Mark Hamill Says Carrie Fisher Would Love Appearing Posthumously In Episode IX

Mark Hamill Says Carrie Fisher Would Love Appearing Posthumously In Episode IX

It’s been a little over two years since Carrie Fisher passed away, and while Star Wars: The Last Jedi ended up being one of her final film roles, it doesn’t mark the last we’ve seen of Princess/General Leia Organa. Star Wars: Episode IX will use unseen footage from Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi to include Fisher, and Mark Hamill, her longtime Star Wars costar, believes that the actress would have approved of getting to appear posthumously in such a highly-anticipated film. As Hamill put it:

I’m glad they found a way to do that, and something tells me that she’d get a real kick out of the fact that she had a hit movie years after she left us, because that was just her. I like to think that would please her, but nothing would be better than having her here.

Mark Hamill’s comment to Den of Geek was preceded by him noting that with Harrison Ford having a prominent role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Hamill himself stepping back into the spotlight for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the plan was for Carrie Fisher to have a bigger role in Star Wars: Episode IX. Those plans are sadly no longer achievable, but thanks to movie-making magic, Leia Organa can still have a presence in the conclusion to the Skywalker Saga. Episode IX will ultimately go down as Fisher’s final film appearance, and as Hamill sees it, she’d appreciate that.

When we last left off with Leia Organa at the end of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, she was one of the few Resistance survivors that managed to escape being wiped out by The First Order on Crait. Star Wars: Episode IX is picking up a year later, and while we still don’t have any official plot details about the movie, one would imagine that Leia is still the leader of the Resistance. It remains to be seen if Episode IX will kill off Leia or if she’ll survive to the end, but however her story is handled, no doubt many Star Wars fans are glad that it’s being done on-screen as opposed to off.

It’s also worth remembering that this unused footage of Carrie Fisher won’t be the only original Star Wars trilogy representation in Star Wars: Episode IX. Along with Mark Hamill returning as Luke Skywalker (presumably as a Force ghost given how The Last Jedi ended for him) and Anthony Daniels once again donning the C-3PO suit, Episode IX also sees the long-awaited return of Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, although it’s unclear how big his role will be.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to familiar faces overall in Star Wars: Episode IX. Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Kelly Marie Tran, Domhnall Gleeson and Lupita Nyong’o are among the actors reprising their respective roles. As for newcomers, Naomie Ackie, Richard E. Grant, Keri Russell, Dominic Monaghan and Matt Smith have all been cast in undisclosed roles.

Directed by J.J. Abrams, who also co-wrote the script with Chris Terrio, Star Wars: Episode IX opens in theaters on December 20, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for continuing coverage. In the meantime, look through our 2019 release schedule to find out what other movies are coming out later this year.

Alita: Battle Angel Just Passed A Box Office Milestone

Alita: Battle Angel Just Passed A Box Office Milestone

While all the talk and focus is on Captain Marvel this coming weekend, Carol Danvers is not the only cinematic heroine that can be seen in theaters. The Battle Angel herself, Alita, has been quietly entertaining audiences for a few weeks now. The Robert Rodriguez-directed, James Cameron-written and produced manga adaptation Alita: Battle Angel has now passed a significant milestone at the box office.

Alita: Battle Angel has topped $350 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. A total of $350.5 million and counting is a nice chunk of change that puts Alita: Battle Angel comfortably in the #3 spot at the worldwide box office in 2019, trailing only How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World at $378.6 million and the Chinese juggernaut The Wandering Earth, which has made $676.7 million in the Middle Kingdom alone.

Alita: Battle Angel was predicted to be DOA domestically, but wound up performing better than expected in its opening weekend. It earned $33.5 million over the long President’s Day weekend and it has been plugging away ever since. In its third weekend, Alita came in third at the box office, adding another $7.2 million to bring its domestic total to $72.4 million.

While that domestic haul is nothing to write home about, this special effects driven film was always a play at the international box office, and that’s what has really pushed it over the $350 million mark. Alita: Battle Angel has performed far better in foreign markets, with $278 million of its $350 million coming overseas. A large chunk of that has come from the ever-important China, where Alita has made $113.2 million.

