60. Untitled James Mangold Project
Director: James Mangold (“Logan”)
Cast: Christian Bale, Matt Damon, Catriona Balfe, Jon Bernthal, Tracy Letts
Synopsis: In 1966, engineer Carroll Shelby and driver Ken Miles are tasked by Ford with coming up with a car that can finally defeat Ferrari at the Le Mans 24 Hour race.
What You Need To Know: We might like to poke fun at James Mangold when he talks about how Ozu influences his Wolverine movies, but the truth is he’s one of the more solidly reliable studio filmmakers out there, and his films really work more often than they don’t. With his Boba Fett “Star Wars” spin-off now seemingly scrapped, Mangold’s next film is this long-gestating motor racing drama, which nearly filmed a few years back with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in the lead roles. Bale and Damon are more than acceptable replacements, but can this do what so many other movies haven’t, and make motor racing compelling to a general audience?
Release Date: June 28th
https://twitter.com/ThePlaylist/status/1016920376289394688
59. “The Trial Of The Chicago 7”
Director: Aaron Sorkin (“Molly’s Game”)
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne
Synopsis: The true story of the seven defendants tried by the government in the aftermath of the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
What You Need to Know: As “Gemini Man,” and several other movies on this list, prove, a great script never truly dies, it just sits in a drawer until someone plucks it out again and has another go. And “Trial Of The Chicago 7” is one of the clearest examples of that. Sorkin’s script was initially to be directed by Steven Spielberg over a decade ago before the writer’s strike scrapped the plans. Then Paul Greengrass attempted to mount it five years ago before similarly failing to make it to the starting line. Now, after directorial debut “Molly’s Game” proved a modest success, Sorkin himself is taking on the directorial reins, with Baron Cohen, who was attached to the Spielberg version, set to play Abbie Hoffman and Redmayne as future Jane Fonda spouse Tom Hayden. It seems more timely than ever, so maybe the delay will have been worth it?
Release Date: No firm date on when it shoots, but if it can get going early in 2019, this could be an awards season player.
https://twitter.com/ThePlaylist/status/1055924065511194624
58. Untitled Babak Anvari Project
Director: Babak Anvari (“Under The Shadow”)
Cast: Armie Hammer, Dakota Johnson, Zazie Beetz, Karl Glusman, Brad William Henke
Synopsis: A barman’s life unravels after he picks up a lost phone.
What You Need To Know: Even in the glut of great arthouse horror debuts we’ve had in the last few years, the Iran-set “Under The Shadow” was a standout, and clearly marked director Babak Anvari out for big things. And those big things arrive in this Annapurna-backed thriller teaming three of the brightest rising stars of late, Armie Hammer, Dakota Johnson, and Zazie Beetz. It’s an adaptation of a novella by author Nathan Ballingrad called “The Visible Filth,” and while it sounds like straight up noir from the logline, there’s definitely some supernatural horror along the lines of Anvari’s debut in the mix from what we know about the source material.
Release Date: This was originally dated for March, but it seems to have dropped off the release calendar, possibly after the upheaval at Annapurna recently. It’s not at Sundance, either.
https://twitter.com/ThePlaylist/status/961315392403615744
57. “The Kitchen”
Director: Andrea Berloff
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, Elisabeth Moss, Common, Domhnall Gleeson
Synopsis: The wives of three Irish mobsters take over the family business after their husbands are arrested.
What You Need To Know: Even as fans of the Ollie Masters/Ming Doyle comic book series on which it’s based, we were a little surprised to hear that “The Kitchen” was coming to the big screen, given a certain similarity in its premise to Steve McQueen’s “Widows.” But now we’ve seen the latter, it definitely feels like there’s room for both to exist, as they’re quite distinct (after all, studio execs wouldn’t cancel a male-led crime movie because there was another in the works). Marking the directorial debut of Oscar-nominated “Straight Outta Compton” writer Andrea Berloff, this has attracted a hell of a cast: don’t let the presence of McCarthy and Haddish fool you, this is a straight up Scorsesian crime pic, of the sort that its murderers row of supporting cast (Margo Martindale, Bill Camp, Brian d’Arcy James, James Badge Dale, Jeremy Bobb) would suggest. Marty should be looking over his shoulder, tbh: this isn’t the only very promising Irish crime pic on the way this year.
Release Date: September 20th
https://twitter.com/ThePlaylist/status/963513658926968832
56. “Grudge”
Director: Nicolas Pesce (“Piercing”)
Cast: Andrea Riseborough, Demián Bichir, John Cho, Jacki Weaver, Betty Gilpin
Synopsis: The return of everyone’s second-favorite J-horror revenge ghost.
What You Need To Know: Ordinarily, we wouldn’t really consider a reboot of a horror movie for a list like this, especially a reboot of a horror movie in the J-horror trend that passed about a decade ago (and that spluttered when it returned briefly with the godawful “Rings” reboot). But “Grudge” — a reboot of the remake of Takashi Shimizu’s “Ju-On” — looks to be something a bit more special, largely because it marks the studio debut of Nicolas Pesce, whose “Eyes Of My Mother” and “Piercing” are two of the more striking and disturbing genre outings of the last few years. He’s assembled a better-than-usual cast too, including Andrea Riseborough, John Cho and “Glow” standout Betty Gilpin. Can he find a new spin on the old cliches, though?
