Robert Downey Jr. Calls Marvel Tenure ‘Ride Of A Lifetime’ As Avengers: Endgame Hits Theaters

Robert Downey Jr. Calls Marvel Tenure ‘Ride Of A Lifetime’ As Avengers: Endgame Hits Theaters

It's no secret that landing the role of Tony Stark was life-changing for Robert Downey Jr. In the early aughts his career was a shadow of what it was during the 1980s and 1990s, and while he was still making quality films like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, he didn't exactly have the same level of popularity. That all changed in 2008 with the arrival of Jon Favreau's Iron Man, and 11 years later we're preparing to see the capstone of the epic adventure in the form of Avengers: Endgame.

Obviously that makes this a pretty big weekend for the actor, and while he has been very active on social media recently discussing his role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Tweet he posted today feels particularly poignant as a summation of his time as part of the franchise:

It goes without saying that Robert Downey Jr.'s impact on the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been absolutely massive. His ridiculous charisma is a huge part of what made the first Iron Man work so well, and rewatching the movie even now it's easy to see why people immediately fell back in love with him and became obsessed with his iteration of the character. Critics and audiences fully embraced his take on Tony Stark immediately, and it catapulted the 2008 film to a box office total of $585 million internationally.

But that was only the start. Since then he has been featured in 10 of Marvel Studios' 22 films, and his contributions are really immeasurable. It started with him giving a tiny boost to The Incredible Hulk with his quick cameo at the end of the film cementing the continuity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and since then it's been nothing but the stuff of legends.

To put a number on it, prior to the release of Avengers: Endgame the total worldwide box office earnings for the Marvel Studios films in which Robert Downey Jr. has been featured is $3,960,919,900. That is unprecedented, and it's possible that Hollywood will never see another run of its kind ever again.

Clearly the actor has a tremendous amount of love and appreciation for everything that has happened in his life since the release of Iron Man, and it will be exciting to see how it winds up molding his career going forward. We actually haven't seen him in a non-Marvel film since 2014's The Judge - though that's a streak that will come to an end next year. He's already completed work on Stephen Gaghan's The Voyage Of Doctor Dolittle, which sees him playing the titular character and will be out next January, and hes also playing a role in Jamie Foxx's debut as a writer/director - All-Star Weekend. We'll have to wait and see what the future holds for Tony Stark after Avengers: Endgame, but at the very least audiences everywhere can take comfort in the fact that we'll still have many more years of Robert Downey Jr. awesomeness on the big screen to come.

Do you have a favorite Tony Stark/Iron Man moment from the last 11 years? What will you always remember about his take on the character? Hit the comments section below with your thoughts, feelings, and opinions.

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Elizabeth Moss Replaces Johnny Depp In The Invisible Man

Elizabeth Moss Replaces Johnny Depp In The Invisible Man

Although Universal’s Dark Universe franchise is no longer focusing on interconnectivity between its movies following the underwhelming performance of The Mummy in 2017, some of its announced projects are still moving forward. The Invisible Man is one of them, only rather than Johnny Depp playing the lead as previously announced, that role will now be filled by The Handmaid’s Tale star Elisabeth Moss.

Back in January, at the same time it was announced that future Dark Universe movies would be standalone stories, it was revealed that Johnny Depp, who had been attached to The Invisible Man since 2016, would no longer appear in the movie, although he could still appear in a different Dark Universe project down the line. A little over a month later, it was reported that Elisabeth Moss was being eyed to take over the leading role.

Now EW has confirmed that the actress, also well known for her time on Mad Men, has officially boarded The Invisible Man, which Jason Blum is producing through his Blumhouse Productions company. This will be Moss’ second Blumhouse picture, as she recently starred in Jordan Peele’s Us, which has been met with critical acclaim and made over $220 million worldwide so far.

It’s also important to mention that this isn’t a case where Elisabeth Moss will lead a movie that was originally intended for Johnny Depp. The current version of The Invisible Man is being written and directed by Upgrade and Insidious: Chapter 3’s Leigh Whannell, so he’s crafting a brand new story that Moss will star in. Whether that means the title will be changed to The Invisible Woman (assuming she’s the one pulling off the disappearing act) or something else remains to be seen.

