MOVIE SEASON
Brandy McDonnell offers a preview of holiday films
The costumes have been picked out, the decorations put up and the candy bowls filled. Halloween is here, which means the holiday season is coming soon. And just like offerings for the trickor-treaters should be brimming with an assortment of chocolates, chews and maybe a little candy corn, Hollywood is preparing a variety of cinematic goodies for the most wonderful time of the year.
Highly anticipated action sagas (“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” “Terminator: Dark Fate,” “Frozen II”) are mixed with intriguing awards contenders (“Jojo Rabbit,” “Parasite,” “Clemency”) and prized period pieces (““A Hidden Life,” “Little Women,” “Harriet”).
Here is a sampling of what the movie studios have in store for the holiday season, although some release dates are subject to change.
Nov. 1
The gang's all here for “Terminator: Dark
Fate.” The stars of the 1991 blockbuster “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” — Linda
Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger and even Edward Furlong — reunite with writer-director James Cameron returning as executive producer and “Deadpool” helmer Tim Miller directing the latest battle for the future of mankind.
Tony winner Cynthia Erivo portrays Harriet Tubman, as escaped slave who helped hundreds of others gain their freedom, in the biopic “Harriet,” directed by Kasi Lemmons (“Eve's Bayou”).
Nov. 8
“Thor: Ragnarok” mastermind Taika Waititi wrote, directed and plays a variation on Adolf Hitler in “Jojo Rabbit.” Winner of the top prize at the Toronto
Blockbusters, period films and awards contenders mix it up at the movies
Film Festival, the satirical black comedy centers on a devoted Hitler Youth named Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) who finds out his mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie) in their attic.
The latest film from Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho (“Snowpiercer”), “Parasite” won the Palme d'Or at France's Cannes Film Festival. A pitchblack comedic thriller about a poor South Korean family whose lives become entwined with a wealthy household, it has been a hit at the specialty box office.
“Game of Thrones'” Emilia Clarke and “Crazy Rich Asians'” Henry Golding star in the the yuletide romantic comedy “Last Christmas,” directed by Paul Feig (“Bridesmaids”) and cowritten and co-starring two-time Oscar winner Emma Thompson.
Nov. 15
Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska play the new generation of “Charlie's Angels” in the third film based on the 1970s TV series about a group of highly trained women working for a shadowy detective agency. This installment is directed, written by and co-stars Elizabeth Banks (“Pitch Perfect 2”).
Christian Bale plays hot-shot driver Ken Miles and Matt Damon portrays top-notch car designer Carroll Shelby in “Ford v
Ferrari,” which chronicles how Ford enlisted Miles and Shelby to challenge Ferrari's dominance in the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1966. Tulsa native Tracy Letts costars as Henry Ford II.
Nov. 22
In the hotly anticipated animated sequel “Frozen II,” Elsa (voice of Idina Menzel), Anna (Kristen Bell), Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and Olaf (Josh Gad) go on a quest discover the origins of Elsa's icy magic and save the kingdom of Arendelle. The award for the canniest casting of the year goes to “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” with popular two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks portraying beloved TV personality Fred Rogers.
Martin Scorsese's gangster epic “The Irishman” — which marks the first time Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Pacino, Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel have all worked together — is getting a limited theatrical run before its Nov. 27 Netflix streaming debut.
Nov. 27
Writer-director Rian Johnson (“Stars Wars: The Last Jedi,” “Brick”) and an all-star cast including Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis and Daniel Craig have their “Knives Out” for this comedic crime drama.
The first date for a black couple (Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith) takes a sharp turn when a police officer pulls them over in the drama “Queen &
Slim,” directed by frequent Beyonce collaborator Melina Matsoukas.
Dec. 6
In the high-flying fact-based adventure “The Aeronauts,” adventurous balloon pilot Amelia Wren (Oscar nominee Felicity Jones) and trailblazing meteorologist James Glaisher (Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne) embark on a hazardous voyage in the hopes of advancing humankind's understanding of weather.
Dec. 13
The sequel to the surprise 2017 smash “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” “Jumanji: The Next Level” gets Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillan and Nick Jonas back in the game, along with new players Danny Glover, Danny DeVito and Awkwafina.
With “A Hidden
Life,” three-time Oscar-nominated writer-director Terrence Malick, who grew up in Bartlesville, delivers a harrowing World War II drama inspired by true events. August Diehl (“Inglourious Basterds”) stars as Austrian conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter, a devoted husband and father who refuses to fight for the Nazis, even though the possibility of execution threatens to tear him apart from his family.
Clint Eastwood directs the fact-based drama “Richard Jewell,” with Paul Walter Hauser playing the security guard who is falsely suspected of planting a bomb at the 1996 Olympics. Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm and Olivia Wilde co-star.
Dec. 20
The final film in a ninepart saga that launched four decades ago and fundamentally changed the cinema landscape forever, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” will bring together heroes and villains old and new for one last epic battle. Starring Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Billy Dee Williams, Keri Russell, Kelly Marie Tran, Ian McDiarmid, John Boyega Mark Hamill and the late Carrie Fisher, the movie was directed by J.J. Abrams.
Academy Awardwinning director Tom Hooper (“The King's Speech”) herds Andrew Lloyd Webber's perennially popular 1980s musical “Cats” onto the silver screen with an all-star cast including Jennifer Hudson, Judi Dench, Taylor Swift, Idris Elba, Ian McKellen, Rebel Wilson and James Corden.
Oscar winner Charlize Theron, Oscar winner Nicole Kidman and Oscar
nominee Margot Robbie portray former Fox News personalities Megyn Kelly, Gretchen Carlson and Kayla Pospisil, respectively, as they take network head Roger Ailes (Roger Ailes) to task over the toxic workplace atmosphere he created in “Bombshell.”
Dec. 25
Two-time Academy Award-nominated writer-director Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird”) is the latest filmmaker to adapt Louisa May Alcott's classic novel “Little Women.” Her eagerly awaited version stars Meryl Streep, Emma Watson, Saoirse
Ronan, Timothée Chalamet, Laura Dern and Tulsa native Tracy Letts.
Dec. 27
Tulsa native Alfre Woodard, a 1983 Academy Award nominee, is garnering more Oscar buzz for her performance as a prison warden worn down after years of carrying out death row executions in “Clemency.” Writerdirector Chinonye Chukwu earned the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the this year's Sundance Film Festival with the hardhitting film.