Setting the screen for winter
A look ahead to what we can expect in theatres for the next few months
The new year is a time for renewal. In cinema, that means it’s time to forget (if not actually forgive) The Emoji Movie, The Snowman and whatever the latest Transformers movie was called. And time to look forward to a new season of film. Granted, wintertime isn’t exactly Oscar baited. But we’re guessing the next four months will herald at least a few pleasant surprises. Here’s what’s coming (dates subject to change):
Based on the book
Outspoken director Ava DuVernay (Selma) brings to the screen Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved 1962 novel A Wrinkle in Time (March 9), adapted by Frozen’s co-writer/director Jennifer Lee. A different kind of time travel can be found in Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One (March 30), based on the ’80s nostalgia trip by Ernest Cline. And Alex Garland follows up his first feature, Ex Machina, with the science-fiction tale Annihilation (Feb. 23), based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer. Meanwhile, working from a much older book, Andrew Hyatt tells the story of Paul, Apostle of Christ (March 28), starring James Faulkner. Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in 2004’s The Passion of the Christ, returns in the less messianic role of Luke.
Following the previous movie
The first of 2018’s bumper crop of superhero movies is Black Panther (Feb. 16), starring Chadwick Boseman. There’s also a new X-Men movie, sort of, with The New Mutants (April 13). And the Maze Runner trilogy wraps up with The Death Cure (Jan. 26). Catch your breath with Paddington 2 (Jan. 12), the further adventures of the Peruvian bear. And then prepare for Cloverfield Movie (Feb. 2), another science-fiction story set in the same general universe as the last two Cloverfield movies, and Pacific Rim Uprising (March 23), with more giant robots fighting giant monsters. Finally, there’s Fifty Shades Freed (Feb. 9, of course), featuring extra sexy shenanigans with Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey.
Based on the previous movie
Bruce Willis reprises the role made famous by Charles Bronson in 1974’s Death Wish (March 2). Anna Faris takes over the Goldie Hawn part in Overboard (April 20), a remake of the 1987 original. And Alicia Vikander becomes Lara Croft in Tomb Raider (March 16), which last starred Angelina Jolie in 2001.
Based in fact
Steven Spielberg’s The Post (Friday) tells the story of the Pentagon Papers, a scandal that predated Watergate and presaged our own WikiLeaks era. The Final Year (Jan. 19) gives viewers access to Barack Obama’s final 12 months in office. And The China Hustle (March 23) tells a story of greed and shady dealings in the Far East. More explosive tales are told in 7 Days in Entebbe (March 16), about the 1976 hijacking of a flight from Tel Aviv to Paris; Clint Eastwood’s 15:17 to Paris (Feb. 9), which tells of American soldiers who discovered a terror plot on a French train; and 12 Strong (Jan. 19), about the first U.S. Special Forces team sent to Afghanistan after 9/11. Older tales can be found in Winchester (Feb. 2), with Helen Mirren as the troubled widow of the firearms magnate; Final Portrait (March 23), with Geoffrey Rush playing Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti; and Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool (various release dates), with Annette Bening as film star Gloria Grahame, who died in 1981 — in New York.
The dangerous
Liam Neeson takes the butt-kick express home from work in The Commuter (Jan. 12), while Taraji P. Henson plays a hit woman in Proud Mary (Jan. 12), whose trailer features Tina Turner’s cover of that song, and Jennifer Lawrence is a Russian assassin in Red Sparrow (March 2). Meanwhile, Gerard Butler is on the trail of bank robbers in Den of Thieves (Jan. 19), while David Oyelowo gets kidnapped in Mexico in Gringo (March 9), and a group of friends is caught up in a murder mystery in Game Night (Feb. 23).
The animated
Beatrix Potter’s stories get a decidedly modern update with computer-generated bunnies in Peter Rabbit (Feb. 9), while in another corner of the garden there’s Johnny Depp detecting in Sherlock Gnomes (March 23). And Aardman Animation returns with a tale of Stone Age meets Bronze Age in Early Man (Feb. 16). And while Duck Duck Goose (April 20) looks like it might be this year’s Emoji Movie, Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs (March 23) could well be this year’s Fantastic Mr. Fox.
The Canadians
Mina Shum’s Meditation Park (March 9) is set in Vancouver’s Chinese immigrant community; Indian Horse (various release dates) tells the story of a residential school survivor in the 1970s; and Birdland (various release dates) weaves a tale of betrayal and infidelity.
The foreigners
Four of the nine finalists in the Oscar best foreign-language film race are coming soon: A Fantastic Woman (Feb. 2) from Chile; Germany’s In the Fade (various release dates), starring Diane Kruger; the Israeli film Foxtrot (various release dates); and Loveless (various release dates), from Russia. The season also brings Michael Haneke’s newest, Happy End (various release dates), and Before We Vanish (various release dates), a Japanese science-fiction drama.
The horror
The Insidious franchise turns four (movies that is) with The Last Key (Friday), while 2008’s The Strangers gets a sequel in The Strangers: Prey at Night (March 9), which might also have been titled Mobile Home Invasion. Meanwhile, Truth or Dare (April 27) is just the latest game-gone-wrong horror, while A Quiet Place (April 6) features a family that lives in terrified silence, fearing an entity that attacks at any sound.
The rest
Phantom Thread (Jan. 19) is the latest from Paul Thomas Anderson, and the last (so he says) from actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Hostiles (Jan. 19) is an old-fashioned western starring Christian Bale, while The Rider (April 13) is a modern tale about an injured cowboy. There’s also The Leisure Seeker (Jan. 19), with Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland as retirees on one last RV trip; Forever My Girl (Jan. 19), a story of love and country music; a high school girls volleyball drama featuring a team of scrappy underdogs in The Miracle Season (April 13); and Blockers (April 6), in which parents try to stop their daughters from having sex on prom night. Finally, Kodi SmitMcPhee (The Road) stars in Alpha (March 2), a survival tale set during the last ice age; and Dwayne Johnson saves the day in Rampage (April 20), a sci-fi adventure loosely based on a video game.