Sean Gunn Was Surprised By Guardians Of The Galaxy's Massive Success

Sean Gunn Was Surprised By Guardians Of The Galaxy's Massive Success

It seems so silly in hindsight knowing what we know now, but prior to its release, the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie was seen as a big gamble on the part of Marvel Studios. These were quirky D-list characters with zero name recognition that were almost completely divorced from the heroes the studio had spent six years building up. How could they possibly succeed?

Of course, Marvel knew better and Guardians of the Galaxy went on to become a major hit, so much so that even those who believed in the project were blown away. Among them was writer-director James Gunn’s brother, Sean Gunn, who plays Kraglin and the on-set Rocket Raccoon in the films. Sean Gunn was surprised by just how massive the first movie's success was, as he explained:

I always felt pretty confident that we would have something on our hands, at least that people liked, but I never ever imagined that it would be the massive, massive hit that it was. I never thought that they would be able to sell so much; that it would be marketed so well; and that kids would identify so well to it; and that people would compare it to their favorite 80s movies.

As someone who was aware of what his brother was capable of and had read the script, Sean Gunn knew that the doubters were wrong. He saw the potential of Guardians of the Galaxy and how special it could be, and that audiences would like it. Yet even with the confidence of having been a part of the film, Sean Gunn still couldn’t have predicted that it would be a hit on the massive level that it was.

As Sean Gunn told ComicBook.com, Marvel marketed this seemingly risky movie well and Guardians of the Galaxy wound up striking a major chord with audiences. Moviegoers of all ages found something to love, from younger audiences falling in love with the characters to how it reminded older audiences of the films of the 1980s. This brilliant alchemy resulted in an unqualified smash hit.

That first Guardians of the Galaxy came out in August of 2014 and went on to make $773.3 million worldwide to become one of Marvel’s biggest movies, surpassing all but Iron Man 3 and The Avengers at the time. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was even bigger and earned $863.7 million worldwide.

These former D-listers are now a billion dollar property and household names. They even have their own ride at Disneyland and one coming to Walt Disney World. That level of massive success probably would have surprised even the most pie-in-the-sky optimist of Guardians of the Galaxy.

Guardians of the Galaxy succeeded on its own merits, but also because it no longer matters if characters are considered A-list. As Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Black Panther and Captain Marvel have proven, Marvel is the selling point that gets people in the door and then the characters do the rest.

The success looks to continue for the Guardian,  because Sean Gunn’s brother James is returning to direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. That film is still a few years away, but when it becomes another box office hit, no one will be surprised.

You don’t have to wait that long to see the Guardians though, because they, along with the rest of the MCU, are a part of this weekend’s Avengers: Endgame. Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to see what you can look forward to this summer movie season.

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Watch The Awesome Trailer For Universal’s New Jurassic World Ride

Watch The Awesome Trailer For Universal’s New Jurassic World Ride

Last year, the legendary theme park attraction Jurassic Park: The Ride sailed its final voyage through Isla Nublar and closed down for refurbishment at Universal Studios Hollywood. That refresh was in the name of an updated attraction that swam in the same waters, but in service of promoting the Jurassic World franchise.

Now we have our first hint at what the updated attraction will look like, with the trailer below. Dear readers, welcome, to Jurassic World: The Ride:

The trailer starts out simple enough, with a western being filmed on the Universal Studios backlot. But before things get too shooty, an astronaut runs into frame with a familiar one word warning: “Run!” As one would expect, the chase scatters a bunch of other costumed actors running through the Universal lot, which results in Roberta the Tyrannosaurus Rex breaking through the Universal Studios arch.

It’s at this point that Jurassic World: The Ride finally shows itself through our first look at what exactly will be part of this new theme park attraction; and it’s here where we see something rather interesting. Pictured in the video is a boat that looks like one of the boats last seen in the Jurassic Park: The Ride attraction, only this time it’s stopped in the middle of the attraction.

Conveniently enough, the boat is stopped in front of a Mosasaurus tank, just in time for the beastie to charge towards the glass and make a hole. Water squirts out, the audience looks frightened and the boat moves on to bigger, scarier thrills, like the previously confirmed showdown between the famed T-Rex and “new behemoth dinosaurs.”

