Leonardo DiCaprio in Christopher Nolan’s Inception. One to watch in 2010
On one hand this list of Living in Cinema’s 30 most anticipated films of 2010 is about a month late, but on the other hand the first movie on the list is still a month away so in my book that makes it right on time.
As always, these are listed in the order they’re scheduled to be released where known and the numerous TBAs bring up the rear.
Unlike last year, I’m not bothering to make a special list of all the summer movies I don’t really want to see anyway. We’ll hear more than enough about them between now and then so why waste time grinching about stuff when there are actually thirty films I’m excited about?
All of these dates are subject to change and many of them probably will.
Enough jibber jabber. On with the list.
Shutter Island (2/19) – Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of the Dennis Lehane novel was on last year’s list until it got bumped into 2010. Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo are two U.S. marshals investigating the disappearance of a murderer from an island-bound hospital for the criminally insane. In case Scorsese, DiCaprio and Ruffalo aren’t enough to get you over the fact Lehane can’t write an ending to save his life, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson and Max von Sydow also star.
The Ghost Writer (2/19) – Roman Polanski adapts Robert Harris’s thriller about a writer (Ewan McGregor) hired to finish the memoir of a former Prime Minister (Pierce Brosnan) when the project’s original ghost writer turns up dead. When the PM is accused of war crimes, McGregor begins to suspect his predecessor may have uncovered something that led to his murder. Also with Kim Cattrall, Olivia Williams, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Hutton and Eli Wallach.
The Runaways (3/19) – Kristen Stewart is Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning is Cherie Currie in this true story of the influential but short-lived all-girl Southern California punk outfit, The Runaways. Michael Shannon plays record producer Kim Fowley, the band’s co-founder.
Green Zone (3/12) – The latest thriller from Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum) is based on Imperial Life in the Emerald City, Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s 2006 book about the pre-surge reconstruction of Iraq. Matt Damon plays the leader of a team of Army inspectors looking for weapons of mass destruction who stumble upon a massive cover-up. Greg Kinnear, Amy Ryan and Brendan Gleeson co-star. Why does this movie feel like it would’ve been more relevant 2 years ago?
Mother (3/12) – From Bong Joon-ho (The Host) comes this twisted thriller about the lengths an over-protective mother goes to prove the innocence of her mentally challenged son. Kim Hye-ja is terrific in the lead.
Greenberg (3/26) – At first glance, another tale of a middle-aged slacker at a crossroads doesn’t much appeal to me… hits too close to home, maybe? Noah Baumbach might bring the funny and I have to admit I’ve been warming up to the trailer. We’ll see. Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans and Jennifer Jason Leigh star.
Carlos the Jackal (TBA March) – Olivier Assayas’ three-part epic about the Venezuelan terrorist will premiere on IFC and Sundance channels in March, but apparently a theatrical version will follow in the fall.
Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps (4/23) – The truth is, I’m not all that interested in this one, but it’s one of the more eagerly anticipated films of the year in certain circles if internet buzz means anything. To me, it’s an attempt by Oliver Stone to recapture a moment in history when he still mattered, but it would’ve had more impact a year ago. I’d feel better about it if they just called it Money Never Sleeps. Michael Douglas returns as Gordon Gekko. Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Frank Langella, Carey Mulligan, Susan Sarandon, Vanessa Ferlito and Charlie Sheen also star.
Toy Story 3 (6/18) – One of only two movies of the summer I’m legitimately interested in, but just barely. I’ll line up for whatever Pixar dishes out, but I’d rather they came up with something new instead of revisiting old characters for a third time.
Inception (7/16) – The second of two movies I’m looking forward to this summer and this one is without reservations. I’m avoiding knowing anything about Christopher Nolan’s film, but it looks like a supermindfreakout (Paris gets folded in half!) and it’s got Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Michael Caine and Ken Watanabe. Did I mention Paris gets folded in half? I mean the city, not the celebrity.
The American (9/1) – George Clooney is an assassin who holes up in Italy vowing he’ll only do one more job after his last goes badly. Anton Corbijn (Control) directs.
