Top Ten Most Anticipated Movies of 2016

Now I said that yesterday was a tough choice; well, this is the fourth year I've made one of these lists, and I've got to say, this has been the toughest one to write yet.  There is actually a tonne of really interesting looking stuff in the pipeline at the moment, but, I'm happy with what I've gone with in the end.  Wasting no time, here are the honourable mentions…

(And those are just the ones that have trailers out!)

Now let’s dig into the list itself, starting with…

#10 She Who Brings Gifts

The Girl with All the Gifts is a superb post-apocalyptic novel by MR Carey, one I highly recommend everyone seeks out.  It’s basically a zombie story, but these are “hungries”, humans infected, controlled and being consumed by a variant of the Cordyceps fungus.  This is far more than an aesthetic difference, as it leads to some fascinating story directions, not least the nature of the titular Girl, Melanie.  Well, now Carey has written a film adaptation, under a slightly different title for some reason.  It’s being directed by Colm McCarthy who’s handled episodes of a bunch of TV shows before, including Doctor Who and Sherlock, and will star Gemma Atherton, Paddy Considine and Glenn Close.  Yeah, Glenn Close in a zombie movie, didn’t expect to be writing that for a bit.  Oh, and a bonus for this one; it’ll beat the proposed The Last of Us movie to the punch!

#9 Godzilla Resurgence aka Shin Godzilla (God Godzilla)

Toho studios are doing a new Godzilla movie, set to release over there in June!  No idea yet if we’ll see it outside Japan yet, but the mere fact that a new one is coming has be bouncing in fanboy joy!  The first teaser is pretty "eh" to be honest, but that poster is badass, and the direction they’re going in seems to be pushing the more horrific aspects of the King of the Monsters.  (One wonders though if it’s possible to do that any further than the recent Godzilla in Hell comic series by IDW did?)  As for how it’s being done effects wise, it’ll be apparently a mix of practical and CG, so we’ll have to wait to see if it’s back to the rubber suits again.  Coolest news; it's a joint directorial effort between Hideaki Anno (the anime legend behind Neon Genesis Evangelion) and Shinji Higuchi (The live action Attack on Titan movies)!  Also in related kaiju news, a quick shout out to the fact that we have new Ultraman and Gamera stuff in the works too; cool!

#8 Star Trek: Beyond

Ok, ok, I know how the trailer’s been taken, I have made no secret on not being that big a fan of the first rebooted Trek & utterly detesting Into Darkness and I know how the credit “from the director of The Fast & the Furious” looks on a Star Trek movie, but hear me out here!  Firstly, ignoring the ADD nature of the trailer, it works purely on a “letting non-fans know there’s a new film coming, and it’s going to have lots of shiny in it” level.  Then there’s the fact that there are some genuinely good moments in the trailer, and it gets across the fact that in this film, the Enterprise will be encountering a new world, with a new civilization, like what Trek is supposed to do.  But what gives me the most hope is what the director and screenwriters (which DOESN’T include the team behind the other few films, thank God!) have been saying.  Interviews like these, where they have said they’re ignoring the stupider aspects of Into Darkness and going in a more classic sci-fi route makes me have a good feeling about this.  I’m not saying this will be a masterpiece, or it will turn the Trek franchise around, but there’s a good chance of this finally being more like a Star Trek than anything else done since 2009.

#7 The Void

Disclaimer time; I have a personal stake in this one, in that I contributed to the Indiegogo campaign from earlier this year.  This is a project from Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie, some of team Astron-6, who have previously done some wonderful retro movie pastiche/homages with Father’s Day, The Editor, Manborg, and my favourite segment of The ABCs of Death 2, W is for Wish.  Now, we have this horror flick that’s set to be something akin to 80s cosmic/body horror mash-ups like Prince of Darkness and From Beyond.  The crowdfunding was specifically to fund the practical effects work that will form the backbone of the story, and with glimpses of the grotesque creature designs already, this should be something fairly memorable.  The actual shooting of the film has already wrapped, so it’s now into post-production.  Let’s hope it’s released (and I get my Blu Ray perk!) by the end of the year.

#6 Hail, Caesar!

