25.
Moonrise Kingdom
May 25
Wes Anderson is hit or miss with me, I love Bottle Rocket and Fantastic Mr. Fox, but his films like The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Darjeeling Limited don’t really do much for me. Despite that latter fact, considering how much I love those two films I will always hold out hope for all of his films from here on out and such is the case with Moonrise Kingdom.
Set on an island off the coast of New England in the 1960s, Moonrise Kingdom follows a young boy and girl falling in love. When they are moved to run away together, various factions of the town mobilize to search for them and the town is turned upside down — which might not be such a bad thing.
The cast includes Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Harvey Keitel and Bob Balaban and you can learn a little more about their characters here if you’re interested, I just didn’t want to give away too much information in this preview.
24.
Looper
September 28
Rian Johnson brought us Brick and The Brothers Bloom and with Looper he shifts genres on us once again, this time with a time travel movie of sorts that centers on a group of killers (called Loopers) who work for a crime syndicate in the future. Their bosses send their targets hogtied and blindfolded back in time to the Loopers, and their job is to shoot them in the head and dispose of the body. So the target vanishes from the future and the Loopers dispose of a corpse that doesn’t technically exist.
On top of the concept, and Johnson’s unique storytelling style, additional interest in this film arises due to its cast, which includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Jeff Daniels and Piper Perabo.
I spoke with Godron-Levitt, who starred in Johnson’s Brick, about the production last year and among other things he said, “[T]his time [Rian] got to do a much bigger movie, a Bruce Willis movie, but he still applied the same, really cunning filmmaker’s eye and ear. And his rhythm to the action is fantastic. I’ve only seen a rough cut of it, he’s still cutting it, but I’m so proud of it. It’s a really special movie for me and my life and work.”
23.
The Impossible
TBA 2012
I discussed Juan Antonio Bayona‘s The Impossible only a short time ago when the Spanish teaser you see to the right arrived online. Bayona directed one of my top ten films in 2007, The Orphanage, and this time he is delivering a completely different kind of story.
Starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, The Impossible is apparently a film based on the true story of a family caught in the 2004 tsunami that hit the coast of Thailand. An early report on the film said Bayona would attempt to recreate the Indian Ocean tsunami “through a script with hints of horror and mystery and large doses of science fiction.”
It’s hard to piece together just what exactly we should expect based on that description, but Bayona’s previous film is the chief reason I’m looking forward to this one.
22.
Hyde Park on Hudson
March 1
The primary anticipation for this film can be seen in the picture directly above as Bill Murray stars as Franklin D. Roosevelt in Roger Michell‘s Hyde Park on the Hudson. Well, that and the fact Tyrannosaur star Olivia Colman will play Queen Elizabeth in the film based on the British radio play by Richard Nelson
Nelson also penned the script for the feature which is set in 1939 and follows the weekend visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to President Roosevelt’s upstate New York home, called Hyde Park on Hudson. Over the course of the visit, which took place the summer before WWII broke out, details of FDR’s private life begin to unfold, including his affair with his distant cousin Daisy.
Along with Murray and Colman the film also stars Laura Linney, Elizabeth Wilson, Eleanor Bron and Samuel West. On top of the image above you can browse seven additional images from the film right here, including a look at Colman as Queen Elizabeth.
21.
Ted
July 13
Maybe I’m setting myself up for disappointment, but for some reason Seth MacFarlane‘s (“Family Guy”) feature film debut has me hoping it’s absurdly funny as it sounds.
Ted is described as a “Hard R” rated comedy about a man (Mark Wahlberg) who as young boy made a Christmas wish that his Teddy Bear would come to life and be his best friend forever. Twenty-five years later, the bear is still at his side, but has now evolved into a cursing, smoking, delinquent (voiced by MacFarlane) that is preventing the man from maturing.
Sure, it’s pretty much a comedy version of The Beaver without the Mel Gibson baggage, but the immature side of me is hoping it’s as hilarious as I want it to be. Along with Wahlberg the film co-stars Mila Kunis, Adam Scott, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel McHale, Patrick Warburton and Jessica Stroup.
And that does it for this batch of ten. See anything you like?
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