It was clarified in January that just because The Invisible Man was being retooled didn’t necessarily mean it would be the next Dark Universe movie to be released. However, the fact that Elisabeth Moss has officially been cast just a month after her name was mentioned for the project could indicate Universal is pushing towards getting The Invisible Man off the ground sooner rather than later.

Originally a novel penned by The Time Machine author H.G. Wells, The Invisible Man was first adapted as a movie in 1933, with Claude Rains playing the eponymous role. Although the Invisible Man (a moniker adopted by several individuals) would be a recurring antagonist in the golden age of Universal Monsters, the character hasn’t been the star of his own movie in recent decades, although one named Rodney Skinner did appear in 2003’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

As for Elisabeth Moss, along with the previously mentioned projects, her credits include The West Wing, Top of the Lake, Get Him to the Greek and The Old Man & The Gun. Along with reprising Offred in The Handmaid’s Tale Season 3 this June, she can be seen later this year in The Kitchen and Shirley.

The Invisible Man doesn’t have an assigned release date yet, but production will take place in Australia. We here at CinemaBlend will keep you updated on how the project is coming along as more news comes in, but for now, head to our 2019 release schedule to plan your trips to the theater later this year accordingly.

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New Avengers: Endgame Clip Proves Iron Man Missed Captain America

New Avengers: Endgame Clip Proves Iron Man Missed Captain America

After a long year of waiting, it's finally happening. This week will bring the highly anticipated debut of Avengers: Endgame, picking up the narrative after Thanos snapped his fingers and destroyed half of all life. Fans are eager to see how the surviving heroes manage to turn things around, and eventually bring the fight back to the Mad Titan. How this'll happen is largely a mystery, especially thanks for the cryptic marketing campaign for the film.

Marvel Studios has been methodically releasing new Avengers: Endgame to the footage, keeping the secrets of The Russo Brothers' upcoming blockbuster in the process. A new TV spot recently arrived, which showed that Tony Stark has missed Steve Rogers during their years apart since Captain America: Civil War. Check out the clip below.

Captain America and Iron Man haven't shared any scenes in the MCU since the ending of Civil War back in 2016. They're the biggest characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the Sakovia Accords and Bucky's brainwashing put a serious wedge between the two Avengers. Now they've got to bury the Stormbreaker if the surviving heroes are going to stand a chance against Thanos.

This new trailer shows Tony safe back on Earth, after previously being stranded in space alongside Nebula. It's unclear how he makes it home, but the mismatched duo of characters are presumably going to need some rescuing. Despite their fractured relationship, Cap and Iron Man seem to be on good enough terms, presumably since The Decimation made their tiff look like child's play in comparison.

Related: 4 Shots In The Avengers: Endgame Trailer That Will Break Your Heart

In the Avengers: Endgame trailers, Chris Evans' Steve Rogers seems a bit less jaded than his appearance in Infinity War, and is once again trying to inspire Earth's Mightiest Heroes to rise up and fight the good fight. While this is a habit that previously rubbed Tony Stark the wrong way, the above clip shows he's done an about-face, and is now appreciating Cap's never-ending optimism.

Cap and Tony's reunion is one of the most highly anticipated aspects of Avengers: Endgame, as they've been kept apart for years. This includes the events of Avengers: Infinity War, as The Russo Brothers put them in two separate conflicts during the massive ensemble movie. The Black Order arrived in New York just before Tony called Steve Rogers, and Iron Man eventually followed Ebony Maw into space. Meanwhile, Cap stayed on Earth and helped lead the Battle of Wakanda.

After Doctor Strange sacrificed the Time Stone to save Tony Stark, the OG Avengers all miraculously survived Thanos' snap. This should allow Endgame to focus on the original members of the team, although they'll get help from Captain Marvel, Ant-Man, Rocket, War Machine, and Nebula.

