Shazam’s Mark Strong Almost Starred In An X-Men Movie

Shazam’s Mark Strong Almost Starred In An X-Men Movie

Mark Strong’s latest role as the villain Dr. Sivana in Shazam! isn’t anywhere close to his first rodeo in comic book movie adaptations. He’s been Frank D’Amico in Kick-Ass, Sinestro in Green Lantern, Merlin in Kingsman and he almost played a villainous mutant in an X-Men film. Here’s what Strong said of his role that never was:

Matthew Vaughn did ask me to do X-Men: First Class. There was a bad guy in X-Men that Kevin Bacon played. Because I speak German it just seemed so logical having worked with him that I would play that part, but I think at that point we both felt… I think I had just done Blackwood in Sherlock Holmes and it had been just too many bad guys very recently. So that one we didn’t go down the path of that.

How interesting is that. According to Mark Strong’s recent words to ComingSoon.net, he was in the running to play Sebastian Shaw in 2011’s X-Men: First Class. The character turned out to have an important role in the origin story of Magneto, as a Nazi in the concentration camp who guided Erik to manifesting his powers out of his rage and murdered his mother in front of him. He eventually showed up as the main villain the X-Men must take on when Erik is an adult. Kevin Bacon won the role and did an effective job as Shaw, but looks like Strong was originally an option the filmmakers seriously considered.

Because Mark Strong was a past collaborator to First Class director Matthew Vaughn for both Kick Ass and Stardust, he immediately thought of the actor to take on the role of Shaw – especially considering Strong could already speak German. But since the actor had done quite a few high profile bad guy roles recently, he decided against it. He would however take on the role of Sinestro during the same year of X-Men: First Class was released, though the famous DC didn’t quite get to live out his full potential in the famous superhero bomb.

Mark Strong now gets to be the DC villain he was meant to be as Dr. Sivana in Shazam! which critics have raved about ahead of its upcoming weekend release. The villain will go head-to-head with 14-year-old Billy Batson’s adult superhero alter ego Shazam, who is discovering his fantastic powers with his fellow foster kid friend Freddy in a hilarious and entertaining new superhero origin story.

Mark Strong recently expressed what attracted him to return to another comic book adaptation to CinemaBlend, by explaining he loves the crowd-pleasing humor of the hero and the dark, weird and creepy story of his newest bad guy character. You can check out Strong as Sivana in Shazam!, in theaters on April 5.

The First 17 Minutes Of Toy Story 4 Finally Reveal Why Bo Peep Disappeared

The First 17 Minutes Of Toy Story 4 Finally Reveal Why Bo Peep Disappeared

Spoilers, obviously from CinemaCon 2019 where Disney played the first 17 minutes of the upcoming animated sequel.

I saw the first 17 minutes of Toy Story 4 and at first it felt like time had stopped, looped and rewound to a simpler time when Woody and Buzz were Andy’s toys. In fact, the movie kicks off with a flashback that hits on a lot of nostalgic notes, but also finally reveals a major secret: What happened to Bo Peep and why wasn’t she in Toy Story 3?

Early on, we flashback to Andy’s childhood home, where his sister Molly is getting rid of some of her early toys, including Bo Peep. Woody is making a daring rescue of another toy when Bo Peep is boxed up with her sheep, but he makes it to the car in time to say goodbye. He tries to save her from the box, but she gently reminds him that she’s been made to be played with. Perhaps it’s her time to go.

The clincher, however, is that she asks Woody to go with her, reminding him that toys “get lost” or “left outside.” But he can’t go. He still has Andy to think about. They part ways.

It’s not exactly a tearjerker moment, but wow does the opener hit all the feels.

But we’re off to the races afterward. The movie then cuts to the present day featuring the characters who have all mingled together since Toy Story 3. It’s Bonnie’s orientation day at Kindergarten, but she’s really sad to leave her favorite toys behind. (She’s less sad about Woody, who recently seems to have fallen out of favor.) The rest is the start of an adventure, an adventure that also features new character Forky’s origin story and more.

In the trailer, we’ve seen Woody and Forky get separated from the group thanks to Forky’s penchant for wanting to be trash and not a toy. Woody ends up reuniting with Bo Peep in the first trailer at a shop near a park of some sort, complete with a Ferris Wheel and lots to do! Bo Peep, for her part, has moved on from wanting to please children and Woody seems enamored by this new place and way of thinking.

