What do we have to look forward to in 2012? Death. Taxes. The second season of Game of Thrones. I doubt the Mayans had it right as far as the end of the world is concerned. Roland Emmerich couldn't get 2012 right - and that man's a celebrated genius.
As far as prognostication goes... if we check the Most Wanted list I wrote up for 2011 I had more hits than misses. The only films that kind of flopped - at least on this end - were War Horse, The Way Back, and We Bought a Zoo. I did call Hugo, Super 8, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and Warrior... all of which made my Top 10 Films of 2011 list.
So unlike the Mayans, I survived long enough to self-fulfill one of my own prophecies.
Looking ahead to 2012 there are tons of movies to get excited about - unlike last year there's some legitimate heavyweight contenders finally hitting theater screens for the next 366 days. (it's a leap year) This list of ten films (with a few genre-specific ties) boils down to personal taste of course, and though my skills at sniffing out good movies are reasonably strong, (that being said... there's absolutely no way I'm missing horror fare like The Tall Man, Cabin in the Woods, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D - as well as that new, RZA directed Kung-Fu flick The Man with the Iron Fists starring Russell Crowe(!) and Pam Grier(!?) later this year) we're still too early into the year to know what exactly will be released by next Summer and Fall. There should be some terrific surprises in 2012 - can't wait to stumble across them as they arrive from points known and unknown.
Here's the ten (and some change) movies I can't wait to see in 2012:
1) Prometheus (June 8th)
I got to meet Neville Page last year for the first time, (you know Neville by his many-limbed monsters from Star Trek and Super 8) and he was telling us that he'd been on the phone earlier that day with Ridley Scott. I knew immediately what for - at the time the project didn't have an official name, but it was rumored to be an official Alien prequel. Though I prodded Neville a bit for information concerning Ridley's next movie, and I could tell the guy wanted to spill his guts, Mr. Page wouldn't tell me anything more about the project. He just grinned and bit his tongue. Neville kept his mouth shut. Which is a good thing. Ridley Scott's been keeping his trap shut about Prometheus as well - as he should. He needs to keep playing hard to get with Prometheus. Give the media nothing - let us go into this feature naked. He's already got most of us in this racket completely in bed with him over this movie anyway.
Is Prometheus an Alien prequel? Is it a new sci-fi property altogether? Is it Space-Jockey: The Motion Picture? At this point I could care less. In fact, I don't want to know. I watched the trailer once. Drooled heavily at the collection of actors and flow of cryptic images that raced by. My initial reaction was that this is the filmmaker that made Blade Runner and Alien... and now he's returning to the genre that put him on the map. I've never been shy about my Ridley Scott crush. He's one of three or four filmmakers in the world that you can hand 150 million dollars to and he'll make a film worth every penny of that colossal sum of cash. My entire Summer is planned around Prometheus's release. I'm sure I'll be running down to the multiplex more than once to watch this flick again and again.
2) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (December 14th) The Dark Knight Rises (July 20th)
I can't force myself to choose between these two movies. I want them both equally. The Hobbit and The Dark Knight Rises are the biggest no-brainers on this list. We're all seeing these two movies anyway, every last man, woman, and child on the planet. I've watched the trailer for Pete Jackson's The Hobbit a few times already, and it's tough to recover from the shock that I'm seeing something new - something I haven't seen yet - in Middle Earth. A decade later and I'm sure I've seen The Lord of the Rings movies half a million times each. I can't wait to return to the world that Tolkien and Peter Jackson created. As I was playing catch-up last month at movie theaters, trying to see every late year film Hollywood was throwing at film critics and Oscar voters, I kept thinking that we're only a year away from the first part of The Hobbit... which still doesn't feel real to me. I'll admit it... I kind of gave up hope that we might ever see a screen adaptation of Tolkien's original Middle Earth novel.
Next December fanboys across the globe will be scurrying down to theaters to watch The Hobbit and World War Z. Marc Forster's direction and a rumored PG-13 rating have me a bit apprehensive about WWZ... but The Hobbit looks exactly right.
As far as Nolan's The Dark Knights Rises is concerned... this is another movie - like Prometheus - where the less we know, I think the better this will play. The biggest draw for me is to see if Chris Nolan can top those last two movies - The Dark Knight and Inception. There's no doubting the man's skill set as a filmmaker, it'll be interesting to see what trouble he can create for Gotham city post-Ledger. The biggest issues with Batman films in the past were that they could never get past The Joker. Each subsequent villain - post-Joker - pretty much became The Joker anyway. (I'm looking at you Tommy Lee Jones...) Nolan's been robbed of the option of having Ledger return to the series, which means The Dark Knight Rises could potentially be the biggest surprise of the franchise.
