2020 might feel far away, but Hollywood's major studios are already planning ahead,
and it’s looking like it could be an incredibly exciting year for the film industry.
Here are the most hotly-anticipated movies coming out next year.
Seventeen years after the release of Bad Boys II, audiences will finally get to see another
entry in the classic buddy cop franchise.
Sony has slated Bad Boys for Life for January 17th 2020, bringing back Will Smith and Martin
Lawrence as Miami Police Department detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett.
Jerry Bruckheimer is set to return to produce the project, which will be directed by Adil
El Arbi and Bilall Fallah.
Bad Boys for Life has had a long and difficult journey to the big screen, and many fans thought
that it would never even happen, especially when the movie was pulled from the studio's
release schedule and lost its initial director due to scheduling conflicts.
But it appears that it's finally moving forward now, and should mark a fun new opportunity
for fans to enjoy the action adventures of Smith and Lawrence once again.
We may not have any specific details on the movie's plot yet, but we're still pumped.
The follow-up to 2014's Spectre has endured as rough a road as any entry in the franchise's
five-decade history.
It was uncertain for a while if Daniel Craig would even return for his fifth on-screen
mission, while acclaimed Trainspotting director Danny Boyle initially took and then promptly
stepped out of the director's chair.
Now, however, some details about 007's 25th cinematic outing are finally becoming clear.
Craig will indeed return one last time in a film by True Detective's Cary Fukunaga,
the first American director to helm a Bond movie.
Intriguingly, Craig's tenure as Bond has been marked by a distinct back-and-forth critical
reception, middling reactions to Quantum of Solace and Spectre punctuated overwhelming
acclaim for Casino Royale and Skyfall, so, following that pattern, this movie is set
to become a rousing success.
Important details such as the film's title and who will perform the theme song have yet
to be announced, but we do know that Bond 25 will hit theaters on Valentine's Day 2020.
"Are you ready to get back to work?"
"With pleasure, M. With pleasure."
After Grooting it up for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy movies, Vin Diesel is shifting
gears for a different sort of comic book film.
The Fast & Furious actor will step into the lead role in Sony's upcoming Bloodshot movie,
adapted from Valiant Comics' successful comic series of the same name.
The lead character is a wounded soldier who's been resurrected through the wonders of nanotechnology,
and now he has to hunt down powerful outcasts called 'harbingers.'
The comic premiered in 1992 and ran for 110 issues, with upwards of 7.5 million copies
sold.
Now, with the success of violent comics-derived films like Logan and Deadpool, Valiant and
Sony will surely be striving for an R rating.
Given this hero's taste for blood, we'd expect nothing less.
Bloodshot will be helmed by visual effects artist and first-time director Dave Wilson
and will co-star Eiza Gonzalez, Michael Sheen, Toby Kebbell, and Sam Heughan, and is due
out February 21st.
Fans may have to wait an extra year for Fast & Furious 9, but they'll get a spinoff movie
out of Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham in the meantime, and Hobbs and Shaw should be
worth the wait when it finally does hit theaters in the spring of 2019.
Although we don't know much about where the main saga's headed next, the pressure to keep
upping the stakes should mean it'll find a way to be even more epic and ridiculous than
any of the previous installments.
With Charlize Theron's Cipher still alive and on the loose at the end of Fate of the
Furious, there are plenty of existing opportunities for vehicular mayhem.
You can probably count on most of your favorite cast members returning too, and the franchise's
ever-increasing profile means there's always the chance they'll land even more big names
to join the cast.
Fast & Furious 9 is due for release on April 10th 2020.
Film fans will finally get the answer to an age-old question on May 22nd 2020, when Godzilla
and King Kong face off on the big screen.
Director Adam Wingard has already assured fans that his take on the two monsters will
crown a definitive winner, unlike the 1962 film that first pit the two characters against
each other.
This will be the fourth entry in Legendary's MonsterVerse, first established in 2014's
Godzilla...
"The Iwis won’t speak their name, but I call ‘em Skullcrawlers."
"Why?"
"'Cos it sounds neat."
...and further expanded on with Kong: Skull Island.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters will open that world even wider in 2019, bringing old favorites
like Mothra and Rodan into the fray and setting the stage for this next clash of the titans.
Godzilla vs. Kong is the biggest project yet for Wingard, whose previous directing credits
include You're Next and The Guest.
As if the collision of these two screen icons wasn't fan-pleasing enough, the movie will
also feature an impressive line-up of human actors.
Stranger Things' Millie Bobby Brown will reprise her King of the Monsters role, with Black
Panther's Danai Gurira and Deadpool 2's Julian Dennison also attached to star.
Audiences haven't seen much of Angelina Jolie over the past few years; in fact, her most
recent big-budget movie was 2014's Maleficent.
Now, after four years of waiting, Disney has confirmed the return of the fairy with the
horns and the high cheekbones, announcing that Maleficent 2 has started production,
with Jolie and Elle Fanning reprising their roles as Maleficent and Aurora.
According to the synopsis, the sequel begins several years after the first chapter, and
follows the complicated relationship between the horned fairy and the soon to be Queen.
Hot off her appearance in Ant-Man and the Wasp, Michelle Pfeiffer has signed on to the
project as Queen Ingrith.
Harris Dickinson, who has just finished playing John Paul Getty the Third in the FX series
Trust, will step in to replace Brenton Thwaites as Prince Phillip, Aurora's love interest.
Joachim Rønnin, who directed 2017's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,
will venture into the enchanted forest to helm the feature, which is set to hit theaters
on May 29th.
