Phantom Thread
2018 is the year we say goodbye to Daniel Day Lewis. The Brit acting legend has more Best Actor Oscars than any other male and looks set to pick up yet another with post-war drama Phantom Thread, his last ever movie. Day Lewis stars as renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock who falls in love with his young, strong-willed muse Alma. Bring tissues, there’ll be a lot of, er, dust in the air.
Release date: February 2
Black Panther
Chadwick Boseman will suit up as the titular superhero in what is to be the first solo live-action adaptation of the cult character. Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o and Daniel Kaluuya will be joining him, as well as a soundtrack curated by Kendrick Lamar.
Release date: February 16
Annihilation
If you thought creepy 2014 sci-fi Ex Machina was a little on the disturbing side, then Annihilation will blow your socks off. Set in a leafy tropical jungle, director Alex Garland’s (Ex Machina) second feature follows biologist Lena (Natalie Portman), who volunteers to head back into an environmental disaster zone to save her missing husband (Oscar Isaac). Tense and terrifying in equal measure, this fantasy horror isn’t for the faint-hearted.
Release date: February 23
Tomb Raider
It’s hard to imagine an action hero more iconic than Angelina Jolie’s Lara Croft AKA Tomb Raider. The pistol-whippin archaeologist wowed early-noughties audiences with a pair of action-packed thrillers even Michael Bay would have thought epic. It’s weird, then, that she hasn’t been seen on screens since 2003. Well hold on to your hats adventurers, because there’s a new Lazza C in town. Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander is the actor stepping into Jolie’s sweaty combat boots and you can expect to catch her best effort in cinemas as early as this spring. As a famous explorer once said, “everything lost is meant to be found.”
Release date: March 16
Pacific Rim: Uprising
Pacific Rim recap: there’s this interdimensional portal at the bottom of the Pacific which occasionally spews out ginormous sea monsters called Kaiju and the only way to defeat them is to punch them back to hell in an equally ginormous robot fighting machine. Now, ten years on, they’re back and this time it’s up to Star Wars’ John Boyega to give them a massive Jaeger hiding. Guillermo Del Toro hands the directing reins to Steven S. DeKnight, but it’s pretty tough to mess up enormous robots and monsters having a punch-up so we’re looking forward to another hearty Rimming.
Release date: March 23
Ready Player One
In Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ernest Cline’s hugely popular 2011 sci-fi novel, protagonist Wade Watts escapes the drab slums of his real life by entering an eye-popping virtual world called OASIS that’s populated by pop-culture heroes of past and present. In the cyber mix is a hugely lucrative ‘Easter Egg’ that attracts the attention of both Watts and an evil corporation. Expect corny speeches and ridiculously entertaining action sequences.
Release date: March 30
Isle Of Dogs
Wes Anderson, possibly the most liked and loathed director of recent times, is back in March with his ninth feature. The second stop-motion movie of his career after Fantastic Mr Fox (2009), Isle Of Dogs sees the zany auteur joined by his regular cast of deadpan comics (Bill Murray, Ed Norton, Bryan Cranston), plus a few newbies (Scarlett Johansson, Greta Gerwig). The result is the same: a visually beautiful tale – this time about a boy searching for his lost dog in Japan – that makes your every thought. It probably won’t make sense, no, but you can bet it’ll be funny.
Release date: March 30
Avengers: Infinity War
You know that joke about cramming clowns in to a clown car? This film is the superhero version, chockablock with gifted types from Captain America (Chris Evans) to Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Nebula (Karen Gillan) to Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Ant Man (Paul Rudd) to Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman). Wait – if they’re all onscreen, who’s looking after the real world?
Release date: April 25 2018
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Thought you’d seen the last of Han Solo? The coolest future-cowboy in all of Corellia who did the Kessel Run faster than you can remember how many sodding parsecs he did it in? There’s no sign of the very expensive Harrison Ford in this second Star Wars offshoot movie set for Xmas 2018, but with Woody Harrelson signed up as Solo’s mentor Beckett, Donald Glover on board as a young Lando Calrissian and Phoebe Waller-Bridge in an undisclosed role, this pre-New Hope Solo origin story should be another riveting space romp. Right Chewie?
Release date: May 25
Deadpool 2
The road to Deadpool 2 hasn’t exactly been smooth. In October 2016, director of the first film, Tim Miller, left the film mid-production after creative differences with star Ryan Reynolds, with David Leith (Atomic Blonde) stepping behind the camera in his place. Come June, Marvel will be hoping the sardonic Deadpool thrills cinema goers once again and the troubles are left behind.
