Despite her tragic death in December 2016, Carrie Fisher will be featured in the last “Star Wars” movie.

LucasFilm and Disney obviously reached an agreement with Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd. I was told some months ago Lourd did not want J.J. Abrams to cobble together a Leia-like CGI character for the movie.

But, you know, money and Hollywood prevail. Maybe it’s good for the closure of the series. Mark Hamill will be back as Luke Skywalker, and his character is actually dead.

You may recall that back in June 2017 Hamill told me the original script for Chapter 9 really centered on Leia.

Here’s the official word:

“Finding a truly satisfying conclusion to the Skywalker saga without her eluded us. We were never going to recast, or use a CG character,” director J.J. Abrams said in a statement. “With the support and blessing from her daughter, Billie, we have found a way to honor Carrie’s legacy and role as Leia in Episode IX by using unseen footage we shot together in Episode VII.”

Kevin Spacey’s last movie, a remake of “The Billionaire Boys Club,” has been dumped ahead of its theatrical release on Amazon Prime and other video services.

The film was supposed to be released by Vertical Entertainment, the same company that gave us the huge flop “Gotti” earlier this summer. It still has a release date of August 17th.

But today “The BBC” just turned up on Amazon.

Spacey plays Ron Levin, who was murdered in a Ponzi scheme gone wrong from the 1980s. Ansel Elgort plays Joe Hunt, who organized the Ponzi scheme and the murder. The saga was first turned into a book and then a TV Movie starring Ron Silver and Judd Nelson.

So far “The BBC” is sporting just reviews, both negative, on Rotten Tomatoes.

Vertical’s next release is a documentary about Harvey Weinstein.

Spacey, whose career has been destroyed by scandals regarding sexual misconduct, has no more movies in the can. He hasn’t been seen in seven or eight months since “Rent” actor Adam Rapp accused him molestation as a teen. Since then Spacey has been the subject of lawsuits and accusations from a variety of men alleging misconduct. He was replaced with Christopher Plummer by Ridley Scott for “All the Money in the World.”

Sean Penn is certainly getting into TV these days.

He’s about to appear in a Hulu series called “The First” in which he’ll play the first astronaut to set foot on Mars. Of course, Matt Damon’s already been there, but please don’t tell Sean that. He’ll see Matt’s farm and tent when he arrives.

But now I can tell you that a long-aborning project has come together for Penn at The History Channel. This is a mini-series about President Andrew Jackson that was supposed to be for HBO. But I’m told it’s moved to The History Channel. The famed playwright and short story writer Donald Margulies is writing the script.

Jackson was the 7th president, following John Quincy Adams, whom he defeated. He served 8 years from 1829 to 1837.

His history is marked by great ups and downs, illnesses and scandals. His presidency’s biggest and longest lasting disaster was the moving of Native Americans from their land — the Indian Removal Act– in 1830. His story is rich with horrible things that should give Sean plenty of scenery to chew on– Emmy Awards here we come!

“American Lion” is based on the book of the same name by Jon Meacham.

Tom Cruise is the biggest movie star in the world. That’s what they say.

Actually, without the “Mission Impossible” series, Cruise would not be a movie star. He is definitely not an actor who can open a film. Other than the “Mission Impossible” movies, Cruise’s films open poorly and don’t hit $100 million. “Edge of Tomorrow” just made the magic number because the studio left it in theaters until it had whiskers.

The new “MI: Fallout” made $6 million last night, and may go on to have the biggest opening weekend of all the movies in the series. But basically, Cruise’s career will now be defined historically by playing Ethan Hunt, and by doing his own stunts.

This chart is from boxofficemojo.com: