This summer saw one of the worst cases of blockbuster fatigue in recent years, with major tentpoles like Star Trek Beyond, Ghostbusters, Independence Day: Resurgence, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Pete’s Dragon, Ben-Hur and even Steven Spielberg’s The BFG wildly underperforming. As the summer movie season winds to a close, we can now look forward to the fall, when studios stop relying so much on IP and start dishing out a wave of prestige films, all of which you can check out in the Fall Movie Preview 2016 in the gallery below!
That’s not to say there won’t be blockbusters, with Marvel Studios bringing us a strange new hero, Disney unveiling a new animated heroine, and Tom Hanks returning as Robert Langdon, as well as prequels to both the Star Wars and Harry Potter sagas. Big directors like Clint Eastwood, Robert Zemeckis, Oliver Stone, Tim Burton, Mel Gibson, Ang Lee and Warren Beatty are all bringing their A-game with fresh new films.
Which films are you looking forward to the most this Fall? Did we leave off any on the Fall Movie Preview that you’re looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below!
Fall Movie Preview 2016
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Morgan (Sept. 2)
The Witch star Anya Taylor-Joy plays the title character, a girl grown in a lab with unique abilities. When an incident occurs, a corporate woman played by Kate Mara comes in to figure out whether the company should terminate their new asset. Paul Giamatti co-stars.
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Sully (Sept. 9)
Take an Oscar-caliber actor (Tom Hanks), add a legendary Oscar-caliber director (Clint Eastwood), combine them with a sensational true story of heroism and what do you get? Hopefully the first true Oscar-caliber film of the season, telling the astonishing tale of airline captain Chesley Sullenberger's miracle landing on the Hudson River and the effect it had on his life.
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When the Bough Breaks (Sept. 16)
This thriller revolves around a couple (Morris Chestnut and Regina Hall) who hire a surrogate (Jaz Sinclair) to have their baby for them. Things go wrong when the surrogate develops a terrifying obsession with the husband.
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Blair Witch (Sept. 16)
Originally promoted as a Blair Witch-ian found-footage movie called "The Woods," Adam Wingard's film was later revealed to be a bonafide sequel to 1999's sleeper hit The Blair Witch Project. It involves a return trip into the Black Hills Forest of Maryland as the brother of Heather Donahue goes searching for answers in his sister's 1994 disappearance.
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Bridget Jones's Baby (Sept. 16)
After a 12-year absence, Renée Zellweger's Bridget Jones returns with a new quandary: She's not sure exactly who the father of her baby is. Colin Firth returns as Mark Darcy and Patrick Dempsey plays a new American love interest.
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Snowden (Sept. 16)
Whether you think he's a hero or a traitor, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is the subject of Oliver Stone's latest expose on a real-life political figure. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the man himself in a film which also features Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Scott Eastwood and Nicolas Cage.
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The Magnificent Seven (Sept. 23)
Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Byung-hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Martin Sensmeie are the title outlaws who band together to help a small town defeat an evil industrialist and his army of mercenaries. This remake of John Sturges' 1960 Western classic (itself a remake of Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai) is directed by Training Day's Antoine Fuqua, and reunites that film's Washington and Hawke.
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Storks (Sept. 23)
Nicholas Stoller of Neighbors fame writes and co-directs his first animated feature about the life of modern-day storks, who are now remanded to package delivery. When a delivery stork named Junior (Andy Samberg) accidentally turns on a baby-making machine, he must find a family for the bundle of joy.
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Deepwater Horizon (Sept. 30)
Based on the tragic 2010 oil rig explosion that shook the world, Mark Wahlberg re-teams with his Lone Survivor director Peter Berg to tell a story of survival and heartbreak. John Malkovich, Gina Rodriguez, Dylan O'Brien and Kate Hudson co-star.
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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Sept. 30)
Tim Burton adapts Ransom Riggs' best-selling 2011 YA novel, in itself already the most Burton-y book ever written. It tells the story of a teenage boy (Asa Butterfield) who comes across the title home for children born with peculiar abilities, and learns he is destined to protect them from forces of evil. This is the goth-themed superhero movie you've been waiting for.
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Masterminds (Sept. 30)
This heist comedy is based on the real-life robbery of a Loomis Fargo in North Carolina to the tune of $25 million. Starring Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones and Jason Sudeikis, this film shot in 2014 was delayed due to studio Relativity's bankruptcy problems.
