Why Tolkien’s Work Is Timeless, According To The New Movie’s Cast

Why Tolkien’s Work Is Timeless, According To The New Movie’s Cast

Between the various incarnations of both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, as well as the new biopic Tolkien, the fascination with the world of Middle-Earth is one that is still as strong today as it was when this literary legend first got its start.

It certainly isn’t by accident, as the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy franchise has captivated the imagination of audiences since The Hobbit’s first publication in 1936. And no one knows this better than the cast of director Dome Karukoski’s film centered around the years that Tolkien himself spent in the halls of academia and the trenches of war.

Depending on who you talk to, there are various aspects to J.R.R. Tolkien’s work that attract any particular reader. And as it happens, CinemaBlend was on hand during the press day for Tolkien, and was able to ask the actors present on the day just what makes those works so timeless. In the case of Nicholas Hoult, the man who plays Tolkien himself, those works of literature stand out for the following reasons:

I think it feels so real, and that is a testament to how creative and in depth his knowledge of language and the worlds he created were. It’s completely immersive, his work. So that’s something that no matter what age you read it at, and luckily for me going back to revisit it to research this, I appreciated it in a whole new way.

Of course, J.R.R. Tolkien didn’t create the world of Middle Earth in a vacuum, and there were a couple very important people that stand out in both the story of the author’s life, as well as the film version that Tolkien will dramatize for audiences that will see the film in theaters.

One such person was the love of his life, Edith Bratt, who is played in the film by Lily Collins. When asked what she felt made Tolkien’s work so special, she shared some of the same aspects that Nicholas Hoult had highlighted, but with some additional details as to how her character fit into the legend behind the history.

In particular, Collins had the following to say on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien:

I think his love of language, and his love of magic and fantasy is something that people are going to always resonate with, because it’s a form of escapism. Edith [Bratt] got that out of his storytelling, and it was a way for her to really leave her present existence. You know, she was a woman of the time, she was an orphan, she had a very specific social standing, and didn’t have many prospects, and so this allowed her the ability to disappear. I think we love the ability to go somewhere else for a little while in our heads, and these stories allow us to do that.

As there is a lot of romantic love to be highlighted in the world of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, especially when it comes to the Elvish beauties that Edith Bratt had inspired Tolkien to create, there’s also a strong bond of fellowship.

That particular branch of the mythos that J.R.R. Tolkien wove into his works came from the friendship he had with a personal society of school friends known as the Tea Club, Barovian Society, or TCBS for short. In Tolkien, the world of this informal fraternity is depicted at length, as the author and his friends, Geoffrey Bache Smith, Robert Q. Gilson, and Christopher Wiseman, are seen creating the club and using it to achieve their great goal in life: to change the world through art.

Played respectively by actors Anthony Boyle, Patrick Gibson, and Tom Glynn-Carney, they too had a unique perspective as to why J.R.R. Tolkien’s work translates so well through the ages, as shown below in their individual remarks during a grouped interview:

Glynn-Carney: His incredible capability to create another world, out of nothing. To be as imaginative as he is, and to see it in such vivid technicolor, and be able to bring it to life.

Boyle: Few authors have had the sort of cultural impact that Tolkien has had.

Gibson: And to be able to incorporate such human stories at the middle of a fantastical world, you feel like you could know those characters, yet it’s a tree. It’s Treebeard, and you think you’ve met him before.

With both massive sales of his printed works, as well as the various adaptations for stage and screen that have seen The Lord of the Rings presented to the world, J.R.R. Tolkien’s impact on the world of fantasy is one that isn’t going to go away any time soon. This is especially true when taking into account the fact that Amazon is about to bring the world of Middle-Earth back to the masses, courtesy of their upcoming epic TV series.

Though you can see just how excited the cast is about the works of Tolkien, as well as their part in bringing his personal story to life, in the footage from the Tolkien press day shown below:

While storytelling and fantasy have come a long way since J.R.R. Tolkien's era of literature, the core values of Tolkien's storytelling have never gone out of style. So even if audiences aren't particularly keyed into the author's famous tales, his work lives on due to his influence being felt on stories like Harry Potter and even Game of Thrones.

Tolkien opens in theaters in early showings this Thursday night. If you’re interested in more coverage with the cast of the film, stay tuned to CinemaBlend for further updates as the week goes on.

Marvel Producer Says The World Is Ready For An LGBT Superhero

Marvel Producer Says The World Is Ready For An LGBT Superhero

The Marvel Cinematic Universe changed rapidly in Phase Three, leading to plenty of success for Disney in the process. In addition to the box office and critical performance of each blockbuster, Phase Three also made the MCU a more diverse place. While the first two phases were largely focused on white male characters, people of color got a chance to shine in movies like Black Panther, Ant-Man and The Wasp, and Captain Marvel.

