Anthony Mackie talks ‘Captain America: Brave New World’; Marvel’s Kevin Feige reveals Fantastic Four’s future
Marvel Studios
While at Disney’s APAC Content Showcase Wednesday at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, Anthony Mackie shed a little light on his upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe entry, Captain America: Brave New World.
The movie, which debuts in theaters Feb. 14, will be Mackie’s first after his character Sam Wilson took on the mantle of Captain America in the Disney+ show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
According to Deadline, Mackie said his character — which fans met as a veteran counselor in Captain America: The Winter Soldier — is staying true to his roots.
“He’s still a [counselor]. He’s still serving soldiers, but at the same time, now he’s a leader of his community in the country,” Mackie reportedly said.
Unlike Chris Evans‘ Steve Rogers, however, Wilson never took the super soldier cocktail that gave Steve’s Cap his superior strength.
“When you don’t have the serum, you have to be smart and engineer different ways of [fighting],” the actor said, explaining that “he uses more of his brains than brawn. He uses more of his wit than his fist.”
That said, the trailer to the movie shows him going toe-to-toe with Harrison Ford‘s Red Hulk.
The trade also reports head Kevin Feige made a virtual appearance and revealed that The Fantastic Four: First Steps is about to wrap, and with its debut in July, “Marvel’s First Family … [goes] right into the next Avengers movies.”
The Valley(Bravo) Brittany Cartwright has responded to her estranged husband’s errors in his response to her divorce filing. On Wednesday, Jax Taylor submitted a response to the petition to divorce without help from legal advisers. The handwritten document included the incorrect statement that the pair were not legally married and included an incorrect timeline of their relationship. “We are legally married,” Cartwright commented under a post from E! News. “I’m guessing paperwork is hard for some people.”
Finding Mr. Christmas(Hallmark+) It’s not Christmastime without a Hallmark movie marathon. You can’t have one of those films without a hunky leading man, and now Hallmark is launching its first-ever reality competition series centered around finding the perfect holiday hunk. The show, called Finding Mr. Christmas, puts 10 aspiring actors up against each other to test their acting skills and holiday spirit. Entertainment Weekly revealed the cast on Thursday. The winner of the show will nab a leading role in the upcoming Hallmark Channel film Happy Howlidays.
The Hills(MTV) Jason Wahler is about to become a father for the third time. The Hills star is expecting his third child with his wife, Ashley Wahler, he confirmed to People. The couple got married in 2013 and have two other children, a daughter, Delilah Ray, and a son, Wyatt Ragle.
Back in June, Sir Ian McKellen seemed to downplay a fall off a London stage during a performance of the Shakespeare adaptation Player Kings. A statement at the time said he was in good spirits and would make a speedy recovery. But now, several months later, McKellen reveals the whole thing was pretty scary.
“Apparently, I’m told by the company manager who’s holding my head as I lay on the floor, I said to her, ‘I’ve broken my neck. I’m dying,'” McKellen told ABC Audio in an interview from his home in London. “Now, I don’t remember saying that, but I must have felt it.”
He says he’s fine now, after fracturing his wrist and hurting his back, crediting the fat suit he was wearing in order to play rotund Knight John Falstaff with protecting his ribs and hips in the fall. And while physically he’s almost completely back to normal, the mental effects linger.
“I’m left with some disappointment,” McKellen confesses. “I’m ashamed that I didn’t complete — you know, my pride was bruised. How could this happen to me?” he asks with a chuckle. “And I suspect that although physically I’m healing, I wonder whether deep down there’s something mental or emotional that was jolted that needs to be attended to. And I’m attending to it by not working at the moment and resting.”
McKellen appears to be in a reflective mood as he discusses the fall, and his new film The Critic, in which he plays a prominent 1930s London theater critic named Jimmy Erskine, a once feared and respected tastemaker trying to recapture his glory days. Reviews, McKellen reveals, are a necessary evil for actors.
“We are seeking for approval. And we’re probably rather pathetic people who need that approval. We’re not confident enough of ourselves. So if you get a good review — oh, it’s an added pleasure. And if you get a bad review, it can be very hurtful,” McKellen admits.