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The Birth of a Nation (Oct. 7)
Deliberately re-purposing the title of D.W. Griffith's racist 1915 film, writer/director/star Nate Parker (Beyond the Lights) tells the story of the famous slave revolt led by Nat Turner in Virginia in 1831. Acquired by Fox Searchlight for $17 million at this year's Sundance Film Festival, this is sure to be one of the most controversial releases of the fall season.
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The Girl on the Train (Oct. 7)
That ubiquitous best-selling book you saw everyone reading on the train now becomes the beach-read movie event of the year. Emily Blunt plays a woman who spies on a couple every morning during her commute, but when she witnesses something disturbing, she becomes entangled in their lives. Rebecca Ferguson, Haley Bennett, Justin Theroux, Luke Evans and Édgar Ramírez co-star.
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The Accountant (Oct. 14)
Ben Affleck stars as a borderline-autistic math genius who works as an accountant for organized crime. When a Treasury agent gets on his tail, the bullets will start to fly. Anna Kendrick co-stars.
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Kevin Hart: What Now? (Oct. 14)
Filmed live on August 30, 2015 with an audience of 53,000 people at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field, this new stand-up concert film from superstar Kevin Hart will attempt to beat the $32 million grossed by Let Me Explain in 2013.
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Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (Oct. 21)
Tom Cruise's first attempt to bring Lee Child's ex-military hero to the screen found enough moderate success in 2012 to warrant a sequel, which finds the title character embroiled in a conspiracy in which he is framed for a 16-year-old murder. Cobie Smulders co-stars and Cruise's The Last Samurai director Edward Zwick directs.
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Ouija: Origin of Evil (Oct. 21)
Lin Shaye is the only returning cast member from the 2014 hit in this prequel that tells the story of what happened to Paulina Zander in 1967 Los Angeles. Oculus filmmaker Mike Flanagan will lend some class and perhaps a few surprises to what might be the rare prequel that's better than the original.
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Keeping Up with the Joneses (Oct. 21)
Superbad's Greg Mottola directs this high-concept comedy about a suburban couple (Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher) who discover their seemingly perfect neighbors (Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot) are secret government spies.
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A Monster Calls (Oct. 21)
This fable revolves around a boy (Lewis MacDougal) dealing with his mother's illness and school bullies who encounters a giant, magical talking tree voiced by Liam Neeson. The Orphanage director J.A. Bayona looks to lend some gravity to the children's fantasy genre.
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Tyler Perry's Boo! A Madea Halloween (Oct. 21)
What started as a throwaway joke in Chris Rock's film Top Five has become a reality as Tyler Perry once again becomes Madea. This time she's got her morally righteous eye on some misbehaving teens as well as some possibly real ghouls and goblins.
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Inferno (Oct. 28)
In Ron Howard's third film in Dan Brown's series of religious mysteries (after The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons), Tom Hanks returns as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon on the trail of another insidious plot. After waking up with minor amnesia in a hospital, he enlists the aid of a beautiful doctor (Felicity Jones) to help solve the riddle.
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Rings (Oct. 28)
A young woman makes the terrifying discovery that there is a "movie within a movie" in the supernatural videotape from the original The Ring. From the looks of the trailer, it seems like Samara is trying to spread her evil worldwide this time.
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Bleed for This (Nov. 4)
World champion boxer Vinny Paz, who refused to quit the sport even after a major accident, gets the spotlight in this biopic starring Miles Teller. Aaron Eckhart, Katey Sagal, Ciarán Hinds and Ted Levine co-star.
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Doctor Strange (Nov. 4)
Marvel's Master of the Mystic Arts finally makes his way onto the screen after nearly three decades in development hell. Benedict Cumberbatch plays the title surgeon-turned-Sorcerer Supreme as he fights to save the world from Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen). Horror director Scott Derrickson (Sinister) will bring Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's classic supernatural creation to the screen.
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Hacksaw Ridge (Nov. 4)
Mel Gibson (Braveheart, Apocalypto) directs the true story of US Army medic Desmond T. Doss (Andrew Garfield), a conscientious objector who saved the lives of over 75 men during WWII's Battle of Okinawa. Vince Vaughn, Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey and Hugo Weaving co-star.
