Directed by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Starring: Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Channing Tatum, Christopher Lambert
Rated PG-13 for some suggestive content and smoking.
Opens February 5th
The Coen Brothers return to their wildly wacky world of yesteryear's show business, this time in the form of 1950s Hollywood, where Josh Brolin plays a "fixer" charged with keeping his clients' scandals out of the press when a major movie star is kidnapped and held for ransom by a mysterious group calling themselves 'The Future', throwing a huge wrench in the production of a new film epic entitled Hail Caesar. The Coens' style of comedy is unique but they rarely go wrong, and HAIL,CAESAR appears to be in a vein similar to that of cult classics like THE BIG LEBOWSKI and BARTON FINK. It can be difficult to guess accurately just what they have up their sleeves, but the Coens are typically a strong bet.
Directed by Robert Eggers
Starring: Anya Talyor-Johnson, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, Lucas Dawson, Julian Richings, Bathsheba Garnett
Rated R for disturbing violent content and graphic nudity.
Opens February 26th
THE WITCH is technically a 2015 film, having been a hit way back in January 2015 at the Sundance Film Festival, but unless you had the chance to see it then or at one of the few subsequent film festivals it's screened at, it's about as good as a 2016 release. For anyone who gave themselves chills when growing up by reading about the Salem witch trials or other historical witch-hunting (maybe that's not a common childhood experience), the premise is deliriously intriguing. Set in 17th-century New England wilderness, a Puritan family turns in on itself when an infant child goes missing and witchcraft is suspected. Made on a tiny $1 million budget, it's poised as that wonderful brand of deeply atmospheric, unsettling horror, with a religious bent that suggests substance.
Directed by Byron Howard & Rich Moore
Featuring the Voices of: Jason Bateman, Ginnifer Goodwin, Shakira, Idris Elba, J.K. Simmons, Nate Torrence, Jenny Slate, Mark Smith, Tommy Chong, Octavia Spencer, Bonnie Hunt
Rated PG for some thematic elements, rude humor and action.
Opens March 4th
The first of two movies coming from Walt Disney Animation Studios this year, ZOOTOPIA is a variation on buddy cop movies, set in an "alternate universe"-style world inhabited by anthropomorphic mammals in a metropolis called Zootopia, where an enthusiastic rookie cop (a rabbit, voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin of ABC's Once Upon A Time) teams up with a sardonic con artist (a fox, voiced by Jason Bateman) in order to solve a major case that could make her mark in the Zootopia Police Department. Based on the marketing, the gags are pretty obvious ones (the latest trailer centers around a DMV operated entirely by sloths), but the execution seems pretty funny, regardless. More importantly, WDA has been on a real streak lately with TANGLED, WRECK-IT RALPH, FROZEN, and most recently, BIG HERO 6, so I'd give them the benefit of the doubt for now anyway.
Directed by Jon Favreau
Starring: Neel Sethi; Featuring the Voices of: Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Scarlett Johansson, Christopher Walken, Lupita Nyong'o, Giancarlo Esposito
Rated PG for some sequences of scary action and peril.
Opens April 15th
The word for the teaser trailer of this latest Disney remake of a classic animated feature is 'intense'. Initially, it seemed like it was trying too hard, almost comically, like those internet videos of gritty reboot "what ifs". But it's grown on me, and after getting back in touch with his roots in 2014's CHEF, I'm hoping director Jon Favreau is up to the challenge of not only another big budget blockbuster, but a mostly animated one. Disney appears to be taking aim at an older audience with this one, emphasizing thrills and high adventure, and advertising it as "From the studio that brought you Pirates of the Caribbean; And the director of Iron Man", but curiously, reports suggest there will be some returning songs from the 1967 animated film, along with new songs from the surviving Sherman brother (the pair who penned the original songs along with many other classic Disney tunes), Richard Sherman, and it's not clear how these songs will be integrated with the apparently darker tone. Furthermore, with the exception of Mowgli, played by newcomer Neel Sethi, the environments and animals appear to be mostly rendered in mostly photo-realistic CGI. As one who considers the animated version to be overrated, I don't take any offense at the idea of the remake, but hopefully its an improvement on IRON MAN 2 and COWBOYS & ALIENS, Favreau's less inspired previous big budget films.
