Why Annabelle Comes Home Is Very Much A Homecoming For The Conjuring Universe

Why Annabelle Comes Home Is Very Much A Homecoming For The Conjuring Universe

In the last six years, The Conjuring Universe has become one of the most successful active franchises in Hollywood. It all started when James Wan’s The Conjuring turned out to be a massively huge hit in the summer of 2013, and since then the brand has expanded to include multiple spin-off series, which have actually mostly performed as well or better than the core titles.

As the franchise has continued, it’s expanded in interesting ways and gone to some exciting new places – and it’s in recognition of this that Gary Dauberman’s upcoming Annabelle Comes Home holds a special place the brand’s direction. It turns out the title has a semi-double meaning, as in addition to the movie featuring a plot that sees the titular doll come to live in the Warren house, it’s also seen by the filmmakers as a homecoming of sorts for the entire Conjuring Universe.

This was a sentiment shared by producer Peter Safran during an interview late last year when I had the chance to visit the set of what was then only called Annabelle 3:

The idea bringing it back to the Warren family was something that we've been toying with for a while. We had the Perrons, we had the Hodgsons, we took it all away to Romania – a totally different vibe and feel for The Nun. And we just liked the idea of bringing it closer to home, back to ordinary people and extraordinary circumstances, which was kind of the touchstone for it. And it just really made sense.

To fill in the gaps for the uninitiated, The Conjuring started the franchise with a story that actually spent a fair amount of time in the Warren home, in addition to following an investigation of the relatively-local Perron household. But the movies have slowly moved away from that ever since. Annabelle was really only a slight crawl away as a prequel story with a direct link-up featured at the end, but then The Conjuring 2 took Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga’s Ed and Lorraine Warren to England for the infamous Enfield Poltergeist case with the Hodgson clan. Annabelle: Creation then took audiences back nearly 20 years before the events of The Conjuring; and then The Nun doubled down on both elements of setting by not only going further back in time (by three years), but also by featuring events primarily set in the Vatican and Romania.

It’s been six years since audiences have seen any legitimately spooky action inside of the Warren’s house, but Annabelle Comes Home will break that streak when it’s released this summer. Set over the course of one night, the story centers on Ed and Lorraine’s daughter, Judy (McKenna Grace), as she spends the night with a babysitter (Madison Iseman) the night Annabelle is brought into household’s notorious artifact museum. Unfortunately for them, it’s evil winds up having a very strong influence over the other objects in the room, unleashing all kinds of terrors.

Further discussing the approach of bringing the action back to the Warrens’, Peter Safran explained that there has long been a creative curiosity when it comes to the aforementioned artifact museum, and Annabelle Comes Home will finally be the movie that sees the potential there explored. Plus, he added, it’s an opportunity to directly follow-up on the very first case that audiences were introduced to in the first Conjuring. Said the producer,

We always loved the idea of the artifact room being the potential source of more stories. The idea of actually setting a film around that was something, again, that we had in our mind for a while, and Gary [Dauberman] and James [Wan], and myself just thought this was the opportunity – that the third Annabelle movie is the opportunity to really raise the stakes. And that was it. Also the opening scene of The Conjuring is so iconic when it opens up on the half face of Annabelle, we just always liked the idea of, what happened after they left there? We see them taking the doll, what happens? It was actually something other people had asked us in the past as well. We just thought we will explore that story.

There will still be plenty more opportunities for The Conjuring Universe to explore new cities, countries, and time periods, as there are multiple projects actively in development, but Annabelle Comes Home is specifically being made as the film that brings us full circle.

The directorial debut of Gary Dauberman – who previously wrote the scripts for Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation, and The Nun – Annabelle Comes Home is scheduled to freak out audiences this summer with its June 28th release. And be sure to stay tuned here on CinemaBlend, as I have plenty more stories coming your way in the coming days from my time visiting the set.

