So Christopher Nolan's Next Movie Won't Really Be Like North By Northwest Meets Inception?

So Christopher Nolan's Next Movie Won't Really Be Like North By Northwest Meets Inception?

It's been about a year and a half since the release of Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, and the acclaimed director's next film is still shrouded in mystery. Well, at least it was until new reports claimed that it was a romantic thriller that was a cross between North by Northwest and Inception. It was a concept that intrigued film fans, but it sounds like it's back to the guessing games because a new report claims that the last rumor is false.

Christopher Nolan is one of the most prestigious directors working today. He's the mind behind excellent movies like The Prestige and Memento, and gained mainstream popularity for his work on The Dark Knight Trilogy. He was finally nominated for an Oscar on his last film, 2017's Dunkirk, and since then movie fans have been eagerly awaiting to find out more details about his next project.

It seemed like those details had finally come when a report from Production Weekly claimed that Christopher Nolan's new film was described "as a romantic thriller, North by Northwest in tone meets Inception." Inception blew people's minds back in 2010, and North by Northwest is said to be one of the greatest films ever made, so it's a pretty cool mashup on paper.

However, it sounds like the update was off-base. A source told IGN the information provided by Production Weekly was inaccurate. No further elaboration was given, so it sounds like we are all back in the dark on this one.

On one hand, this can be seen as good news. Christopher Nolan has many strengths, but I don't know that I would say that romance is one of them. His films usually come off as being a bit colder and focused primarily on the drama or psychosis of his main character. That's not to say he does't have a great romantic thriller in him, but it's a bit of uncharted territory for Nolan.

For those who may not know, North by Northwest is a 1959 thriller from Alfred Hitchcock. It followed Cary Grant as a man with mistaken identity who winds up running across the country as he's swept up into a conspiracy. Even if you've never seen the film, you've probably seen the above image of Cary Grant running from an airplane recreated a dozen different times in pop culture.

Inception is one of Christopher Nolan's most well-known films, and it starred Leonardo DiCaprio as a thief who steals information by entering people's dreams.

At least we know one thing about Christopher Nolan's next movie: the release date. The movie is currently slated to arrive in theaters on July 17, 2020. There are lot of movies to look forward to until then, so be sure to learn about them all in our handy 2019 movie release guide.

Read More

Captain Marvel's Lack Of Endgame Screen Time Explained By The Russo Brothers

Captain Marvel's Lack Of Endgame Screen Time Explained By The Russo Brothers

Spoilers ahead for Avengers: Endgame.

The Russo Brothers did the seemingly impossible with their pair of Avengers movies, expertly balancing a massive cast and keeping the movie remarkably character-driven. Endgame exceeded even the expectations set with Infinity War, as the survivors of Thanos' snap teamed up to Avenge the fallen and get back what they lost.

Endgame also brought Brie Larson's Captain Marvel to the greater MCU, following her first solo movie. And while she factored into both of the battles with Thanos in the movie, Carol Danvers wasn't a huge presence in the film. The Russo Brothers recently explained the character's lack of screen time compared to other heroes, with Joe Russo saying:

It was a story about the original six. That was the focus of the film, to conclude a 10-year saga about those characters. And Carol’s a fairly new character.

Well, that was honest. Captain Marvel may have had a strong origin story that made a ton of money at the box office, but The Russo Brothers simply weren't focusing on Carol Danvers much for Avengers: Endgame. It was primarily a story about the OG team, although Captain Marvel saved the day more than once.

Avengers: Endgame was deeply connected to the previous 21 movies in the MCU, especially when it came to the long tenure of the original lineup. Members of the first team like Iron Man, Captain America, and Black Widow were given the focus they deserve, while the other characters like Captain Marvel helped move that story forward.

Related: Captain Marvel Will Lead The MCU, Kevin Feige Says

In their same conversation with Empire (via Fatherly), The Russo Brothers also revealed that Carol Danvers' lack of a relationship with the surviving Avengers also prevented her from being essential to the main storyline. As Anthony Russo put it,

[Carol] had no depth of relationship with those other characters, which on one side is an opportunity, but also – when you have a story that’s this size – you have to work with an economy of storytelling in order to maximize the journey in the movie.

Time is money, and The Russo Brothers had to cram a ton of content into the runtime of Avengers: Endgame. And since Carol Danvers didn't have any super interesting personal dynamics with the rest of the survivors, she functioned on more of a tertiary level to the blockbuster. Still, Thanos' death wouldn't have been possible without her. Both times.

Carol Danvers first appeared in Avengers: Endgame in space, rescuing Nebula and Tony in the knick of time. Shortly after, she and the rest of the heroes boarded The Benatar to track down Thanos at The Farm. But after the time jump, she was absent from the Time Heist-- citing issues across the galaxy she had to tend to.

Captain Marvel returned to Earth in the knick of time, destroying Thanos' massive ship in the process. She also helped transport the Infinity Gauntlet through the warzone, before engaging with Thanos directly. She stopped the Mad Titan from snapping his finger, allowing the time for Tony to steal the stones and end him once and for all. Now we'll have to see what's next for Carol in the post-Endgame world.

Captain Marvel's presence in Avengers: Endgame wasn't all that substantial, but it was still exciting to see Carol Danvers crossing over and interacting with Earth's Mightiest Heroes. And much of the film's events wouldn't have been possible without her role. After all, Tony Stark seemed moments away from death when she appeared to tow him and Nebula home to Earth.

While Brie Larson's fans might have been disappointed that the Room star didn't have as big a role in Avengers: Endgame as the original team, but her massive powers have the potential to complicate scenes like the Time Heist and Thanos' assault on the Avengers Compound. Captain Marvel is by far the most powerful hero in the MCU, surpassing the likes of Thor and Scarlet Witch. So she has the potential to end certain conflict before they start. Just look at how quickly Thanos was decapitated in Endgame.

Captain Marvel's big entrance in the Avengers: Endgame final battle was an epic one, and helped turn the tide of the battle for Earth. She evened the odds by destroying Thanos' ship, preventing him from raining fire on the battlefield. Thanos also could have snapped his fingers and ended everything, but was stopped by Captain Marvel. At least until he used the Power Stone to send her flying.

It should be interesting to see how Captain Marvel factors into the Marvel Cinematic Universe during its mysterious Phase Four. There's bound to be a passing of the guard in the new slate of movies, where the newer heroes step out of the background and into the main narrative. Iron Man and Captain America's tenures are up, and Black Widow likely won't be revived in the main timeline. As such, the newer characters should get more of a spotlight.

Considering the massive box office performance of Captain Marvel, we should expect the title character to have a big role in Phase Four and beyond. Additionally, Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson was given the mantle of Captain America, and Spider-Man: Far From Home may be setting up Peter Parker as the next Iron Man. Smart money says that Doctor Strange and Black Panther also get their first sequels as well, transitioning the fandom to a new class of Avengers.

Captain Marvel's sequel could go seemingly anywhere, as there's decades of time between her solo movie and eventual appearance in Avengers: Endgame. She's been helping to police the entire galaxy, so there's plenty of stories to be explored. Plus, we never saw how her conflict with the Supreme Intelligence went.

There are some fans hoping that Ms. Marvel might be introduced in the follow-up to Captain Marvel, including Brie Larson herself. We'll just have to wait for Marvel Studios to finally reveal its plans for the future.

Avengers: Endgame is in theaters now. Be sure to check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

Read More

Bond 25 Production Suspended After Daniel Craig Suffers Injury

Bond 25 Production Suspended After Daniel Craig Suffers Injury

Production on the as-yet-untitled James Bond 25 has reached a standstill as lead actor Daniel Craig apparently has injured himself badly on set and needs time to recover.

