Morena Baccarin Says ‘Deadpool 3’ Return Is Up in the Air: ‘We Have Not Agreed on Terms,’ So ‘It May or May Not Work Out’

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Harrison Ford is returning to the “Indiana Jones” franchise in the upcoming “Dial of Destiny,” marking a return to the character he’s now played for 42 years. It’s been 44 years since Sigourney Weaver first played Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott’s “Alien,” but don’t expect her to pull a Ford/”Dial of Destiny” and return to the role that made her an action movie icon. In a new interview with Total Film magazine, Ripley said her days as Ripley are over. “There are all kinds of younger actors taking this kind of role,” Weaver said. “And there was an ‘Alien’ [film] that I really wanted to do with Neill Blomkamp and we didn’t get to do that, but, you know, that ship has sailed. I’m very happy doing what I’m doing. I put in my time in space!”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Steven Spielberg participated in a masterclass at the Time 100 Summit and announced he regrets editing guns out of “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.” The film’s 1982 theatrical cut includes a scene of officers chasing young kids with firearms. Spielberg edited the guns out for the 20th anniversary release of the film and replaced the firearms with walkie talkies. “That was a mistake,” Spielberg said. “I never should have done that. ‘E.T.’ is a product of its era. No film should be revised based on the lenses we now are, either voluntarily, or being forced to peer through.” “‘E.T.’ was a film that I was sensitive to the fact that the federal agents were approaching kids with firearms exposed and I thought I would change the guns into walkie talkies…Years went by and I changed my own views,” Spielberg continued. “I should have never messed with the archives of my own work and I don’t recommend anyone do that. All our movies are a kind of a signpost of where we were when we made them, what the world was like, and what the world was receiving when we got those stories out there. So I really regret having that out there.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” director James Mangold confirmed in a new interview with Total Film magazine that Harrison Ford spends approximately 25 minutes of the sequel de-aged to appear around the age he was in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” The “Dial of Destiny” team previously disclosed that new VFX technology was created for the film in order to de-age Ford, but now fans know it was for an extended act of the movie and not just a simple flashback scene. Mangold called Ford “incredibly gifted and agile,” which made it easy for the actor to “pretend that he was 35” when filming the scenes. “But the technology involved is a whole other thing,” Mangold said. “We had hundreds of hours of footage of him in close-ups, in mediums, in wides, in every kind of lighting, night and day. I could shoot Harrison on a Monday as, you know, a 79-year-old playing a 35-year-old, and I could see dailies by Wednesday with his head already replaced,”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Harrison Ford confirmed to Total Film magazine that the upcoming “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” will mark his final outing as the globetrotting archeologist, so don’t expect to see Ford pop up in the “Indiana Jones” television series that’s currently in early development at Disney+. “This is the final film in the series, and this is the last time I’ll play the character,” Ford said about his decades-long run as Indiana Jones coming to a definitive end. “I anticipate that it will be the last time that he appears in a film.” Ford added that he is aware of the potential “Indiana Jones” television series but stressed he “will not be involved in that, if it does come to fruition.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is heading toward $1 billion at the worldwide box office, which is a far cry from the disastrous fate that met the first attempt to bring the Nintendo video game franchise to life. The live-action “Super Mario Bros.” movie in 1993 crashed and burned at the box office, grossing less than $40 million worldwide. Many Mario fans found the film too dark and adult-oriented, but Luigi actor John Leguizamo recently told GQ magazine in a video interview that what they shot was far darker than what was released. “[The directors] had this dark, dark vision that Disney was not okay with so there was all this butt-heading that was incredible,” Leguizamo said. “That party scene? Those were all strippers from North Carolina that they put on the set and they had them in the most revealing clothes and costumes.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Nicholas Hoult confirmed in a recent interview with The Guardian that he lost out on roles in “The Batman,” “Mission: Impossible 7” and “Top Gun: Maverick” all in a row. In a new interview with GQ España, the actor stressed that he is “happy” with his career despite these “disappointments.” Hoult also went into a bit more detail about the experience of losing the title role in “The Batman” to Robert Pattinson. “Of course,” Hoult said when asked if he would’ve liked to play Bruce Wayne/Batman. “I’m sure if you ask most people, they’ll tell you they’d want to portray that role. I think Matt Reeves’ ideas were fantastic and he made a brilliant movie. And I also think that Rob [Robert Pattinson] did an amazing job with the character and I loved seeing him in it. So I don’t think I would have done as good a job as him ultimately. I don’t think I could have fit as well into the world that Matt created as Rob did.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Whenever Elizabeth Olsen returns to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, she’ll surely be hoping a permanent stunt double comes along with her. Speaking to Stephen Colbert during a recent visit to “The Late Show,” Olsen said it’s “ridiculous” that she’s done a majority of her own Marvel stunts as Scarlet Witch. “Your stomach leaves you. It’s like, I guess, the joy people get on roller coasters, which I don’t get, but people love that feeling,” Olsen said about doing her own stunts. “I’ve definitely recovered from my giddiness. Sometimes I’m just like, ‘Okay, how many more of these do you want? I can do this all day’ kind of thing. But sometimes I get a little freaked out.” 

