The world might still be trying to recover from the insanity of what just happened in 2021, but that doesn’t mean we’re above a good old cinema trip. Now that cinemas are open and films are getting released, we’ve got a backlog of major releases waiting to see the light of day. Here’s the films you need to know and check out – of course release dates are subject to change, but as of now this is how things are looking for the year ahead.
JANUARY
LICORICE PIZZA
Comedy / Drama
Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Bradley Cooper, Sean Penn, John C. Reilly, Maya Rudolph, Tom Waits, Emma Dumont, Benny Safdie
Plot: The story of Alana Kane and Gary Valentine growing up, running around and going through the treacherous navigation of first love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973.
Expect: Jesse Plemons to be livid Hoffman’s own son stole his gig.
THE 355
Action / Thriller
Dir. Simon Kinberg
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Diane Kruger, Penelope Cruz, Sebastian Stan, Edgar Ramirez, Bingbing Fan
Plot: When a top-secret weapon falls into mercenary hands, a wild card CIA agent joins forces with three intentional agents on a mission to retrieve it.
Expect: Moderate peril, but probably a few decent jokes.
CYRANO
Drama / Musical / Romance
Dir. Joe Wright
Starring: Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Ben Mendelsohn, Kelvin Harrison Jr, Bashir Salahuddin
Plot: Too self-conscious to woo Roxanne himself, wordsmith Cyrano de Bergerac helps young Christian nab her heart through love letters.
Expect: Dinklage on top form.
SCREAM
Horror / Mystery / Thriller
Dir. Matt Bettinelli-Oplin & Tyler Gillet
Starring: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Marley Shelton, Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Dylan Minnette, Jack Quaid
Plot: Twenty-five years after the original series of murders in Woodsboro, a new killer emerges, and Sidney Prescott must return to uncover the truth.
Expect: It’s a SCREAM baby
BELFAST
Drama
Dir. Kenneth Branagh
Starring: Jude Hill, Lewis McAskie, Caitriona Balfe, Jamie Dornan, Judi Dench, Ciaran Hinds, Colin Morgan
Plot: A young boy and his working class family experience the tumultuous late 1960s in Northern Ireland.
Expect: A swathe of BAFTAs.
NIGHTMARE ALLEY
Action / Crime / Drama / Thriller
Dir. Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Paul Anderson, Tim Blake Nelson, Mary Steenburgen, Ron Perlman, Holt McCallany, David Strathairn, Jim Beaver, Richard Jenkins
Plot: An ambitious carny with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychiatrist who is even more dangerous than he is.
Expect: The notorious GDT to bring us a new masterpiece.
THE BLACK PHONE
Horror
Dir. Scott Derrickson
Starring: Ethan Hawke, James Ransome, Jeremy Davies, Madeleine McGraw, Mason Thames, J. Gaven Wilde
Plot: After being abducted by a child killer and locked in a soundproof basement, a 13-year-old boy starts receiving calls on a disconnected phone from the killer’s previous victims.
Expect: To crap your pants
MORBIUS
Action / Drama / Horror
Dir. Daniel Espinosa
Starring: Jared Leto, Adria Arjona, Matt Smith, Jared Harris, Tyrese Gibson, Michael Keaton
Plot: Biochemist Michael Morbius tries to cure himself of a rare blood disease, but he inadvertently infects himself with a form of vampirism instead.
Expect: The return of Leto’s emo phase
OPERATION FORTUNE: RUSE DE GUERRE
Action / Comedy / Thriller
Dir. Guy Ritchie
Starring: Jason Statham, Audrey Plaza, Cary Elwes, Josh Hartnett, Hugh Grant, Eddie Marsan
Plot: Special agent Orson Fortune and his team of operatives recruit one of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars to help them on an undercover mission when the sale of a deadly new weapons technology threatens to disrupt the world order.
Expect: Hugh Grant is going to have a wale of a time.
FEBRUARY
THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE
Biography / Drama / History
Dir. Michael Showalter
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Cherry Jones, Vincent D’Onofrio, Mark Wystrach, Sam Jaeger
Plot: An intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker.
