Chances are good that most folks are still a little hungover from all the lightsaber fights, superhero flights of fancy, Western revivals and “bear rapes” that characterised filmgoing in the Year of Our Lord 2015. But the movies, like time and Black Friday shoppers, wait for no man, and the first few weeks of 2016 has already started to bring on new horror flicks, Kevin Hart comedies and, at long last, Michael Bay’s take on Benghazi.
It’s the beginning of what should be an interesting 12 months in the dark, which promises everything from the usual blockbuster suspects (superhero movies, sequels, star vehicles, another Star Wars movie) to big-name director projects (new films from the Coen brothers, Malick, Linklater, Spielberg, Stone — though Martin Scorsese’s Silence is now looking like a 2017 release) to a handful of indie/foreign/arthouse/genre movies that border on the unclassifiable (see Green Room and The Witch by any means necessary).
So we’re counting down 45 of the most anticipated movies coming out in 2016, from big-studio releases to some under-the-radar, oddball movies we’re looking forward to catching. Mark your calendars and stock up on Visine. Here’s what you’ll be seeing at theatres near you for the next year.
Compiled by
‘The Club’ (February, TBC)
A Golden Globe nominee for Best Foreign Film (and almost assuredly an Oscar nominee for that category as well), this tense drama from Chilean director Pablo Larrain (No) focuses on a group of priests who’ve been “let go” from their respective parishes for various reasons. They all live together in relative harmony on the outskirts of town — until a ghost from one of their pasts comes calling and sets off a chain reaction. Dark doesn’t begin to describe the tone of this movie, but like the fillmaker’s earlier work, this multi-character study-cum-psychological thriller works its feel-bad mojo absolutely beautifully. God bless you, Mr. Larrain. DF
‘Southbound’ (February, TBC)
Now that the V/H/S series appears to have run its course, it’s time for a new breed of horror anthology to scratch that infernal itch — and this collection of scary stories hits the spot so well that it slips right under your skin. Knotting together five tales of terror, each directed by a different filmmaker (but set against the same stretch of desert highway), Southbound drives you straight into a strange purgatory where floating demons patrol the roads and nice married couples who are a little too eager to offer stranded motorists a free ride. DEh
‘Zoolander 2’ (February 11)
Released two weeks after 9/11, Ben Stiller’s comedy about a dim-witted male model tanked at the box office — only to become reborn as one of the meme–friendliest films of the new century. Now, some 15 years later, the ceaseless demand for a sequel has finally paid off. Teaming up with Owen Wilson’s Hansel, the director-star’s Derek Zoolander helps track down an assassin who’s killing the world’s most beautiful people — all with his patented “Blue Steel” look as their faces of death.And yes, Will Ferrell’s Mugatu is back as well. ST
‘Hail, Caesar’ (February 25)
Hollywood, USA: Tinseltown’s best-known leading men has been kidnapped from the biblical epic he’s been shooting; only studio fixer Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) can get him out of this jam, assuming he has time in between helping out pregnant starlets, calming irritated directors and dealing with his own guilty conscience. Once again, the Coen brothers take on the old-school dream factory, embedding a crisis of faith in the middle of a broad farce. George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson, and Rafe Fiennes show to mug for the cameras — and you have not lived until you’ve seen Channing Tatum hoof it, Gene Kelly-style, in a sailor suit. DF
‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ (February 25)
Mixing classic literature with cheeky horror, author Seth Grahame-Smith’s 2009 parody was built on an inspired notion: What if Jane Austen’s demure lovers had to contend with the rampaging undead? It’s taken seven years for the no-brainer film version to hit theatres — at one point, David O. Russell and Natalie Portman were attached — but writer-director Burr Steers’ tongue-in-cheek satire of 19th-century English decorum stars Lily James, Sam Riley, Matt Smith and a whole mess of zombies looking to transform the original novel’s comedy of manners into a giddy gore-fest. This may be the one Austen adaptation that guys are more excited to see than their girlfriends. TG
