HOPING FOR SOME SCREEN TIME
With any luck, writes Chris Knight, these film titles will be coming soon to a (reopened) theatre near you.
Living through the last days of 2020 and now early 2021 feels like one of those two-train math problems.
Train A is full of COVID-19, second-class (the regular kind) and first-class (the new British mutation). Train B has the vaccine. They're on parallel tracks, and accelerating. When can we jump from one to the other?
Tied up in this conundrum is another question: When can we go to the movies again?
Variously across Canada, movie palaces have closed, then opened, then closed again.
But with a hopeful heart we look to the future, and some of the films we hope to see on the big screen in 2021. I'll include dates, but feel free to ignore them. It's like they used to say at the end of the 007 movies: “James Bond will return.” They didn't say when. But you knew he'd be back.
NO TIME TO DIE APRIL 2
One of the (inadvertently) better titles of the Pandemic Age, the newest Bond film was sidelined by COVID-19, which could almost have been hatched by one of the series' villains — Hugo Drax would do it in a heartbeat. Daniel Craig returns in his fifth, and presumably final, turn as agent 007.
BIOS APRIL 16
Tom Hanks plays one of the last survivors of a global apocalypse, building an android to look after his dog when he's gone. Because if there's one thing a global apocalypse teaches us, it's that dogs are important.
A QUIET PLACE PART II APRIL 23
After a world première at the Lincoln Centre on March 8, the sequel to John Krasinski's 2018 horror film was one of the first movies to drop out in the path of COVID-19, before it could open wide. A year later, it's hoping to sneak quietly into cinemas.
BLACK WIDOW M AY 7
Third time's a charm? The origin story of Scarlett Johansson's Marvel character moved from a May 2020 opening to November, then to the next May. Every shift dominoes the rest of the cinematic universe farther out, so let's hope this date sticks. The future of the Guardians of the Galaxy is depending on it.
F9
M AY 2 8
The latest in the Fast and the Furious franchise pits Vin Diesel's Dominic Toretto against his younger brother, Jakob (John Cena). I guess it really is all about family.
IN THE HEIGHTS JUNE 18
Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) brings us the film adaptation of his 2007 stage musical, set in Washington Heights. Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) directs.
LUCA JUNE 18
Just six months after the December release of Soul comes yet another Disney/Pixar film, this one set on the Italian Riviera and telling the story of a young boy who befriends a sea monster. Enrico Casarosa, whose animated short La Luna was nominated for an Oscar, gets his feature directing debut.
TOP GUN: MAVERICK J U LY 2
It's been 34 years since the original Top Gun, so what's a few more months? Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer return to the skies and, if I know Cruise, he rides a motorcycle at some point, as well. Because sometimes you feel the need for speed on the ground.
SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS J U LY 9
The next chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and the second film in Phase 4, after Black Widow), Shang-Chi stars Simi Liu as a skilled martial artist recruited by a clandestine organization. Destin Daniel Cretton directs.
DEEP WATER AUG. 13
Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas star as a rich couple whose open marriage leads to them being suspected when their lovers start dying. It's based on the 1957 novel by Patricia Highsmith, whose works have also been adapted into Strangers on a Train, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Carol.
THE BEATLES: GET BACK AUG. 27
Director Peter Jackson recently released a five-minute montage of footage from his upcoming Beatles documentary, culled from more than 50 hours of previously unseen footage. It includes the band rocking out in a studio as they record the title song. The energy is infectious. And they look so young.
THE MAN FROM TORONTO SEPT. 17
Not the first film with this title (that would be a 1933 movie, shot in London, with a South African playing a Canadian), this mistaken-identity comedy stars Kaley Cuoco, Woody Harrelson and Kevin Hart. They're not Canadian, but it was filmed in and around Toronto.
DUNE OCT. 1
Denis Villeneuve is reportedly very unhappy that Warner Bros. is releasing his big-screen adaptation of Frank Herbert's popular science fiction novel on HBO Max and video-on-demand. So as proud Canadians we owe it to him to watch it in theatres if at all possible. Don't be afraid: Fear is the mind-killer.
THE LAST DUEL OCT. 15
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon teamed up with Nicole Holofcener to write this adaptation of Eric Jager's book The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in Medieval France. Ridley Scott directs. And if you need another reason to go see it, Adam Driver plays one of the duellists. En garde!
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 7 NOV. 19
Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, saving the world both in the movie and apparently on the set, as the recent release of his tirade against crew members breaking COVID-19 protocols suggests.
WEST SIDE STORY DEC. 10
Steven Spielberg directs this big screen adaptation of the 1957 musical, which won 10 Oscars including best picture in its 1961 screen version from Robert Wise. Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler head the cast as Tony and Maria.
THE MATRIX 4 DEC. 22
Lana Wachowski's followup to the incredible turn-of-thecentury blockbuster (and its two somewhat disappointing sequels) reunites Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss as Neo and Trinity. Sure, they died in the last movie, but if The Matrix can't literally reboot a character then who or what can?
BABYLON DEC. 25
Damien Chazelle (La La Land, First Man) wrote and directed this story, rumoured to be set in Hollywood during the transition to talkies, and definitely starring Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie.