After almost ten years, a lost film starring Mark Hamill and produced by Roger Corman is finally set to release. The movie, titled Virtually Heroes, was actually the first by the legendary film producer to ever screen at the Sundance Film Festival — at the ripe age of 86. True to form, Corman's Sundance debut was a war film made on almost no budget and largely cropped together using old footage he had shot decades earlier.

Despite a performance by Mark Hamill, the film was not picked up for distribution and was never seen outside of the 2013 Sundance screening. Almost ten years later, however, that will finally change, as the film was picked up for distribution last month by Screen Media.

Here is everything we know so far about the long-lost film.

Roger Corman's Legacy

The Pit and the Pendulum
American International Pictures 

Roger Corman is one of the most important names in the history of American independent film. He's been called by some “The Pope of Pop Cinema,” and his prolific career as a low-budget filmmaker helped shape the landscape of independent cinema for decades. Corman personally directed an impressive 55 films, the best known of which include the original The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) and a series of Edgar Allen Poe adaptations starring Vincent Price, such as The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) and The Raven (1963).

RELATED: Best Roger Corman Films, Ranked

Corman's biggest legacy, however, comes in his over-half-a-century-long career as a producer of a staggering almost 400 films. As a producer, he has famously helped start the careers of dozens of influential actors and directors, including Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, Jack Nicholson, William Shatner, Sylvester Stallone, Ron Howard, Jonathan Demme, Joe Dante, and many more.

Because his movies were made on minuscule budgets, Corman was unafraid of taking risks. He often allowed completely unknown artists to take a crack at directing his films, many of whom went on to great fame. One such example is a horror film called Dementia 13, made in 1963 on a budget of around $40,000, and the directorial debut of a then-unknown video editor named Francis Ford Coppola.

Virtually Heroes: The Plot

As reported by Variety, Virtually Heroes (sometimes also called Virtual Warriors) is an action comedy about two minor characters in a Call of Duty-style video game who have become self-aware. Frustrated with their repetitive existence — fighting endless hordes of enemies, dying, and repeating — they decide to beat the game once and for all, get the girl, and escape from their Sisyphean existence.

In order to do so, they enlist the aid of a “Yoda-like monk” (played by Mark Hamill), who helps them train and become stronger. The plot sounds very reminiscent of the Ryan Reynolds blockbuster Free Guy, which was made eight years after.

Much of the film reuses footage from nine old war movies that Corman made with prolific Filipino director Cirio H. Santiago in the late 1980s and 1990s. A number of original scenes were filmed by director G. J. Echternkamp to tie everything together. Corman described his thought process in an interview with The Berkshire Eagle in 2013:

“I thought if I could find a way to use the big battle scenes from all of these pictures and put it together in a new picture and shoot just a short period of time to tie them all together, I could get a big-looking picture for very little money.”

Virtually Heroes: The Cast

mark hamill monk in virtually heroes
Screen Media

The movie stars Robert Baker (Grey's Anatomy), Brent Chase (I Am the Night), Katie Savoy (Sequestered), and Mark Hamill (Star Wars, Batman: The Animated Series). It is directed by G. J. Echternkamp (Frank and Cindy) and is written by Matt Yamashita (Art School of Horrors).

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Hamill's appearance is especially interesting as he plays a Jedi-like wise man reminiscent of his old role as Luke Skywalker and his fictional screen partner Yoda in Star Wars: Episode VI: The Empire Strikes Back. In 2013, fans would have been dying to see him reprise such a role. However, in the ten years that the film remained unreleased, some of this desire was sated when Hamill finally starred again as an older and wiser Luke Skywalker in 2017's Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.

Release Date

Virtually Heroes is set for a limited theatrical plus digital release in December 2022. Following that, it will be available to stream on Crackle Plus in February 2023.

The film's new distributor, Screen Media, said in a statement:

“The film is a perfect blend of action and campy, tongue-in-cheek comedy, and will be sure to delight viewers — whether this is their first foray into the world of Roger Corman or fiftieth."

Director Echternkamp added:

“Virtually Heroes was an ambitious project in many ways, and not exactly what you would call a conventional film.” He went on to say, “I’m so glad that Screen Media is at last bringing this cult movie out of the shadows and onto their platform to be discovered by a new audience.”