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Selma Blair revealed to British Vogue as part of its May 2023 cover story interview that she had to hide her multiple sclerosis symptoms on film sets in order to maintain her career and not be deemed an “insurance risk” by producers. Not that Blair knew her symptoms were related to multiple sclerosis at the time anyway. “Sets were excruciating sometimes with the exhaustion and the tics,” Blair said. “I took benzos and Klonopin [a medication used to prevent seizures and anxiety disorders]. I didn’t abuse those things, just alcohol. But I was lost and sad and could hardly ever smile. Hence my roles, I imagine.” “I was worried since the beginning of time that a glaring fault would remove me from the workforce,” Blair continued. “And usually it was my incoordination or getting stuck, too weak or sick, in my trailer — or any time, really. The vomiting or body issues were terrifying, [and the] baldness or rashes.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Zack Snyder joined Anthony and Joe Russo’s “Pizza Film School” podcast and raved about HBO’s “Euphoria” and Netflix’s “Squid Game,” two shows he cited while discussing how television has become far more adventurous and exciting than film when it comes to storytelling. “I think we’re in a real golden age of TV in the sense that TV shows are much better at showing you something that you’ve never seen before, or catching you off balance or making a turn that you didn’t see coming,” Snyder said (via The Playlist). “They’re way riskier.” “‘Euphoria,’ for instance, I was just watching the show [and] it’s just unbelievable,” Snyder continued. “That show shouldn’t exist; it’s so good. And that’s the kind of thing… I watch that show and go, ‘This movie would never get made; this movie can’t exist.’”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Hugh Jackman has promised fans that his return as Wolverine in the upcoming “Deadpool 3” won’t screw with the previous “X-Men” timeline. In other words, Jackman’s Wolverine character arc from 2000’s “X-Men” to 2017’s “Logan” is safe from whatever will go down in Marvel Cinematic Universe tentpole. Neither Reynolds nor Jackman have disclosed much information about the new Wolverine, but Reynolds recently told ET Canada that it diverges greatly from Jackson’s previous Wolverine. “We’ve wanted to this this for decades…it’s weirdly the perfect time,” Reynold said about teaming up with Jackman. “I never stopped [trying to get him to come back as Wolverine]. I was just pestering him like a gnat over the last many years. I believe in timing, as much as hard work and luck and all those intersections that are supposed to meet. Timing’s the big one. I think he was ready. I think he was excited.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Samantha Geimer is once again defending Roman Polanski, who raped her in 1977 when she was 13 years old. Geimer has often spoken out in support of Polanski, although this time she did it in an interview with France’s Le Point magazine that was conducted by none other than Polanski’s wife, the actor Emmanuelle Seigner. Polanski was arrested in 1977 for having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. He accepted a plea bargain and only served 42 days in prison. He fled the United States in 1978 while still under probation after his legal team got word that he was going to face imprisonment on additional charges. He was detained by Swiss police decades later in 2009 while traveling to the Zurich Film Festival in an attempt by the United States to extradite him. The Swiss court ultimately rejected the request and released Polanski.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Elijah Wood is “fascinated” and “surprised” over Warner Bros. developing multiple new “Lord of the Rings” movies. The studio announced the plan in February. Wood, of course, played the hobbit Frodo in Peter Jackson’s original “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, which grossed $2.9 billion worldwide and remains one of cinema’s greatest fantasy achievements. “I’m fascinated and I’m excited. I hope it’s good,” Wood recently told GQ magazine about the new films. “I’m surprised—I don’t know why I’m surprised because, of course there would be more movies.” “Obviously at the core of that, is a desire to make a lot of money,” Wood continued. “It’s not that a bunch of executives are like, ‘Let’s make really awesome art.’ And, again, not begrudging anybody because, of course, it is commerce. But great art can come from commerce. So those two things are not mutually exclusive.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Madison De La Garza, who gained television fame as a child star thanks to her role on ABC’s “Desperate Housewives,” opened up to journalist and former “20/20” anchor Elizabeth Vargas on the “Heart of the Matter” podcast about battling cyberbullying and an eating disorder following her run on the show (via Entertainment Weekly). De La Garza appeared on four seasons of “Desperate Housewives” as Juanita Solis, the daughter of Eva Longoria’s character, Gabrielle Solis. De La Garza took over the role of Gabrielle’s daughter in Season 5, when the show jumped ahead five years from the previous season. She was only six years old at the time. The actor stayed in the role through the final season of “Desperate Housewives,” which ended in May 2012.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson announced in March they will be reuniting onscreen after “EDtv” and “True Detective” in a new Apple TV+ comedy from creator David West Read. The 10-episode series will star the actors as fictionalized versions of themselves as they bring their families under the same roof on a Texas ranch. McConaughey recently announced on Kelly Ripa’s “Let’s Talk Off Camera” podcast that the series is titled “Brother From Another Mother.” While the series’ title evokes McConaughey and Harrelson’s real-life friendship over decades, McConaughey let it slip to Ripa that he’s actually questioning whether Harrelson is actually related to him. It all stems from the revelation that McConaughey’s mother knew Harrelson’s father, perhaps intimately.

