100 upcoming films for 2020 - 2021

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100 upcoming films we can’t wait to see – part 1
Everything is still terrible, so we’re daydreaming about the future and the embarrassment of cinematic riches yet to come.

The words “delayed”, “postponed”, and “rescheduled” have become second nature over the past four months, as films disappeared from the release schedule and festivals weighed up whether to go digital or cancel their 2020 edition entirely. We’re not going to sugar coat it: things have been really fucking rough. To cheer ourselves up, we decided to take a look at things to come, so that the second it’s safe to do so we can all get comfy at our venue of choice and do what audience do best.

Of course, release dates are precarious at best right now, so things may change – but do tweet us @lwlies with what you’re most looking forward to. Once you’ve read Part 1, don’t forget to check out Part 2.

1. Bergman Island
We’re still a bit gutted that Mia Hansen-Løve’s excellent 2018 film Maya failed to acquire distribution in the UK, but we have fingers and toes crossed that her new one, Bergman’s Island, filmed on Fårö, will once more bring her elegant, emotional dramas back to the cinemas where they belong. This one is said to be a semi-autobiographical two-hander about a filmmaking couple (Tim Roth and Vicky Krieps) who head to the symbolic island to write their next scripts. Anders Danielsen Lie and Mia Wasikowska are also in the mix. David Jenkins

2. I’m Thinking of Ending Things
It’s been five long years since Kaufman’s exceptional stop-motion drama Anomalisa, but he’s been pretty busy in the interim – his novel ‘Antkind’ is now on shelves and his latest film project heads to Netflix pretty soon. Adapted from Iain Reid’s novel of the same name, I’m Thinking of Ending Things stars Jesse Plemons as a man driving to introduce his girlfriend (Jessie Buckley) to his parents (possibly Toni Collette and David Thewlis, who also star). Along the way they take a detour – and that’s when things start to get weird. We can’t wait to see what Kaufman does with this creepy little story, which he’s directed, written, and co-produced. Hannah Woodhead

ETA: 4 September, Netflix

3. After Yang
Prominent video essayist Kogonada made waves with his charming 2017 debut Columbus about a Korean-American who returns to the US after his father is suddenly taken ill. His second feature is based on a short story by Alexander Weinstein, and envisions a future where robotic children are purchased as live-in babysitters. Yang (Justin Min) is one such android – and when he becomes unresponsive, his human family attempt to save his life. Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith and Haley Lu Richardson also star. HW

4. Another Round
In the latest feature from Denmark’s Thomas Vinterberg, his first with Mads Mikkelsen since they landed him Cannes’ Best Actor prize for The Hunt in 2012, a group of high school educators embark upon an odd experiment. They learn that the human brain actually has a slight blood-alcohol deficiency, and that theoretically, maintaining a slight buzz at all times could unlock untold potential in the mind. So begins a bender for the history books, as some participants attain a heightened consciousness while others slip-n-slide into alcoholism as usual. A dry comedy about men doused in booze, it’s probably best seen stone sober. Charles Bramesco


ETA: 27 November, StudioCanal

5. Il Buco
It has been ten years since Italian director Michelangelo Frammartino stunned the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight strand with his goat-based docu-fiction hybrid, Le Quattro Volte (“You simply must see the goat film!” critics brayed). According to Cineuropa, he began photography on his belated feature follow-up, Il Buco, in September 2019, and follows the Piedmont Speleological Group and their discovery, in 1961, of the world’s second deepest cave. And if that’s not the perfect elevator pitch right there, then I don’t know what is. DJ

6. Nomadland
Chloé Zhou has been pretty busy since The Rider wowed audiences back in 2017. She’s directed a big-budget superhero flick for Marvel (The Eternals, now due out 2021) and has a film in development with Amazon, but we’re most interested in Nomadland, based on a non-fiction book by Jessica Bruder. Starring Frances McDormand and David Strathairn, the film focuses on the phenomenon of older Americans who travel the US in search of employment – many affected by the recession of 2007-2009. Apparently the film is in post-production, and probably would have done the festival circuit this autumn, so maybe we’ll see it sometime in the first half of 2021. HW

7. The Devil All the Time
Donald Ray Pollock’s novel is disturbing tale of murder, incest and religious fervour between an interconnected group of people in post-World War II Ohio; perfect material for Antonio Campos, who has a knack for stories which focus on the darker side of humanity. If this isn’t enough to lure you in, consider the stacked cast: Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, Sebastian Stan, Tom Holland, Eliza Scanlen, Bill Skarsgard, Jason Clarke, Haley Bennett, Riley Keough and Harry Melling. What a line-up. HW

ETA: 16 September, Netflix

8. On the Rocks
One of the banner releases for Apple’s new streaming service is the latest film from Sofia Coppola. After her last two films (The Beguiled and The Bling Ring) were adapted from existing work, she’s gone back to basics, penning the story and screenplay herself – and reuniting with Bill Murray, the star of her Oscar-winning Lost in Translation. Set in New York, On the Rocks sees a young mother (Rashida Jones) reunite with her playboy father (Murray) for a cross-city caper in which they try to mend their fractured relationship. HW

9. Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon
Ana Lily Amanpour took a bit of a critical pasting for her post-apocalyptic thriller The Bad Batch, but we’re not counting her out just yet. She’s spent the last few years directing television, and her new film focuses on a girl with “unusual powers” who escapes a psychiatric hospital and sets out on her own in New Orleans. Kate Hudson, Ed Skrein and Craig Robinson are attached. HW

10. Blonde
There have been plenty of films about Marilyn Monroe, but Andrew Dominik’s new one does sound quite promising. Based on Joyce Carol Oates’ fictionalised account of Monroe’s life, it stars Ana de Armas as the blonde bombshell, alongside Adrien Brody as The Playwright (Arthur Miller), Bobby Cannavale as The Athlete (Joe DiMaggio) and Caspar Phillipson as John F Kennedy (the same role he played in Pablo Larrain’s Jackie). Oates’ novel is a whopper at over 700 pages long, and has already been adapted once, into a little-known miniseries. Let’s see how Dominik’s version shapes up. HW

 

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11. Let Them All Talk
King of productivity Steven Soderbergh always seems to have something on the boil. His latest film is a comedy starring Meryl Streep as a famous author who goes on a cruise with her nephew, played by Lucas Hedges. She’s joined by old friends Dianne Wiest and Candice Bergen to have some fun and heal some old wounds. That’s all we know so far, and it seems a bit different for Soderbergh – but we’ll watch anything he does, and his comedies are among his best films. Though given Soderbergh’s work ethic, we wouldn’t be surprised if he’s managed to write at least three more scripts while in lock down. HW

12. Time
One of the most exciting aspects of observing a film festival play out in another country is spotting the explosions when a film with no real profile is suddenly the talk of the town. Garrett Bradley’s slow-cooked exploration of the prison industrial complex draws together a vast array of materials to document a decent-sized fragment of the 60 year incarceration handed down to Rob Richardson for armed robbery. At the 2020 Sundance festival, Bradley picked up the best director prize, and had her film snapped up by Amazon. DJ

