70. “Mona Lisa And The Blood Moon”
Director: Ana Lily Amirpour (“A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night”)
Cast: Kate Hudson, Ed Skrein, Craig Robinson
Synopsis: A girl with unusual powers escapes from a mental asylum and tries to make it on her own in New Orleans.
What You Need To Know: Amirpour made her name with the 2014 film, ‘Girl Walks,’ she describes as the “first Iranian vampire spaghetti Western.” In any case, it rules, and she made a case for herself as a promising auteur to watch. Her post-apocalyptic cannibals-centered follow-up, “The Bad Batch,” wasn’t as successful, but still proved she likes making daring, provocative work. It’s been four years since ‘Bad Batch,’ but she’s been keeping busy, directing critical episodes of “Legion,” “Castle Rock,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Briarpatch,” and more and seems poised to make a significant comeback with ‘Blood Moon.’
Release Date: TBD, but it shot in summer 2019, and Sundance 2021 feels like a good bet. – RP
69. “The Brutalist”
Director: Brady Corbet (“Vox Lux,” “The Childhood of a Leader”)
Cast: Vanessa Kirby, Marion Cotillard, Sebastian Stan, Joel Edgerton, Mark Rylance
Synopsis: An architect emigrates to the United States in 1947 and spends the next three decades developing his masterpiece.
What You Need To Know: Some of us are torn about Corbet’s directorial work, but if you’ve seen something like the art-pop film “Vox Lux” starring Natalie Portman, you know he’s a daring and uncompromising filmmaker trying to make real art. You can’t hate on that, and honestly, this film would be way, way, way higher up on this list if we were confident it would arrive in 2021. Co-starring Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Isaach De Bankolé, Alessandro Nivola (wow, what a cast), the film doesn’t start shooting until January 2021, but maybe, maybe if we’re fortunate, we’ll get another challenging and provocative Corbet treat near the end of next year.
Release Date: TBD – RP
68. “Italian Studies”
Director: Adam Leon (“Tramps,” “Gimme The Loot”)
Cast: Vanessa Kirby, David Ajala
Synopsis: Plot unknown.
What You Need To Know: Adam Leon made a big splash in 2012 with his debut, “Gimme the Loot,” the rare SXSW-premiere followed by a Cannes (Un Certain Regard) bow. 2016’s “Tramps,” starring Callum Turner and Grace Van Patten, shot him further up the indie ladder and gained enough festival buzz for Netflix to acquire it. Not bad for your second feature. The plot is under wraps, but it was developed in close consultation for many months before it was shot in New York in late winter 2019. Now, BAFTA winner Kirby (“The Crown”) is about to shoot into the stratosphere with a sure-fire Oscar nomination soon (“Pieces Of A Woman”). She’s already starred in “Mission Impossible,” and “Fast & Furious” films, so this feels like it could be the one to take Leon to the next level.
Release Date: TBD, but it’s done and feels like a logical bet for Sundance 2021. – RP
67. “Jonty”
Director: Eric Wareheim (“Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie”)
Cast: Michael Cera
Synopsis: A coddled kid takes off for NYC, where he joins forces with an old friend to produce a terrible Broadway play.
What You Need To Know: These days, Eric Wareheim is known more for his bon vivant adventures in the food and beverage world than he is for the anti-comedy he made his name on. Wareheim appears to be returning to the anti-comedy well with his solo directing debut, the A24-produced “Jonty.” “Jonty,” tells the story of a rich-kid playwright who comes to discover that his pampered lifestyle is a fabrication financed by his father. Cera seems like a natural fit for Wareheim’s deadpan sensibilities. The fact that Sam Bain (“Four Lions”) and Jesse Armstrong (“Succession”) penned the script, with “Search Party” standout John Early in talks to join, gives us reason to hope that this oddity may be an indie crossover hit.
Release Date: TBD. – NL
66. “Dual”
Director: Riley Stearns (“The Art of Self-Defense”)
Cast: Karen Gillan, Aaron Paul, Martha Kelly, Jesse Eisenberg
Synopsis: A woman receives a dire medical diagnosis and subsequently clones herself, a procedure that ends up having unexpected, strange consequences.
What You Need To Know: Riley Stearns’ “The Art of Self-Defense” was one of the more tonally liberated movies of 2019, so the prospect of the still-green director tackling a science fiction story with biting satirical undertones sounds, at the very least, potentially provocative. Stearns has said that he embraced a more improvisational style of shooting with last year’s Jesse Eisenberg-starring dark comedy. It is unknown if he will adopt that same freewheeling approach here; he’s assembled a terrific cast for what could very well be an exciting change of stylistic gears.