From Pixar's point of view, we don’t know exactly why Bo Peep was written out of Toy Story 3 or why she only popped up briefly in Toy Story 2. She just wasn’t really a major component in the Toy Story narrative for the last couple of movies, but this first look capably presents a good reason behind why Bo Peep disappeared and the trailer reintroduces her as a stronger and wiser character.

But now she’s back in a big way in Toy Story 4.

Of course, while it’s nice to know why Bo Peep and Woody were separated and when exactly in the timeline it happened, the really notable moment may simply be seeing Woody back in Andy’s world.

I’m not always fond of flashbacks, but in this case, it seems to have worked. Seeing Andy again – even though I knew it was going to happen – capably tied the movie to its roots. Andy’s been a part of every movie and he’s woven into Woody’s fibers of being, even if Woody now has Bonnie written on his shoe.

Ultimately, we know Toy Story 4 is going to get emotional. The other movies in the franchise leave me blubbering every. single. time. Plus Tom Hanks has already said he had an emotional last day filming this sucker, and even didn’t want to face the creative team as he finished up his recording.

The way you record Toy Story, you're in a room with the team that has created it. When I went in for my last day of recording, I wanted to have my back to them, because usually you're facing him so you can look right up and you can talk about it. But I didn't want to see them and I wanted to pretend they couldn't see me. When I realized what they were going for, I realized, 'Oh, this is a moment in history.'

Toy Story 4 opens on June 21, 2019. Stay tuned for more coverage from CinemaCon 2019 and be sure to keep an eye on what we know about the upcoming animated Pixar flick.

Gemini Man's Big Challenge Revolved Around Will Smith's Performance, According To Ang Lee

Gemini Man's Big Challenge Revolved Around Will Smith's Performance, According To Ang Lee

Ang Lee’s next project has quietly been coming together over at Paramount for over a year. At CinemaCon, the director revealed he is “in the home stretch” for Gemini Man, a high concept new thriller that will hit theaters later in 2019 starring Will Smith.

The general premise of the movie is that Will Smith plays Henry, an aging assassin who at one point gets cloned. Now, his 23-year-old clone is out to get him. Sounds fun, and the first footage looks fun, but Ang Lee says there was one problem with trying to film Will Smith as a much younger actor—he’s gotten much better at acting over the years.

Per the director,

Working with him over a year I found that the present-day Will Smith is such a surprisingly fine actor. He brought the character Harry to such a sophistication, melancholy, courage and sophistication I would say. I found his performance, I would say, is just exquisite. Now the really hard part was as I mentioned the junior, the 23-year-old.

Will Smith’s caliber of acting has changed over time and Ang Lee also revealed that it was an unbelievable challenge to get the actor to play both roles, one with experience and sophistication and one with youth and courage. He also noted:

We have a very high class problem, which is Will Smith is a lot better actor today than what he used to be. I’m not joking. That’s a real problem for me because of how many layers, how daring an actor has to be, how willing he is to be so we can get down to the essence: peel the layers of his personality, his experience and his performance experience.

Back in the days when Will Smith was a catchphrase machine and one of the most energetic presences in Hollywood, he maybe hadn’t fully honed his craft year. Now 50, the actor has honed his skills in the acting arena considerably. Most of the time this was great on the set of Gemini Man, but it also presented challenges given the dual nature of the nature, which had Smith acting as a man of his age but also a much younger clone.

It should be noted Will Smith’s own challenge related to Gemini Man seemed to have more to do with bugs than playing a kid in his twenties.

However, when the actor had to tap into the raw nature of playing a 23-year-old clone, things got tricky. At CinemaCon 2019, Ang Lee also reflected that getting Will Smith to the point where he could capably play a character with decades of less experience was “heartbreaking,” saying,

Get down to the essence of the innocence of him [at 23] and performing from there, I found that the result is just heartbreaking. It’s something I’ve never experienced before. I’ve had him for like a year; I’m up to here with Will Smith. So much Will Smith in my life. I think I know this man’s essence as a friend as a person as a really fine, good actor.

But Gemini Man is not just about Will Smith’s acting performance. Having seen first look footage from the movie, the de-aging CGI technology used to create two versions of Will Smith looks pretty fantastic.

Ang Lee is also notably using the 120 frame per second technology for Gemini Man. It’s a premise he attempted once before in 2016 with Billy Lynne’s Long Halftime Walk, the director’s follow-up to Life of Pi. Average films are shot in 24 frames per second.

