I had a look at my favourite five films in cinemas of the year so far, so let's follow up by having a quick peek at some films I'm very excited about seeing later on in the year. I'll have ten on here, in chronological order of UK releases, and we'll go from August onwards. Before the list itself, let's get the obvious two out of the way; yeah, I'm really keen on catching both Frozen 2 and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, both have got a lot to live up to, and it will be fascinating to see if they can pull it off. For this list though, I'm going to focus on here a few lesser known titles, one's that deserve a bit more buzz.
First of two big Stephen King based titles this autumn, and probably the one that a general audience is more likely to be excited for. 2017's It Chapter One was a juggernaut at the box office, so the opening weekend alone for this one is going to be nuts. It will be interesting to see if the magic can happen twice, as this time round we don't have the kid leads which was a big hook for the audience (especially the Stranger Things fans within), although it's a fantastic cast they have for the adult Losers' Club. Plus many of the key players are back, including Pennywise himself Bill Skarsgard, and director Andy Muschietti. Speaking of, he's just been tapped to make the (long delayed) Flash movie for DC. It's an interesting tactic Warner Bros. have, getting their successful horror directors to go into their superhero films, but it seems to be working pretty well. Oh, speaking of comics published by DC...
The Kitchen - September 20th
We have one more superhero adjacent film out this year, Joker, but for me the more interesting comic based movie coming up is this crime tale. Based on a mini-series published by Vertigo releasing (RIP), as someone who adored Widows when he finally got round to seeing it earlier this year, the premise alone has me hooked. I'm a sucker for a good gangster tale, stories of women busting ass in a man's world, a seventies aesthetic, and a trailer that can use Paint it Black appropriately. It's a fantastic cast up for this as well, I'm especially pleased that Melissa McCarthy has more chances to show off her dramatic skills. I think this one has the potential to be a strong word-of-mouth success when it comes out.
Ready or Not - September 27th
I'm potentially worried that the trailer might being giving away a bit too much, but this does look like a lot of fun, with a deliciously dark sense of humour at work. This looks like something in the same vein of horror comedy titles I love like You're Next, maybe even a touch The Cabin in the Woods in the set-up, and having a blood-spattered bride makes me think of Rec:Genesis, so here's hoping it lives up to the trailer.
Farmageddon : A Shaun the Sheep Movie - October 18th
OK, let's have something a bit more family friendly on here; the Shaun the Sheep series (a spin-off of Wallace & Gromit) is a thing of wonder and joy, pitch perfect dialogue-free animated joy. The first Shaun film from a few years ago was a tonne of fun, this one looks like a more than worthy follow-up, some of the sight gags in this trailer alone are near perfect (the vending machine one made me chuckle so much!). Again, not much more I can say, except that I have faith in Aardman for this one.
Doctor Sleep - October 31st
This is the one I've been most excited about of the lot! You have to admit, doing a sequel to The Shining sounds like a pretty risky prospect. Well, Stephen King's novel takes that idea in a strong, logical direction, that expands on the world and lore well, and it looks like this film is sticking close to it. Of course the book was following up his original novel, this one is following up the film, but to be fair there's not much that needs to change plotwise to make that work (only one character beat towards the start, and aspects of the climax; trying really hard not to spoil here!). The main reason to get excited about this? The director, Mike Flanagan. Not only did he give us The Haunting of Hill House over on Netflix, but he's tackled King before, bringing to life one of this stories long thought "unfilmable", Gerald's Game. Yeah, you bet I'm in for this on Halloween night!
Le Mans '66 (Ford vs. Ferrari) - November 15th
Just noticed that it's the second trailer I've had on here with a Rolling Stones song on the soundtrack. I make no secret of the fact that I am entirely ignorant about most matters related to sport, so I know nothing about this story, but I am grabbed by this set-up. (I love that I'm deliberately not Wikipedia-ing this real life event to avoid spoilers!) James Mangold is a superb director (I do have to go back and see some more of his pre-Wolverine works some time), I like the race footage in here, looks to be a great ride!
Knives Out - November 29th
So I really enjoyed Murder on the Orient Express a few years ago, and really want to see the follow-up Death on the Nile next year. Here's something that should scratch that murder-mystery itch until then! Now this has caught my interest already by the stellar cast (which is a necessity for these sorts of film), and the stylish trailer, but Rian Johnson has absolutely sealed my interest in interviews. He has mentioned that it's based a lot on traditional Agatha Christie tales, but also on films such as Deathtrap, The Last of Sheila, Murder by Death, and an absolute favourite of mine, Clue. A modern day Clue that has a sweary Captain America. (Twitter has already gone nuts with "Language!" jokes.) In!
Jumanji: The Next Level - December 13th
I didn't think much of the Jumanji rebootmakequel from a couple of years ago when I first saw it, but it's really grown on me since then, and I look at it pretty fondly. So a sequel I was skeptical about, but this trailer revealed a high-concept that pretty much everyone grabbed onto, a great new use of the core conceit of last film. This brings everyone back, but gives everyone an entirely new character dynamic. The mere concept of The Rock playing Danny DeVito is hilarious, but what I love is that in Welcome to the Jungle, all the kids were familiar with video game tropes and how it affects this gameworld, but this time we have two elderly characters who probably don't get that, which means they'll view this adventure entirely differently. Also it's a good move having the characters played by older actors who have very distinct personas we're all familiar with. I'm definitely in for this one, just to see how well Kevin Hart can pull off being Danny Glover for a whole film.
Black Christmas - December 13th
Now this is the one we know the least about; note I don't have a trailer this time. In fact, until a couple of weeks ago no-one outside of Blumhouse knew this was even happening. The original Black Christmas was one of the first slasher films, coming four years before Halloween, and since then has been a major influence for a lot of filmmakers, you can see aspects of it all over the genre if you look. This one is being written and directed by women, April Wolfe and Sofia Takal, and the synopsis makes it sound like there's a more overtly feminist take on the tale, which given both that the original had the mother of all downer endings, and the success of the Halloween relaunch, is a very solid direction to take. Let's hope that this turns out significantly better than the previous remake (which was so different it was barely even a remake!).
So, that's just some of what's happening later this year that I'm keen to see. I'll probably have Canary Duty articles for all of these as they come out, in the meantime, is there anything coming out (apart from the aforementioned Disney safe-bets) that you're excited for I haven't mentioned yet?
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