One year turns to the next, and while we make lists of stuff related to the year we’ve just finished, we also look breathlessly ahead. Movies are tough to hit on — release dates can change pretty quickly (for example, most people thought Monuments Men was going to come out during this December, i.e. in time for this Oscar season, but it ultimately didn’t).
Then in any given year, you have movies that have a lot of buzz and steam almost a year ahead of time — Walter Mitty might be an example for late 2012 — that get surpassed by movies with strong casts or good stories that come seemingly out of nowhere (12 Years A Slave). So this list of what’s going to happen in ’14 will be about 92 percent wrong, in other words. But it’s still fun to speculate, right?
Let’s start with blockbusters. It seems like next summer will be dominated by Spider-Man, Captain America, X-Men, and perhaps the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Tom Cruise does have a summer 2014 movie lined up — it’s called Edge of Tomorrow and should be released on June 6 — but I’m ignoring that one here, along with Adam Sandler and Will Smith titles. Here’s Spider Man 2:
And here’s X-Men: Days of Future Past:
And here’s Captain America: Winter Soldier:
There isn’t an official Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles trailer yet; I actually don’t think that movie will make a ton of money, but you never know. Nostalgia does sell.
Mockingjay: Part 1 of the Hunger Games trilogy is coming out in November ’14, too. That should break the bank. This list has a ton of other stuff from 2014, for the things I won’t remember to address.
I missed a couple of blockbuster potential (like the new Planet of the Apes and the new Transformers), but let’s turn to the smaller flicks. There’s an important trend line here. Shailene Woodley — you likely know her as “the girl from The Descendents” — has a big 2014 lined up. She has White Bird in a Blizzard (which has the same director as The Doom Generation), Divergent, and The Fault In Our Stars. She’s going to be literally everywhere. 2012 may have been the year of Channing Tatum, and 2013 was unquestionably the year of Jennifer Lawrence — could ’14 be the year of Woodley?
Here’s another strong list of ’14 releases. Quick summary: we have Jay-Z producing a movie off Annie with Cameron Diaz (December), the guys behind The Matrix are putting Channing Tatum in weird makeup, Christopher Nolan and his cinematographer both have their own movies this year, David Fincher is doing Gone Girl with Ben Affleck, and Kate Upton is starting to take over the world.
Here’s a look at the 2015 Oscars. This P.T. Anderson / Joaquin Phoenix Inherent Vice movie has no set release date and could get pushed into 2015, but looks very promising (the talent assembled is excellent). Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken is filming now, as are a lot of these late-2014 releases.
Cameron Crowe has an untitled project set for release with Emma Stone, Bradley Cooper, Rachel McAdams, et al — if handled right, that could be a tremendous movie. (Here’s a quick look at filming.) There will also obviously be a ton of stuff off the festival circuit; in that vein, here’s the Sundance 2014 dramatic film line-up and here are all the films. (Here are the premieres.) The One I Love (major mumblecore) and Little Accidents look good, as does They Came Together (Paul Rudd).
Hundreds of films will come out in ’14, and right now we can mostly predict accurately what will make money (franchises, comic books, etc.) As for what will pop and resonate, I have no idea. But the above is a little sample. Oh, and let’s end here.
