J. EDGAR
DIRECTED BY Clint Eastwood ETA January 2012 DiCaprio has the showy part as the titular FBI chief in Eastwood’s biopic, but it’s Armie Hammer as his assistant/rumoured lover Clyde Tolson who’s winning all the plaudits. From the looks of the trailer, Judi Dench looks to be in terrifying form as Hoover’s imperious mother.
CHILD OF GOD
DIRECTED BY James Franco ETA 2014 James Franco hopes to step behind the camera and take on Cormac McCarthy’s early novel, though who knows when he’ll have time in his packed schedule to do it. The 1973 book ain’t exactly kids stuff, telling the story of a violent, necrophilic hobo as he descends into madness.
EXTREMELY LOUD LIFE OF PI AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE DIRECTED BY Stephen Daldry ETA February 2012 The director of The Hours looks to have upped the treacle factor on Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel, with newcomer Thomas Horn as the precocious youngster dealing with the loss of his father (Tom Hanks) in the 9/11 attacks. The awful trailer, filled with unwarranted emotions and soundtracked by U2, does not fill us with hope.
TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE
DIRECTED BY Steve McQueen ETA 2013 Shame isn’t even cool from the oven yet and McQueen and Michael Fassbender have already set forth on their next project — a period piece set in mid-1800s New York about a middle-class black man (Chiwetel Ejiofor) kidnapped and sold into slavery in the south. Brad Pitt is in the producer’s chair and will take a role in front of the camera, too.
JOHN DIES AT THE END
DIRECTED BY Ang Lee ETA December 2012 Fox clearly has a lot of faith in Ang Lee’s adaptation of Yann Martel’s Booker Prizewinner, starring Tobey Maguire. The studio has given it a prime release date opposite The Hobbit’s first instalment and Brad Pitt’s World War Z. Roll on Christmas 2012, we say.
THE RAID
DIRECTED BY Gareth Evans ETA Early 2012 Keep an eye out for this film festival favourite next year. Welsh director Gareth Evans has created a hyper-kinetic, über-violent action movie filmed entirely in Indonesia with a cast of unknowns. A suitably breathless, dialogue-free trailer is now online.
RUST AND BONE
DIRECTED BY Jacques Audiard ETA 2012 The A Prophet director has announced his next project, an adaptation of Craig Davidson’s short story collection, starring Marion Cotillard as a boxer’s moll. The book’s synopsis promises fighting dogs, prizefighters, sex addicts and gamblers. Get excited.
ROBOPOCALYPSE
DIRECTED BY Don Coscarelli ETA 2012 The creator of Phantasm and Bubba Ho-Tep returns with another low-budget cult-horror-in-waiting with one of the best titles of the year. The plot involves a hallucinogenic drug that turns users into aliens. Or something. The trailer doesn’t make that, or anything else, very clear.
DIRECTED BY Steven Spielberg ETA July 2013 If you’re a fan of Minority Report, you’ll be pleased to learn that Spielberg is going back to the future with this sci-fi pic set in the aftermath of a robot uprising. If you’re a bigger fan of Spielberg’s historical dramas, then look forward to his Abe Lincoln biopic, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the Great Emancipator himself.
KILLER JOE
THE DICTATOR
DIRECTED BY William Friedkin ETA 2012 Early word from the film festival season says that the Exorcist director is switching back to his gritty 1970s form with this pulpy, violent thriller. Matthew McConaughey is the cop-turned-hitman hired by Emile Hirsch to kill his mother in return for free sexual licence with his sister (Juno Temple).
DIRECTED BY Larry Charles ETA May 2012 Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest attempt to get British cinemagoers choking on their popcorn finally has a release date, though the creators aren’t letting much else out of the bag. Word is, it’s a love story of sorts between the eponymous tyrant and the country he can’t let go of.
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