Spider-Man's Tobey Maguire Isn't Ruling Out Another Superhero Role In The Future

Spider-Man's Tobey Maguire Isn't Ruling Out Another Superhero Role In The Future

Alongside Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, the first icon of the new millennium’s superhero age was Tobey Maguire, who played Peter Parker in Sam Raimi’s three Spider-Man films. The actor hung up his webshooters after the financially successful but critically divisive Spider-Man 3 in 2007, and he hasn’t been in another superhero film since. That doesn’t mean he’s ruling out another superhero role in the future though; speaking about the possibility Tobey Maguire said:

I just don't really have an 'I would or wouldn't do' mind-set. I'll just do whatever … whatever it is that comes that I feel called to, that may or may not fit in any kind of box.

Tobey Maguire definitely isn’t closing the door on the idea that he could one day return to the realm of superhero movies. His years as Spider-Man and multiple films haven’t caused him to swear off working in the genre entirely, but he isn’t itching to get back in a pair of superhero tights either. Therefore what he told The Hollywood Reporter isn’t a definitive answer about whether we’ll see him in a superhero role in the future, but it leaves the door open.

Based on his comments, Tobey Maguire seems to take a very zen approach to the roles that he takes, never saying never. He doesn’t want to box himself in by saying he absolutely would do X or wouldn’t do Y, because every situation is different. If something comes along that he is drawn to, he’ll take it and not be governed by any sort of rules he’s made for himself.

That seems to apply to superhero movies as well. If a new superhero role comes along and Tobey Maguire is called to it, he may very well add another chapter to his comic book movie legacy. We’ll just have to wait and see if such an opportunity presents itself and how Tobey Maguire responds to it. There is certainly no shortage of superhero films on the horizon with potential roles for the OG Peter Parker.

I think a lot of fans would love to see Tobey Maguire return to the superhero world in some fashion, even if it's something as small as a cameo. Fans even created a petition for Tobey Maguire to cameo as a pizza delivery guy in Spider-Man: Far From Home. And new Spider-Man Tom Holland has advocated for Tobey Maguire to play Uncle Ben.

One film that is practically demanding a Tobey Maguire cameo is Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2. The directors of the first film didn’t want to confuse audiences by bringing in Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield to voice Spider-Men, but now that the first film was successful, as in Best Animated Feature successful, there may be more of an opportunity to remedy that in the sequel.

If Tobey Maguire does one day return to the world of superhero movies, he would be in good company. Actors like Chris Evans, Michael B. Jordan, Ben Affleck and Ryan Reynolds all played multiple different superheroes on the big screen. After years away, even former Batman Michael Keaton returned as the villainous Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Personally, I would love to see Tobey Maguire make the jump from hero to villain in a future superhero movie.

You can see the new Peter Parker Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Far From Home, in theaters on July 5. Check out our 2019 release schedule to keep track of all the biggest movies headed to theaters this year and let us know in the comments what comic book character you would like to see Tobey Maguire play in a future film.

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The Disney and Fox Merger Finally Has A Closing Date

The Disney and Fox Merger Finally Has A Closing Date

The Disney/Fox merger has been drawing nearer, but it’s finally come time for one giant studio to swallow another. Disney has officially announced that its $71.3 billion purchase of 21st Century Fox will close on March 20. Jiminy Crickets!

After the House of Mouse received its last major approval from regulators in Mexico, the company announced the formal date for the closing process, per Variety. The deal between the two major studios is certainly a huge game-changer for the entire media landscape and will officially start taking shape next Wednesday.

Walt Disney Studios will soon have control over Fox’s film, television studios and cable channels, including National Geographic and FX. Disney will also obtain Fox’s 30% holdings in Hulu, in addition to its own 30%, giving the studio a 60% majority share and own 39% in European satellite company, Sky. However, Disney was not approved by government regulators to take over Fox’s regional sports channels since it already owns ESPN.

Disney will also assume over $13 billion in net debt from Fox ,and the merger is expected to prompt as many as 4000 layoffs in positions that overlap between the two companies. The inception of a new entity of the Fox Corporation that will include the assets that will not be part of the Disney deal will also launch in line with the closing date of the Disney/Fox merger.