Daniel Craig and the rest of the cast and crew for Bond 25 were in Jamaica filming scenes for the upcoming 007 thriller, due to reach theaters in 2020. According to The Sun, Craig slipped while running in his signature Bond suit, and he fell awkwardly, causing himself an enormous amount of pain. It’s believed that Craig injured his ankle while running, and the actor was flown to the States for X-rays to determine the extent of the damage.

According to the report, Daniel Craig was filming one of his last scenes in Jamaica, with filming set to resume in London’s Pinewood Studios afterward. For the time being, that schedule has been put on hold as the crew decides what to do next. The Sun notes that production bosses hope that Craig’s injury doesn’t cause a long delay.

Daniel Craig has been recognized as the more physical James Bond from the moment he joined the franchise in 2006’s Casino Royale, and he has endured his fair share of bumps, bruises and bodily harms as a result of playing 007. As is documented in The Sun, Craig lost two teeth after absorbing a blow to the face while filming his first-ever stunt scene as 007.

Since then, Craig also has suffered a muscle tear while filming Quantum of Solace (during which he also sliced off the tip of a finger), and sustained a serious knee injury while filming a fight scene for Spectre, which caused production to shut down for weeks.

Who is on set telling Daniel Craig to slow it down a tad? Maybe the studio needs to hire a coach who encourages Craig to give the stunt guy more work? Granted, without Craig in the role, we wouldn’t get memorable action set pieces like this:

But does Daniel Craig still feel like this physical pain is worth it? The 51-year-old actor hemmed and hawed about returning to 007 in the press, leading to rampant speculation that he’d be replaced by an alternate Bond. Even now though it hasn’t been officially stated by anyone, many seem to believe that Bond 25 will be Craig’s final turn in the tuxedo, and on-set injuries probably help convince him to hang it up.

Cary Fukunaga directs Bond 25, with a story we know very little about. The cast was in Jamaica to announce the start of production, knowing that the location has a lot of personal and professional connections to author Ian Fleming and the Bond movie series, as a whole.

We’ll see how Daniel Craig fell when Bond 25 opens in theaters on April 8, 2020.

Read More

Hellboy Hasn't Done Well With Critics, But Did Audiences Like It?

Hellboy Hasn't Done Well With Critics, But Did Audiences Like It?

Things were looking rough for the new Hellboy going into this past weekend after reviews were released by critics and the movie was savaged. The film now has a 15% positive score on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, which is a slight improvement over where that number was going into the weekend. However, now that audiences have actually seen the film, Hellboy is faring slightly better with them, as the movie has a 64% audience score on RT, though it has received a C CinemaScore and opened in third place at the box office.

Hellboy's fortunes have been something of a mixed bag over this opening weekend. The best thing going for the movie right now is that about two-third of the fans that have seen the movie have liked it according to Rotten Tomatoes. While that number isn't overwhelmingly positive, getting a strong majority of the people who saw the movie to publicly say they liked it isn't ever a guarantee.

Things are a little bit rougher when it comes to the film's CinemaScore. While a score of C is, well, an average, and thus things could be a lot worse, when compared to other recent releases, Hellboy doesn't do quite as well. Of all recent movies, only Rupert Wyatt's Captive State has a lower score than Hellboy (C-). CinemaScores are tabulated based on surveys given to audiences on opening night, so things are weighted in favor of the film scoring well, as fans who go to see any movie on opening night are likely to be serious fans who have been planning on seeing the film. Most movies do better than a C with CinemaScore and few actually do worse than that.

Finally, there's the box office, which is the ultimate determination of a film's success. While most of the people who saw the movie may have liked it, the fact is not a llarge number of people actually did. Hellboy was projected to bring in something in the neighborhood of $17 million, which wasn't exactly a blockbuster movie number, but would have competed for the box office crown against Shazam!'s second weekend. However, the film ended up doing a much poorer than expected $12 million. That wasn't even enough to be the best new release for the weekend, as the comedy Little was able to do $15 million. Both films fell to Shazam! which added another $25 million to its growing total.

