15 Films To Look Forward To This Year

Cruella

Academy Award winner Emma Stone stars in Disney’s Cruella, a new live-action feature film about the rebellious early days of one of cinemas most notorious villains, Cruella de Vil. Set in 1970s London amid the punk rock revolution, the film follows a young grifter named Estella, a clever and creative girl determined to make a name for herself with her designs. She befriends a pair of young thieves who appreciate her appetite for mischief, and together they’re able to build a life for themselves on the London streets. One day, Estella’s flair for fashion catches the eye of the Baroness von Hellman, a fashion legend who is devastatingly chic, played by Emma Thompson. But their relationship sets in motion a course of events and revelations that will cause Estella to embrace her wicked side and become the revenge-bent Cruella.

Released in May 2021

Judas & The Black Messiah

FBI informant William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) infiltrates the Illinois Black Panther Party and is tasked with keeping tabs on its charismatic leader, Chairman Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). A career thief, O’Neal revels in the danger of manipulating both his comrades and his handler, special agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons). Hampton’s political prowess grows just as he’s falling in love with fellow revolutionary Deborah Johnson (Dominique Fishback). Meanwhile, a battle wages for O’Neal’s soul. Will he align with the forces of good? Or subdue Hampton and The Panthers by any means, as FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen) commands?

UK release date TBC

The Last Duel

This historical thriller by Eric Jager is currently being turned into a film by Gladiator’s Ridley Scott. In medieval France, a woman claims she's been raped by her husband's best friend, Jean de Carrouges. But when no one believes her accusation, her husband challenges his friend to a duel, the last legally sanctioned duel in the country's history. Think this one doesn’t sound up your street? The screenplay is written by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Nicole Holofcener, and the cast includes both Damon and Affleck, plus Jodie Comer, Adam Driver and Harriet Walter. Far from a dry history lesson, we imagine it will be another of Scott’s classic, sweeping epics.

Released in October 2021

Mothering Sunday

It is Mothering Sunday. How will Jane Fairchild, orphan and housemaid, occupy her time when she has no mother to visit? How, shaped by the events of this never-to-be-forgotten day, will her future unfold? Beginning with an intimate assignation, Mothering Sunday is both the story of a life and the life that stories can magically contain. While the upcoming film is still relatively under wraps, we do know that it stars The Crown’s Olivia Colman and Josh O’Connor in another mother-son relationship, plus Colin Firth and Glenda Jackson.

Release date TBC

Promising Young Woman

Nothing in Cassie's (Carey Mulligan) life is what it appears to be – she's wickedly smart, tantalisingly cunning, and she's living a secret double-life by night. Now, an unexpected encounter is about to give Cassie a chance to right the wrongs from her past. Directed by Emerald Fennell (the actress who plays Camilla Shand in the third and fourth series of The Crown), the film was well received when it was released in the US last year, while Mulligan has been nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance. We can’t wait to give it a watch once it lands over here.

Release date TBC

The Courier

The Courier is a true-life spy thriller – the story of an unassuming British businessman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) recruited into one of the greatest international conflicts in history. At the behest of the UK’s MI-6 and a CIA operative (Rachel Brosnahan), he forms a covert, dangerous partnership with Soviet officer Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze) in an effort to provide crucial intelligence needed to prevent a nuclear confrontation and defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis. Also stars SL fave Jessie Buckley.

Released in March 2021

A Quiet Place Part II

Following the deadly events at home, the Abbott family (played by Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe) must now face the terrors of the outside world as they continue their fight for survival in silence. Forced to venture into the unknown, they quickly realise that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.

Released in September 2021

Rare Beasts

Mandy (Billie Piper) is a modern woman in a crisis. Raising a son, Larch (Toby Woolf), in the midst of a female revolution, mining the pain of her parents' separation and professionally writing about a love that no longer exists, she falls upon a troubled man, Pete (Leo Bill), who is searching for a sense of worth, belonging and ‘restored’ male identity. Rare Beasts is a pitch-black comedy and is Piper’s directorial debut. The film also stars David Thewlis, Kerry Fox and Lily James.

Released on 7th May 2021

Respect

Following the rise of Aretha Franklin’s career from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to her international superstardom, Respect is the remarkable true story of the music icon’s journey to find her voice. Details are somewhat under wraps, but we do know that Aretha herself is played by the phenomenal Jennifer Hudson, while supporting roles are headed up by Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Audra McDonald, Marc Maron and Mary J. Blige.

Released in August 2021

Dune

Frank Herbert’s ground-breaking 1965 sci-fi novel formed the basis for David Lynch’s 1984 film of the same name, starring Twin Peaks’ Kyle MacLachlan. We’ve been waiting for ages for this second reboot – starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac and Jason Momoa – which was due to come out last Christmas. Now, it’s slated to be released on HBO Max in October. Roughly covering the events of the first part of the book (a sequel is already in the works), the film is set in the far future of humanity, on the dangerous desert planet Arrakis, also known as ‘Dune’. Dune is the only source of the most valuable substance in the universe: ‘spice’, a drug which extends human life, provides superhuman levels of thought, and makes faster-than-light travel possible. Whoever controls Arrakis controls the spice. And whoever controls the spice controls the universe…

Released in October 2021

Blonde

Blonde is an upcoming biographical drama film written and directed by Andrew Dominik and based on the 2000 novel by Joyce Carol Oates. It stars Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale and Julianne Nicholson and will land on Netflix later this year. Oates’ book chronicles the fictional inner life of Marilyn Monroe and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. The story offers an intimate, unsparing vision of the woman who became Marilyn Monroe: the child who visits the cinema with her mother; the orphan whose mother is declared mad; the woman who changes her name to become an actress; the fated celebrity, lover, comedian muse and icon. Oates tells an epic American story of how a fragile, gifted young woman makes and remakes her identity, surviving against crushing odds, perpetually in conflict and intensely driven.

Release date TBC

No Time To Die

We’re hoping it’s fourth time lucky for the latest Bond instalment – which has now been pushed back three times. In No Time To Die, James Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology. Starring Daniel Craig, Lea Seydoux, Rami Malik and Ben Whishaw.

Released in October 2021

Death on the Nile

Kenneth Branagh directs and stars as famous sleuth Hercule Poirot in this reboot of Death on the Nile. This time, the Belgian detective has a set of murder suspects on a boat after a rich heiress is killed. Will he be able to find the culprit before they reach port? The film also stars Letitia Wright, Armie Hammer, Gal Gadot, Annette Benning, Dawn French and Russell Brand.

Released on 17th September 2021

West Side Story

Originally set to be released in cinemas last Christmas, West Side Story is Steven Spielberg’s modern take on the classic tale of two teenagers from different backgrounds who fall in love in 1950s New York City. The film stars Ansel Elgort and newcomer Rachel Zegler as the ill-fated Tony and Maria. We’re just hoping it doesn’t end up as this year’s answer to Cats.

Released on 10th December 2021

The Woman In The Window

Hailed as the biggest thriller of 2018, you’ll want to read this dark, twisty novel before the major film – starring Amy Adams, Gary Oldman and Julianne Moore – is released later this year. With an unreliable alcoholic-playing-detective for a protagonist, it’s easy to see why comparisons have been drawn with The Girl on the Train, but we think this is the better of the two. Anna’s lifeline to the real world is her window, where she sits day after day, watching her neighbours. When the Russells move in, Anna is instantly drawn to the picture-perfect family of three. But one evening, a frenzied scream rips across the silence, and Anna witnesses something no one was supposed to see. Now she must do everything she can to uncover the truth about what really happened.

Release date TBC