‘Embrace of the Serpent’ (February, TBC)
On the Oscar shortlist this year for Best Foreign Language Film, this visually ravishing historical adventure from Colombia ventures into the Amazon for a fact-based journey that recalls Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God, but with a more mystical bent. Shot in monochromatic black-and-white, the film follows parallel expeditions — one in 1909, the other in the 1940s — in which the same indigenous guide reluctantly leads different European explorers through the wilderness. There’s a predictable sentiment here about white exploitation of native territory, but director Ciro Guerra expresses it in striking visual terms. ST
‘The Witch’ (February, TBC)
A bona fide hit at last year’s Sundance and one of the most gleefully go-for-broke horror movies in recent memory, Robert Eggers’ masterful debut tells of a pious 17th-century family who are exiled from their Puritan village. The clan is forced to build a new life for themselves on the lip of a haunted forest. (Good luck with that.) Like an unnerving Grimm’s Fairy Tale directed by Stanley Kubrick and tongue-kissed by Satan, it’s an insomnia-inducing reminder that America has always been as scary as it is today. DEh
‘Triple 9’ (March 3)
As demonstrated by his dark, despairing dramas The Proposition and The Road, Australian director John Hillcoat likes to paint his movies black and populate them with desperate, often amoral characters. Which explains our excitement for this gritty crime-thriller in which a team of corrupt policeman (led by Chiwetel Ejiofor and Anthony Mackie) rob banks in their downtime. Costarring Woody Harrelson as an honorable detective, Aaron Paul as a strung-out crook and Kate Winslet as a black-widow Russian mob boss, Triple 9 looks like it has the grandeur, impeccable ensemble and gonzo shootouts of classic urban cops-and-robbers thrillers like Heat. TG
‘A War’ (March, TBC)
A few years ago, Danish director Tobias Lindholm made A Hijacking, a superb thriller about a corporation’s attempt to negotiate with the Somali pirates who had seized its cargo ship. Now, the filmmaker again tackles the personal consequences to international conflict with this stem-to-stern consideration of the conflict in Afghanistan, from the frontlines to the homefront. Stationed in a remote Afghan province, a Danish commander (Pilou Asbaek) is forced to make a consequential decision while his wife and three children struggle with his absence in Copenhagen. ST
‘The Wave’ (March, TBC)
Magnolia Pictures
Good news for film producers who love disaster movies but don’t want to spend all that time and dough making them: You can import them now. This Norwegian hit pits a geologist — who’s one day away from moving with his family, of course — and numerous tourists against an angry Mother Nature via a collapsing mountain and a massive tsunami. (See title.) The word on the festival circuit is that this modest attempt at beating Hollywood at its own catastrophe-cinema game is quite the stunner. See, you get digital effects of spectacle things being destroyed and subtitles! Plus the director’s name is Roar Uthaug. You simply can not beat that moniker. DF
‘The Brothers Grimsby’ (March 10)
This oft-postponed British spy comedy — originally slated for a summer 2015 release, but now pushed back to March of this year — stars Mark Strong as a MI6 assassin who must team up with his long-lost football hooligan brother (Sacha Baron Cohen) in order to save the world. Directed by Louis Leterrier (Now You See Me, Clash of the Titans) and written by Cohen with Peter Baynham and Phil Johnston, the film features a promising supporting cast that includes Rebel Wilson, Penélope Cruz, Isla Fisher, Ian McShane and Gaboury Sidibe. DEp
‘Whiskey Tango Foxtrot’ (March 17)
Adapted from The Taliban Shuffle, Kim Barker’s memoir about reporting in wartime Afghanistan and Pakistan, this Tina Fey vehicle faces the difficult task of playing up the fish-out-of-water comedy while not setting back women in journalism for decades. On the other hand, Fey pulled off the same balancing act for years on 30 Rock, which cast her as the competent center of a three-ring circus, despite a weakness for dumb lovers and off-brand Mexican cheese curls. Plus Robert Carlock, her showrunning partner on 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, wrote the script, so he knows where to draw the line. ST
‘Krisha’ (March, TBC)
