Mouse Guard Isn't The Only Fox Film Disney Is Scrapping

Mouse Guard Isn't The Only Fox Film Disney Is Scrapping

As much fun as it is to get excited about how the X-Men and Fantastic Four will eventually be incorporated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe following Disney’s purchase of 21st Century Fox, we can’t ignore that this merger has also resulted in some negative consequences. Last week, it was announced that Disney is dropping Mouse Guard, a Fox blockbuster project that was only weeks away from beginning production. Now we’ve learned about more Fox movies that are being evicted from the House of Mouse.

The Tom Hanks-led News of the World and the adaptation of the Angie Thomas book On the Come Up have both been removed from the Disney slate. However, unlike Mouse Guard, both have already found homes elsewhere, with News of the World (as revealed earlier this month) moving to Universal and On the Come Up moving to Paramount. The Woody Harrelson-led dramedey Fruit Loops is also reportedly poised to be given the heave-ho, although Disney hasn’t made that official yet.

These three movies came from the now-shuttered Fox 2000 division, and according to insiders who spoke with THR, this is Disney “simply culling the enormous influx of projects.” Regarding why On the Come Up was specifically cut, the last movie based on an Angie Thomas book, The Hate U Give, lost money despite being modestly budgeted, so presumably Disney wasn’t willing to take another risk like that. It was also noted that Mouse Guard was deemed to be too expensive for a non-franchise film.

So these mark the latest casualties of the Disney/Fox merger, but it’s also important to mention that there other projects that were given the green light by Fox president Emma Watts before the merger was finalized that will still move forward under the new regime. They include Kingsman: The Great Game, Fear Street, West Side Story, Free Guy, Death on the Nile and, of course, Avatar 2.

That said, apparently some of these movies are being met with “scrutiny,” with Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn reportedly being concerned about the West Side Story remake showing young characters smoking. In terms of overall scope, the report states that Emma Watts and the Fox folks are not being asked to make lower-priced movies, but to aim for more “larger all-audience PG-13 and R films,” like The Ballad of Richard Jewell, which Clint Eastwood is being eyed to direct.

It was to be expected that there would be changes to the Fox release slate after Disney took control, but that doesn’t make it any easier when the people who are working on these movies learn that their work has been ejected. The best case scenario is that these projects move to other studios, the worst is that they never see the light of day. Either way, don’t be surprised if more Fox removals are revealed in the coming weeks/months.

Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates about the changing Fox landscape now that it’s part of Disney. For now, you can learn what movies are already on the calendar in our 2019 release schedule.

Sounds Like Marvel Studios Is Really Focusing On Diversity In Phase Four

Sounds Like Marvel Studios Is Really Focusing On Diversity In Phase Four

A lot of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s fate in Phase 4 is unknown, past the fact that it will kick things off with Spider-Man: Far From Home. But there’s definitely some idea of what properties will make an appearance in the next stage of the evolution for the MCU, as confirmed by Avengers: Endgame producer Trinh Tran. While she was obviously vague about the specifics, the subject of diversity is the big focus for the next batch of films. In particular, Tran dropped the following hints:

All I can say is we have a ton of characters we haven’t explored, and I’d love to do them all. Especially given that with Captain Marvel’s success and the diversity that she brings with the female representation, and with Black Panther and that diversity, it would be great to get more of that out there. Because we have a lot of diverse characters in Marvel.

With both Captain Marvel and Black Panther raking in upwards of $1 billion in their theatrical releases, Marvel Studios has the track record to prove that audiences are definitely looking for better, more diverse representation at the multiplex. But on top of that marketable truth, the studio also has the properties to back up the current plans that Trinh Tran is hinting towards in Phase 4.

Obviously, sequels that follow both Carol Danvers and King T’Challa are going to be hot topics of discussion throughout the offices of Marvel Studios. That’s just for starters though, as the studio has also made announcements on other titles and casting that make for a more diverse MCU. One such title on the plate of the Marvel Studios creative team is the feature film adaptation of Shang-Chi, with Short Term 12 director Daniel Cretton directing, and the need for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first Asian-American lead to be cast.

