Ben Affleck Was Amused By Zack Snyder's Response To His Batman Exit

Ben Affleck Was Amused By Zack Snyder's Response To His Batman Exit

After a cloud of uncertainty hung over the DCEU’s The Batman for years, Ben Affleck finally confirmed his departure from the role last month. The Matt Reeves project now moves forward with an official release date: June 25, 2021. Following the news, Zack Snyder posted a heartfelt goodbye to Affleck’s Batman with these words:

There was a time above.. A time before… there were perfect things… diamond absolutes. But things fall.. Things on earth. And what falls… is fallen. In the dream, it took me to the light. A beautiful lie, Best Batman ever. Thank you my friend for blessing me with that fucking glorious chin and an amazing heart.

How poetic! Ben Affleck was recently asked for a reaction to the Zack Snyder quote -- specifically the part about his chin -- while he was doing press for action drama Triple Frontier alongside co-star Oscar Isaac. Here’s what they said to Associated Press:

Ben Affleck: Zack's a funny guy, what can I say? [laughs]

Oscar Isaac: He's got a good chin too, doesn't he?

Ben Affleck: He does have a very nice chin! He shouldn't sell himself short.

You get a glorious chin and you get a glorious chin! Ben Affleck was tickled by Zack Snyder’s love letter to the actor’s superhero role, and Oscar Isaac also weighed in, observing the DCEU filmmaker’s also chiseled chin. I’d like to think Isaac is subtly campaigning to take over the role of Bruce Wayne by contributing to the flattery… he was rumored to be considered for a Batman role.

Ben Affleck and Zack Snyder worked closely together to bring a new Batman back to screen in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad and Justice League. After some initial backlash to Affleck’s casting, many fans embraced the actor as the Dark Knight, though some still voiced other issues with the direction of the DCEU.

After the overall negative reception to 2017’s Justice League, plans to continue making movies about the interconnected stories of the superhero team seemed to shift. That shift came just as Ben Affleck’s original plans to direct, produce, and star in a standalone Batman movie fell apart. Now War for the Planet of the Apes’ writer/director Matt Reeves is directing and writing The Batman script, and he's looking for a new star.

As the DCEU moves forward, the focus is on standalone origin stories and less on Zack Snyder’s vision -- with Shazam!, Joker and Birds of Prey on the way. Matt Reeves’ The Batman is said to be a "noir" Batman tale that will have the hero using his detective skills and featuring a Rogue’s Gallery of villains, though a new Bruce Wayne has not yet been cast.

Ben Affleck stars next in Netflix’s Triple Frontier, coming to the streaming service on March 13. The movie is about five former Special Forces operatives who reunite to plan a heist in South America; it also stars Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, and Pedro Pascal.

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I Am Actually Scared To See Jordan Peele's Us

I Am Actually Scared To See Jordan Peele's Us

Jordan Peele surprised a lot of people with his directorial debut, Get Out. I was one of those people. While I had been a fan of Peele's comedy for a long time, I had no idea what to expect when I sat down to watch his first horror movie. Looking back, it's still the best movie I've seen since February 2017, when it was released. When it was announced that Peele was working on his next project, a movie simply called Us, I was certainly excited. Now here I stand on the eve of being able to finally watch Peele's new movie and I'm confronting a serious problem.

I'm actually a little scared to see this movie.

I still remember the first time i saw the trailer for Us. It was just before Christmas last year. We knew the trailer was imminent; in fact, it was expected to be released online on Christmas Day, so when I went to the theater to do a little end-of-the-year awards season maintenance and watch The Favourite, I certainly wasn't expecting to see that trailer, not yet and not ahead of that movie, but there it was. Jordan Peele's name came up before anything started to get weird in the trailer, so I knew what I was watching, and as I sat in a mostly empty theater I watched one of the scariest trailers I have ever seen unfold over two minutes. Then The Favourite started and I'd be lying if i said I gave the film the proper attention, at least at the start. The trailer was still on my mind.

If you somehow have made it this far without seeing the first look at Us, here's a reminder of what I'm talking about.

I haven't seen anything scarier than that trailer since. In fact, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I have simultaneously been looking forward to Us, possibly more than any other movie this year, while also being terrified to actually see it.

