Why Star Wars Can't 'Do What Marvel Does' With Film Releases, According To Kathleen Kennedy

Why Star Wars Can't 'Do What Marvel Does' With Film Releases, According To Kathleen Kennedy

When Disney bought Lucasfilm is was made plain that the plan was to bring the franchise back in a big way. A new trilogy was announced and following that, additional films were confirmed and several others began to be rumored. It looked like Disney was getting ready to launch another massive franchise to rival their own Marvel Cinematic Universe, but now, it appears things won't be happening quite like that.

While Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will mark the fifth Star Wars movie in five years, after that, Star Wars will be taking a brief break. The next movie, from the creators of the Game of Thrones series, will be arriving in 2022, and we'll only be getting one movie every other year, rather than getting one movie or more in a year like Marvel now does. Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy says that this is necessary, as Star Wars simply won't work the way Marvel does as a franchise...

I think there is a larger expectation that Disney has. On the other hand, though, I think that Disney is very respectful of what this is, and right from the beginning we talked about the fragility of this form of storytelling. Because it’s something that means so much to fans that you can’t turn this into some kind of factory approach. You can’t even do what Marvel does, necessarily, where you pick characters and build new franchises around those characters. This needs to evolve differently.

It's hard to imagine that this response from Kennedy in Vanity Fair isn't a direct response to the fact that the last Star Wars movie, a film designed around a set of characters picked out from the franchise, didn't do well. While Solo: A Star Wars Story still made good money in an absolute sense, it still didn't make nearly as much money as the other new films have done, and its behind the scenes issues made the film more expensive than it was supposed to be, resulting in the first Star Wars film to reportedly lose money.

It's also true that because of the way that Star Wars has existed in the past, with two, and now three, movie trilogies, each separated by decades, there's a feeling that Star Wars is something special, that it needs to be handled slowly and with care. One of the reasons that has been given for Solo's poor performance is that it was released only six month after Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and fans didn't like to see so much happening so fast.

Whether or not Star Wars is truly "fragile" and thus prevents the sort of approach that Marvel has been using or not, it does seem clear that Disney now believes that it is, otherwise you could be sure we would be getting exactly that. Kathleen Kennedy is honest about the "larger expectation" that Disney has, certainly the parent company wants to be able to do as much with Star Wars as possible because the brand is successful and that means profit for the company.

It's possible that the solution has been found in a sort of middle ground. A pair of new Star Wars series are set to debut on the Disney+ streaming service over the next couple of years, and so it could be that instead of releasing multiple movies over the next several years, the plan could be to supplement the few films we get with series like The Mandalorian.

I'm not sure that I buy that Star Wars can't work as a larger franchise. If Marvel can maintain a level of quality as it has, it certainly seems that Star Wars could as well, but if the feeling is that it needs to move slower to stay good, I'd certainly rather have fewer movies that are better.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters in December.

Read More

Alita: Battle Angel Director Got Hundreds Of Pages Of Notes From James Cameron

Alita: Battle Angel Director Got Hundreds Of Pages Of Notes From James Cameron

James Cameron famously worked on bringing the Battle Angel Alita manga to life on the big screen for the better part of two decades, with the can getting continually kicked down the road due to development issues and Cameron's busy schedule. When the Titanic director finally handed off his passion project to director Robert Rodriguez to go hang out in the world of Pandora, he made sure that all the work he put in on Alita: Battle Angel was not for naught.

Robert Rodriguez told Digital Spy that James Cameron generously promised not to send him the 1,000 pages of notes he had done on Alita: Battle Angel, instead stating that he would only send him a meager 600 pages. Robert Rodriguez naively took this figure as a jest, only to find out that James Cameron was quite serious when a tome of notes for Alita: Battle Angel, 600 pages in width, arrived in the mail.

It just goes to show how much James Cameron cares about Alita and the ridiculous amount of work he put in over the years to get it right and bring it to the big screen. He obviously put a lot of thought into adapting the property and likely learned a ton of valuable lessons along the way.

So by giving Robert Rodriguez hundreds of pages of notes on the film, and a 15-minute presentation, artwork and story concepts, James Cameron gave Robert Rodriguez a head start and set him up for success. Robert Rodriguez ultimately was the one who directed the film, but all those notes had to help, even if they were somewhat overwhelming.