Additionally, the Scarlet Johansson-led Black Widow solo film is gathering steam pretty fast, with a cast that seems to be constantly growing in recent weeks. That makes this particular project feel like more of a pressing matter for the near future, as all that needs to happen is for the project’s cast to fill out and a start date to be set. And that last concern seems to already be solved, as David Harbour has clued the world into a possible June start date.

Then there’s The Eternals, which is set to have Chloe Zhao directing a cast that will include not only Angelina Jolie and Kumail Nanjiani in its lineup, but also has a role open for an openly gay actor on this new Marvel cinematic super team. While most of these other projects weren’t mentioned by producer Trinh Tran during her talk with Screen Rant, they aren’t exactly surprises as they’ve been going concerns that for some time.

It shouldn’t be too long before Marvel Studios announces their official plans for Phase 4 and possibly beyond if the claim of a five year plan already drawn up is accurate. As it stands, we do know that Avengers: Endgame marks the beginning of the end, which will lead to a brand new beginning, on April 26.

Rian Johnson Doesn’t Mind If Star Wars: Episode IX Retcons The Last Jedi

Rian Johnson Doesn’t Mind If Star Wars: Episode IX Retcons The Last Jedi

Wherever you fall on Star Wars: The Last Jedi reception scale, there’s no question that it’s one of the most divisive films in the Star Wars franchises, if not at the top of the list. Building off what J.J. Abrams established in The Force Awakens, Rian Johnson was brought in to write and direct The Last Jedi, and many of his creative choices were met by controversy by portions of the Star Wars fanbase. With Abrams now overseeing Star Wars: Episode IX, Johnson is okay if this next movie ends up retconning portions of The Last Jedi, specifically Rey’s parentage.

One of the big questions regarding Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens was who her parents were. Upon touching Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber at Maz Kanata’s cantina, Rey was bombarded by a flurry of Force visions, one of which showed her being left on Jakku as a child, and her family was never shown. For the next two years, fans wondered about the secrets of Rey’s past, like if she was related to the Skywalker family. Then came Star Wars: The Last Jedi, during which Kylo Ren told Rey to admit what she knew along: that her parents were “nobody,” with Ren saying that they were “filthy junk traders” who sold her for drinking money and were long dead in a pauper’s grave on Jakku.

Well, this plot twist was among the many aspects of Star Wars: The Last Jedi that was met with mixed reactions, and some fans have questioned if J.J. Abrams will retcon this reveal in Star Wars: Episode IX and make Rey’s parents significant people. That remains to be seen, and Rian Johnson has largely remained out of the loop on Episode IX’s development, only having a couple of conversations with Abrams. However, when asked by MTV News if he’d be okay with Abrams retconning the lineage of Rey’s parents in Episode IX, Johnson responded:

I want to let go of all my expectations. I want to sit back. I want to be entertained. I want to be surprised. I want to be thrilled. I want [J.J. Abrams] to do stuff I wasn’t expecting him to do and just go along for the ride. For me, that’s why I go to the movies, you know?

Rey’s parents being turned from nobodies to important individuals would certainly qualify as a surprise. Shortly after Star Wars: The Last Jedi came out, Rian Johnson revealed that the reason he went that direction with Rey’s family was because every other idea he came up with her parents’ identities just didn’t work for him. This creative choice was also a sharp contrast from what we’ve seen from the Skywalker family over the years, with Rey’s impressive Force powers existing for some reason other than having a notable genealogy. That’s assuming, of course, that this sticks for Episode IX. After all, this is a franchise known for its surprises, and it wouldn’t be the first time someone learned that what they’d been told about their family was false.

No doubt changing Rey’s parents would please a portion of the Star Wars fanbase, although I do hope that Star Wars: Episode IX doesn’t go all out on retconning every element of Star Wars: The Last Jedi that was deemed controversial. At the very least, if Rey’s parents were actually identified and even declared to still be alive, she would at least have the opportunity to reunite with them, something she was desperate to do in The Force Awakens. On the other hand, The Last Jedi was about Rey proving her self-worth and skill, and how she didn’t need a notable family line to become a Jedi/Resistance hero, so reversing all that undercuts the message.

In any case, Rian Johnson’s time with this era of Star Wars movies is done, but once he’s finished making Knives Out, he’ll shift to his own Star Wars trilogy, which will focus on new characters and explore other corners of the galaxy far, far away. As far as Episode IX is concerned, he’ll watch it just as a normal fan would (though I suspect he’ll get to attend one of the earliest screenings), and if J.J. Abrams has retconned anything that Johnson set up in The Last Jedi, Johnson will be okay with it so long as he’s entertained and thrilled.