2017's Wonder Woman is the most critically acclaimed movie in the DC Extended Universe
by a very wide margin.
It makes sense, then, that Gal Gadot's next adventure as the Amazonian warrior is being
fast-tracked back to the big screen while Superman and Batman are left to struggle against
a legion of issues and complications standing in the way of their next movie appearances.
"One misses the days when one’s biggest concerns were exploding wind-up penguins."
Diana's second solo story hasn't been without its own delays, however; Wonder Woman 1984
was pushed back from its original 2019 holiday season release to June 5th 2020.
When the movie does finally arrive, it will likely bring with it just the kind of colorful
blast from the past its title promises.
Filling in part of the timeline between the first movie's World War I setting and the
hero's reemergence in Dawn of Justice, Wonder Woman 1984 will see the return of Gadot, Chris
Pine and director Patty Jenkins.
SNL alum Kristen Wiig also joins the fray as nemesis Cheetah, who will clash with Diana
in the depths of the Soviet Union.
It's pretty hard to keep a movie production a secret for very long, especially in the
modern age.
That's why it was so shocking when filmmaker Jason Reitman revealed that not only was he
working on a new Ghostbusters movie, but that he already had a vague but atmospheric teaser
trailer ready, announcing its summer 2020 arrival.
The son of original Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman, Jason has formed his own identity
as a director with such offbeat, low-key dramedies as Juno and Tully.
Now he's ready to direct and co-write a new chapter of the story he watched unfold on
set as a child.
Gil Kenan, the director of 2015’s Poltergeist remake, will be sharing writing duties with
Reitman.
There were plenty of reasons for fans to be a little frustrated with Paul Feig's 2016
Ghostbusters reboot, but it’s still a bold move for Reitman to return to the original
timeline.
He explained to Entertainment Weekly:
"It is not a reboot.
What happened in the '80s happened in the '80s, and this is set in the present day."
It remains to be seen who else will be involved, Harold Ramis passed away in 2014, Rick Moranis
is in semi-retirement and Bill Murray has long been slippery on the topic of committing
to another sequel.
But then, who really knows what Bill Murray could do at any given moment?
"I love this plan, I’m excited to be a part of it.
Let’s do it!"
Director Joseph Kosinski made his movie debut with 2010's TRON: Legacy, a sequel for a generation
that hadn't even been born when its predecessor was made.
Now, he's set to do it again with Top Gun: Maverick, the 2020 follow-up to 1986's classic
flyboy thrill ride.
This new installment will find the original movie's hero taking the son of his fallen
friend under his wing.
Top Gun director Tony Scott had once envisioned a sequel to his original movie, but his death
in 2010 put those plans on hold.
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer remained dedicated, however, eventually hiring Kosinski and securing
the commitment of original stars Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer.
Miles Teller will play the son of Goose, with Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, and Ed Harris
also joining the cast.
A big part of Top Gun's success was its wildly popular soundtrack, so it’s lucky that Harold
Faltermeyer is also returning to compose the score, with Kenny Loggins recording a new
version of "Danger Zone" for the movie.
Feel the need for speed on June 26th.
Lin-Manuel Miranda has become one of the defining songwriters and performers of his generation.
Not only did he earn a Pulitzer Prize for the monumental impact of his Broadway musical
Hamilton, but he's also been a delightful presence in family film and television.
Meanwhile, director Jon M. Chu is best known for forging a cultural phenomenon in 2018
with Crazy Rich Asians.
Combining these two forces can only be a great idea.
And that's exactly what's going to happen in 2020, with Chu's adaptation of Miranda's
debut Broadway musical, In the Heights.
Though little else has been revealed about the movie, the show examines the lives of
the Hispanic-American residents of the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City.
Miranda himself originally played the central role of Usnavi, a young bodega owner who dreams
of returning to his familial home of the Dominican Republic.
After a long and troubled development history that stretches back a whole decade, In the
Heights will finally hit screens on June 26th.
The Crimes of Grindelwald may have been cursed with a less enthusiastic critical response
than expected, but it nevertheless continued the Harry Potter tradition of conjuring hoards
of box office gold.
So there's no reason for Warner Bros., J.K.
Rowling, or director David Yates to transfigure their plans for a five-movie Fantastic Beasts
franchise, and the third entry holds fast in its slated November 20th release date.
The ending of the second movie left Newt Scamander and company with a number of potential paths
forward.
Unlike the original Harry Potter movies, the Fantastic Beasts screenplays aren't adapted
directly from books, so we can't be certain just where Rowling will take her Wizarding
World next.
She has dropped some hints, however, including the possibility that Fantastic Beasts 3 could
take place in Rio de Janeiro, a few years after its predecessor.
We're getting not one, not two, not even three, but four Avatar sequels over the next decade,
the first of which will hit theaters on December 18th 2020.
This massive undertaking reportedly has a total budget of over $1 billion, allowing
director and franchise mastermind James Cameron to fully embrace a slew of new technologies
and ensure that the sequels are as visually stunning as the first chapter.
Cameron isn't slouching on the story, either, and the movies are said to be a family saga
about Jake, Neytiri, and their children.
Much of Avatar’s cast is set to return, with some making a comeback despite their
deaths in the original film.
Newcomers include Fear the Walking Dead's Cliff Curtis as Tonowari, the leader of a
clan of reef people, and Game of Thrones' Oona Chaplin as Varang, a prominent character
described as strong and vibrant.
A group of young actors will take on mostly CGI roles as the younger set of Pandora residents,
bringing the film a whole new challenge, and hopefully, some new life as well.
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