John Wick 3's Halle Berry Broke Three Ribs Trying To Keep Up With Keanu Reeves

John Wick 3's Halle Berry Broke Three Ribs Trying To Keep Up With Keanu Reeves

Next month, the John Wick series continues with John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. The action franchise is known for its slick choreography and its star Keanu Reeves' willingness to throw himself into the thick of it. Halle Berry also stars in the new film and she gets in on the action herself, but when you star opposite Reeves in an action movie, you gotta brace for some bruises. However, Berry ended up breaking three of her ribs, and she doesn't even know how it happened.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum finds John Wick on the run from every assassin in New York City and beyond. He'll turn to whatever connections and friends he has left in order to survive the whole ordeal, and that's where Berry's character comes in. Halle Berry plays Sofia, an assassin and close friend of John who decides to help him.

Not a whole lot else is known, but seeing as how this is a John Wick movie, Sofia will be getting in on the action. It sounds like Berry did a portion of the stunts herself, but trying to keep up with Keanu Reeves led to some minor injury. Berry loved working with Reeves and told Extra what the experience was like and how it led to her injury:

It was pretty amazing [to work with Keanu]. It was a little terrifying at first because he’s so damn good, and I wanted to be on the same level as him. I didn’t want to disappoint him. I broke three ribs when I was rehearsing for John Wick… It’s like a badge of honor for me, we don’t know how it happened.

To prepare for Parabellum, Halle Berry was doing stunt training, gun training, dog training, and strength training. She was covering every angle, so you can see how rehearsal might lead to injury.

Thankfully, it doesn't sound like it was serious at all or slowed down production much. Halle Berry noted that director Chad Stahelski waited for her to get better rather than replace her with someone without three broken ribs:

I worked for a little while with broken ribs until I could no longer do it. For me, what made me most happy is I thought when that happened, 'OK, I'm out of the movie.' They're going to replace me. The show has to go on. But to [director] Chad's credit, he waited for me to heal, when I came back I felt better.

You'll be able to see Halle Berry kicking ass alongside Keanu Reeves in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum when the film arrives in theaters on May 17, 2019. For everything else arriving in theaters this year, be sure to check out our handy 2019 movie release guide for all the big releases.

Looks Like Indiana Jones 5 Has Switched Writers

Looks Like Indiana Jones 5 Has Switched Writers

While Lucasfilm has been very focused on Star Wars since Disney purchased the studio, it's never completely forgotten about its other big property, Indiana Jones. A fifth installment was rumored for years before finally being confirmed by Disney, but the fifth installment keeps getting delayed, and now one wonders if the release date may get pushed once again, as the project is now in the hands of yet another writer.

When Indiana Jones 5 was first confirmed, David Koepp, the screenwriter behind the previous Indy adventure Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, was brought on pen the script. Then, a little less than a year ago the word was that Solo: A Star Wars Story co-writer Jonathan Kasdan was taking a crack at the story.

Now, Making Star Wars is reporting that Dan Fogelman, the writer of This is Us as well as other Disney films like Tangled and Cars, has now been handed the script. It appears Fogelman is starting over from scratch and won't be building on any of the previous scripts.

It's unclear what the central focus of Fogelman's script is, or will be, though based on the fact that he's not using Jonathan Kasdan's idea, it seems there's one premise we know Indiana Jones 5 won't be about.

MSW reports Kasdan's script focused on the Wa?brzych Gold Train legend which claims that a train full of gold and valuables was buried by the Nazis in a series of mines in Poland.

Whatever the new writer brings to the table, there's clearly been something about the previous script attempts that has been lacking. On the one hand, it's good to know that everybody involved want to make sure they start this process with a good story. On the other hand, at some point one begins to wonder if Indiana Jones 5 is ever actually going to happen.

Currently Indiana Jones 5 has a release date set for July 9, 2021, but that date has been pushed back before as developments, like the previous change in writer, have forced things to be delayed. There's clearly still plenty of time to get a working script before Indiana Jones 5 would need to go into production, but that assumes that the new writer finds a working idea.

Harrison Ford will turn 77 years old later this year, which means he'll be nearly 80 by the time the new movie comes out if it makes its current date. The man is still in remarkable health and physical shape, there's no question about that, but at some point it will simply be too late to make this movie, and it really feels like we're coming quite close to that point.

