Catching Up With Captain America
The Marvel Cinematic Universe was vastly different when the last Captain America movie premiered nine years ago. In 'Captain America: Civil War,' the supervillain Thanos had not yet snuffed out half of humanity, Tony Stark was still alive and the vibranium shield of Captain America still belonged to Steve Rogers.
Now, in 'Captain America: Brave New World' (in theaters), the shield and its hefty responsibilities have passed to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), the winged Avenger who must decipher the origins of an attack on the President. The film's plot draws on classic Marvel movies like 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' and 'Avengers: Endgame,' but it also features characters from more recent offerings, such as the Marvel series on Disney+, 'The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.'
Here's what you need to know before watching.
How did Sam Wilson become Captain America?
For much of the history of the M.C.U., Captain America was synonymous with Steve Rogers, the frail but big-hearted young man who transformed into one of Marvel's most recognizable heroes when he received a super serum and an indestructible shield.
In 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier,' Rogers befriends Wilson, an Air Force veteran grieving the loss of his wingman. Equipped with the Falcon flight suit, Wilson joins forces with Rogers to combat terrorists and other threats. He quickly becomes one of Captain America's closest allies, siding with Rogers when the Avengers split into feuding factions in 'Captain America: Civil War.' Wilson was one of the many people who disappeared in the five-year 'Blip' caused by Thanos's snap, but he reappeared in 'Avengers: Endgame.'
In 'Endgame,' Rogers goes back in time to return the Infinity Stones but instead of returning to the present day, he decides to stay in the past and live a full life with his lover Peggy Carter. Wilson ultimately finds Rogers sitting on a bench, his face wrinkled and his body aged. Rogers hands him the shield and anoints him as the new Captain America. 'I'll do my best,' Wilson says.
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San Francisco Chronicle
19 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Harvey Fierstein, on eve of Tony honor, looks back on his career
NEW YORK (AP) — Last year, Broadway actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein handed director Jack O'Brien the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. This year, it's his turn. 'Following him is not an easy task. In fact, I spoke to him and he said, 'I just want to put my name in there as someone who would love to give you the award.' And I said, 'Well, I'd rather you didn't.' I said, 'I'd rather you wrote my speech,'' Fierstein says. Fierstein, the four-time Tony winner behind 'Torch Song Trilogy' and 'Kinky Boots,' will get the award Sunday at Radio City Music Hall. He connected by Zoom from his home in 'a small fictional town in Connecticut' to talk about his career and a Broadway season dominated by George Clooney in 'Good Night, and Good Luck' and Denzel Washington in 'Othello.' The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity. AP: Do you know what you're going to say on Tony night? FIERSTEIN: I never know what I'm going to say. But I have been trying to gather thoughts, which I guess is a good idea. And I watched at least five or six lifetime achievements speeches by others. AP: Has the honor triggered any personal thoughts? FIERSTEIN: I did write a line that may or may not end up in my speech, saying that the most humbling thing is to think that my life meant something to the community. It's one thing to be enjoyed, but to have the kind of meaning that they turn around and say, 'We want to give you a lifetime achievement'? That's a very heady idea. AP: Was a lifetime in the theater inevitable? FIERSTEIN: No, no, no. I guess there are theatrical types, but art was always inevitable. I was sort of artistic, but I thought I'd maybe be a Disney animator. I don't think I ever believed I was good enough to create the Disney characters, but there were people that took the creation and then did the other drawings. I thought I could do that. Something in the arts. I had my BA in painting from Pratt. That's what I thought was going to do. AP: You arrived on Broadway just as AIDS was consuming the arts. What was Broadway like then? FIERSTEIN: There was no time to think about it. We had to go to war immediately. If you remember, Ronald Reagan never said the word 'AIDS' in eight years. There was no attack against the disease; there was only an attack against people. People wouldn't go to restaurants because there were gay waiters. There were people that wouldn't go to Broadway because there were gay people. They might be in the audience with gay people. AP: You work has always been about compassion. Why didn't you want to burn it all down? FIERSTEIN: My writing is telling stories that mean something to me. And certainly there's hatred and there's anger in my stories — and truth — as far as I can tell them. But the horrible truth is that no matter how badly we act as human beings, there's still a humanity under it all. AP: What are your thoughts about the current Broadway season? FIERSTEIN: Who would have guessed that we'd have a season where the plays were the big thing