50 Most-Anticipated Movies of 2024 – IndieWire

2023 might not have been a superb yr for films, however in spite of all the pieces stacked in opposition to it (learn: grasping conglomerates run amok), it turned out to be a superb yr of films. Whereas the fallout of the current work stoppages shall be felt for time to come back, some of 2023’s losses will show to be 2024’s positive factors, as much-anticipated however strike-delayed movies like “Dune: Part Two,” “Drive-Away Dolls,” and Luca Guadagnino’s sexy tennis drama “Challengers” have all secured contemporary launch dates within the first half of the brand new yr.

These titles shall be joined by some of essentially the most promising Hollywood blockbusters in current reminiscence (e.g., “Furiosa” and the Lee Isaac Chung-directed “Twisters”), must-see work from some of the world’s biggest auteurs (Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness,” and David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds” come to thoughts), and large swings from important artists starting from new voices like Jane Schoenbrun (“I Saw the TV Glow”) and Duke Johnson (“The Actor”) to honored masters like Francis Ford Coppola (“Megalopolis”) and Mike Leigh (“Hard Truths”). Many of these films have but to obtain American distribution, not to mention agency launch dates, nevertheless it’s a secure guess that — barring any future calamity — most or all will arrive on these shores earlier than the yr is out. 

Right here, in alphabetical order, are 50 new movies we are able to’t wait to see in 2024. 

This text consists of reporting from Samantha Bergeson, Wilson Chapman, David Ehrlich, Kate Erbland, Alison Foreman, Ryan Lattanzio, Mark Peikert, Sarah Shachat, and Christian Zilko.

“The Actor” (TBD, Neon)

“Anomalisa” co-director Duke Johnson makes his solo directorial debut with one other mind-bending story a couple of man struggling to reclaim his identification, this one starring André Holland as an actor — the actor, the truth is — who loses his reminiscence after being overwhelmed inside an inch of his life in Nineteen Fifties Ohio. Primarily based on a 2012 novel by Donald E. Westlake, “The Actor” follows Holland’s character as he tries to get his bearings in a mysterious city inhabited by the likes of Gemma Chan, Toby Jones, and Tracey Ullman. Initially slated for launch in 2022 (when Ryan Gosling was set to play the lead), the film wrapped manufacturing in April, and needs to be able to debut at a serious fest sooner or later between February and September. —DE

“Anora” (TBD, Neon)

“Tangerine” and “Red Rocket” author/director Sean Baker returns along with his eighth movie and his first with Neon. Filmed on location in New York and Las Vegas on 35mm by director of pictures Drew Daniels, “Anora” is supposedly a narrative about two intercourse employees, however plot data is restricted past that; contemplating Baker’s earlier movies, now we have excessive hopes for his dealing with of the subject at a time when intercourse work is coming beneath growing scrutiny and assault. The forged consists of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” scene-stealer Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yuriy Borisov, Karren Karagulian, and Vache Tovmasyan. After the success of “Red Rocket,” one other Cannes premiere appears doubtless. —MP

“Bird” (TBD, A24)

There’s not a lot identified but about A24’s upcoming Andrea Arnold crime drama, however the truth that it co-stars Barry Keoghan — who left the “Gladiator” sequel to be in it — and Franz Rogowski is cause sufficient to be excited for the most recent characteristic from the ever-unpredictable power behind the likes of “Fish Tank” and “American Honey.” “Bird” was shot within the south of England (by Robbie Ryan) in June and July 2023, and so a Cannes premiere doesn’t appear out of the query. (Franz Rogowski just lately informed IndieWire about Arnold’s directing fashion on the movie — “like a hunter,” he stated — right here.) —MP

“Blitz” (TBD, Apple)

“12 Years a Slave” filmmaker Steve McQueen follows up his documentary “Occupied City” (in choose theaters as of December 25) — concerning the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam throughout WWII — with one other undertaking set within the interval. “Blitz,” which he wrote and directed, explores the bombing of London by the Axis in the course of the struggle inside a fictional story. However as McQueen informed Selection, they had been decided to get the small print factual. “For example, was it raining? Well, what kind of rain? Those kinds of small things that seem to be so incidental but are a huge part of how people think and act and react,” he stated. The movie stars Saoirse Ronan, Harris Dickinson, Erin Kellyman, and Stephen Graham. Apple will deal with U.S. distribution with a Cannes premiere doubtless. —MP

“The Brutalist” (No Distribution)

Actor-turned-filmmaker Brady Corbet introduced himself as a grasp stylist with the one-two punch of movies “The Childhood of a Leader” and “Vox Lux.” He’s again with “The Brutalist,” co-written along with his companion, “The World to Come” director Mona Fastvold. The drama reunites Corbet along with his longtime cinematographer Lol Crowley, whose visionary photographs are some of Twenty first-century cinema’s most memorable, to middle on an architect performed by Adrien Brody. A Holocaust survivor, he emigrates to the U.S. along with his spouse (Felicity Jones) and lands a contract with a mysterious, moneyed consumer (Man Pearce), who adjustments the course of their American dream. Corbet’s final two options premiered in Venice, together with Fastvold’s “The World to Come,” which may sign the Italian pageant as one other house vacation spot when “The Brutalist” is prepared. —RL 