In addition to being the final installment of the current Star Wars trilogy, Star Wars: Episode IX will also be the final chapter of the entire Skywalker Saga, so there’s a lot of plates this movie has to spin. The only official plot detail revealed so far is that it will take place one year after The Last Jedi, which ended with The Resistance nearly being wiped out by The First Order, but the few survivors, including Rey, managing to escape to fight another day. Along with a swarm of familiar faces returning for Episode IX, including Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Mark Hamill and, for his first Star Wars movie appearance in nearly 40 years, Billy Dee Williams, the cast also includes newcomers like Keri Russell, Naomi Ackie, Richard E. Grant and Dominic Monaghan.

While there’s always the chance that Daisy Ridley and the other stars of the current Star Wars trilogy could perhaps return to this franchise several decades down the line, just like Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford did, since Episode IX is wrapping up the Skywalker saga, that means fans should go in assuming this will be the last time we see all these characters. Here’s hoping then that each of their stories concludes in a satisfactory manner, and that if Rey’s background is indeed altered, it at least blends nicely with her overall narrative arc and doesn’t come off as a haphazard switch meant to please folks who were angered by the reveal in The Last Jedi.

Star Wars: Episode IX will be released in theaters on December 20. As for what else is hitting the silver screen in the near future, look through our 2019 release schedule for that information, and Star Wars fans shouldn’t forget that The Mandalorian will also premiere on Disney+ in the near future, maybe even by the end of the year.

Keanu Reeves Was Put In ‘Movie Jail’ After Turning Down Speed 2

Keanu Reeves Was Put In ‘Movie Jail’ After Turning Down Speed 2

Keanu Reeves made the leap from Bill and Ted slacker to legitimate action star thanks to his role in 1994's Speed. The movie made over $350 million (in 1994 dollars) and was one of the top 10 movies at the box office that year. The fact that a sequel went into the works is no surprise. However, when it came time to make the movie, Reeves ended up turning the role down, a decision which apparently sent him to "movie jail" for more than a decade. According to the actor...

I didn’t work with [Fox] again until The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Speed 2: Cruise Control was released in 1997 and The Day the Earth Stood Still came out in 2008. It seems that in that time, Fox was none to happy with Keanu Reeves. The actor doesn't go into detail with GQ regarding "movie jail," but it seems Reeves was well aware that it wasn't a coincidence that none of his projects for the next decade or so ended up at the studio. Apparently, Fox was miffed that he turned down the Speed sequel. One certainly wonders what sorts of Fox projects Reeves could have potentially been a part of had it not been for his 10 year sentence to movie jail.

A brief look at the box office results makes it clear why Fox was unhappy. Speed 2 made $168 million, less than half what the original movie did. While it's hard to chalk up all of that difference to the fact Keanu Reeves wasn't in the movie, Reeves was certainly a bigger name than Jason Patric, the guy who took the role of male lead opposite Sandra Bullock in the sequel. Also, the simple fact that Reeves didn't return could have potentially signaled to many moviegoers that the follow-up wasn't worth their time. If Reeves was the reason you saw the first one, why bother with the sequel.

It's unclear here if the reason Reeves didn't reprise his role from Speed was because he had any issues with the movie itself. He chose to play Hamlet on stage in Canada instead, but he may have just really wanted to play Hamlet more than make the movie.

Of course, Reeves would go on to star in the Matrix trilogy which turned him into an even bigger star. Now he's part of another major franchise, the John Wick series, which is produced by Lionsgate, a much smaller studio. In fact, as GQ points out, Reeves hasn't made a movie with any major studio since 2013's 47 Ronin, which was something of a flop, so perhaps the actor is actually back in movie jail, but just doesn't know it.

At the end of the day, business is business, but those businesses are also run by people, and if you upset people, they can react in emotional ways. It seems that's what happened here.