Remember that one family gathering, when your uncles started violently arguing about politics at the dinner table and your sister’s boyfriend got a little too familiar with the vino? We guarantee that your horrible holiday family gathering was nowhere near as disastrous as the get-together at the center of writer-director Trey Edward Shults’ indie drama, when a hippy-ish, long-M.I.A. relative (Krisha Fairchild) returns on Turkey Day to mend fences. Suffice to say, not all of her personal baggage has been checked at the door — and the awards and accolades that this young filmmaker’s feature debut garnered at SXSW last year were very well-deserved. DF
‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice’ (March 24)
No, the two most iconic superheroes in the D.C. universe aren’t taking each other to court; instead, this sequel to Man of Steel/reboot of the Batman franchise pits Henry Cavill’s Superman against Ben Affleck’s caped crusader in the mean streets of Metropolis. Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor and the comic-book villain Doomsday shows up for good measure, just in case the storyline involving abuses of absolute power, vigilante justice and trampled civil liberties doesn’t grab the fans. Expect the D.C. equivalent of Nick Fury showing up to move future movie pieces into place and “visionary” director Zack Snyder to emphasize the darkness of it all. DF
‘Louder Than Bombs’ (March, TBC)
A staple of director-to-watch lists for his subtle, literate dramas Reprise and Oslo, August 31st, Norway’s Joachim Trier is poised break out with his first English-language film, another perceptive look at the creative mind and the pains of young adulthood. Here the mysterious death of a war photographer (Isabelle Huppert) leaves her husband (Gabriel Byrne) to grapple with its troubling implications, all while handling the additional fallout with their two sons (Jesse Eisenberg and Devin Druid). Let the Smiths reference in the title serve as a warning — and a promise. ST
‘Miles Ahead’ (April, TBC)
An obvious labor of love for Don Cheadle (who directed, co-produced and co-wrote the film, as well as starring in it), this look at the life and times of Miles Davis largely eschews biopic clichés in favor of an impressionistic depiction of jazz legend — one involving gunplay, drug abuse, stolen tapes and buddy caper-style hi-jinx with (ahem) a Rolling Stone reporter played by Ewan McGregor, as well as musical set-pieces. Though it didn’t get great reviews at last fall’s New York Film Festival, the prospect of watching Cheadle portray the irascible trumpet icon in his dapper birth-of-cool 1950s and unhinged 1970s periods simply sounds too enticing to pass up. DEp
‘Money Monster’ (April 14)
Jodie Foster’s first full-length directorial effort since the 2011 flop The Beaver stars George Clooney as a CNBC-style TV financial guru, who is taken hostage on the air by an angry viewer (Jack O’Connell) after the latter loses his family’s money due to one of the host’s “insider” tips. The dramatic thriller sounds like Dog Day Afternoon crossed with Network in the context of contemporary Wall Street: The ratings of Clooney’s show go through the roof, as viewers tune in to see how the hostage crisis will play out. Julia Roberts co-stars as the show’s producer. DEp
‘Everybody Wants Some!!’ (Apr 14)
Richard Linklater has been calling this 1980s-set story of collegiate baseball players using party as a verb the “spiritual sequel” to Dazed and Confused — and while the decade may have changed, that movie’s song of beer drinking, driving around with the radio on and waxing philosophical remains the same. A breezy take on the pros and cons of university jock culture, the director’s latest ode to the follies of youth is full of everything you want out of a Linklater joint: great performances (remember this name: Glen Powell); long scenes of musing about life, the universe and everything; a kick-ass soundtrack; and the sense that you aren’t watching a film so much as life lazily unfolding in front of your eyes. Meet your new go-to hangin’ out movie classic. DF
‘Green Room’ (April, TBC)
Take one raggedy punk band, so desperate for gas money that they’ll take a gig at a racist skinhead compound. Throw in a murder, a white-supremacist mastermind (Patrick Stewart), and a green room perfect for barricading yourself when the boots-and-braces crowd want you dead. And for good measure, stir some shotguns, psychopaths, Rottweilers, baseball bats, numerous sharp objects and a take-no-prisoners attitude. Congratulations, you now have the best screw-tightening siege movie of the year, and a nasty little nugget that demonstrates how director Jeremy Saulnier has seriously upped his already impressive game since Blue Ruin. This is what genre perfection looks like. DF