“C’est Pas Moi” (No Distribution)

From his dreamlike eulogy for cinema “Holy Motors” to his operatic puppet musical “Annette,” Leos Carax has lengthy been one of the most delightfully unpredictable filmmakers engaged on Planet Earth. Any new movie that the French auteur decides to grace us with is certain to be a polarizing occasion. His newest, “C’est Pas Moi,” sees Carax grappling with one of the few matters that has evaded his eclectic gaze: himself. The movie has been described as “a self-portrait, which revisits more than 40 years of the author’s filmography and questions the major stations of his life, while capturing the political tremors of the time.” Written in first-person, the mysterious movie sees Carax encountering characters from his previous movies, together with the leprechaun-esque subway dweller that Denis Lavant fits up as in “Holy Motors.” It’s an formidable enterprise, and we should always all reduce ourselves a bit of slack for not absolutely greedy what he’s going for — but when there’s one factor we’ve realized about Carax, it’s that the ultimate product will at all times be worthy of our consideration. —CZ

“Civil War” (April 26, A24)

After years of making movies that discover his nervousness about expertise’s capability to alienate people from one another and the planet we dwell on, Alex Garland is able to lean into his worst-case state of affairs for home politics with “Civil War.” The motion epic takes American political polarization to its logical endpoint, imagining a close to future the place the US has fractured right into a handful of multi-state alliances preventing one another for management of the land of the (previously) free. Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Jesse Plemons, and Nick Offerman star within the A24 movie, which guarantees to introduce an unprecedented degree of spectacle to Garland’s distinct voice. If you happen to thought our first Civil Battle was unhealthy, wait till you see what occurs when helicopters and AK-47s are concerned. —CZ

“Challengers” (April 26, Amazon MGM Studios)

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes, “Challengers” practically matches “Dune: Part Two” for the most extremely anticipated Zendaya initiatives with launch dates pushed due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. Marvel’s reigning Mary Jane and HBO’s “Euphoria” star leads as a championship tennis star/coach reverse Mike Faist as her husband and Josh O’Connor as her ex-lover. When the three are thrust into competitors by way of a challenger occasion, an intoxicating love triangle takes form — or reemerges? — as the boys face off in a public grudge match with their shared romance watching on the sidelines. The filmmaker has teased an attractive, hyperkinetic, darkly complicated drama about “really fucked-up people,” promising a fizzier outing from the artist behind the melancholy “Call Me By Your Name” and twisted “Bones and All.” “Challengers” was meant to open the 2023 Venice Movie Competition earlier than pushing its launch, so any doable fest debut forward of April would come with Berlin or a shock late drop at Sundance. —AF

“Death of a Unicorn” (TBD, A24)

“So Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega are driving through the woods and then run over a unicorn with their car,” certain seems like the beginning of a really absurd, elaborate joke. And that’s doubtless what “Death of a Unicorn,” written and directed by Alex Scharfman, hopes to be. However it isn’t simply thrilling for an additional alternative to take the piss out of the super-rich (the unicorn has run off the property of a mega-billionaire pharma CEO performed by Richard E. Grant; God bless us, each one). All medieval nerds in all places ought to rejoice that we’re going to get a live-action depiction of unicorns because the bloodthirsty apex predators — calmed solely by the presence of a virgin — the thirteenth Century imagined them to be. —SS

“A Different Man” (TBD, A24)

Aaron Schimberg (“Chained for Life”) directs “A Different Man,” a psychological thriller starring Sebastian Stan as an actor who undergoes facial reconstruction and turns into obsessive about an actor (Adam Pearson, who appeared in “Under the Skin” because the one sufferer that alien predator Scarlett Johansson let get away) starring as him in a stage play primarily based on his life — a task for which Sebastian’s character was handed over. “The Worst Person in the World” breakout Renate Reinsve, whose “Handling the Undead” additionally premieres at Sundance, stars as nicely. The movie shot in summer time 2022, with “Beasts of the Southern Wild” DP Wyatt Garfield because the cinematographer. A theatrical launch date remains to be TBD, however “A Different Man” premieres on the Sundance Movie Competition January 21. —MP

“Drive-Away Dolls” (Focus Options, February 23)

Ethan Coen (sure, of the Coen Brothers) marks his solo narrative characteristic directing debut with queer road-trip drama “Drive-Away Dolls,” co-written along with his spouse Tricia Cooke. Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan star as two pals who attempt to neglect their exes by embarking on a street journey to Florida. All is nicely till the duo butt heads with criminals alongside the way in which, dashing the plot into wilder territory. A top-drawer forged of Pedro Pascal, Colman Domingo, and Matt Damon co-star, together with Beanie Feldstein. Coming off Qualley’s exceptional 2023 with “Poor Things” and “Sanctuary,” the movie needs to be fodder for Qualley followers following her star-making “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” breakout efficiency. —SB

“Dune: Part Two” (March 1, Warner Bros.)

