It is not hard to say that the last two years have been rather unusual ones in terms of movie going. Pandemic-forced theater shut downs have wrecked havoc on release schedules as studios tried to figure out the economics of sending some films to streaming while holding on to others for an eventual release once it was safe to congregate in movie houses again. But at long last, it looks as if things are slowly getting back to normal in terms of movie going. As studios seem to be finishing up releasing their backed-up slates and are moving on to the films that were finished up over the last year or so, we are seeing a lot of films to be excited for in the coming twelve months.
Comic Book Movies
Seriously, we could make a whole separate article just about the upcoming superhero films we are excited for. And that would be most of them on the 2022 schedule calendar. We love the genre here and are excited by what we see coming towards us in the next twelve months. After delivering two amazingly rock solid Planet Of The Apes films, it is exciting to see what director Matt Reeves has in store in March’s The Batman (March 4). And expect the general public to finally catch up with what movie nerds have known for some time – Robert Pattinson is far more than just his role in the Twilight films. After years of development, we finally get Dwayne Johnson in the Shazam-adjacent movie Black Adam on July 29. Nearly equally long in development has been Ezra Miller’s The Flash (November 4), which hints at possible changes to whatever shared universe the company is trying to develop with the first look at how that could play out a month later in Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom (December 16). Meanwhile, the cinematic side of the mainline Marvel Cinematic UNiverse is sitting out the first several months of the year before roaring out with Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness (May 6) followed by Thor: Love and Thunder (July 8) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (November 11). While over on the Spider-Verse side of things at Sony we have the live action Morbius (January 28) starring Jared Leto and the animated sequel Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (October 7).
Franchise Flicks
What would be cinema without franchise films, the IP that keeps some ticket buyers returning to movie theaters? Lots of different series will be unleashing new entries in the upcoming twelve months. If you are a horror fan, you can start the New Year off with the fifth installment of the Scream franchise, titled simply Scream (January 14). For fans of Downton Abbey, creator Julian Fellowes takes us on a return trip to the English countryside estate in Downton Abbey: A New Beginning (March 18), which despite its title, will see a large number of the popular show’s cast returning for this second big screen outing. If you’ve been wondering what Reese Witherspoon’s Elle Fanning has been up to these past several years, Legally Blonde 3 (May 20) will probably have an answer for you. The previous two entries in the comedy series had some smartness in how they approached their subjects to their scripts, so it should be interesting to see what a third installment might tackle. Perhaps the #MeToo era? And who can’t to see the fourth chapter of Kaeanu Reeves’s John Wick kicking all sorts of ass on May 27th?
Crimes Of The Future (July)
This is not just a remake of the 1970 David Cronenberg horror film, but one being overseen by the maestro himself. And while the logline for this new version sounds somewhat different from the original film, just the fact that it is Cronenberg exploring some of his favorite themes with a cast headlined by Viggo Mortensen, Lea Seydoux and Kristen Stewart marks this as a film to be watched when it gets released this summer.
Nope (July 28)
New film from Jordan Peele? Starring Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer and Steven Yeun? And we know absolutely nothing about the plot? Nope is still a big “Yup” for us.
Don’t Worry Darling (September 23)
Actor-turned-director Olivia Wilde had a sterling debut with 2019’s Booksmart; one which left us excited to see what else she had in store. While on the far horizon, Wilde has Perfect, her story about 1996 Olympic gymnast Kerri Strug with McKenna Grace and Thomasin McKenzie, as well as a potential Spider-Man-related project for Sony in the works, her sophomore effort, Don’t Worry Darling, arrives next fall. In it, Harry Styles and Florence Pugh play a young married couple trying to figure out how to live in 1950s suburbia.
Del Toro Toro Toro
With the just released noir thriller Nightmare Alley stoking the fire for all things from director Guillermo Del Toro, we have not one but two projects from the director look forward to in the coming year. First up is the horror anthology series Cabinet Of Curiosities, which he is producing for Netflix. Jennifer Kent, Ana Lily Amirpour, Panos Cosmatos, Catherine Hardwicke and Vincenzo Natali are among the filmmakers contributing stories to the series. In addition to producing the show, two of installments will be written by del Toro. But if you’re looking for something to see of the master’s on the big screen, there is his long in development adaptation of the classic children’s tale Pinocchio. For this, Del Toro has lined up an impressive cast which includes Tilda Swinton, Ewan McGregor, Cate Blanchett, Finn Wolfhard, Christoph Waltz, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson and Ron Perlman. Will it be kid appropriate or will have a darker edge to it, perhaps similar to the director’s 2006 film Pan’s Labyrinth? There’s no release date for the film yet, but it is looking most likely being lined up for a theatrical bow late in the year.
Deep Water (TBA)
The thought that Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas star in a film as a married couple who have fallen out of love with each other certainly sounds like a meta take on their own relationship. Hopefully not, though, as in this story the couple only seem to stay together in order to play head games with each other. Based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr. Ripley), this movie sees the return of director Adrian Lyne, who whose track record with such films as Fatal Attraction, Lolita, 9 1/2 Weeks, Indecent Proposal and Unfaithful certainly suggests an engaging, and possibly somewhat erotic, thriller.
Avatar 2 (December 16)
It has taken director James Cameron nearly a decade and a half to return to his science-fiction epic. When the sequel was originally announced it was sporting a December 2014 release date was set to be the first of two sequels he was planning. Now, eight years later, that number of planned sequels has doubled. But the big question most people seem to be asking is whether or not it has been too long a time since the original film broke box office records for a sequel to succeed. But then again, people had doubts about previous Cameron films like the original Avatar and Titanic, right up until those were released and became monster hits. So perhaps history is showing us that it would be foolish to dismiss Cameron so easily.
Asteroid City (TBA)
For some people, director Wes Anderson is an acquired taste, but it is one that we are glad to have acquired. As usual, his films are shrouded in secrecy until it gets close to their release, and all we really know about the story of Asteroid City, is that it was shot in Spain. As to the cast, this film will see Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Hope Davis and Matt Dillon joining with several of Anderson’s usual ensemble including Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Bryan Cranston, Jeff Goldblum, Rupert Friend, Jeffrey Wright, and Liev Schreiber.
Babylon (December 25)
Maybe Damien Chazelle’s First Man didn’t take off as much as hoped for, but that doesn’t mean the Whiplash and La La Land director should be discounted yet. His next film sounds like a holiday present to fans of the early days of Hollywood. Set in the time as silent films were giving way to talkies, Babylon stars Margot Robbie as silent film star Clara Bow, along with Li Jun Li as Anna May Wong, Brad Pitt, Katherine Waterston, Tobey Maguire, Jean Smart, Spike Jonze, Olivia Wilde, Flea (of the Red Hot Chili Peppers), and Max Minghella.
And The Surprises
Perhaps the films we are most looking forward to are the ones we don’t know about. Those films that are lurking in the future, waiting to surprise us. The films that have no buzz or awareness about them as of right now. The surprises that will be discovered as they begin to screen at festivals around the world. The amazing films that announce the arrival of an exciting new talent or that remind us of why we continual to love the work of a longtime filmmaker. The films that offer a fresh new perspective or point of view, Those are the films we are most excited to see and discover in the coming twelve months.
