On December 23, 2016, Carrie Fisher was on a plane bound for Los Angeles when she collapsed. Four days later, the film legend was dead. Millions mourned the loss of the actress, who became famous as Princess Leia in the Star Wars films, and a year later said goodbye to the screen legend in The Last Jedi.
Star Wars 8 wasn’t Carrie Fisher’s last film. When she boarded the plane that December day, she had a book tour and fantasy adventure filming behind her. To date, this film has not been released. At the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, another attempt was made to change that.
In her last film, Star Wars legend Carrie Fisher plays a witch
The Last film with Carrie Fisher is called Wonderwell and the search for his whereabouts unearths curious details, hints of considerable behind-the-scenes litigation and a moving description of the last scene, which she shot in front of a camera. But one after anonther …
Solid information about Wonderwell is scarce but available. It was completed, is 96 minutes long (Source: Cinando ). The plot can be described like this:
12-year-old Violet accompanies her family to a charming medieval town where her older sister has a photo shoot. Violet explores the area. After falling through a portal into an alien world, she must fight against time to find her way home.
Carrie Fisher plays a witch named Hazel in the fantasy film and pop star Rita Ora takes on the role of fashion designer and villain.
Carrie Fisher as a witch in Wonderwell:
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So Vlad Marsavin was able to win over a veritable star squad for his directorial debut. Wonderwell is his only feature film credit to date.
Even the discoverer of Han Solo was involved in the film
Behind the scenes, there is also a luminary on the Wonderwell staff. Casting director and later producer Fred Roos worked on Francis Ford Coppola’s major films, including The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. In addition, he is considered Explorers by Harrison Ford and Ford recommended a certain George Lucas for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars.
However, the big names in front of and behind the camera did not pave the way for Wonderwell into the cinema. Why?
The fantasy film suffered from ‘extreme turbulence’
Such delays are more common in the film world than you might think. In the case of smaller films in particular, company insolvency, legal disputes or a lack of budget for the effects can prevent publication.
Rita Ora’s Instagram Story in memory of Carrie Fisher
A blog post by attorney and producer Lee Rudnicki reveals clues about Wonderwell’s problematic making.
According to his version, the project suffered “extreme turbulence” in pre-production. He doesn’t name names, but points to one “legal street fight” with a former producer that was eventually settled.
That still doesn’t explain why hardly anyone was allowed to see Wonderwell. However, based on the descriptions, the film had a rocky path ahead of it from the start.
There was a sign of life from Wonderwell in Cannes
Wonderwell is an independent production without a big studio behind it. For films like this, you have to negotiate release dates through arduous negotiations and deals. A The place for this is the film market in Cannes, which takes place every year parallel to the festival. You can imagine it like this: Under the spotlight, Disney’s 300 million blockbuster Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Destiny celebrates its premiere, while deals are being made for art house gems and The Asylum junk in the basement of the Festival Palais.
At the Cannes film market this year, a sign of life flashed from Wonderwell. In an advertisement in the trade magazine Screen, the company Epic Pictures promoted the film to draw the attention of potential rights buyers:
EpicPictures
The Wonderwell display in Canes
Epic Pictures did not respond to Moviepilot’s request for an update on the project.
Likewise, at the time of this writing, there has been no news of Wonderwell being licensed for specific countries or platforms.
Wonderwell wrapped filming in January 2017 and post-production was completed in 2021, according to IMDBPro. Six years after the last take but there is still no glimmer of hope that we will ever see Carrie Fisher’s final appearance.
Carrie Fisher’s “heartbreaking” final scene
A big question mark remains in the filmography of Star Wars legend Carrie Fisher, photos and a few hints. Rudnicki describes in the mentioned blog post how he first saw Wonderwell and comes up Carrie Fisher’s final scene to speak. He goes big:
If you were an actor and you knew with 100% certainty that this is your last day on earth, this would be a scene you could create to say goodbye to your fans. Carrie’s last line is about life itself – I won’t reveal it here, but it’s brilliant, if heartbreaking.
But descriptions of this kind are no balm for the soul of the fan, on the contrary. It’s a shame that Carrie Fisher’s last film is catching dust on any hard drive.