By Erin Free
JACKIE (January 12) Does it get any more blue ribbon than this? Much loved Black Swan Oscar winner, Natalie Portman, playing America’s favourite First Lady (well, at least until Melania Trump takes up residence in The White House next year), Jacqueline Kennedy, in a splashy biopic has Oscar bait written all over it, but the presence of Chilean director, Pablo Larrain (No, Tony Manero, Neruda, The Club) certainly adds a dash of the unexpected. Screenwriter, Noah Oppenheim (Allegiant, The Maze Runner), is another surprise player, while the casting choices (Peter Sarsgaard as Bobby Kennedy, Greta Gerwig as Nancy Tuckerman, John Carroll Lynch as Lyndon B. Johnson) are equally against-the-grain. Jackie’s got our vote…
LIVE BY NIGHT (January 26) As a director, Ben Affleck has a rock solid batting average, currently sitting at three for three with Gone Baby Gone, The Town, and the Oscar winning Argo. He’s also been given the reins on his own Batman stand-alone movie, and was one of the few things that everybody seemed to like about Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice. Working once again from source material by revered crime author, Dennis Lehane (Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River), Live By Night is set during the Prohibition era, with Affleck taking the lead role of Joe Coughlin, the son of a Boston police captain who pulls a hard left and embarks on a bloody, relentless life of crime.
RULES DON’T APPLY (January 26) Warren Beatty hasn’t directed a film since he cut deliriously loose with the razor sharp satire, Bulworth, back in 1998, which makes the rich possibilities of Rules Don’t Apply something to savour. With so many runs on the board as both director (Heaven Can Wait, Reds, Dick Tracy) and actor (Shampoo, Bugsy, McCabe & Mrs. Miller), anything from Beatty is worth getting excited about, but his new film’s premise – Beatty’s eccentric billionaire, Howard Hughes, makes life very interesting for an aspiring actress (Lily Collins) and her driver (Alden Ehrenreich, aka the man who would be Han Solo) – adds further lustre to this stylish-looking period piece.
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA (February 2) The latest effort from playwright-turned filmmaker, Kenneth Lonergan (who announced himself as a burning talent to watch with 2000’s brilliant You Can Count On Me, and then nearly imploded with 2011’s acclaimed Margaret, which was beset with production and creative problems), has been generating copious Oscar buzz, with Casey Affleck already flagged as a certainty for a Best Actor nomination for his performance as a troubled man forced to take care of his teenage nephew when the boy’s father dies. Also starring Lucas Hedges, Michelle Williams, and Kyle Chandler, Manchester By The Sea is a gold-plated must-see for 2017.
FENCES (February 9) A powerhouse actor of untouchable gravitas, Denzel Washington’s career as a director has been far less top-tier, with the veteran performer getting lukewarm notices and limited releases for his still-strong dramas, Antwone Fisher (2002) and The Great Debaters (2007). His belated third effort, however, might get considerable more love, with Fences currently being bandied about as a possible Oscar contender. Based on the acclaimed stage play by August Wilson, this powerful drama sees Washington star as Troy, a decent, determined father who struggles under American racial oppression while trying to raise his family in the unforgiving 1950s and coming to terms with the dark events of his own life.
SILENCE (February 16) A longtime dream project for Martin Scorsese (whose name in the credits makes any film instantly anticipated), Silence could very well be 2017’s The Revenant, boasting a period setting; strikingly unfamiliar surrounds; extraordinary visuals; and a tale pumped-to-the-brim with blood and suffering. Based on the novel by Shûsaku Endô, the film stars Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver as two Jesuit priests met with violence and persecution when they travel to seventeenth century Japan to plug the virtues of The Good Book, with Liam Neeson also featuring as their compromised mentor. Holy hell, this one looks intense: expect another potential masterpiece from the New York master.
LOVING (March 9) Aussie legend, Joel Edgerton, has been quietly carving out an impressive career for himself in Hollywood as both an actor (Black Mass, Jane Got A Gun, Exodus: Gods And Kings) and director (The Gift), and Loving looks like a hot shot to bump him up to the next level. Working again with his Midnight Special helmer, Jeff Nichols, Edgerton stars as real life figure, Richard Loving, who was arrested for marrying an African-American woman in 1960s Virginia. Richard and Mildred (Ruth Negga) Loving’s challenge of their anti-miscegenation arrest led to a legal battle that would end at the US Supreme Court. Will Joel get a shot at Oscar gold? Our fingers are crossed…
WONDER (April 6) Julia Roberts can be great…okay, hang in there with us. Forget nonsense like Mother’s Day, Eat Pray Love, and Mirror Mirror, and cast your mind back to the great Erin Brockovich, or even the considerably more recent Money Monster. With a good director, and subject matter that requires her to do more than just dial it in, Roberts can really rock, and we’re tipping Wonder as a winner for the actress. This drama boasts a fresh talent behind the camera in Stephen Chbosky (The Perks Of Being A Wallflower) and a moving premise (a young boy born with a facial deformity works to fit in at a new school, and changes everybody around him in the process) that could literally break your heart, shaping Wonder as a winner for Julia Roberts.
GIFTED (April 27) Boasting involvement from two major players in the superhero world in leading man, Chris Evans (Marvel’s Captain America movies) and director, Marc Webb (who, less happily, saw his Andrew Garfield-starring, potentially universe-building Spider-Man series scuttled prematurely after just two films), Gifted is a far more down-to-earth affair. Boasting a script from Tom Flynn that was selected for The 2014 Black List (an industry-collated selection of Hollywood’s best unproduced screenplays) – and performed at the Black List Live! Reading Series in Hollywood in March 2015 – Gifted follows a single man raising his child prodigy niece (Mckenna Grace), and the custody battle that ultimately ensues with his own imposing mother (Lindsay Duncan). Jenny Slate and Octavia Spencer also star.
THE SECRET SCRIPTURE (June 29) Irish director, Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot, The Field, In The Name Of The Father, The Boxer, In America, Get Rich Or Die Tryin’, Brothers), has an extraordinary resume that any filmmaker would envy, and he’s set to add to it next year with The Secret Scripture. Based on the book by Sebastian Barry, the gifted and very-hot-right-now Rooney Mara (Carol, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) stars as Rose McNulty, a troubled young woman who keeps a diary of her extended stay at a mental hospital. And as if the combination of Jim Sheridan, Rooney Mara, and a rich, challenging premise wasn’t enough, the film also stars the great Vanessa Redgrave (as the older Rose), Eric Bana, Theo James, and Jack Reynor.
For 2017’s most highly anticipated blockbusters, click here.