3) The Master (TBA 2012)
Paul Thomas Anderson's follow-up to There Will Be Blood....? I'll drink that milkshake. There are whispers and rumors that this is a fictional account of Scientology and its founder L. Ron Hubbard - which is ripe material for a PT Anderson film. Apparently Anderson's coaxed Joaquin Phoenix out of whatever toxicological exile he's been on since his stint as Johnny Cash to star in this film along side Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman. We're still really early on learning any more details on this movie, but The Master should make next Oscar season at the movie house a lot more gritty and interesting than last year.
4) The Grey (January 27th)
Looking at the landscape of film this coming year, and the many before it, Joe Carnahan's The Grey looks like a movie made with the homeboys in mind. This is as close to a FUBU film we white men will probably ever get this generation. If there's been a modern filmmaker - since Mel Gibson started making his own movies - who makes unapologetically male movies (without dumbing anything down for the fantasy football camp) it's Joe Carnahan. I think the first time I saw the poster for this movie I fell in love. I'll admit it.... I'm a cheap date. A great poster could be all it takes to get me into the ticket line any more. If The Grey can cash in on even half the promise Carnahan made with NARC we're in for something special. Early word is that this is Joe's best film yet, (we won't count The A-Team, and if there's a more fantastic clusterfrak than Smokin' Aces in the last ten years... I'd still like to see it) and Neeson's best work since he did those supporting roles in Kingdom of Heaven and Gangs of New York. I'll be seeing this next Tuesday and I honestly haven't been this excited for a January film release since the Hughes boys returned to cinema with The Book of Eli. Which was another fantastic clusterfrak.
5) Seven Psychopaths (TBA 2012)
Sophomore efforts are always interesting - whether they're great films, (David Fincher's Se7en) or are absolutely miserable, (Kevin Costner's The Postman) this is the point in a film director's career where they either run with the thoroughbreds in the Kentucky Derby - or are shipped off to the glue factory. I'm a huge fan of Martin McDonagh's first film In Bruges. Looking at the cast he grabbed for his sophomore film, Seven Psychopaths (Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken) I'm becoming a big fan of this film without even laying eyes on a trailer yet. McDonagh's a brilliant screenwriter. I'm sure this new crime movie about a less-than-brilliant screenwriter getting wrapped-up in a dog-knapping scam will be razor sharp, pitch black, and funny as all hell. The best performance of Colin Farrell's career was coaxed out of him by McDonagh for In Bruges. Can't wait to see what water the director will draw from Farrell's well next.
6) Dark Shadows (May 11th) The Raven (March 9th)
We're putting these two different films on the same block of anticipation. Why? Because I'm a goth at heart, and my King (Edgar Allen Poe) and his goofy great-godson (Tim Burton) both have movies being released this year. Well.... Edgar's got a fictional serial killer film based on his life, and Tim Burton's doing a vampire movie. I've really liked James McTiegue's last two movies (V for Vendetta and Ninja Assassin) but I still think that as a filmmaker, James is an untapped resource. Which is mostly his fault. I think McTiegue's a better director than any of his work would so far imply. The Raven's either going to finally give this guy some legs in this industry - or he'll never work in this town again.
As for little Timmy Burton...? We're getting Dark Shadows and a new animated version of Frankenweenie this year. Hopefully both can eradicate any residual side-effects that Alice in Wonderland had on our esteem for the guy. I think Tim's been easy to pick on for the last decade - but I've checked his filmography and Burton has only fumbled a few runs in a decade. (Planet of the Apes, Big Fish, and Alice.... sweet Alice) I'm hoping that Dark Shadows and Frankenweenie will be a return to form for the filmmaker - odd form though it may be. Dark Shadows stars Johnny Depp (of course) and Burton's bringing back his Catwoman again... Michelle Pfeiffer. Dark Shadows should make Summer 2012 just interesting enough to shun a few hours of sunlight over.
