The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2016

50. “Keanu”
Director: Peter Atencio (“Key & Peele” TV show)
Cast: Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Luis Guzmán, Will Forte, Nia Long, Jason Mitchell, Method Man.
Synopsis: Two friends pose as drug dealers to infiltrate the street gang that stole their cat (called Keanu, we believe).
What You Need To Know: When “Key and Peele” signed off last year, there was a collective wail of grief, but the small screen’s loss is the big screen’s gain, as the brilliant comedy duo, along with series director Atencio (who already got a shout-out on our Best TV Directors feature) migrate to features. Boasting a strong cast (we’re especially excited to witness “Straight Outta Compton” breakout Jason Mitchell‘s comedy chops), and co-written by Peele, there are further reasons to be hopeful this will be a cut above the usual TV-Stars-Do-Movies thing: The show’s sketch format saw the duo grow as actors over the run, and Atencio got to experiment with a range of styles, many of them appropriated from cinema in the first place. Not only that, but New Line hopping aboard the project, which the guys were previously going to produce independently, also bodes well, and suggests that their film debut as a duo might indeed get the resources it deserves.
Release Date: April 22nd

49. “Suicide Squad”
Director: David Ayer
Cast: Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis 
Synopsis: A group of dangerous supervillains find themselves summoned by the U.S. government to fight under the banner of Task Force X, or the Suicide Squad.
What You Need to Know: There’s been a lot of chatter about “Suicide Squad,” covering everything from Margot Robbie’s insane-looking Harley Quinn to Jared Leto’s “Juggalo Joker.” And while the comic-book juggernaut of 2016 is, unquestionably, Zack Snyder’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” “Suicide Squad” could prove to be a gritty, hard-boiled villainy counterpoint to both that and the growing innocuousness of the Marvel studio features. Director Ayer likes his heroes bad — in films like “End of Watch” and “Fury,” he examines the toll of violence as it applies to those who live in and outside of the law. And while we’re of the opinion that the director has yet to make his masterpiece, the footage we’ve seen from “Suicide Squad” thus far suggests that Ayer is working on a larger and more impressionistic scale than he has in the past.
Release Date: August 5^th
48. “Sausage Party”
Director: Greg Tiernan (“Thomas & Friends” TV) & Conrad Vernon (“Shrek 2,” “Madagascar 3”)
Cast: Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig, Paul Rudd, James Franco
Synopsis: A raunchy animation detailing a lost sausage’s existential crisis as he tries to make it back to his shelf through the supermarket aisles after falling out of a shopping cart. No, really.
What You Need To Know: Teased by Jonah Hill all the way back 2010 as a “very hard and aggressive R,” the latest venture from superteam Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen (here sharing writing credits with Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir) boasts a logline that sounds like the answer to a dare developed while high in a grocery store. It could either be terrible or brilliant, but we’re holding out for the latter, especially with this voice cast, many of whom will be working within the Goldberg-Rogenverse for the nth time, so the comedic chemistry is assured. Also, it’s been a while since we’ve had an adult animation in theaters, and with the form having a moment on TV (“Bojack Horseman,” “Rick & Morty” “Cowboy Bebop,” “Archer,” The Boondocks,” “Mr Pickles” as well as ongoing favorites “Family Guy” and “South Park“) maybe we’re overdue a filthy, funny, very-not-family big-screen cartoon?
Release Date: August 12th

47. “Loving”
Director: Jeff Nichols (“Mud,” “Take Shelter”)
Cast: Joel Edgerton, Ruth Negga, Michael Shannon, Marton Csokas, Nick Kroll
Synopsis: The true story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple sentenced to prison in Virginia in 1958, and then exiled from the state for the crime of getting married, and their nine-year fight to be able to return home as a family.
What You Need To Know: You wait years for another Jeff Nichols movie, then two come along at once… Excitingly, his sci-fi-ish “Midnight Special” is set to premiere in February in Berlin, but later in the year we can expect “Loving,” which will be in a very different register. The story of a landmark anti-miscegenation case, it has a strange kind of topicality as it was used as a touchstone example during last year’s many debates around gay marriage. The casting is impeccable, featuring the always brilliant Edgerton (who is also in “Midnight Special”) and Irish/Ethiopian actress Negga (“Breakfast on Pluto,” “World War Z“) alongside Nichols’ regular collaborator and talisman Michael Shannon, while the director’s intelligent, quiet but uncompromising style would seem perfect to elevate the film out of the “historical biopic” mire.
Release Date: November 4th