After lacking its deliberate fall launch date as a result of SAG strike, Denis Villeneuve’s sprawling adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seemingly unfilmable sci-fi novel will lastly conclude when “Dune: Part Two” hits theaters in March. After being exiled from the management of Arrakis, Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides has lastly accepted his destiny because the Muad’Dib destined to assist the Fremen. The brand new movie will see him teaming up with Zendaya’s Princess Chani (whose blink-and-you-miss-it look within the first movie was a intelligent advertising gimmick if there ever was one) because the desert natives struggle to reclaim their planet. The movie will mark the tip of the story informed in Herbert’s authentic “Dune” novel, however Villeneuve has already teased a 3rd movie that might pull closely from the guide “Dune: Messiah.” —CZ 

“Emmanuelle” (TBD, Neon)

Audrey Diwan gained the Golden Lion on the Venice Movie Competition in 2021 for her poignant abortion drama “Happening,” and her subsequent movie boasts a formidable pedigree of collaborators who will little question develop on that movie’s non-didactic strategy to subjective storytelling round sexuality. However we’re nonetheless firmly in a feminine level of view: “Emmanuelle,” tailored from a 1967 novel by Emmanuelle Arsan, follows a lady (performed by Noémie Merlant) on an erotic journey of the self in Paris. The forged additionally consists of Naomi Watts and “White Lotus” favourite Will Sharpe. Neon has U.S. distribution rights to “Emmanuelle,” which shot on location in France and simply wrapped this fall. Diwan co-wrote the movie, whose sexually adventurous heroine was final delivered to the display in a little-seen 1974 French drama, with “Other People’s Children” director Rebecca Zlotowski. —RL 

“The End” (TBD, Neon)

How do you observe a couplet of essentially the most harrowing documentaries ever made? If you happen to’re “The Act of Killing” and “The Look of Silence” director Joshua Oppenheimer, you wait 10 years earlier than returning with a post-apocalyptic musical starring Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, and George MacKay because the all-singing, all-dancing members of a household who helped contribute to the tip of the world. That’s all we actually find out about “The End” at this level, however that’s greater than sufficient to whet our appetites for what seems like essentially the most unorthodox arthouse musical this facet of “Annette” (and we wouldn’t be shocked if it adopted within the footsteps of that movie with a polarizing Cannes debut). —DE

“The Fall Guy” (Could 3, Common Photos)

It’s tough to conceive of a greater mixture of filmmaker (stuntman-turned-director David Leitch) and materials (a remake of a beloved TV sequence about, uh, a stuntman). Throw in a single of our most perpetually sport main males (Ryan Gosling), one of our most reliably thrilling main women (Emily Blunt), and we’ve acquired a recipe for one thing uncommon: a remake that is smart. —KE

“Flint Strong” (August 9, Amazon MGM Studios)

Written by Barry Jenkins and directed by Oscar-nominated cinematographer Rachel Morrison (“Black Panther,” “Fruitvale Sation”) in her characteristic debut, “Flint Strong” dramatizes “T-Rex,” a documentary from Zackary Canepari and Drea Cooper concerning the life of skilled boxer Claressa “T-Rex” Shields. Specializing in Shields’ preparation for the 2012 Summer time Olympics, the place she would compete within the first of two back-to-back gold medaling competitions for the athlete, the movie stars sitcom and “Oracle” actress Ryan Future within the titular position; it additionally options performances from Judy Greer and Brian Tyree Henry. The movie was initially set at Common Photos earlier than its manufacturing was upended by the pandemic, and it landed at Amazon MGM Studios. —AF

“Furiosa” (Could 23, Warner Bros.)

Perhaps the only most anticipated of all the flicks on this record, George Miller’s long-awaited “Fury Road” prequel — set a long time earlier than the occasions of that trendy motion traditional, and swapping Charlize Theron for Anya Taylor-Pleasure — is a mega-hyped addition to a franchise that has discovered success by catching audiences off-guard, and whose earlier installment left us with an unleaded guzzoline excessive that appears unimaginable to prime. Judging by a considerably awkward teaser that appeared to transpose the pedal-to-the-metal madness of “Fury Road” onto an origin story extra interested by switching gears, we’re guessing that Miller doesn’t attempt to one-up himself a lot as he swerves, shiny and chrome, in a daring new course. Expectations be damned, right here’s hoping we’ll be taken without warning yet again; the movie is predicted to premiere at Cannes as “Fury Road” did in 2015. —DE

“Gladiator 2” (November 22, Common)

At an age when many filmmakers may pivot towards smaller movies or retire altogether, the 86-year-old Ridley Scott seems decided to dash in direction of extra formidable initiatives with every passing yr. After helming this yr’s $200 million historic epic “Napoleon,” Scott dove head first into one other sprawling interval piece in “Gladiator 2.” The brand new movie picks up 20 years after the occasions of Scott’s Finest Image winner from 2000, following a grown model of Joaquin Phoenix’s nephew Lucius (now performed by Paul Mescal), as he returns from years of residing within the wilderness and reckons along with his household’s legacy. With an A-list ensemble that features Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal rounding out the forged, this may very well be a blockbuster that rivals the impression of the unique. —CZ

“Hard Truths” (TBD, Bleecker Road)