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Trolls (Nov. 4)
The wacky doll line created in the 1950s that became a fad again in the 1990s is back, this time in movie form. Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake voice the leads, who are on a quest to save Troll Town, in what is sure to be the trippiest film of the fall.
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Almost Christmas (Nov. 11)
Super producer Will Packer brings together an all-star cast for this movie about a dysfunctional family getting together for the first time since their matriarch died. Kimberly Elise, Omar Epps, Danny Glover, John Michael Higgins, Romany Malco, Mo'Nique, Nicole Ari Parker, J. B. Smoove, Gabrielle Union
and Jessie Usher star. -
Arrival (Nov. 11)
Amy Adams plays a linguistics expert dispatched to aid in communication with a recently-landed spacecraft in order to prevent all-out war between species. So, no pressure. Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker co-star in the latest film from Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Sicario).
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Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (Nov. 11)
Based on the novel by Ben Fountain, director Ang Lee's portrait of a soldier returning home from Iraq was shot at 120 frames-per-second, the highest (and presumably most realistic) frame rate of any major release film. Kristen Stewart, Chris Tucker, Garrett Hedlund, Vin Diesel, Steve Martin and Joe Alwyn star.
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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Nov. 18)
Author (and now screenwriter) J. K. Rowling attempts to expand her Harry Potter universe with this prequel set in 1920's New York. Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) brings a briefcase from the wizarding world full of magical creatures, but when the things escape it causes widespread panic.
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The Edge of Seventeen (Nov. 18)
James L. Brooks produces the debut feature of Kelly Fremon Craig, which revolves around the awkward life of a high school junior named Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld). Things turn around for her when she sparks a friendship with a thoughtful boy (Hayden Szeto). Woody Harrelson and Kyra Sedgwick co-star.
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Allied (Nov. 23)
Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard play fellow spies who fall in love and get married while on a mission to assassinate a German official during World War II. Based on a true story, the romantic thriller is directed by ace helmer Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Contact, Flight).
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Bad Santa 2 (Nov. 23)
Billy Bob Thornton returns as Willie Soke, the drunken, thieving, foul-mouthed mall santa from Terry Zwigoff's 2003 classic. Brett Kelly is also back as Thurman Merman, as is Tony Cox as Willie's cohort Marcus. Mark Waters (Mean Girls) directs.
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Moana (Nov. 23)
South Pacific culture gets a Disney spin in their latest animated blockbuster. The title young girl/navigator sets sail with the demi-god Maui (Dwayne Johnson) to search for a fabled island.
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Rules Don't Apply (Nov. 23)
Warren Beatty's first screen appearance in 15 years is cause enough to celebrate, but the legend also writes and directs the period comedy in which he portrays eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes. Lily Collins and Alden Ehrenreich play Hughes' employees who fall in love despite a work contract that expressly forbids it.
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La La Land (Dec. 2)
A romance between an aspiring actress (Emma Stone) and a jazz musician (Ryan Gosling) in LA serves as the backdrop for a musical. Whiplash filmmaker Damien Chazelle writes and directs, and J. K. Simmons co-stars.
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Office Christmas Party (Dec. 9)
Jason Bateman stars as the branch manager of a company whose CEO sister (Jennifer Aniston) is trying to oust him. In a last-ditch effort to nab a high-profile client, he and his associate (T.J. Miller) decide to hold the Christmas party to end all Christmas parties.
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Collateral Beauty (Dec. 16)
When a tragic event sends a New York advertising executive (Will Smith) on a downward spiral, his friends rally to help him. Smith nabbed the role once earmarked for Hugh Jackman, while The Devil Wears Prada's David Frankel helms the dramedy.
(Photo Credit: WENN.com)
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The Founder (Dec. 16)
All-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions and LIES on a sesame seed bun. Director John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, Saving Mr. Banks) seeks to undermine the myth of businessman Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), who took the franchise for McDonald's right from under the brothers it was named after.
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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Dec. 16)
Lucasfilm attempts to expand the avenues for exploring the Star Wars universe beyond the saga of the Skywalker family. This prequel set just before the 1977 original tells the tale of a ragtag group of rebels led by Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) who seek to steal the plans for the first Death Star from The Empire. Whether general audiences will be able to comprehend that this is a spin-off of the other films in the series will be an interesting marketing challenge for the company.