Of course, we all want a new Indiana Jones movie. When they're good, they're some of the greatest adventures ever put on screen. Hopefully the new writer will be the key to solving the mystery of the script and Indiana Jones can get to solving a mystery of his own very soon.

Ryan Reynolds Has A Colorful Way Of Describing His Detective Pikachu Character

Ryan Reynolds Has A Colorful Way Of Describing His Detective Pikachu Character

If Pokemon: Detective Pikachu was operating with merely a garden variety Pikachu, you’d mostly be watching a cute electric mouse walking around, saying “Pika pika!” every now and then to break up the action. But with a Pokemon that’s understood by some humans comes the task of giving said creature a unique personality, especially since this film’s Pikachu is a world class detective. And Ryan Reynolds has the perfect description to just what makes Detective Pikachu no ordinary pocket monster, as he provided the following formula for what makes his new character tick:

If Sherlock had a baby with ("Murder, She Wrote" detective) Jessica Fletcher and their child gave birth to Columbo.

One would assume that Pokemon: Detective Pikachu’s lead character is going to shake out with the following traits: the deductive reasoning of Sherlock Holmes, the friendliness/cooperation with law enforcement of Jessica Fletcher and the endless questioning of Columbo.

Even if that’s not the exact mix, it’s a hell of a cocktail of mystery-solving that should help Reynolds’ character save the day all the better. In fact, one could say that when it comes to detective work, these titans are the best minds that one could ever want to combine to solve a case as vexing as what we’ve gotten a peek at with Pokemon: Detective Pikachu.

Three iconic detectives making up one particularly punchy detective is a good key to the possible success that this film is looking to drum up in the weeks after Avengers: Endgame. And with Pokemon: Detective Pikachu poised to make around $75 - $90 million in its opening weekend estimates, having a character that memorable is going to be infinitely handy when trying to craft a potential Pokemon cinematic universe.

Ryan Reynolds’ comments to USA Today certainly fall in line with the supposedly more parent friendly direction that Pokemon: Detective Pikachu is taking this new character into. So while the kids might not get a lot out of Sherlock, Jessica Fletcher, and Columbo being combined into the personality of Detective Pikachu, this isn’t really meant for them.

If anything, the parents of the children who will want to see the film most benefit from this sort of action, as the kids will be plenty entertained with the antics of the various creatures this film has to offer. Though there’s also those adults still interested in Pokemon, but want a little more of a sparkling personality to their film’s lead.

With either scenario, you’re looking at the first Pikachu that can get by on more than just its adorable frame and electroshock powers. In fact, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu introduces a character that could be used in so many different contexts throughout the world of Pokemon. And with Ryan Reynolds as the glue to the DNA of all of those famous entertainment detectives, it’s bound to be a ride that audiences will be able to get behind pretty easily. You don’t need to be a world class gumshoe to figure that one out.

We’ll see how this all pans out when Pokemon: Detective Pikachu zaps into theaters on May 10th, but if a crime-solving electric mouse isn’t your thing, you can see what else is heading our way with the 2019 release schedule.

Did J.K. Rowling Skip Her Annual Harry Potter Death Apology Or Was It Just Very Subtle?

Did J.K. Rowling Skip Her Annual Harry Potter Death Apology Or Was It Just Very Subtle?

Every year since 2015, J.K. Rowling has tweeted an apology on May 2, the anniversary of The Battle of Hogwarts. Fans waited and looked for the annual apology on Thursday, but it never arrived. Some fans were disappointed, while others were worried, since the Harry Potter author hasn't tweeted anything since March 16. Did she quit Twitter?

Other fans, though, wondered if J.K. Rowling did share a 2019 apology through a more visual clue -- the changing of her header:

It's possible J.K. Rowling changed her Twitter header to a starry sky in honor of Sirius -- the brightest star in the night sky and also the name of Harry Potter's beloved godfather, Sirius Black.

But Sirius didn't die in the Battle of Hogwarts, you might point out. True! But neither did Dobby, and J.K. Rowling apologized for killing Dobby in last year's May 2 tweet.