While Jurassic World: The Ride sounded pretty intense when described in the vaguest of terms, this new ride’s promise of more realistic terror is even more promising. The footage of how the ride’s supposed to work only makes for more excitement, as it looks like a digital screen approach similar to the Fast & Furious: Supercharged or Skull Island: Reign of Kong attractions, which be used to show some of the creatures at hand.

Though we wouldn’t count out any thrills and spills using original, or brand new, animatronics in Jurassic World: The Ride, as even those updated attractions still retain an actual physical element to their thrills. Of course, this is all speculation at this moment, but for now, taking a look into the world of this future adventure 65 million years in the making has us longing for our first chance to take that ride for ourselves.

Jurassic World: The Ride does not have an official opening date past the originally specified timeframe of this summer. However, Universal Studios Hollywood recommends checking back on their official website for any future updates.

And if you still want to ride Jurassic Park: The Ride, it’s still in operation at Universal Studios Japan, as well as Universal’s Islands of Adventure in Orlando for the time being. Which has us wondering if any revamps to the latter park’s attraction could involve Roberta squaring off against Fluffy from the Harry Potter series. Just a suggestion, Universal.

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Zac Efron Had Trouble Separating Himself From Ted Bundy In Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile

Zac Efron Had Trouble Separating Himself From Ted Bundy In Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile

Zac Efron will always be known for breaking into song as teen heartthrob Troy Bolton in the High School Musical movies, Link Larkin in Hairspray, or alongside Hugh Jackman and Zendaya in The Greatest Showman, among his other acting projects. Getting the catchy showtunes of his past out of his head was nothing compared to playing his darkest role yet, serial killer Ted Bundy.

During the recent London premiere of Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile, the actor opened up about how portraying Bundy became a challenge due to its sinister subject. In his words:

I’ve never played a role in which I really have to separate myself from [him] when I go home at night, and it was almost impossible. I’d like to say that I did it successfully, but I couldn’t.

It’s no surprise that getting into the frame of mind to play a serial killer would mess with one’s head a bit, and Zac Efron experienced this firsthand while working on his upcoming Netflix project. The drama chronicles the crimes of the infamously attractive Bundy, who later confessed to 30 homicides he committed across the United States in the ‘70s.

In Zac Efron’s interview with Daily Mail at the premiere, he talked about his initial concern with taking on the dark role and why he ultimately decided to sign on to play Ted Bundy:

I really wasn’t interested in playing a serial killer, I’m not in the business of glamorizing a horrendous person or his acts, but there is something unique about the way we went into the psyche of Ted, and his longtime girlfriend Liz. It’s a different perspective and not your run-of-the-mill serial killer cliché -- body count gets higher and higher and oh the guy you always knew did it, did it.

Looks like Zac Efron was intrigued by the Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile script and how it tells the story from the perspective of Ted Bundy’s girlfriend Liz (played by Lily Collins). The film has been criticized for glamorizing the criminal with the casting of the former Disney teen idol, but the actor has previously explained the responsibility he feels to not celebrate the killer through the role. It’s instead meant to serve as a cautionary tale to the young generation who often mistakenly trust attractive men.

The film’s director Joe Berlinger (who also recently helmed Netflix’s Conversations with a Killer: Ted Bundy Tapes) said he felt casting Zac Efron was an intentional choice geared toward the demographic crushing on actors such as Efron who may feel like he could do no wrong due to his good looks. Ted Bundy manipulated and lured women with his charm, so the film seeks to show this firsthand with Efron’s performance.

After premiering earlier this year at Sundance, the R-rated drama was purchased by Netflix for $9 million. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile will hit theaters and the streaming platform on May 3.

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Watch Chris Evans And The Avengers Cast Turn Infinity War Into A Cute Children’s Story

Watch Chris Evans And The Avengers Cast Turn Infinity War Into A Cute Children’s Story

Avengers: Infinity War may have been a movie full of comic book superheroes that kids love, but that doesn't mean it was a film suitable for all ages. Jimmy Kimmel apparently felt that small children needed a version of the story they could handle, and so a Jimmy Kimmel Live children's storybook has been created, and the Avengers themselves took time to read it to your little ones last night. Check it out in the video below.