And although he hasn’t been on the receiving end of a lot of bad reviews, the ones he has had are seared in his brain. Take for instance his turn in a Bernard Shaw revival in London’s West End when he was much younger. He starred in the play alongside a pre-Dame Judi Dench and recalls how he overheard a few fellow actors discussing his performance one night at a restaurant.
“One of them was going on and on and on about how dreadful I’d been. And I was typical of these modern young actors, using my voice in the wrong way and drawing attention to myself. And he just simply hadn’t enjoyed it.” McKellen says he laughed off the criticism, but the next night onstage it crept into his consciousness. “And as I looked into the audience talking away, I suddenly thought, ‘My God, every single person in this audience agrees with that actor that I heard last night. They all think I’m rubbish. I shouldn’t be here.’” He says he froze, forgot his lines and Dench had to rescue him.
Still, he swears if there’s a bad review out there, he’s going to read it. “I like to know. If people haven’t enjoyed the film of Cats I’d like to know about it.” 2019’s film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Broadway musical Cats was savaged by critics, probably the worst-reviewed film McKellen has ever been in. McKellen didn’t get the blame, though. His portrayal of Gus the Theater Cat was mostly praised. And he may be returning to a role that garnered him some of the most praise of his film career: the mighty wizard Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings movies.
“There are going to be a couple of more films, I think, with some of the same characters in it. And I’ve been asked to stand by,” McKellen says. “But there’s no script that I read, and no date. All I can say, as far as I’m concerned, they better be quick.”
Quick, because at 85 years old, McKellen isn’t sure how much time he has left. “I’m rather living a year at a time, rather than two or three years at a time,” he says.
Gandalf is a part of his legacy, so if he can, he’s going to go to New Zealand and put on the robes. Legacy is a theme in The Critic, as well. In his downtime, legacy and what’s next are things McKellen has been thinking about a lot. He remembers going to visit a friend in the hospital, a friend who was dying, and asking him what he was thinking about as his life neared the end.
“And he said, ‘I don’t want to miss anything.’ And that’s rather my view,” McKellen says wistfully. He wants to know what’s going to happen. “How is AI going to really take over? I mean, what is life going to be like? When is the world going to settle down? Is the world going to survive? I won’t know. I won’t know. And I suppose I won’t care because I won’t exist.”
L-R: Shawn, Marlon, Keenen and Damon Wayans in 2000 — David Keeler/Online USA
A month after Marlon Wayansdecried how Harvey Weinstein “stole” the Scary Movie franchise from Keenen Ivory Wayans and his family, ABC Audio has confirmed the fam will be back with a new installment in the horror spoof films.
Weinstein’s former company Miramax has teamed up with distributor Paramount Pictures for the new project, which was first announced at the CinemaCon confab over the summer — but without the Wayans name attached at that point.
In an Instagram post, Marlon said, “WE’RE BACK!!! After nearly 20 years, the Wayans brothers are finally going to give the fans what they’ve been asking for… a return to the SCARY MOVIE franchise!”
He added, “We’re looking forward to having fun on the big screen again.”
In a statement, Miramax head Jonathan Glickman trumpeted, “We are thrilled to reunite Scary Movie with the Wayans brothers, the brilliant creators behind the beloved franchise. … we’re lucky to have Keenen, Marlon and Shawn‘s unique comedic vision bringing it to audiences around the world.”
In the announcement, Marlon, Shawn, and Keenan added in part,”This is a franchise we created more than 20 years ago. We remember people laughing in the aisles and hope to see that happen again.”
As reported back in September, Marlon talked to the Club Shay Shaypodcast about the runaway success of the first film, which was directed by Keenan.
After the “huge” first film, “We got a good deal for the second one,” but then Harvey and brother Bob Weinstein “took it from us.” He insisted they paid for it at the box office with subsequent attempts minus the famous family.
“You can’t do Wayans s*** without the Wayanses,” Marlon said. “We have 200 years of comedy between me, Shawn and Keenan. Damon, Kim. We have a lot of years of excellence of what we do.”