Expect: In Chastain we trust
MOONFALL
Action / Science Fiction
Dir. Roland Emmerich
Starring: Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, John Bradley, Michael Pena, Donald Sutherland, Charlie Plummer, Wenwen Yu
Plot: A mysterious force knocks the moon from it’s orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on a collision course with life as we know it.
Expect: Moonfaaaaaall, let it crumble
JACKASS FOREVER
Comedy
Dir. Jeff Tremaine
Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Wee-Man, Dave England, Jeff Tremaine
Plot: Those idiots go about hurting themselves for laughs.
Expect: “Hi my name’s Johnny Knoxville and this is the try not to die challenge”
UNCHARTED
Action / Adventure
Dir. Ruben Fleischer
Starring: Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Sophia Ali, Tati Gabrielle, Antonio Banderas
Plot: Prequel to the video game series in which adventurer Nathan Drake meets Sully and hunt for a treasure.
Expect: Tomb raiding, but with a woefully miscast Mark Wahlberg
DEATH ON THE NILE
Crime / Drama / Mystery
Dir. Kenneth Branagh
Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Tom Bateman, Emma Mackey, Rose Leslie, Sophie Okonedo, Annette Bening, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Russell Brand, Ali Fazal. Letitia Wright, Adam Garcia
Plot: While on vacation on the Nile, Hercule Poirot must investigate the murder of a young heiress.
Expect: Murder most foul, moustache most glorious
AMBULANCE
Action / Thriller
Dir. Michael Bay
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Eiza Gonzalez, Devan Long, Garret Dillahunt
Plot: Two robbers steal an ambulance after their heist goes awry.
Expect: Total unbridled Bayhem.
MARCH
ALI & AVA
Drama
Dir. Clio Barnard
Starring: Adeel Akhtar, Claire Rushbrook, Ellora Torchia, Shaun Thomas, Natalie Gavin
Plot: Ali & Ava both lonely for different reasons, meet and sparks fly.
Expect: Brit-flick of the year
THE BATMAN
Action / Crime / Thriller
Dir. Matt Reeves
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Andy Serkis, Paul Dano, Peter Sarsgaard, Colin Farrell, Jeffrey Wright, Barry Keoghan, John Turturro
Plot: In his second year of fighting crime, Batman uncovers corruption in Gotham City that connects to his own family while facing a serial killer known as the Riddler.
Expect: Se7en by way of comic books – awesome.
TURNING RED
Animation / Comedy
Dir. Domee Shi
Starring: (voice) Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh
Plot: A 13-year old girl turns into a giant red panda whenever she gets too excited.
Expect: Fur for the whole family.
DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA
Drama
Dir. Simon Curtis
Starring: Hugh Bonneville, Maggie Smith, Joanne Forggat, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern, Dominic West, Tuppence Middleton, Imelda Staunton, Laura Haddock, Phyllis Logan, Penelope Wilton, Jim Carter, Allen Leech
Plot: The Downton staff received a royal visit from the King and Queen of Great Britain
Expect: Quaint manners, low stakes
THE LOST CITY
Action / Comedy
Dir. Aaron Nee & Adam Nee
Starring: Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock, Daniel Radcliffe, Channing Tatum
Plot: A reclusive romance novelist on a book tour with her cover model gets swept up in kidnapping attempt that lands them both in a cutthroat jungle adventure.
Expect: Romancing the Raiders of the Uncharted Tomb
APRIL
THE BAD GUYS
Animation / Adventure / Comedy
Dir. Pierre Perifel
Starring: (voice) Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina, Anthony Ramos, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Zazie Beetz, Alex Borstein, Richard Ayoade
Plot: Mr Wolf, Mr Snake, Mr Piranha, Mr Shark and Ms Tarantula hatch a plot to pull off the ultimate heist.
Expect: There’s the wolf guy, shedding skin a lot guy, snappy snappy fish guy, Deep Blue Sea alumni, but the spider is a baaaaaad guy… duh.
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2
Action / Adventure / Comedy
Dir. Jeff Fowler
Starring: Jim Carrey, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Natasha Rothwell, Adam Pally, (voice) Ben Schwartz, Idris Elba
Plot: Sequel to the 2020 film.