The 80-year-old director Mike Leigh returns to cinemas in 2024 with a brand new drama about household life in a post-pandemic world. As is his customized, Leigh has stored just about all the pieces concerning the movie secret (the title was solely introduced in December 2023), however “Hard Truths” allegedly filmed over the summer time. It’s Leigh’s first movie since 2018’s formidable (and expensive for Amazon Studios) interval drama “Peterloo,” concerning the 1819 Peterloo bloodbath. Bleecker Road will deal with U.S. distribution for “Hard Truths,” Leigh’s first set within the trendy period since 2010’s Oscar-nominated “Another Year.” Leigh allegedly reunited along with his longtime cinematographer Dick Pope and costume designer Jacqueline Durran. —MP

“Havoc” (TBD, Netflix)

Tom Hardy stars as a detective attempting to rescue a politician’s son within the aftermath of a drug deal gone awry in a Welsh metropolis rife with corruption. Actually, we’re excited to see Hardy as a cop for as soon as, particularly in the identical yr “The Bikeriders” will lastly hit theaters. Gareth Edwards (“The Raid”) writes and directs the Netflix movie, which incorporates Forest Whitaker, Timothy Olyphant, Justin Cornwell, Jessie Mei Li, Yeo Yann Yann, Quelin Sepulveda, Luis Guzmán, Sunny Pang, Michelle Waterson, Richard Pepper, and Tony Parker. Filming was accomplished in 2021, with extra pictures taking place a yr later. —MP

“Holland, Michigan” (TBD, Amazon MGM Studios)

Rural thriller “Holland, Michigan” has been within the works for greater than a decade, ever since Naomi Watts and Bryan Cranston had been connected in 2013. These skills have lengthy since departed the darkly comedic undertaking, however right here’s hoping the movie written by Andrew Sodorski lastly reaches audiences someday in 2024. Nicole Kidman stars and produces by her manufacturing firm Blossom Movies. Distributed by Amazon Studios, the story beforehand described as being akin to “Fargo” is directed by Mimi Cave, who made her characteristic debut with Hulu’s phenomenally funky horror comedy “Fresh” in 2022. The forged additionally consists of Gael García Bernal, Matthew Macfadyen, Jude Hill, Rachel Sennott, Lennon Parham, Isaac Krasner, and Jeff Pope. —AF

“The Idea of You” (Could 2, Prime Video)

The age of fan fiction spawning characteristic movies has not but handed, however the pedigree behind Michael Showalter’s adaption of the Robinne Lee novel of the identical identify (which, sure, was impressed by Harry Kinds fan fiction) does have us very enthusiastic about sure, the concept of this new movie. Think about the celebs: Anne Hathaway, Nicholas Galitzine, Ella Rubin, and Reid Scott. Then contemplate the behind-the-camera workforce: director Showalter, who excels at thorny rom-coms (“The Big Sick,” “Hello, My Name Is Doris”), and screenwriter Jennifer Westfeldt, who additionally excels at thorny rom-coms (“Kissing Jessica Stein,” “Friends with Kids”). OK, sure, we’ll cease skimping, and contemplate the plot: Hathaway performs a 40-year-old single mother who unexpectedly meets (and likes??) a rising pop star (Galitzine) who additionally occurs to be nearly half her age. Titillating! —KE

“I Saw the TV Glow” (TBD, A24)

Jane Schoenbrun’s lauded sophomore movie “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair,” a moody and unsettling take a look at how the web can actually observe us out into the broader world, was one of the gems on the 2021 Sundance Movie Competition, and the filmmaker seems to be constructing on those self same tensions, concepts, and tones with “I Saw the TV Glow.” The A24-backed movie, certain for 2024’s Sundance earlier than its theatrical launch, follows “two teenagers [who] bond over their love of a television series; After it is mysteriously canceled, their reality begins to blur,” which seems like a becoming follow-up to “World’s Fair.” The involvement of Schoenbrun alone can be sufficient to get us excited — few filmmakers working right this moment so keenly perceive the methods during which display life permeates our actual life — however a more in-depth take a look at the unbelievable workforce across the filmmaker has us much more thrilled, together with producers Emma Stone and Dave McCary, plus supporting turns from Phoebe Bridgers, Fred Durst, and Conner O’Malley. —KE

“Joker: Folie à Deux” (October 4, Warner Bros.)

Joaquin Phoenix reprises his Oscar-winning position as Batman villain (and antihero?) The Joker in Todd Phillips’ long-awaited sequel. However what hardcore “Batman” followers might not have anticipated was a musical twist, courtesy of Girl Gaga as Harley Quinn. Whereas the plot stays considerably beneath wraps, the title “Folie à Deux” at the least hints at a shared psychosis between Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) and Gaga’s Harley set within the backdrop of Arkham Aslyum, which we hope can solely imply that “Joker 2” shall be bringing the “Batman: The Animated Series” origin story for Harley to life. Throw in some singing, some dancing, and a complete lot of insanity when the primary take a look at “Joker: Folie à Deux” already reveals that Academy Award winner Gaga shall be assembly Phoenix’s unhinged efficiency beat by beat and step-by-step. —SB

“Kinds of Kindness” (TBD, Searchlight)