7) Rust and Bone (TBA 2012)
It's Jacques Audiard's follow-up to my favorite film of 2010 - A Prophet. Rust and Bone's a film about dog-fighting, gambling, sex-addiction, and boxing, (visions of Snatch wash over me in an awesome wave) which sounds exactly right for this French filmmaker. A Prophet is one of the most original, invigorating crime films before Refn's Drive was released last September. This is what the future of crime on celluloid should look like - introspective and brutal. Nic Refn's Only God Forgives (Ryan Gosling/Thai kickboxing flick) probably won't be finished in time for 2012 - if it were, it would easily top this list next to Scott's Prometheus. But if we get Rust and Bone and Anderson's The Master in 2012...? I don't think I'll mind if Nic Refn takes a year off.
8) The Bourne Legacy (August 3rd 2012)
I totally dig the new Bourne movies - they work for me in a way that the new Bond movies haven't yet. (that said, there's absolutely no way that I'm skipping Sam Mendes new Bond flick Skyfall next November) Was I excited when I heard that the new Bourne movie would be without Matt Damon's Jason Bourne..? When I found out Tony Gilroy was taking over the series I was. Tony's a director that has crossed over the threshold of his sophomore slump, (I liked Duplicity... alright?) and has moved on to his junior year as a filmmaker. I think the next decade is going to be defined by filmmakers like Tony Gilroy, Martin McDonagh, and Nicolas Winding Refn - sort of like that last one was defined by Chris Nolan. I like this as a commercial project for Gilroy - it's a Bourne movie without Bourne, which means all bets are off as far as predictability is concerned. Can't wait to see what a director of Gilroy's caliber can do with a Summer action film. This should be smart - and fun.
9) Wettest County (August 31st) Cogan's Trade (TBA 2012)
Three gawdamn ties on the same list? Couldn't help myself this round - there's too many terrific-looking films this year. And these two movies - Wettest County and Cogan's Trade - are from two of Australia's premiere filmmakers: John Hillcoat and Andrew Dominik. (Domink's actually from New Zealand - which is close enough for this game of horse shoes) Both are films about criminals - Hillcoat's movie is about Depression-era moonshiners, Dominik's about a mob enforcer investigating a card game heist. Wettest County has John Hillcoat re-teaming with Nick Cave as his screenwriter. Cogan's Trade has Dominik re-teaming with his The Assassination of Jesse James star Brad Pitt - which also featured music by Nick Cave. If there's a reason to list both these films on the same place on this list it's the undeniable Nick Cave connection. I'm praying that Wettest County will take us one step closer to a Hillcoat/Cave adaptation of Nick's And the Ass Saw the Angel. We're already shin-deep in Appalachia with the Wettest County boys... next time out let's scale the grimy walls of Doghead.
10) Gravity (November 12th)
Alfonso Cuaron's follow-up to Children of Men. As a filmmaker, Alfonso is blowing through barriers most movie-makers haven't really discovered yet. I wasn't a huge fan of Children of Men, but there's absolutely no denying the stunning camera work and single take shots in the movie. Gravity stars George Clooney and Sandra Bullock... and only George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. It's a film about a space mission gone sideways, and word around the campfire is that it'll feature filmmaking techniques and shots that James Cameron has called: "Five years into the future!" (everybody shudder at the same time please) I've also heard that the movie opens with a twenty minute single-shot sequence... eat your heart out Hunger fans. Gravity is too delicious a prospect to ignore this year.
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Honorable Mentions: Django Unchained (Christmas 2012) Moonrise Kingdom (May 16th)
Blame it on Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown (I'll include True Romance here as well) I'm still a fan of Quentin Tarantino movies. Though I really liked the two Kill Bill films I think they were the starting point for a bad trend in Quentin's writing - where he let the genre write the movie instead of writing the movie himself. I wasn't a fan of Death Proof. Liked forty minutes of Inglourious Basterds. (the first twenty minutes - the last twenty minutes) But looking at the cast (Leonardo DiCaprio, Sacha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jamie Foxx, and Kurt Russell) for Django Unchained I can't help but get my hopes up for QT's renegade slave flick next Christmas. I thought Holiday season 2011 was a bit flat and predictable - Django Unchained, (I forsee a future of Django-Fett jokes I won't be able to completely steer clear of) The Hobbit, and World War Z are making next year's holiday film season look absolutely tasty.
Moonrise Kingdom's kind of in the same boat as Django Unchained - these are two movies from two filmmakers that, up until recently, I was completely in the bag for every film they'd release. I love Wes Anderson movies, but The Darjeeling Limited missed me - missed me high, missed me wide. However.... to ignore Anderson teaming up with Bruce Willis would be a criminal misstep. I'll be seeing both of these films and hoping that either one will rekindle a bit of the love I've let lessen for these two gifted filmmakers.
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