It’s like a group project in college: even if you’re the one saddled with writing the paper, it sure makes things easier when your group members do all of the research for you.

Intriguingly, James Cameron’s 600 of pages of notes, culled from 1,000, encompass a much larger vision than just one movie, as Robert Rodriguez explained:

There's like one whole document about the trilogy, because that's just part of his process. 'Here are three movies. Just so you know what to include in the first story and whatnot.'

James Cameron’s vision for Alita: Battle Angel extends beyond just one film and he already has it all laid out on paper, like what to include in the first movie and what will be saved for later. At a time when big franchises don’t always seem like they are operating with a firm plan or guiding vision in place, this is quite exciting.

The ending of the first film definitely whets the appetite to see what happens next and where the story goes. James Cameron knows the answer to that and has already mapped out a whole Alita trilogy, but whether he as producer and director Robert Rodriguez will get to tell it though is unknown.

Alita: Battle Angel is still Number 5 on the worldwide box office charts in 2019, but it’s unclear if that will be enough. Although domestic audiences did the film no favors, international box office elevated Alita’s worldwide run to $404.8 million. However, given its budget, the film may have needed $500 million to break even. So although it didn’t flop like it was suspected to, it isn’t an outright success either, making its sequel chances unclear.

If it doesn’t get a sequel, maybe James Cameron can just publish his notes as a very heavy book and we can all get a look at what might have been. If you’d like to see Alita: Battle Angel get a sequel though, it finally arrives on digital on July 9 and on Blu-ray, DVD and Ultra HD 4K on July 23.

Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to keep track of all of this year’s biggest movies.

Read More

Queen’s Brian May Thinks Bohemian Rhapsody Was Treated Poorly During Awards Season

Queen’s Brian May Thinks Bohemian Rhapsody Was Treated Poorly During Awards Season

Bohemian Rhapsody has mostly had a charmed awards season after its release in November of 2018, likely propelled along by the fact that Queen band members Brian May and Roger Taylor were actively involved in the press leading up to the release of the flick and the awards season that came after. While Brian May was actively engaged in Bohemian Rhapsody and its success, he recently revealed that the negativity from the media took a toll on him.

The actor was very blunt in his concerns about the way the awards season race is run, although he was also quick to point out that he is grateful Bohemian Rhapsody was in the conversation at all this awards season. In a lengthy post, May revealed how he felt about the long ride to the Oscars, noting:

I was, and I am, deeply grateful for our Freddie film being recognised in a way we never had the audacity to expect. But I found the public activity behind the whole awards season, and the behaviour of the media writers surrounding it, deeply disturbing. If you look at the Press and Internet discussions that took place over the last few months, you can see that 90% of it is aimed at discrediting one or other, or all of the nominated films by innuendo and smears, rather than discussing their merits and admiring the skills that went into making them. Vitriol and dishonesty, and blatant attempts to shame and influence the members into voting the way they, in their arrogance required them to.

Bohemian Rhapsody, despite being the lowest rated Golden Globes winner since Out Of Africa, stood up well against the naysayers during the latest awards season. The movie went on to win numerous accolades – most notably for Rami Malek’s performance—and even took home four statues at the recent 2019 Oscars event.

The Full List Of Oscar Winners 2019, See The Complete List.

During the Oscars, a performance from Queen + Adam Lambert really got the event off to a rocking start, and both Brian May and Roger Taylor seemed into being at the event. Apparently, that joy at performing was tempered a bit for Brian May, who revealed on Instagram that the politics and news noise surrounding awards season took a great toll.

It’s not the fault of the awards panels - they stood up well. It’s a kind of vindictive sickness that seems to have gripped public life. All through it, I’ve been biting my tongue, not wishing to influence the results of the ballots even by a hair. But, when the curtain came down, I was left with very mixed feelings

What Happened Leading Up To The Oscars

Both Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody had to suffer through months of people complaining about how the movies didn’t fully stick to factual details concerning the real-life individuals the movie followed. For Green Book, this meant Dr. Donald Shirley was not portrayed accurately. For Bohemian Rhapsody, the focus was less on Freddie Mercury’s personal life than some would have preferred. In addition, some people were unhappy with timeline changes.

Of course, the differing takes surrounding Brian Singer’s exit from Bohemian Rhapsody, although he retained a director credit, took up some time as well.