The story of Avengers: Infinity War and the extermination of half the universe certainly sounds less terrible when it's spoken of in rhyming verse and accompanied by colorful pictures. Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth, and Don Cheadle are all on hand to tell parts of the story. It still ends the same way, which is probably going to make some children sad, but it leaves hope at the end teasing that Avengers: Endgame is coming to finish the story very soon.

There are some truly hilarious parts of the video. Everybody giving Thor a hard time for not going for Thanos' head is great, and something that Chris Hemsworth has certainly heard before. Hemsworth, for his part, has a pretty decent rebuttal, that at least Thor actually did some damage to Thanos and came close to succeeding, which none of the rest of the team really did.

Of course, Hemsworth himself has plenty of blame to throw around. He calls out Star-Lord for ruining the plan to get the Infinity Gauntlet off Thanos' arm, which we've certainly also heard before.

The highlight of storytime, however, may be when every reader stops reading and calls out whoever wrote the verse of the book for trying to rhyme Groot with soot. Needless to say, it doesn't scan. Most of the team ends up mispronouncing soot to rhyme with Groot, but nobody is happy about it. There were plenty of other characters whose names could have been used if you can't find a suitable rhyme for Groot.

Jimmy Kimmel is certainly right in his introduction to the piece that it's no fun to see Spider-Man die. The end of Avengers: Infinity War, while being somewhat predictable for fans who were familiar with the source material, was no less shocking, even to them. The fact that a major Marvel Cinematic Universe movie ended with half of our favorite heroes turning to dust was still the sort of moment that blew people away.

What comes next, we're all still only guessing about. While we fully expect our heroes to win in the end, exactly how that will happen, or who will still be standing when it does, is fueling endless speculation. There's certainly no guarantee that if Avengers: Endgame becomes its own children's' book, that it will have any happier an ending.

We'll find out when Avengers: Endgame hits theaters April 26.

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Will Detective Pikachu Be Able To Best Avengers: Endgame At The Box Office?

Will Detective Pikachu Be Able To Best Avengers: Endgame At The Box Office?

The last couple of weeks at the box office have been all about Avengers: Endgame, as other studios gave the Disney juggernaut, which has now passed Titanic to become the second-biggest movie of all time, a wide berth both before and after its release. But now other contenders are coming for Thanos’ throne atop the box office, starting this weekend with a tiny, electric-type Pokémon that happens to sound a lot like Deadpool. So will Detective Pikachu be able to best Avengers: Endgame at the box office?

The short answer is probably not, but Detective Pikachu isn’t going to crash and burn like so many of its video game movie forbears either. According to Deadline, the Pokémon franchise’s first foray into live-action on the big screen is looking at a domestic opening weekend in the $50 million to $55 million range from over 4,200 theaters.

That should be good enough for second to Avengers: Endgame as the MCU’s history-making film continues its quest to topple Avatar. Endgame is tracking at making $75-$85 million in its third weekend in release, which will be enough to hold on to the top spot at the box office and withstand Pikachu’s thunder if the tracking proves accurate.

There’s no shame in taking second place to Avengers: Endgame. Pokémon is a global property and domestic audiences won’t be the only ones trying to catch ‘em all at the theater this weekend. Detective Pikachu is projected to make $90-$120 million overseas this weekend for a worldwide opening weekend of upwards of $160 million.

Of that overseas haul, $40-$60 million is expected to come from China, where Legendary Pictures’ parent company Wanda Group is based. That gives it a leg up and the film is receiving positive buzz, but it may not get an abundance of favorable showtimes from theaters due to it being treated like an animated movie.

The continued presence of Avengers: Endgame, which has naturally slowed but is still huge, makes it difficult to know just how well Detective Pikachu will do, but it does have some things going for it that could help it over-perform. In addition to the star power of Ryan Reynolds, Detective Pikachu is enjoying decent, but not glowing, reviews and currently sits at 68% on Rotten Tomatoes.

That’s better than most video game movies and Detective Pikachu also has the benefit of a large and resurgent fanbase thanks to the popularity of the Pokémon Go mobile game. These factors have some thinking that this movie could be a surprise at the box office.

