Remember that place where we used to go to escape from reality, whilst shoving over-priced popcorn into our mouths?
Oh yes, that’s right – the cinema!
2020 has been one of the hardest, weirdest years for so many, and the same goes for the film industry.
With cinemas closing down at every corner, and film studios making shock decisions to start sending films straight to streaming, it has been tough. We missed out on Mr. Bond this year, Mulan jumped straight to Disney + (with an extra £30 viewing fee) and poor Black Widow got bumped off from a prime summer blockbuster slot back in May.
With Warner Brothers deciding that for next year, they will simultaneously release films in theatres and right onto HBO Max in the US, 2021 is looking uncertain for the movie business, but can they recover?
Can the likes of Cineworld open their cinemas again safely, and more importantly, will the public leave their homes to watch the new Top Gun or Ghostbusters: Afterlife?
Well here to help you make that decision next year is a list of my top 10 most anticipated films coming to the cinema in 2021 – there will be just as many new releases on Netflix and other streaming services, but this is for the real, pure cinematic experience.
10. Candy Man (August 2021)
After two all-out genre pushing horror hits Get Out and Us, Jordan Peele is back again with the sequel to Candyman from 1992. Peele is behind the screenplay again this time, but with Nia DaCosta directing. This new outing is based around visual artist Anthony McCoy and his art gallery director girlfriend moving into the area which has recently become gentrified – a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down. Anthony feels an affinity to the neighbourhood and is curious about its past, when he meets a stranger who tells him the old story of the Candyman. Adamant to use these tales for his paintings, Anthony opens a can of worms that unleashes a new era of violence and unravelling sanity. Expect some toe curling, bloody splattered moments and something to keep you awake for weeks after – and hopefully more of the intelligent, textured horror Peele has been mastering.
9. The French Dispatch (January 2021)
The French Dispatch was due to get top ranking with the critics, and was in the lineup for the Oscars, however 2020 happened, and it was pushed back. Wes Anderson described his new film as “a love letter to journalists set at an outpost of an American newspaper in 20th-century Paris and centers on three storylines.” The film looks like it will have a beautiful, colourful and quaint design and with meticulous attention to detail that Anderson always bring to his films. You will also be playing spot the famous face as the cast is full to the brim including Benicio del Toro, Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Lyna Khoudri, Jeffrey Wright, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Mathieu Amalric, Steve Park, Owen Wilson, and many more of the director’s favourites. For those looking for escapism like no other to another world, this could be just the film for you.
8. The Matrix 4 (December 2021)
Neo was last seen on cinema screens in 2003, nearly 17 years ago. The sequels to the original Matrix (1999) were not the best well received for various reasons – poor scripts and even worse CGI! So, why care about another sequel? Firstly, Keanu Reeves. He is starring again as Neo, and Reeves has never been so popular as he is right now after the John Wick series, video game appearances and genuinely seeming like a downright nice guy. Secondly the film is produced, co-written and directed by Lana Wachowski who co-directed and co-wrote three of the previous films with her sister Lilly. With the plot still not being revealed, investing in this film could seem to some as a large leap of faith, but it could also pay off in dividends if the cast and crew truly invest in this film and push it further. Fingers crossed for Trinity and Neo.
7. Cruella (May 2021)
Emma Stone is stepping into the infamous dalmatian print stilettos this May in Disney’s next live action outing, taking the titular character through her origin story. As is with Disney, the details are scarce, but we do know that Cruella will take place before the events of 101 Dalmatians and will be set in the 1970s London fashion scene. Hopes are set high for Stone who has proven in previous films such as Easy A and La La Land that she can be sassy and vampy as the Cruella character will command. The extended cast also sounds stellar (and mostly British) including Emma Thompson, Dev Patel and Mark Strong. Expect a whole lot of smoky eyeliner, cigarettes high fashion – as this young designer, slowing descends into the villain that we all know well – and love.
6. Last Night in Soho (April 2021)
The Last Night in Soho sees Edgar Wright directing the likes of Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, Diana Rigg, and Terence Stamp in a film set in London. Don’t let the photographs from the set fool you – this film is not a jolly jaunt in Soho – in fact the film is based around a woman (Taylor-Joy) who accidentally slips back in time to the 1960s. However, nothing is as it seems…as her adventure takes a major horror-film turn. As Wright’s latest film, following his biggest hit to date Baby Driver (2017), Last Night in Soho does not sound conventional in anyway – a theme familiar with all of Wright’s previous work including Cornetto Trilogy and Scott Pilgrim. As a lover of film, he is bound to bring references to Last Night in Soho, and here’s hoping – some great cameos. Brace yourselves for a genre defying, lovingly curated film.