Avengers: Endgame will finally arrive in theaters on April 26th. In the meantime, fill out CinemaBlend's Endgame death pool, and check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

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Captain Marvel Will Lead The MCU, Kevin Feige Says

Captain Marvel Will Lead The MCU, Kevin Feige Says

The MCU is going to look different soon. The popular cinematic universe is in a transitionary period as several of the characters we've come to know prepare to take their bows in Avengers: Endgame. Once we enter Phase 4, new heroes will rise up to take the reins, and leading the pack will be Captain Marvel. Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige promised that Brie Larson has a very healthy future in the MCU to look forward to.

When we found out that Brie Larson might be interested in joining our world, we had a number of meetings. She was a huge fan of the character in the comics. One of the highlights of my career at Marvel was introducing her at Comic-Con and having her come out on stage and stand there with literally almost everybody else from our movies. There she was at the forefront, and it was a great foreshadowing – not just for how audiences are going to embrace Brie as this character, but also for how Captain Marvel is about to take the lead and be at the forefront of the entire Cinematic Universe.

You might have heard about this already, but there's a movie called Captain Marvel in theaters right now soaking up all the money. The film features the long-awaited debut of Brie Larson's Captain Marvel into the MCU. All the way up to the premiere of the movie, Captain Marvel has been hyped up to be a big addition to the MCU, with Carol Danvers being one of the most powerful beings in the universe.

Danvers will be using that power to give Thanos a whoopin' in Avengers: Endgame, but there's much more to look forward to after. Marvel Studios has been setting up the next generation of heroes to take over for the old guard, and it sounds like Captain Marvel may be our new Iron Man.

In the Captain Marvel: The Official Movie Special (via Comic Book), Feige teased what was to come for Captain Marvel. It should come as little surprise to fans that we will be seeing a lot more of her as she steps into a leadership role in the MCU. It sounds like we can count on Carol being in the center of a lot of posters from here on out!

It's been strongly hinted that Endgame will leave us with an new roster of superheroes to take us through the next iteration of the MCU. Captain Marvel and Black Panther are already proving to be major successes and it's great to hear that we will be seeing more of Carol. The Captain Marvel movie is doing great right now and it's a solid set up for more adventures down the road.

You can see Captain Marvel in theaters right now.

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Ghostbusters 3 Has Cast Its Lead Actress

Ghostbusters 3 Has Cast Its Lead Actress

After years of waiting and development hell, it seemed like there would never be another sequel in the original Ghostbusters franchise. But, as if rising from the grave like a specter, Ghostbusters 3 is officially happening. Jason Reitman, the son of the original Ghostbusters director, is on board as director, but not a lot about the film is known. We do know that it will feature several new characters who will strap on proton packs, and it looks like the lead actor has been found. McKenna Grace ain't 'fraid of no ghosts!

While technically a sequel to the comedy classic that starred Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson, there's no word on if any of those characters will return. Instead, four teenagers -- an older set and a younger set -- are taking over as our main characters, and it sounds like they will be led by Mckenna Grace.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mckenna Grace has been cast in the new Ghostbusters film. The report even goes as far as to say that Grace might be in the starring role, which would be a major get for the rising star. Grace joins the already cast Finn Wolfhard and Carrie Coon. Wolfhard will play her brother while Coon is their single mother.

Mckenna Grace should be a familiar face to many. She recently played the younger version of Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel, which went on to break numerous records at the box office. Playing younger versions of a main character has become something of a specialty for Grace, having also done it in The Haunting of Hillhouse, I, Tonya, and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. The young actor also starred alongside Chris Evans in the drama Gifted.

Jason Reitman's Ghostbusters has been the subject of some debate ever since it was announced. Some saw it as a response to the sexist backlash that plagued the all-female Ghostbusters reboot, and this wasn't helped by the director's poor choice of words that they were giving the franchise "back to fans."