‘Tale of Tales’ (April, TBC)
And now for something completely different: Salma Hayek hungrily chomping a giant, gory heart. A blood-soaked adaptation of three stories from 16th-century poet and fairy-tale connoisseur Giambattista Basile, this triptych from Italian director Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah) spares neither expenses nor Karo syrup in bringing the writer’s Grimm-influencing, Grand Guignol fables of randy regents and albino twins to the screen; watching the Frida star eat sea beast’s organ in the name of fertility is possibly only the fourth strangest thing you’ll see here. John C. Reilly, Toby Jones and Vincent Cassell costar. DF
‘Keanu’ (April 21)
Ian White
If you’re missing Key & Peele as much as we do, then this feature — in which Keegan-Michael Key and co-writer Jordan Peele play meek cousins who impersonate hard-as-nails street thugs in order to retrieve a stolen kitten, and inadvertently start a major gang war — is like a gift from the comedy gods. Even if this is even 1/19th as funny as their show, this will still be hilarious. Method Man costars, because of course he does; Will Forte plays, per a synopsis, “an eccentric scumbag drug dealer [named] Hulka.” Oh man, yes! DF
‘Captain America: Civil War’ (April 28)
It’s Avenger vs. Avenger — who will win?! Fans of Marvel comics have been waiting for the MCU to delve into this massive crossover event from a few years back, in which the U.S. government forces superheroes to register and be subject to federal regulation. A few, like Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) are all for it; others, like our patriotic Cap’n (Chris Evans), feel it’s all a bit too fascistic for his liking. Cue that red, white and blue shield striking Iron Man’s armor, explosions, a whole heckuva lot of symbolic gestures regarding life in the Snowden/National Security era, and plenty of the espionage-thriller vibes that director Anthony and Joe Russo brought to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. DF
‘Bad Neighbors 2’ (May 5)
Of all the movies Seth Rogen has made about stoned man-children struggling through the turbulence of transitioning through life phases, 2014’s Neighbors is the most sincerely bro-tastic. All of the major players are back for this short-order sequel, including Rogen, his character’s wife (the miraculous Rose Byrne), and the jacked frat boy who wouldn’t get off their lawn (Zac Efron). And they’re all on the same team this time, joining forces against the destructive sorority sisters (Selena Gomez and Chloë Grace Moretz) who are bringing down the neighborhood. We’ve already decided to pledge. DEh
‘De Palma’ (May, TBC)
Getty
Brian De Palma is one of the most revered filmmakers in the history of American cinema — and easily one of the most fetishistic. A feature-length doc in which the auteur talks through his working life in chronological order, De Palma has all the makings of a glorified DVD bonus feature. But directors (and obvious devotees) Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow push their film to become so much more. As candid and revealing as artist portraits get, this isn’t just a celebration of an iconoclast; it’s also a character study as provocative and fascinating as any of its subject’s work. DEh
‘High-Rise’ (May, TBC)
Tom Hiddleston proved he play a top-notch charming villain in those Marvel movies; now he demonstrates he can do crazysexyweird just as well. British director Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s cult novel about a luxury high-rise building drops our man Tom into a Cronenbergesque creepshow of sex, death and degeneracy, complete with orgies, supermarket binges and the occasional BBQ-ed canine. After its premiere at last year’s Toronto Film Festival, the filmmaker described his soon-to-be-a-midnight-movie-staple thusly: “It has a lot of well-known actors in it [Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller and Elisabeth Moss costar], but it’s fucked up.” Sounds about right. DF
‘Snowden’ (May, TBC)