Initially titled “AND,” Yorgos Lanthimos‘ third feature with Emma Stone hasn’t launched any plot particulars, however the duo’s observe file is fairly impeccable — as is Lanthimos’ newest forged, which incorporates Stone’s “Poor Things” co-stars Margaret Qualley and Willem Dafoe, plus Joe Alwyn, Jesse Plemons, Hong Chau, and Hunter Schafer. Lanthimos directs from a script he co-wrote with Efthimis Filippou; the screenplay was developed by Component Photos and Film4. The movie is produced by Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Component, together with Kasia Malipan and writer-director Lanthimos. Ollie Madden and Daniel Battsek are government producing for Film4, which co-financed the undertaking. In 2020, Lanthimos described what’s now “Kinds of Kindness” as an anthology movie with interlocking tales. —MP

“The Legend of Ochi” (TBD, A24)

A fantasy journey movie produced by A24, “The Legend of Ochi” focuses on a younger woman (Helena Zengel) who runs away from house and learns tips on how to talk with an animal species referred to as Ochi. Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson, and Finn Wolfhard additionally star within the characteristic directorial debut of Isaiah Saxon, who’s helmed music movies for the likes of Grizzly Bear and Björk. The film, produced by A24, filmed in late 2021 in Transylvania, and needs to be able to go this yr even when a precise launch date remains to be unknown. —MP

“Limonov, the Ballad of Eddie” (No Distribution)

Kirill Serebrennikov (“Leto,” “Tchaikovsky’s Wife”) is a prolific Russian director, achieved in movie and theater, whose open assist for LGBT initiatives and personal identification as a queer individual have seen him face Kafkaesque legal expenses in his house nation. Nonetheless, he continues to create. Within the filmmaker’s forthcoming biopic, adapting French creator Emmanuele Carrere’s novelization of the poet and author, Ben Whishaw stars as Eduard Limonov. The founder of the Nationwide Bolshevik Social gathering — later The Different Russia of E.V. Limonov — the artist was reportedly pressured to flee Russia by the KGB in 1974 earlier than returning to actively take part in politics. He would considerably form Russian tradition and considering earlier than his loss of life in 2020. —AF

“Lisa Frankenstein” (February 9, Focus Options)

Forgive us for being wholly unable to call our favourite half of the “Lisa Frankenstein” Get Excited for This Movie Starter Pack. Is it the fundamental logline (a twist on the Frankenstein mythos, this time with a teenage woman constructing her very personal monster out of, eh, no matter)? Is it the expertise behind the digicam (first-time characteristic filmmaker Zelda Williams, of the Robin Williams lineage, plus a script from Diablo Cody)? Is it the expertise in entrance of the digicam (Kathryn Newton because the titular Lisa! Cole Sprouse as her monster!)? Perhaps it’s simply the punny title (“Lisa Frankenstein,” you both get it, otherwise you don’t)? Screw it, it’s all the pieces, ideally sewn collectively into one pleasant and sudden package deal. —KE

“Love Lies Bleeding” (March 8, A24)

A Kristen Stewart lesbian romance-thriller set within the ’80s from A24? What did we do to deserve such blessings? Stewart performs a health club worker whose relationship with a bodybuilder (Katy O’Brian) takes a flip for the bloody as soon as our bodies begin getting rolled into rugs. Additionally starring Ed Harris, Jena Malone, Anna Baryshnikov, and Dave Franco, the film is directed by Rose Glass (“Saint Maud”), who co-wrote the script with Weronika Tofilska. Anticipate lots of mullets, double crossings, and what’s certain to be a really splashy premiere at this yr’s Sundance Movie Competition earlier than A24 releases it in theaters on March 8. —MP

“Maria” (No Distribution)

Pablo Larraín returns to the biopic style after “Jackie” and “Spencer” with a drama about Maria Callas, starring Angelina Jolie within the title position. In contrast to these two earlier movies, Larraín’s film is not going to give attention to essentially the most dramatic second in his topic’s life (that might be Callas being dumped by Aristotle Onassis for Jackie Kennedy) and as a substitute zero in on Callas’ ultimate years residing in Paris, the place she finally died at age 53. Becoming a member of Jolie within the forged are Valeria Golino and Haluk Bilginer. “Spencer” screenwriter Steven Knight wrote the script. —MP

“MaXXXine” (TBD, A24)

After the barnstorming ’70s mayhem of “X” and the technicolor nightmare (in the very best sense) that was “Pearl,” Ti West concludes his horror movie trilogy by taking us into the age of video. Mia Goth returns as Maxine, the Last Lady from “X,” nonetheless chasing appearing fame in Nineteen Eighties Los Angeles. West’s grasp of suspense is barely matched by a love for filmmaking and the methods during which digicam placement, motion, coloration, and reducing can all “capture” his characters — after which, y’know, brutally homicide them. With Michelle Monaghan, Elizabeth Debicki, and Kevin Bacon (!) additionally alongside for this explicit experience, “MaXXXine” seems prefer it’s going to be an extreme, in the very best sense, fruits of Ti West’s horror set. —SS

“Megalopolis” (No Distribution)

