Epic sequels, talent, reminiscence and farewell tears

Writ­ing about the big up­com­ing pre­mieres of the year means is to tackle the fan­tasy genre. Since no one has the se­cret of guar­an­teed suc­cess, nei­ther in the cin­ema nor in life, when talk­ing about the fu­ture high­lights of the big screen there is a ten­dency to put the spot­light on two types of pro­duc­tions: the se­quels of pre­vi­ous great hits and the pro­jects with film­mak­ers and ac­tors of proven sol­vency. Sur­prises like Every­thing Every­where All at Once, which ended up tri­umph­ing at the Os­cars, can­not be pre­dicted, al­though now all eyes are on A24, the in­de­pen­dent pro­duc­tion com­pany be­hind this suc­cess.

So let’s start by high­light­ing two of their pro­jects for 2024: Priscilla (Feb­ru­ary 14), a bi­og­ra­phy about Elvis Pres­ley’s wife di­rected by Sofia Cop­pola (an­other pres­ti­gious name) and Dream Sce­nario (March 1), with vet­eran star Nico­las Cage, a sur­real story full of hu­mour, which made the au­di­ence laugh heartily at the most re­cent Sit­ges Film Fes­ti­val.

Talk­ing about se­quels does not guar­an­tee avoid­ing mis­takes, be­cause the vari­ables are count­less. There may be a global pan­demic (2020-2022) or a Hol­ly­wood writ­ers and ac­tors strike (2023). A year ago we were talk­ing about Dune: Part Two, but it will fi­nally be re­leased in 2024. A film open­ings in the cin­ema does not guar­an­tee suc­cess ei­ther: the fifth in­stall­ment of In­di­ana Jones hit the screens, for ex­am­ple, to con­sid­er­able fail­ure. On the other hand, Warner Bros with Bar­bie and Uni­ver­sal with Op­pen­heimer took the box of­fice by storm last sum­mer. If they con­tinue their streak, Uni­ver­sal could very well clean up with three pow­er­ful ti­tles due for re­lease: Ar­gylle (Feb 2), a spy story with Bryce Dal­las Howard and Henry Cav­ill, Nos­fer­atu (no re­lease date yet), an adap­ta­tion by Robert Eg­gers (The Witch, The Man from the North) of Mur­nau’s clas­sic, and The Fall Guy (May 1), with Ryan Gosling play­ing an ac­tion stunt­man who finds him­self em­broiled in real ac­tion.

Mean­while, Warner Bros is bet­ting on se­quels. In ad­di­tion to Dune: Part Two (Mar 1), it is also repris­ing a hit from 2015, which at the same time was al­ready a se­quel to Mad Max (1979). May 24 will be the re­lease of Fu­riosa: A Mad Max Saga, di­rected again by George Miller, with Anya Tay­lor-Joy re­plac­ing Char­l­ize Theron at the head of the cast.

Fea­ture Film