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| Image via Warner Brothers |
Directed by Peter Atencio
Starring: Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Method Man, Gabrielle Union, Will Forte, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Nia Long
Not Yet Rated
Opens April 29th
A feature film from the makers of Key & Peele? Yes, please. Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele star as mild-mannered buddies whose insanely adorable kitten, Keanu, is taken by drug dealers, forcing them to infiltrate the local criminal underworld. The trailer features the poster-cute kitten running through the mayhem of bullets and blood. This looks amazing.
Directed by Anthony Russo & Joe Russo
Starring: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Emily VanCamp, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, William Hurt, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Daniel Bruhl
Not Yet Rated
Opens May 6th
Kicking off the Summer 2016 movie season is the third installment in the Captain America series, but it's practically another Avengers movie what with so many major players from the other "Marvel Cinematic Universe" series showing up, including no less than freaking Robert "Iron Man" Downey Jr., the crown jewel of the MCU, in a primary role! Very loosely based on Marvel Comics' Civil War limited series, CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR follows up both CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER and AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON with Cap, in the wake of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s destruction, refusing to enlist as a soldier to another oversight organization and refusing to turn in his friend, Bucky Barnes, aka "The Winter Soldier", wanted for crimes committed during years as a brainwashed assassin, which pits him and other like-minded superheroes against Iron Man and other heroes who believe they should be submitted to an authoritative body. In addition to Captain America and Iron Man, CIVIL WAR is also bringing back Falcon (Anthony Mackie), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Vision (Paul Bettany), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), as well as introducing Chadwick Boseman as the Black Panther and Tom Holland as Spider-Man in their MCU debuts. WINTER SOLDIER directors Joe and Anthony Russo are returning, and William Hurt is returning as General "Thunderbolt" Ross, making him the only cast member of the mostly ignored (and underrated) THE INCREDIBLE HULK to appear in another MCU movie. One major concern, in addition to being potentially overstuffed already, there appears to be a new villain in the mix, Helmut Zemo, played by Daniel Bruhl, which seems unnecessary and a potential distraction from the more important central conflict. The obligation of more recent MCU films to build the larger, overarching narrative has been at the expense of the individual films' primary stories, so hopefully they'll shake that trend.
Directed by Gary Ross
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Keri Russell, Mahershala Ali, Brendan Gleeson, Jacob Lofland, Brad Carter, Sean Bridgers, Kirk Bovill
Not Yet Rated
Opens May 13th
A truth-based story, director Gary Ross' follow-up to THE HUNGER GAMES is about a remarkable but little-known event in the course of the American Civil War. Matthew McConaughey stars as Newton Knight, a poor Mississippi farmer who deserts from the Confederate Army, marries a former slave (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, from BEYOND THE LIGHTS), and leads an anti-secessionist militia of deserters and runaway slaves to overthrow the Confederate forces in Jones County, MI. Ross isn't a 'great director', but he's a very good director, and although he departed after the first installment, his work on the Hunger Games was stellar. There are plenty of Civil War films, including some very iconic, well-produced ones, but not, I would argue, many good ones, and this has potential. Plus, although things have been picking up some in the past couple of decades, the pro-Union cause is weirdly underrepresented in the history of film, and this special case of a rebellion within the rebellion sound fascinating.
Directed by Nicholas Stoller
Starring: Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne, Dave Franco, Chloe Grace Moretz, Kiersey Clemons, Carla Gallo, Ike Barinholtz, Lisa Kudrow
Not Yet Rated
Opens May 20th
Typically, I put very little stock in comedy sequels, but with the whole creative team returning, including director Nicholas Stoller, and considering how great the original was, I can't help but have hope for this one. Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne reprise their roles as the Radners, a married couple who are now called upon by their former rivals, Teddy (Zac Efron) and Pete (Dave Franco), to wage war against a sorority that just moved into their neighborhood. Sure it's ridiculous, and probably won't be as good as the original, but it's not like they're making the GODFATHER PART II here. Unless it is like that, in which case, whoa.
