Greetings, reader!
Well, since it's mid-January, I shall once again share my list of the upcoming films I'm looking forward to the most this year.
Here are my honorable mentions: Creed III, Death on the Nile, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, Scream, Thor: Love and Thunder.
10. Untitled Bee Gees biopic
Now, much isn't known about this end-of-the-year release yet. But I'm always one for good music biopics, and while I'm not the world's most passionate Bee Gees fan, I do enjoy their music and appreciate their influence in music history. Also, Kenneth Branagh is one hell of a director, so the fact that he's at the helm for this project is all the more reason to believe that it has the potential to be the next Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) or Rocketman (2019).
9. Halloween Ends
For whatever reason, I've watched all 12 Halloween films that have been made so far, so I'm invested. David Gordon Green did a surprisingly decent job breathing new life into a dead franchise with 2018's Halloween, and while the follow-up Halloween Kills (2021) was less impressive, I do like the fact that he's making a trilogy with the same main characters and story arch. I'm not banking on Halloween Ends being a critically acclaimed horror masterpiece, but as a fan of the franchise, it'll be great to hear John Carpenter's iconic theme and see Jamie Lee Curtis don the role of Laurie Strode one last time this October.
8. The Flash
Now, I'm skeptical of this film - DC Comics and messy production delays are usually a match made in hell. Still, I can't help but hold on to the hope that this upcoming superhero flick could be quite awesome. It has so much going on for it - Barry Allen a.k.a. The Flash is one of my favorite superheroes, Ezra Miller was fantastic in the role in Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021), and director Andy Muschietti has a style perfect for this sort of film.
Also, due to the timeline-hopping alternate-universe nature of The Flash's adventures, the film will apparently feature both Ben Affleck's Batman from the current DC universe, and a return for Michael Keaton's Batman from Tim Burton's movies back in the day. That's quite something.
7. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
It's impossible to discuss my anticipation for Marvel's Black Panther (2018) sequel without a heavy dose of heartbreak in the mix. Before August 2020, it was known that a Black Panther sequel was in the works, and it was one of my most anticipated upcoming Marvel films in a conventional sense - T'Challa a.k.a. Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) was one of Marvel's most interesting heroes, and a return to the world of Wakanda was worth the hype.
Everything changed with Boseman's tragic death from colon cancer, at the age of 43 years. Rest in Power, King.
After many back-and-forth plans, Marvel decided to do a sequel anyways - the role of T'Challa will not be recast, but the film will simply focus on the other characters from the franchise. I'm sure they'll make for a decent group of main characters, as Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and many others were great supporting characters in the original Black Panther and deserve more screen time. One can't yet know quite what this film will be and how it will deal with the underlying tragedy, but I'm confident that writer&director Ryan Coogler knows what he's doing. The vibrant milieu of Wakanda and the abundance of interesting characters will likely make for a decent superhero flick even with the absence of Boseman, and I'm guessing the film will try its best to pay tribute to the man in a touching manner.
6. Babylon
Much isn't yet known about the content of Babylon, with its IMDB synopsis simply reading "Plot unknown. Rumored to be set in period Hollywood". Why am I so excited, then?
Well, for starters, it's written and directed by jazz nerd and acclaimed filmmaker Damien Chazelle, whose works Whiplash (2014) and La La Land (2016) have earned him a place in my heart. Secondly, the film's score will be composed by Chazelle's frequent collaborator, the magnificent Justin Hurwitz. And, finally, the cast includes some absolute gems of modern Hollywood, from Brad Pitt and Olivia Wilde to Tobey Maguire and Margot Robbie, not to mention class acts like Eric Roberts and Jean Smart, as well as unconventional choices like acclaimed director Spike Jonze and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea. No, really. Flea is in this movie. There's no way this is not going to be amazing.
5. The Batman
Matt Reeves's The Batman has faced its share of pre-production nightmares, as witnessed by the fact that it was not in fact released in 2014 as was originally planned. This is usually not a good sign, but there are indicators that by now, the people involved actually know what they're doing. Writer and director Matt Reeves reportedly has a clear vision for how Bruce Wayne / Batman will be portrayed in this film, with a sharp contrast to other cinematic versions of the superhero, and apparently Robert Pattinson was exactly the actor he wanted to cast in the role, as he fits this vision exactly. Having witnessed Pattinson's absolutely unique acting chops in artistic endeavours like The Lighthouse (2019) and Tenet (2020), this alone makes me quite excited.
