How The Curse of La Llorona Is Connected To The Conjuring Universe

How The Curse of La Llorona Is Connected To The Conjuring Universe

Very mild spoilers ahead from The Curse of La Llorona.

The Curse of La Llorona hasn't been heavily promoted as a Conjuring movie, but it is quietly haunting The Conjuring Universe as the sixth entry in the series. The horror film marks the directorial debut of Michael Chaves, whose follow-up film is The Conjuring 3, which comes out in 2020.

The Curse of La Llorona recently screened at South by Southwest, confirming how the movie connects to the Conjuring universe. The movie is set in Los Angeles in 1973, and has the connective tissue of Father Perez (Tony Amendola), who returns to the story from Annabelle. In this film, Father Perez talks to Anna Garcia (Linda Cardellini) about his evil doll case, and the doll is flashed on screen to further drive home the connection (per Bloody Disgusting).

The 2014 Annabelle movie was also set in Southern California, with the story in 1967. The Conjuring, which came out in 2013, was set in 1971. The Conjuring 2 was set in 1976 and 1977. So The Curse of La Llorona appears to fit into the timeline between between the first two Conjuring movies, just a few years after Father Perez's experience in Annabelle.

Since The Curse of La Llorona just screened, critics and fans have been sharing their early thoughts online. CinemaBlend's own Sean O'Connell felt the film compared poorly to previous Conjuring movies, although he had fond words for Linda Cardellini:

Perri Nemiroff of Collider also had some measured praise, calling it a solid start for future Conjuring 3 director Michael Chaves:

Erik Davis of Fandango had a much simpler warning about the movie -- it may leave you afraid to visit your own attic:

The Curse of La Llorona was produced by James Wan, who directed the first two Conjuring films before passing the reins to Michael Chaves for the upcoming third movie. This is the sixth film in The Conjuring Universe after The Conjuring, Annabelle, The Conjuring 2, Annabelle: Creation, and The Nun. It precedes Annabelle 3, aka Annabelle Comes Home, which just announced its title and June 28, 2019 release date. The Conjuring 3 is reportedly scheduled for September 11, 2020. The Crooked Man should be following them at some point, but there's no set date right now.

The Curse of La Llorona opens in theaters on April 19, yep one week before Avengers: Endgame. Pray for it. The horror movie is just one of the many films releasing in theaters in 2019.

How Much Money Us Is Expected To Make During Its Opening Weekend

How Much Money Us Is Expected To Make During Its Opening Weekend

It looks like the shapeshifters will hand the baton off to the doppelgängers at the box office this weekend, as the MCU’s smash hit Captain Marvel makes way for Jordan Peele’s horror film, Us. Jordan Peele’s debut film Get Out wound up becoming wildly profitable, earning over $250 million on a $4.5 million budget. And although it is far too early to tell if Us will enjoy similar success, it does look like it will get off to a strong start opening weekend.

The horror movie from Universal and Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw productions is tracking to open in a wide range from $38 million to $48 million according to The Hollywood Reporter. There is even a belief among some box office analysts that Us could reach or crack the $50 million mark this weekend.

Based on this tracking, things are looking good that Us will come in first at the box office, beating out Captain Marvel in its third weekend in release. Even at the low end, a $38 million opening bow would improve on Get Out’s $33.4 million domestic debut in 2017. Us cost more than Get Out though at $20 million, but it still looks poised for box office success.

These predictions are up from the earlier tracking that had the film landing between $35 million and $40 million. Those numbers came in before the Us' buzzy premiere at the South By Southwest Film Festival and before the positive reviews started coming out. Now it's the week of the release and the buzz has increased and the opening weekend box office tracking seems to reflect that.

Other than Captain Marvel, which has been in theaters for a couple of weeks now, Us will not have any major competition this weekend; no other studio putting out a wide release opposite the follow-up to Jordan Peele’s box office hit, Get Out.