Although Billy Lynne didn’t really resonate with audiences or some critics – many of whom did not enjoy the visuals -- Ang Lee is giving the high frame rate another go with the 3D Gemini Man. The studio, Paramount,

Ultimately Ang Lee said he was lucky to be able to sign on a busy actor like Will Smith for the role – he said “very, very lucky” actually – and audiences will get to see whether or not the 120 frame per second rate is the wave of the future when the movie hits theaters on October 11, 2019.

Check out the flick’s competition with our full movies schedule.

Dark Phoenix Was Always Going To Be The End Of The X-Men Franchise

Dark Phoenix Was Always Going To Be The End Of The X-Men Franchise

Superhero movies are everywhere, as it has become the most profitable genre in the filmmaking world. As such, plenty of studios have gotten in on the action, and attempted to create their own cinematic universe. But years before Marvel Studios changed the filmmaking world with Iron Man, Marvel's heroes had hit theaters with the X-Men franchise.

The X-Men movies began with Bryan Singer's original blockbuster back in 2000, and was a big risk for Fox in regards to budget and fan interest. But the property is still going strong today, extending to both spinoffs and main installments. Dark Phoenix will arrive in June, and is expected to be the final installment in the franchise, as Fox and Disney's merger has been finalized. But it turns out the upcoming release was always meant to end the long running narrative. As director Simon Kinberg recently revealed:

From the beginning of conceiving what we were going to do with this film and writing it, which was three plus years ago, so long before there was a Disney merger, I felt like this was the natural culmination for this cycle of X-Men movies. Because it is seeing this family that you've come to love and know for how ever many films, and if you count the originals almost 20 years now, you see that family tested in a whole new way. You see that family start to fall apart in a real way for the first time, ultimately come back together.

Well, that's a relief. While some cinephiles have been scared for Dark Phoenix to be the finale of the X-Men franchise as we know it, looks like that was always the plan. As such, the conclusion will hopefully end up satisfy the generations of X-fans out there.

Simon Kinberg's comments to Comic Book should be a relief to lovers of Marvel's mutant group. Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox has put much of the developing X-Men projects in jeopardy. Just look at The New Mutants, which may not even make it to theaters, and whose reshoots haven't occured yet. So when it comes to Dark Phoenix being the big finale, moviegoers assumed the ending would fail to wrap up the narrative. But if Kinberg's directorial debut was always meant to be the finale, then perhaps the movie can deliver in the end.

Ignoring the merger with Disney, it does seem like a good time to finally wrap up the X-Men franchise. The property has been going for nearly two decades, and has a long and convoluted canon. There's been two generations of cast members, and their timelines should be pretty close to colliding. So it's best to end franchise, especially as the current cast departs their roles.

Dark Phoenix will arrive in theaters on June 7th. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

How To Train Your Dragon’s Director Felt Like A Failure While Writing Each Movie

How To Train Your Dragon’s Director Felt Like A Failure While Writing Each Movie

The How to Train Your Dragon movies have been one of the more successful film franchises of any kind in recent years. All three films have been overwhelmingly popular with fans and have done quite well at the box office. While the creators of the series make it look easy, franchise director Dean DeBlois says it's anything but, as when he closes himself off to work on the story of each film, it feels like it's all going to fall apart. According to DeBlois...

But there is always a moment where we isolate ourselves from everyone else, and it’s just the two of us, in the case of the first film, or alone on the second and third, where I just work with an outline and kind of hammer that out in the most classic way possible. Just with pads of paper and lots of crumpled sheets in the trash. We’re trying to work out the structure of the story. Then we take that outline and transcribe it into script pages, fleshing it out and really developing character and plot that way. It’s a lonely and difficult process for me, because it’s full of self loathing and procrastination, and just feeling like a failure.

Considering what a success every movie has been, it's hard to imagine somebody feeling like a failure, but that's what Dean DeBlois tells Cartoon Brew. At the same time, each story is created from scratch, and there's no guarantee that just because you made one good movie, the next one will be any good. While you're writing it you can't be completely sure that your ideas will work, and the more success you have, the more you second guess yourself.

As both the writer and director of the How to Train Your Dragon series, there's nobody else to help you or to even tell you that you're on the right track. Dean DeBlois worked with collaborators on the first movie, but the second and third were all him.