13.Our Way
This new one from Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti appears to continue his shift from the whimsical, lightly humorous doodles of the ’90s (Aprile, Dear Diary) to more socially-aware and serious drama, as seen in previous feature Mia Madre. Our Way is based on an Israeli novel called Three Floors Up by author Eshkol Nevo and it is the first time Moretti has made film based on someone else’s work. The story takes in the comings and goings of various families living across three floors in a Roman apartment block. DJ

14. Those Who Wish Me Dead
Taylor Sheridan specialises in grim tales about the worst of humanity, so no prizes for guessing what this one’s about. Based on Michael Koryta’s novel of the same name, the story follows a 14-year-old boy who witnesses a murder and goes into the witness protection programme, hidden in a Montana wilderness camp for troubled teens. However, he’s pursued by the killers, and his only protection comes in the form of the couple who run the programme, and Hannah Farber, a lone woman who occupies a fire watchtower. Details about who’s playing who are thin on the ground (though we know Angelia Jolie is Farber) but Nicholas Hoult, Aiden Gillen, Tyler Perry and Jon Bernthal are down to star. HW

15. On a Half Clear Morning
Perennial miserablist Bruno Dumont’s mid-career pivot to comedy has been surprisingly successful, resulting in his folk-metal retelling of young Joan of Arc (Jeanne) and the screwball Twin Peaks that are his two “CoinCoin” TV serials. On paper, On a Half Clear Morning looks like he’s sticking with the funnies, as the film is said to be about a celebrity journalist (Léa Seydoux) whose life and career go into a tailspin following a car accident. We’d usually have a line here saying, “expect this,” or, “expect that,” but frankly, we’ve got no idea what Bruno’s up to with this one. DJ

16. Mainstream
Frances Ford’s granddaughter Gia Coppola made her directorial debut with Palo Alto back in 2013, and has been working on music videos in the interim. Her latest film, starring Andrew Garfield, Maya Hawke and Jason Schwartzman, is set in Los Angeles and focuses on a trio of friends who rage against the corporate machine only to find the lure of capitalism all too appealing. Garfield was photographed dressed as a giant rat on the set last summer, so y’know. Considered us interested. HW

17. Wicked Games
After opening the previous decade with his daring and profane Paradise Trilogy, then filling out the rest of the 2010s with a pair of documentaries, the great Ulrich Seidl has returned to narrative filmmaking. He shares credit with wife Veronika Franz on the screenplay about a pair of brothers returning home to Austria to bury their mother and drink to her memory. Upon returning to their respective lives in Romania and Italy, however, they find that something has changed. From this broad premise, a lifetime of regret and repression will come unspooled, if the director’s past films are any indication. One could say that this auteur… has gotten back in the Seidl. CB

18. To the Edge of Sorrow
Just when you thought every imaginable movie about the flickers of courage and resistance during the Holocaust had already been made, in comes Romania’s favorite son Cristian Mungiu with one more take on the material. In this adaptation of a real-life survivor’s memoir, a teen manages to sneak out of the death camps and take refuge in the mountains, where he falls in with an underground coalition of Jews spanning nations and generations. As they prepare a counteroffensive against the inhumanities raging below, Mungiu indulges in breathtaking natural-vista photography to rival that of Terrence Malick’s recent high-altitude A Hidden Life. Try not to get a nosebleed. CB

19. Kajillionaire
It’s been nine long years since Miranda July’s last film The Future, so it’s about time to welcome her back to the big screen. Kajillionaire focuses on a quirky family of scammers living in Los Angeles: Robert (Richard Jenkins) Theresa (Debra Winger) and their daughter, Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood). During a trip to New York they encounter the streetwise Melanie (Gina Rodriguez) and she becomes part of their crew, much to Old Dolio’s chagrin. We loved it at Sundance, and can’t wait for it to get a release in the UK. HW

20. Come, I Will Take You There
French director Alain Guiraudie wowed Cannes with his piquant gay nudist beach murder mystery Stranger by the Lake in 2013, and then confused the same audience with the head-spinning weirdness of its follow-up, Staying Vertical. Next up is the intriguing Clermont-Ferrand-set story of a young man who begins to feel affection for an older sex worker at the time the city experiences a terrorist attack. Guiraudie has proven himself adept at fusing together seemingly ill-fitting genre elements, and we’re keen to see how this one plays out, especially as it’s also a Christmas movie. DJ

 

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21. Impasse
There’s plenty of fresh work from Chinese legend Zhang Yimou that has yet to be seen by Western audiences: One Second, his ode to Cultural Revolution-era cinema, hasn’t played since state censors yanked it from its Berlin premiere, and he’s reportedly readied a propaganda picture called Me and My Hometown. But most intriguing of all would be Impasse, an espionage thriller that seems to be in line with his recent, excellent action-fantasy Shadow. Though it’s the first spy film in Zhang’s long and storied filmography, he’s demonstrated a chameleonic versatility that’s served him well across disparate genres. There’s little doubt he’ll figure it out. CB

22. Chocobar
Lucrecia Martel made the film that the esteemed brain-trust at LWLies towers named the finest of 2018 (Zama) and for her follow-up she’s opted to make her first documentary feature in collaboration with the Sundance Institute and London’s ICA cinema. The title refers to one Javier Chocobar, a photographer, activist and chief of the Diaguita Indian tribe who was murdered when forcibly removed from his land. Martel has been invested in his story for more than eight years, attending various trials and hearings, and her film is said to be an admonition of centuries of colonialist plunder in Argentina.

23. Louis Wain
We like cats. We like pictures of cats. We like weird psychedelic pictures of cats. The latter will likely feature heavily in Will Sharpe’s forthcoming biopic of the schizophrenic artist Louis Wain who made his name by producing eerie-cute paintings of anthropomorphic cats in various poses. In the title role is Benedict Cumberbatch who, per available images of Wain, will be growing a big bushy moustache, and lip-smacking support comes in the shape of Claire Foy, Andrea Riseborough and Toby Jones. DJ

24. Deep Water
Adrian Lyne wasn’t squeezed out of Hollywood; he was merely lying in wait, biding his time until we were ready for his genius once again. The one-time master of the erotic thriller revives that grandly ignominious tradition with his first film in twelve years, a psychotic pas de deux between real-life couple Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas. They play spouses long since fallen out of love, now getting their jollies by playing increasingly risky mind games with one another, a sadistic volley that begins to rack up a body count. Who’s the culprit? What’s their plan? And will there be copious sex scenes of significant steaminess? On at least that final count, we can be certain. CB

ETA: 20 November, 20th Century Studios

25. The Woman Who Ran
If the basic concept of time, for any reason, just stopped working, we would likely be able to roughly gauge the passing of the seasons by counting films made by the Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo, who seems to be on a rotation of about one every six months. That said, 2019 was the first year he didn’t make a film since 2007, so The Woman Who Ran could be garlanded as his big return. It premiered at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival to wide acclaim, and it’s another intuitive, ironic meditation on love and longing which stars his current partner and muse, Kim Min-hee. DJ