Release Date: June 21st.
https://twitter.com/ThePlaylist/status/883311448872558592
55. “Spider-Man: Far From Home”
Director: Jon Watts (“Spider-Man: Homecoming”)
Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jake Gyllenhaal, Cobie Smulders, Samuel L. Jackson
Synopsis: Peter Parker and his web-swinging alter-ego must take on the villainous Mysterio during a trip to Europe, a task presumably made difficult by him having recently dissolved into sawdust.
What You Need To Know: Despite the lowish expectations we had for it going on, “Spider-Man: Homecoming” turned out to be one of the better Marvel movies, with a great feel for its hero (thanks in part to Tom Holland’s terrific performance), a fun tone, and a strong villain. It’s left Sony’s Spidey-verse in rude health, with “Venom” critically reviled but a big hit, and the animated spin-off winning plaudits already. But “Far From Home” faces some challenges, the first of which is that its title character died at the end of “Infinity War.” Assuming he’s resurrected in the next “Avengers” (spoiler: he definitely will be), it still poses the questions of how easily he’ll slot back into something relatively grounded. And will the studio notes that probably turned “Venom” into such a shitshow find their way back in here? Still, we’re optimistic after Watts did such a good job the first time around.
Release Date: July 5th
https://twitter.com/ThePlaylist/status/998580894607683585
54. “Zola”
Director: Janicza Bravo (“Lemon”)
Cast: Taylour Paige, Riley Keough, Nicholas Braun, Colman Domingo, Jason Mitchell
Synopsis: An exotic dancer goes on a road trip with a sex worker, her boyfriend, and a pimp.
What You Need To Know: We’ve had movies based on comic books, on video games, on board games and even apps, but A24’s “Zola” marks a first: the first movie ever to be based on a Twitter thread. The story of ‘Zola’ lit up social media back in 2015, and indie veteran Christine Vachon optioned a subsequent Rolling Stone article about it, with James Franco, set to direct. Franco fell off after MeToo-related accusations against him, and Janicza Bravo, whose absurdist comedy “Lemon” led to jobs directing on “Atlanta,” “Dear White People” and “Forever,” was the smart replacement. Whether it works in translation to the screen remains to be seen, but the material’s certainly fascinating, and there’s an excellent cast on board so we’re hopeful.
Release Date: Filming began in October, so fall festivals are most likely.
53. “The Lion King”
Director: Jon Favreau (“The Jungle Book”)
Cast: Donald Glover, Beyoncé, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner
Synopsis: In Africa’s pride lands, heir to the throne Simba just can’t wait to be king, but his malevolent uncle Scar has other plans.
What You Need To Know: After Jon Favreau’s surprisingly good retelling of “The Jungle Book” made a billion dollars, it was only a matter of time until “The Lion King” came down the ‘live-action’ pipeline (like “The Jungle Book,” there’s barely any live-action involved here). But it’s at least reassuring that Favreau is involved, having pulled off a tricky remake once before, and one can’t fault the casting, which also includes John Oliver, Keegan-Michael Key, Eric Andre, Florence Kasumba, Alfre Woodard, John Kani and, the only actor reprising his role, James Earl Jones. The original film, now 25 years on, is arguably the most beloved Disney movie made since Walt Disney died, so expectations are certainly high, but if Favreau even gets close to the original, it’ll make the GDP of a second-world country at the box office.
Release Date: July 19th.
52. “Motherless Brooklyn”
Director: Edward Norton (“Keeping The Faith”)
Cast: Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Willem Dafoe, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Leslie Mann
Synopsis: A private investigator with Tourette syndrome must solve his mentor’s murder.
What You Need To Know: Usually, an actor-turned-director makes one movie and then never tries again, or go on to a long, successful career as a polymath. Edward Norton looked for a long time to have been in the former category: nineteen years have passed since his first film as a director, the likable but largely forgettable rom-com “Keeping The Faith.” But filming began on “Motherless Brooklyn,” an adaptation of an (excellent) Jonathan Lethem novel that he’s been developing for close to two decades, last year. Norton’s certainly an actor with taste and distinction (“Collateral Beauty” role aside), and famously has plenty of opinions on the film’s he’s in: we’re hopeful that after all that time in the oven, this comes out tasting pretty good.
Release Date: Warner Bros have backed it, but haven’t set a date yet. Should be done any day now though.
51. “The Nest”
Director: Sean Durkin (“Martha Marcy May Marlene’)
Cast: Jude Law, Carrie Coon, Anne Reid
Synopsis: In the 1980s, an entrepreneur moves his American family back to the U.K. and into an old mansion house, a home that threatens to tear the family apart.
What You Need To Know: While others in his collective like Antonio Campos and Nicolas Pesce have gone on to bigger things, Sean Durkin, whose “Martha Marcy May Marlene” is still one of THE directorial debuts of this decade, has been relatively quiet, with only the relatively little-seen (but fucking excellent) UK miniseries “Southcliffe” behind him in the eight years since it premiered. Fortunately, that changes this year with “The Nest,” which has a premise that sounds like it’s very much in Durkin’s wheelhouse, and a great pairing of Jude Law and Carrie Coon in the lead roles. “Son Of Saul” DP Mátyás Erdély is lensing, so it’ll look terrific.
Release Date: Filmed in September, so Venice or TIFF seem the most likely venues.
