Inspiration in the past
Many of the new season’s film releases look to past Hollywood successes with a host of sequels, prequels, remakes and adaptations
A nostalgic look back to the past is the main feature of the new film season this autumn, starting with a big hitter, the much anticpated Blade Runner 2049, which gets its global release at the beginning of October. The sequel to Ridley Scott’s classic science fiction adventure, Blade Runner (1982), the sequel stars Ryan Gosling and a craggy Harrison Ford, reprising his role as the star of the original, Rick Deckard. A cult classic, it is no surprise that the new film has created such huge expectation among the original’s thousands of fans. However, as well as expectation, there are also plenty of fears that the sequel will fail to live up to the legacy of one of the most influential films of the 1980s. What might allay some fans’ fears is that behind the cameras is Denis Villeneuve, whose sci-fi drama Arrival (2016), was critically acclaimed. The fact that Blade Runner 2049 exists is proof that Hollywood is again reaching back to tried-and-tested formulas to fuel a whole series of sequels, prequels, franchises, remakes and spin offs.
An example of this is the release this autumn of a very different kind of movie but one that already has many versions, Murder on the Orient Express, this time directed by Kenneth Branagh. This new version of Agatha Christie’s best-selling 1934 detective novel has a star-studded cast and has been made in the style of Hollywood’s golden age. Branagh himself plays the Belgian hero detective, Hercule Poirot, and the film also stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Daisy Ridley, Judi Dench, Derek Jacobi, Penélope Cruz, Johnny Depp and Willem Dafoe, among others.
However, the year will finish on a high, with the release in the run-up to Christmas of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the eighth instalment of George Lucas’ epic saga, in this case directed by Rian Johnson (Looper), and including posthumous scenes of Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia.
Biopics
Finding inspiration in the past has also led to more biopics of historical characters. In the past few years, we have seen films about Queen Elisabeth of England, Lance Armstrong and Florence Foster Jenkins. This year, British director Stephen Frears offers Victoria and Abdul, based on the real-life relation ship between Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) and her Indian personal secretary, Abdul Karim. Meanwhile, another film based on a figure from British political history is Churchill, by Jonathan Teplitzky, which was shown in the first edition of BCN Film Fest. Then there is Jacques, by Jérôme Salle, based on the life of ocean ographer Jean-Jacques Cousteau and starring Lambert Wilson and Audrey Tatou.
Superhero rivalry
As for the ever-present superhero franchises, there is more from the rivalry between the DC and Marvel comic companies, which, respectively, will release The Justice League –with Batman and Wonder Woman– and Thor: Ragnarok.
Best sellers
Some of the new releases are also based on bestsellers. One is La Pell Freda by Albert Sánchez Piñol, which Xavier Gens (Hitman) has adapted as Cold Skin, with Aura Garrido and Ray Stevenson in the leads and which will be premiered at the Sitges Film Festival. Also in the fantasy/horror genre is the screen adaptation of Stephen King’s terrifying bestseller, It, which is directed by Andrés Muchietti (Mamá). And finally, Isabel Coixet will release La Librería (The Bookshop), based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel of the same name and starring Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson and Bill Nighy. The film will open Valladolid’s Seminci festival.