#14
Trance
TBA
The international trailer for Trance has already premiered (embedded below) as the film will hit UK theaters on March 27, but as for when it will arrive in the rest of the world we don’t quite know. Directed by Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) the film stars James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel and Rosario Dawson with McAvoy playing Simon, a fine art auctioneer who finds himself in league with a gang led by underworld boss Franck (Cassel).
The plan is to pull off the theft of a Goya masterpiece from a major public auction, but when Simon double-crosses the gang during the robbery, Franck retaliates violently and knocks him unconscious. Simon claims the blow to his head has left him unable to remember where he stashed the painting, causing Franck to turn to a hypnotherapist (Dawson) to get him to talk.
Simply knowing Boyle directed the film is enough for me to be interested, but if you must, check out the first trailer below.
#13
Serena
TBA
For whatever reason, Susanne Bier goes overlooked, but she has already lined up the Silver Linings Playbook duo of Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper for an encore performance in Serena based on Ron Rash’s acclaimed novel, which was a finalist for the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction (you can buy it for Kindle right here for $2.99).
The story follows newlyweds George (Cooper) and Serena Pemberton (Lawrence) who travel from Boston to the mountains of North Carolina where they begin to build a timber empire in 1929. Serena soon shows herself to be the equal of any man: overseeing crews, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving a man’s life in the wilderness. Together, this king and queen rule their dominion, killing or vanquishing all who stand in the way of their ambitions. But when Serena learns she can never bear a child, the story takes a dark turn.
This is a book I actually want to read before seeing the movie and at the same time hope Bier can tap into the high level of quality she reached in films such as In a Better World and After the Wedding.
#12
Calvary
TBA
If you like Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths) and haven’t yet acquainted yourself with his brother, John Michael McDonagh, do yourself a favor and go out and rent The Guard at your earliest possible convenience. J.M. McD has reunited with Guard star Brendan Gleeson for Calvary and I’m hoping the two continue along the same darkly comedic path that made The Guard so good.
Here Gleeson plays a priest that is said to be the flipside to The Guard‘s Sergeant Gerry Boyle. Instead of a lawman with questionable ethics, here he’s a good man intent on making the world a better place, and is continually shocked and saddened by the spiteful and confrontational inhabitants of his small country town. The story finds its footing once he’s threatened during confession and must battle the dark forces closing in around him.
Along with Gleeson, the film stars Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids, The Sapphires), Kelly Reilly (Flight), Aidan Gillen, Dylan Moran, Marie-Josée Croze, Isaach De Bankolé, Domhnall Gleeson and David Wilmot.
Calvary is still without a release date, but it seems like a picture that would debut possibly at SXSW or maybe as late as Toronto, but I fully expect we’ll see it in theaters this year.
#11
Blue Jasmine
TBA
If you’ve been around this site long enough you know I look forward to every Woody Allen film and Blue Jasmine is no different. The draw is Woody’s writing and the talent he gathers. This time around he’s bringing us an East Coast/West Coast comedy centering on a fashionable New York housewife (Cate Blanchett) who has her life together and a neurotic (Sally Hawkins) in the midst of the final stages of an acute crisis.
The cast also includes Alec Baldwin, Peter Sarsgaard, Louis C.K., Charlie Tahan, Alden Ehrenreich, Andrew Dice Clay, Tammy Blanchard, Michael Stuhlbarg and Bobby Cannavale. Anticipating this film is only the right thing to do.
And there you have it, forty films down and ten to go as we are now eyeing home plate. Tomorrow I’ll bring you my top ten most anticipated films of 2013 and if you haven’t yet explored the previous three installments covering films 21-50 you can find the navigation to do so directly below.
Most Anticipated 2013 Navigation