and the musicals are sort of ignored? Thanks to George and Denzel and these stars that return to Broadway — thankfully return to Broadway — and they've done these plays and it's wonderful. They're bringing an audience that maybe wouldn't go see a musical or a play. AP: Just get them to experience it, right? FIERSTEIN: Once you go to the theater, once you get in there and if you have a good time, if it does something, you're going to come back. I don't care why you came in the first place. Come back and see what else we have and open your mind and heart — and wallets. AP: What about the pipeline of playwrights — are you happy with it? FIERSTEIN: There are people that are in love with theater, certainly, but there are people that want to make a living. And those people seem to drift to television and movies. I have a nephew married to a wonderful woman who wants to be a writer, but what she wants to write is movies and TV. It wouldn't even interest her to write a play. I don't know why. It seems easier to write television. It seems easier to write a half-hour where you already are given the characters. AP: Congratulations again. You are beloved in this community and a lifetime achievement award seems appropriate. FIERSTEIN: I thought it was because they just wanted to give me something else to dust, because I ain't got enough stuff to dust here. ___ For more coverage of the 2025 Tony Awards, visit
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Elvis & Lilo & Stitch: 'Everyone's Favorite Elvis-Loving Alien' pulls up to Graceland
Elvis and Ann-Margret. Elvis and Nancy Sinatra. Those teams were popular with audiences. But not as popular as Elvis & Lilo & Stitch. Released in 2002, the Disney animated feature film "Lilo & Stitch" introduced audiences to a lonely young Hawaiian girl and Elvis fan, named Lilo, and her new "pet," Stitch, a somewhat dog-esque genetically engineered extraterrestrial who liked to rampage but really yearned for a hug. Together, the duo pursued 'ohana (a Hawaiian term for "family") while playing "Suspicious Minds" on a portable record player and battling space aliens. Like Stitch's stolen spaceship when it crash-landed on the island of Kauaʻi, the movie made an impact. It earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature (it lost to Miyazaki's "Spirited Away," as any movie would), and collected $273 million at the international box office. (In comparison, 1964's "Viva Las Vegas," with Elvis and Ann-Margret, earned the equivalent of $94 million, in 2025 dollars.) On May 23, Disney released a new "Lilo & Stitch," the latest in its series of more-or-less live-action remakes of beloved animated features (other examples — all with digitally animated characters — include "Beauty and the Beast," "Mulan" and "Snow White," to name a few). Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp (who charmed audiences with the low-budget "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On"), the movie preserves but de-emphasizes its predecessor's Elvis connection. Even so, in the actual live-action world — the world of Disney and Graceland, of marketing and merchandise, of fans of music and movies — Elvis & Lilo & Stitch remain inseparable. "The amazing thing is that each generation gets introduced to Elvis in a different way, and for a certain generation, 'Lilo & Stitch' was how they were introduced to Elvis," said Angie Marchese, vice president of archives and exhibits at Graceland. "Now in their mid-20s, these people became fans because of the Disney movie," she said. "And now there's a whole new generation of kids who will be introduced to Elvis and his music through this new live-action version." How many kids? A lot of 'em: The new "Lilo" immediately established itself as a blockbuster. According to Variety, the entertainment industry newspaper, the movie set a Memorial Day weekend record by collecting an estimated $183 million at the U.S. box office. With the addition of its overseas revenues, Variety added, "Lilo & Stich" is off to "a staggering $341.7 million global start." On May 22, the evening before the movie's official release date, Disney hosted an invitation-only screening of the new movie in the 464-seat theater at The Guest House at Graceland, the hotel on Elvis Presley Boulevard that is located just north of the Elvis mansion. Attendees — mostly Elvis fans already connected to Graceland via various mailing lists — packed the house. They snagged free "Lilo & Stitch" posters and leis, and posed for selfies against Hawaiian backdrops and alongside larger-than-life Stitch figures, dressed in Elvis garb (there was a "Blue Hawaii Stitch," a "Jailhouse Rock Stitch," and a "50000000 Million Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong Gold Lamé Suit" Stitch). Earlier in the day, an animatronic Stitch in a rhinestone-studded jumpsuit toured Graceland in a miniature motorized vehicle, to the surprise and likely delight of fans. "The lovable renegade alien, who happens to love the music of Elvis Presley, arrived at the gates to Graceland Mansion in a pink convertible before going across the street to view the King of Rock 'n' Roll's jumpsuits and pink Cadillac at Elvis Presley's Memphis entertainment complex," stated a Disney press release about the publicity event. The headline described Stitch as "Everyone's Favorite Elvis-Loving Alien." ELVIS AT 90: Decade-by-decade milestones