Expect: A sexy sexy Echidna
THE NORTHMAN
Action / Adventure / Drama
Dir. Robert Eggers
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Alexander Skarsgard, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie
Plot: An epic revenge thriller that explores how far a viking prince will go to seek justice for his murdered father.
Expect: Take the weird carriage way all the way down the A24
FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE
Adventure / Family / Fantasy
Dir. David Yates
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Jude Law, Ezra Miller, Katherine Waterson, Eddie Redmayne, Callum Turner, Alison Sudol, Dan Fogler, Jessica Williams
Plot: Third instalment in the series
Expect: A decided lack of trans-people
Read our review of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPEN
Comedy / Drama / Sport
Dir. Craig Roberts
Starring: Mark Rylance, Rhys Ifans, Sally Hawkins, Mark Lewis Jones
Plot: The story of golfer Maurice Flitcroft whose performance at the 1976 British Open Golf Championship made him a legend.
Expect: A triumphant story of true brilliance
THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT
Comedy
Dir. Tom Gormican
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Neil Patrick Harris, Tiffany Haddish, Sharon Horgan, Lily Mo Sheen
Plot: A cash-strapped Nicolas Cage agrees to make a paid appearance at a billionaire super fan’s birthday party, but is recruited by the CIA to uncover the billionaires drug ring.
Expect: Less Nicolas Rage more Nicolas range.
BENEDETTA
Drama
Dir. Paul Verhoeven
Starring: Virginie Efira, Charlotte Rampling, Daphne Patakia, Lambert Wilson, Olivier Rabourdin
Plot: A 17th-Century nun in Italy suffers from disturbing religious and erotic visions.
Expect: So much controversy it’s enough to make you need a wank.
MAY
DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS
Action / Adventure / Fantasy
Dir. Sam Raimi
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Rachel McAdams, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez
Plot: Story is unknown
Expect: Mind-bending madness
DC LEAGUE OF SUPER-PETS
Animation / Action / Adventure
Dir. Jared Stern & Sam Levine
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Kate McKinnon, John Krasinski, Vanessa Bayer, Natasha Lyonne, Diego Luna, Keanu Reeves, Jameela Jamil, Marc Maron
Plot: Superman’s dog teams up with a flying cat to stop crime while Superman is on vacation.
Expect: Shedding on the carpet
TOP GUN: MAVERICK
Dir. Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller, Val Kilmer, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, Lewis Pullman
Plot: After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete Mitchell is where he belongs, avoiding an advancement that would ground him.
Expect: The need for speed.
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4
Action / Thriller
Dir. Chad Stahelski
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgard, Laurence Fishburne, Hiroyuki Sanada, Lance Reddick, Ian McShane, Natalie Tena, Clancy Brown
Plot: Plot is unknwon
Expect: Gun-fu fighting
JUNE
JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION
Action / Adventure / Science Fiction
Dir. Colin Trevorrow
Starring: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Daniella Pineda, BD Wong, Dichen Lachman, DeWanda Wise, Justice Smith, Omar Sy, Isabella Sermon, Campbell Scott
Plot: Unknown at this time
Expect: Life to uh… find a way.
LIGHTYEAR
Animation / Action / Adventure
Dir. Angus MacLane
Starring: (voice) Chris Evans
Plot: The story of Buzz Lightyear and his adventures to infinity and beyond.
Expect: Who the hell knows?
JULY
ELVIS
Biography / Drama
Dir. Baz Luhrmann
Starring: Tom Hanks, Austin Butler, Olive DeJonge, Dacre Montgomery, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Richard Roxburgh, David Wenham, Kelvin Harrison Jr, Kate Mulvany
Plot: A look at the life of the legendary King of RocknRoll.
Expect: Being all shook up.
TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS
Action / Adventure / Science Fiction
Dir. Steven Caple Jr
Starring: Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Luna Lauren Velez (voice) Ron Perlman, Peter Cullen
Plot: Spin-off based on the toys.
Expect: Big robots in disguise as bigger robots probably.
MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU
Animation / Adventure / Comedy
Dir. Kyle Balda & Brad Ableson & Jonathan del Val
Starring: (voice) Steve Carell, Pierre Coffin, Taraji P. Henson, Jean-Claude van Damme, Michelle Yeoh, Dolph Lundgren, Lucy Lawless, Danny Trejo, RZA, Julie Andrews, Russell Brand, Alan Arkin
Plot: The untold story of one twelve-year-old’s dream to become the world’s greatest supervillain.
Expect: More minions memes on your aunts facebook page that make no sense.
THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER
Action / Adventure / Fantasy
Dir. Taika Waititi
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Chris Pratt, Jaimie Alexander, Karen Gillan, Taika Waititi, Sean Gunn, Simon Russell Beale
Plot: The next step in the saga of Thor.
Expect: To be… THUNDER STRUCK!
NOPE
Fantasy / Horror / Thriller
Dir. Jordan Peele
Starring: Steven Yeun, Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Barbie Ferreira, Donna Mills, Michael Wincott
Plot: No plot given
Expect: It’s a JP joint so it’s going to be singular but who knows?
BULLET TRAIN
Action / Thriller
dir. David Lietch
Starring: Brad Pitt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Joey King, Zazie Beetz, Brian Tyree Henry, Masi Oka, Andrew Koji, Michael Shannon, Logan Lerman, Hiroyuki Sanada, Karen Fukuhara, Sandra Bullock, Bad Bunny
Plot: Five assassins find themselves on a Japanese bullet train, realising that their individual assignments are all interconnected.
Expect: Still less stressful than going by Southern Rail
AUGUST
BLACK ADAM
Action / Fantasy / Science Fiction
Dir. Jaume Collet-Serra
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Shahi, Noah Centineo, Aldis Hodge, Marwan Kenzari, Quintessa Swinfell
Plot: Before there was Shazam! there was Black Adam, a champion of the Wizard’s choosing who fell from grace.
Expect: The DCEU to never be the same again.
SECRET HEADQUARTERS
Action / Adventure / Science Fiction
Dir. Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman
Starring: Owen Wilson, Jesse Williams, Michael Pena,
Plot: Young Charlie Kincaid discovers a secret headquarters under his home that seems to belong to a superhero.
Expect: Potentially something really special.
BEAST
Thriller
Dir. Baltasar Kormakur
Starring: Idris Elba, Sharlto Copley, Iyana Halley, Leah Jeffries
Plot: A father and his two teenage daughters find themselves hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on proving that the Savanna has but one apex predator.
Expect: A hefty dose of Elba fighting a lion like a boss.
THE MAN FROM TORONTO
Action / Comedy
Dir. Patrick Hughes
Starring: Kaley Cuoco, Woody Harrelson, Kevin Hart, Ellen Barkin
Plot: The world’s deadliest assassin and New York’s biggest screw-up are mistaken for each other at an Airbnb rental.
Expect: Plenty of Kevin Hart yelling.
OH HELL NO
Comedy
Dir. Kita Sakurai
Starring: Jack Black
Plot: Sherman falls in love with Will’s mother
Expect: Could be really funny.
SEPTEMBER
SALEM’S LOT
Horror
Dir. Gary Dauberman
Starring: Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Spencer Treat Clark, Alfre Woodard, Bill Camp, John Benjamin Hickey, William Sadler, Pilou Asbaek
Plot: A writer travels to a town where the people are becoming vampires.
Expect: A real bite in the neck.
UNTITLED GEORGE FOREMAN BIOPIC
Biography / Drama / Sport
Dir. George Tillman Jr.
Starring: Khris Davis, Sullivan Jones
Plot: The life and career of George Foreman
Expect: Let’s hope the film doesn’t get a grilling…
DON’T WORRY DARLING
Crime / Drama
Dir. Olivia Wilde
Starring: Florence Pugh, Gemma Chan, Olivia Wilde, Chris Pine, Harry Styles, Nick Kroll, KiKi Layne
Plot: A 1950’s housewife living with her husband in a Utopian experimental community begins to worry that his glamorous company may be hiding disturbing secrets.
