Better Late Than Never: Roger Corman Movie With Mark Hamill Produced In 2013 To Debut
Mark Hamill has a new movie coming out, if you consider a decade-old film that has never been released new.
Virtually Heroes, produced by venerable low-budget filmmaker Roger Corman, premiered as an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival way back in 2013, but the film was never released. The film was picked up by Screen Media Films back in August and will be released digitally on January 17th.
The action-comedy, directed by G.J. Echternkamp, stars Mark Hamill in a supporting role where he winks at his Luke Skywalker Jedi persona, filmed years before he did reprise that role in Star Wars episodes VII-IX.
The film’s plot resembles that of Ryan Reynolds’ Free Guy. According to the official logline, “two self-aware characters in a Call of Duty-inspired video game battle endless enemies and their own existential crises when Sgt. Books seeks help from a straight-talking Monk (Mark Hamill) who teaches him the cheat codes of life. Now he can finally break free from the game’s endless battles, take a break from saving the girls at the end of each level, and convince his fellow warrior Lt. Nova that not everything in this game world is as awesome as it seems.”
In addition to Hamill, Virtually Heroes stars Robert Baker (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), Brent Chase (Shameless), and Katie Savoy (Living with Models).
Corman, 96, has been directing for decades, with cult classics like Bucket of Blood, Death Race 2000, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School and Little Shop of Horrors among his body of work. This is not his first unreleased film; he made a Fantastic Four movie back in 1994 that isn’t technically available (but you can find it if you look hard enough.)