Horror movies are a strange sort of animal. It's the one genre of film that you sometimes hear movie fans seemingly discounting in its entirety. If you hear somebody claim they love movies, but don't watch dramas, you'd wonder what the hell was wrong with them; however, if somebody says that about horror movies, we just move on like it's expected and even makes sense.

Frequently, movies that should be classified as horror get called something else, if only to avoid the stigma that can come along with the genre title. Get Out itself was one of these movies. It didn't have a murderous slasher antagonist or a series of brutal murders of or by teenagers, so by certain definitions, maybe it didn't qualify as a horror movie. It was a horror movie, of course, but if calling it a "thriller" helped Get Out do better at the box office, so be it.

Of course, all that was part of why Get Out worked so well. Because it was absolutely a horror movie, but one that didn't necessarily look that way at first. The film found its horrific elements in other places beyond simply violence. We didn't get the visual horror that we expect from a traditional "slasher movie." However, the scenario was pure nightmare fuel even if the villains didn't wear hockey masks.

And that's part of why Us is feeling so scary to me now now. Based on the early responses by those that saw Us at SXSW, it's clear the movie has more to say than the trailers are letting on, in much the same way that Get Out did, yet in addition to that, the movie also has those elements of "traditional horror" that make this one feel like it's going to be bloody and violent.

I've seen more than my share of horror movies in recent years, it's sort of my job now, but when I was a kid I was certainly one of those people who "didn't do horror." It wasn't so much that I avoided the genre, I simply didn't seek it out. The idea of being uncomfortable while watching a movie just didn't appeal to me -- it wasn't what I went to the movies for. When I did see them, horror movies didn't necessarily scare me, but they always made me nervous that they might.

Horror movies still make me nervous and uncomfortable to some extent now. I mean, they're supposed to, but never has it been like this. I didn't feel like this when I went to see IT, another movie that was actually one of my favorites in 2017. I'm just as excited to see that sequel later this year, without any of the stomach-churning dread that comes with Us.

Also, it should be noted, that "jump scares" get me all the time. Every. Single. Time. Even a movie I've seen before has about a 40% chance of making me spill something with a jump scare. When I'm seeing a movie for the first time, popcorn flying into the aisle is virtually guaranteed.

Everything about the Us trailer makes me uncomfortable in a way that I haven't felt in a really long time. The dark versions of the main characters feel not simply evil, but wrong. The way they look, the way they move, it all feels off. These are scariest movie monsters I've ever encountered, and I've only made it as far as the trailer.

Of course, what might make Us so potentially terrifying is that I'm also so incredibly excited to see it. I'm throwing myself to the wolves with this one in a way that I haven't with any other recent horror movie. It makes me feel vulnerable in a way that I don't usually let myself get with any movie. Even if it wasn't my job to see Us, I would be seeing the new movie from the man that brought us Get Out this weekend.

I have no idea what's in store for me when I see Us this week, although I'm prepared to be terrified on multiple levels. I may have to skip out on bringing snacks due to the aforementioned fear of throwing them all over the aisles. I can't wait.

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Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Will Let You Damage The Millennium Falcon In An Amazing Way

Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Will Let You Damage The Millennium Falcon In An Amazing Way

One of the first things we learned about Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge's Millennium Falcon attraction was that it would be possible to bring the iconic ship back in great shape, and it would also be possible to bring the ship back severely damaged, depending on how you and your flight crew performed your duties. However, beyond a few passing comments, we had little idea exactly what that meant. Today at Star Wars Celebration we learned a little more about what can happen after your flight in the Falcon is finished, and how you'll be able to see just how good, or bad, a job you did.

Asa Kalama is the executive creative director at Walt Disney Imagineering and is in charge of Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run, and he revealed that the experience of flying the Falcon doesn't end when you leave the cockpit. Instead, as you exit down the Falcon's main hallway, that we've seen countless times before in the movies, that hallway will actually look different depending on what happened on your trip. According to Kalama...

One of the amazing things about this experience is actually, even when it’s over the story continues. So as you make your way out of the cockpit at the end of your amazing smuggling adventure, even that iconic hallway that you make your way through., it’s going to look different depending on how you fly. If you’ve had a beautiful, clean run, that hallway’s going to be in pristine condition. If you’ve banged into every possible thing there was to bang into and taken a volley of laser blasts, lights are going to be broken, we’re going to hear sparks flying, we’re going to hear comm chatter about the incredible damage that you managed to cause to the ship.