In phrases of sheer ambition and riskiness, no movie slated for 2024 can maintain a candle to “Megalopolis.” Francis Ford Coppola’s utopian epic (with a plot that even he can’t absolutely clarify) has been a lifelong ardour undertaking for the “Godfather” director. After a long time of false begins and rejections, the maverick filmmaker lastly determined to throw warning into the wind in 2022 and financed the rattling factor himself. The sci-fi drama takes place in a futuristic model of New York Metropolis with apparent parallels to the Roman empire and allegedly unfolds as a love story set in opposition to the backdrop of the hunt to construct a utopian society. With an ensemble forged that features Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Dustin Hoffman, and Jason Schwartzman, it may very well be one of the buzziest titles at Cannes if Coppola hits his rumored deadline of ending the movie in time for the pageant. (On condition that the famously deliberate director is spending his personal cash and has no exterior pressures past his personal mortality, any proclamations concerning the movie’s post-production timeline needs to be taken with an enormous heaping of salt.) Whether or not “Megalopolis” goes down in historical past as a late-career masterpiece from a Hollywood legend or an notorious misfire from a director whose productions usually fly off the rails, it’s certain to be one of the largest movie tales of 2024. —CZ

“Mickey 17” (March 29, Warner Bros.)

“Director Bong Joon Ho goes to space” is de facto all we would have liked to listen to to be offered on “Mickey 17.” However it’s even higher that Director Bong is selecting to discover the ultimate frontier alongside Robert Pattinson as a clone(s) who should survive in an surroundings that solely needs to kill him. Primarily based on the Edward Ashton novel “Mickey7,” we’re excited for “Mickey 17” to be much more of a romp with scrumptious cinematic twists and turns that additionally explores concepts of consciousness and the associated fee of innovation. With Naomi Acki, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo, and Steven Yeun all additionally signed up for the mission, the pleasure of “Mickey 17” may very well be as limitless as Pattinson’s proverbial Pink Shirt. —SS

“Mother Mary” (TBD, A24)

In fact a movie starring Anne Hathaway, Michaela Coel, and Hunter Schaefer has to have “Mother” within the title — A24’s “Mother Mary” has a pedigree and premise destined for out-of-context Movie Twitter meme-making each time it releases subsequent yr. The drama sees director David Lowery flip away from the fantasy realms of his final two initiatives (Arthurian fable “The Green Knight” and Neverland-set “Peter Pan and Wendy”) to the world of trendy celeb. Plot particulars are beneath wraps, however Hathaway will play a singer, whereas Coel will play a dressmaker. Lowery, who wrote the script, produces alongside his standard collaborators Toby Halbrooks and James M. Johnston, joined right here by Jeanie Igoe of Homebird Productions and Jonas Katzenstein, Maximilian Leo, and Jonathan Saubach of Cologne-based Augenschein Filmproduktion. Daniel Hart’s rating for “Mother Mary” will in the meantime be complemented by authentic songs from Jack Antonoff and Charli XCX. —WC

“Mother’s Instinct” (TBD, Neon)

If “May December” whet your palate for a twisted two-hander with dueling Oscar-winning actresses, “Mother’s Instinct” is poised to be an equally disturbing follow-up. Olivier Masset-Depasse directs the home drama primarily based on the novel “Derrière la Haine” by Barbara Abel; Masset-Depasse beforehand tailored the movie in his native Belgium in 2018. Now, the harrowing Sixties suburbia-set drama finds its means stateside courtesy of Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain in a “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”-esque story, based on Chastain herself. Finest pals Alice (Chastain) and Celine (Hathaway) lead idyllic lives as neighbors and moms to 2 younger boys. Nevertheless, after one of their sons falls off the opposite’s roof, guilt and suspicion take management, spinning a psychological revenge story in movement. —SB

“Nosferatu” (December 25, Focus Options)

Robert Eggers hasn’t technically made a vampire film earlier than “Nosferatu,” however “The Witch,” “The Lighthouse,” and “The Northman” are all vampire films, of their means. It appears as pure as coming house that Eggers would sort out a contemporary tackle F.W. Murnau’s 1922 masterpiece, a movie whose haunting and shadowy affect has prolonged into far more than horror filmmaking. We’re excited for Eggers, alongside Emma Corrin, Willem Dafoe, Nicholas Hoult, Ralph Ineson, Lily Rose-Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and 2,000 rats to lastly get to inform this story by Eggers’ explicit lens. It’s one whose wealthy ambiance, magnetic tragedy, and otherworldly horror all appear to suit Eggers’ fashion like a stake to the guts. —SS

“Oh, Canada” (No Distribution)

The prolific Paul Schrader debuts one other movie in 2024, this time pairing Jacob Elordi and Richard Gere collectively in an adaptation of late creator Russell Banks’ decades-spanning novel “Foregone.” Schrader’s “American Gigolo” collaborator Gere performs a dying documentarian who involves phrases along with his legacy, proven in flashbacks with Elordi taking part in the youthful model of himself. Michael Imperioli and Kristine Froseth additionally star in Schrader’s follow-up to “Master Gardener.” The difference of “Foregone” has been teased by Schrader as a musing on (what else however) loss of life itself, with Gere’s Leonard Fife re-examining how being a draft dodger fleeing to Canada formed each his profession and life. —SB