The call for onscreen inclusion has been a major subject in the film world, especially when it comes to major franchises like the MCU and Star Wars. Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige has been open about the franchise's dedication to diversity, even going so far as to say an LGBT superhero would enter the shared universe before long. Victoria Alonso has been a producer on every MCU installment, and when asked about the recent report that The Eternals was seeking an openly gay actor, Alonso added fuel to the fire, saying:

The world is ready, the world is ready.

Well, that certainly seems hopeful for advocates and moviegoers hoping that the Marvel Cinematic Universe will include its first gay superhero. Victoria Alonso thinks the world is ready, which may hint at the plans for the MCU in Phase Four. After all, The Eternals is being actively developed.

Victoria Alonso's comments to Variety show that the Marvel Cinematic Universe will only continue to get more diverse after Avengers: Endgame. While the studio is keeping its cards close the chest to avoid spoilers, obviously there are big plans cooking. Alonso may be unable to reveal any concrete information until Phase Three concludes, but she didn't deny the report of The Eternals seeking an openly gay actor for a leading role. So that development just gained some momentum

Of course, some might say that the Marvel Cinematic Universe already introduced an LGBT character during Phase Three. Tessa Thompson made her Marvel debut as Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok, and revealed she was playing the Asgardian heroine as a bisexual woman. In fact, Taika Waititi's threequel originally included a scene that alluded to Valkyrie's sexuality, although it ultimately ended up on the cutting room floor. Still, the character was one that fans seemed to respond to, so smart money says she'll back in one way or another during Phase Four.

Now that people of color and women have been given more of a chance to shine, it seems only natural that Marvel Studios would continue making its shared universe an even more inclusive place. Kevin Feige has teased that the future of the MCU is female, so there's no telling what the release schedule could look like after Avengers: Endgame finally arrives in theaters.

Answers will come once Avengers: Endgame concludes Phase Three on April 26th. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

The Charlie’s Angels Reboot Has Been Pushed Back

The Charlie’s Angels Reboot Has Been Pushed Back

If you're a fan looking forward to the new reboot of the Charlie's Angels franchise from Elizabeth Banks, there's some bad news. You're going to have to wait a bit longer to see it. On the plus side, the film's new release date greatly improves its box office chances, making the possibility that we could see a new franchise born here that much greater. And you won't have to wait too much longer. The film, originally set for a November 1 bow, will now arrive on November 15 instead.

The movie release calendar is basically a just a bunch of dominoes, and when one falls, the rest follow suit. That's what happened last year when Warner Bros. made the decision to push Wonder Woman 1984 from it's November 1 date to the summer of 2020. When that happened, two big movies jumped into that space. The first was Charlie's Angels moving into the same weekend where the Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, version of the franchise had released, the second was the new Terminator movie, which we now know to be called Terminator: Dark Fate.

This set up an unlikely showdown, where two major tentpole releases were going to hit the same weekend. However, that showdown is now cancelled as Charlie Angel's has now jumped back two more weekends to mid-November.

The reason for the switch is two-fold. First, as with Wonder Woman 1984, the weekend just opened up, following Kingsman spinoff The Great Game leaving that date for February 2020. The other reason apparently has less to do with competing with Terminator domestically, but perhaps more with doing so internationally. Deadline says that the studio thinks the new Charlie's Angels has strong international potential and so the new release date will help with that.

The previous Terminator film wasn't a massive hit in North America, but it did much better overseas, especially in China, so it could be that Angels wants to avoid doing battle in those markets as much as possible.

While Charlie's Angels and Terminator aren't necessarily a pair of franchises that are drawing largely from the same audience, it's still nice that they'll both be given some breathing room. Fewer fans will now need to choose between them and both will be given a chance to succeed or fail on their own merits rather than simply losing business because the other film siphoned some away.

At the same time, it's been so long since we've seen a couple of major films actually go up against each at the box office on opening weekend, it would have been interesting to see who came out on top. Terminator is certainly the more established franchise, but with the success that many female centered films have had in recent years, one certainly wonders if Charlie's Angels might have shocked everybody.

Of course, to get an idea, we'll have to actually get a look at the film. We're still waiting on a trailer.

James Marsden Would Totally Play Cyclops For The MCU

James Marsden Would Totally Play Cyclops For The MCU

Can you believe it? We are approaching the end of an era for Marvel movies. First it will be “endgame” for quite a few of the OG Avengers with the highly-anticipated MCU flick hits theaters later this month. For the X-Men, Dark Phoenix will close out the longtime Fox franchise that started almost twenty years ago with the Disney/Fox merger now finalized, and Disney laying out plans to bring the mutants to the MCU.

