I thought I had more time to put this one together as I'm still playing catch-up on awards season. Anyway, 2025's slate of new movies looks a lot more promising than last year's. I'm feeling a little spoiled for choice.
As usual, this feature is being split into two parts. The first will focus on the bigger budget studio films and the second will focus on the indie, foreign, and arthouse films that may end up breaking into the mainstream, but right now are only anticipated by film nerds like yours truly. Here we go:
Mickey 17 - I thought for sure that I had this on a previous list, but delays kept it in limbo for so long, Warner Bros. could never commit to a date. So at last, here comes Bong Joon-ho's follow-up to "Parasite," a science fiction satire starring Robert Pattinson as the title character. He's described as an "expendable" worker being employed in space exploration, and the trailers suggest we'll be seeing Mickeys 1-16, and potentially a whole bunch more. There's a lot of potential for dark humor and absurdity here, and I can't wait.
Sinners - This is the new Ryan Coogler period genre film starring Michael B. Jordan on the schedule for next month. Jordan will play twins, vampires may be involved, and this isn't based on anything except what's inside Coogler's head. It's hard to tell which genre this belongs to from the marketing so far. It might be a western, it might be supernatural horror, and it might be some flavor of psychological thriller. I'm glad it's not tipping its hand too soon, and I'm also glad that Jordan got the clout to shoot this thing in IMAX format, for extra kick.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey - Kogonada's most high profile film to date will be a romantic drama starring Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell as the leads. The cast includes Phoebe-Waller Bridge, Jodie Turner-Smith, Brandon Perea, and many more. The script by Seth Reiss was on the 2020 Black List, and is about a couple that follows the directions of a magic GPS to some interesting places. We can definitely classify this one as a fantasy movie in the Charlie Kaufman vein, and I'm very curious as to whether Kogonada and company can pull it off.
One Battle After Another - New Paul Thomas Anderson movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn? That's an automatic must-see. I guess Warners thought so too, because they're giving Anderson a $100 million plus budget for this movie. Plot details are scarce, but fans are speculating that this may be based on Thomas Pynchon's Vineland, a novel about the end of the American counterculture of the 1960s and Ronald Reagan's War on Drugs in the 1980s. If that's the case, this will be the first Pynchon adaptation to be released in IMAX!
The Bride! - Maggie Gyllenhaal is making a monster movie! This is going to be some take on "The Bride of Frankenstein, with Christian Bale as Frankenstein's monster and Jessie Buckley as the bride, and many interesting actors in the supporting cast. Peter Sarsgaard, Penelope Cruz, and Jake Gylenhaal will all be in here somewhere. John Mulaney, after recounting his failed audition at last year's Oscars, wil not. This was originally a Netflix production that was delayed by the strikes, and ended up at Warner Bros. I may still be mad at Zaslav, but Warners has more titles on this list than any other studio this year.
Tron : Ares - I do not understand what Disney is doing with the "Tron" franchise, but I am glad that it's getting another shot. Director Joachim Ronning did a great job with "The Young Woman and the Sea." I'm not a fan of Jared Leto, but the idea of him playing a program that has crossed over to the tangible world is intriguing. The supporting cast includes Evan Peters, Greta Lee, and of course Jeff Bridges. With deep fake technology having improved since "Tron: Legacy," I hope the next round of inevitable digital resurrections come off better this time out.
The Long Walk - With the next "Hunger Games" movie a long ways off, Lionsgate has decided to let director Francis Lawrence make an adaptation of Stephen King's "The Long Walk." This is one of those movies I didn't think was ever going to happen, due to the subject matter, but after five "Hunger Games" movies and two seasons of "Squid Games," I guess now is the time. The cast will include Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, and Roman Griffin Davis playing contestants in a grim death march competition.
The Running Man - And if you like your death games based on Stephen King stories a little glitzier, Edgar Wright is remaking "The Running Man" for Paramount. This is the biggest Wright movie, budget-wise, since the "Ant-man" debacle happened, so I expect he'll be making the most out of the opportunity. Glen Powell will star instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger, with Katy O'Brien, Josh, Brolin, and Daniel Ezra supporting. No news yet on whether this version will be closer to the book, which had a much darker ending. We'll find out in November.
Klara and the Sun - I know, I know. Taika Waititi's track record lately hasn't been good. However, I can't help thinking that Waititi might be really good for this material. "Klara and the Sun" is based on a Kazuo Ishiguro novel about a robot girl in a dystopian world, with Jenna Ortega playing the title character. Waititi might seem like the last director you'd want adapting Ishiguro, but he managed to turn "Jojo Rabbit" into an affecting Oscar winner. And if this is a failure, it's guaranteed to be an interesting failure at the very least.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery - Hey, Rian Johnson's making another Benoit Blanc movie. This time, the ensemble includes Josh O'Connor, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Josh Brolin, Cailee Spaeny, Andrew Scott, Glenn Close, and Daryl McCormack. And that's all I know. We can expect this one on Netflix around Christmas.
---
No comments:
Post a Comment