Back in March, the long-range tracking on this $150 million film had it landing in the $75-$90 million range. So a $50-$55 million domestic opening weekend would be considerably less than that, but personally I feel like Detective Pikachu is being underestimated and could land closer to those earlier predictions, making it another example of the difficulty of box office prognosticating.

It may not make enough to topple Endgame; that may be a job for John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum or Aladdin. But either way Detective Pikachu is looking at a solid start to a likely franchise.

Detective Pikachu opens in theaters this weekend. Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to keep track of all the big movies headed your way this summer.

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Why Dark Phoenix Reshot Its Original Ending, According To Simon Kinberg

Why Dark Phoenix Reshot Its Original Ending, According To Simon Kinberg

The following story will not contain spoilers for Dark Phoenix**. However, we will discuss the story a bit, so on the off chance you want to go into next week’s release knowing absolutely nothing, stop reading right now.**

Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) seems destined to interact with the Phoenix force. It happens in comics, in one of Marvel’s most popular comic storylines. It happened in the initial run of X-Men movies, captured in The Last Stand. And now that the timeline has been reset via X-Men: Days of Futures Past, it’s about to happen to the version of Jean that we met in X-Men: Apocalypse.

Longtime X-Men writer and producer Simon Kinberg steps into the director’s chair for Dark Phoenix, which opens everywhere on June 7. And in a recent chat with EW, he dropped a terrific tease of an alternate ending to his debut film that he ended up reshooting, mentioning only that it took place in outer space. (This isn’t so far-fetched, as trailers have shown us that the X-Men are on a space mission when Jean interacts with the Phoenix in this film.)

As a rabid fan of the X-Men characters, I was curious about this original ending, though when I asked Kinberg about it during a recent press event in London for Dark Phoenix, he candidly told me why he thought the space finale had to be changed. He told CinemaBlend:

That was a version that was when it was sort of the less-grounded version of the movie. … It wasn’t a version of the movie where the X-Men and the family are -- we weren’t as focused on them coming together at the end of the movie. It was really more entirely Jean, and what it lacked was this sort of emotional closure. Thinking of this movie as the sort of culmination of all of the X-Men movies, where these strangers have become this sort of surrogate family, and then in this movie they get challenged like they’ve never been challenged before, it felt like at the end of the movie, it would be much more satisfying for the audience to both see Jean have extraordinary power… but also see the X-Men come back together as a family and perform. I sort of wanted to do both.

How they come together, we will leave it for you to learn by checking out Dark Phoenix. But it can be shared that one of the most exciting elements of the new film is the fact that we see the X-Men working together as a team for one of the few times in franchise history (for real, this group is usually so fractured and ostracized), so it makes sense why Simon Kinberg made the decisions that he made.

In Dark Phoenix, the X-Men must figure out a way to contain one of their own after Jean (Sophie Turner) encounters an alien force that greatly amplifies her natural mutation.

The movie co-stars X-Men alums James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult, while giving more screen time to Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Evan Peters and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Dark Phoenix is being viewed as the culmination of this X-Men saga, so see where the story goes on June 7.

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To 3D Or Not To 3D: Buy The Right Avengers: Endgame Ticket

To 3D Or Not To 3D: Buy The Right Avengers: Endgame Ticket

Avengers: Endgame hit theaters last weekend, and by now a lot of us have caught it at least once. If you are thinking about a second viewing, there are options to trade up from a regular screen and try IMAX, 3D screenings, DLX screenings and more. While I can't give you all of the nitty gritty details about every single one of the viewing options out there, I can capably answer whether or not it's better to 3D or not to 3D.

Please note this isn't a traditional review for Avengers: Endgame. If you are looking around for our review, you can head over to our detailed, yet spoiler-free review. This column is all about watching in 3D and the mileage you'll get compared to a regular screening of Marvel's biggest event movie so far.

So, if you haven't already, throw on some comfy clothes, grab some popcorn and make sure you have your 3D glasses handy as we figure out together whether or not it's worth shelling out some extra moolah for a 3D ticket. You'll be helping the movie hit $2 billion at this point, after all.