Fox’s X-Men franchise has certainly seen a lot of highs and lows, switch-ups and time jumps on the big screen. James Marsden played Cyclops in the first trilogy and made an appearance in Days of Future Past before Tye Sheridan took over as a younger iteration of the role for 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse. Marsden has now told ComicBook.com that he would don those red-tinted sunglasses all over again if given the opportunity. Here's what he said:

Sure, I'd be down. I think that world, there just are no rules. You can do whatever you want. If there's some iteration down the line where we're involved...that's been a special thing to be a part of for a good period of my life and I love those fans and I love playing that character so, yeah, I'd be totally open to that.

The actor doesn’t seem to need much convincing to join the massive MCU, and we don’t blame him – there’s some seriously amazing things coming up for the Marvel franchise. It would be interesting to see Disney carve out a place for the actor in the future as his iconic role of Cyclops, as long as we don’t have to witness anything close to The Last Stand, which left a bad taste in the mouths of many for some odd years.

However, it does look like Disney’s take on the X-Men may try to differentiate themselves from what’s been established in the past 20 years, and reboot these characters in a new and refreshing way. So bringing back an original character from Fox’s X-Men movies just doesn’t sound like it’d likely be on the table. James Marsden could certainly be a great fit for another comic book character out there in the X-Men universe, and if he’s chosen for it, this would allow the actor to bring something new to the franchise-- while his presence would also be a nice nod to its roots.

Not every member of the X-Men family has shown the adamant interest James Marsden recently has about joining the MCU. Alexandra Shipp, who will soon reprise the role of Storm in Dark Phoenix said she was against it because her character already doesn’t have many lines already. James McAvoy also recently admitted the strength in numbers with the Avengers, plus the mutants just may not well work together.

James Marsden's schedule does look quite stacked between Westworld, his upcoming Netflix series Dead To Me and the Enchanted sequel in the works, but we know he's down! Would you like to see James Marsden reprise his Cyclops role or perhaps take on another comic book role in the MCU? Feel free to leave your thoughts below.

Joel Kinnaman Reportedly Out As Flag For The Suicide Squad

Joel Kinnaman Reportedly Out As Flag For The Suicide Squad

We have heard that James Gunn’s Suicide Squad sequel will be something of a soft reboot or a relaunch of the franchise. And the more things develop, the more that rings true as the film is looking less and less like it will resemble David Ayer’s 2016 film. It looks like there will be very few returning characters and perhaps one less than we thought because Joel Kinnaman is reportedly out as Rick Flag in The Suicide Squad.

THR reports that some of the characters from Suicide Squad expected to return for the follow-up are Harley Quinn, Deadshot and Rick Flag. However, another of The Hollywood Reporter’s sources says that Rick Flag will not be in James Gunn’s film. So there is definitely some ambiguity about the situation, but fans should prepare for the possibility that the commander of the team in the first film will not be returning for the sequel.

Given this ambiguity about Rick Flag’s presence in James Gunn’s film, it makes you wonder if there is a scenario where Rick Flag the character returns, but Joel Kinnaman does not play him. We just saw this play out with the character of Deadshot. Will Smith could not reprise his role due to scheduling conflicts and now Heimdall himself, Idris Elba will replace him, hopefully giving the actor a meatier comic book role.

That would potentially get into some weird territory though, if multiple characters are played by different actors in the sequel while Harley Quinn is still played by Margot Robbie. Recasting one character is fine (see War Machine in the MCU) but multiple could get into a murky area that would just seem kind of weird. But if Rick Flag is not in the film at all as has been reported, that would gel with the word that James Gunn will primarily be using DC characters that were not in the first movie.

It’s hard to say how Rick Flag’s absence will affect the sequel, given that we don’t know what the story will be. The character did play an important role in the first film, both as the leader and handler of the team and as the boyfriend of June Moone, who became the villain. But there are other major players who could fill his shoes so he doesn’t have to return.

Harley Quinn and Deadshot were the standouts of the first film and the most visible, so those two feel like the characters that must return and they supposedly are, albeit with Idris Elba playing Deadshot. If Rick Flag is out it will be just another differentiator between the two films, and lend to the sequel's supposed direction as a soft reboot.

With all the changes, it does make you wonder if The Suicide Squad will even acknowledge the events of the first film. It’s all kind of interesting because while Suicide Squad was a critical failure, it was a hit at the box office, so changing things up to such a degree could be risky.

That said, Warner Bros. seems to have a lot of faith in James Gunn to move pieces around and makes the movie he wants to make to hopefully duplicate the critical and commercial success he had with Guardians of the Galaxy for the DCEU.

We’ll keep you updated as this movie comes together. The Suicide Squad opens in theaters on August 6, 2021. For movies you can look forward to a little bit sooner, check out our 2019 Release Schedule.