Directed by Shane Black
Starring: Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer, Margaret Qualley, Keith David, Kim Basinger, Beau Knapp, Ty Simpkins, Jack Kilmer
Rated R for violence, sexuality, nudity, language and brief drug use.
Opens May 20th
Shane Black, one of Hollywood's most distinctive screenwriters, with credits that include LETHAL WEAPON and THE LAST BOY SCOUT, as well as directorial credits for the underseen cult classic KISS KISS BANG BANG and the widely-seen Marvel hit IRON MAN 3, wrote and directed this original genre bender set in 1970s Los Angeles. Ryan Gosling is a hapless private detective teamed up with Russell Crowe as a brutish hired enforcer, when the two uncover a conspiracy behind the case of a missing girl and the apparent suicide of a porn star. It sounds very much in the vein of the aforementioned KISS KISS BANG BANG, but through a new lens, and the trailer is a riot.
Directed by Bryan Singer
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn, Lucas Till, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee
Not Yet Rated
Opens May 27th
After sixteen years, the X-Men film series reaches its proposed climactic chapter, one that will purportedly tie together the original film and X2, their casts led by Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, with FIRST CLASS and DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, led by James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence, with Bryan Singer returning to the series a fourth time as director. The title refers to the spectacularly over-powered mutant villain Apocalypse (played by Oscar Isaac), an apparently immortal and purple destroyer of worlds not too unlike Thanos of the Avengers movies (while Marvel keeps teasing their big bad in a ridiculously slow burn, the X-Men are jumping right into it). This series has had its share of missteps, but so far, Singer has directed three of the good ones, and for better or worse, they appear to be going very large with this one. Plus, if you're not into the Marvel Cinematic Universe thing, the X-Men are a more adult, edgy kind of superhero movie, without the gross overindulgence of something like DEADPOOL (who actually ties into the X-Men universe coincidentally) or the clumsy, grandiose posturing of the current iteration of DC movies.
Directed by Duncan Jones
Starring; Travis Fimmel, Toby Kebbell, Paul Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Ben Schnetzer, Robert Kazinsky, Daniel Wu, Ruth Negga, Clancy Brown, Terry Notary
Rated PG-13 for extended sequences of intense fantasy violence.
Opens June 10th
I do have some fairly strong reservations about this one, but my curiosity is piqued nonetheless. A long-awaited film adaptation of the nerdiest game this side of Dungeons & Dragons, Universal originally planned WARCRAFT as a big Lord of the Rings-style holiday season release until a little juggernaut called STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS plopped down right beside and sent WARCRAFT running into the crowded summer season. It's directed by Duncan Jones, whose last film, SOURCE CODE, was an overlooked gem back in 2011, and the extensive use of motion capture technology looks impressive in some of the marketing, but I must admit, some of the fantasy world gobbledygook gives me pause. It's also only the latest attempt to legitimize film adaptations of video games, but this game, Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft series, is a strategy game and less action-oriented than most games that have attempted the leap to the big screen. Written by Jones and BLOOD DIAMOND screenwriter Charles Leavitt, the story revolves around a rising conflict told from the perspectives of two civilizations, one of humans, and one of the monstrous orcs.