The closing of the deal could be good news for Marvel fans excited for the X-Men and the Fantastic Four to potentially be part of the same family as Disney’s MCU. Some of Fox’s major franchises such as the Alien, Predator, Kingsman, Die Hard and Night of the Museum would also be under Disney’s new umbrella and could potentially have a presence in Disney’s theme parks in the future.

Fox joins Disney’s holdings just as the company gears up for the launch of its own streaming service, Disney+, later this year, which is set to include every film in the Disney library along, as well original movies and television shows from the Star Wars, the Marvel universe and more.

Disney CEO and Chairman Bob Iger has reportedly taken a pay cut in light of the merger, as a $500,000 annual increase to his base salary and $8 million increase in bonus was agreed to be eliminated from his paycheck – though his approximately $15 million salary still stands as one of the highest salaries for a media executive.

Disney is heading into perhaps one of its biggest years ever as three big live-action remakes, three MCU films (including an impressive $455 worldwide opening start for Captain Marvel over the weekend), two huge animated sequels and Star Wars: Episode IX are coming out, along with the opening of Galaxy’s Edge in the parks. The closing of the Fox deal only expands this. Mickey Mouse means business… and perhaps world domination?

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Dumbo Has A Bunch Of Fun Disneyland Nods

Dumbo Has A Bunch Of Fun Disneyland Nods

The following contains SPOILERS for the new live-action Dumbo.

A great deal of Disney's new Dumbo takes place inside a theme park. While the one in the movie technically predates Disney's first park by over 30 years, you can't have a Disney movie that includes a theme park and not have audiences thinking about the fact that a large part of Disney's global popularity comes from its theme park division.

This makes it really not much of a shock to discover that V.A. Vandevere's Dreamland includes more than a few references to Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Some are obvious, some are a bit obscure, some might not even have been intentional, and at least one is absolutely brazen, but they were all there nonetheless. Here are a few of Dumbo's theme park shout-outs.

Carousel Of Progress

We don't get to see too many of the attractions inside V.A. Vandevere's theme park beyond the Coliseum where Dumbo performs. However, one that we do see is called Wonders of Science. Milly Ferrier remarks upon it when she sees it upon first arriving at the park. Later we get to see inside it and realize just how much it owes to a classic Disneyland and Walt Disney World attraction, the Carousel of Progress.

The first Carousel of Progress was created for the New York World's Fair in 1964. After the fair closed, the attraction was moved to Disneyland, where it operated until 1973. Following that, it was moved to Walt Disney World, where it still exists today, though it has been updated several times. The attraction contains a series of vignettes where animatronic characters show us how technology has changed over the decades. The version in Dreamland appears to be a walk through-style attraction, rather than the rotating theater design of the Disney version, but it still includes segments where basic animatronics show us how different things will be in the future. Like the Disney versions of the past, accuracy leaves a little something to be desired.

Rocket To The Moon

At one point in the new Dumbo, Alan Arkin's character, J. Griffin Remington, references the idea that one day man will travel to the moon. While it wouldn't happen for about a half century, space travel was a frequent topic of fiction in the early twentieth century. This is best exemplified by an attraction at the Dreamland theme park called To The Moon.

While the To The Moon attraction appears to be some sort of roller coaster or possibly something akin to the Astro Orbiter, we never really get much of a look at it. It has a very similar name to Rocket to the Moon, an attraction that arrived shortly after Disneyland first opened in 1955. Rocket to the Moon was an early motion simulator experience, an ancestor to something like Star Tours today, though very simple. The attraction hung around until 1975 when it was updated to become Mission to Mars, since man had already been to the moon by then.

Dumbo's Circus Land/The Mickey Mouse Club Circus

Disneyland was conceived by Walt Disney in large part because of the problems he had with the then modern circus. He didn't think it was the best atmosphere for family entertainment. Having said that, he still loved the concept of the circus, and so the idea of putting a traditional circus inside a theme park, as we see in Dumbo, is something that Disney himself had also done.

The Mickey Mouse Club Circus was a very traditional circus, with both human and animal performers that opened shortly after Disneyland did, in the fall of 1955. The big top was put up approximately where the Matterhorn exists today. It didn't last long, but the circus theme very nearly came back with Dumbo's Circus Land, a land that would have put several of Disney's animal characters, including those from The Jungle Book, in a traditional circus atmosphere. The land never happened, but it shows how the link between theme park and circus has never really disappeared.

Actual Disneyland Merchandise

There may be no company in the world better at merchandising that Disney. Nearly every theme park attraction has you exit through a gift shop, and you can be sure with every new movie release there will be a host of toys and other cool stuff available for fans to buy. However, Dumbo actually takes this in a slightly different direction. Why create new merch for the new movie when you can just literally promote the stuff you already have in the film?

At a couple of points during Dumbo, we see shots of kids buying cute little plush dolls of Dumbo from a concession stand. Since it is a theme park, that's not exactly going to shock anybody. However, the twist here is that the stuffed animals the kids are walking away with are literally the same one that you can buy at Disney theme parks right now. Disney just stocked the shot with the toys that were already on hand.

Dreamland

The name of the theme park in the new Dumbo is pretty simple. It's called Dreamland. A perfectly reasonable, if not particularly creative, name for a theme park. At first, it might seem like it's a generic name that doesn't mean all that much. It's certainly got a similar name to Disneyland, but beyond that, it's probably just the first thing that came to mind. However, the name Dreamland is more connected to the name Disney than you might realize.

Following the opening of Disneyland in the 1955, a Japanese businessman named Kunizo Matsuo visited the park. He loved it and wanted to build a similar location in Japan, specifically in the nation's former capital of Nara. He worked directly with Walt Disney on the project, who was very interested in a foreign location and a park designed in the same hub and spoke pattern, with many of the same Disneyland attractions, including Sleeping Beauty's castle, spinning tea cups, and more, was constructed. However, a disagreement between Matsuo and Disney over licensing fees eventually caused Walt to pull support for the park. Everything was reworked to remove the Disney branding, and the park, which was going to be called Nara Disneyland, was renamed Nara Dreamland. The park was actually quite successful for a number of years, until the early 1980s when an actual Disneyland was built in Tokyo, at which point attendance died off and the park eventually closed.

Dumbo's history with theme parks goes back to the earliest days of Disneyland when the Casey Jr. Circus Train was an opening day attraction, and Dumbo the Flying Elephant came shortly thereafter. For Disneyland fans the rides may be more iconic that the movie that they're based on.

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Hobbs And Shaw Trailer Has Dwayne Johnson Take On A Helicopter With His Bare Hands

Hobbs And Shaw Trailer Has Dwayne Johnson Take On A Helicopter With His Bare Hands

The Fast and Furious franchise found its groove when it let itself get a little nuts. It's now commonplace for the films to not let reality stand in the way of a moment that's going to look awesome on screen. I think Hobbs & Shaw, the franchise's first spinoff, is going for a "hold my beer" sort of moment, because the new trailer for the Dwayne Johnson/Jason Statham buddy pic might have one of the most insane, and yet completely awesome, moments yet. Check out the new trailer below, and make sure you don't miss the end.

The trailer opens up with the sort of entertaining, almost silly, action that made Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham so much fun in The Fate of the Furious. It was that chemistry that led to Hobbs & Shaw becoming a film in the first place. However, it's when the trailer comes to an end, and we see cars racing down the road and Dwayne Johnson attempt to pull down a helicopter on the end of a chain that things feel the most like a modern Fast & Furious movie.

Interestingly, we also learn that the full title of the movie is apparently Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. Nobody wants to forget that this is still part of the Fast & Furious franchise. Those films, especially the most recent entries, have been huge money makers around the world and clearly the hope is that Hobbs & Shaw will follow the main franchise to big box office returns. By including the Fast & Furious name in the title, that will help attract an audience all over the world.

While this may not be a standard Fast and Furious movie, it clearly is still going to feel like one, because "family" is going to be a major part of the story. We get to meet more of Deckard Shaw's family, in the form of Vanessa Kirby. However, we also see the movie go to Hobbs' home, and get to meet his entire extended family, who are apparently going to fight the bad guys with traditional Polynesian weapons. Because of course they are.