26. Small Axe
We’re intrigued by the concept of this anthology miniseries by Steve McQueen, made in five parts for the BBC. Two feature-length parts (Mangrove and Lovers Rock) were chosen for the Official Selection at Cannes 2020, which is a pretty big honour, and the entire series of films will premiere on BBC1 and iPlayer later this year. The series focuses on the experiences of the London’s West Indian community from the ’60s to the ’80s, and stars Letitia Wright, Micheal Ward, Kedar Williams-Stirling and Jack Lowden. HW

ETA: Late 2020, BBC

27. Possessor
In the future, assassinations will be carried out in vicarious vessels, as ghastly machinery transplants the consciousness of a highly-trained killer into the body of some fall-taking schmo. That’s square one for this horror of abstraction from Brandon Cronenberg (yes, they’re related), which places Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott in a psychical war for control of the latter’s physical form. Hallucinatory interludes messing around with colours and textures wowed audiences back at the Sundance Film Festival, where the film snapped up a US distribution deal with NEON set to move forward later this year. CB

28. News of the World
Tom Hanks goes west in his second film with Paul Greengrass, as a Texan who brings headlines from around the globe to rural communities in late 19th century America. He agrees to escort a young girl (played by the wonderful Helena Zengel, who was cast after her stirring performance in System Crasher last year), to San Antonio, but his charge isn’t so keen on the idea. It’s based on a best-selling novel by Paulette Giles, but Luke Davies and Paul Greengrass have been working on the script. HW

ETA: 21 January, 2021, Universal

29. Blossoms
As production ramps back up in a China still recovering from the coronavirus crisis, so begins what has been projected as an eleven-month shoot for the latest epic from the peerless Wong Kar-wai. The film chronicles a young man’s travails in 1990s Shanghai while searching for love and a way to advance his status, an epochal story told on a surely staggering scale. Wong works at a famously gradual pace (the script has been in the works for five years), so it may be a good while until anyone can actually lay eyes on this project – at the soonest, it could grace the 2021 fall festival circuit, though the master won’t rush for anybody. CB

30. Peninsula
Yeon Sang-ho’s zombie thriller Train to Busan was warmly received in 2016 by critics and audiences alike, and went down an absolute storm in its native South Korea. Its sequel takes place four years later, after the country has been ravaged by the zombie outbreak, and features a whole new cast of characters struggling to survive against the oncoming hordes. The film’s title refers to the entire country of Korea – in this vision of the apocalypse, the North and South have been decimated, rendering politics and borders obsolete, but apparently it’s focusing more on the gore and action than the potential for social commentary. HW

 

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31. Eureka
One question we’ve been asking ourselves since seeing the 2014 masterpiece Jauja: when is Lisandro Alonso going to make another movie? A recent press-release about a host of titles in-development via the Locarno Film Festival suggest he’s tinkering on something called Eureka right now. All that’s known about it, via production company website Luxbox, is an archive image of the Devil’s Tower out in the South Dakota wilderness, a jutting rock that’s just a stone’s throw from a hub of movie western lore, Deadwood. Which is one hell of a teaser for the Alonso heads… DJ

32. Nightmare Alley
If you’ve seen William Goulding’s 1947 carnival-based shocker Nightmare Alley, you’ll know that the news that Guilermo del Toro is co-writing (along with Kim Morgan) and directing a new version makes a whole lot of sense. The mad, mad story sees sees a gruff, desperate carny worker (Bradley Cooper) attempt to learn a secret mind-reading technique from star attraction Zeena (Toni Collette) in order to become part of a wider money-making scheme, but everything goes very awry very quickly. Throw Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Rooney Mara, Richard Jenkins and Ron Perlman into the mix, and at the very least you’ve got a star-spangled ensemble to die for. DJ

33. Memoria
We all agree that Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Palme d’Or win for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives in 2010 was the single greatest event of the new century. His new film, Memoria, was shot in Columbia – the first of his films to be made outside his native Thailand – and its story is woven around the presence of the coolest A-lister going, Tilda Swinton. The film sees Swinton as a Scottish traveller who starts to question her own identity and existence, with some kind of spectral element that is par for the course for Apichatpong. Film Comment published an excellent early set diary which contains lots of images of the production, so worth heading there for a deeper delve. DJ

34. Halloween Kills
A sequel to his successful 2019 reboot/sequel Halloween and the twelfth instalment in John Carpenter and Debra Hill’s iconic franchise, this slasher is due in cinemas October 14, just in time for the spooky season. A teaser trailer suggests it picks up where the last film left off, with three generations of the Strode family (Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer and Andi Matichak) having escaped Michael Myers and leaving him in the burning remains of Laurie’s home. But you can’t keep a good psycho killer down. The trilogy is slated to end in 2022 with the appropriately-titled Halloween Ends. HW

ETA: 15 October, 2021, Universal

35. Sound of Metal
A highlight of TIFF’s Platform selection last year, Darius Marder’s debut feature sees Riz Ahmed play a drummer in a metal band who discovers he’s losing his hearing. Olivia Cooke co-stars as his bandmate and girlfriend, and they’re joined by a large cast of deaf performers in a landmark for on-screen representation. This is an exceptionally special film with incredible immersive sound design and a career-best performance from Ahmed, which will be released with subtitles for deaf and hard of hearing audiences. HW

36. Boston City Hall
He’s often referred to as the great chronicler of institutes, from state capitols and department stores to welfare offices and abattoirs. Aged 90, this is Frederick Wiseman’s 46th film, and it will see him take his cameras and (probably) long-time cinematographer John Davey to hang out in the corridors and meeting rooms of Boston’s City Hall. As with all of Wiseman’s films, they maintain a tight focus on a single place or subject, but operate as profound and poetic meditations on society, civilisation and humanity, and it’s not hyperbole to say that his immense body of work is one of the greatest of any filmmaker living or dead. DJ

37. Shulan River
Taiwanese maestro Hou Hsiao-hsien is thought to be working on a new feature, his first since 2015’s rhapsodic wuxia epic, The Assassin. The story is said to be set in modern day Taipei and follows a man’s relationship with a water sprite who has long called the eponymous river her home, but is now left in a state of woe and confusion as the river has now been concreted over and covered with railway tracks. Hou has never made anything that’s even close to a bad or misfired film, so take our word for it when we say we’re extremely eager to catch this one. DJ

38. The Last Duel
At the grand old age of 82, Ridley Scott could be forgiven for putting his feet up and having a cup of tea, but no – he’s still hard at work. His latest film sees Matt Damon and Adam Driver face off as 14th century knights who come to blows when Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) accuses Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) of raping his wife Marguerite (Jodie Comer). Ben Affleck co-stars as King Charles VI and presumably the wig budget was in the millions. Filming in Ireland was delayed due to the pandemic, leaving Damon and his family on lockdown in the Emerald Isle. HW

ETA: 8 January, 2021, 20th Century Studios

39. The Trial of the Chicago 7
Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut Molly’s Game was a bit patchy, but he’s back with another true crime tale. This time, it’s the story of seven men who were charged with conspiring to organise riots during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. As for the cast list, it’s pretty long. Sacha Baron Cohen plays counter-culture icon Abbie Hoffman, and he’s joined by Eddie Redmayne, Jeremy Strong, John Carroll Lynch, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Frank Langella, Mark Rylance, Kelvin Harrison Jr, Michael Keaton and William Hurt. Netflix bought the rights to distribution from Paramount after COVID hit, and are planning to release the film sometime before the USA’s presidential election in November. HW

