Pretty much a shoe-in for high grossing film of 2012, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises closes his wonderful Batman trilogy and is even shaping up to match the hype. I just hope they haven’t fallen under the usual failings of writing a million and one characters into the story. The Dark Knight Rises hits theatres July 20th, 2012.
With Larry Charles again directing, The Dictator arrives May 2012 with great anticipation. Sacha Baron Cohen’s central character here is a tyrannical dictator, who, you guessed it, holidays in the “birthplace of AIDS”, America. Backed up by Megan Fox, Ben Kingsley, Anna Faris and B.J. Novak, it’s an all-star cast, so unlikely to disappoint, although our main cause for excitement comes in the form of Four Lions‘ Adeel Akhtar, who plays one of the help.
After the massive success of their breakthrough collaboration, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, after co-writing The Muppets, Nicholas Stoller is back behind the camera with Jason Segel in front of it following the turbulent run-up to a wedding five years in the making. Why the promtional material puts a heavier weight on sharing a producer with Bridesmaids rather than the aforementioned pair, however, seems a strange move, even given its success.
The upcoming Snow White movie that doesn’t look horrendous (ahem, Mirror Mirror), Kristen Stewart stars in her biggest movie to date outside of Twilight, and with Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth and Sam Claflin in tow too, this one might just turn out all right. Rupert Sanders’ Snow White And The Huntsman hits theatres June 1st.
While having The Hangover’s Todd Phillips in the producer’s chair proves to be a massive turn off for the upcoming Project X, signing up Nima Nourizadeh to direct was a masterstroke. The acclaimed music video and commercial director should bring a freshness Phillips couldn’t have dreamed of. Project X is out March 2nd, 2012.
Telling the story of Juan Pujol, “the only person to have been decorated by both the Allies and the Axis for service during the Second World War”. Docu Garbo: The Spy hits cinemas Stateside on November 19th, TBC in the UK.
The next Dr. Seuss property to be ruined on adapted for cinema, “an environmentalist tries to save the forest from a greedy clothing manufacturer,” with Danny DeVito voicing titular character, The Lorax. Out late March 2012.
I’m not going to lie, Hugo looks pretty disappointing. In the titular role, Asa Butterfield looks creaky, especially when alongside the accomplished Chloe Moretz, while the straight up story doesn’t seem massively interesting too. Still, this is a film my Martin Scorsese, so I’ll certainly reserve final judgment until Hugo hits cinemas this winter.
Some five films in the making, The Avengers is deemed by its producers as too big to fail, bringing together the likes of Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Nick Fury, Loki and more, although with public interest in superhero movies severely on the wane, thanks largely to Marvel’s own laboured output, whether this big name epic will make good on its $220m production budget (with marketing to come on top) remains to be seen. Still, we’ll keep an open mind until it hits theatres in summer 2012, and you can be sure the fanboys will love it at least.
Though the mo-capped visuals still look massively underwhelming, considering that Steven Spielberg directs, that Edgar Wright, Steven Moffat and Joe Cornish penned the screenplay and Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis and Daniel Craig act it out, it’s hard not to be excited. Out (believe it or not) October 26th in the UK, and December 21st in the US.