If Us manages to go as high as $50 million this weekend, it will be a feat similar to what A Quiet Place managed last year. John Krasinski’s film too had a buzzy SXSW premiere and opened in early April to $50 million. Like A Quiet Place and Get Out, Us will also likely benefit from positive word of mouth.

The reviews are in for the film and they are very positive, indicating that Jordan Peele has once again delivered. Only this time, it is a true horror film, yet one that still give you plenty to think about once you leave the theater. As the kind of film that is likely to inspire discussion, it may drive people to the theater to participate and perhaps even have repeat viewings, as star Winston Duke has recommended.

Us opens on March 22. Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to see all the other movies you should have your eyes on this year.

E.L. James Actually Started Writing The Mister Before Fifty Shades Of Grey

E.L. James Actually Started Writing The Mister Before Fifty Shades Of Grey

Apparently, E.L. James had been working on romance projects for a long time before she published her Fifty Shades books. The prominent author and movie producer recently revealed that her new book The Mister could have been her first book if things had panned out differently. She revealed how long she’d been writing The Mister, noting,

This story has been with me for a very long time. I wrote a very rough draft of it in 2009, so it’s actually been with me before Fifty. And I’ve been trying to silence these characters in my head for a long time. Eventually I managed to get them onto the page.

Anyone familiar with Fifty Shades of Grey should already know E.L. James first novel started out as Twilight fan fiction and then branched out to become the tale of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey fans worldwide know and love today. The first Fifty Shades book was first published back in 2011 and James has previously mentioned it took her 18 months to write the trilogy.

Before E.L. James decided she needed a more erotic version of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen in her life, she had started treatment on The Mister. This makes sense, given in real life E.L. James is British and a European tale about an Earl falling in love with his housekeeper is more on brand than a story set in the Northwestern part of the United States.

Per what E.L. James told AZ Central, the idea came about when she was thinking about what would happen if a man were to fall in love with his cleaner. However, there were a lot of stops and starts until that germ of an idea could become even a rough draft for a book. Then, of course, there was the distraction of writing and working on the movies for her Fifty Shades series.

Finally, last March, The Mister started falling into place. Per the author:

I had the rough draft I’d written, but I didn’t really understand the characters at all. And then over the years they’ve slowly crystallized. But with Alessia, I had to go to Albania to get a better idea of what she is like and where she’s from and all of that, because it’s actually very difficult to find information about Albania. So, I went last March and everything sort of fell into place, and I was able to finish the book.

Ultimately, The Mister seems to be selling well so far. It sold more than 50,000 copies in its first week on shelves, and allegedly there are some interested parties sniffing around a movie deal.

However, had The Mister come out before Fifty Shades of Grey, it’s hard telling whether or not it would have attracted such a large following of loyal readers.

So, if you are someone who subscribes to the idea that everything happens for a reason, perhaps it was extremely fortuitous that E.L. James got stuck on an early draft of The Mister and was able to return to the idea later.

You can order your own copy of The Mister, which does have a Fifty Shades Easter egg, right now.

Meg Ryan Helped Come Up With Her Infamous When Harry Met Sally Orgasm Scene

Meg Ryan Helped Come Up With Her Infamous When Harry Met Sally Orgasm Scene

When Harry Met Sally’s restaurant orgasm scene is iconic, both within the context of the history of film and also Meg Ryan’s career. Now, 30 years after the release of the rom-com starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, the movie is going to be celebrated with galas and even a Fathom Event.

If you can’t make those, however, the cast and director Rob Reiner recently joined together to talk about the iconic film, noting that now-infamous orgasm scene was partially a concoction of Meg Ryan's. According to Rob Reiner,

Meg was the one who said, ‘I’ll do it. I’ll actually do it.' The idea was we gotta have something that men don’t know about women because earlier where they’re in the plane together and Billy talked about after sex how a man feels and all that, and we were saying we need a counterpoint, and Meg said, ‘I’ll do it, I’ll just actually act it out. We don’t have to talk about it. I’ll do it.’ And I had the idea, ‘[It’ll be] in a restaurant!'