“The Outrun” (No Distribution)

Saoirse Ronan stars as a just lately recovering alcoholic who returns to Scotland’s Orkney Islands, the place she should lastly confront her troubled previous. Filmmaker Nora Fingscheidt made a splash with the 2021 Netflix hit “The Unforgivable,” starring Sandra Bullock, and this follow-up appears extremely promising. The movie premieres on the Sundance Movie Competition, the place it can look to amass U.S. distribution (StudioCanal is dealing with overseas). Fingscheidt tailored Amy Liptrot’s memoir with Liptrot and Daisy Lewis. Brock Media’s Sarah Brocklehurst optioned and developed Liptrop’s memoir, producing alongside Ronan, Jack Lowden, and Dominic Norris beneath new banner Arcade Photos. —MP

“Paddington in Peru” (November 8 within the UK/January 25, 2025 within the US, Sony)

“Paddington 2” is one of the best films ever made (a as soon as hyperbolic-seeming opinion that has since come to be accepted as scientific reality), a piece of artwork so profound that it nearly appeared believable that mastermind Paul King would by no means attempt to prime it. And, in a means, he hasn’t: Regardless of returning to co-write the franchise’s long-rumored, slow-gestating third installment, the “Wonka” director has changed himself behind the digicam with “Paddington” newcomer Dougal Wilson, which can not even be essentially the most important change in a sequel that replaces Sally Hawkins with Emily Mortimer and ditches the London suburbs for the Amazon rainforest. Right here’s hoping the sequence’ marmalade-flavored magic will survive the journey. —DE

“The Perfumed Hill” (No Distribution)

For his first film since 2014’s masterful “Timbuktu” (which IndieWire named one of the very best movies of its decade), Mauritanian-born Malian auteur Abderrahmane Sissako returns with a sweeping romantic drama that spans from the Ivory Coast to the tea fields of Guangzhou. “Girlhood” actress Nina Melo stars as a lady who ditches her husband-to-be on the altar and flees east from West Africa, finally assembly — and falling for — a Chinese language man (Han Chang) who initiates her within the historic artwork of Chinese language tea ceremonies. If that premise sounds a contact extra like “The Taste of Things” than you may anticipate from such a fearlessly political filmmaker, we think about that Sissako will discover a technique to put his personal indelible spin on a narrative he was impressed to inform after consuming at a restaurant owned by an Afro-Chinese language couple; a restaurant known as “The Perfumed Hill.” Fingers crossed for a Cannes premiere. —DE

“Polaris” (No Distribution)

It’s been six and a half years since Lynne Ramsay’s final movie, the contract killer thriller “You Were Never Really Here,” premiered on the Cannes Movie Competition. Numerous different initiatives have come however by no means gone for the Scottish filmmaker whose “We Need to Talk About Kevin” is now broadly thought to be a contemporary masterpiece of social horror. Together with “Morvern Callar” and “Ratcatcher,” Ramsay is four-for-four in a spiky profession during which she has (refreshingly) struggled to evolve to a extra conventional Hollywood silhouette (see all the pieces that went down with “Jane Got a Gun,” whose manufacturing Ramsay left in 2013). Her subsequent movie, “Polaris,” wrapped filming in mid-2023 and is her first authentic script not tailored from fiction since her debut “Ratcatcher.” Little is thought concerning the movie aside from it can reunite Ramsay with “You Were Never Really Here” star Joaquin Phoenix and is rumored to be a interval piece horror movie set in Alaska. —RL 

(*50*)“Pussy Island” (TBD, Amazon MGM Studios)

Zoe Kravitz makes her directorial debut with “Pussy Island,” a post-#MeToo story she stated she rewrote “a million times” with “High Fidelity” screenwriter E.T. Feigenbaum following Harvey Weinstein’s crimes coming to gentle. Channing Tatum stars as a tech mogul who invitations a cocktail waitress (Naomi Ackie) to his distant personal island for a weekend of debauchery. Kravitz has solely teased the movie as a confrontation of trendy sexual politics that she started creating in 2017 after her personal experiences with males in Hollywood. Steven Soderbergh and Donald Glover weighed in on the script, with Glover hinting that the movie is a “dangerous” story of deceit, betrayal, and entrapment. —SB

“Queer” (No Distribution)

Luca Guadagnino tends to overpromise on what initiatives he’s capable of see by, from a revamp of “Scarface” to a gender-swapped “Lord of the Flies” (each are actually on ice). Plus, at this level, he’s already acquired one backed up within the queue with the strike-delayed launch of “Challengers” now set for April. Nevertheless, one movie he did wrap and shot fully on the famed Cinecittà Studios in Italy is an adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ 1985 novel “Queer.” Following an American expat (Daniel Craig) who turns into romantically entangled with a youthful man (Drew Starkey), the movie takes place in Forties Mexico Metropolis, with costumes by Loewe artistic director Jonathan Anderson. Guadagnino is a mainstay at Venice and different fall festivals; look out for this one later in 2023. —RL 

“Rebel Ridge” (TBD, Netflix)