Expect: More Pugh cooking videos on Insta!
DARK HARVEST
Horror
Dir. David Slade
Starring: Elizabeth Reaser, Luke Kirby, Jeremy Davies, Emyri Crutchfield
Plot: A legendary monster called October Boy terrorises residents in a small Midwestern town when he rises from the cornfields every Halloween with his butcher knife and makes his way toward those who are brave enough to confront him.
Expect: A monstrous delight.
OCTOBER
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 7
Action / Thriller
Dir. Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Cary Elwes, Hayley Atwell, Vanessa Kirby, Pom Klementieff, Indira Varma, Rob Delaney, Shea Whigham, Esai Morales, Mark Gatiss, Henry Czerny
Plot: Seventh entry into the series
Expect: Cruise to kill himself on one of these films
SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE (Part One)
Animation / Adventure
Dir. Joaquim Dos Santos & Kemp Powers & Justin K. Thompson
Starring: (voice) Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Issa Rae, Oscar Isaac
Plot: Sequel to Into the Spider-Verse
Expect: Visually it’ll be spectacular, hopefully the story matches it also.
HALLOWEEN ENDS
Horror
Dir. David Gordon Green
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, James Jude Courtney, Nick Castle
Plot: The saga of Laurie and Michael comes to an end.
Expect: £20.00 says it doesn’t end.
NOVEMBER
THE FLASH
Action / Fantasy
Dir. Andy Muschietti
Starring: Ezra Miller, Ben Affleck, Michael Keaton, Ron Livingston, Temuera Morrison, Kiersey Clemons, Sasha Calle, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Maribel Verdu, Rudy Mancuso
Plot: The Flash creates alternate universes and faces a threat from his past.
Expect: Fast paced action
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER
Action / Adventure
Dir. Ryan Coogler
Starring: Letitia Wright, Martin Freeman, Angela Bassett, Daniel Kaluuya, Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Michaela Coel, Tenoch Huerta, Florence Kasumba
Plot: Unknown at this time
Expect: A moving tribute to a titan gone too soon.
DECEMBER
LYLE, LYLE, CROCODILE
Animation / Comedy / Family
Dir. Josh Gordon & Will Speck
Starring: (voice) Javier Bardem, Brett Gelman, Constance Wu, Winslow Fegley, Ron DiPetta,
Plot: Feature film based on the children’s book about a crocodile that lives in New York City.
Expect: The Croc of Wall Street
MATILDA
Comedy / Drama / Musical
Dir. Matthew Warchus
Starring: Emma Thompson, Andrea Riseborough, Lashana Lynch, Stephen Graham, Alisha Weir
Plot: An adaptation of the stage musical, itself taken from the beloved book by Roald Dahl.
Expect: I’m smart, you’re dumb, I’m old, you’re young.
AVATAR 2
Action / Adventure / Science Fiction
Dir. James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Kate Winslet, Sigourney Weaver, Vin Diesel, Stephen Lang, Jermaine Clement, Michelle Yeoh, Edie Falco, Giovanni Ribisi, Oona Chaplin, Cliff Curtis, CCH Pounder
Plot: A sequel the the behemoth 2009 film.
Expect: A crazy amount of hype, hopefully the world hasn’t moved on from Pandora.
AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM
Action / Adventure / Fantasy
Dir. James Wan
Starring: Jason Momoa, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Kidman, Patrick Wilson, Amber Heard, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Indra Moore, Randall Park, Pilou Asbaek, Vincent Regan, Jani Zhao
Plot: A sequel to the 2018 hit.
Expect: Wet, wet, wet.
NETFLIX (UNDATED)
THE ADAM PROJECT
Action / Adventure / Science Fiction
Dir. Shawn Levy
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Zoe Saldana, Catherine Keener, Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo, Walker Scobell
Plot: A man must travel back in time to get help from his 13-year-old self.
Expect: Maybe something a little different from the man who morphed into Deadpool.
THE MOTHER
Action / Thriller
Dir. Niki Caro
Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Jennifer Lopez, Omari Hardwick, Joseph Fiennes, Paul Raci
Plot: While fleeing from dangerous assailants, an assassin comes out of hiding to protect her daughter she left earlier in life.