Release Date: TBD, but you can expect to see this one somewhere on next year’s festival circuit. – NL
65. Untitled David O. Russell Project aka “Amsterdam”
Director: David O. Russell (“American Hustle”)
Cast: Margot Robbie, Christian Bale, John David Washington
Synopsis: The plot is officially under wraps, but the movie is said to revolve around a doctor and lawyer who form an unlikely partnership.
What You Need To Know: Russell was all set to make a big Amazon series with Robert De Niro and more, and it died when Harvey Weinstein’s career died in the #MeToo era. But Russell got back up, dusted himself off, and cranked out a new script. He also seems to be switching up things up of his usual cast of characters. His regular muse Jennifer Lawrence is out, but Margot Robbie is in, and good luck charm Christian Bale (who allegedly tired of his onset antics) is back. Other newcomers to the process are composer Hildur Guðnadóttir and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki.
Release Date: TBD, but the film is shooting early 2021, so maybe a fall release if they feel like rushing it for awards season, which is something he’s done before. – RP
64. “The Lost Daughter”
Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Cast: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson, Peter Sarsgaard, Paul Mescal
Synopsis: A woman’s beach vacation takes a dark turn when she begins to confront the troubles of her past and early motherhood.
What You Need To Know: Of all the Hollywood actors who love scary risks and challenges, the fearless Maggie Gyllenhaal seems to be at the top of the list, so it’s something of a surprise she hasn’t directed before. Her debut will be an adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel of the same name, and the film also features Ed Harris, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, and Alba Rohrwacher. The dark secrets of motherhood are apparently the topic that struck a chord in Gyllenhaal, saying, “I felt that something secret and true had been said out loud, and I was both disturbed and comforted by that.” It sounds like the same path of embracing fear and turning it into art that has marked most of her career.
Release Date: TBD, shooting now so late 2021 sometime at the earliest.
63. “Hope”
Director: Jacki Van Beek and Madeleine Sami (“The Breaker Upperers”)
Cast: Aubrey Plaza
Synopsis: Unknown, the project is currently in development.
What You Need To Know: Netflix’s “The Breaker Upperers” was one of 2019’s most slept-on comedies: a big-hearted charmer about two jaded New Zealand women who provide a low-rent service that breaks up couples with a minimum of fuss. “The Breaker Upperers’” droll sensibility is very clearly indebted to the work of Taika Waititi, who served as the film’s executive producer. Directors Jacki Van Beek and Madeleine Sami will be returning to Netflix for their next directorial outing, “Hope,” which boasts screenwriting credits courtesy of Kirsten Smith and Karen McCullah (whose resume includes comic jewels like “Legally Blonde” and “10 Things I Hate About You”). Even more enticing is the idea of Aubrey Plaza starring in the project; her deadpan persona is a perfect fit for these filmmakers.
Release Date: TBD. – NL
62. “Don’t Worry Darling”
Director: Olivia Wilde (“Booksmart”)
Cast: Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Olivia Wilde, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Chris Pine
Synopsis: An unhappy housewife in the 1950s discovers a disturbing truth, while her loving husband hides a dark secret.
What You Need To Know: Actor turned filmmaker Olivia Wilde made the most exciting and dynamic directorial debut with 2019’s “Booksmart,” a hilarious, smart, and irreverent coming of age teen comedy. For her, follow-up, Wilde will apparently try and show her range; “Don’t Worry Darling” is a psychological thriller. There have been some issues; both Dakota Johnson and Shia LaBeouf had to drop out, but in the age of COVID shooting — it started production in October 2020 — schedules can get tricky.
Release Date: TBD, but hopefully, we’ll see it before the end of the year.
61. “Antlers”
Director: Scott Cooper (“Out of the Furnace,” “Black Mass”)
Cast: Keri Russell, Jesse Plemmons, Jeremy T. Thomas, Scott Haze, Rory Cochrane
Synopsis: A small-town Oregon teacher and her brother, the local sheriff, become entwined with a young student harboring a dangerous secret with frightening consequences.
What You Need To Know: Scott Cooper has tried his hand at several genres over the last couple of years: rust-belt thrillers (“Out of the Furnace”), gangster epics (“Black Mass”), and Westerns (“Hostiles”), among them. Cooper will be getting creepy with his next effort, a supernatural horror flick called “Antlers.” It will be nice to see Cooper reuniting with familiar faces from his old movies (Jesse Plemmons, Rory Cochrane), while bringing some new performers into the fold (Keri Russell, who we’d watch in anything). Add a producing credit from Guillermo del Toro, and you’ve got the ingredients for what very well could be Cooper’s best film to date.
Release Date: February 19, 2021, via Searchlight Pictures. – NL