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Starring: Mark Rylance, Ruby Barnhill, Penelope Wilton, Rebecca Hall, Bill Hader, Jemaine Clement
Not Yet Rated
Opens July 1st
Steven Spielberg is taking a break from the awards fare drama for this whimsical family fantasy-adventure based on the book of the same name written by Roald Dahl, author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and The Witches. A co-production between Disney (although he produced WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, and his last few films received distribution by Disney, this is Spielberg's first directorial feature produced at the Mouse House) and DreamWorks, THE BFG introduces Ruby Barnhill as Sophie, a little English girl who befriends the eponymous "Big Friendly Giant", an outcast from his race of foul, man-eating brutes. Playing the BFG is Mark Rylance, who recently received an Academy Award nomination for his supporting role in BRIDGE OF SPIES, and seems ideally cast for the character, up against Bill Hader and Jemaine Clement as unfriendly giants "The Bloodbottler" and "The Fleshlumpeater", respectively. With a screenplay by the late Melissa Mathison (best known for writing Spielberg's E.T.: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL), not to mention the fact that it's coming from no less than Steven-freaking-Spielberg, it's one of the most promising and unlikely films to look forward to this summer.
Directed by David Yates
Starring: Alexander Skarsgard, Margot Robbie, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, Djimon Hounsou, John Hurt, Jim Broadbent
Not Yet Rated
Opens July 1st
Coming from the director of the last four Harry Potter movies, I'm not sure what to make of this, frankly, insane-looking live-action Tarzan adventure, but I know that I've got to see it. The eponymous Lord of the Apes is chilling it as Lord Greystoke, a fully tamed wild man living with his dear wife, Jane (Margot Robbie; I don't know if she's doing an English accent for the character, who was actually American in the books written by Edgar Rice Burroughs), but when the machinations of a sinister Belgian captain (Christoph Waltz) force him to go back to the jungle, he has to peel away the layers of civilization to become Tarzan once again. In a really weird and potentially problematic twist, the plot apparently contains some serious historical elements involving crimes of colonialism and racial conflict (remember how well that worked out for THE LONE RANGER?) related to Belgian treatment of the native population in Congo, and Samuel L. Jackson co-stars as the historical George Washington Williams (apparently with his usual contemporary panache), who famously brought attention to the plight of the Congolese under the Belgian regime. What's more, this movie comes with souped-up CGI gorillas. The more I think about it, the more this movie sounds like THE LONE RANGER set in Africa, but I enjoyed THE LONE RANGER. Either way, I'm super curious to see what all this is about.
Directed by Paul Feig
Starring: Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth, Neil Casey, Andy Garcia, Matt Walsh
Not Yet Rated
Opens July 15th
Okay, confession time: I've always thought the original 1984 GHOSTBUSTERS was a little bit... overrated. Don't get me wrong- I like it! It's a good movie! I just don't think it's a great one. It's certainly memorable, that's for sure. But after years in development hell, that Ghostbusters sequel Dan Aykroyd wanted to happen so badly evolved into a female-driven reboot from the director of BRIDESMAIDS, with a cast headed by Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy. It's not the kind of movie that I'm super pumped up about, but in any case, it sounds worthwhile. It's a proven comedy team, and I particularly like the idea of Chris Hemsworth as the ghost-hunting team's secretary.
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| Image via Paramount |
Directed by Justin Lin
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba, Sofia Boutella
Not Yet Rated
Opens July 22nd
There's a whole lot of ways that this might go horribly wrong, but it looks like it could be fun, at the very least. I'm not a big Star Trek fan. I can only appreciate the adoration for WRATH OF KHAN on a very superficial, purely intellectual level, and not even that much then, but I love J.J. Abrams' 2009 reboot, STAR TREK. STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS was okay; I wanted to like it a lot more than I ultimately did. But Abrams, having moved onto a little ol' franchise (maybe you've heard of it) called Star Wars, is credited only as producer for this round and the man taking the director's chair, Justin Lin, seems like a hugely unlikely choice. The director who brought the Fast & Furious franchise through its nadir (TOKYO DRIFT) to its peak (FAST FIVE) seems awfully oriented toward muscular action that's well outside the Star Trek realm, but he's proven that he can do fun ensemble adventures, and Simon Pegg taking on duties as screenwriter doesn't hurt either.
