DON’T PANIC!
...an army of great films are heading to the big screen this year
Batman and Superman, Patsy and Edina, Captain mainwaring and Sergeant Wilson. mowgli and Baloo, Bridget Jones and mark Darcy... there is a decidedly familiar look to the characters likely to loom largest on cinema screens over the next 12 months, Brian Viner writes.
Whether or not any of the above double acts tickle your fancy, there are plenty of reasons to get excited about the cinema in 2016, and here is my pick of what’s coming up. Happy new Year!
ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS: THE MOVIE
MORE than 20 years after the last series, the tV sitcom’s pulling power is such that Kim Kardashian, Kate moss, Joan Collins, Cara Delevingne and Lulu are all reported to have cameos in the movie, alongside Jennifer Saunders as Edina, Joanna Lumley’s Patsy and the other regulars.
there’s also a role for the diminutive Janette tough, better known as wee Jimmy Krankie, playing a Japanese fashion designer called Huki muki. this has upset american comedian margaret Cho, who thinks asian actors should play asian characters. She has screamed racism, rather overlooking the defiant political incorrectness that defines ab Fab. Will its excesses translate to the big screen? this summer we’ll find out. (July)
BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE
WitH Ben affleck as Batman and British actor Henry Cavill (currently at odds of 6/1 to be the next Bond) as Superman, this is the first live-action film to feature both superheroes in any guise, let alone in confrontation with one another.
Good or bad, it is one of the year’s most eagerly anticipated blockbusters. as for who actually prevails in a fight between the Caped Crusader and the man of Steel, affleck has enigmatically revealed only that ‘truth’ is the winner.
Jeremy irons pops up as Bruce Wayne/ Batman’s butler, alfred. (March)
DAD’S ARMY
SomE of us are a little nervous about seeing new incarnations of our favourite characters in the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard.
on the other hand, it’s hard to find fault in the casting of toby Jones as Captain mainwaring, Bill nighy as Sergeant Wilson and michael Gambon as doddery old Private Godfrey. Catherine Zeta Jones also stars, as a glamorous journalist; the film might be faithful to the spirit of the beloved tV series, but clearly, not all 21st-century sensibilities could be overlooked.
the director is oliver Parker, who knows how hard it is to tackle sacred British institutions; his late father was British rail chief Sir Peter Parker. (February)
THE BFG
onE of the great silver-screen storytellers, Steven Spielberg, tackles a book by one of the great storytellers in children’s fiction, roald Dahl.
that alone should be enough to recommend this big-budget family film, which stars mark rylance in the title role as Dahl’s Big Friendly Giant, with Penelope Wilton as the Queen of England.
the screenplay is by melissa mathieson, Harrison Ford’s ex-wife, who sadly died in november.
if this picture does half as well as another picture she wrote with an abbreviation in its title, Et: the Extra-terrestrial, then it will further enhance her legacy. (July)
BRIDGET JONES’S BABY
it is more than a decade since renee Zellweger’s last outing as the insecure, decidedly flappable Bridget, and here she is again — but this time, as the film’s title rather suggests, she is a mum. We assume that Colin Firth’s mark Darcy is the father, and further assume that she will not be an entirely safe pair of hands as she goes about her mothering duties.
interestingly enough, Emma thompson shares a writing credit, along with Bridget’s creator Helen Fielding and David (one Day) nicholls. (September)
CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR
anotHEr superhero blockbuster, and industry folk are already abuzz at the prospect of Captain america v Batman v Superman at the box office.
With Chris Evans (no, not that one) back in the title role, Scarlett Johansson again playing Black Widow, and robert Downey Jr as iron man, the tried-and-tested marvel Comics formula that made such hits of the first two Captain america films will surely make this instalment hard to beat. (May)
EDDIE THE EAGLE
iF tHE bumblers of Walmingtonon-Sea aren’t haplessly heroic enough for you, then what about michael ‘Eddie’ Edwards?
this film, about the ski jumper who won nothing except enduring fame at the 1988 Winter olympics, has been in the pipeline for so long that when i interviewed Edwards eight years ago, he said it was ‘imminent’.
He also told me then that he’d like Simon Pegg to play him (though, typically, he confused him with Sean Penn). in fact it’s to be taron Egerton, with Hugh Jackman and Christopher Walken also in the cast. (February)
FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM
JK rowling makes her screenwriting debut, adapting her own 2001 book, which was written under the pseudonym newt Scamander.
Fantastic Beasts is meant to be one of Harry Potter’s key textbooks at Hogwarts, so this film (the first, wouldn’t you know it, of a planned series) is very much a Potter spin-off.
Eddie redmayne plays Scamander, although the cast is short of other starry names. the director is David Yates, who made four of the Harry Potter films. (November)
GHOSTBUSTERS
DirECtor Paul Feig and stars Kristen Wiig and melissa mcCarthy not only have their collaboration in the hit 2011 comedy Bridesmaids to draw on, but also the everlasting popularity of the 1984 original about, as if you need reminding, a ghost removal service.
i’m not a fan of the word ‘reboot’ but that’s what this is, with the male-led story of three decades ago now given a female dynamic.
in another pointed act of gender reversal, hunky Chris Hemsworth plays the firm’s receptionist, with reported cameos for original stars Bill murray and Sigourney Weaver. (July)
THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN
PauLa HaWKinS’S novel, a global bestseller in 2015, was never likely to wait long before making it to the screen. Here it duly comes, although with the setting shifted from London to new York. Emily Blunt plays the voyeuristic commuter rachel, a deeply troubled woman coming to terms with the end of her marriage, and a solid supporting cast includes Lisa Kudrow, Justin theroux (now married to Kudrow’s old Friends colleague Jennifer aniston) and rising star rebecca Ferguson.
the director is tate taylor, who made the hit 2011 film the Help. (October)
HAIL CAESAR!
a moutHWatErinG cast (including George Clooney, ralph Fiennes, Scarlett Johansson and tilda Swinton) graces this comedy written and directed by the Coen brothers, and set in the dying days of Hollywood’s so-called Golden age.
the leading man is actually Josh Brolin — playing a studio fixer whose job is to suppress scandals involving actors, but who gets mixed up in a highprofile kidnapping.
the picture has been chosen to open the prestigious Berlin Film Festival. (February)
THE JUNGLE BOOK
tHE 1967 film remains my all-time favourite Disney animation, so here’s hoping this computergenerated version has all the bear necessities to do similar justice to Kipling’s wonderful characters.
the cast of voices is certainly impressive: Bill murray as Baloo, Ben Kingsley as Bagheera, idris Elba as Shere Khan, Scarlett Johansson as Kaa and Christopher Walken as King Louie.
on the other hand, i gather that director Jon Favreau has changed King Louie from an orang-utan to a gigantopithecus (an extinct species of ape) on the basis that ‘orangutans don’t live in that part of the world’. Which is a bit worrying. (April)
SPOTLIGHT
i HaVE already seen this film twice, and can’t recommend it more highly as a thriller in the style of the acclaimed 1976 Watergate drama all the President’s men.
it tells the true story of the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prizewinning investigation into longterm child abuse by local Catholic priests, and is superbly acted (by michael Keaton and mark ruffalo, among others).
it is also written and directed with real class by tom mcCarthy, whose last picture was a grade-a clunker called the Cobbler. (January)