46. “Triple 9”
Director: John Hillcoat
Cast: Casey Affleck, Anthony Mackie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kate Winslet, Woody Harrelson
Synopsis: At the behest of the Russian mob, a group of crooked police officers target one of their own in staging a “999” – police code for “officer down” – so that they may execute a massive heist.
What You Need to Know: John Hillcoat is drawn towards bloody tales of macho men getting their hands dirty (see: his stunning western “The Proposition” and 2012’s “Lawless”) and upon first glance, the only thing that’s noticeably different about his next film, “Triple 9,” is the modern-day milieu and the blaring, bombastic rap tunes on the soundtrack. Otherwise, the wildly, joyously over-the-top red band trailer is chock full of the things we’ve come to associate with Hillcoat’s style of filmmaking: elaborately staged violence; cartoonish gore; a thick mood of portent; and taciturn, badass men growling vague threats at each other. Like “Lawless,” “Triple 9’s” cast is ridiculous (in a good way). Actors seem to want to work with Hillcoat, even if his post-“Proposition” work hasn’t lived up to the explosive potential of that film. It got pushed from last year, which is potentially troubling, but we’re still hopeful that this could turn out an early-year highlight.
Release Date: February 26^th

45. “Salt And Fire”
Director: Werner Herzog (“Fitzcarraldo,” “Grizzly Man”)
Cast: Michael Shannon, Gael García Bernal, Werner Herzog, Veronica Ferres
Synopsis: Two men on opposite sides of a clash over an ecological issue in South America must put aside their differences and work together to avoid disaster when a nearby volcano presents eruption signals.
What You Need To Know: Everyone is allowed one misfire, and after a more-than-50-year career of impeccable, idiosyncratic genius, Werner Herzog was well overdue his. We’d say it came with last Berlin’s hugely disappointing “Queen of the Desert” (you can judge for yourself when the film open in March), but not to worry, Herzog’s back with a new feature that looks to be right in his wheelhouse of man vs. the cruelty of nature (vs the cruelty of man). With an exciting cast (in which he himself features, and his presence is always a boon) and a dramatic-sounding story set against the kind of backdrop that should provide great material for Herzog’s anthropological and environmental fascinations (he also has a volcano documentary in the pipeline), we’re really hoping to see the Herzog we know and love and are terrified of, back on form.
Release Date: None yet — ‘QOTD’ played Berlin so that’s still an outside possibility, but Herzog’s stature is such that it could well be at Cannes instead.

44. “A Monster Calls”
Director: J.A. Bayona (“The Orphanage,” “The Impossible”)
Cast: Liam Neeson, Felicity Jones, Sigourney Weaver, Toby Kebbell, Geraldine Chaplin
Synopsis: An isolated, bullied little boy seeks the help of a tree monster in dealing with his loneliness and the worsening sickness of his mother.
What You Need To Know: Based on a pretty terrific book by Patrick Ness, who also adapted it for the screen, “A Monster Calls” has the potential to be a kind of “Pan’s Labyrinth” or “Where the Wild Things Are” story. With Bayona at the helm with his proven track record with children — not just in the superlative “The Orphanage,” but also in “The Impossible” where he broke out future Spider-Man Tom Holland — we can be sure the kid performances will be pretty special. And he’s fleshed out the rest of the cast with ringers, especially Felicity Jones in the key role of the ailing single mother — she has scarcely put a foot wrong as an actress since coming to prominence in her collaborations with Drake Doremus. Best of all, though it’s just a voice role, we’re excited to see what Neeson does with the part of the monster, mainly because his particular set of skills includes acting as opposed to just bashing in the heads of Armenian kidnappers. Between this and Scorsese‘s “Silence,” 2016 should be the year to remind us of that.
Release Date: October 14th