So, the orgasm scene in and of itself wasn’t Meg Ryan’s idea, but putting that scene in a very public place was chalked up to her influence, per the When Harry Met Sally director.

Previously, Bill Crystal told a similar story in which Meg Ryan had contributed the idea of the fake orgasm after Nora Ephron had mentioned women did this in real life. In his version however, the idea to do a fake orgasm was Ryan’s and the idea to do it in a restaurant was his.

Whatever the exact truth, it’s clear the When Harry Met Sally scene was pretty collaborative. Which may be one of the reasons it works so well in the final edit of the movie.

Rob Reiner went on to tell EW that wasn’t the only portion of the scene Meg Ryan contributed, however. After it was determined Meg Ryan would fake her orgasm opposite Billy Crystal at a restaurant, she had another brilliant idea...

She does a little thing at the end, which I didn’t tell her to do, she has a full-on orgasm and then she goes right back and she takes a little bite of coleslaw.

It’s a classic movie moment. Many of the people in the restaurant have turned around to stare at Sally while she has her orgasmic moment, when suddenly she stops and all is back to normal. She takes a bit of her coleslaw while Harry gives her a look.

Related: When Harry Met Sally Almost Had A Super Depressing Ending

Afterwards an extra –who we know was actually Rob Reiner’s own mother – utters a famous movie line: “I’ll have what she’s having.”

Since I’m sure you’d like to relive the “I’ll have what she’s having moment, you can watch the full scene below.

However it came about exactly, the orgasm scene is so notable, Meg Ryan’s son Jack Quaid learned about it young and purposefully waited until he was in his twenties to actually watch the scene. Because who wants to watch their mom having a fake orgasm, am I right?

For the record, if you think it’s weird he watched it at all, he says it was in preparation for a rom-com role.

Thirty years after it was first put to film, When Harry Met Sally is still thought of as one of the most iconic rom-coms created for the big screen. Whether it will live on in the minds of movie lovers for the next 30 years remains to be seen, but for now you can catch it on Blu-ray, DVD or Digital or wait for the Fathom Event this winter.

What Dumbo’s Cast Thinks About Animals Being Used In Entertainment

What Dumbo’s Cast Thinks About Animals Being Used In Entertainment

Looking back on the original Dumbo, it’s not exactly a film with a big message. After all, it only clocks in at a little over an hour long, and basically just about the misadventures of a baby elephant with big ears and his mouse friend. The same cannot be said about Tim Burton’s new live-action adaptation, however, and I recently had the chance to ask the film’s cast about one of the blockbuster’s key themes: the treatment of animals in entertainment.

Earlier this month I participated in the domestic press day for Dumbo in Los Angeles, and having the opportunity to sit down with Colin Farrell, Eva Green, and Danny DeVito, one subject that I brought up in every interview was one of the movie’s key messages. Each of them had a different perspective on the question, but also expressed a certain pride in how it comes across in Dumbo.

If the opportunities aren’t obvious, you might just not be familiar with the plot of the new film. Set in the wake of World War I, and primarily following a low-rent circus, Dumbo not only features all of the trauma of watching the titular elephant get forcibly separated from his mother, but also has a frank discussion about the exploitation of animals in entertainment. And not only is this something important to the plot of the film, but it’s also worth noting that the production itself made significant use of CGI animals instead of real ones (including for the creation of its eponymous character).

Not every animal in Dumbo is digitally added, as Colin Farrell’s character rides some very real horses in the movie. Interestingly, though, this led to some further consideration of their use in the movie by the actor, who definitely took the message of the movie to heart:

I've often questioned the use of horses and stuff, because at least a human being says, 'Yes, I want to be there,' and is getting paid for their services. Whereas a horse has no choice... I'd always be very adamant to make sure the horses, certainly anywhere close to me, aren’t mistreated in any way. And, and across the board, by in large, the horses have always, as far as I could see, have been treated wonderfully. But this film does make statements on the cruelty of the circus at that particular time, especially in relation to animals.