The Social Network (10/15) – I couldn’t care less about the Ivy League nerds who created Facebook, but Aaron Sorkin wrote it and David Fincher directed it so I’m interested in seeing it. Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, Andrew Garfield and Rashida Jones star.
It’s Kind of a Funny Story (11 TBA) – Half Nelson’s Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck stir up a New York set comedy-drama about a stressed out teenager who checks himself into a mental health clinic. There he’s taken in by Zach Galifianakis and he falls for Emma Roberts.
The Eagle of the Ninth (Fall TBA) – Kevin Madonald (The Last King of Scotland) directs an epic Roman adventure that takes place in 140 AD Britain where a mystery surrounds the disappearance of an entire Roman legion. Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell, Donald Sutherland, Mark Strong and Tahar Rahim star.
Red (Fall TBA) – Bruce Willis is a former CIA black-ops guy who reassembles his old team when an assassin turns up trying to kill him. A tired set-up is made more interesting by a cast that includes Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Mary-Louise Parker, John Malkovich and Brian Cox. Besides, it’s based on Warren Ellis’ graphic novel and it’ coming from Summit rather than a big studio so it might be a little more interesting than it sounds.
Tron Legacy (12/17) – Jeff Bridges returns as computer programmer Kevin Flynn… Every year it seems there’s a movie that promises to awaken my inner child. This year it’s Tron Legacy which sends me back nearly 30 years to the kinder gentler days when the original blew my mind. It’s also the only sequel I’m looking forward to without qualifications. Now the theme music is stuck in my head.
True Grit (12/25) – IMDB has this one listed as a 2011 release and they might be right, but even the slightest glimmer of hope is worth noting in advance when it comes to the Coen Brothers. Jeff Bridges is Rooster Cogburn. The very thought makes me smile. [Update: It's coming for Christmas!!]
The Tree of Life (TBA) – I’ve kept myself completely in the dark about the latest film from Terrence Malick. All I know is that Brad Pitt and Sean Penn are in it. Since Malick is the guy who directed my favorite movie of the last decade, you can probably guess this is the single most anticipated movie of 2010 for me. You’d be right.
The Fighter (TBA) – I was a little more interested in this one when it turned up on last year’s list as a Darren Aronofsky project starring Mark Wahlberg and Brad Pitt. Now it’s a David O. Russell project with Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale. Wahlberg plays boxer Irish Mickey Ward, the lightweight world champion whose brother (Christian Bale) was once an acclaimed fighter himself before falling into a life of crime and prison.
Micmacs (TBA) – A man with a bullet lodged in his brain rallies an odd band of accomplices to get revenge against a weapons manufacturer. Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s latest has only been getting so-so reviews since it premiered at Toronto, but as a fan of Delicatessen and Amelie, I’m looking forward to it.
Black Swan (TBA) – Darren Aronofsky jumped off The Fighter for this supernatural thriller starring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis as rival New York City ballet dancers. Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder and Barbara Hershey also star.
Rum Diary (TBA) – Bruce Robinson adapts Hunter S. Thompson’s first novel with Johnny Depp as a rum-soaked journalist working in Puerto Rico who becomes obsessed with the young fiancé (Amber Heard) of a shady American businessman (Aaron Eckhart).
Fair Game (TBA) – Doug Liman (Swingers, Mr. and Mrs. Smith) directs the Valerie Plame story with Naomi Watts as the outed CIA agent and Sean Penn as her husband.
Birdsong (TBA) – Rising star Michael Fassbender stars in this WWI drama adapted from the novel by Sebastian Faulks. Paddy Considine and Brian Cox co-star.
Knockout (TBA) – Steven Soderbergh reunites with The Limey screenwriter Lem Dobbs for what the director describes as “a combination of a Bond movie and Point Blank… Something where the characters and the story are as prominent as the action stuff.” Mixed martial artist Gina Carano stars as a security contractor. Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor, Dennis Quaid, Michael Fassbender and Channing Tatum costar. As of this writing, IMBD is saying Knockout is due in 2011, but here’s hoping it comes in ahead of schedule. Also a possibility is the mysterious film Soderbergh shot while in Australia producing a play for Cate Blanchett’s theater company.