Luckily, whatever magic that struck on the first movie hung around on the two sequels. All three films were massive hits and the newest one, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is being praised for the way it brings the series to a close. Ending a franchise has to be tough, it has to be done in a way that those who have been following from the beginning feel like it's all been worthwhile. Lots of stories that start out great have difficulty sticking the landing. Not this one.

Of course, now that Dean Deblois has ended the story, he has to find a new story to tell, which likely means the process will start all over again. Of course, we know that the How to Train Your Dragon movies were no fluke, so we can be confident that wherever he goes, a good story is likely to follow.

All The Franchises Idris Elba Is In, (Plus 5 More We'd Love To See)

All The Franchises Idris Elba Is In, (Plus 5 More We'd Love To See)

With a fresh Coachella set, a Netflix original series and a slew of films on the way, it's a good time to be Idris Elba. The actor is doing a lot these days, so much so that it may be hard to keep track of every franchise he has a hand in at the moment. For that reason, we've compiled a list that highlights what all he has a hand in, and some of the things we'd like to see from him in the future.

Franchises Idris Elba IS In

Let's start off with all the major franchises he's already appeared in or officially has lined up for the future, like this first entry.

The DCEU

Idris Elba has joined the DCEU via James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, and was originally slated to replace Will Smith and play Deadshot. That plan has since changed, and Elba will be playing a different character, although we can only guess who. Hopefully whoever is picked has some crossover potential into other projects, and maybe the ability to get Elba his own spinoff movie.

The MCU

Idris Elba entered The MCU via Thor in the role of Heimdall. After heroically sacrificing his life in Avengers: Infinity War, one would assume his time in the franchise is over, but who can ever know when it comes to superhero features. With that said, Elba's had his complaints about the role as far back as Thor: The Dark World, so don't be surprised if his death tends to stick in the events following Avengers: Endgame.

Pacific Rim

In the role of Stacker Pentacost, Idris Elba delivered one hell of a speech that solidified Pacific Rim's status as a cult classic. Unfortunately, his death meant no future appearances in a sequel, but there are opportunities for Stacker to return should the Pacific Rim franchise venture into the prequel territory. That's a possibility given the amount of source material on the events before Pacific Rim, so fingers crossed Elba's feeling the urge to kick some kaiju ass again.

Disney/Pixar

While it's not necessarily as specific of a franchise as other entries, Idris Elba has done a decent amount of work for Disney and Pixar. Outside of his MCU work, he's exclusively played an animal in The Jungle Book, Finding Dory and Zootopia. That's a crazy coincidence, although maybe not given how many Disney films tend to revolve around animals in general. We're always down to see him in more projects. Perhaps next time in a live-action feature?

Star Trek

For Star Trek Beyond, the third adventure featuring the Kelvin timeline version of the original USS Enterprise crew, Idris Elba hopped in as Krall, an alien warlord who sicced his minions on Captain Kirk’s crew, destroyed their ship and stranded them on his planet. Later revealed to be a Starfleet captain from more than a century ago, Krall nearly succeeded in carrying out his revenge against the organization, but he was defeated and killed before that could happen. So one can logically surmise Elba won’t be popping back up in this franchise.

Fast & Furious

Soon, the world will get to see Idris Elba in the world of Fast & Furious, although probably not in a way some would've thought. Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw features Elba as a villain who has been genetically enhanced and basically has super powers. Somehow we've reached a point where this franchise isn't about fast cars, although there's few people complaining. After seeing Elba in action, it isn't hard to see why.

Alien

This is one of the only roles in which Idris Elba played a character that shared his first name, as the actor portrayed Idris Janek in Prometheus. It was a one and done role, and surprisingly, ended in the way similar to Pacific Rim. Given his character's death and the Alien franchise's massive aversion to Prometheus, it's pretty safe to say that we shouldn't expect any more appearances from Elba in this franchise.

Honorable Mention: Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance

The Ghost Rider movies aren't considered part of the MCU, but we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the other Marvel character he played before the MCU really got legs. Idris Elba played Moreau, who offered to remove the "Spirit of Vengeance" curse from Johnny Blaze. He ended up being unable to fulfill the promise, and ended up dying at the hands of Blackout.

Franchises We'd Love To See Idris Elba In

That concludes the current franchises Idris Elba is/has been involved in, although we're sure he'll be a part of some in the future. With that in mind, here are a handful of film franchises the actor has yet to join that it'd be great to see him in.