The idea that the results of your Smuggler's Run experience would continue after the attraction ended had been part of the description of the attraction since early on, but what we heard about most was that you might run into somebody at Oga's Cantina who could respond to you in a particular way based on your experience, but this is the first we've heard that the Falcon itself would show the results of your ride.

Star Wars Celebration did show off the hallway in question in good condition, we didn't get a chance to see how it will be different if you do a bad job..

Everything else we know about how your Smuggler's Run experience will impact the rest of your time on Batuu involves the idea that cast members or animatronics might react to you differently based on how well you did on the ride. We also got to see more of the Hondo Okana animatronic that will be part of the attraction. Asa Kalama spoke about how Okana himself will react to you if you beat up his ship too much.

It’s important that you do what you can to bring the ship back in good working order. Hondo Onaka, he’s a phenomenal boss, but he doesn’t take too kindly to those bringing his ship back in rough shape.

The more we hear about Stars Wars: Galaxy's Edge, the more exciting it becomes. We'll finally get a chance to experience it all when the new land comes to Disneyland May 31 and Walt Disney World August 29.

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Sherlock Holmes 3 Is Coming Way Later Than We Expected

Sherlock Holmes 3 Is Coming Way Later Than We Expected

It's been eight years since we saw Robert Downey Jr. take the role of the big screen Sherlock Holmes and it had been so long we began to wonder if we would ever see the character again. We now know that we will, but it turns out we'll have to wait a bit longer than previously announced. While the third Sherlock Holmes movie had been set for a Christmas 2020 release, the feature has now been pushed back a full year to December 2021.

Originally set for a Christmas Day release in 2020, THR has now revealed the film will instead open December 22, 2021.

While release date shuffling is nothing new, it rarely happens without a reason, though the reason for this decision is not immediately clear. No other major releases have been announced to hit in December 2020 that might have sent Sherlock Holmes 3 looking for a more protected release window.

The film was already going to be going up against Avatar 2 in 2020 and will now instead be going up against Avatar 3. That's probably a slightly better position. The second film in the franchise, being the first one in years, is likely to draw a larger audience than the third, which will only be the first one in a year. It's like going up against Star Wars: The Last Jedi at the box office instead of The Force Awakens. It's possible the decision making was as simple as that.

Although, the more likely reason was simply one of scheduling. Perhaps production of Sherlock Holmes 3 needed to be pushed back and that resulted in the delay for the release as well. It could be that Robert Downey Jr. or Jude Law had something change in their schedules which has made the delay necessary. It could be that the script from Chris Brancato is taking longer than anticipated to finish. Perhaps another writer is coming in to rewrite or polish it which will result in it taking longer than previously scheduled.

It's also possible that the issue could be one of who is going to direct. Guy Ritchie directed both of the previous two Sherlock Holmes films but he has never been officially announced as directing Sherlock Holmes 3. If Ritchie is looking to direct, it could be his schedule that made the release date move if he won't be available to go into production later this year, Alternatively, it could be that the production is still looking for a director and thus had to push things back in order to have more time to find one.

In order to hit the 2020 release date Sherlock Holmes 3 would have needed to go into production later this year. Now, the film has an additional 12 months of breathing space. If fans have waited this long, they can wait another year.

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What If Steve Or Bucky Had To Sacrifice For The Soul Stone In Endgame? Here's Sebastian Stan's Take

What If Steve Or Bucky Had To Sacrifice For The Soul Stone In Endgame? Here's Sebastian Stan's Take

Spoilers ahead for Avengers: Endgame.

Captain America and Bucky Barnes are a favorite duo in the MCU, with their friendship being vital for each character's arcs. Seeing as how their friendship is so strong, some fans have been wondering what would happen if Steve and Bucky were the ones to find the Soul Stone. The specific rules of the stone require a sacrifice and, according to Sebastian Stan, it's one both characters would be willing to make.

In the quest for the Infinity Stones, no stone costs as much as the Soul Stone. Found on the planet Vormir, the stone requires an everlasting exchange from the one looking to claim it. As the Red Skull says, it's a soul for a soul. In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos killed his daughter Gamora, and in Avengers: Endgame, Black Widow makes the sacrifice to save Hawkeye.

Basically, shit goes down when characters go to Vormir, so how would the MCU's biggest bromance handle the cost of the Soul Stone? While in attendance at Italy’s Jus In Bello convention (via ComicBook.com), Sebastian Stan was asked which of the two characters would take the plunge off the cliff to spare the other. Stan sounded fascinated by the question and this was his answer:

Wow. [Steve] would probably be like, ‘I got this.’ And [Bucky] would have been like, ‘No, I should be doing this.' No, I think it would have been a fight, and I probably would have tried to — I should be the one, after everything, to take the leap, so to speak. But knowing him, he probably wouldn’t let me. But I don’t know, that’s a crazy question. Jesus. And then the Red Skull was there.

That sounds about right. Neither Steve or Bucky would be okay with the other killing themselves for the stone and they would definitely fight each other for that "right." It's exactly what happened with Clint and Natasha in Endgame. In fact, you could probably take almost any two heroes in the MCU, put them on Vormir, and they would fight each other to make the sacrifice.

Plus, Sebastian Stan brings up the very good point that Red Skull adds an interesting wrinkle. How would Cap and Bucky react to seeing their arch-nemesis alive as a Ring Wraith on Vormir? Cap definitely had to meet Red Skull to return the Soul Stone at the end of Endgame, so hopefully one day we get to see how that interaction plays out.

Avengers: Endgame is still out there eating up records and you can watch it as much as you like. For everything the summer has to offer for movie fans, be sure to stay up to date with our 2019 movie release guide. For all other movie news, keep it right here at CinemaBlend.

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Crawl Looks Like Jaws For Alligators And It's Awesome

Crawl Looks Like Jaws For Alligators And It's Awesome

You know what I love most about the trailer for Crawl? You KNOW that the creative team behind it basically watched The Meg – and knew about Jaws – and thought, “What other water-based creature can we tap into to produce that same fun vibe?” The answer appears to be “Alligators,” as this wild thriller appears to sell in the first giddy trailer for Crawl. Check it out:

What’s not to love about Crawl? It takes place during an unprecedented storm. It fully embraces its Florida setting, evacuating residents during a Category 5 hurricane. And it traps Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper in their slowly flooding home as a pack of wild alligators hunt them.

Perfect. Where do I buy a ticket?

You need more? The creative team behind Crawl is producer Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Spider-Man) and director Alexandre Aja (Horns, Piranha 3D, The Hills Have Eyes). The know horror, and Aja has shown with his movies that he understands how to have fun in truly terrifying situations. Also, did you notice that there’s a scene in the trailer where the crocodile bites down on Scodelario’s hand while she’s holding a gun, so she unloads a clip of bullets into the beast’s belly?

Again, where do I buy a ticket?

To coincide with the launch of the Crawl trailer, Paramount actually dropped a funny viral meme that will remind people of the Orange Tile used to drum up anticipation for the Fyre Festival. If you were scanning Instagram this morning and saw this, you might have wondered what was going on:

Well, it’s warning people that “Help isn’t coming.” Just like the orange tile warned Fyre Festival attendees that real food and luxury accommodations weren’t coming.

What, too soon?

Let’s hope that Crawl turns out to be more successful than the Fyre Festival. And again, with the people involved, we’re at least expecting a gratuitous thrill ride that’s more The Meg than it is Sharknado. Crawl will slither into theaters during the hectic summer blockbuster season, where it will go head to head against 21 Bridges and the action comedy Stuber. All three will want to hurry up and make their money, though, because The Lion King will be breathing down their collective necks the following weekend.

Alexandre Aja directs Crawl, the people vs alligator thriller, which stars Kaya Scodelario (Pirates of the Caribbean), Barry Pepper, Morfydd Clark and Ami Metcalf. Will they be more than simple alligator feed? Find out later this summer.

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It Sounds Like The New Shazam! Trailer Protects A Number Of The Film's Secrets

It Sounds Like The New Shazam! Trailer Protects A Number Of The Film's Secrets

This morning, with approximately a month to go until Shazam!’s release, Warner Bros finally dropped a new full-length trailer for the superhero movie, the first since the debut trailer came out at San Diego Comic-Con last year (though there have been a couple shorter previews released in the interim). The latest look at Shazam! was filled with new footage of Billy Batson showing off his special powers and fighting Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, but according to director David F. Sandberg, it doesn’t spoil any of the movies big secrets, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. As Sandberg responded to a fan who wanted to see more from the trailer:

That Doomsday hashtag calls back to when it was confirmed in one of the later Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trailers that the beast who killed Superman in the comics was appearing in the movie. This revelation received a lot of backlash online since it spoiled what the climactic conflict would be. It’s one thing for a trailer to give viewers a taste of what’s to come, but to outright spoil major moments that would make for great surprises when actually seeing the movie is generally frowned upon. David F. Sandberg would rather someone wanting more than learning too much, as he stated on Twitter.