On the bright side, Brian May did reveal after he performed at the Oscars that there was a bright spot that came from one of the people putting together the event. He mentioned of the Oscars,

The head of local production came up to me and shook my hand as we left the auditorium. He said, ‘I’ve been doing the Oscars for 40 years, and that was the best opening we ever had!’ A lovely moment.

Shortly before the Oscars aired, Brian May and Roger Taylor reacted to performing, with May noting he was ready to “make [Oscars people] proud.”

What Brian May Has Said When He Has Spoken On The Topic Before

This isn’t the first time that Brian May has spoken out regarding a lot of the criticism that Bohemian Rhapsody faced after its release. He previously said of the criticism that it has been steeped in “similar jealous righteousness” to what Queen faced when the band was producing new music. Ending on a positive note, he also said:

My feeling is … that on the whole, between Graham, and Fox, and the whole team — including DoP, Editor, Sound, crews, extras, and us — we made the right film. It makes me happy to see the fine work done by our team recognized, as it has been.

Bohemian Rhapsody may not have endeared itself to every critic out there, but at the end of the day, it certainly endeared itself to a wide swath of fans. The movie made a boatload of money worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing musical biopic at the box office ever. It's also already available on home entertainment, and was the #1 debut in those sales during its first week of release in February.

It's one of several movies this awards season that were more populist winners and went on to do quite well at the box office, including Black Panther and A Star Is Born, as well. We'll have to wait and see if this ends up being a pattern during awards season or if indie darlings will end up being the main contenders once more.

Read More

Ben Schwartz Thinks Plastic Man Could Be DC's Deadpool

Ben Schwartz Thinks Plastic Man Could Be DC's Deadpool

For the past year, actor Ben Schwartz has been publicly campaigning to play Plastic Man in a feature film adaptation of the DC comics character. When he first started talking about it, there didn’t seem to be anything in the works, but in December, Warner Bros. hired writer Amanda Idoko to write the script for a Plastic Man movie. We haven’t heard much since then, but Ben Schwartz is still banging the drum for the character, saying how Plastic Man could be DC’s Deadpool:

But in my head, how much fun if he was a thief, got superpowers, and was like, ‘Screw it, I want to keep being crooked.’ But he’s also, if you look at the cartoons or the other iterations of him, he’s funny! He’s so funny. And I think what Ryan Reynolds and Tim Miller did with Deadpool, you could have a funny superhero in DC. Shazam! just did it and I think it’s gonna be great. That’s it, I just love that character a lot. I think I’d get to be goofy if I ever got the chance to do it.

An actor doesn’t need to be a fan of a character to do a great job playing them, but it’s always cool when an actor has genuine enthusiasm for a part and talks openly about their hopes for a film to get made and to star in it. Ben Schwartz has some fun ideas too, and he makes a great point that the slap-sticky Plastic Man, a.k.a. Patrick “Eel” O’Brian, could fit a similar niche as Deadpool did for the Fox universe of superhero films and will soon do for Disney.

Ryan Reynolds and Tim Miller found remarkable success with the hilarious Deadpool, so there is clearly an audience for that kind of superhero and Plastic Man is one of DC’s resident wisecrackers. Ben Schwartz obviously has a ton of love for the character and is eager to see him on screen and be the one playing him. The actor even knows what approach he would like such a film to take.

In the comics, Patrick O’Brian is a small-time criminal and thief who fell into a vat of chemicals during a heist (seriously, where is the regulation on open chemical vats in the DC universe?) and then gained powers of superhuman malleability and elasticity, similar to Stretch Armstrong or Mr. Fantastic. “Eel” then reformed to become a crime fighter and eventually became a member of the Justice League.

Ben Schwartz would like to skip that last part where Plastic Man reforms himself and instead just have some fun with him as a hilarious crook. It’s a cool idea and you definitely could make Plastic Man something of an anti-hero in the DC universe; a character who is inherently good, but does a lot of bad stuff, a la Deadpool.

The DC universe has been taking a turn towards lighter fare in recent films, highlighted most recently, as Ben Schwartz mentioned to Comicbook.com, by this weekend’s Shazam! So considering that DC seems to be doing a lot of experimenting lately and the fact that someone is working on a Plastic Man script as a comedic action-adventure, means that it’s not impossible that Ben Schwartz could get his wish.

