No Time to Die
After a drawn-out and somewhat traumatic production process (director Danny Boyle dropped out, Daniel Craig hospitalised, set blown up), the 25th Bond film finally arrives, several months later than originally planned. Rami Malek plays the villain, whom Bond is called out of Jamaican retirement to battle.
Fast & Furious 9
The gearhead franchise keeps rolling along. Vin Diesel as back again as street racer Dom Toretto (after that Hobbs and Shaw interlude) with wife Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez) and sister Mia (Jordana Brewster). Charlize Theron is also back as strife-generating cyberterrorist Cipher.
Tenet
Christopher Nolan has a long leash nowadays, and this latest excursion into the headtrip realms of Inception/Memento/Interstellar looks pretty baffling from the trailers. What we can say is that it stars John David Washington, and that Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh and Robert Pattinson show their faces. Plus there’s monkeying around with the fabric of space and time, but we knew that, right?
Dune
Frank Herbert’s legendarily unfilmable science fiction … has been filmed. Again. Denis Villeneuve, fresh from Blade Runner 2049, is the man who has pulled it off, after David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation flummoxed audiences. Expect something massive and mad, with Timothée Chalamet leading the cast as Paul Atreides.
Godzilla vs Kong
We’ve had Godzilla movies, we’ve had Kong movies; now the not-especially storied monsterverse pitches them in together. We are promised that “two most powerful forces of nature on the planet collide in a spectacular battle for the ages”. We’ll be the judges of that.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Hopes are high for this fourth film in the supernatural splat comedy, after 2016’s timidly received all-female reboot. This time, there’s a conscious attempt to clone the original’s chemistry, with Jason (son of Ivan) Reitman directing and cameos promised from Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson.
Top Gun: Maverick
Is this film entirely necessary? No one’s sure at this stage, though possibly if only to showcase Tom Cruise’s quasi-cryogenic state of physical preservation. In case you’ve forgotten, the title reminds us it’s all about him and his maverick ways: he is instructor to young hotshot pilot Miles Teller, who is likely to be the future face of Top Gun if the series keeps going.
Good Morning, Midnight
George Clooney directs this high-minded sci-fi tale with shades of Gravity or The Martian. He stars in it as well, as a stargazing scientist isolated in a polar observation station after a planet-trashing apocalypse who makes contact with Felicty Jones’ astronaut trying to return to Earth.
Chaos Walking
Here’s a valiant attempt to get a new YA franchise up and running, based on the novels by A Monster Calls author Patrick Ness. Tom Holland is the kid living on New World, where there seem to be no women and is the endless chatter of hearing everyone’s thoughts. That is, before Daisy Ridley pops up – a woman who can create silence. Naturally, they go on the run. Just as naturally, more are planned if this goes well.
Free Guy
This could be fun. Hollywood smartmouth Ryan Reynolds plays a non-playing character in a Fortnite-style open-world game. But after developers insert a code, he becomes self-aware and wants to play the hero. Night at the Museum’s Shawn Levy is the director, so popularity beckons.
Sonic the Hedgehog
It had trailer troubles rivalling those of Cats, but Sonic is likely to have a more forgiving audience once it actually hits screens. Video games make for notoriously difficult adaptations, but getting Jim Carrey involved as Dr Robotnik ought to be a good idea, and there’s certainly name recognition to make this a major hit.