ETA: Late 2020, Netflix

40. Mandibules
Usually when people use the phrase “Kafka-esque” it’s as shorthand for some sort of strangeness, but in the case of Quentin Dupieux’s next project, we mean it in the sense that he’s made a film about a giant fly. Due out in France in time for Christmas, the story follows two friends who find the insect in the back of a car, and decide to train him with hopes of earning some money. If you saw Dupieux’s last film, Deerskin, about a jacket that was, uh, to die for (and indeed any of his surreal oeuvre) you’ll already know that this one is likely to be every bit as odd as his past works. The film is headed for a release in France in December all being well. HW

 

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41. The Witches
Nicholas Roeg’s 1990 adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book about a child who accidentally discovers a gathering of powerful witches is considered a classic, so Robert Zemeckis has his work cut out to try and step out of that tall shadow. He claims his version is closer to the book than Roeg’s, but remember what happened when Tim Burton remade Charlie and the Charlie Factory? Oh well – the starring players are Anne Hathaway (in the role made famous by Anjelica Houston) Octavia Spencer, Chris Rock and Stanley Tucci, while Jahzir Kadeem Bruno will play the central role. HW

42. The Last Planet
After a long wait, A Hidden Life appeared at Cannes 2019 to much fanfare, and we’ve made no secret of how much we love Terrence Malick’s last film. Perhaps it’s wishful thinking putting his next picture on a list of films we expect to see in 2021 as he famously likes to take his time in the edit suite, but we can dream. After years of religion being a theme in his work, he’s taking on the source material this time, envisioning key stories from the life of Jesus Christ. Hungarian actor Géza Röhrig will take on the main role as the Son of God and Matthias Schoenaerts is playing Saint Peter, while Mark Rylance has revealed he’s playing four different versions of Satan. Nice. HW

43. Armageddon Time
Take away all the moon buggy shoot-outs and death-defying dances with hurtling space debris, then James Gray’s 2019 film Ad Astra was a simple tale of a father reconnecting with his son. His follow-up, Armageddon Time, may sound like a bro’d-up Michael Bay sequel, but its story is in fact ripped from the writer/director’s own childhood and is said to be a coming-of-age tale set against the backdrop of Ronald Reagan’s rise to the presidency. Oscar Isaac, Robert De Niro and Cate Blanchett top-line the cast, which makes this a must-see before even a frame has been filmed. DJ

44. The Perfumed Hill
Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako stunned with his dark, politically coruscating 2014 feature Timbuktu, and it’s good to see that a new offering is on the horizon. Little is known at this point about the intriguingly titled The Perfumed Hill, other than that it is a love story set in Africa and China. Sissako is a master of visual metaphor and poetic symbolism, and also suffuses his serious, angry stories with a dry, almost whimsical sense of humour, but as with any filmmaker worth his salt, he’s also unpredictable in terms of plot structures and settings. Which makes this prospect of this one even more enticing. DJ

45. The Tragedy of Macbeth
This adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy marks the first time one of the Coen Brothers has worked alone – Ethan is taking a break to focus on theatre, so Joel’s on his own for script and directing duties. His wife Frances McDormand takes on the role of one of the great literary villains of all time in Lady MacBeth, while Denzel Washington plays her doomed husband. Brendan Gleeson, Corey Hawkins, Harry Melling and Ralph Inesen are lined up, too, with Shakespeare pro Kathryn Hunter playing the witches. All three of them, apparently. HW

46. Undine
We managed to catch this one at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival, and you can read our tempered but mostly positive first look review right here. Merging the mythical with the modern and toying with visual and emotional anachronism, German director Christian Petzold takes the fairy tale of soulless water nymph Undine and playfully transposes it to contemporary-era Berlin. As with his previous films Transit and Phoenix, it’s likely that Undine is the type of work that doesn’t offer an instant fix, but sticks in the craw and nags for a repeat viewing. DJ

47. The Zone of Interest
Jonathan Glazer has been pretty busy lately, creating a terrifying short film entitled The Fall which aired unexpectedly on television last year. His second film for the BBC debuts July 20 and is a collaboration with Mica Levi and Sadler’s Wells, and sees some of the world’s best dancers take inspiration from an involuntary mania which took hold of Strasbourg in 1518. His next feature film, however, is loosely based on a novel by Martin Amis, about a Nazi officer who falls in love with his camp commander’s wife. It’s set to shoot in Poland this year, so we’re hoping for a 2021 release, possibly on the festival circuit. HW

48. Babylon
After the slight misstep of First Man, the Damien Chazelle audiences know and love – the starry-eyed kid in thrall of the passion of music and the glitz of showbiz – has softshoed back onto the scene. In this glossy new drama, he’ll whisk audiences away to Tinseltown circa the Golden Age’s tail end, just as those newfangled talkies were minting stars and putting old ones out of business. Emma Stone leads as Clara Bow, proto-A-lister and insatiable sexual dynamo, while Brad Pitt will portray a fictitious figure rumoured by some to be based on silent screen star John Gilbert. Presumably, they’re both ready for their respective close-ups. CB

49. The Souvenir Part II
Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir was the best film of 2019, so our excitement for the follow-up knows no bounds. Honor Swinton Byrne will reprise her central role as Julie, while her real-life mum Tilda will also return. Charlie Heaton, Harris Dickinson and Joe Alwyn comprise the trio of young men attached, after Robert Pattinson dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. Principal photography began on the film last summer, so we could look forward to seeing it at Sundance 2021, after The Souvenir had its premiere in the 2019 edition. HW

50. Our Apprenticeship
Emergent Japanese talent Ryūsuke Hamaguchi won over a new wave of admirers at Cannes in 2018 for Asako I & II, his sensitive sketch of a woman torn between two men and the divergent lives they represent. Those currents of longing and existential melancholy will likely course through his next feature, which sends a Japanese starlet to a theatre school in France for some soul-searching. The diverse array of people she meets there, and the varied perspectives they show to her, reorient her thinking about herself and her desires in life. Hamaguchi makes perfect rainy-day movies, ideally paired with some lilting thought about where we’ve gone wrong in life, and this sounds like no exception. CB

Read Part 2 here. Have we missed something? Let us know @LWLies.

 

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100 upcoming films we can’t wait to see – part 2
We continue our countdown of films to look forward to, providing a little light at the end of the tunnel.

You’ve had the first 50 – so here are 50 more. These are the films we can’t wait to inject directly into our eyeballs as soon as it’s safe to go back in the metaphorical water. Have we missed something? Let us know @LWLies.