Somewhere (TBA) – LiC favorite Sofia Coppola spins a story about a hard-partying actor (Stephen Dorff) living at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont Hotel whose 11-year-old daughter (Elle Fanning) suddenly turns up and causes him to rethink his bad-boy lifestyle.
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (TBA) – Woody Allen’s comedy/drama stars Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Antonio Banderas, Freida Pinto and Lucy Punch. What else do you need to know?
Ondine (TBA) – In Neil Jordan’s latest, Colin Farrell plays Syracuse, a fisherman who chooses to believe a young woman he pulls out of the water is the mythical Ondine, a water nymph who will bring him a change of luck. It sounds like a possibly darker spin on something like The Secret of Roan Inish and I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. A bit of magical realism set on a dramatic Irish coastline photographed by Christopher Doyle? Sign me up.
Howl (TBA) – James Franco is poet Allen Ginsberg in this story centered on the obscenity trial waged against the beat poet’s book-length poem, Howl. David Strathairn, Alan Alda, Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker, Paul Rudd and Jon Hamm co-star.
Red Tails (TBA) – First time director Anthony Hemingway tells the story of the Tuskeegee Airmen, the first group of African American aviators in the United States who fought the Germans in Europe and racism at home. Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Terrence Howard star. George Lucas’s Lucasfilm is producing so hopefully all the powers of Industrial Light and Magic will be put to use in combat sequences and this will turn out to be more than just Ed Zwickian Oscar bait.
Filed under: Previews
These all sound interesting, but I think I’m most excited for the new Mallick and Coens’ films of all these. After that, my enthusiasm is very high for Shutter Island, Green Zone, Mother, Inception, Black Swan and Ondine.
I’m hopeful for (but quietly tempering expectations) for The Social Network, Fighter, Knockout, The Ghost Writer, Carlos the Jackal, Toy Story 3, Red, Tron Legacy, Micmacs, Somewhere, and Howl.
The best part of 2010 for me is seeing all the stuff we (ie, non-NY/LA dwellers) missed out on from 2009.
I’m a little surprised at how many films I’m at least moderately interested in. Sure, some of these won’t pan out, but it’s nice to be excited.
Malick, Coens and Soderbergh have top priority for me, though I’m not too confident about either the Coens or Soderbergh getting released this year.
Yep, there’s no question at all that the Malick is singlehandedly the most anticipated film of the year, and I’m with you there 100%.
I am always interested in the new films of Scorsese, Allan, Aronofsky too. That Assayas project is most intriguing too.
This is a great list.
The ones I’m most excited about, going down the list, are Shutter Island, Ghost Writer, Mother, Inception, Carlos the Jackal (how different from Summer Hours!), Tree of Life, Birdsong (loved the book), Ondine, Howl, and if the Soderbergh and Coens’ films happen, those too. True Grit will be at the top of my list whatever year it is released. I’m reading the book now, and it’s a) amazing writing, b) terribly quirky and funny and c) set in my town and discussing at length all the colorful history I promote to tourists in my full-time work. Awesomeness.
James Franco as Allen Ginsberg. Yes please. Howl and Tree of Life are definitely two of my most anticipated movies. Also looking forward to True Grit and seeing Jeff Bridges collaborate with the Coen Brothers again.
And…not on this list but one that I’m looking forward to for obvious reasons: Iron Man 2. Go ahead and laugh.
On paper at least, 2010 looks more promising than 2009, especially since I haven’t seen most of the foreign fare that’s been released already.
Nice work picking out some of the good ones. I’m halfway through my own forecast for the year, and to take traffic away from both of us I have to urge people to check out the list at Dark Horizons: http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/15925/the-notable-films-of-2010-part-one. 280 movies, 70,000 words. If you have the time to look through it, there is not a better resource for 2010.
That said, if you take a closer look at the mainstream fare you will be shocked at how bad this year looks. I mean nobody reading this is likely to see Footloose, The Karate Kid, or Jackass 3D anyway, but if there is ever a year to stick to arthouse and foreign films almost exclusively, 2010 might be it.
So I guess that puts me squarely in the cranky department this January…
Looking over the list, 2010 appears to be on par with 2008 and 2009 for a healthy mix of stupid mainstream fare, possibly great mainstream fare, possibly mediocre mainstream that should have been great, along with a healthy mix of indies and foreign films that will likely be all over the map.
