In a post-Oscar slump, look out for Branagh’s triple bill
The weeks immediately after the Academy Awards are traditionally a thin time for film releases, and this year is no different. Little is happening until the cinematic event of the year, Daniel Craig’s swansong as James Bond, in early April.
So in this rather fallow period, it seems timely to remind ourselves of some treats yet to come in 2020, starting with 007 himself...
NO TIME TO DIE
The rumours have been swirling around the 25th Bond film since 2015’s Spectre. For a while we didn’t know whether Daniel Craig was going to play 007 for the fifth time, then director Danny Boyle left the production over ‘creative differences’, then Phoebe Waller-Bridge joined the writing team, reportedly at Craig’s insistence.
Boyle was replaced by Cary Joji Fukunaga, the first American to direct an official Bond film. he is an intriguing choice, too, because he only has three cinema features under his belt, and is better known for his TV work (True Detective). The film’s arch-villain is played by Rami Malek. If he is still wearing those dentures he sported as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, he will be scary indeed.
But once Bond has got the better of him, as he surely will, we can concern ourselves with the biggest question of all: who is going to be the next man — or first woman! — to play the world’s most famous secret agent? Opens April 2.
ARTEMIS FOWL
SIR Kenneth Branagh directs this longawaited Disney adaptation of the original ‘young adult’ fantasy novel by eoin Colfer, about a brilliant criminal mastermind, aged 12.
There are lots more books to turn into films should there be an appetite for them, so inevitably there have been suggestions that Artemis Fowl could be the new harry Potter.
Whatever, the project has been cooking for a long time, going right back to 2001. It has even survived the association of harvey Weinstein, who was removed as producer following his disgrace.
Dame Judi Dench co-stars, with young Irish actor Ferdia Shaw in the title role. his grandfather, who died long before he was born, was Robert Shaw, famous for From Russia With Love, The Sting and, perhaps most of all, for being eaten alive in Jaws. Opens May 29.
TENET
BRITISH writer- director Christopher Nolan made three films in the decade just gone: The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Interstellar (2014) and Dunkirk (2017).
That’s a pretty impressive trio by anyone’s standards, so expectations are sky-high for Tenet, a big-budget spy thriller about frantic attempts to avoid
World War III. It stars John David Washington (Denzel’s boy), Robert Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki. Oh, and look out for a couple of knights rising further down the credits — Sir Michael caine, a nolan regular, and the ubiquitous Sir Kenneth Branagh. Opens July 17.
TOP GUN: MAVERICK
In 2012, two years after he agreed to make this sequel to his own memorable 1986 film, British director Tony Scott committed suicide.
But after some uncertainty the project survived that tragedy, with Tom cruise reprising his role as one of the U. S. navy’s greatest aviators. He’s now a seen-itall veteran but, naturally, still flying up a storm. Miles Teller plays his protege. Another veteran of the original film, Val Kilmer, also returns. Promisingly, the co-writer is chris McQuarrie, who has written for cruise in the Jack Reacher and Mission: Impossible films. Opens July 17.
DEATH ON THE NILE
IT’S Branagh’s year! His 2017 stab at an Agatha christie adaptation, Murder on the Orient Express, was a disappointment; many of us derived more fun from the elaborate, scenestealing moustache Branagh sported as Hercule Poirot (left) than we did from the actual film. But I look forward to seeing whether he can do a better job this time round. His cast is less starry than before, but just as intriguing, with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders featuring, alongside Gal Gadot, Annette Bening, Armie Hammer, Sophie Okonedo and, er, Russell Brand. Opens October 9.
WEST SIDE STORY
FRANKLY, if I was asked which classic screen musical was least in need of a remake, the wonderful 1961 film West Side Story would probably vie with The Sound Of Music for the no 1 spot.
So why has Steven Spielberg, of all people, decided to have another crack at reinterpreting one of the greatest stage collaborations, between leonard Bernstein (music), Stephen Sondheim (lyrics) and Jerome Robbins (choreography), of all time?
We’ll have to wait until December to find out. But I can at least tell you that it features Rita Moreno, who won an Academy Award for her role as Anita in the original film. By the time the movie comes out, she’ll be 89. Opens December 18.