51. Candyman
When this writer was at junior school, the 1992 film version of Candyman was in cinemas, and many had to be sent home in floods of apoplectic tears if they were to hear the word “Candyman” spoken three times. Hopefully, this terrifying scare story will do the rounds of educational institutes once more as a new version of the film doomily swoops into cinemas with director Nia DaCosta at the helm and Jordan Peele on scriptwriting details. Though Peele is the big, banner name on this production, we’re very excited to see what DaCosta does with this material, particularly on the back of her lauded 2018 debut, Little Woods. David Jenkins

ETA: 16 October, Universal

52. Siberia
The creative synthesis between expat director Abel Ferrara and his constant muse Willem Dafoe hits a new high in this free-form character study. Dafoe flees his former life by playing bartender at a dive joint in the deepest, frostiest reaches of Russia. But one night, after dog-sledding to a cave with a mystical yonic aura, he’s reborn through his own past. A mental odyssey confronts him with memories of his father, brother, wife, and child as he attempts to make sense of his choices and possible future in between transportive visions. With Ferrara, we can safely bank on some soul-scraping introspection and profound self-loathing (not to mention extensive nudity from the esteemed Mr. Dafoe, confirmed at the Berlinale premiere earlier this year). Charles Bramesco

53. The Power of the Dog
Sir Ridley Scott has long been attached to a screen version of Don Winslow’s 2005 crime novel The Power of the Dog, but this one from Jane Campion is actually an adaptation of a 1967 western psychodrama by Thomas Savage, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jesse Plemmons as brothers on a far-flung Montana ranch. Their strict rituals and brotherly nobility is upended and then some when one brother marries a local widow (Kristen Dunst) and brings her and her young son to the ranch. Production had begun on the film in New Zealand but was halted in April due to the pandemic, but resumed in the middle of June and will hopefully surface at the beginning of 2021. DJ

54. Days
Taiwanese slow-cinema pioneer Tsai Ming-liang continues to refine his legato, hyper-minimal style in a two-hander pairing his usual star Lee Kang-sheng with first-timer Laotian immigrant Anong Houngheuangsy. The film contrasts their disparate lives: the former lives in a spacious, palatial estate while the latter spends his days in a poorly furnished little apartment. But an unexpected intersection of their lives during a fateful massage has a profound effect on the men joined by this fleeting moment of shared humanity. Lyrical, poetic, meditative, it’s another key plank in the lifelong work of a significant artist. CB

55. Annette
After years of delays, cast changes, speculation, and missing dogs, we know that Leos Carax’s first film since 2012’s Holy Motors is finished. According to Sparks’ Ron Mael (who wrote the music alongside his brother/band mate Russell) the film was supposed to be at Cannes this year. Alas, COVID had other ideas, and it doesn’t seem likely to pop up at Venice or Toronto given that both festivals have dramatically reduced their line-ups. We’re hoping for a Cannes 2021 bow for this musical, starring Adam Driver as a stand-up comedian and Marion Cotillard as his opera singer wife, whose lives are upended when their daughter, Annette, is born with a unique gift. Hannah Woodhead

56. Last Night in Soho
Originally scheduled for a premiere at Cannes and a September release but now delayed to next spring, Edgar Wright’s new film sees him hop back across the pond after the success of Baby Driver, and return to his horror roots. This time-travel thriller set in the heart of London stars Anja Taylor Joy and Thomasin Mackenzie and sees the latter transported back to the 1960s: a time period she’s obsessed with. Matt Smith, Dianna Rigg and Terence Stamp co-star, and the whole thing is lensed by Chung Chung-hoon, best-known for his work with Park Chan-wook. HW

ETA: 23, April 2021, Universal

57. Bora Bora
UK audiences have yet to experience the full rutting astonishments of Spaniard Albert Serra’s 18th-century dogging movie Liberté, and by the time they have done so (it is set for release later this year), Serra may have broken the back of its follow-up, Bora Bora. This one charts the love affair between a French diplomat and a Polynesian author on the famed Pacific sun spot and is said to be set against a backdrop of racial tension and political espionage. On paper it seems like Serra might be attempting to court a slightly broader audience than his experimental sex odyssey, but with him, you never really know. DJ

58. The Northman
Continuing carving out his niche as the creepy historical ghost story guy, Robert Eggers’ next film is described as a viking revenge film. He’s reteaming with The Lighthouse star Willem Dafoe and The Witch’s Anya Taylor-Joy, but there’s a whole lot of additional A-List talent: Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, and Skarsgård brothers Alexander and Bill. Production was paused due to COVID, but as of July, they resumed shooting in Ireland. Could a Cannes 2021 competition slot be on the cards given The Lighthouse’s massive success in Director’s Fortnight last year? HW

59. Hypnotic
Alita: Battle Angel spawned a legion of dedicated fans and did pretty well at the box office, so all eyes will be on Robert Rodriguez’s next project, which was supposed to begin filming in Los Angeles earlier this year. It’s now set to film in Austin round about now. Ben Affleck stars as a detective involved in a missing persons case, simultaneously investigating a string of heists which should be impossible. Rodriguez himself has described the film as a “very modern Hitchcock-type movie”, which is quite a claim. HW

60. Elvis
A biopic based on the life of Elvis Presley has been in the works for ages, and the titular role caused something of a scuffle among young Hollywood heartthrobs keen to play an Old Hollywood heartthrob. In the end, Austin Butler won the role, and he’ll star alongside Tom Hanks, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Rufus Sewell in Baz Luhrmann’s undoubtedly spectacular spectacular. Production was underway in Australia when COVID hit (notably, Hanks and his wife contracted the virus). Filming is expected to resume this autumn – is Butler gunning for the coveted Best Actor Impersonating A Beloved Musician Oscar? Only time will tell. HW

ETA: 5 November, 2021, Warner Brothers

 

[dontdiedontkillanyone]

61. After London
It was way back in 2016 that British artist filmmaker Ben Rivers would make his debut narrative feature with the assistance of the great Rook Films label, founded by Andy Starke and Ben Wheatley. Since then he has made the delightful Krabi 2562 in collaboration with Thai director Anocha Suwichakornpong, so After London may not quite technically count as a fiction debut. Beyond the title, very little is known of the project, but Rivers is someone who maintains a constant flow of productivity, and his unique, intuitive, lyrical personal style will make this one a must see whenever it finally surfaces. DJ

62. Uppercase Print
For his next trick, Romanian envelope-pusher Radu Jude will apply his signature blurring of archival excavation, theatrical recreation, documentary and narrative cinematic forms to one ghastly footnote from national history. From all angles, the film inspects an episode in Ceausescu’s 1980s in which the secret police apprehended subversive graffiti artist Mugur Calinescu and nearly interrogated the life out of him. As a whole, this multivalent project forms an unconventional thesis on the dangers of state surveillance, the might of fascism, and the vital importance of individual rebellion. (Ioana Iacob, the mesmerising star of his last feature I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History As Barbarians, also returns.) CB

63. Shirley
We’re big fans of Josephine Decker at Little White Lies, and can’t wait for her sublime new film to get a release this autumn. Elisabeth Moss gives a blistering performance as Shirley Jackson, acclaimed American horror writer, while Michael Stuhlbarg plays her husband Stanley Hyman. The pair play host to a newlywed couple (Odessa Young and Logan Lerman) at their rural Vermont home, and things start to get strange, as Jackson finds literary inspiration in the disappearance of a local college student. Lush, sexy, and just a little wicked, we can’t hype this one enough. HW