If you re-watch today’s Shazam! trailer, you’ll see that the first half of the preview hits most of the same beats that the previous trailer hit, from Billy Batson meeting the mysterious Wizard to testing out his powers with foster brother Freddie Freeman. The latter half gave us plenty of new footage, such as Billy activating an ATM with his magical lightning, catching a falling bus and failing to leap over a tall building in a single bound. With the accompaniment of Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady,” it was definitely an amusing new look at the seventh DC Extended Universe film, though I can understand why some fans might have been hoping it showed off more material. Nevertheless, I agree with David F. Sandberg about the new Shazam! trailer wisely not revealing too much.

Maybe I’d feel differently if this trailer came out several months before release, but as stated earlier, we’re now only weeks away from seeing Shazam! on the big screen. You can be sure there will be plenty of TV spots to follow, but with the movie so close, Warner Bros and DC might as well keep a few extra secrets close to the proverbial chest. In fact, there are two twists in Shazam! that have already been publicly confirmed, but for the general public, it’s wise for them to be surprised by said twists upon seeing the movie rather than learn about them in a trailer.

Warning: SPOILERS for Shazam! are ahead! If you’re content with what you’ve learned about the movie so far and want to stay in the dark from this point forward, turn back and read another one of our fine articles.

Although Shazam! is pulling from various eras of the eponymous hero’s history, the storyline is heavily inspired by the New 52 origin story that was written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Gary Frank. That story saw Billy, having only just received his superpowers from The Wizard, being forced to fight Black Adam, who had accidentally been resurrected by Dr. Thaddeus Sivana. But things only got worse from there. Eventually the Seven Deadly Sins (also known in past eras as the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man), demons that had been imprisoned by the Wizard, and that eventually led to Billy sharing his Shazam powers with his foster siblings: Freddie, Mary, Pedro, Eugene and Darla. Through teamwork, Shazam and the gang were able to triumph over the forces of evil.

By all accounts, it looks like the Shazam! movie will unfold similarly to those New 52 events, although obviously without Black Adam’s involvement. Once Billy Batson’s foster siblings were cast in the movie, there were numerous predictions about how they would become superheroes like their comic book counterparts, and now we know for sure that’s going to happen thanks to some toy releases and unofficial castings for the kids in their adult forms, just like how Zachary Levi is playing the adult form of Asher Angel’s Billy.

It was also confirmed last month that the Seven Deadly Sins (Pride, Envy, Greed, Wrath, Sloth, Gluttony and Lust), who can be briefly be seen in their stone forms in the Wizard’s base, the Rock of Eternity, will also end up causing trouble in Shazam! It remains to be seen how they’ll be freed, but one would assume Dr. Thaddeus Sivana is behind it. After being rejected as the Wizard’s champion as a child, the character has somehow managed to use science to unlock the secrets of magic as an adult, hence why he’s a physical match for Shazam in this movie. Sivana may be the main antagonist, but it’s easy enough to imagine a scenario where either accidentally or on purpose, he unleashes the Seven Deadly Sins. Knowing them, they could have promised to give him even more power, leading to them either combining their power was his to make even mightier or just betraying him. I’d lean towards the latter.

If Shazam! ends up being anywhere near as popular as Aquaman was, it’s possible we could see this particularly property also carving out its own special corner of the DCEU. If it’s at least financially successful, Warner Bros will likely give the green light to a sequel, and Dwayne Johnson has also been attached to lead a Black Adam movie for several years. For now, though, the World’s Mightiest Mortal needs to impress in his live action theatrical debut, and if there’s one thing that can be said about the movie, it’s that there are various surprises still in store.

Shazam! will work its magic in theaters April 5, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for continuing coverage. Don’t forget to also look through our DC movies guide to learn what other projects are in development for the DCEU, as well as our 2019 release schedule for plan your other silver screen visits later this year.

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