However, the casting of Mckenna Grace as the ostensible lead and the focus of an all-new, younger cast seems to put those criticisms to bed. After all, you don't make the lead of your legacyquel a 12-year-old girl if you are trying to appease the "Ghost Bros" who trolled an all female Ghostbusters movie.

All in all, the new Ghostbusters is shaping up with a really promising cast. Mckenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard are rising stars and Carrie Coon is amazing in everything she's ever done her whole entire life. (I'm a big Leftovers fan). I'm curious to see who they will cast to play the other two teenagers or how involved the original cast will be. Until then, enjoy this tweet from Reitman celebrating his newly casted family.

There's no release date for this movie just yet, but be sure to keep checking in with CinemaBlend and we'll keep you updated.

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New Chucky Will Make A Major Change From The Original Child's Play Chucky

New Chucky Will Make A Major Change From The Original Child's Play Chucky

Sure, Game of Thrones coined the phrase, “What is dead may never die.” But that concept can also apply to just about every major horror franchise, as classic killers from Freddy to Jason appear to die, but always figure out how to return to create chaos. This is fine. Audiences WANT to spend more time with these terrifying threats. But it means that storytellers have to find fresh ways to bring the beloved horror threats back, and Child’s Play thinks it figured something out.

We are getting a new Child’s Play movie on June 21, from producers Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg. The new movie will serve as both a remake and a reboot of the classic Child’s Play franchise, which followed a doll named Chucky who was possessed by the spirit of deranged serial killer Charles Lee Ray. In the new movie, the team found a new way to revive Chucky, and detoured away from the serial-killer spirit inside of the doll.

It’s a major switch to the doll’s origin, and at a recent press event for the film, producer Grahame-Smith told CinemaBlend:

We sort of lean into more of the AI/Kaslan story and hint at a Chucky that is driven by something different than he is in the original series, when he's Charles Lee Ray and he's just a truly psychopathic killer in the body of a doll. [Also, there is] the mother/son story, the emotional component of the movie, which I feel like the movie really delivers. And then above all that, just the intensity, the gore, the fact that the movie is rated R, that it really does go there when it goes there. I think the movie looks big, is much bigger than a lot of movies that are our size - very affordable movie, we are. But we had big ambitions. Those are, I'd say, the primary things we're going for.

As the conversation continued – and also, as is made evident in the recent Child’s Play trailer that we are including below – the new Chucky is driven more by demonic Artificial Intelligence, and not by the spirit of a serial killer. This appears to give Chucky the ability to control more technology, as the new trailer appears to show him taking over drones, controlling power tools, and more.

Child’s Play producer Seth Grahame-Smith elaborated to CinemaBlend on the origin angle of Chucky in the new movie, explaining:

You're getting at the heart of, I think, what a lot of people are inherently skeeved out about AI. Does it have its own agency, or is it just a series of processes and commands and executions? The truthful answer is by the time the movie's over, I don't know. I think at the beginning of the movie, you'll see sort of briefly why this particular doll is the way that he is, and it's not every one of these dolls, right? So why is our Chucky special. And then it's going at that inherent need to make his child happy no matter what, right? To bond with him, to be with him. It starts out like you saw in the clip, very sweet. It's two characters in Chucky and in Andy that both in their own ways at that point in the movie been rejected. Andy is certainly in need of a friend, and finds one in Chucky. So that's the reason we showed you that clip, because we wanted to sort of lean into that this is a relationship that is genuine that goes off the rails in a big way. It's not just brooding, and it's not sinister from the jump. It gets there, for sure, but that I think just gets to the heart of what we're trying to do here, and why we felt like there was a why and a cultural relevance to doing a different version of this classic series.

