

It seems that Chris Hemsworth had some issues with the way his character, the Ghostbusters' receptionist named Kevin, was originally written, or, possibly, not written, as it seems the character may have been left quite vague in the original script. Director Paul Feig had assured Hemsworth everything would be taken care of in time for shooting, but that wasn't the case. According to Hemsworth...

The night before I was shooting, I almost pulled out. Three or four weeks prior, Paul said to me, ‘I’m going to write up the character. Don’t worry.’ And then I got the script and nothing had changed.

This led to an emergency meeting between Chris Hemsworth and Paul Feig, in which the director tried to quell the fears of Hemsworth by promising there would be plenty for him to do on set thanks to improvisation.

It seems that this didn't necessarily make Hemsworth feel much better. He says he was literally scared walking on to the set since he didn't really know what he was doing, but, in the end, that's what led him to the character that he found. Hemsworth continues...

I was really scared walking onto that set. I had no real plan, so I was just feeding off of them, and I just felt ridiculous. So I used that.

In the end, it seems that it all worked out for the best, as Variety calls the role in Ghostbusters one of Chris Hemsworth's favorite rolls he's had to date. It's hard not to see that. Because Ghostbusters gender flipped the main characters, the decision was made to do the same thing with the role of the receptionist. Hemsworth takes the trope of the attractive but idiotic secretary character, almost exclusively played by women, and runs with it.

It sounds, based on the way Hemsworth describes it, that this character was mostly his creation if it came about via improvisation. We'd been told previously that much of Hemsworth's performance came from improvisation, but at the time one assumed that this was a decision made by the actor, rather than something he was apparently forced into.

Hemsworth also says that the role had a larger impact on his career as he believes the fact that he could show he was capable of screwball style comedy made Thor's evolution in the MCU into a funnier character easier to accept.

Either way it all worked out for the best. Hemsworth's performance is one of the highlights of the Ghsotbusters remake.

At this point it seems unlikely we'll see Kevin again, though we will see the Ghostbusters at least one more time, but in a film that takes us back to the original continuity.

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