Directed by David Ayer
Starring: Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Will Smith, Viola Davis, Joel Kinnaman, Jai Courtney, Cara Delevingne, Adelwale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Karen Fukuhara, Jay Hernandez, Adam Beach
Not Yet Rated
Opens August 5th
The most unlikely installment in the slipshod Warner Brothers/DC film universe is also the most exciting prospect, with a colorful cast of nasty characters whose heads are implanted with explosives to coerce them into taking on suicidal missions rather than spending all their time in padded cells. Not much is known about the plot, other than the idea of nine comic book villains being enlisted by a sociopathic government official (Viola Davis) as part of the titular team, the members including Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Deadshot (Will Smith), Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Enchantress (Cara Delevingne), Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Katana (Karen Fukuhara), Diablo (Jay Hernandez) and Slipknot (Adam Beach). Other than possibly Harley Quinn, as whom Robbie looks amazing, the only really well-known character in this affair is the Joker, played by Jared Leto in the daunting task of following up the late Heath Ledger's turn as the character in THE DARK KNIGHT. At least from the footage we've seen so far, I'm more intrigued than I expected to be.
SAUSAGE PARTY (COMEDY/ANIMATION)
Directed by Greg Tiernan & Conrad Vernon
Featuring the Voices of: Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, James Franco, Kristen Wiig, Edward Norton, Michael Cera, David Krumholtz, Nick Kroll, Salma Hayek, Bill Hader, Paul Rudd
Not Yet Rated
Opens August 12th
A hard-R computer-animated comedy from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and other members of the creative teams behind THE NIGHT BEFORE, THE INTERVIEW and THIS IS THE END, the non-subtly named SAUSAGE PARTY follows the adventures of Frank, a sausage voiced by Rogen,whose quest to find the meaning of his existence takes him on a perilous journey through the supermarket, along with fellow sausages Carl (voice of Jonah Hill), Troy (voice of Anders Holm) and Barry (voice of Michael Cera), as well as other products like Sammy Bagel Jr. (voice of Edward Norton) and Theresa Taco (voice of Salma Hayek), while facing off against the villainous Douche (voice of Nick Kroll). Bonus, Alan Menken, legendary composer of the soundtracks to THE LITTLE MERMAID, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, ALADDIN and several other Disney animated features, is writing the musical score. I don't know guys, but this sure sounds like my kind of thing.
Directed by Travis Knight
Featuring the Voices of: Art Parkinson, Matthew McConaughey, Charlize Theron, Rooney Mara, Ralph Fiennes, Brenda Vaccaro, George Takei
Not Yet Rated
Opens August 19th
The stop-motion animation studio behind PARANORMAN and CORALINE aims for an epic tone set in ancient Japan with gods, monsters and samurai warriors as the eponymous Kubo embarks on a quest for a magical suit of armor. I love PARANORMAN, and while their last film, THE BOXTROLLS, was a step down, it was still pretty good at that. They're a pretty good bet, and the painstakingly-crafted animation is always gorgeous.
Directed by David Yates
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Dan Fogler, Samantha Morton, Ezra Miller, Colin Farrell, Faith Wood-Blagrove, Carmen Ejogo, Jon Voight, Ron Perlman
Not Yet Rated
Opens November 18th
Film for film, the Harry Potter franchise is the biggest film franchise ever with an average worldwide gross of $965.4 million per installment, and second only to the Marvel Cinematic Universe for total sum grossed by all installments with $7.723 billion to date, so even though they ran out of the books written by J.K. Rowling about the boy wizard's adventures, you can't expect Warner Brothers to just leave their most valuable franchise to rest. FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM seems like a bit of a stretch to further milk Rowling's "wizarding world" for more dough, based (loosely) upon a 'reproduction' of Harry's textbook mentioned in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, written by Rowling under the pseudonym "Newt Scamander" in 2001 to benefit impoverished children through the British charitable organization Comic Relief. But in spite of its likely to be overhyped relationship to the main series, the premise is intriguing, with a script credited to Rowling herself and the director's chair once again filled by David Yates, who directed films 5, 6, 7 and 8 of the series. Set 70 years before THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE (although never specified in the films, Harry's school years are intended to take place during the 1990s), Academy Award-winner Eddie Redmayne stars as the titular book's author, Newt Scamander, a "magizooligist" who's in a hurry to round up a number of dangerous creatures let loose on 1920s New York City, while also dealing with strained relations between the hidden magical world and the 'non-magical'. The cast includes some interesting faces, but it's unclear whether the film will hue closer to the whimsical tones of the earlier Harry Potter films or the grittier, epic nature of the latter installments, or if it will cut a very different path. Either way, Warner seems to have complete faith in the movie to carry on the success of Harry Potter, with a reportedly huge $200 million budget.
