If this sequel is the equivalent of a replicant, then it’s doing its job as a convincing clone in rather spectacular fashion, one that’s as good – if not better – than its original. Blade Runner 2049, starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, and directed by Denis Villeneuve (Arrival), opens on October 6, 2017.
The #1 movie at the 2014 box office was, surprisingly, American Sniper, the Clint Eastwood/Bradley Cooper war drama about one Navy SEAL’s tours in Iraq and his battle with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) back home. Now, the screenwriter of that film, Jason Hall, makes his directorial debut with Thank You For Your Service.
It covers familiar territory but then expands it beyond one soldier to several, and the demons that still haunt them as they struggle to adapt back to civilian life, particularly to be good husbands and fathers.
Once seriously considered by Steven Spielberg to direct (as was American Sniper), this stars Miles Teller, Haley Bennett, Amy Schumer, Joe Cole, Beulah Koale, Scott Haze, and Keisha Castle-Hughes.
Thank You For Your Service opens this fall on October 27, 2017.
Restaging events, in some cases, as exact replications of archival footage, Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) takes on the tone of a gritty crime thriller in Detroit.
The latest film from the only female to win a Best Director Academy Award dramatizes the five days of riots in 1967 that followed a police raid of an unlicensed bar. Starring John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) as a security guard who gets caught up in the police department’s racist politics, the cast also includes Anthony Mackie, Malcolm David Kelley, John Krasinski, Jacob Latimore, Jason Mitchell, Will Poulter, Jack Reynor, and more.
Detroit opens on August 4, 2017.
Finding the Hundred Acre Wood?
That’s definitely the vibe here in the first trailer for Goodbye Christopher Robin, the story of how the son of A.A. Milne inspired the author to imagine and write the tales of Winnie-the-Pooh.
From director Simon Curtis (My Week with Marilyn, Woman In Gold), this definitely takes the warm-hearted approach of Finding Neverland, which told how J.M. Barrie‘s “Peter Pan” came to be.
Starring Domhnall Gleeson (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) as Milne, Will Tilston as Milne’s son Christopher Robin, Margot Robbie as Mrs. Milne, and Kelly Macdonald as the Nanny (and Narrator, too, it seems), Goodbye Christopher Robin opens in the U.S. on November 10, 2017.
Don’t forget the tissues.
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Of the current cast on Saturday Night Live, Kyle Mooney has the strangest sense of humor.
Now with frequent SNL video short director Dave McCary, Mooney gives us Brigsby Bear, a movie he scripted and stars in about a young adult named James who’s been raised in captivity. Told by his parents (who are really his kidnappers) that the global population has been wiped out, he’s been raised on a children’s TV show that his fake parents (Mark Hamill and Micheala Watkins) have produced solely for him.
Nominated for Cannes’ Golden Camera and Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize, this indie effort co-stars Claire Danes, Beck Bennett, and Greg Kenner.
Brigsby Bear opens in limited release on July 28, 2017.
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This is the taming, not the running, of the bull.
Based on an old children’s story about a bull who prefers flowers to fighting, Ferdinand is the latest animated feature from Blue Sky Studios (the Ice Age, Rio, and Peanuts movies). 20th Century Fox has released its latest trailer (above) for the family-friendly film, along with an image gallery (below) that matches each character to its real-life voice.
Ferdinand will go head-to-head with Star Wars: The Last Jedi when both open on December 15, 2017.
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It looks like Disney just put its very own ABC network on ice.
Expanding far beyond the traditional run time of 5-plus minutes that most pre-feature animated shorts abide, the 21-minute featurette Olaf’s Frozen Adventure will play before Pixar’s big holiday release Coco in theaters worldwide.
The length of this Frozen mini-sequel, which is essentially a half-hour of television minus the commercials, is a clear giveaway that Olaf’s Frozen Adventure was originally planned to be a holiday TV special, particularly given its Christmas-y setting. No doubt it will become an annual TV tradition in the future, but in 2017 this Olaf-centric narrative will play exclusively in movie theaters.
For many, this special event will be an even bigger draw to the movie theater than the new Pixar movie that will follow it.
Adjust your box office estimates to bookoo; this is going to make a ton of money. Olaf’s Frozen Adventure and Coco will be the go-to Thanksgiving double-feature when it debuts on November 22, 2017.