It's possible Hellboy could pick up business internationally. The movie opened in most territories on or before this past Friday, but international numbers have yet to be reported. If other countries were attracted to Hellboy more than people were domestically, the movie could actually turn out ok, or even become a hit if things go very differently. At this point, that's about the only thing left that could save Hellboy, which is probably sad news for those people who actually saw the film and thought it was good.

Read More

Jordan Peele Reveals His Cameos In Us And Get Out

Jordan Peele Reveals His Cameos In Us And Get Out

The following contains minor spoilers for Us.

Jordan Peele has been compared by many to Alfred Hitchcock for the way has manages suspense in his films. However, it appears that Peele is similar to the famous director in one other major way, he likes to appear in his own films.

Alfred Hitchcock was known to cameo in most of his major motion pictures. Usually he would just walk across the screen at some point or otherwise appear in a fairly innocuous role. However, Jordan Peele has taken that idea to an even greater extreme. You never actually see Jordan Peele in Get Out or Us as it's actually only his voice that appears in his two directorial efforts. In both movies, he apparently creates the sounds of dying animals. According to Peele...

I've made cameos in both of my films. In Get Out I was the voice of the deer. [makes deer noise] [And in Us] I am a dying rabbit. [makes rabbit noise].

At the beginning of Get Out, the characters of Chris and Rose are on their way to Rose's parents house when their car strikes a deer. Chris goes to investigate and finds the animal slowly expiring in the woods just off the road.

For those of you who have seen Us, you know that rabbits play an interesting role in the story, apparently Peele voices one of them as they die.

It's certainly an interesting and unique way to cameo in your own films. Many directors have followed the lead of Alfred Hitchcock and made appearances in their own movies from time to time. You can be sure M. Night Shyamalan will appear in his films, sometimes in a sizable supporting role. Joe Russo has also appeared in his Marvel movies from time to time.

However, I can't think of a time a director has made a point to appear in two films, but in a way that he would almost certainly never be recognized. It wasn't until somebody asked him about the idea of appearing in his own films that we learned that he actually had.

Check out the interview with Fandango below to hear exactly what Jordan Peele sounds like in his cameos.

We don't know what's next for Jordan Peele when it comes to the director's chair. He's working as a producer of an upcoming remake of Candyman as well as the newest iteration of The Twilight Zone so he may not be directing another movie soon. If and when Peele makes another feature film, I suppose we should all look for a scene in which an animal dies, at that appears to be the place we'll hear Jordan Peele cameo in the future.

Read More

Tom Holland Warns Of A Spider-Man: Far From Home Scene That Will Be An Emotional Punch In The Face

Tom Holland Warns Of A Spider-Man: Far From Home Scene That Will Be An Emotional Punch In The Face

Jon Watts’ initial Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: Homecoming, was more emotional than you might remember. Yes, it had its lighter moments, and inspirations from the high school classics delivered by John Hughes. But there were tough, emotional beats in that movie as well, which Watts and leading man Tom Holland weren’t afraid to embrace and wallow in. And it sounds like they are back at it in the upcoming Spider-Man: Far From Home.

CinemaBlend recently traveled to the London set of Spider-Man: Far From Home and watched the creative team work. During a sit-down conversation with Tom Holland, we brought up complicated scenes from Homecoming that really stuck with us, from the scene of Peter Parker pushing himself out of the rubble – a direct callback to The Amazing Spider-Man No. 33, “The Final Chapter” – to his verbal standoff with Michael Keaton in the car outside of Liz’s dance.

We asked if Spider-Man: Far From Home includes tense, emotional moments similar to these, and Holland immediately opened up, stating:

There’s a scene in this film where audiences will feel like they were punched in the face. Even filming it, I remember walking out and then watching it again on the monitors and asking Jon, ‘Are you sure that's okay?’ And he's like, ‘No, it's not. People are going to hate this scene.’ But it really… God, it’s pretty crazy. And it's very similar in the way that it's very tense, and it sort of rips the rug from underneath your feet. It's pretty awesome.