Directed by Zhang Yimou
Starring: Matt Damon, Andy Lau, Willem Dafoe, Pedro Pascal, Luhan, Jing Tian, Zhang Hanyu, Peng Yuyan, Lin Gengxin, Ryan Cheng, Chen Xuedong
Not Yet Rated
Opens November 23rd
Little is known so far in terms of story about this epic co-production between Hollywood and China's film industry (likely a harbinger of things to come as China's film market begins to rival our own), from a story by World War Z author Max Brooks about a fantastical mystery regarding the origins of China's Great Wall, i.e. monsters were a bigger concern to the wall's builders than Mongolian warlords. The premise is volatile from where we stand right now, but director Zhang Yimou has made a few very stellar films like HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, HERO and RAISE THE RED LANTERN, with sumptuous use of color, graceful but fierce action choreography, and rich emotional strokes, and now we'll get to see him work with an even larger palette. Regardless of how it turns out, it's definitely one of the most interesting events in film happening this year.
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| Image via Disney |
Directed by Ron Clements & John Musker
Featuring the Voices of: Auli'i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Tudyk
Not Yet Rated
Opens November 23rd
Disney created a freaking major cultural touchstone and the defining movie of a generation's childhood with FROZEN, so I'm curious to see what happens with MOANA, their newest Disney princess movie, the title character of which hails from the fictional South Pacific kingdom of Oceania. It also coming from the directing team of Ron Clements and John Musker, the men who helped resurrect the Disney Animation tradition with THE LITTLE MERMAID, followed by ALADDIN, but then very much helped kill it again with the animation studio's biggest flop, TREASURE PLANET (which isn't such a bad movie though, just very, very different), and then tried to redeem themselves with the admirable but lackluster THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG. MOANA is their first computer-animated directorial feature, and it'll be interesting if they'll be able to muster up some of their former glory in the wake of a new wave of Disney fairy tales. In any case, WDA is on a winning streak, and it shows promise. A musical fairy tale, it follows the adventures of Moana (voiced by Hawaiian newcomer Auli'i Cravalho), the daughter of a Polynesian chief and a natural navigator, with the legendary Maui (voiced by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), on an ocean voyage to help her family by discovering a fabled island.
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| Image via Lucasfilm |
Directed by Gareth Edwards
Starring: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Jonathan Aris
Not Yet Rated
Opens December 16th
ROGUE ONE is an "anthology film" in the Star Wars franchise, "one-off" adventures that Lucasfilm is releasing as "Star Wars Stories", rather than with the usual episode labels, and it's one of the most interesting prospects of 2016 for so many reasons. Set in-between REVENGE OF THE SITH and A NEW HOPE, the film tells the story of a ragtag Rebel team's mission to steal the plans to the Empire's new weapon, the Death Star, as briefly recounted in the original film's opening crawl. On the one hand, it's an act of pulling away the curtain at already established story events that the plot to one of the greatest movies of all time is founded upon, and we all know how well that kind of "story behind the story" formula worked out for the Star Wars prequels. The script is also credited to Chris Weitz, the director of TWILIGHT: NEW MOON (the worst of a very bad series) and writer of the dreadfully dull THE GOLDEN COMPASS (but also the writer of the perfectly decent 2015 CINDERELLA remake) On the other hand, it sounds way damn cool. Directed by Gareth Edwards (the director of the 2014 film GODZILLA, a movie which, while disappointing and deeply problematic, showed Edwards has real chops on a blockbuster scale), the illustrious cast includes Felicity Jones, Mads Mikkelsen (Mads Mikkelsen, guys! Mads Mikkelsen!), Forest Whitaker, Diego Luna and Alan Tudyk, and is described as a "boots on the ground" war film set within the Star Wars universe. It'll also be very interesting to see how the usually event-like nature of a Star Wars film plays out only a year after THE FORCE AWAKENS. Do they just play like Marvel movies now? Is it a nearly year-long marketing event leading up to the release? Will fan intensity waver? Regardless, in concept at least, this is a very exciting introduction to a whole new form of Star Wars.
