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.
This year's list features more franchise films than I'd like, but I couldn't in all honesty leave any of them out. The entries below are listed by estimated release date. "Coyote v. Acme" was on the 2024 list. And here we go:
Project Hail Mary - I have such hopes for Ryan Gosling to finally have an unambiguous hit where he's the lead, because it is so overdue. "Project Hail Mary" has all the makings of a winner, with Phil Lord and Chris Miller adapting the excellent Andy Weir novel. However, it's an original science-fiction film, and audiences aren't great with those, so I'm trying to temper my expectations.
Disclosure Day - At the time of writing, not much is known about this movie except that it's about UFOs and it stars Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor. There was even some speculation that it might be a stealth remake of Hitchcock's "The Birds" after the teaser poster debuted. This appears to be Spielberg's first contemporary genre film in a long while, though, so fingers crossed.
The Odyssey - The closer this gets, the less sure I am that this is going to work. How can you have that cast and that budget and possibly meet expectations? Only Christopher Nolan could even attempt something on this scale anymore, and he's never made anything like a sword-and-sandals epic before. Maybe "Dunkirk" is kind of in the same ballpark? Well, however it turns out, I gotta see it.
Ray Gunn - Skydance Animation is giving Brad Bird the chance to finally make one of his dream projects, an animated neo-noir mystery set in a retrofuturist city called Metropia. Netflix has this on the slate for sometime this year, but no release date yet. Skydance Animation hasn't had the best track record so far, after two films, but maybe they just need to try something more ambitious and creator driven.
Digger - This is the Alejandro G. Iñárritu film, led by Tom Cruise, Sandra Hüller, and John Goodman. Details are scarce, but a synopsis from last October suggests that this is some kind of comedic thriller that will give Cruise a chance to do more chase and action scenes. In any case, the teaser is fantastic and it's good to see Cruise moving on to better things after the last "Mission: Impossible" flopped.
The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender - This is the big one, folks. This is the new sequel movie to the original "Avatar: The Last Airbender" Nickelodeon series, featuring all the main characters a couple of years after the defeat of the Firelord. Everyone's a little older with some new voice actors, including Steven Yeun as Zuko. This would be a guaranteed trip to the theater for me - if it does go to theaters.
The Social Reckoning - David Fincher is not coming back for this quasi-follow-up to "The Social Network." which immediately has me on guard. I'm still interested though. Aaron Sorkin will be directing and writing instead, and Jeremy Strong is taking over the role of Mark Zuckerberg. Word is that we get to see the events of January 6th from the POV of everyone behind the scenes of Facebook.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping - Let's hear it for the last dystopian YA franchise standing. I thoroughly enjoyed the last "Hunger Games" prequel, and the book this one is based on is supposed to be even better. The cast list is absolutely wild, and there's already a teaser that's been out for months. That's all I know and that's all I want to know until I can see this one for myself.
Narnia: The Magician's Nephew - Greta Gerwig's new Narnia film for Netflix is based on the prequel to "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" that has never been adapted. It's a weird book with a lot of Biblical allusions, and I'm expecting a weird movie, potentially much weirder than general audiences are expecting. I trust Gerwig though, and I hope more Narnia films will follow as a result.
Dune: Part Three - Let's see if Denis can land the ornithopter.
Happy watching
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