As evidenced by the recent Joker trailer, DC has been experimenting lately and trying different things, and a Plastic Man movie starring Parks and Recreation’s Jean-Ralphio could definitely stand out in the marketplace, doing something different while tapping in to the same thing that made the Deadpool franchise successful.

We haven’t heard anything on the Plastic Man movie since we heard about the hiring of a writer but we’ll keep you updated on this project as it develops. In the meantime, you can look forward to Ben Schwartz playing a more famous character, this one from the video game world and possessing super speed, in Sonic the Hedgehog, where he voices the blue blur.

Sonic the Hedgehog races into theaters on November 8. Check out our 2019 release schedule to keep track of all the biggest movies coming to theaters this year.

Read More

Rumored Bond 25 Title Just Got Shut Down

Rumored Bond 25 Title Just Got Shut Down

There has been a ton of talk about Bond 25, starting almost directly after the release of Spectre. Daniel Craig's comments about not wanting anything to do with the role gave fans reason to pause, although he ended up singing on to play 007 one last time. Fans are eager to see how Craig's version of the character will be sent off, as the project continues its development and pre-production process.

In addition to casting rumors, there's also been a few potential titles being thrown around by the rabid Bond fandom. One of them is Shatterhand, a theory that has made the rounds online. Now it's been officially given the kabosh by the very head of the Bond franchise: Barbara Broccoli. While signing a Shatterhand logo designed by a Bond fan, Broccoli also made sure to clarify that was not the title of the 25th installment. You can check out a photo of the autograph, reposted by the official James Bond Instagram page.

Well, that's seems pretty cut and dry. With just a little bit of social media sass, the James Bond franchise has officially put the name Shatterhand to bed. Of course, that likely won't stop other fan theories from popping up in its place, until the official name of Bond 25 is finally revealed to the public.

007's Instagram post may have retired Shatterhand from the rumor mill, but the franchise was careful to not actually release any information about the developing project. Considering the early stages of the film's life, there's a certain level of care and secrecy needed, as the pieces of the cast and crew are assembled. But that won't stop Barbara Broccoli from not so subtly nipping false information in the bud. We'll just have to wait and see how long it takes for the official title to be released.

Considering Bond 25 will be Daniel Craig's swan song as James Bond, the pressure is on to deliver a satisfying finale for this set of 007 movies. Spectre spent a ton of time setting up the iconic villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, played by Christoph Waltz. The origin story was finally completed with Spectre's ending, but it's unclear if Waltz will be back to play Blofeld. Rami Malek is reportedly in talks to play the film's villain, following up his Oscar win for Bohemian Rhapsody with the longest running franchise in film history. What a year.

But Rami Malek's involvement hasn't been officially confirmed, nor has any of the cast aside from Daniel Craig. So the generations of Bond fans will have to patiently wait for Barbara Broccoli and the rest of Eon Productions to settle down on a concrete plan, and allow the public to be privy to what is coming next. Regardless, it's clear that fan interest is there, which should hopefully spell further box office success for the franchise. After all, Spectre was one of the most expensive films of all time.

Bond 25 is currently set to arrive on April 8th, 2020. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

Read More

Theater Accidentally Screens R-Rated The Curse Of La Llorona Instead Of Detective Pikachu

Theater Accidentally Screens R-Rated The Curse Of La Llorona Instead Of Detective Pikachu

Movie theaters are busy places with a lot of moving parts, so it's to be expected that mistakes will happen. However, one recent theater error may have left lots of children scarred for life when instead of a screening of Detective Pikachu, an audience comprised largely of children, was subjected to The Curse of La Llorona and all the trailers that went with it.

The situation started when Ryan George went to a screening that was supposed to be Detective Pikachu. As one would expect, the theater had a lot of kids in it. They, and their parents, probably began to wonder when the first thing to happen after the lights went down was a trailer for a movie that those kids really didn't need to be subjected to. As George said on Twitter...

The theatre I'm in is playing a trailer for Annabelle Comes Home before Detective Pikachu LOOK AWAY CHILDREN OH NO

The children did not look away. As one might expect, this did not go well. If this had been a random mismatch of a trailer and had been an isolated incident, things probably would have been ok. However, it was not. The next trailer to run wasn't much better.