Jeremy Saulnier has been fairly quiet since “Hold the Dark” slipped onto Netflix in 2018 (his solely current credit are two episodes of “True Detective”), however the “Blue Ruin” director is about to come back again along with his greatest movie thus far: a high-velocity thriller about an ex-marine performed by “Foe” star Aaron Pierre who seeks revenge on a bunch of crooked cops. At this level, extra is thought — or at the least mentioned — concerning the movie’s COVID-related delays and controversial recasting of John Boyega than about “Rebel Ridge” itself, however Saulnier is a singularly muscular filmmaker who wields brute-force pressure like no person else within the enterprise, and that’s cause sufficient to be excited for his return. —MP

“The Shrouds” (No Distribution)

David Cronenberg initially envisioned his high-concept “The Shrouds” as a restricted sequence for Netflix. However since that fell by, he repurposed this private and, he says, autobiographical supernatural drama as a characteristic that shot in Toronto over the summer time. Right here, Vincent Cassel performs a grieving widower who creates a tool that helps individuals reconnect with their lifeless family members — by permitting them to look at their beloved departed decompose in real-time. The filmmaker’s spouse and sometimes-editor, Carolyn Cronenberg, died in 2017, giving the movie a selected autobiographical efficiency even for a director whose works are at all times already entrenched in loss of life and decay. Different faces within the forged embody Diane Kruger, Man Pearce, and Sandrine Holt. After 2014’s scorching Hollywood satire “Maps to the Stars,” Cronenberg stepped away from the digicam to give attention to novel-writing and even starring roles on TV from “Alias Grace” to “Star Trek: Discovery.” He’s again on a roll since his 2022 dystopian physique horror sci-fi, “Crimes of the Future,” and “The Shrouds” will inevitably be one other must-see. Anticipate this one to indicate up within the Cannes competitors, the place a brand new Cronenberg nearly at all times reveals up. —RL 

“The Substance” (TBD, Common)

Again on screens within the upcoming new season of FX’s “Feud,” Demi Moore additionally stars on this upcoming physique horror film, reverse Margaret Qualley. Written, directed, and produced by Coralie Fargeat for Common Photos and Working Title Movies, the movie was additionally set to co-star Ray Liotta earlier than his loss of life in 2022. No phrase on whether or not or not that position was recast, however contemplating that that is described as Fargeat’s feminist tackle the style — after her explosive tackle the revenge thriller with 2017’s “Revenge” — the film guarantees to be lots provocative when it lastly hits screens. —MP

“Twisters” (July 19, Common)

Pay attention, if Lee Isaac Chung is making it (as his “Minari” follow-up?!), we’re there. It’s simply lucky that this dedication applies to a movie we are able to’t assist however be very inquisitive about. A sequel (or, on this case, “a continuation”) of the long-lasting Jan de Bont actioner has lengthy been within the offing (within the air?), however that it’s lastly a go within the fingers of one of our most delicate filmmakers? Now, that’s an actual twist. If nothing else, Chung has already capitalized on one of the good legacies of de Bont’s movie: constructing a formidable ensemble forged. This one consists of Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Daryl McCormack, Maura Tierney, Harry Hadden-Paton, Sasha Lane, Kiernan Shipka, Nik Dodani, David Corenswet, and Tunde Adebimpe. Let’s roll! —KE

“Union” (No Distribution)

“The Hottest August” director Brett Story, one of the very best and most formally adventurous of North America’s younger documentarians, groups up with “Crime + Punishment” filmmaker Stephen Maing for this uncooked however presumably exhilarating take a look at trendy labor organizing — particularly, the formation of the exceptional (however fraught) Amazon Labor Union in response to low pay and dealing situations on the mega-retailer’s Staten Island warehouse. It’s secure to imagine “Union” shall be snapped up by a serious streamer after its premiere at Sundance in January 2024. It’s even safer to imagine that the streamer in query gained’t be Prime Video. —DE

“Untitled Joseph Kosinski Formula 1 Film” (TBD, Apple)

An enormous Hollywood blockbuster looks as if the one logical escalation of the “Drive to Survive” period of Method 1. But when anybody could make such a film extra just like the 2021 championship battle and fewer just like the 2023 Max Verstappen world tour, it’s “Top Gun: Maverick” director Joseph Kosinski. Brad Pitt and Damson Idris star as a driver pairing for underdog workforce APXGP, which we all know as a result of the still-untitled movie shot alongside the common F1 groups at a quantity of races this yr and had its (modified F2) vehicles line up on the grid at Silverstone. Kosinski’s technical experience and love of velocity ought to shine by regardless of whether or not the Method 1 movie can really drive on the restrict. —SS

“Wizards!” (TBD, A24)

Pete Davidson is again in movies with this stoner comedy — and based on studies out of current check screenings, the A24 movie additionally guarantees to be a gross-out comedy. “Passages” New York Movie Critics Circle winner Franz Rogowski stars reverse Davidson as two continuously stoned seashore bar operators who discover a bag of money after which encounter a number of oddball characters performed by Sean Harris, Orlando Bloom, Naomi Scott, and Rahel Romahn. David Michôd (“The King”) writes and directs from a script he co-conceived with Joel Edgerton. However beware — based on preview audiences, there’s apparently a really literal shit-eating scene within the film. —MP