Moviegoers have been spoiled for the last couple of years, we’ve had some enormous blockbusters and exquisite indie projects to sink our teeth into almost every month. But 2012 through to right now feels like an appetiser for next year. 2015 might just be the greatest year ever for movies, in terms of fan passion, critical acclaim and box office takings.
2014 still has a lot to give, but seeing as we’re fast approaching holiday season I thought I’d take a look at what lies in wait for us in 2015, pointing out what I’m looking forward to the most. It’s going to be quite a year.
Where else to start but with probably the most hyped and anticipated film of the lot? The MCU is a box office phenomenon and a wonderful fan service behemoth, and the Avengers movies are what we look forward to most.
Still wrapped in relative secrecy, we know that there will be new characters in the shape of Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and Vision (and maybe more?) but that’s about it. His lordship Joss Whedon is tight-lipped on everything else. Probably for the best.
There’s no doubt that this movie will cross into the hallowed ground of the One Billion Dollar Club and cause widespread trouser accidents amongst the Marvel faithful. May 1st cannot arrive soon enough.
Can you believe it’s been 21 years since Jurassic Park first blew our minds? Twenty One. It spawned a thousand imitators, a huge merchandise empire, megabucks for Universal and two turgid sequels.
This time around it looks like there’s going to be Seaworld-esque dinosaur theme park that’ll no doubt go haywire just as the first batch of kids arrive. Gone has the rockstar irritableness of Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm and so too vanishes the legendary hat of Sam Neill’s action hero palaeontologist Alan Grant, but they’ve been well-replaced. Man-of-the-moment Chris Pratt is onboard along with Bryce Dallas-Howard and New Girl’s Jake Johnson.
The relatively unknown director is causing a bit of concern with his animosity (Colin Trevorrow, anyone?), but this will most likely be a feast of dinosaur tomfoolery married to awesome special effects, a rousing score and general Indiana Jones-style witty heroics. We’ve already seen Pratt on set with a motorbike... raptor chase perhaps?
Another sequel that’s been a long time coming, this time with a fresh face as the titular road warrior - Mel Gibson is out and all-round badass Tom Hardy is in. A very promising trailer debuted at SDCC 2014 and has had diehard Max-lovers in fits of excitement and the press nodding their heads in approval.
Visionary Aussie legend George Miller is back wearing the director’s hat 30 years after Beyond Thunderdome rolled into cinemas and it looks like his style hasn’t changed a bit. Praise the lord.
3D carnage is guaranteed if the trailer is anything to go by and IMAX beauty is pretty much a dead-cert. There were some corking long shots of the post-apocalyptic landscape and car chase zaniness to boot. This looks like a true Mad Max sequel and it should be frickin’ insane.
There are still many people that can’t believe this is happening, namely Mark Hamill who’s movie diary has been somewhat empty since 1983. It must feel like all the Christmases have come at once in the Fisher household too.
J.J. Abrams – the man credited with getting this grumpy writer into Star Trek – is on board and this is a guy who knows how to work his audience like putty. The marketing campaigns for his films are always impeccable, and with the financial clout of Disney behind him I’m sure Episode VII (insert speculative subtitle here) will deliver in every way a Star Wars film should.
There have been some much publicised leaks and a few tantalising glimpses at a possible storyline, but why would you want to spoil it? Leave it to J.J., he’s the man, man.
Away from the super sequels there is at least one original property to look forward to, and it’s coming from the mind of pulp-cult hero Quentin Tarantino. For a long time we thought this movie was shelved indefinitely; there was a very public spat when QT found out his script had been leaked and he through his toys out of his pram.
Thankfully for us, he’s dribbling all over them again and has recruited regulars Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Madsen to star. Bruce Dern and Kurt Russell are also adding their legendary status to the project.
The plot is pure QT and looks like a great way for him to spread his legendary screenwriting. A load of bounty hunters sheltering from a blizzard start trying to get the better of eachother? Sign me up.
Brad Bird is a genius. There, I said it. This is the man who directed Ratatouille, The Incredibles and The Iron Giant (one of this writer’s most treasured movies). So you can understand my interest in his latest project – a sci-fi mystery epic by the sounds of it.
Details are pretty thin on the ground but we know it involves journeying to a location that’s “somewhere in time and space that exists in their collective memory.” Sounds kinda like Inception, but that’s no bad thing.
George Clooney, Hugh Laurie and Pierce Gagnon (who I thought was exceptional as troubled boy Cid in 2012’s Looper) are all set to appear. With those faces, a very intriguing plot with a lot of scope and the master that is Brad Bird at the helm, you can expect something very special.
This is one of the many 2015 releases that we don’t know much about yet, even though it’s only seven months away from being released. What we do know is that Ron Howard is back directing his Rush superstar Chris Hemsworth alongside an incredible cast of top British talent including Cillian Murphy, Brendon Gleeson and Ben Whishaw.
Based on a harrowing and unbelievable true story, the film follows a group of stranded sailors following the sinking of their ship by a rogue sperm whale. If that sounds familiar that’s because this is the same real life event that inspired Herman Melville’s legendary novel, Moby-Dick.
Hopefully this will be one of Howard’s better movies. It certainly has the potential, especially with Aussie chin-perfectionist Hemsworth being at the top of his game right now.
That’s it for part one, stay tuned for part two coming shortly. And, as always, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below.