It's the beginning of the year, and as with every movie year we start off with a slate full of titles that hold a lot of promise. And then there are those titles that experience tells us we should probably avoid.
Please keep in mind that I sincerely hope that I'm wrong about all of the movies mentioned in this post. I want them to all turn out to be decent cinema. But if past years are any indication, it's likely this will be the last time you see discussion of any of these titles on this blog.
Let's start with the horror franchises. "SOULM8TE" is a spinoff of "M3GAN" that was pulled from the January schedule and is currently in limbo, but we'll probably see it pop up on a streamer eventually." We're also getting a "Return to Silent Hill" later in the month, and a "Scream 7" in February, Kevin Williamson's first directing job in well over twenty years. After the dramatic exits of Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega from this franchise, this installment was rejiggered to focus on the older characters, which means Courtney Cox and Neve Campbell are back again. And I guess it was inevitable, but "Scary Movie 6" is on its way in June, with all the Wayanses, Anna Faris, and Regina Hall too.
2026 will have several potential landmines among the upcoming kids' movies. The new attempt at "The Cat in the Hat" has already released a trailer and it looks insufferable. And it's supposed to launch a new Seuss universe for Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, which I'm still trying to get my head around. "Minions 3" is sure to make plenty of money, but this franchise is getting very long in the tooth. This particular installment had its release date bumped up from 2027 to 2026, which may be a good sign though. "The Angry Birds Movie 3," now featuring Mr. Beast in its cast, is also currently on the slate for December, but that one might get bumped to 2027.
After the success of "It Ends With Us," adaptations of Colleen Hoover novels are a hot commodity. "Reminders of Him" with Maika Monroe will arrive in February, and "Verity" with Dakota Johnson and Anne Hathaway is due in October. I want to make it very clear that I'm not expecting either of these movies to be bad. Director Michael Showalter, who is helming "Verity," could very well be great at psychodramas, even though he's never made one before. We don't know yet. However, after reading the synopses of both Hoover novels, I predict that these are inevitably going to result in a pair of very contrived movies that I have no interest in watching.
On the faith-based film front, the Erwin brothers are behind some really unfortunate movies. This year, they're making a sequel to one of their biggest successes, 2018's "I Can Only Imagine." The trouble is that "I Can Only Imagine" is a musician biopic, and musician biopics usually don't lend well to sequels. I guess you could point to "Jolson Sings Again," the smash hit of 1946, as an exception. They also have a star-studded George Washington biopic titled "Young Washington." Angel Studios is also distributing Andy Serkis's new animated "Animal Farm," which has gotten nothing but abysmal reactions due to its changes to the story and use of goofy humor.
I also want to talk about Antoine Fuqua's Michael Jackson biopic "Michael," which has had one of the most accursed productions in recent memory. First, it was held up by the SAG/AFTRA strikes. Then the third act had to be completely redone, because legal agreements meant that the movie couldn't depict the victim of Jackson's 1993 sexual abuse allegations. There have been delays, reshoots, and the possibility of the film being released in two parts. It's currently scheduled to come out in April, but at this point anything could happen.
While we're on the subject of two part films, I think "Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 2" is supposed to come out this year. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2024, and Kevin Costner says that "Chapter 3" and "Chapter 4" are in production right now, though a recent THR article suggests otherwise. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
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