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SFX.co.uk editor Dave Golder reveals what he’s getting most excited about… and a few things that are filling him with dread…
Let’s kick off the year on an optimistic note, with 12 films and eight TV shows that I’m really looking forward to in 2012. I’m not guaranteeing the quality of any of these, and I expect by this time next year I’ll have to eat my word when it comes to a few of ’em, but for the moment these are the one I’m most hopeful about for various, esoteric and sometimes personal reasons…
FILMS
Chronicle
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UK Release date: 1 Feb
Just when you’re getting to the point where you wish every found footage film could be lost in the crater of an active volcano, along comes another faux documentary film that makes you wonder if there is still some life left in the genre. Chronicle looks for all the world like the US Misfits has already been made in secret. Three newly-super-empowered high school students chronicle their attempts to learn to control their abilities… but then those powers start to corrupt. The posters have been great and the trailers promise a blackly comic experience. The script comes courtesy of John Landis’ son Max. Has the potential to become a future cult classic.
[VAMS].
John Carter
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Release date: 9 March
John Carter could be a hard sell for Disney. Based on a series of books the mean about as much to the mass cinema-going public as À la recherche du temps perdu , and with no stars with any box office clout to shout about, John Carter ’s most marketing-friendly element is that it’s directed by a guy behind two of Pixar’s biggest hits, Andrew Stanton. And even though Pixar isn’t involved with the FX in any capacity, Disney doesn’t seem to mind articles that mention the Pixar connection.
The release of the trailers last year didn’t generate much of a buzz either. Mostly the Twitterati seemed concerned about the comedy alien dog. And yeah, he does set Jar Jar Binks-style alarm bells ringing.
But I was lucky enough to go to the early screening of some of the key scenes from the movie, and, with a few reservations (that dog included, but he might be better in context), came back confident that Stanton has produced something with a bit more depth and wit than the trailers might suggest; it reminded me of the first Pirates Of The Caribbean but with a bit more heart. It certainly looks very stylish, with some eye-popping visuals, and Stanton’s direction has some virtuoso flourishes. Colour me cautiously optimistic.
[VAMS].
The Cabin In The Woods
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Release date: 13 April
2012 should be Whedon’s year. And I’m betting the marketing team behind the much-delayed The Cabin In The Woods (it was made two years ago, but became a victim MGM’s bankruptcy) are going to make sure the Avengers connection is well to the fore in the film’s pre-publicity – Whedon wrote and produced Cabin , and it also stars Chris (Thor) Hemsworth. I doubt that the release date (so close to The Avengers ’) is a mere coincidence, either.
The trailer suggests that the film will certainly deliver on its promise that it’s a horror cliché given a new twist… but what the hell is going on?
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The Avengers
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Release date: 27 April
The mere concept of an Avengers movie exciting enough. The concept of an Avengers movie directed and written by Joss Whedon? That’s what the word geekgasm was invented for. So far, everything I’ve seen or heard about the film makes me confident that Whedon will deliver something quite remarkable. If there’s been any slight bum note it’s Cap A’s plastic-looking costume, but hey, I’m really straining to find anything negative to say.
The worrying likelihood is, though, that expectation is so high that anything less than utterly awesome will somehow feel like a disappointment.
[VAMS].
Snow White And The Huntsman
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Release date: 1 June
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this film. Then I saw the trailer. And suddenly I’m expecting a lot. Now that’s what you call a dark fairytale.
[VAMS].
Prometheus
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Release date: 1 June
Ridley Scott returns to the franchise he launched over 30 years ago. How could you not be excited? Okay, in the intervening years Scott’s hit rate has been all over the shop, and there’s the nagging worry that the aliens might only play an incidental role in the whole thing. But from all the evidence so far, it looks like it’s going to be one of the most stylish-looking SF movies in a long, long while.
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More films on the next page…
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The Dark Knight Rises
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Release date: 20 July
In the Marvel versus DC war, I am a Marvel man through and through. However, even I have to admit that The Dark Knight was the finest superhero movie ever made. By a long, long way. And that’s even considering the fact that I couldn’t work out what the bloody hell was going on in any of the fight scenes (for all his other areas of directorial genius, Nolan has an annoying reliance on incoherently fast editing when it comes to action). So, yeah, The Dark Knight Rises is a shoo-in for this list. The trailer is stunning, Bane looks brilliant, and I can’t wait to see how Catwoman has been reimagined. It would be a shame, though, if Nolan’s bloody-minded refusal to redub Bane (everyone who’s seen the preview has been moaning that he’s incomprehensible) becomes a major problem. Maybe we should all go to the subtitled screenings?
[VAMS].
Dredd
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Release date: 21 September (tbc)
Gotta admit, I’m sticking my neck out with this choice. Certainly the internet buzz so far has been more negative than positive, with fans hating the costumes and suspicious of the idea that it’s a small-scale “day-in-the-life”-style story. The news that the director, Pete Travis, parted company with the project during post production didn’t help (though the split was amicable, apparently). But I still believe this might turn out to surprise us all. Sctrptwriter Alex Garland has a very good pedigree ( 28 Days Later , Sunshine ) and the intention seems to be to make an intense, gritty, claustrophobic, dark sci-fi thriller rather than a bloated, gaudy blockbuster, and to me that feels a better fit for the character. Plus, the cinematographer, Anthony Dod Mantle, reckons, “If we get it right, it will be a cross between Blade Runner and Clockwork Orange .” Now, that’s a good ambition to strive for.
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Hotel Transylvania
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Release date: 12 October
There’s not much known about this CG animated film yet except that basic plot – Dracula runs a hotel for monsters – and the name of the man directing it: Genndy Tartakovsky. And he alone is what propels the film onto this list. He was the guy behind Samurai Jack and, more importantly, Clone Wars . Not the current CG version, but the awesome 2D animated version from a few years back, which I absolutely adored. It’s enough to get me excited.
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Cloud Atlas
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Release date: October (tbc)
The film version of David Mitchell’s ambitious, thought-provoking, multiple-time-lined and parallel-plotted novel has the potential to be a glorious mess. After all, the Wachowskis are producing and co-directing, and subtlety has never been their strong point. Then again, it’s more the pet project of their German co-director Tom Tykwer ( Run Lola Run , Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer ) who could bring some European sensibilities to the project.
The book certainly doesn’t seem like your usual blockbuster potential, as the official synopsis reveals: “A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan’s California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified ‘dinery server’ on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilisation: the narrators of Cloud Atlas hear each other’s echoes down the corridor of history, and their destinies are changed in ways great and small.”
The film, which stars Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Ben Whishaw, Susan Sarandon and Jim Broadbent, could either be a wonderful piece of weirdness, or this year’s The Fountain . Either way, it should be worth watching, just to have an opinion on.
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Gravity
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Release date: 21 November (tbc)
The Children Of Men and Prisoner Of Azkaban director is already a fan favourite, and the idea of him directing a high concept SF thriller must register on any radar of films to watch in 2012, surely? The film kicks off with an accident in space that leaves it two main space-suited characters (played by Bruce Willis and Sandra Bullock) tethered to each-other and afloat in the blackness. Rumours suggest that the film may involve an number of long, continuous takes.
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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
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Release date: 14 December
You didn’t think this wasn’t going to be on the list, surely? Peter Jackson back doing what he does best – promoting New Zealand as a tourist destination. The trailer looks every bit as enticing as we’d hoped it would. And it’s got the best looking bunch of dwarves ever.
[VAMS].
TV highlights on the next page…
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