Avengers: Endgame is exactly the type of movie you'd expect to get a 3D conversion. It's an action movie with lots of eye-popping digital effects and it had a giant budget to play with, so there are no concerns about skimping on the 3D here. If you are a fan of 3D, this is likely exactly the type of movie you would see in 3D, other than something specifically shot for 3D, like Avatar or the upcoming Gemini Man. Barring those, this is a high tier candidate for seeing a movie in 3D. That said, while the 3D conversion is pretty admirable, there are scenes in this movie that don't really beg for 3D effects, so I'm dropping this to a 4--still a strong score.

In terms of planning and effort, obviously, as noted prior, Avengers: Endgame was conceived as an action movie and not a 3D feast for the eyes first. Despite that, care was absolutely taken with the 3D; if anything it just means that certain scenes didn't lend themselves as much as other scenes to a 3D narrative. A scene with Hawkeye chasing bad guys (really too vague to be a spoiler) who break through glass windows may stand out in 3D while a few seconds later a showdown with the same character has much less noticeable 3D value. This seems like it has more to do with a lack of planning specifically for 3D than a lack of effort. So, I'd say very good here, but not great.

Again, while I could argue not every scene in Avengers: Endgame has great "Before the Window" value, aka, the ability for objects to come off the screen, the stuff that works really works. In particular, anytime there's a heavily reliant CGI scene -- like the space scene teased in the trailer -- the 3D also pops. In particular, there's also a scene where Tony Stark is working in his home and the camera is at an angle from above on a stairwell. There's a pole that jumps out onscreen that gives real spacial dimension. Small details like that stand out without ever feeling goofy.

Real backgrounds don't lend themselves to 3D depth as much as animated or CGI backgrounds do. While there are a few scenes that work particularly well in the "Beyond the Window" category, I wouldn't say this is anywhere close to Avengers: Endgame's 3D strength. Backgrounds are not consistently blurry or anything, but Endgame is often a stark and not a lush movie; it's just not really exciting to make 3D walls or cars parked on the street in the background stand out.

Brightness score is a tough one, because certain scenes in Avengers: Endgame are notably dark. However, despite this, I never felt as if my 3D experience was too dark due to the format or the 3D glasses. Plus, a lot of scenes in Endgame both lend themselves to 3D and are really bright in 3D. So, I’m going to give this category a 5, but know that the movie is not the same consistent level of brightness throughout and please factor that in.

While we don't want blur while watching a 3D movie with glasses on, consistent blur when taking the glasses off, you know to wipe the tears off your face during particularly sentimental scenes or whatever, is a good thing. I periodically took my glasses off during Avengers: Endgame, not to cry (OK maybe to cry), and I found the blur factor to be consistent and to be prevalent over most of the screen, giving the movie a satisfying level of depth and consideration. Do not try watching this movie with your glasses off.

Having seen Avengers: Endgame once before, this was actually the category I was most dreading. There's a lot of action in this film, and scenes with a lot of movement typically have the most trouble in this category as action in 3D can often make people queasy. Avengers: Endgame is unlike some of the earlier Marvel movies in this respect, as its action, even during scenes with a lot of characters moving at once, is very smooth and engaging in 3D. There is one scene early on in the movie that did feel too jiggly for a hot second, but it was during a quick moment of action and it was the only time I noticed this being an issue during the whole film. If we gave half scores in this column, I might bump it to a 4.5 because of that, but that's not enough of an issue for me to grade a 4 in this category, so 5 baby!

While not perfect, I really did enjoy Avengers: Endgame in 3D and would see it again in 3D if someone wanted to go with me to another viewing. I should note I also saw the film on a Superscreen DLX (similar to IMAX but a little smaller), which meant I had a bigger screen than some 3D moviegoers, and your experience could vary a little because of that.

Ultimately though, if you like 3D, there really should be nothing stopping you from seeing this in 3D, particularly given the myriad screenings as well as the quality of the 3D conversion. While I wouldn't say you 100% absolutely must see this movie in 3D, I wouldn't shy away from recommending it, either. I will say, no matter what option you choose, see it on the biggest screen possible. It's the endgame, after all.

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