A Forgotten Mark Hamill-Starring Roger Corman Action-Comedy Is Finally Getting A Theatrical Release
For any fan of science-fiction cinema in the 1970s and 1980s, both Roger Corman and Mark Hamill are instantly recognizable names in the genre. Corman is a titan in the realm of independent filmmaking and distribution, with transgressive genre films and B-movies his specialty since the 1950s. With hundreds of movies either as a director, producer, or executive producer to his credit, Roger Corman also helped launch the careers of James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, and Jonathan Demme, among many others (via Britannica). Meanwhile, Hamill's role as Luke Skywalker catapulted him to fame effortlessly thanks to the effect "Star Wars" had on popular culture in the late-1970s and beyond.
This is why it was exciting to learn that Hamill and Corman were finally working together in the early 2010s. However, the project eventually fell by the wayside once the age of streaming began to take off around 2013. Thanks to Screen Media, audiences will finally be able to not only watch this lost film on streaming but also on the big screen, where Roger Corman always intended it to be.
Virtually Heroes will receive a limited theatrical release in December 2022
Screen Media has purchased the North American distributor rights for 2013's "Virtually Heroes." In a press release (via Variety), Screen Media shared that they are "thrilled to bring this lost Corman project to our audiences. The film is a perfect blend of action and campy, tongue-in-cheek comedy." The movie will receive a limited engagement in select theaters in December and will be available to purchase digitally before becoming available to stream on Popcornflix in February 2023.
The movie's plot has been hard to pin down for years. In a 2015 interview with Independent Film Quarterly, Hamill's co-star in the film Robert Baker said of the film, "'Virtually Heroes' is a movie set inside of a video game where my character, Sgt. Books, is aware that he is a character in a video game and has an existential crisis about the fact that he is a character in a video game." This doesn't sound like your average video game movie and is reflective of Corman's penchant for the humorously bizarre.
In a 2013 comment on his Facebook post, Corman shared that he had "not sought a distributor yet. ['Virtually Heroes'] makes the festival round first." Unfortunately, like many indie projects, the movie was a casualty of not being acquired by a distributor for any number of reasons and became out of sight, out of mind over the last 9 years.
"Virtually Heroes" receives a limited theatrical release in December 2022.