Escape holiday chaos with season’s new releases
These holiday movies may be worth ditching your to-do list for
As we turn the page to December, prestige awards contenders will vie for eyeballs alongside crowd-pleasing escapist fare.
Add to the mix a handful of streaming titles (some of which will have limited theatrical releases) and a variety of festive specials and one thing becomes clear: You might not have any time for holiday shopping.
We highlight the forthcoming film releases we can’t wait to see.
MARRIAGE STORY IN SELECT THEATRES NOW AND AVAILABLE TO STREAM DEC. 6 (NETFLIX)
Scarlett Johansson says she was “fated” to make Academy Award nominee Noah Baumbach’s portrait of a marriage falling apart. Adam Driver joins Johansson in the story of a couple who find themselves headed for divorce. Maybe don’t schedule this one for date night. Laura Dern, Alan Alda and Ray Liotta co-star.
JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL DEC. 13
Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillan and Nick Jonas return to the jungle in this sequel to the unexpected 2017 smash. Jake Kasdan will once again direct, with new cast additions Awkwafina, Danny Devito and Danny Glover joining in on the fun.
RICHARD JEWELL DEC. 13
Clint Eastwood unpacks the real-life story of Richard Jewell, the security guard who heroically saved thousands of lives at the 1996 Summer Olympics after he discovered a bomb-laden backpack in Centennial Olympic Park. Paul Walter Hauser, who was last seen as Jeff Gillooly’s co-conspirator Shawn Eckhardt in I, Tonya, plays the titular character, who went from being the hero to a villain after the media wrongly characterized him as a terrorist. Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm and Olivia Wilde co-star.
6 UNDERGROUND DEC. 13 (NETFLIX)
Transformers director Michael Bay takes a break from battling bots for this small-screen actioner that features Ryan Reynolds leading a team of agents who faked their deaths to go underground to fight evil. Dave Franco, Ben Hardy, Adria Arjona, Corey Hawkins and Mélanie Laurent co-star. Things definitely will go boom.
BLACK CHRISTMAS DEC. 13
After rebooting the Halloween franchise, Blumhouse is remounting a new version of the Toronto-shot 1974 horror classic Black Christmas. Fans have been in a tizzy over the film’s proposed PG13 rating, but writer April Wolfe promises it won’t be “any less vicious.” The revamp finds sorority girls at Hawthorne College being targeted by an unknown stalker. But the killer is about to discover that today’s young women aren’t the hapless victims he thinks they are.
STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER DEC. 19
After The Last Jedi kicked off immediately following the events of The Force Awakens, Episode IX jumps forward a year to finish out the Skywalker story that began more than 40 years ago. And good news for fans: The late Carrie Fisher
will get a sendoff as General Leia by way of unused footage. Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran and Joonas Suotamo star, with new additions Keri Russell, Matt Smith and Richard E. Grant joining the cast.
BOMBSHELL DEC. 20
Director Jay Roach and Academy Award-winning writer Charles Randolph assemble an all-star cast for a revealing look at a trio of women at Fox News who spoke out against Roger Ailes’ alleged sexual harassment and misconduct. An unrecognizable Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman play Fox News anchors Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson, respectively, with Margot Robbie portraying Kayla Pospisil, a fictional composite character. Meanwhile, John Lithgow suits up as Ailes.
A HIDDEN LIFE DEC.20INSELECTTHEATRES, OPENS WIDE ON JAN. 17
Based on real events, legendary filmmaker Terrence Malick brings us the story of a hardworking farmer living in Nazi Germany who resists the ideology of Adolf Hitler. The cast includes Michael Nyqvist and Bruno Ganz, acting in their final performances, alongside August Diehl and Valerie Pachner.
CATS DEC. 20
Helmed by Tom Hooper (Les Miserables, The King’s Speech), Cats gives a CGI makeover to a star-studded cast of Taylor Swift, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, James Corden, Rebel Wilson, Ian Mckellen, Judi Dench and Jason Derulo to breathe new life into Andrew Lloyd Webber’s fabled musical. “I just fully committed and threw myself into the process and had the most fun,” Swift told EW of filming the movie. “We had this thing called ‘cat school’ that was a class where you could learn about how to create the motions of cats, how to think like they think, how to sense things the way that they do, carry yourself the way a cat would. I learned a lot.”
1917 DEC. 25 IN SELECT THEATRES, OPENS WIDE ON JAN. 10
At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers, Schofield (Captain Fantastic’s George Mackay) and Blake (Game of Thrones’ Dean-charles Chapman) are given an impossible mission: Cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers — including Blake’s own brother. “The idea was loosely based on a story my grandfather told me,” director Sam Mendes tells Deadline. The ambitious film, which plays as one continuous shot, also stars Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch.
LITTLE WOMEN DEC. 25
Already tipped for her second Oscar nod, Lady Bird director Greta Gerwig adapts Louisa May Alcott’s classic book. Set in the 1860s, the coming-of-age tale centres on the March sisters, led by Jo (Saoirse Ronan) as they take their first steps into adulthood. Timothée Chalamet plays a possible suitor for Jo, with Emma Watson, Eliza Scanlen and Florence Pugh co-starring as her sisters. It also features Laura Dern and Meryl Streep.
SPIES IN DISGUISE DEC. 25
Super spy Lance Sterling (Will Smith) and scientist Walter Beckett (Tom Holland) team up to save the world from an evil tech wizard in the new animated comedy. The only hitch is: Lance has to do so after accidentally being turned into a ... pigeon.