43. “Things to Come” (“L’Avenir”)
Director: Mia Hansen-Løve (“Goodbye First Love,” “Eden”)
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Edith Scob, Roman Kolinka, André Marcon
Synopsis: A 50-year-old philosophy professor coming to terms with the death of her mother and the end of her career discovers her husband is cheating on her.
What You Need To Know: You don’t need to look too far to see what high esteem we hold Hansen-Løve in: The two main authors of this list both included her last film “Eden” in year-end lists (Oli in Best of 2014, Jess in Best of 2015). So of course we were panting with eagerness to see where she would point her inquisitive, intelligent, authentic camera next, even before we discovered the answer would be “at Isabelle Huppert.” Seemingly another meditation on lifestage and quotidian drama, the film also stars Edith Scob — yes, that Edith Scob from “Eyes Without a Face” and “Holy Motors” — and Roman Kolinka, (Cyril in “Eden”). Denis Lenoir, the DP who made “Eden” look so extraordinary, returns here, and with as consummate an actress as Huppert at its center, this has all the ingredients of something extremely special.
Release Date: Nothing for the U.S. yet, but it’s dated March 2nd in France, so will we see it in Berlin? Please?

42. “Colossal”
Director: Nacho Vigalondo (“Timecrimes,” segments of “The ABC of Death” and “V/H/S: Viral”)
Cast: Anne Hathaway, Dan Stevens, Jason Sudeikis, Tim Blake Nelson
Synopsis: A woman returning home after her New York City job and her engagement both fall through realizes that she is somehow psychically connected to a rampaging monster laying waste to Tokyo.
What You Need To Know: A pretty wild logline, summed up nicely/hilariously as “‘Lost in Translation‘ (and/or “Being John Malkovich“) meets ‘Godzilla‘,” “Colossal” will represent a big step up in terms of profile for the inventive Spanish horror/sci-fi director. And he’s assembled quite the cast, with established star Hathaway headlining and rising “Downton Abbey” actor Stevens having impressed on the big screen not so long ago with “The Guest.” The only kink in the plan? An issue arose where Toho, who of course own the rights to Godzilla, weren’t happy with how the film homaged/referenced/ripped off their big, lucrative lizard, and sued the production. The lawsuit, which could easily have scuppered the production which doesn’t have major studio backing, has since been resolved and filming went ahead, so we should see the film, in all its (hopefully) weird, gonzo glory later in the year.
Release Date: None yet, and it only filmed in October 2015, so likely not before fall.

41. “Untitled Howard Hughes Project”
Director: Warren Beatty (“Reds,” “Bulworth”)
Cast: Warren Beatty, Lily Collins, Alden Ehrenreich, Annette Bening, Alec Baldwin
Synopsis: The story of the affair that reclusive, eccentric tycoon Howard Hughes had late in life with a much younger woman.
What You Need To Know: He’s been absent from screens for over a decade and hasn’t directed a movie since 1998 (in fact, he’s only directed four since 1978), but given that Beatty is one of Hollywood’s most fascinating, infuriating and enduring icons, his return to movies has to be one of the major cinematic events of the year. The now-77-year-old legend has been looking to make a movie about Hughes for nearly two decades, but after being waylaid by rival project “The Aviator” and others, this project got underway in early 2014, and has been in post-production ever since. Some of Beatty’s passion projects work better than others, and he wasn’t able to convince pal Jack Nicholson to return from retirement for an appearance, but we’re dying to see how this turns out, particularly as between the lifelong womanizing and his recent reclusiveness, Beatty on Hughes could turn out to be as much autobiography as biopic.
Release Date: Beatty can take years in post (and already has, in fact), but rumors are this should be ready at some point this year.