in the life — and afterlife — of the King The ballyhoo echoed similar fanfare that heralded the release of the first "Lilo & Stitch" 23 years earlier. In 2002, the movie's arrival coincided with Graceland's yearlong commemoration of the 25th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death; Jack Soden, CEO of Elvis Presley Enterprises, told The Commercial Appeal that the release of an Elvis-connected "classic G-rated Disney flick" would open "a powerful market" for Graceland. In 2002 as in 2025, Disney and Graceland hosted an invitation-only local premiere for "Lilo & Stitch," but the earlier event was more elaborate. The screening of the film at Downtown's now-vanished multiplex, the Muvico Peabody Place 22, was followed by what The Commercial Appeal called a "lavish luau" in front of the ticket pavilion at Graceland, complete with fire dancers, leis made from actual orchids, bamboo huts and costumed movie characters. Testifying to the event's importance, the guest of honor was the nephew of Walt Disney, longtime Disney executive Roy E. Disney, who at the time was vice chairman of the Disney company and chair of Disney Feature Animation. (Roy Disney died in 2009, at 79.) The Los Angeles premiere of the 2002 movie had occurred about a week earlier. Priscilla Presley attended, and told reporters that "Lilo & Stitch" offered "a great message to bring family back together again because really, that's what it's all about. Elvis was very much a family man, regardless of what you hear. He loved family and he always came home." In 2025 as in 2002, Disney and Elvis Presley Enterprises are banking on the appeal of "Lilo & Stitch." The gift shops at Graceland now are stuffed with items from the grandiloquently labeled "Disney Stitch Inspired by Elvis Collection," created by NECA, a pop culture collectibles company. Ranging from $12.99 to $34.99, these include plush and plastic figures of all sizes, showcasing Stitch in Elvis garb. Stitch-as-Elvis pins and other items also are available. The new merchandise augments a still thriving line of "Lilo & Stitch" merchandise, tied to the original film. Stitch "has become a crucial character in the Walt Disney Company's modern empire, mainly in the form of a dizzying array of licensed merchandise," The New York Times reported this week, in a story that called Stitch "a cash cow for the company." Reported the newspaper: "The company's annual financial reports for 2023 and 2024 included 'Lilo & Stitch' on a short list of nine examples of its 'major' licensed properties, putting it on par with classics titans like Winnie the Pooh and Mickey and Friends, and conglomerates like Star Wars and the collective Disney princesses." Meanwhile, vintage 2002 "Lilo & Stitch" collectibles continue to be popular on eBay and elsewhere; these include eight McDonald's Happy Meal toys, one of which presents Stitch in an Elvis jumpsuit, strumming a guitar atop a surfboard. ELVIS WEEK 2025: Graceland to celebrate the King with concerts, panels, vigil and more The new "Lilo & Stitch," for the most part, is remarkably faithful to its inspiration, even to the inclusion of a clip from the same B-movie, 1958's "Earth vs. The Spider." But — somewhat surprisingly, in the wake of the hit Baz Luhrmann biopic — the new movie has less Elvis than the old. Yes, the soundtrack showcases the same songs ("Heartbreak Hotel," "Devil in Disguise," "Hound Dog"), in basically the same situations (although the remake totally bungles the Stitch-as-record-player "Suspicious Minds" scene); but the live-action Lilo (played by Maia Kealoha) is less the Elvis evangelist than was her cartoon counterpart. In the first film, Lilo pays Stitch the ultimate compliment: "You look like an Elvis fan." She pulls out an 8-by-10 "Blue Hawaii" portrait of Elvis and declares: "Elvis was a model citizen." She tells Stitch: "I have compiled a list of his traits for you to practice." This leads to comic scenes of Stitch strumming a guitar while wearing an Elvis-style jumpsuit and pompadour. The film ends with a happily-ever-after vacation "photo" of Stitch and his new human family posing in front of the gates of Graceland. None of these Elvis moments are recreated in the new movie — although Stitch does appear, briefly, in his Elvis jumpsuit during the end credits. Maybe we'll get more Elvis — for better or worse? — in the sequel, if there is one. The 2002 "Lilo & Stitch" was followed by a TV series and three direct-to-video feature films. The first of these features was "Stitch! The Movie," which — perhaps due to budgetary constraints — licensed only one Elvis song, the thematically appropriate but hardly epochal "Slicin' Sand," from 1963's "Blue Hawaii." The lyrics likely did not give Leiber & Stoller sleepless nights. Encourages Elvis, while serenading a bevy of beauties: "Dance, dance, dance/ 'til your toes get tan/ We're gonna have us a ball on the beach/ Slicin' sand..." This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Lilo & Stitch: Elvis references, Stitch merch and a visit to Graceland
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Elvis + Baz = EPiC: Everything we know about Baz Luhrmann's upcoming Elvis Presley film
"EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert." That's the title of director Baz Luhrmann's upcoming movie — a title both obvious and brilliant, with an acronym so inevitable it's a shock nobody thought of it before. Here's what we know so far about the project, which if nothing else offers more evidence that Elvis — who died almost 50 years ago — has never really "left the building." (You can find him and his music in movie houses right now, referenced throughout Disney's new live-action "Lilo & Stitch," which in just two weeks of release has become the second biggest box-office hit of 2025, behind "A Minecraft Movie.") We'll use Elvis song titles for this story's "chapters." In 2022, Australian director Baz Luhrmann released his sixth feature film, "Elvis," an inventive and, yes, epic biopic about the King of Rock 'n' Roll. The movie was a hip-shaking runaway hit, grossing close to $290 million at the worldwide box office and earning eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor (Austin Butler, who was propelled to stardom). Shot over the course of a year in Australia, the film's production was grueling, and had been preceded by years of research that included multiple trips by Luhrmann and his staff to the Graceland archives and other Elvis sites. Nevertheless, Luhrmann, after the release of "Elvis," almost immediately began teasing plans for an Elvis documentary, to make use of the extensive footage and audio he uncovered that had not previously been seen or heard by the public. Elvis Presley Enterprises managing partner Joel Weinshanker confirmed that Luhrmann was working on a second Elvis film during an Elvis Week panel discussion at the Graceland Soundstage in 2024. 'I probably really shouldn't say that,' Weinshanker cracked, after letting the cat — or "Hillbilly Cat," to cite one of Elvis' 1950s nicknames — out of the bag. 'Oops — sorry, Baz." Later, it was revealed that the documentary would be a project of Sony Music Vision; Bazmark, the company founded by Luhrmann and his wife, designer/producer Catherine Martin; and a new production company, Authentic Studios, an offshoot of Weinshanker's Authentic Brands Group, which licenses "likeness" rights for such celebrities as Marilyn Monroe and Muhammad Ali. ELVIS AT 90: Decade-by-decade milestones in the life — and afterlife — of the King Luhrmann announced that his new Elvis film will be titled "EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert" on May 29 — first on his Instagram account, then onstage at the Sony Music Vision "content showcase" in Los Angeles, an event that also touted such upcoming projects as a Barbra Streisand documentary and a concert tour film about the rock band Oasis. Also on Instagram, Luhrmann shared a brief montage of Elvis-in-concert footage. "During the making of ELVIS, we went on a search for rumored unseen footage from the iconic 1970s concert films Elvis: That's The Way It Is and Elvis on Tour," he wrote, in a May 30 Instagram letter to fans. "I had researchers go into the Warners Bros. film vaults buried in underground salt mines and, to the astonishment of all, we uncovered 68 boxes of film negative, as well as unseen 8mm footage. It has taken two years to restore the footage to a quality that it has never been projected at previously, while the team had to meticulously claw back sound from the many, unconventional sources that were also unearthed. One of the great finds has been unheard recordings of Elvis talking about his life and his music." Luhrmann said the film will weave "never-before-seen footage" with "iconic performances that have never been presented in this way, from the 1970 Vegas show, on tour in 1972 and even precious moments of the 1957 'gold jacket' performance in Hawaii. Most importantly, Elvis will sing and tell you about his life in first person, through both classic and contemporary musical prisms.' So, Luhrmann is crafting the definitive Elvis-in-concert documentary, eh? Not so fast. On Instagram, the director wrote that "EPiC" is "not specifically a documentary, nor a concert film." In an interview with the entertainment website, Deadline, he added: "Our aim is to make something new in the Elvis canon." "EPiC" will "bring something to the screen that befits the magnitude of Elvis as a performer but also offers deeper revelations of his humanity and inner life," Luhrmann told Deadline. Sonically speaking, the director's reference to "classic and contemporary musical prisms" on his Instagram post suggests the film could contain radically remixed Elvis recordings and diverse covers of Elvis songs, much as the biopic "Elvis" incorporated hip-hop and other post-Elvis forms into the soundtrack, to suggest the timeless nature and continuing influence of Presley's music. Wrestling those 68 boxes of footage and all the rest of the tape into feature film form will be a formidable if fascinating challenge for Luhrmann and editor Jonathan Redmond (who was Oscar-nominated for his editing of "Elvis," and also edited Luhrmann's 2013 version of "The Great Gatsby"). It seems certain that Luhrmann — an advocate of the big-screen, big-sound experience — will insist that the movie receive a theatrical run before it becomes available for home viewing, but no release date has been announced. Our bet would be late 2026 or 2027, to tie the movie in with the hoopla that will accompany Graceland's recognition of the 50th anniversary of Presley's death on Aug. 16, 1977, at the age of 42. This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: New Elvis film from Baz Luhrmann will be 'EPiC': Everything we know