In 2014, J.K. Rowling honored the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts by simply saying how much she hated killing off some of those characters. The next year, she started her annual apology tradition by apologizing for killing off Fred Weasley during the battle.

In 2016, she apologized for killing Remus Lupin. In 2017, she apologized for killing Severus Snape. Last year, she apologized for killing Dobby.

So maybe that starry sky is an apology to Sirius, who was killed in the Ministry of Magic in the fifth book and movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Gary Oldman's character did appear in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, so maybe that could be considered the Battle of Hogwarts connection.

J.K. Rowling used to tweet frequently -- sometimes about Harry Potter, often about politics. She hasn't tweeted since mid-March, shortly after giving more details on the relationship between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald. There was backlash to her comments, for differing reasons, and it's possible that's when she decided to take a break from Twitter.

Maybe her Twitter absence has nothing to do with that, she might just be busy. But the timing is interesting. If she were going to return, fans thought it would be to tweet her annual apology. And maybe she did, with that subtle header change.

Harry Potter fans are a passionate lot, and so is their queen. She has her own opinions about everything and it would be great to see them again in some form, whether fans agree with them or not.

As far as we know, though, J.K Rowling is busy polishing her script for Fantastic Beasts 3, which recently delayed production again. It was originally going to start filming this summer, then that was pushed to late fall. It was recently pushed again to start filming in spring 2020 for a release in theaters in November 2021.

Keep up with everything we know so far about Fantastic Beasts 3, and raise your wands in support of J.K. Rowling if you want her to return to social media. Or maybe the rest of us should leave with her, honestly. She might be the one on the right track.

Us Reviews Have Dropped, Here's What Critics Are Saying

Us Reviews Have Dropped, Here's What Critics Are Saying

Few filmmakers have had as successful debuts as Jordan Peele. The former star of sketch comedy show Key and Peele announced himself as a director to watch with his 2017 debut Get Out, which earned an Academy Award, enjoyed a very profitable box office, was critically beloved, and became part of the cultural zeitgeist. Naturally expectations are high for Jordan Peele’s follow-up, the horror film Us.

Us opens in theaters on Friday and the reviews for the film are now in. So is this a sophomore slump, or does Jordan Peele go 2 for 2 and prove that Get Out was no fluke? Fortunately, it looks to be clearly the latter. The reviews for Us are almost universally positive, with CinemaBlend's own Dirk Libbey giving it 4.5 out of 5 stars. According to Dirk's review:

With Us, Jordan Peele proves that he is, without question, one of the most talented directors and creative writers working in Hollywood today. Us is everything you hoped, and everything you were afraid, it would be.

That is some high praise for both Jordan Peele and Us and Dirk is not alone in his feelings. The Wrap’s Yolanda Machado believes that Us will have real staying power in the genre. She said:

Peele’s sophomore effort is the type of genre film that will merit re-examination every few years, and it has the potential to stand among his greatest contributions to genre filmmaking.

One of the film’s stars Winston Duke has expressed the belief that you need to see Us more than once to get the full scope of an understand everything that it is doing and the reviews seem to echo that. The reviews also praise Us as a true horror film unlike Get Out, which was more ambiguous in genre. Us does horror and does it well, as The Verge’s Tasha Robinson indicated in her review:

Peele directs Us with a masterful collection of horror-movie tricks — jump scares that actually pay off, a cat-and-mouse game in an isolated place filled with bright lights and deep pools of impenetrable shadow.

Jordan Peele said he wanted to make a true horror movie this time around, and that definitely seems to be the case. Beyond just being a great horror film, one of the common threads in the reviews is the impeccable level of craft that went in to Us. In his review, IGN’s David Griffin expressed how the formal elements of Us distinguished it from its contemporaries:

The impactful use of music and dazzling cinematography elevates Us above your average horror-thriller. Peele has created another marvelous new American horror story.

For some, the story that Jordan Peele is telling is too unwieldy, failing to match the excellence of craft on display. This was the case for The A.V. Club’s Randall Colburn, who still gave Us a positive “B” review, but expressed his complaints saying:

Us is something of a frustrating watch, a visual and technical marvel that just doesn’t seem to know what it is. Unlike Get Out, which only swelled in impact as you left the theater, Us is best viewed on a visceral level, not an intellectual one.