James Bond

Was there any doubt this would be on the list? Folks have called for Idris Elba to be cast as James Bond for ages, and his name floated around quite a bit following Daniel Craig's confirmation that he was leaving as Bond. Unfortunately, Elba has been pretty adamant that he won't be replacing him, but there's still hope he could join one day as another character. He'd make a killer Bond villain!

Star Wars

Idris Elba is a bit late to the game to be a part of the Skywalker saga, but there's still a chance he could appear in a Star Wars film in the future. Personally, I think he'd be a great fit for the Game of Thrones showrunners' trilogy, which is rumored to involve The Old Republic. Imagine Elba playing an ancient Jedi, Sith or bounty hunter in an era before the Empire!

Fantastic Beasts

The Harry Potter spinoff series is still rolling strong despite less than favorable reviews of the last film, and why shouldn't it? It'll take more than one bad movie to turn fans off to this franchise, and bringing in someone like Idris Elba could make some forget all about how The Crimes of Grindelwald was a bit of a letdown outside of that one twist. He'd make a great villain or Auror.

Austin Powers

Idris Elba's comedic prowess is a highly underrated aspect of his acting, and one that could really shine in the Austin Powers franchise. With Mike Myers interested in getting a fourth movie made, Elba could appear in a comedic role for some spy-filled adventure. This may be the closest we'll ever get to seeing him play James Bond, so producers should try to get him involved if Austin Powers 4 actually has a shot at happening.

Pirates Of The Caribbean

As Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean reboot continues development, they're going to need a few big names to convince audiences to jump back into this franchise so soon after the the original run. Idris Elba is a name that can put butts in seats, and considering he's already ingratiated within the Disney family, getting in touch with him shouldn't be too hard to do.

Those with other wishes for franchises they'd like to see Idris Elba join can share their thoughts in the comments below. Stick with CinemaBlend for updates on the actor, his films and other goings on in the entertainment world.

Bad News, Marvel Confirmed Shuri’s Death In Avengers: Infinity War

Bad News, Marvel Confirmed Shuri’s Death In Avengers: Infinity War

For months, the fate of Letitia Wright's Shuri in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a mystery. Despite having a prominent role in Avengers: Infinity War, the blockbuster never showed audiences what happened to the character after Thanos snapped his fingers with the completed Infinity Gauntlet, so we were all left in the dark regarding how she fared during The Decimation.

Admittedly the first trailer for Avengers: Endgame released in December 2018 did provide us with a solid lead - showing her on a monitor as being among the world's dead heroes - but now it looks like we have official confirmation courtesy of the new movie's character posters: Shuri got dusted.

Earlier today Marvel Studios released a grand total of 32 new one-sheets for Avengers: Endgame, and during the rollout it wasn't hard to discover a pattern: all of the living characters are featured in color, and all of the dead ones are in black-and-white. There were a few exciting surprises mixed in, such as revelations regarding Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie, Benedict Wong's Wong, and Jon Favreau's Happy Hogan (all revealed to be alive), but the artwork also seems to confirm that Shuri was one of Thanos' many, many victims.

This isn't really a surprise for those who took the information provided in the first Avengers: Endgame trailer at face value, but it's understandable why some people questioned the preview's credulity. After all, Shuri's face was featured right next to a picture of Paul Rudd's Scott Lang on the aforementioned monitor, and the very end of that footage showed Scott very much alive and at the front door of the Avengers facility. Also, Joe and Anthony Russo have confirmed that marketing material has been doctored to protect certain elements of the movie, so who knows what we can really trust?

All that being said, there actually was good reason to believe when the first trailer said that Shuri was counted among the Decimated. After all, her situation at the time of the Thanos snap was a lot different than Scott Lang's. None of the heroes specifically knew where Scott was when half of life in the universe was eliminated, so when he didn't turn up after the event it was just assumed that he was dusted (the reality actually being that he was trapped in the Quantum Realm). Shuri, on the other hand, was present in Wakanda with the Avengers battling against the Black Order and their Outriders, so the team knew exactly where she should have been... and clearly she wasn't there.

This is obviously a bummer, as Shuri is one of the most exciting new characters featured in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and audiences are hungry to see more of her in big screen adventures. I guess this just means that fans will be rooting that much harder that the heroes will somehow be able to reverse the events of Avengers: Infinity War and save the fallen.

As of today we now just have one month to wait for the arrival of Avengers: Endgame, and excitement is near the point of boiling over. Obviously we'll been covering the hell out of it here on CinemaBlend for the next few weeks, so stay tuned as we get closer and closer.