Playing aerialist Colette Marchant in the movie, who winds up performing an act with Dumbo, Eva Green had a lot of opportunity to do some non-animal acting in the film, and it seems that it wasn’t something that made the experience any more of a challenge. Even though working with a big green stuffed animal instead of a real creature meant using her imagination a bit more during production, being a part of a story like Dumbo and getting across its messaging was a point of pride for the actress. Green said,

We didn't have real elephants in, in this movie. We had wonderful CGI people who created some magic. I'm super proud to be in a Disney movie that promotes animal free circuses. Animals are not meant to live in captivity.

Dumbo, which also stars Michael Keaton, Alan Arkin, Nico Parker, and Finley Hobbins, arrives in theaters this Friday – and stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more from my interviews with the actors and filmmakers!

Why Two Of Shazam!'s Cameos Were Particularly Special, According To The Director

Why Two Of Shazam!'s Cameos Were Particularly Special, According To The Director

Warning: The following contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Shazam! Seriously, don’t read ahead until you’ve seen it!

At the end of Shazam!, to defeat Doctor Sivana and the Seven Deadly Sins, Billy Batson transforms his foster siblings into adult superheroes of their own to fight alongside him. The introduction of the Shazam Family was a surprising and fun secret, as we got to see Darla, Eugene, Pedro, Mary and Freddy Freeman enjoy the thrill of having superpowers. It also allowed for some fun cameos as older actors portrayed the adult versions of the family. Two of these cameos were particularly special, as director David F. Sandberg explained:

Also, we sort of realized afterwards that both Adam Brody and D.J. Cotrona (Super Hero Pedro) were cast in George Miller’s Justice League: Mortal, the movie that almost happened. Adam Brody was The Flash and D.J. was Superman. So, afterwards, we said, ‘Oh, shit! They finally get to be superheroes in a DC movie.’

It wasn’t intentional or some planned out thing, it just worked out that Adam Brody, who played the adult Freddy Freeman, and D.J. Cotrona, who played the adult Pedro Peña, were both once attached to star in George Miller’s ill-fated Justice League: Mortal as The Flash and Superman, respectively. That film, which also would have seen Armie Hammer as Batman, is on the long list of superhero films that might have been.

That history of coming so close to being a part of a DC movie only for it not to happen adds a bit of poetry to their cameos in Shazam! As David F. Sandberg told The Hollywood Reporter, it was exciting once they realized that Adam Brody and D.J. Cotrona were once attached to Justice League: Mortal. It was a happy little coincidence that is really cool in hindsight.

What’s makes this even more special is that Adam Brody and D.J. Cotrona didn’t even know what they were auditioning for. The actors had no idea they would be playing superheroes or members of the Shazam Family. Something about them must have just said 'superhero.'

It’s like the two actors were destined to be in a DC comic book movie, and without any knowledge of their DC past or design on the filmmaker’s part to remedy past ills, the universe exerted its will and they wound up in Shazam! Beyond just the special quality these cameos take on with this knowledge, they actually worked out really well in their own right.

Pedro Peña didn’t talk much in the film, so we didn’t get to see a ton of his personality, but D.J. Cotrona certainly looked the part of a superhero with the strength of Hercules. And Adam Brody as an adult, superhero Freddy Freeman is about as perfect as casting can get. In addition to looking like Jack Dylan Grazer, Adam Brody has a history of playing that kind of talkative, nerdy character. It’s great to see The O.C.’s resident comic book nerd Seth Cohen finally get some superpowers.

Shazam! is now playing. Check out what we thought of DC’s latest and what the end-credits scene means. Shazam! is just one of this year’s biggest movies, see the rest in our 2019 release schedule.