Why Avengers: Endgame Is Three Hours Long, According To Joe Russo

Why Avengers: Endgame Is Three Hours Long, According To Joe Russo

"Whatever it takes" seems to be the motto of Avengers: Endgame. For The Russo Brothers, Avengers 4 is taking three hours to tell its story. Apparently the theatrical runtime is three hours and two minutes. No one is complaining about the length -- which isn't even that long -- but it's interesting that the Russos have been sticking to almost exactly three hours for a long time now.

Joe Russo told BoxOfficePro this film has been "very specific in its run time," noting that it hasn't really changed since the first cut of the film:

Even though we’ve shot a lot of footage between now and then, we’ve swapped things out and the water keeps rising to the same level because the story’s so dense. We have so many characters that we’re working with again that require that kind of run time. My brother and I are really committed to emotional stakes, and emotion requires story real estate. When you have a sprawling plot with a lot of characters and emotional stakes, it requires time to breathe emotionally. On the scale, you’re just going to wind up at a certain run time. We’ve been really hard on the film. We don’t like excessive run times; it’s just very difficult wrapping up 10 years of storytelling.

Not every film needs three hours to tell a story, but it's hard to imagine that would be an "excessive run time" in this case. Avengers: Endgame is, as he said, the culmination of 10 years of storytelling in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The movies up to this point even got their own fancy name -- The Infinity Saga.

Joe Russo noted that he and his brother Anthony come from a TV background where they had to edit story down into half-hour segments. He said they even called it "the Russo path" to whittle the script down till it was so dense you'd miss half the jokes and have to watch the episode again. That was intentional. He said they used a somewhat similar approach with their Marvel films:

We try to create a density in storytelling that makes them feel compulsive, irrespective of the length. We’re very rigorous about storytelling points, and we spend months in the edit room twisting and turning the narrative a bunch of different ways until we think we’ve unlocked the best one. We’re vigilant about using test audiences to tell us whether we’re on the right track or we’re making bad decisions. With Endgame, it had one of the most incredible audience responses in Marvel history. Irrespective of the length, it’s been consistently embraced by the test audiences.

Test audiences can be tricky, but it's never a bad sign to hear that audiences are embracing your movie with an incredible response -- no matter the length. It's not exactly shocking to hear, since the MCU has such a strong track record, and the Russos in particular within the MCU have delivered standout films. But it's still good to hear that those lucky early test audiences weren't so rocked by the different tone and shocking events that they turned against the movie. Then again, it's not like Joe Russo would report back with any negative responses.

Avengers: Infinity War did not have a happy ending, but fans still embraced that movie too. Infinity War's runtime was around 2 hours 40 minutes. It made $2,048,359,754 around the world. As we just noted the other day, Avengers: Endgame could have a worldwide opening weekend above $800 million -- which would be a new record by a lot -- thanks to the addition of China getting it a couple of days before the U.S.

It doesn't seem like the extra length will hurt Avengers: Endgame in any way. If anything, fans will probably leave the theater wishing it was even longer -- especially if we do indeed say goodbye to several beloved characters.

Avengers: Endgame opens over here on Friday, April 26 as one of the many films to look forward to on the big screen in 2019. Here's what else we know at this point about Avengers 4.

Anthony Mackie And His Falcon Stunt Double Watched Fans Watch Avengers: Endgame

Anthony Mackie And His Falcon Stunt Double Watched Fans Watch Avengers: Endgame

Avengers: Endgame is already one of the biggest movies in the world, thanks to a global opening that broke the billion dollar mark. In addition to all of the fans who attended screenings starting Thursday night, at least one Avengers: Endgame star was also in attendance, as Anthony Mackie let everybody know on Thursday that he would be in the audience of one particular showing, so that he could see the movie with a general audience.

Mackie had been to the World Premiere of Endgame a few nights previously, but he said on social media that he wanted to see the movie with a crowd of fans, the general population as he puts it, as well. It's one thing to see a movie in a theater full of those people who helped make it, but the Falcon actor wanted to also see how the serious fans would respond.

Endgame clearly is a movie for the fans. It is a culmination of the franchise to this point, but it's also a celebration of the entire concept of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's something fans have been waiting to see, so of course Anthony Mackie wanted to see just how good a job had been done in their eyes.

For that, you show up to the first screening on Thursday night. That theater will be full of people who could not wait at all to see the film. On the one hand, they're clearly already sold on the MCU, but on the other hand, if there's something they don't like, they're very likely to let you know.