Stone has made a career out of rabble-rousing on Vietnam, the Kennedy assassination, gun violence, and other hot topics in America, but this biopic on world-famous whistleblower Edward Snowden seems certain to start a brush fire that will spread across editorial pages, comment boards, and countless egg avatars on Twitter. But Laura Poitras’ documentary Citizenfour proved that Snowden’s revelations about the NSA’s domestic spying abuses could be the stuff of real-life, high-stakes spy thrillers, so the potential for greatness is there. Plus, who wouldn’t want to see Zachary Quinto as Glenn Greenwald? ST
‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ (May 19)
A great evil threatens the world, only Charles Xavier and his band of Homo superior superheroes can stop it, also some mutants wonder why they protect people who hate them, yadda yadda yadda. You know the drill. Except now longtime X-director Bryan Singer gets around to putting the Apocalypse storyline on the screen — yes, it’s as dire and doomy as its sounds — and none other than Oscar “I’m on a serious roll” Isaac is playing the all-powerful bad guy. Plus Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique gets to be a good guy, Michael Fassbender gets to show off his magnetic personality again, and James McAvoy’s young Professor X finally gets his chrome-dome. Yeah, you’ll be there. DF
‘The Nice Guys’ (May 26)
Shane Black, who earned his first Hollywood screenwriting credit with 1987’s Lethal Weapon, gets back into the buddy cop game with this dark comedy/conspiracy thriller, which is set amid the smog-choked seediness of 1970s Los Angeles. Ryan Gosling plays a down-on-his-luck private eye who teams up with thug-for-hire Russell Crowe to investigate the case of a missing girl (and the apparently unrelated death of a porn star), ultimately unraveling a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top. Kim Basinger, who previously appeared with Crowe in 1997’s similarly-plotted L.A. Confidential, co-stars as the mother of the missing girl. DEp
‘Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass’ (May 26)
In which our dear Alice (Mia Wasikowska), she of the tripping through Wonderland, must return to that world of rushing rabbits, color-coded queens and smoking caterpillars to rescue her old chum, the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp, back for more scenery chewing). Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway also return for this sequel to Disney’s 2010 revisionist take on the Lewis Carroll classic; whether the Muppets Most Wanted director James Babin will retain the now-absent Tim Burton’s goth-pop sensibilities remains to be seen, but it’s safe to say this will still satisfy those who like their fairy tales nice and fractured. DF
‘Finding Dory’ (June 16)
Andrew Stanton is one of Pixar’s chief creative architects, blending comedy, heart and thrills while winning Oscars for directing Finding Nemo and Wall-E. He returns to animation after his wobbly 2012 live-action debut John Carter with this Nemo sequel that follows forgetful, lovable Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) as she goes on a trek to reunite with her long-lost family. Most of the original’s voice cast (including Albert Brooks) are back for this follow-up; we’re hoping reaffirms Stanton’s place as a world-class filmmaker who knows how to take ostensible children’s films and elevate them to the level of art. TG
‘The BFG’ (June 30)
It stands for “Big Friendly Giant,” and given that it’s a Steven Spielberg movie, the emphasis could be on either the big or the friendly part, depending on whether he’s in a Jurassic Park or an E.T. mood. Considering that legendary purveyor of blockbusters is adapting this girl-meets-giant tale from a Roald Dahl novel, we’re inclined to think it’s the latter. It’s just the sort of outcast story wrapped in a fantasy-adventure setting that Spielberg does to a tee, plus Bill Hader is voicing the lovable behemoth. Prepare for kid-friendly wonder, people! DF
‘Ghostbusters’ (July 14)
While news of an all-female Ghostbusters sent some Men’s Rights Activists to the fainting couch, let’s not forget that the original series ended ignominiously with Ghostbusters 2 and has existed mainly as a threat Dan Aykroyd had held over the country for the better part of two decades. For those uncommitted to the notion that men busting ghosts is sacrosanct, however, the reboot looks tremendously promising, with four very funny women (Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones) teaming up with Paul Feig, the reliably good director of Bridesmaids and Spy. What’s not to like? ST