Also, the supporting cast is riddled with talent, from Zoë Kravitz and Andy Serkis to Colin Farrell and Jeffrey Wright. Many of the most interesting characters in Gotham City lore will be featured in the film, and by the looks of the teaser trailer and other promotional materials, there will be some bold and new takes on these characters (as well as Gotham in general). In the worst case scenario, the film flops but at least nerds such as myself get new Batman material to compare with previous iterations. In the best case scenario, we might have a unique and game-changing superhero flick on our hands.
4. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
One thought kept racing through my mind, when I was sitting in the cinema having just seen Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), and the post-credit scene (semi-spoiler alert!!!) was just a trailer for the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel. That thought was: Marvel has done this only once before. As a big MCU nerd with the memory of an even bigger MCU nerd, I could immediately recall that out of all the post-credit scenes they've done in their twenty-six movies, the Marvel Cinematic Universe have only once before released the trailer for an upcoming film in the post-credit scene of a previous film. And that was in 2011, when Captain America: The First Avenger came out, and to everyone's surprise, we saw the first-ever trailer for The Avengers (2012) after the credits had rolled.
What does this mean? I think that it's no coincidence. I think that Marvel are very deliberately using the same marketing trick to hype up Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as they did with the first Avengers movie - namely sending the message to fans that this film is going to be something big. I mean, it looks and feels large in scope when watching the trailer, and in the end, it's all right there in the title - the idea of the multiverse has been teased and built in recent MCU instalments like Loki and No Way Home, and it sounds like this film will dive straight into the deep end of this intriguing concept.
3. Top Gun: Maverick
For the third year in a row, the upcoming Top Gun sequel is on my list of the year's most anticipated movies - let's hope that there are no more goddamn delays and we actually get to see Top Gun: Maverick this year.
The reasons for why I'm looking forward to this film remain the same as they were in my post of 2020's and 2021's most anticipated films back in the day - I'm a huge fan of the 1986 original, and based on the excellent trailer, this sequel seems to know what it's doing in terms of bringing the story into the modern day yet retaining the awesome atmosphere of the original. As I'm sure Maverick (Tom Cruise) would say at this point: I feel the need - the need for this movie to finally be released into theaters!
2. Nope
From setting and concept to plot details and trailer footage, hardly anything has been revealed about Jordan Peele's third feature film at this point. But, based on the fact that his two first films Get Out (2017) and Us (2019) were groundbreaking, expectation-smashing combinations of creepy horror, poignant comedy and razor-sharp social criticism, I don't need much more to go on than "Jordan Peele's third feature film" in order to be hellishly excited. I mean, the dude won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for a horror movie, which is a damn-near impossible feat. The fact that Daniel Kaluuya and Steven Yeun are starring in Nope helps as well, because we've all seen how much Peele can get out of talented actors.
1. The Northman
As I've discussed on this blog before, Robert Eggers is in many ways remarkably similar to Jordan Peele. They've both directed two feature films so far, with horror as their main genre. Both directors have gotten acclaimed for breaking new ground in the genre and "reinventing" horror cinema in their own ways. For both directors, the debut film was a stylistically obscure cult hit that grew into mainstream fame, while the second film was a more large-scale effort for a wider audience. Both directors have a fandom that fiercely debates which of their films is better, as everyone solidly likes the first one but the second one is much more opinion-splitting with some calling it a flop and others a masterpiece. And, needless to say, the world of horror fans has been dying to see what the third film of both directors will be.
With all these similarities, it was difficult to choose which director's third feature effort I'm more hyped up for - but in the end, I had to go with Eggers. His first film, The Vvitch (2015), was a delightfully different creepy horror movie, and his sophomore film The Lighthouse was a masterpiece that's sitting on the #26 spot on my list of all-time favorite movies. The director's upcoming third film, The Northman, is described as "An epic revenge thriller" as well as a Viking-era period piece. The cast ranges from Game of Thrones (2011-2019) alumni Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson and Ian Whyte to superstars Anya Taylor-Joy and Alexander Skarsgård, not to mention icons such as Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe. Also Björk. No, really - Björk is in the movie. This could be good.
Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for a slightly different post, as I reveal the nominees for my 'own personal Oscars' - basically, I've chosen five nominees for a bunch of award-show-like categories concerning the best movies, television and music of 2021. Two weeks from now, I'll reveal the winners in each category.
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