Andddd kids are crying. Now the Joker trailer is playing.

I can imagine at this point the parents might have been more upset than the kids. I can imagine very young children looking forward to Detective Pikachu simply being more confused by the Joker trailer than anything. Parents, however, were probably quite disturbed.

If you guessed that the terror did not end there, you'd be correct.

NOW IT'S CHUCKY OH NO CHILDREN OH NO

Yeah, the killer toy probably went over really well with both the kids and their parents. I can imagine.

Of course, as it turned out, the random horror movie trailers stuck in front of Detective Pikachu were actually just symptoms of a bigger problem, as the theater had actually mis-scheduled the screening and was actually playing Conjuring-verse movie The Curse of La Lorona instead of the Pokemon movie.

OH MY GOD THEY'RE PLAYING LA LLORANA INSTEAD OF DETECTIVE PIKACHU

At some point, the mistake was realized and the movie was shut off, at which point the entire audience was moved into another theater that had, one assumes, started playing Detective Pikachu accidentally, as the new audience found the film waiting for them.

We've all been moved to another theatre where Detective Pikachu is just paused? At least there aren't any more murders on-screen

One certainly hopes they started the movie over from the beginning once the audience was seated.

With modern theaters it's now incredibly convenient to move any given movie to any screening room where it's needed with just a couple presses of a button. There's no need to physically move reels or even a disc. However, if those buttons are pressed in error, you can end up giving kids nightmares.

Read More

Full Toy Story 4 Trailer Brings Back Bo Peep And Even Andy

Full Toy Story 4 Trailer Brings Back Bo Peep And Even Andy

After being introduced to a handful of new characters for the upcoming Toy Story 4, the only question remaining was exactly how they were all going to fit into whatever story the new movie was planning to tell. Now, with the first full trailer, we have our answers. We know how Woody and Bo Peep get reunited, and what the broader themes of the story will be. We meet even more new characters, and even get to see some old friends we didn't expect, like Andy himself. Check it out.

The trailer allows us to get to get to know the odd new toy of Forky a lot better. He's at the center of the story as Woody decides the craft project needs protection as Bonnie's favorite new toy. However, Forky doesn't feel like a toy and attempts to run away, which results in he and Woody getting separated from the rest of the group. From there we see Woody and Forky meet Bo Peep, and a collection of other interesting toys, while trying to get back to Bonnie.

Bo Peep appears to be found inside some sort of antique shop. Woody and Forky walk past her lamp and Woody instantly recognizes it. Although, the pawn shop is apparently the toy equivalent to a haunted hose, as the others toys inside it seem to be as scary as anything found inside Sid's house. Gabby Gabby is the name of the doll, voiced by Christina Hendricks. She appears to command a small army of ventriloquist dummies, which is just creepy.

What's potentially more interesting than some of the movie's new friends, is the return of a very special old one. The trailer contains a pair of flashback sequences that show Andy once again. One replays the moment from the end of Toy Story 3 where Andy gave his toys to Bonnie, but the other shows a scene of an even younger Andy playing with his toys. It's hard to tell if this part of a significant flashback sequence in Toy Story 4, but if it is, we might get to actually see some earlier events in the story that we never saw, like the loss of Bo Peep.

It wouldn't be a Pixar movie if it didn't bring the emotion and even this brief trailer has the potential to get you to feel something inside. The shot where Bonnie discovers her toys gone is already heartbreaking. I can't even imagine how I'm going to feel watching the entire film.

In addition to the new trailer, Toy Story 4 also released a new poster which brings all the characters, new and old, together. Check it out.

Ultimately, Toy Story 4 is a movie about self discovery. Forky doesn't understand what he is. He's a toy, but he feels like he's supposed to be something else. Bo Peep has been abandoned for years and no longer needs a child to define her purpose. Woody, it seems, will begin to question the things he's always believed about his own existence.

Many have questioned the decision to even make a Toy Story 4, with the ending of the third film being viewed by so many as a perfect cap on the trilogy. One really has to wonder just how Pixar believed it could top that. It apparently wasn't easy. There are certainly some directions this story could go that have the potential to be as emotionally impactful as Toy Story 3, though I'm not sure I want to think about them. It's too painful.

Read More