‘La La Land’ (July, TBC)
Getty
Before filmmaker Damien Chazelle came to prominence with his Oscar-winning drama Whiplash, he made another music-centric movie, the 2009 indie love story Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench — and fans of that film should feel right at home with this musical that focuses on the life of a jazz pianist (Ryan Gosling) and his actress girlfriend (Emma Stone). In his two previous works, Chazelle has explored how young artists’ creative ambitions conflict with their romantic aspirations, and it appears La La Land will fit comfortably into those movies’ thematic grooves. TG
‘Star Trek Beyond’ (July 21)
Remember that other major science-fiction franchise rebooted by J.J. Abrams? As its action-heavy, Beastie Boys-channeling trailer suggests, the latest Star Trek movie is doubling-down on the irreverent, rock-’em-sock-’em tone that he established with 2009’s initial series restarter. Abrams may no longer be in the director’s chair — this one is being helmed by Fast and the Furious auteur Justin Lin, who directed four installments of that burning-rubber phenomenon — though the series continues to flout his love of improper title punctuation. And Lin’s full-throttle aesthetic, paired with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto’s chummy Kirk-Spock chemistry, should help the crew of the USS Enterprise continue to distinguish themselves in a newly Star Wars-mad universe. TG
Untitled ‘Bourne’ Movie (July 28)
For the fifth, yet-to-be-named Bourne movie, Matt Damon faces his toughest assignment to date: cleaning up the previous film’s mess. It’s not that Jeremy Renner’s franchise foray — 2012’s The Bourne Legacy — was a stinker per se, but the slip in star charisma and general urgency was enough to bump the once-lucrative James Bond alternative into the dreaded George Lazenby zone. Damon and director Paul Greengrass, who shook the camera skillfully with The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, promise to send their “dark and tortured” character on an adventure through post-Snowden Europe. ST
‘Suicide Squad’ (August 4)
Another year, another batch of superhero movies [cue weary sigh]. But Fury director David Ayer’s contribution to the genre is shaping up to be a bit different — and a lot more disturbed — than the spandex spectacles we’ve come to expect. Even darker than anything Warner Bros has previously managed to draw out from the DC Comics’ universe, this all-villain team-up tale chronicles what happens when the world’s deadliest psychopaths are joined together and forced to work for the good guys. Featuring a murderer’s row of movie stars (including Will Smith, Margot Robbie, and Jared Leto as The Joker), this could be the antidote for The Avengers. DEh
‘Sully’ (September 8)
Getty
Clint Eastwood follows up 2014’s American Sniper by directing a biopic based on the life of American pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, whose heroic 2009 “Miracle of the Hudson” landing of a troubled U.S. Airways flight saved the lives of all 155 people aboard. Tom Hanks plays Sullenberger; Aaron Eckhart co-stars as co-pilot Jeff Skiles, who helped successfully land Flight 1549, and Laura Linney plays the titular character’s wife. It looks to be a considerably less controversial work than his rah-rah take on Navy SEAL Chris Kyle’s life, though Eastwood’s use of fake babies in the new film could not be confirmed at press time. DEp
‘Pete’s Dragon’ (September 15)
It was only a matter of time before Disney reached into their vault and started dusting off the crowned jewels of the collection, but it’s nice to see that they’re dredging up some slightly esoteric gems as well — and hiring slightly esoteric people to do it for them. Directed by indie maverick David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints), this remake of Don Bluth and Don Chaffey’s 1977 stoner favorite follows the friendship between a shy kid in Maine and a massive pet dragon named Elliott. Co-starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford, and a legendary CG lizard, Lowery’s version is poised to be a rare blockbuster with genuine soul. DEh
‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ (September 22)