While steering far clear of spoilers, it seems that while Us is clearly a horror film, Jordan Peele once again has something to say, but that message is more difficult to discern upon first viewing this time around. For some reviewers, that challenging nature mixed with a killer horror movie, makes for a rewarding experience. IndieWire’s Eric Kohn said about the film he gave an “A-“:

It unfolds as a satisfying dose of relentless, anxiety-inducing survival antics designed to keep viewers perpetually uneasy, and moves so quickly that they can only consider the deeper undercurrents after the credits roll.

Something tells me this film will have a lot of people talking come Monday morning. Beyond the plot and attempts to suss out the film’s mysteries and meaning, much of that discussion may surround Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o, who is, as you might imagine, brilliant. Justin Chang said as much in his review for the Los Angeles Times:

The movie belongs rightly and effortlessly to Nyong’o, and she sustains every moment by distilling innumerable emotional layers… There isn’t a moment when she doesn’t have Us in her grip.

Based on these reviews and a nearly perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes, it is clear that Jordan Peele has delivered with Us. Sure, I think most of us expected that would be the case, but I’ll take predictable brilliance over surprising disappointment any day.

Us opens in theaters on March 22. Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to keep track of all the other big movies headed to theaters this year.

Keanu Reeves Is Down To Play John Constantine Again

Keanu Reeves Is Down To Play John Constantine Again

Right now, Keanu Reeves is garnering a lot of attention for his third turn as John Wick, and naturally a lot of people are quite familiar with him from the Bill & Ted and Matrix movies. However, let’s not forget that Reeves has also left his mark in the comic book movie realm, as he played John Constantine in 2005’s Constantine. That movie never got a sequel, but nearly a decade and a half later, Reeves is still interested in reprising the character, saying:

I've always wanted to play John Constantine again. I just love that world, too, and I love that character. I just had a blast playing a character and in that world.

Made off a $100 million budget and ultimately making nearly $231 million worldwide, Constantine, which came out the same year as fellow DC Comics movie Batman Begins, was met with mixed reviews. Director Francis Lawrence talked about making a sequel six years later, one that would lean harder into the R rating, but nothing ever surfaced with that. Now Keanu Reeves is keeping busy with other projects, including the John Wick franchise and Bill & Ted 3. So while the idea of Constantine 2 might sound nice on paper, the chances of it actually coming to fruition are slim.

Keanu Reeves was also asked in his interview with Variety if he’s ever been approached to be in a superhero movie, to which the actor noted he had a “brush” with that genre, but it “didn’t work out.” While John Constantine has operated in the DC universe for years and fights the forces of evil, he doesn’t fit into the traditional superhero mold, and that was especially the case with his movie, which felt more at home in the horror genre.

Constantine certainly left the door open for a follow-up down the line, and even though Keanu Reeves’ version of the character didn’t resemble his comic book counterpart, nearly every other aspect of him felt faithful to the source material, from the chain-smoking to exorcising demons. The movie’s supporting cast included Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Tilda Swinton, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Djimon Honsou, but even if we assumed that Constantine 2 is a legitimate possibility, who knows if the sequel could successfully gather most, if not all of those actors together again.

Nowadays if you want to see John Constantine in live action, you’d turn to Matt Ryan’s version, who led a short-lived NBC series and then popped up on Arrow before being thrown into Legends of Tomorrow a couple years later. There’s also been talk in recent years of John Constantine returning to the big screen in a Justice League Dark movie, which Guillermo del Toro and Doug Liman were lined up to direct at different points. Colin Farrell was once rumored to be up for the Constantine role, but lately it seems like that’s one of the lesser priority projects for the DC Extended Universe.

Rest assured, if there’s any news about John Constantine appearing in another theatrical movie, we here at CinemaBlend will let you know about it. In the meantime, you can currently see Keanu Reeves in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, which was the highest-grossing domestic movie this past weekend.