Today brings ten more movies to look forward to and I must say, as I was writing up my thoughts on each I got more and more excited for a couple of these particularly the closer I got to #31.
Yesterday’s list was just a primer for what is to come. It had some worthy titles to look forward to, but overall it was quite obvious things were only going to get better. Today they do as I offer up films from the likes of Wong Kar Wai, Paul Greengrass, Alexander Payne, Jim Jarmusch, Scott Cooper and Neill Blomkamp. If you aren’t excited about the films of 2013 yet, this list of ten should start to get that motor running= and we are still thirty films away from #1.
I have, however, included a navigation to browse all five lists directly below as well as at the end of this post for easy navigation.
Most Anticipated 2013 Navigation
There is very little else to say in the build-up, so let’s get to it…
#40
The Grandmaster
TBA
If there’s one thing the Internet does well, it’s obsess over movies and hype them up to impossible heights and expectations they can’t possibly achieve. When it comes to Wong Kar Wai‘s The Grandmaster it’s possible hype has finally started going the other direction considering how long it has taken this film to be completed. It was among my Most Anticipated of 2012, a trailer had already been cut for the film at that time and while a Cannes premiere was rumored, only a few minutes of the film screened late in the festival when most press had already gone home.
The film, it would seem, the film is completed. It had its first screening on January 5, is expected to open in China today, January 8, and is slated to play the Berlin Film Festival. The story tracks the life of martial-arts master Ip Man, top be played by Tony Leung Chiu Wai who broke his arm during filming, which was one of the causes for the long delay.
There has been no word from anyone that saw it to this point so the waiting game continues, but it seems like we will finally be seeing it this year. As far as when we’ll see it domestically, that’s up to Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures.
#39
Ender’s Game
November 1
I don’t know much about Orson Scott Card’s series of novels, but I’ve been told Ender’s Game is worth anticipating so it climbs my list. Starring Asa Butterfield (Hugo) as the titular Ender, the story begins on Earth after an alien attack, when gifted children are recruited by a government desperate to fight back. The kids are taught a competitive game that’s a cross between the Quidditch matches of Harry Potter and the Jedi light saber battles from Star Wars. Only the best and brightest will be chosen.Ender emerges as a genius strategist, and the planet’s best hope to destroy the alien Formic race.
Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) is directing with Butterfield joined by Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Ben Kingsley, Abigail Breslin, Viola Davis and Nonso Anozie. Strong cast, could be good.
#38
After Earth
June 7
Even Samuel L. Jackson is starting to pile on M Night Shyamalan saying the writer/director “hasn’t made a really good movie since [Unbreakable],” but I can’t help but hope the man that broke out with Sixth Sense still has something left in the tank as this time he is going full-on sci-fi with After Earth.
The story is set 1,000 years following a cataclysmic event on Earth which is where Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) and his father Cypher (Will Smith) find themselves stranded after a crash-landing. Cypher is critically injured, forcing Kitai to search for help on the now alien planet all while an alien creature that escaped during the crash is out there.
This isn’t the only such sci-fi film of this sort coming out this year as Tom Cruise‘s Oblivion will be on this list in an upcoming installment, and that last little bit about the alien does pose shades of Super 8. But I’m giving Shyamalan the benefit of the doubt and hoping for something to reinvigorate his fading career.