If there’s one thing that Coraline and Paranorman have proven about the stop-motion wizards at Laika, it’s that they only commit to movies they really believe are well worth the arthritic fingers it cost to make. With that in mind, any new film from them is cause for celebration, let alone one in which Matthew McConaughey voices a beetle and Ralph Fiennes plays the king of the moon. The story of a young boy in old Japan who can only quell a spirit war by finding his dead father’s samurai armor, this sounds like Laika’s most ambitious film to date. DEh
‘The Girl on the Train’ (October, TBC)
AP
Maybe you’ve stared out the subway or train window during your daily commute, wondering what all those folks in those passing houses are up to — and maybe, if you’re like the alcoholic wreck of a heroine in this adaptation of Paula Hawkin’s runaway bestseller, you obsess over one dwelling’s occupants in particular and decide to find out for yourself. (If you just answered yes: Please seek professional help immediately.) Director Tate Taylor (Get On Up) takes the reins behind the camera, and the lovely and talented Emily Blunt plays the damaged young woman who insinuates herself into a suburban couple’s lives. Readers know what happens next; for those who haven’t cracked open the book, let’s just say things get very, very “complicated.” DF
‘Doctor Strange’ (October 27)
Marvel
Marvel’s sorcerer supreme comes to the big screen, with none other than Benedict Cumberbatch portraying the Master of the Mystic Arts for the MCU. Like most projects that the comic-book company/movie production studio/Blockbuster Industrial Complex behemoth has scheduled over the next few years, details are being guarded like nuclear codes. But we do know that Rachel McAdams is on board as the romantic interest; Chiwetel Ejiofor and Hannibal‘s Mads Mikkelsen are playing the villains; and Tilda Swinton (!) is the mentor who schools Strange in the ways of dark magic, as she has for so many of us. So long as the set design looks like co-creator Steve Ditko’s lavishly lysergic bad-trip-rising artwork, we’re all good. DF
‘Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk’ (November 10)
Based on Ben Fountain’s satirical novel, Ang Lee’s film follows members of the Bravo Squad on a government-mandated “Victory Tour” to celebrate their heroics in the Iraq War. Their halftime honors at a football game coincides with a call to return to action and many smaller melodramas, brought to life by the year’s most eclectic cast (Vin Diesel, Kristen Stewart, Steve Martin, and Chris Tucker, among others). ST
‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ (November 17)
Was there anyone on God’s green earth that thought, once J.K. Rowling put out this 2001 spin-off of the Harry Potter world, that it would not eventually be turned into a movie/first part of a screen trilogy? The adventures of Hogwarts textbook writer Newt Scamander (Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne) and his fellow underground wizards in New York get the big-screen blockbuster treatment, with cinema du Potter stalwart David Yates directing and Rowling herself writing the screenplay. Wave your wand and yell Attendis Most Certainius! DF
‘Bad Santa 2’ (December, TBC)
After 13 years and many false starts, everyone’s favorite drunk, thieving, anal-sex–loving mall Santa is finally back to spike the holiday nog. Billy Bob Thornton returns as Willie Soke, a misanthropic louse who dons a gin-soaked beard and urine-stained red pants as part of a seasonal department-store robbery scheme. Tony Cox is also back as his diminutive partner, as is Brent Kelly as the snot-nosed boy (now presumably snot-nosed young man) with the unfortunate name Thurman Murman. Losing director Terry Zwigoff and gaining Entourage creator Doug Ellin (who co-scripted) hurts, but the addition of Christina Hendricks and Kathy Bates, who plays Willie’s mom, makes the trade-off a little more tolerable. Happy holidays! ST
‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ (December 16)
You’d better get used to a new film taking place in a galaxy far, far away every year now, folks — and if they all sound as good as this spin-off movie involving a team of rebels planning to steal blueprints for the original Death Star, then you can expect a slew of early Christmas gifts from now into franchise perpetuity. Seriously, the notion of a Dirty Dozen-style heist movie in the Warsverse seems like a no-brainer mash-up, and with a cast featuring Felicity Jones, Mads Mikkelsen, Firefly‘s Alan Tudyk, martial-arts maestro Donnie Yen and the mighty Ben Mendelsohn (Bloodline), you’ll be there opening day. But that was already a given. DF