5. Top Gun: Maverick (July 2021)
Can you believe the original Top Gun film was released 34 years ago?! Love it or hate it, you cannot deny that it was a decade-defining film. Top Gun lived and breathed the 1980’s – it was action packed, had cheesy romance and most importantly, it had a killer soundtrack. Tom Cruise as a result of the original film, shot to Hollywood stardom, and he still there –shouting at the crew on set about Covid-19! Maverick it seems, like Tom Cruise, does not know how to slow down, and continues to push himself, testing the limits of physics and authority. He must soon confront the past, while training a new squad of graduates for a dangerous mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice. Miles Teller and Jennifer Connelly are also set to star. Let’s hope this sequel can take us back to the heights of the danger zone!
4. Ghostbusters: Afterlife (June 2021)
On paper this could be awful – heck, even though the trailer looks good, it could still be terrible. But after such a long gap (if you don’t count the female reboot!) can a film capture some of the original Ghostbusters magic? The plot revolves arounds a single mother and her two children who move to a new town, and they soon discover that they have a connection to the original Ghostbusters and their grandfather’s secret legacy. Aftermath sounds intriguing enough, and it is written by Jason Reitman (whose father wrote Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II), with the story by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis to boot! Not unaccustomed to 1980’s related content, Finn Wolfhard of Stranger Things fame is the lead child actor, and Paul Rudd stars as one of the children’s teachers who introduces them to the lore of the Ghostbusters. This film looks like it will be going full circle meta and will be drenched in nostalgia – I cannot wait.
3. Black Widow (May 2021)
Black Widow is a prequel to the countless Marvel films that Natasha Romanoff has featured in. At birth, Natasha was given up to the KGB and from there they aimed to train her into the ultimate soldier. She begins to operate as a freelance operative – AKA Black Widow – when the USSR breaks up and the government tries to kill her as the action moves to New York. Without spoiling anything from Avengers Endgame – the prospect of Black Widow having her own film (finally, after 10 years of Natasha starring in the MCU) is exhilarating and very overdue. Scarlet Johansson in the early Avengers was the only female lead, and she always brought strength to the role, but most importantly vulnerability – not because she was a woman, but because she was human. So here in her first solo film, Johansson is bringing Natasha to fight the evil forces plotting against her and is joined by Florence Pugh as Yen Belova and David Harbour as Red Guardian. I hope Marvel gives Black Widow the independent chance she deserves (and doesn’t send her straight to Disney+).
2. A Quiet Place Part II (March 2021)
John Krasinski surprised audiences across with world with his hit film A Quiet Place in 2018. In some ways the post-apocalyptic genre had been done to death, as well as aliens (all those Cloverfield sequels), and yet A Quiet Place brought so many elements such a grief, fear, love and family together and the result was enthralling, and very stressful! Aliens had taken over the earth, wiping out most humans and they reacted to only sound – so the family in this film had to use sign language to get by. They lost a son who accidentally set off an electronic toy, and this loss haunted the remaining members of the family. The family are getting by as best they can, foraging and home schooling (!) but eventually the evil creatures had found all of their hiding places on the farm.
So, after such turmoil in part one, how can they possibly up the ante for part two? Director John Krasinski knows how – he starred as the father in the original and directed his wife Emily Blunt who played the mother – remember the birth scene in the bath where she has to be silent, as the aliens are creeping around the house? Part 2 is set just after the first ended, after all the turmoil the remaining members of the family venture out of their safe zone, and quickly realising these creatures aren’t the only threats that exist. New cast member Cillian Murphy is set to star too, so what more could you want?
1. Dune (October 2021)
Based on the ultimate nerd’s favourite Sci-Fi novel – Dune, written by Frank Herbert – this new adaptation is set to be taking the genre to amazing new heights near the end of 2021 (pushed back a whole year from December 2020). The story follows Paul Atreides who leads nomadic tribes in a battle to control the desert planet Arrakis.
Arrakis is a planet that produces the much sought-after substance called Spice – that is integral to space exploration and travel. The cast alone is sure to entice audiences – Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, and Jason Mamoa, plus more. If you have seen the trailer you will know how intriguing, enthralling and downright epic this film looks! Well known auteur Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049, Arrival) is back in the director’s chair for Dune, and his trademark for creating a moody, sepia tone is clearly present, as well as his sense for turning worlds to look glossy yet awfully gritty at the same time. So, prepare for sinister glares, rival space tribes and galactic space worm attacks. October cannot come soon enough!
Honourable Mentions : Untitled Spider-Man sequel (December 2021), Raya and the Last Dragon (March 2021), Space Jam: A New Legacy (July 2021) , No Time to Die (April 2021), Fast & Furious 9 (May 2021), Luca (June 2021), The Suicide Squad (August 2021), Morbius (March 2021), The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (June 2021) , West Side Story (December 2021), Mission: Impossible 7 (November 2021) and The Eternals (November 2021).
Let’s hope that 2021 is more fortunate for all of us, and for the cinema. Right now, the 2021 film release schedule seeks to bring a very welcome amount of big titles back to our silver screens. With releases from Edgar Wright, Marvel, Steven Spielberg, and James Bond—2021 could be a massive year for film. Keep your masks on, keep your distance to others and hopefully we will be escaping back into cinemas sooner rather than later!