We also get to meet Idris Elba's new character who will be the big bad of the movie. He's apparently been genetically engineered, so he's basically an evil Captain America, though he refers to himself as "Black Superman." I'm not quite sure why the villain had to be given superpowers in this movie, beyond of course, the fact that it just sounds cool.

Fans of the Fast and Furious franchise will clearly find plenty to get excited about in Hobbs & Shaw. Will this be the first of many spinoffs, or a new Fast & Furious franchise all its own? The box office will likely determine that. We'll find out when Hobbs & Shaw hits theaters August 2.

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Sean Gunn Knew In Advance About James Gunn’s Reinstatement As Guardians 3 Director

Sean Gunn Knew In Advance About James Gunn’s Reinstatement As Guardians 3 Director

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a fairly well-oiled machine at this point, with 21 movies and a decade of filmmaking under its belt. The studio has especially hit its stride with Phase Three, as every single release has been a box office and critical success. But there were a few bumps in the road, especially James Gunn's firing and eventual reinstatement as director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

James Gunn was fired in July after offensive tweets from a decade ago resurfaced, and Disney attempted to distance itself from that narrative. But considering how much of Gunn is infused with the Guardians franchise, it put the future of the threequel in jeopardy. James' brother Sean Gunn plays Kraglin and stands in for Rocket during filming, and therefore discovered the news early. As he tells it:

I was aware before it was announced, a little bit before. I know that they were, they wanted to get the timing right in terms of when the announcement was made. Like I was saying before, in Hollywood, things don't ever happen until they happen, you know? So I was aware that it was probably going to happen, but I was never sure until I actually saw it in the news. But I was pretty sure for, let's just say for a little while.

The public was shocked by James Gunn's return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it doesn't look like Sean Gunn was. He saw the plan in the works for some time before it was official, although he found out about the final decision in the news just like everyone else. I guess it pays to be related to the subject of such a major story.

Sean Gunn's comments to Comic Book show that the deal with James Gunn went back quite some time. It came out of nowhere for the public, but was likely a long process filled with red tape and legalese. It was certainly a bold choice for Marvel to do an about-face, and bring Gunn back into the fold. What's more, the director recently signed on to helm The Suicide Squad for DC, so there was probably extra contracts and scheduling issues as part of the deal.

It stands to reason that Sean Gunn would be privy to more information than most, as its his sibling who is the mind behind the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. On top of hearing about it from his brother, Sean is also an important cast member of the property. While he's not a bonafide member of the member, Kraglin has had a supporting role in the first two movies. What's more, Sean also does the motion capture work for Rocket on set, with Bradley Cooper eventually stepping into the studio to record dialogue, and extensive visual affects bringing the character to life.

Sean Gunn also played Rocket during Avengers: Endgame filming, with the blockbuster arriving April 26th. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

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Jordan Peele's Us Has Screened, Here Are The Early Reactions

Jordan Peele's Us Has Screened, Here Are The Early Reactions

Moviegoers have been greatly anticipating the release of Us, the next horror film from the Oscar-winning Jordan Peele. Peele knocked it out of the park with his first film, Get Out, and people are eager to see what else the writer-director has in store. Us has looked great and super creepy in trailers, but the film finally got in front of an audience during the SXSW film festival this weekend. Critics were quick to share their thoughts and they had some extremely high praise for the movie.

CinemaBlend's own Sean O'Connell praised the film's storytelling, scares, and "gut punch of a twist." He was one of many critics to single out Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o's performance in particular.

Written and directed by Jordan Peele, Us follows a family of four as they are taken hostage in their home by twisted doppelgangers, bringing to life the notion that we are our own worst enemies. Given what a success Get Out was, people have high hopes for Us and it sounds like there will be no sophomore slump for Peele. Critics are teasing that this is a great film worthy of plenty of rewatches and it's especially strong work from Peele.

Wow! Masterpiece is not a word that is thrown around lightly, and critic Clayton Davis was not afraid to put it to use. Davis has loads of praise to give Jordan Peele, writing that we are witnessing the birth of a modern day Alfred Hitchcock. Again, wow! That's seriously high praise and, ordinarily, I would say to temper expectations to avoid being over-hyped, but this isn't the only critic gushing about Us.