As the conversation played out, CinemaBlend learned that Child’s Play isn’t just changing Chucky, at his core. It’s also making changes to the boy who befriends Chucky, thereby changing their relationship. Andy in this new movie is older than he was in the 1988 Child’s Play, which kind of means that he’s past the point of playing with dolls. Seth Grahame-Smith assures fans that the movie will address that immediately, and goes on to say:

He's not necessarily like super excited about this gift when he gets it. But once he realizes that this thing has his interest in his heart and mind, they grow on each other. We knew that one of the differences we wanted to do here was to ultimately put more pressure on kids having to do this than in the original movie where it's Karen and Detective Mike, primarily Detective Mike, hunting this [doll] down. And now Detective Mike is a big part of the movie. Brian Tyree [Henry] is amazing in the movie, and obviously Karen - Aubrey [Plaza] - is amazing in the movie. But that really helped us give Andy sort of a life away from mom that we could exploit for different things.

All in all, it’s sounding like the team behind the new Child’s Play went above and beyond to make their story stand apart from previous versions of the Chucky story, hoping to make improvements while also luring a fresh audience into this world. Remakes and reboots aren’t always guaranteed successes, but it sure is looking like the new Child’s Play has updated the look and feel of Chucky, as evidenced by this most recent trailer.

Child’s Play will hack and slash its way into a competitive summer blockbuster frame, arriving on June 21 where it will go toe-to-AI-toe with Toy Story 4 (a totally different story about toys with emotions), and the pending Annabelle Comes Home. The competition for the horror dollar will be intense, but because of the major changes introduced into this new Child’s Play take, we think it looks interesting enough to lure both fans of the original franchise, and newcomers looking for creative, never before seen thrills.

What do you think of the changes made to the new Child’s Play? Does it make you excited to see it? Weigh in down below in the comments section. Maybe you’ll make a new best friend while you are down there.

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Reese Witherspoon Actually Helped Write Cruel Intentions

Reese Witherspoon Actually Helped Write Cruel Intentions

Teen movies are a very unique genre, and can vary greatly in quality from movie to movie. While some are over the top comedies and rom-coms, others take on decidedly more adult content. Just take 1999's Cruel Intentions, which saw its young cast manipulating and seducing each other. That movie became an instant classic, with dialogue still quotable today, fantastic cast, and a killer soundtrack to boot.

The Cruel Intentions cast and crew are currently celebrating the whopping 20th anniversary of the beloved cult classic. As such, some new information is coming out about the teen drama, and the behind-the-scenes scoops that moviegoers haven't been privy to. Just take the role of Annette Hargrove, played masterfully by Reese Witherspoon. As it turns out, she helped to craft the character, and even re-write the dialogue. As director/writer Roger Kumble recently revealed:

It’s true, she came and sat with me for a week, and we worked on the dialogue together. Annette was the character most removed from me. There’s no way the movie would have its success if it weren’t for [Reese’s] talent as a writer.

Well, this is impressive. Reese Witherspoon may have only been 22 years old at the time of filming, but that didn't stop the young actress from contributing greatly to the Cruel Intentions. This includes adjusting Annette's dialogue to ensure both the audience and Witherspoon herself identified with the character.

Roger Kumble's comment to EW show what a talent Reese Witherspoon has always been, and seems to tease her eventual role as a producer. The Oscar winner knows storytelling, and her point of view has been brought to the forefront with the various project she's produced-- in addition to her work on camera. She was a producer on movies like Gone Girl and Hot Pursuit, although her influence is perhaps best seen through the highly successful HBO series Big Little Lies.

Playing the movie's ingenue isn't always easy. It's easy for an innocent and virtuous character to fade into the background, or be overshadowed by the bigger characters. Reese Witherspoon combatted this by working on the script, and giving Annette Hargrove her own agency in Cruel Intentions. Annette is sharp, funny, and empathetic. And she wasn't going to take any of Sebastian's typical crap.

Ultimately Annette changes arguably as much as Sebastian throughout the course of the movie. Her naivety is destroyed by Sebastian's sudden death, and she honors her late lover's memory by exposing Sarah Michelle Gellar's Kathryn for who she really was. Cue "Bittersweet Symphony" by the Verve. Also cue my tears as a teenager watching Cruel Intentions for the first time.

Cruel Intentions is celebrating its 20th anniversary. You can join the festivities yourself, and stream Cruel Intentions when it arrives on Netflix April 1st. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

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