If you needed someone to direct the movie version of 2020, you’d probably go for David Cronenberg. We’re optimistic that 2021 will have more of an upbeat, Ron Howard-ish hue to it when it comes to cinemas and the movies that will hopefully fill them.
Howard doesn’t have a film out next year, but there are exciting new offerings from some all-time greats. There’s a lot to look forward to – including plenty of buzzy Netflix movies. Of course, there’s a ton of exciting, so-far-undated movies postponed from quarantine-hit 2020 to keep an eye out for too. Get ready to go big again.
Release dates are correct at the time of writing.
The Dig
The story of Sutton Hoo – when an early medieval graveyard was discovered beneath an English field in 1939 – is brought back to life in a Netflix period drama full to bursting with dependable British thesps and gauzy summer skies. Ralph Fiennes plays an amateur archaeologist hired by Carey Mulligan’s rich widow to take his shovel to a few burial mounds on her estate. Lily James and Johnny Flynn lend support in a story of morale-boosting discoveries playing out under the shadow of war.
Out Jan 29 on Netflix.
News of the World
‘Dust is bust’ is an old Hollywood adage thrown at anyone trying to make a western. ‘Take Hanks to the bank’ is not an old Hollywood adage – we just made it up – but it’s how Paul Greengrass’s western will find its audience: on the back of Tom Hanks’s star power and some traditional old West thrills. Hanks plays a US Civil War veteran escorting a ten-year-old girl (System Crasher’s Helena Zengel) back to her family across a perilous Texan landscape.
Out Feb 10 on Netflix.
Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry
Not many people get the fly-on-the-wall documentary treatment aged 17, but then with five Grammys, two MTV Video Music Awards, 40 million single sales and a James Bond theme behind her, Billie Eilish is not many people. The September Issue director RJ Cutler follows her on tour, in the studio with her brother and writer-producer, Finneas O’Connell, and at home, in an intimate portrait of a musical prodigy that will have a bajillion fans scrambling for their remotes in February.
Out Feb 26 on Apple TV+.
No Time to Die
He’s rejoined by just about the entire cast of Spectre, including Christoph Waltz’s Blofeld and Lea Seydoux’s psychiatrist Swann, for what promises to be a globe-spanning blowout in the best Bond tradition. True Detective mastermind Cary Fukunaga takes the reins. The release date has moved around more than a Spectre HQ complex but anticipation levels remain feverish.
Out Apr 2 in cinemas.
A Quiet Place Part 2
A monster movie directed by the cheeky one from The American Office didn’t exactly scream quality, but thanks to a neat, original premise – blind beasties with killer hearing – 2018’s A Quiet Place worked surprisingly well. A sequel was inevitable, sending the beleaguered Abbott family into the wilds of apocalyptic America. And with the entire original cast and crew returning – except for the ones that got eaten – this could be pretty good.
Out Apr 23 in cinemas.
Black Widow
Finally, a Marvel movie with a female lead (and what’s more, a female director). She may have plummeted to her death in Avengers: Endgame, but Scarlett Johansson’s ass-kicking assassin has one last story to tell. Set in the period following Captain America: Civil War, the film takes Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanoff, back to Russia to confront the ghosts of her past.
Out May 7 in cinemas.
Fast and Furious 9
Ditching Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham – partly because they got their own movie, Hobbs & Shaw, and partly because, if you believe the rumours, not everyone gets along too well with Vin Diesel – the petrolhead saga reunites the original team of Highway Code-disdaining heistmongers for more screeching tyres, giant explosions and serious chats about the meaning of family. John Cena joins the beefcake party this time out.
Out May 28 in cinemas.
Top Gun: Maverick
This belated Top Gun sequel hasn’t exactly careered to the screen at Mach 3 but it’s hardly matters: in the right light, Tom Cruise still looks 27 and that grin is ready to come out of cold storage for some fast-talking schtick in between improbable aerial stunts, palm-stinging, and, yes, beach volleyball. We’re all going to want to be naval aviators again, aren’t we?
Out Jul 9 in cinemas.
The Suicide Squad
A box-office hit, the first Suicide Squad was widely accepted to be Not Very Good. But as the survivors regroup for a Dirty Dozen-style sequel, hopes are high that it will clear that admittedly low critical bar with something to spare. It’ll be a redemption arc for writer-director James Gunn. He was exiled from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise after some old tweets were dredged up, but he should be in his comfort zone in a fast-talking, head-smooshing actioner that boasts Margot Robbie, Idris Elba and Viola Davis.
Out Aug 6 in cinemas.
The Beatles: Get Back
Peter Jackson returns to documentaries with this account of how mop-topped pop hobbits The Beatles put together 1970’s Let It Be. Jackson dips back into footage from Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s doc Let It Be and recuts it with unseen studio footage of the band putting the record together. The Kiwi director is promising a corrective to that more downbeat depiction of the band at odds with itself, with a more celebratory spin on the period that’s earned the buy-in of the surviving Beatles.
Out Aug 27 in cinemas.
Dune
Overseen by a filmmaker with real pedigree in the field of thinky science-fiction, Arrival’s Denis Villeneuve, this new Dune is a very early (or very late) Christmas present for sci-fi geeks, Frank Herbert fans and anyone with a passing interest in giant sandworms. The cast boasts Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac and Zendaya. Prepare to spice up your life.
Out Oct 1 in cinemas.
Mission: Impossible 7
It’s hard to say what Tom Cruise will be hanging from next in this enduring box-office juggernaut – possibly an actual juggernaut – but it’ll be worth seeing on the biggest screen available. Cruise and director Christoper McQuarrie’s commitment to nutso in-camera stunts, zippy plotting, and a slick melding of spy thriller beats with blockbuster action make this so-far untitled septquel a must-see.
Out Nov 19 in cinemas.
West Side Story
Wanna live in America? Steven Spielberg’s remake of the 1961 musical offers the next best thing. This one introduces a new generation of Sharks and Jets – including 17-year-old Rachel Zegler who beat 30,000 hopefuls to the role of Maria – as well as a welcome return from Rita Moreno, who won an Oscar for the original.
Out Dec 10 in cinemas.