64. Don’t Look Up
Adam McKay will continue his Serious Satirical Commentary phase on Netflix, with an allegorical comedy in which a pair of clear-eyed analysts must warn the American people of impending disaster. But it’s not the financial collapse, or the election of Donald Trump, or the outbreak of a worldwide pandemic – there’s a gargantuan asteroid on track to obliterate Earth, and yet no one seems fazed by this news. Some reject the information as a hoax, some can’t be bothered to care, others give up, but nobody’s doing anything. Sound familiar? The two astronomers trying to shake the world into giving a damn will be played by Cate Blanchett and Jennifer Lawrence, who would ostensibly have little trouble getting people to pay attention to them, but that’s movies for you. CB

65. Malignant
After the massive success of Aquaman, James Wan is going back to his horror roots. Based on a story written by Wan and his wife Ingrid Bisu, the plot is a closely-guarded secret, and although the film was originally due to be released this summer, it was pulled from Warner’s slate at the start of the pandemic and hasn’t been rescheduled yet. We do know the cast though: Annabelle Wallis, Jake Abel and McKenna Grace lead the way. HW

66. Rebecca
Something a little different from the Brit master of mayhem. Last seen in 2018 presenting the brilliant, small-scale ensemble comedy Happy New Year, Colin Burstead, and with numerous big ticket Hollywood productions always on the cusp of sign-off, Ben Wheatley has has taken a surprise shift to the lavish period literary adaptation by taking on the multifarious beast that is Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. With Armie Hammer as dashing sadboi widower “Maxim” de Winter and Lilly James as his nameless, timid bride trying to live up to the immaculate standards of the late Mrs de Winter, Rebecca. Expect gorgeous gothic trappings and breathless melodrama, with a bit of the added Wheatley weirdness. DJ

67. Earwig
French director Lucile Hadzihalilovic doesn’t make films very often, but when she does, it is our duty to embrace them fully. She followed up her creepy 2004 debut, Innocence, with the artfully-inclined body horror of Evolution in 2015 (both are must-see movies if you haven’t partaken already), and she is currently tinkering away with an adaptation of Brian Catling’s 2019 steampunk horror novella ‘Earwig’. It involves a young girl with teeth made from ice and her nervy carer who once day receives a daunting call that he must travel with her from Liege to Paris for some unknown reason. Book us the entire front row now for this one. DJ

68. Titane
Julia Ducournau’s Raw was one of the most exciting debuts of the last decade, so we can’t wait to see what she does next. Her sophomore feature was scheduled to shoot this spring, but has probably been delayed. Still, there’s hope it might be ready in time for Cannes 2021. The script – also written by Ducournau – sees an injured young man picked up at an airport, where it’s revealed he’s been missing for ten years. At the same time, a string of murders are taking place across the same region. What’s the connection? We can’t wait to find out. HW

69. Monster Hunter
Paul W S Anderson is an old hand when it comes to adapting video games, being the force behind the Resident Evil franchise. He’s teamed up with Milla Jovovich again for a new adventure based on the video game series of the same name; she plays one member of a United Nations military team who fall through a portal into a world where humans fight giant monsters. These beasties threaten to invade the earth, so they’ve got to be stopped. Ron Perlman, rapper TI and Tony Jaa co-star, and the film has been completed for a while, but COVID means its release is delayed until next year. HW

ETA: 23 April, 2021, Sony

70. C’Mon C’Mon
Mike Mills’ last project was a collaboration with indie rock band The National, in which they produced an audio-visual album together. His new film sees him team up with post-Joker Joaquin Phoenix, who stars as an artist left to take care of his precocious young nephew during a cross-country road trip, while the boy’s father struggles with bipolar disorder. The film wrapped production in February, so there’s a chance we’ll get to see it by the end of the year, or in early 2021. HW

 

[dontdiedontkillanyone]

71. Anne at 13,000 Feet
Breakout actress Deragh Campbell earned raves for her performance as a woman on the verge of an anxious breakdown in this outstanding Canadian export. Though her mother, friends, and hookups all seem visibly concerned about her, she revels in her own dysfunction, at times creating awkwardness for the sheer thrill of sowing discomfort. She seems only to be at peace when among the children she looks after in her work as a daycare manager, another piece of a complicated psychological puzzle laid out by director Kazik Radwanski. He makes a splashy arrival here, his claustrophobic close-up shots as visceral and affecting as anything you’d find in an action film. CB

72. Nocturne
He won the Venice Golden Lion in 2013 for his film Sacro GRA, then he won the Berlin Golden Bear in 2016 for his film Fire at Sea. Now Italian documentarian Gianfranco Rosi is taking his camera to various Middle Eastern border zones and embedding himself there for such time as to be able to elicit something a little closer to objective truth from his subjects. Rosi’s previous films have demonstrated his knack for discovering charismatic characters who are free from the scruples of self-consciousness, and they are also examples of political films that are entirely free of didacticism and point-scoring. He tries to give a voice to underrepresented people, and the only question that remains is, will Nocturne win the Palme d’Or? DJ

73. The Nest
Jude Law delivers a tour de force of sleek contemptibility as a father methodically destroying his own family in Sean Durkin’s long-awaited follow-up to Martha Marcy May Marlene. He uproots his wife (Carrie Coon) and children from their American home to an English mansion they can’t afford, all so he can project the appearance of wealth long enough to advance at his job. The breakdown of this harebrained plan drives a wedge in their marriage, an emotional decay that Durkin represents with a chilling, borderline horror-movie atmosphere pervading the house that soon comes to feel like their tomb. Those taken in by the exquisite class frictions of The Souvenir would do well to mark this one on their calendars. CB

ETA: 18 September (US), IFC Films

74. Hubie Halloween
How do you follow up a performance like the one Adam Sandler gave in Uncut Gems? With a slapstick Halloween-themed Netflix comedy of course! Following on from the actually-pretty-good Murder Mystery, Sandler plays community volunteer and local source of mockery Hubie DuBois, who finds himself the centre of a murder case on Halloween in the iconic town of Salem, Massachusetts. Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, Rob Schneider and David Spade co-star, to the surprise of absolutely no one. HW

75. When the Waves Are Gone
The question with the Filipono auteur Lav Diaz is, will his next film be a short one (four hours), a medium one (eight hours) or a long one (12 hours). We’ll have to wait and see with When the Waves Are Gone, his intriguing latest and follow-up to 2019’s speculative sci-fi effort, The Halt. The plot looks amazing: 30 years ago, two best friends rob a bank. One goes to prison, the other returns to their home island with the money and becomes its tyrant ruler. For over 30 years, he keeps his friend locked up in prison with his influence. One day, during the monsoon storm season, the prisoner is set free after fulfilling his duties as a prison hit man. It sounds like Diaz’s version of The Count of Monte Cristo, and we’re here for it, however long it ends up being. DJ