Release date: June 1
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
“A bunch of dinosaurs chasing people on an island,” screenwriter Colin Treverrow said of the next Jurassic World instalment in 2015, “that’ll get old real fast”. Already has mate, no matter how genetically modified the dinos get. So Fallen Kingdom, from what we’ve gathered so far, will turn the monsters into distressed damsels as an intrepid Dinosaur Protection Group race to save the prehistoric pests from a volcano. There have also been hints that the dino cloning technology might have fallen into military hands and we’ll see dinosaur soldiers. Jesus, don’t give Trump any ideas…
Release date: June 8
Ocean’s 8
Big-budget, female-led movie reboots are gonna be big business next year. Given the 2017 Hollywood had, it’s about bloody time. Here we see Sandra Bullock cast as Debbie Ocean, sibling to George Clooney’s heist-loving character from the original remakes, and it seems the naughty streak runs in the family. With a starring role for Rihanna, you’ll wanna pon de replay on this one.
Release date: June 8
Sicario 2: Soldado
The follow-up to the Oscar-nominated 2015 original sadly doesn’t feature its star, Emily Blunt, but Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro will return to confront the cartel as they smuggle terrorists across the US border. Replacing Denis Villeneuve in the director’s chair is an expert of grisly crime dramas: Stefano Sollima, of Gomorrah and Suburra fame.
Release date: June 29
The Incredibles 2
It’s hard to believe, but when The Incredibles came out in 2004 it was only Pixar’s sixth full release. Fast forward to 2018 and we’re on movie number 19. None have topped Brad Bird’s spandex-tastic classic though. It’s true, Pixar sequels have been a bit dodgy of late , Monsters University, Cars 3 for example, but we’ve been waiting 14 years for this one, so it better be good.
Release date: July 13
The Predator
The fourth film in the classic sci-fi Predator series, this is set to be a scary summer blockbuster and a half. Narcos pretty boy Boyd Holbrook stars as the Predator hunting commando Quinn McKenna, in a role that first went to James Franco and then Bencio Del Toro, with Franco passing on the part and Del Toro having to leave the movie as he’d double booked himself. Oliva Munn, Trevante Rhodes and Alfie Allen also star in this IMAX-friendly action flick.
Release date: August 3
Venom
Spiderman’s grizzly nemesis will return for its first solo live-action feature, with Tom Hardy playing the slobbering, mutant villain. No plot as of right now, but its exclusion from the Marvel Cinematic Universe means the story is unlikely to borrow from the shared, often clumsy plotlines. Count us in.
Release date: October 5
X-Men: Dark Phoenix
X-Men comic The Dark Phoenix Saga, following Jean Grey and the Phoenix Force entity, has caused writers problems in the past. Their first crack at putting it on screen in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand was poorly received, but since Days Of Future Past wiped it from the series timeline with some nifty time-travel jiggery-pokery, this last main X-Men movie is set to do it justice as Grey (Sophie Turner) is taken over by a shape-shifting alien nasty and the whole gang have to face down the Shi’ar empire.
Release date: November 2 2018
Mortal Engines
This adaptation of Philip Reeve’s 2001 young adult novel about the inhabitants of moving cities stars Hugo Weaving, Misfits’ Robert Sheehan and Icelandic actor Hera Hilmar. Most excitingly, it’s been co-written and co-produced by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh – the team behind the beautiful Lord of the Rings trilogy – and it’s directed by Jackson’s protégé, Christian Rivers. This means we’re guaranteed a visual knockout of a film – and knowing Reeve’s captivating story, a hugely exciting plot too.
Release date: December 14
Mary Poppins Returns
Children big and small should be excited about the return of the world’s greatest nanny, 54 years since she last graced our screens. This time around Emily Blunt is playing the sparkly eyed babysitter with the massive handbag, and she’s coming back to see the Banks family 25 years after she saw them last, with Michael and Jane all grown up and played by Ben Whishaw and Emily Mortimer. Julie Andrews won’t be returning to the cast, but Angela Lansbury will be there to add a touch of vintage class.
Release date: December 21
Bohemian Rhapsody
People have been talking about this eagerly awaited Freddie Mercury biopic since 2010 – and it’s been through the mill so much, many assumed it was never going to get off the ground. Its last drama came when Bryan Singer removed himself from the director’s chair at the end of 2017, but Dexter Fletcher is now in the driving seat and we’re looking at a Christmas 2018 release date, with Mr Robot’s Rami Malik playing the Queen frontman. If nothing else goes wrong, that is…
Release date: December 28