Critic Jen Yamato writes the the film is a precise challenge to your nerves and that it will likely traumatize the young people who sneak in to see it in theaters. She also pointed the spotlight on star Lupita Nyong'o, who gives one hell of a performance as the family matriarch and her creepy doppelganger. Plenty of other critics also praised Nyong'o's and co-star Winston Duke's acting.

So, the film is extremely well put together, but this is a horror film. How scary is it? Well, it sounds like it's going to curl your toes.

If I was going to trust any critic about the scariness of a movie, it would be one whose last name is Fear. Critic David Fear simply writes that the movie is "fucking terrifying," so horror fans are in for a real treat.

Other critics have said that the film isn't quite the same as Get Out, and it might push its runtime a bit with ambitious ideas, but it's still thrilling and very well put together. At least a few critics have said that the film resembles an extra long episode of The Twilight Zone, which is especially good news for the upcoming reboot.

We'll all be able to see Us for ourselves when the film arrives on March 22.

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Olivia Wilde ‘Stole’ An On-Set Rule From Martin Scorsese In The Making Of Booksmart

Olivia Wilde ‘Stole’ An On-Set Rule From Martin Scorsese In The Making Of Booksmart

When taking on an intimidating new endeavor, it’s always helpful to take inspiration from those who are the best at what they do. After all, their methodology clearly results in success, and mirroring that methodology theoretically should result in mirrored success. This is something that is regularly seen in the movie world when filmmakers are preparing to make their first feature, and it’s a tradition that Olivia Wilde continued in the making of her directorial debut, the upcoming comedy Booksmart.

Specifically, she took a page out of the playbook of one of the greatest filmmakers of all time: Martin Scorsese. The two had the opportunity to collaborate in recent years working on the HBO series Vinyl (which Scorsese co-created and Wilde starred in), and that experience proved to be motivating for the actress-cum-director in the making of Booksmart. Speaking during a Los Angeles press event earlier this week, Wilde revealed that she borrowed an on-set tactic from the Oscar-winner, which was that all scripts and sides were not made available to the stars during production. Said Wilde,

I stole that rule from Martin Scorsese. I worked for him, and I was blown away by what happens when actors are not allowed to bring sides on set because it means that they are free to create, and with a very short schedule - like we had 26 days to shoot the film - I needed them to be ready when they got there to just play.

A script can often function as a safety net for actors, as they can look back on the material to remember specific lines, or it can help them find the proper emotion for a given moment in a larger story – but Olivia Wilde apparently wasn’t interested in letting her stars have that backup system. Instead, she felt it was more important for the cast to exist in the moment while cameras were rolling, and while it almost certainly led to deviations from what had been written, she felt that the freedom the environment provided was ultimately more important.

What makes this particular situation a little extra special, though, is that while Booksmart does feature some veteran adult stars - including Lisa Kudrow, Will Forte, and Jason Sudeikis – most of the ensemble is made up of younger actors (some of whom are making their feature film debuts). This in mind, you’d think that Olivia Wilde’s borrowed approach from Martin Scorsese might be seriously intimidating, but evidently that wasn’t the case.

Instead, as Wilde explained, they apparently weren’t flustered by that aspect of the experience at all – which came as a bit surprise to the first-time director:

What was amazing is this cast is so brilliant that that was no big deal. I think there's much more experienced actors who would've been terrified by that rule, and they were like, 'No problem; watch me work.' So I'm very, very proud. I think half of the brilliance you see in the movie, if you see it, it's because of the energy they brought that day, and they're looseness, and they're will to give it their all.

Based on a script by Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, and Katie Silberman, Booksmart centers on a pair of intelligent high school seniors (Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein) who start to feel a level of regret about their lack of high school partying when they realize that many of their more fun-oriented classmates still managed to get into good schools. They make the decision to subvert their reputations by attending an end-of-the-year blowout and letting loose for the first time in their lives – and it winds up leading to a fun adventure involving all kinds of strange roadblocks and weirdness along the way.

The film debuted earlier this year at the SXSW Film Festival, earning great reviews and heaps of buzz, and it won’t be long until audiences nationwide have the chance to see it for themselves. Booksmart will be heading into wide release next Friday, May 24th, so be sure to check it out, and stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more about the movie.

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