The one striking difference is that 2010 doesn’t appear to have nearly as much potentially great family fare, but 2009 was a massive exception in that respect. It’s not every year that we get Fantastic Mr Fox, Coraline, WtWTa, Ponyo, and Up.
I agree that this coming Summer looks painful, with only a couple potential bright spots, but it’s no different really from most of the Summers in the last 10 years (20 years, no wait…30 years).
I just see it as Hollywood encouraging me to get out(side) more often.
JB, stop trying to make me want to read True Grit! It’s a Coen film now so the LiC stage 5 media blackout has begun.
Alison, there is no shame in looking forward to IM2. It’s the only superhero flick I’m half interested in and I will see it for sure. I’m a little worried about it…one too many characters and it’s starting to sound like Spider-Man 3, but RDJ will deliver.
Thanks for that link Daniel, I”m going to scan it and see if there’s anything I missed here.
I agree that the mainstream stuff looks a little bit dismal, particularly summer, but with one movie for every week and a half in the year to look forward to, I’m expecting better results than 2009. Plus I’m sure there will be a few mainstream surprises and a bunch of stuff that isn’t even on my radar right now.
Call me an optimist.
What happened to The Vintner’s Luck, which seems to have bombed at Toronto and been embraced by Buddhists?
Every new Malick film is rightly an event.
After that I’m especially excited by the prospects of Inception, as well as looking forward to the upcoming Coens, Scorsese, and Fincher films.
I’ll add that in addition to its standout central performance what makes Mother so good is Bong Joon-ho’s wonderful direction.
I’m also intrigued to learn that Birdsong has been made into a film. One of my favorite books – beautifully written, poignant love story/tragedy, and devastating depiction of the horrors of war and their reverberations. I like the casting of Fassbender.
Paul, Vintner’s Luck was critically slammed even here in New Zealand and our media would like nothing more than to praise a film adaptation of a local novelist’s work directed by a fellow Kiwi. Here is a quote from a typical local review ->
“Readers of the book will be wondering why Caro has left out, well, pretty much everything. The book’s themes, its ideas, its ambitions, its madnesses, murders, and eroticism, not to mention half its plot, have all been chucked in the “too difficult” basket and left out.
And what is left over is not only nonsensical, it is bloody tedious. “
Sartre, I just knew you’d be a fan of Birdsong, too. I can’t say I’ve read a ton of World War I novels, but this is a classic. In many ways it’s more interesting to me than the second World War–at least because I know less about it. I had no idea about all the tunneling, for instance, where much of that beautiful novel takes place. I also recommend the World War I Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, if anyone is passing through there. Top-notch museum, really about the best specialized history museum I’ve seen. I agree Fassbender’s casting seems ideal.
I’m fully on board for Iron Man 2, Alison, and for the same reason.
Jen, I first became interested in WW I with my teenage discovery of English anti-war poets like Sassoon, Owen, Graves, Brooke etc. Some of whom never survived the war. And its been a topic of interest on and off since. I familiarized myself with its causes and course while studying European history at university and witnessed firsthand remaining evidence of its scale while hitching through Europe as a twenty something backpacker. In the battlefields of Verdun human bone chips remained everywhere and some older buildings in the nearby villages had bullet holes dating back to the war. I was even welcomed with warmth at the time by some elderly locals for no other reason than the fact of New Zealand soldiers having fought there.
The Gallipoli Campaign was also nation identity defining for Australians and New Zealanders so that aspect of WWI is an annual holiday and remembrance.
The best and most comprehensive documentary series on the war I’ve encountered is ->
http://www.amazon.com/First-World-War-Complete/dp/B0009S2K9C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1263941158&sr=8-2
Thanks, sartre. Too bad, though, as I was looking forward to that. No wonder there’s no US release date in sight.
Paul, as near as I can tell Vintner’s Luck is still looking for a distributor. It’s next playing at the European Film Market in conjunction (I think) with the Berlin International Film Festival.
Thanks to Jennybee for pointing out Birdsong to me in the first place. I’m a Fassbender fan.