Captain Marvel Brought Marvel To A Box Office Milestone

Captain Marvel Brought Marvel To A Box Office Milestone

Heading in to its second weekend, Captain Marvel is an unmitigated financial success. Carol Danvers had the biggest March opening ever, the 2nd biggest worldwide opening for any superhero movie and the film has already passed the $500 million milestone. Captain Marvel does not exist in a vacuum though; it is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and its success has rocketed Marvel higher, further, faster to a new box office milestone.

Captain Marvel is the 21st entry into the MCU canon and combined, those 21 titles have now surpassed $18 billion in worldwide ticket sales, according to Variety. That’s billion with a ‘B’ and the MCU is now a member of the three-comma club 18 times over. I guess a $455 million worldwide opening weekend will do a lot to help you reach box office milestones.

If you do the math on that $18 billion over 21 movies, each Marvel movie is worth 4/5th of a billion dollars, or to be more exact, assuming my math is closer to Bruce Banner’s than the Hulk’s, $857.14 million. Or, to put another way, in roughly 11 years in existence, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has averaged about $1.63 billion a year.

The MCU has been the most successful franchise in movie history for a while now, and the $18 billion milestone just further cements the brand’s unparalleled and unprecedented achievements. There is something cool about the fact that it was Captain Marvel, a hero with Marvel in her name that added this notch to Marvel’s belt.

Captain Marvel was just the first entry in the MCU’s stacked 2019 though and Marvel may add a few more billion-dollar notches before it’s all said and done. Captain Marvel is now at $524 million worldwide and is tracking to add another $70-$85 million in its second weekend domestically.

Beyond Captain Marvel is Avengers: Endgame, which premiered a new trailer this morning. That film, the capstone on Phase 3 and the first 11 years of the MCU may hit an absolutely insane $282 million in its opening weekend just domestically. Avengers: Infinity War hit $2 billion worldwide and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Endgame repeat that feat with another $2 billion to follow up Captain Marvel. It’s a good thing too, Disney has bills to pay.

With Spider-Man: Far From Home on the way in July (a Sony film that is still MCU even if Disney doesn’t get the money from it) the MCU will certainly pass the $20 billion milestone at the worldwide box this year.

It is truly remarkable considering how it was only around the turn of the millennium that comic book movies became good and respected after wallowing in mediocrity for a long time. There was even a time not long ago when loving comic books and superheroes was something you didn’t advertise because it was considered uncool. Now superheroes are literally the biggest thing in the history of the movie business the world over and it’s not even close. That's pretty neat.

Captain Marvel is now playing. Check out our 2019 release schedule to keep track of all the biggest films arriving this year and stay tuned to CinemaBlend for all your movie news.

Kevin Feige Says X-Men Will ‘Come Home’ To The MCU

Kevin Feige Says X-Men Will ‘Come Home’ To The MCU

Disney officially acquired 20th Century Fox a few weeks ago, and the time since has been filled with theorizing and doubt regarding what the future might hold. The House of Mouse recently pulled its first project from Fox's schedule, and it's been teased that dates will be changed around in order to not compete with itself on big premiere weekends. But the biggest question is what might happen to the X-Men franchise, and when the mutants might finally arrive in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It's currently unclear when the X-Men will pop up in the larger MCU, although fans are eager to see the iconic team interact with Earth's Mightiest Heroes. While it looks like it could take years, Marvel's Kevin Feige does seem excited about the concept of bringing Professor X and company to the behemoth franchise. As he recently explained:

The specifics of what it means remains to be seen, but overall it’s wonderful and it feels like these characters have come home. It will be nice to have what every other [intellectual property] holder that I can think of has, which is access to all their IP. Imagine if Donald Duck was at another studio. Imagine if Goofy or Moana were someplace else and you didn’t have access to them even though they are yours.

While Disney's acquisition of Fox may end the X-Men franchise as we know it, Kevin Feige does make a point. Marvel's gang of mutants are beloved characters from the page, and the comics have always featured crossovers with other heroes. Now that can come to life on the big screen, as the Marvel property has the potential to join the MCU.

Kevin Feige's comments to Variety should please the hardcore Marvel fans, even if they're going to miss 20th Century Fox's X-Men franchise. The X-Men franchise may have started before shared universes became on trend, but their exclusion from the MCU still always felt strange. Hugh Jackman's long tenure as Wolverine ended before crossovers could ever occur, and Earth's Mightiest Heroes definitely could have used the X-Men's help during their major conflicts.

But now that Disney officially has access to Marvel's mutants, one has to wonder if/when they could eventually join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It feels like a great time to get a new cast of characters, as many of the OG heroes are coming to the end of their contracts with Avengers: Endgame. As such, Marvel Studios is presumably going to need to put more stock in newer characters like Black Panther, Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange. And adding in the X-Men might be a great way to keep the MCU filled out, and ripe for more epic crossover events.

For now, Disney's plans for the X-Men are unclear. But the titular team will return to theaters when Dark Phoenix arrives on June 7th. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.