Although every box office milestone achieved is a step in the right direction, $350 million is not enough to call Alita a success or guarantee a sequel, at least not yet. Alita: Battle Angel’s reported budget is $170 million, and when you factor in the marketing costs, it has been suggested that the film would need to hit $500 million to be profitable.

The Battle Angel is more than halfway there, but it will really have to leg it out for that last $150 million to get into that $450-$500 million mark where it can minimize financial losses. That may not be especially realistic given its weekend-to-weekend drops, but the film definitely could have bombed harder. While it obviously won’t be considered a true hit given its budget, Alita may wind up in a murky territory where the losses aren’t as bad as they could have been ,but there isn’t a clear financial mandate for the franchise to continue.

Alita: Battle Angel may find new life and eventually break even down the line on home video, but if it fails to spawn a sequel, the blame will fall primarily on the domestic market as it has done relatively well everywhere else.

That’s a bummer because although the film has been heavily mixed in terms of critical response, the audiences that have taken a chance on the largely unfamiliar property have really liked it. Alita has an “A-“ CinemaScore and positive ratings and audience scores on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, for what they’re worth.

Alita: Battle Angel is still playing. You should check it out and then check out our 2019 release schedule to see all the biggest movies headed your way this year.

Sorry, Ms. Marvel Was Not Teased During Captain Marvel

Sorry, Ms. Marvel Was Not Teased During Captain Marvel

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been on a serious roll with Phase Three, as every single installment has been a box office and critical success. This includes the most recent release: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's Captain Marvel. The 90's origin story has been making some serious money during its first week in theaters, as the MCU is expanded further thanks to recurring characters Nick Fury, Phil Coulson, Korath, and Ronan.

But there is another character that Marvel fans were looking out for: Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel. The teenage hero is usually a denizen of Jersey City, and is inspired heavily by Carol Danvers' superhero identity. While some fans were hoping Kamala might have been hinted at during Captain Marvel's runtime, Kevin Feige recently shut down these rumors, saying:

I think she's a contemporary story. I don't think she was a little kid in 1990. I'm not sure she was born in 1995.

Touche. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe's timeline hasn't always been super clear to the fandom, Kevin Feige's math makes sense. Kamala Khan will need to be a teenager for her story to function, so there's no way she'd be around in 1995 when Captain Marvel is set. But when will she finally show up?

Kevin Feige's comments to Comic Book may illicit a mixture of emotions from the hardcore Marvel fans. For one, there's relief. If Ms. Marvel was teased during the events of Captain Marvel, it means that the first week of audiences didn't notice it. But since Kevin Feige shut that fan theory down, cinephiles can simply sit and enjoy the latest Marvel blockbuster, without having to pour over every frame.

Then again, there are plenty of fans who are waiting and hoping that Kamala Khan ends up being brought into the massive Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ms. Marvel made history as the first Muslim hero to come from Marvel's pages, and became a massively popular figure in the comic book universe. Mindy Kaling and Riz Ahmed have both voiced their interest in working on a Ms. Marvel movie for Marvel Studios. Plus, Brie Larson hopes the character pops up in the Captain Marvel sequel.

The MCU has been a more inclusive place in Phase Three, as people of color and women were given the chance to shine in projects like Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Ant-Man and The Wasp. As such, it might be the perfect time for Marvel Studios to move forward and bring Kamala Khan's Ms. Marvel to the silver screen for the first time. And it looks like Kevin Feige might have ideas brewing.

Unfortunately, Phase Four of the MCU is a complete mystery, as the studio is keeping its cards close to the chest until the release of Avengers: Endgame next month. The release schedule would presumably include potential spoilers, especially regarding who survives the final battle against Thanos. So we'll just have to wait and see if Ms. Marvel ever makes it to theaters.

Captain Marvel is in theaters now, and Avengers: Endgame will arrive on April 26th. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

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.