Now that is a tease. Tom Holland couldn’t come close to giving us any more context about the scene he is discussing. At the same time, Holland was pretty guarded during the whole visit, because when he sat down to discuss Spider-Man: Far From Home, none of us had yet to see Avengers: Endgame. That movie didn’t even have a title yet. And as far as we knew, Spider-Man was dust.

Naturally, now, we know that he’s back… and if you saw Avengers: Endgame, you know how he comes back! The latest trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home sort of shows how he is going to pick up the pieces following Endgame, so why don’t we let that teaser tell the story:

In Spider-Man: Far From Home, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) needs to take a break from that superhero lifestyle, so he agrees to accompany his classmates on a European jaunt. Only, once there, he gets caught up in a series of global attacks that are being investigated by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and a new ally, Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal).

As much as Spidey wants to sit this one out, Fury and Beck need his assistance to take down Elementals – creatures that are from another dimension, or multiverse, and could cause real problems for the world at large.

Spider-Man: Far From Home swings into theaters on July 2. Stay here on CinemaBlend for a lot more coverage from our visit to the movie’s set.

Read More

Jumanji 3 Wraps Filming In Atlanta, The Rock Previews New Desert And Mountain Locations Ahead

Jumanji 3 Wraps Filming In Atlanta, The Rock Previews New Desert And Mountain Locations Ahead

Jumanji 3 is coming out this Christmas, which feels like a fast-turnaround -- but the team is filming fast, so apparently it'll all work out. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has been updating fans from set each week, and today he revealed that they were actually finished production on the Atlanta set. That doesn't mean they're done filming by a long shot. But he previewed some of the new locations ahead -- including "icy snow capped mountains" and "blistering desert dunes" in addition to the jungles we're familiar with from Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

Check out Dwayne Johnson's latest Instagram post, which also seemed to show off one of his character's new looks for Jumanji 3:

Everyone is heading to the desert for their action movies this year. Interesting trend.

Just a couple of weeks ago, The Rock (Dr. Smolder Bravestone) posted another photo from set, this one with Karen Gillan (Ruby Roundhouse). They were both dressed in warm-weather gear -- very different costumes from Welcome to the Jungle -- possibly teasing a scene from the snow-capped mountain section of their Jumanji 3 game.

Jumanji 3 is bringing back pretty much everyone from Jumanji 2, Welcome to the Jungle. Jack Black (Professor Sheldon "Shelly" Oberon) added that Karen Gillan's Ruby Roundhouse kicks ass in the new movie and has a more evolved role with more to do.

The whole band is back together in Jumanji 3 -- including Kevin Hart as avatar Franklin Finbar, Nick Jonas as Jefferson "Seaplane," and the four young actors who played the high school players. Plus, Rhys Darby will be back as Nigel the in-game guide. New additions include Danny DeVito, Danny Glover, Awkwafina, and Dania Ramirez. We don't know what they'll be doing yet, but there's a good chance they're either players or avatars in the next level of the game.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was a massive hit after its December 2017 debut, holding its own against Star Wars: The Last Jedi with a worldwide gross of $962,126,927. That near billion was off a reported production budget of around $90 million, per Box Office Mojo. Jumanji 3 -- which has yet to reveal its official title -- is aiming for lightning to strike again this year. It's opening December 13, just a week before Star Wars: Episode IX. Will that gamble pay off? We'll see.

Jumanji 3 still has a lot of filming left to do in some "wild" hot and cold locations. The Rock and company will probably continue sharing updates along the way, crossing their fingers that fans love this movie as much as both the Robin Williams movie and Welcome to the Jungle. Keep up with all of the upcoming movie release dates with our guide to 2019.

Read More