76. The Card Counter
Paul Schrader’s latest was forced to suspend production after one of the crew members tested positive for COVID-19 in March, but Schrader – renowned for his impressive productivity – was back on set as soon as possible, and the film wrapped at the beginning of July in Mississippi. Oscar Isaac stars as the appropriately-named Tell, a serviceman turned wandering gambler, who’s approached by a young upstart (Tye Sheridan) with a plan to take down a mutual enemy (William Dafoe). We’re particularly keen to see Tiffany Haddish’s role in all this – and might not have to wait long. Distribution rights were snapped up quickly by Focus, and given how fast Schrader works, it’s feasible we might get to see this one sooner rather than later. HW

77. Samaritan
Audiences devoured Avery’s gore-tastic zombie World War Two film Overlord, and he’s promised his next feature will be just as dark. A young boy discovers a superhero, missing presumed dead for 20 years since he disappeared during a famous battle, is actually alive. Sylvester Stallone is cast as the errant avenger, while newcomer (and boxing prodigy) Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton plays the kid trying to track him down. Martin Starr and Dascha Polanco round out the eclectic cast. HW

ETA: 4 June, 2021, Universal

78. Promising Young Woman
Another victim of shifting release dates due to the pandemic, it’s our duty to remind you all that Emerald Fennell’s blistering black comedy Promising Young Woman is still yet to come. Starring Carey Mulligan as a woman who takes revenge following an incident involving her best friend, it’s a confronting, accomplished debut. We loved it so much we made a whole magazine about it, and hopefully it will get a release some time in the near future. HW

79. Chaos
Nadav Lapid received heaps of praise for his debut The Kindergarten Teacher and follow-up Synonyms, so all eyes are on him to make it a hat trick. Originally entitled Le Genou A’hed, the film centres on an Israeli filmmaker shooting in the desert, fighting against oppressive forces in his home country while also dealing with the death of his mother. HW

80. Stillwater
Tom McCarthy has one of the strangest filmographies in Hollywood. After three small but well-received indie movies he made the widely-derided magic shoe Adam Sandler vehicle The Cobbler, then went on to win two Oscars for his journalism drama Spotlight. Earlier this year his children’s movie Timmy Failure premiered at Sundance, but his next project seems a lot more serious: it’s about a father (Matt Damon) working to exonerate his estranged daughter (Abigail Breslin) for a murder she didn’t commit. Shine on McCarthy, you crazy diamond. HW

ETA: November 2020, Universal

 

[dontdiedontkillanyone]

81. Naked Singularity
The directorial debut from Chase Palmer (who co-wrote It with Cary Fukunaga) stars John Boyega as a successful young public defender who loses his first case, and watches his life begin to unravel. It’s based on the book of the same name by Sergio De La Pava, and Boyega is joined by Bill Skarsgård, Ed Skrein, Olivia Cooke and Tim Blake Nelson in the cast. We’re intrigued to see what Boyega does after serving time in the Disney machine with Star Wars, and this looks like a solid first step. HW

82. The Eyes of Tammy Faye
An odd bird, this Tammy Faye: she rose to prominence as the wife and cohost to televangelist Jim Bakker, made waves in the Christian community by standing with the LGBT community and AIDS patients in direst times, and divorced Bakker after he was imprisoned for fraud and conspiracy. A documentary covering her wild life story gets a dramatisation from The Big Sick director Michael Showalter, with Jessica Chastain playing against type as glammed-up Tammy Faye and Andrew Garfield pushing snake oil as Jim Bakker. The lion’s share of Showalter’s career has been in comedy, making him an ideal fit for a bizarre true story with black humour built right in. CB

83. Minari
When I saw Minari at Sundance earlier this year, I cried so much I had to hide my head in my hands when Lee Isaac Chung and the cast took the floor after the film for a Q&A. Based on Chung’s own childhood growing up on a farm in rural Arkansas, it’s a tender portrait of familial tensions, starring Steven Yeun as a would-be farmer chasing the American dream and outstanding (super cute!) newcomer Alan Kim as his son David. You’ll be rushing to call your own grandma after watching Youn Yuh-Jung’s performance as the elderly Soon-ja, who comes to stay with her daughter-in-law’s family and attempts to bond with her sceptical young grandson. HW

84. The Batman
Sunrise, sunset – another Batman franchise. Robert Pattinson dons the cowl for the umpteenth time around with the dark knight, recharging the ol’ movie star batteries in earnest for the first time since the Twilight days. The stuffed cast corrals Paul Dano, Zoe Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Peter Sarsgaard, Andy Serkis, and Colin Farrell for a full reboot, introducing a new Bruce Wayne hopefully reinvented in some meaningful way by director Matt Reeves. He says he wants to look at a younger Batman than the Affleck and Bale films, framing him more as a detective than a superhero, but who knows what to believe when it comes to these kookoo capes-and-tights movies. CB

ETA: 1 October, 2021, Warner Brothers

85. Music
The directorial debut of Australian musician Sia is – you guessed it – a musical. She previously The film was announced back in 2015 as a collaboration between Sia and her regular music video star Maddie Ziegler, and is apparently finished, though it was pushed back from an October 2019 release. It stars Kate Hudson as Zu, a recently-sober woman who has to care for her half-sister Music (Ziegler), who is on the autistic spectrum. Leslie Odom Jr and Hector Elizondo co-star. HW

86. Triangle of Sadness
Production was paused on Ruben Östlund’s follow-up to The Square, but it’s now back underway in his native Sweden. Woody Harrelson plays the captain of a luxury yacht, while Harris Dickinson and Charlbi Dean play a supermodel couple who are his passengers. Now, it’s difficult to know what exactly the film is about, as conflicting reports suggest a class war due to food poisoning, or a shipwreck which pits the yacht’s rich and poor passengers against each other. Either way, all aboard! HW

87. Mank
In the same way that David Fincher has made something of a rep for himself about being judicious and exacting behind the camera, he also carries over those qualities when it comes to the film gigs he signs up for. After nearly a decade of whispers, almosts and thanks-but-no-thankses, he’s finally settled down at Netflix (home of his ace Mindhunter serial killer series) to make Mank, from a script penned by his own father, about the mystery of who really wrote Citizen Kane, Orson Welles or Joseph Mankiewicz? DJ

88. The French Dispatch
It’s no secret we’re big fans of Wes here at LWLies, and we look forward to anything he does. But a Wes Anderson film about print journalism? It’s got our name written all over it. With a classic ensemble cast comprised of Anderson regulars Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton and Jason Schwartzman, plus newcomers Timothée Chalamet, Elisabeth Moss and Christoph Waltz (just a fraction of the huge, star-studded cast) The French Dispatch focuses on an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional French city. The journalists and subjects of their stories will both be explored, as Anderson pays homage to the New Yorker. HW

89. The Green Knight
David Lowery’s new film starring Dev Patel as Sir Gawain, Knight of the Round Table, was supposed to have a glitzy premiere at South By Southwest in March, but the festival was called off in light of COVID, and A24 have been keeping quiet on when we might get to see it. No need to despair though – they’re selling a tabletop roleplaying game based on the film to keep fans busy, and you can always watch the trailer again to get your fix of Arthurian intrigue. HW