Last week, news broke that Morena Baccarin wasn’t sure she’d be returning for “Deadpool 3.” “I’d like to be in it,” Baccarin said on a recent episode of the “Inside Of You” podcast. “They have called me about being in it.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Daveed Diggs confirmed in a new interview with Insider that he was attached to a “Twister” sequel that was being developed by original star Helen Hunt. The two actors star together on the Starz original series “Blindspotting.” Hunt confirmed on “Watch What Happens Live” in 2021 that she was writing an inclusive “Twitter” sequel that she intended to direct, but the studio rejected her to the point of not even taking a meeting. “Oh man, I’m not going to get into it mostly because I’m probably going to misremember things,” Diggs told Insider. “But all I’ll say is there was an opportunity where we were talking about that, and it didn’t happen, and the reasons that it didn’t happen are potentially shady. But shady in the way that we know the industry is shady.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director With “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” grossing $204.6 million domestically and $377 million globally in its debut over the five-day Easter weekend, it’s all but certain Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment will move forward with a “Super Mario” sequel. Jack Black, who voices the villainous Bowser in the blockbuster, is already thinking ahead, telling GameSpot that Pedro Pascal is his pick to voice Wario should the sequel bring in a new villain. “It’s not a given that Bowser will return,” Black said. “You know, I did a few ‘Kung Fu Panda’ movies, and it was a different villain every movie. They may do the same thing.” “You know, what if there is a more powerful, more evil villain?” Black continued. “Then I may need to be turned to help Mario and the rest to defend our universe against some other unseen force of evil. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Wario! Pedro Pascal is Wario.”

The Deadpool 3 cast is filling up, but one character might not actually return at all and that’s Vanessa.

Actress Morena Baccarin has addressed the likelihood of a Deadpool 3 return for her character Vanessa, the great love of Ryan Reynolds’ Merc with a Mouth.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Will the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Universe ever have a crossover now that Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy director James Gunn is in charge of DC Studios? “I’m certain that’s more likely now that I’m in charge [at DC],” Gunn recently told Empire Magazine. “Who knows? That’s many years away, though,” Gunn added. “I think we have to establish what we’re doing [at DC] first. I would be lying to say that we haven’t discussed it. But all discussions have been very, very light and fun.” Gunn is starting the press rounds in support of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” which marks his final directorial effort for Marvel. He already has one DC movie under his belt with 2021’s “The Suicide Squad,” but Gunn is now leading DC Studios with Peter Safran and has crafted a new DC Universe that will kick off with 2025’s “Superman: Legacy,” which Gunn is writing and directing.