This is right in my wheelhouse, the Coen Brothers tackling old Hollywood!  From the trailer, they’ve got the looks of three-strip Technicolour musicals and biblical epics down perfectly, and quite a perfect cast to fit.  George Clooney and Frances McDormand are given since it’s a Coen Brothers movie, but we have Ralph Fiennes (someone noticed with The Grand Budapest Hotel what a knack he has for comedy), Scarlett Johansson, Josh Brolin, and Tilda Swinton. Icing on the cake; how adorable does Channing Tatum look in a sailor suit?

#5 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Disney are sure coming up with ways to get the most out of that $4 Billion they spent on Star Wars (although it’s beginning to look like they may get at least half of that back with one movie!).  For next Christmas, we have a sort of prequel- wait, wait, come back, it’s not like that!  This is actually more of a side-story, set just before the events of A New Hope, telling of how exactly the Rebel Alliance got their hands on the plans to the Death Star.  That’s right, it’s a heist movie set in the Star Wars universe!  I’m down with seeing that.  What’s more, it’s got an interesting looking cast including Felicity Jones, Donnie Yen, Forest Whitaker, Riz Ahmed and Alan Tudyk, and it’s being helmed by Gareth Edwards, who handled last year’s Godzilla and Monsters.  However things go in the main franchise (do not screw up that cool set up Episode VIII!), this should be an interesting little addition to the lore.

#4 The Nice Guys

Violence, wit, mismatched buddies, Christmas?  It’s a Shane Black movie alright!  We have a brutal, retro seventies thriller, with a lot of Black’s trademark wit and dialogue.  Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling are our mismatched duo this time around, both of which are wondrously funny in the trailer!  I’d have never guessed either of them could do funny this well, Crowe going deadpan and Gosling just a buffoon (I expect a lot of people will be bewildedly going “is that really the guy from Drive?” at this.).  Not much more to say it’s a Shane Black movie, you sort of know what you’re getting.

#3 Captain America: Civil War

Take one of the more controversial big crossover events in the comics, and the first step in bringing it to the big screen is to drain as much of the Mark Millar out of it as possible.  Good start.  The Russo Brothers who helmed Winter Soldier are back, and this trailer makes clear that we’re once again with the best action directors on Marvel movies yet!  Plus it has a whole load of extra characters showing up, including Ant-Man, and the long rumoured intro of Spider-Man into the MCU!  Fun stuff, although no I’m not going to do the Marvel vs. DC thing of directly compare this to Batman v. Superman, as they are going for different things (This is a culmination, BvS is a beginning... hopefully).  That being said, it will be interesting and probably pretty infuriating what parallels other critics draw between them, whether they are there or not.

#2 Free Fire

Ben Wheatley's new one, a crime face-off in 70s Boston.  Michael Smiley is already confirmed for Brawl, alongside Sharlto Copley, Arnie Hammer and Brie Larson, with Martin Scorcese executive producing.  Here’s this year’s “Do I really need to explain this one?" entry!

And my number 1 Most Looked Forward to Movie of 2016 is… Ghostbusters

Yeah, totally serious here.  Paul Feig is a fine comedy filmmaker, this is a solid cast, it has many of the original’s cast and crew’s seal of approval, they are saying in interviews they are committed to the horror aspect (which a Ghostbusters story needs to get right.), I think this could turn out OK.  What’s more, I am looking forward to audiences liking this, proving those trolls that can’t handle the absence of the Y chromosome from the main cast wrong.  I dig the fact that they are taking the basic concept in new directions with new characters, because with a broad premise like Ghostbusters you’re pretty much free to do that.  Look, I’m prepared for the fact that this may not work, but I severely doubt the main cast being women now will be the reason why, not least for the fact that I don’t see how that would be the case.  The original movie (OK, more The Real Ghostbusters cartoon series) was one of the things that really got me into genre fare, this may get a whole new generation in, with the bonus of it being a demographic previously underserved; that’s what I’m looking forward to and hoping for!

That’s my 2015 movie wrap up done; I’m making it a resolution to try and have more stuff on here, and to try and stick to daily updates on the Tumblr.  Happy 2016 everyone!