90. Spiral
One of the best plot twists of 2019 was that Chris Rock had been working on a new addition to the Saw franchise. Apparently a long-time fan keen to push his career in a new direction, he took his ideas to Lionsgate and the original franchise creators (James Wan and Leigh Whannell), and they liked what they saw (sorry). Spiral takes place in the Saw universe, but it’s neither a prequel or sequel. A teaser trailer introduced us to the cast (Chris Rock, Samuel L Jackson and Max Minghella are headlining) but with a release delayed until next spring, we’ll have to wait a little while longer for the return of Jigsaw. HW

ETA: 21 May, 2021, Lionsgate

 

[dontdiedontkillanyone]

91. Zola
From the most captivating Twitter thread in the platform’s history and director Janicza Bravo comes a vivid, sordid tale of “how me and this bitch here fell out”. “Me” being Zola herself (Taylour Paige), a waitress/stripper who makes the acquaintance of “this bitch here,” fellow dancer and trickster-demon wild card Stefani (Riley Keough, at her Riliest). Their road trip from Detroit to Tampa turns into a mordantly funny spiral of blunts, guns, and pimps as the girls bond over the shared spiritual discipline they term ‘hoeism,’ just one expression of the inimitable authorial voice setting this apart from most high-profile literary adaptations. Keep an eye out for a supporting turn from Succession’s Nicholas “Cousin Greg” Braun. CB

92. Summer of ’85
The marquee premiere from this year’s all-virtual Cannes returns to the time-honoured narrative tradition of ‘the summer everything changed,’ with all the teenage hormones and furtive humid-night hookups implied therein. The age differential from Call Me by Your Name shrinks for 16-year-old Alex (Felix Lefebvre) and 18-year-old David (Benjamin Voisin), telegenic boys seized by desire while on holiday in the Normandy seaside hamlet of Treport. They embark upon an ill-fated affair de coeur that director François Ozon relates in parallel timelines aping the source novel’s unorthodox structure; Alex also provides narration from the future, testifying about that first taste of love in a courtroom trying him for a to-be-revealed crime. CB

93. French Exit
In 2018 American author Patrick DeWitt’s ‘The Sisters Brothers’ was turned into a wonderful western by Jacques Audiard and now his acclaimed 2018 novel about Frances Price and her adult son Malcolm, who move from New York City to Paris with their cat, is next up on the big screen care of Azazel Jacobs. Michelle Pffeifer and Lucas Hedges star as the duo, while Tracy Letts provides the voice of Small Frank, their feline companion, who just so happens to be the reincarnation of Frances’ dead husband. HW

94. Soul
Another title that was meant to be at Cannes 2020 (RIP) is this latest Pixar film. It’s also the first of their films to feature a black lead in the form of Jamie Foxx’s Joe Gardner. A middle school music teacher with aspirations of becoming a jazz musician, his soul is accidentally separated from his body and he must go on a journey through the afterlife to prevent his untimely death. Tina Fey, Daveed Diggs, Angela Bassett, Richard Ayoade and Questlove co-star, and the score is provided by those hepcats Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. HW

ETA: 27 November, Disney Pixar

95. Cosmogony
Vincent Paronnaud is best known for the two features he made with Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis and Chicken with Plums. He’s directed a few shorts and another feature under a pseudonym, but horror-thriller Cosmogony is his first “official” solo effort. It follows a woman who meets a seemingly charming man in a bar, only to realise he’s a psychopath with an equally twisted accomplice. She flees into the woods, which are her only hope to evade her would-be killers. HW

96. Dune
For a long time it looked like we were never going to see another film version of Dune, after the rights were purchased in 2008 and the project never materialised. Denis Villeneuve entered talks back in 2016, and some time later, his two-part epic is finally on the horizon. Timothée Chalamet plays young Paul Atreides, while Oscar Isaac and Rebecca Ferguson are his parents, Duke Leto Atreides and Lady Jessica Atreides, and Zendaya, Jason Momoa and Charlotte Rampling co-star. Taking on Frank Herbert’s behemoth sci-fi novel is no easy task, how will Villenueve stack up to David Lynch’s 1984 film and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s unrealised vision? HW

ETA: 18 December, Warner Brothers

97. Where is Anne Frank?
When Ari Folman was approached by the estate of Anne Frank about the prospect of adapting her diary into an animated film, he was initially unsure. But after speaking to his mother, and learning his parents arrived at Auschwitz on the same day as the Frank family, he felt inspired to take the project on. This film, aimed at a younger audience than Folman’s past work, will tell the story of Anne from the perspective of her imaginary friend Kitty, to whom her diary was addressed. The 2D characters are paired with stop-motion backdrops created by master puppeteer Andy Gent (best known for his work with Wes Anderson). It sounds brilliant – but be sure to take your tissues. HW

98. The Woman in the Window
If any upcoming film merits the Stefon-voiced ‘this movie has everything’ treatment, it must surely be this one. Amy Adams as an agoraphobic psychologist! A sapphic one-night stand with her Park Slope neighbour, Julianne Moore! A murder across the street, witnessed Rear Window-style! A possible gaslighting, as Jennifer Jason Leigh shows up introducing herself as Moore’s thought-dead character! And is that a highbrow cinematic pedigree? No, it’s just a group of talented A-list actors pooling their skills to bring delectably pulpy life to a shameless, twisty airport potboiler! New York’s hottest club is “Tracy Letts as the sinister therapist with possible ulterior motives.” CB

99. Benedetta
It has been a long old wait for Paul Verhoeven’s forthcoming nunsploitation epic Benedetta, but if producer Saïd Ben Saïd is to be believed, it’s too good to not enjoy a proper run in cinemas and a glitzy festival premiere. The film stars Virginie Efira, so memorable in her supporting role in Verhoeven’s previous, Elle, as a novice nun in a 17th century Italian convent who instigates a relationship with another woman. DJ

100. Ammonite
Francis Lee (correctly) became the darling of British cinema following the sleeper success of his debut feature, God’s Own Country, a film love story about transcending class and racial borders that just happened to focus on two men. His follow-up takes him to Jurassic Coast of Lyme Regis in the 1840s and a self-starting palaeontologist (Kate Winslet) who develops a relationship with the young wife (Saoirse Ronan) of a tourist passing through town. If it’s anything like Lee’s debut, expect coiled emotions and rich subtexts. DJ

Have we missed something? Let us know @LWLies.

PUBLISHED 25 JUL 2020

100 upcoming films we can’t wait to see – part 2

We continue our countdown of films to look forward to, providing a little light at the end of the tunnel.

lwlies.com

 

[King Freeman]

Only counted 21 films I'm remotely interested in watching.

 

[Norrin_Radd]

Lots of movies missing from this list unless I missed it. Where’s Tenet, Black Widow, Wonder Woman 1984 etc?

 

[Revolver Ocelot]

Where all them niggas that swore comicbook movies was the reason films like these don't get made?


Bet the total Box office for all these combined barely crack a billion. But that's Iroman's fault tho, right?....:sayword:

 

[rip.dilla]

A lot of art house and European cinema...



Right up my alley