Expect: One bad mother mother.
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
Action / Drama / War
Dir. Edward Berger
Starring: Daniel Bruhl, Albrecht Schuch, Sebastian Hulk, Edin Hasanovic, Anton von Lucke, David Striesow
Plot: A young German soldier’s terrifying experiences and distress on the western front during World War I.
Expect: It’d be a bigger hit if 90-year-olds knew how to use Netflix.
BLONDE
Biography / Drama
Dir. Andrew Dominik
Starring: Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Garrett Hedlund, Scoot McNairy, Sara Paxton, Julianne Nicholson, Toby Huss, Lucy DeVito
Plot: A fictionalised chronicle of the inner life of Marilyn Monroe.
Expect: de Armas Oscar Campaign starts here
HAVOC
Action / Thriller
Dir. Gareth Evans
Starring: Tom Hardy, Timothy Olyphant, Forest Whitaker, Jessie Mei Li, Luis Guzman, Richard Harrington
Plot: After a drug deal goes wrong, a bruised detective must fight his way through a criminal underworld to rescue a politician’s estranged son, while unravelling a deep web of corruption.
Expect: No word on Hardy’s accent, but he is going to knock some heads together.
KNIVES OUT 2
Ana-de-Armas-in-Knives Out (2019).
Comedy / Crime / Thriller
Dir. Daniel Craig, Dave Bautista, Ethan Hawke, Kathryn Hahn, Edward Norton, Jessica Henwick, Kate Hudson, Madelyn Cline, Leslie Odom Jr, Janelle Monae
Plot: Unknown
Expect: I suspect… a-list talent.
Read our review of Knives Out.
MR HARRIGAN’S PHONE
Horror
Dir. John Lee Hancock
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Jaeden Martell, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Joe Tippett, Peggy J. Scott
Plot: When Mr Harrigan dies, the teen who befriended him puts his smart phone in his pocket before burial and when the lonely youth leaves his dead friend a message, he’s shocked to find he’s gotten one in return.
Expect: A melancholic spook fest.
PINOCCHIO
Animation / Drama / Family
Dir. Guillermo del Toro & Mark Gustafson
Starring: (voice) Gregory Mann, Tilda Swinton, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, Ewan McGregor, Christoph Waltz, Ron Perlman, Tim Blake Nelson, David Bradley, John Turturro
Plot: A darker version of the classic fairytale of a wooden puppet that transformers into a real boy.
Expect: The only lie would be to say that del Toro won’t deliver.
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).
Dir. David Blue Garcia
Starring: Alice Krige, Elsie Fisher, Nell Hudson, William Hope, Moe Dunford, Sarah Yarkin, Jacob Latimore
Plot: Unknown
Expect: A massacre with chainsaws hopefully.
THE GRAY MAN
Action / Thriller
Dir. Anthony Russo & Joe Russo
Starring: Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Ryan Gosling, Billy Bob Thornton, Jessica Henwick, Rege-Jean Page, Wagner Moura, Alfre Woodard, Scott Haze, Robert Kazinsky, Julia Butters, Callan Mulvey, DeObia Oparei,
Plot: In Europe, a CIA operative-turned-assassin looks to evade a mysterious force as he tries to save the lives of the daughters who don’t know he exists.
Expect: Some heads knocked together and a washed out colour palette.
THE GOOD NURSE
Crime / Drama / Mystery
Dir. Tobias Lindholm
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Eddie Redmayne, Kim Dickens, Noah Emmerich, Ajax Nadir, Nnamdi Asomugha
Plot: An infamous caregiver is implicated in the deaths of hundreds of hospital patients.
Expect: Better treatment with Bupa.
WENDELL AND WILD
Animation / Comedy / Fantasy
Dir. Henry Selick
Starring: (voice) Jordan Peele, Keegan-Michael Key
Plot: Two scheming demon brothers – Wendell and Wild – must face their arch-nemesis, the demon-dusting nun sister Helly, and her two acolytes, the goth teens Kat and Raoul.
Expect: This could be a really special film if it works.