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| Image via Paramount |
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Tadanobu Asano, Ciaran Hinds, Shinya Tsukamoto, Yosuke Kubozuka, Issey Ogata
Not Yet Rated
Release Date TBA
A long-time project for legendary director Martin Scorsese (he first began planning it in 1991), SILENCE brings him back to the well of Catholicism that has served him proper a number of times before. Based on the 1966 historical fiction novel of the same name, Andrew Garfield (star of the "Amazing Spider-Man" franchise reboot) and Adam Driver (recently appearing as Kylo Ren in the Star Wars series) star as Jesuit Portuguese Catholic priests who arrive in a hostile Japan in the 17th century to seek out their mentor (portrayed by Liam Neeson), but are persecuted in the wake of a Christian peasant rebellion. Although it finished filming last summer, a release date has not yet been set, and it will probably arrive later in the year to court awards. Any Scorsese film is worth checking out, but the story, themes and cast of this one are particularly intriguing, and its his follow-up to a late-career masterpiece, THE WOLF OF WALL STREET.
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| Image via Summit Entertainment |
Directed by Mel Gibson
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Vince Vaughn, Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey, Hugo Weaving, Ryan Corr, Teresa Palmer, Rachel Griffiths, Richard Roxburgh, Luke Pegler, Richard Pyros
Not Yet Rated
Release Date TBA
Mel Gibson, after years of disproportionately harsh exile (I'm not arguing that what he did wasn't a big deal, but it's been a freaking decade, and we've forgiven rapists and pedophiles more quickly), is returning to direct this truth-based war drama about Desmond T. Doss (portrayed in the film by Andrew Garfield), a U.S. Army medic and conscientious objector who received the Medal of Honor for saving over 75 lives under fire during the Battle of Okinawa in WWII. Gibson, when last we saw him anyway, is not always a great filmmaker, but he's definitely an interesting one, and his last feature, APOCALYPTO, remains his best by a tremendous margin. He does tend to overindulge in violence and gore, which the bloody Battle of Okinawa will give him plenty of opportunity for, but it's strong material, and I'm interested to see how he manages these days. Big concerns, however, include his spotty supporting cast (Garfield is golden, however), and the outrageous, jingoistic, and thoroughly non-subtle cornball Randall Wallace is listed among the three credited writers (he previously worked with Gibson on BRAVEHEART and THE PATRIOT).
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| Image via Doubleday Publishing |
Directed by James Gray
Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, Tom Holland, Angus Macfayden, Edward Ashley, John Sackville, Adam Bellamy
Not Yet Rated
Release Date TBA
Based on a true story set in the 1920s, Charlie Hunnam and Robert Pattinson star as fellow British explorers Colonel Percy Fawcett and Corporal Henry Costin, respectively, who embark on multiple attempts to locate the legendary "Lost City of Z" within the Amazon rainforest. Jungle-set adventure movies are too rare, and the basic premise of this has an Indiana Jones-style allure to it, although I'm not crazy about Hunnam (the bland lead from PACIFIC RIM) starring. James Gray is writing and directing, and although I haven't seen his previous films which include THE IMMIGRANT (2013) and WE OWN THE NIGHT, he has a decent rep. Currently, this film's appeal lies primarily in the prospect of an old-fashioned period adventure in the untamed jungle (a type of story that 2016 is atypically not short on).
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