Of course, going to the movies is always more fun when you see a movie with people, and Anthony Mackie didn't go alone. His date for the evening was Aaron Toney, his stunt double in Endgame. Toney has also been the stunt double for Chadwick Boseman in the MCU as well.

Unfortunately, there's no follow up tweet where Anthony Mackie tells us what the experience of watching Avengers: Endgame with a general audience was like, but based on everything we do know, we can guess it went pretty well. Fans and critics alike have been praising Endgame left and right. For a franchise that has built over 20 films in just over 10 years, the film that was designed to end many stories and send the MCU in a new direction people largely agree has done so in a near perfect way.

Considering that the film brought in an estimated $350 million domestically and $1.2 billion worldwide on its opening weekend, it seems quite clear that fans loved the movie. You can bet that many of those ticket sales went to people already seeing the movie for at least a second time. It seems like almost the entire world saw the movie this weekend, the only question now is, are there enough people left to see it in order to send the box office numbers even higher?

What Keanu Reeves Really Hoped To Accomplish With John Wick: Chapter 3

What Keanu Reeves Really Hoped To Accomplish With John Wick: Chapter 3

When getting into gear for a third entry in a series as kinetic and hard-edged as John Wick has been, a lot of effort has to go into what makes each film a bar raising spectacle. In the case of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, star Keanu Reeves and the team backing him had a lot of specifics in mind when it came to making sure this latest sequel would top John Wick: Chapter 2 in all the right ways.

During a press day for the film, CinemaBlend was on hand to hear exactly what Reeves and company had hoped to accomplish from their latest venture into the underworld of assassins and honor bound codes that make John Wick’s world so satisfying to revisit with each outing. Specifically, after learning John Wick: Chapter 3 was greenlighted, Keanu Reeves mentioned there were specific goals for this third film, saying,

The most exciting part was, first of all, [being] grateful that we had the chance to come back to it and tell another chapter. Yeah, I mean, we had a lot of hope and ambition, and we wanted to do a lot. You know, we wanted to open up the scale, the worlds of John Wick. We wanted to different kinds of action, but also raise the bar on the traditional kind of John Wick action, Gun-Fu.

While the world that John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum expands could go on forever and sequel ideas are theoretically limitless, more movies are not always a given. So, having a third time out is a thrilling prospect in and of itself, because director Chad Stahelski and star Keanu Reeves get another chance to outdo themselves in the name of audience satisfaction.

Judging not only by the audience reaction to the John Wick series, but also the results that John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum have brought to the table, that satisfaction seems pretty much guaranteed on both ends. So, this universe’s plans to expand outward into various mediums, such as the TV series The Continental, as well as any potential film sequels and spinoffs, don’t seem like premature hopes but rather prudent plans for the future.

At the heart of it all though is that gratitude for the fans that made John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum possible, as well as thanks to those who helped in the filmmaking process as well. Keanu Reeves wasn’t shy to express that sentiment, as he continued with the following during CinemaBlend's interview:

It was exciting to get into preparing for it. It was exciting to do it, wonderful new artists in the show: Halle Berry, Anjelica Huston, Mark Dacascos, Asia Kate Dillon. And characters we love [coming] back: Laurence Fishburne, the Bowery King, Ian McShane’s Winston. There was excitement everywhere.

It’s hard not to be enthusiastic about the world of John Wick, as it’s brought a new level of action filmmaking and stunt work to the attention of the world at large. On top of that, the franchise’s mixture of neo-noir storytelling alongside those aspects have made it into a gust of fresh air that knocks down tons of rival assassins when it arrives in theaters.

You can even feel that excitement of Keanu Reeves describing the efforts that went into making John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum a next level action spectacular, courtesy of the clip we’re sharing below from our sit down with Mr. Reeves:

Of course, that excitement needs to spill out into the crowd, especially if John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum wants to compete with the box office hopefuls of this weekend, in the hopes of another return for future glory in its extremely wicked and colorful world. Whether there’s an official greenlight for more down the line or not, it’s good to know that whenever the call goes out, Keanu Reeves is ready to work with his famed collaborators, and anyone new who wants to jump in, to take John Wick deeper into the world he inhabits.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum prepares for war, in the name of peace, in early showings on Thursday night. And stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more coverage leading up to the film’s release in theaters.