What The Tolkien Cast Found Hard About Researching Their Characters

What The Tolkien Cast Found Hard About Researching Their Characters

When playing a real life figure like J.R.R. Tolkien, or his wife Edith Bratt, it takes a lot of research to make sure you’re doing your job well. It’s something that both Nicholas Hoult and Lily Collins faced when preparing to star in director Dome Karukoski’s Tolkien, a biopic on the life experiences that lead the titular author to start writing the Middle-Earth franchise.

But when trying into character, both Nicholas Hoult and Lily Collins found that there was a fair degree of difficulty and liberation when it came to portraying the couple that would eventually fall in love and get married during the events shown in Tolkien. And a lot of those difficulties came from the fact that the younger incarnations that they were inhabiting aren’t exactly captured in a lot of media that they can base their portrayals off of.

When CinemaBlend spoke with both Nicholas Hoult and Lily Collins during the press day for Tolkien, the question of the hardest challenges when honing their characters came up. And in the case of Hoult, the actor had the following feedback to provide when it came to his own research efforts:

There was lots of fun little things, like that him and Edith [Bratt], his long time love, would throw sugar cubes in people's hats when they went for tea. And then he stole a bus, he was arrested for stealing a bus when he was younger at Oxford. But I just didn't know anything about the man behind the legend, so it was a steep learning curve. I was mispronouncing his name, to be honest with you. I was saying "Toll-kin," and I quickly realized that was the wrong pronunciation. I had to say "Toll-keen." And yeah, it's learning about those relationships that kind of gave him the safe environment to create, and it inspired him to then tell the stories he did.

The lack of footage for both J.R.R. Tolkien and Edith Bratt’s younger selves is something that certain actors might see as stifling for their own creative process. After all, you don’t want to go into a film like Tolkien and totally botch the characterization of the man who wrote The Lord of the Rings, or his beloved wife for that matter.

But as folks who see the movie will find, both actors are up to the task of portraying very humanized versions of Tolkien and Bratt, as they tell the story of their meeting, and eventually their falling in love. Without proper characters, this wouldn’t work in a fictitious narrative, but in the case of Tolkien, you have to believe that the love between Ronald and Edith is so strong, he’d create epic romances and ravishing Elvish beauties in the name of that love.

To that respect, Lily Collins saw the challenge of portraying Edith as a similar learning opportunity to that of her Tolkien co-star, as she provided the following answer to that same question:

For me it was a little different, because there’s no real footage of [Edith.] There’s not many photos, so it’s not like people can really compare what they know to be true of her, and then me. But I think, in general, when you are playing someone who has a public persona that people already know of, mannerisms, making sure that innately you seem to have understood their aura, and kind of just the character in general of how they acted. When you can directly compare it to video footage or photos, it’s always going to be difficult, because people have a preconceived idea walking in.

While Nicholas Hoult had footage of J.R.R. Tolkien’s interviews from later on in life to go off of, Lily Collins didn’t have anything of the sort when it came to her portrayal of Edith. While it’s certainly an added level of challenge, at the same time, Collins admits that so long as her performance landed in a zone of approximation that matched what was written about Edith Bratt, she was free to move her performance in any direction that suited the sort of aura surrounding Edith’s character.

You can see Nicholas Hoult and Lily Collins explain this for themselves, in the video below from our sit-down during the Tolkien junket day:

Very rarely can any actor capture the complete essence of the person they’re playing in a biopic. But in the case of Nicholas Hoult and Lily Collins, their portrayals of J.R.R. Tolkien and his wife are so well drawn, you can believe their story is not only true, but worthy of a happy ending.

The life story of Tolkien and his ultimate creation of Middle-Earth make for good movie watching, and audiences can see it for themselves as they see Tolkien in theaters, starting with early shows this evening. If you’re interested in further coverage on the film’s release, stay tuned to CinemaBlend as the week progresses.