There were many industries crushed by the pandemic in 2020, but few as brutally, or as quickly, as the film industry. Within days of the first infections in the US and UK, production staff were furloughed en masse, major releases were shelved and several cinema chains went bust.
Which makes 2021 a strange year for new movies. On the one hand, what hasn’t been filmed can’t be released, which means some of the blockbusters that were lined up to land this year are now on ice. On the other, all those films that should have hit cinemas in 2020 – your James Bonds, your Marvel movies, your Oscar-bait dramedies – have been shunted into 2021, in the hope that cinemas might open up again.
Although even that’s not a sure thing, which means we’re likely to see more shifting release dates, and more of the best movies of the year landing straight onto streaming services. But, for now, here is what is scheduled to be on our screens…
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MLK/FBI (release date: January 15)
“This represents one of the darkest periods in the bureau’s history”. So says one of the interviewees in this documentary about how the FBI, and the White House, viewed civil rights activist Martin Luther King as a threat, and worked insidiously to take him down: investigating, bugging and harassing him until his assassination in 1968. Thanks to government documents that have now been declassified, director Sam Pollard has pulled together a distressing examination about the abuse of power, revealing how the FBI would seemingly stop at nothing to extinguish a man who’s only mantra was for equality for all in America.
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Sound of Metal (release date: January 29, Amazon Prime Video)
Riz Ahmed’s already generating Oscar buzz for his turn as a speed metal drummer who starts to lose his hearing, and his grip on reality. In deafness, though, he finds a new purpose. And maybe a little gold statue.
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News Of The World (release date: January, Netflix)
No, not a retelling of life in Murdoch’s most salacious tabloid, but instead an epic western by Paul Greengrass, featuring Tom Hanks as a civil war veteran who’s charged with returning a kidnapped girl, Joanna, to her family. Hanks goes full Woody “there’s a snake in ma boot” Toy Story as the grizzly but kindhearted Texan, but the real star is the scenery, which will have you longing to escape your front room.
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Nomadland (release date: February 19)
Part movie, part documentary, this Golden Lion-winning film by Chloe Zhao sees Frances McDormand travel cross-country to escape her Nevada home’s economic collapse. She’s guided by (real-life) nomads Linda May, Charlene Swankie, and Bob Wells, and the cast and crew mostly lived in vans for the entire shoot.
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The King’s Man (release date: March )
Both the prequel and the third film in the Kingsman series, based on the comics about a bunch of well-dressed spies who operate out of a Savile Row tailor. Matthew Vaughn’s new movie explores the organisation’s origins, taking us back a century or so and pitting them against a rogue’s gallery of turn-of-the-century baddies, including Ra-Ra-Rasputin. Ralph Fiennes picks up the role of the Duke of Oxford once again, alongside Gemma Arterton, Tom Hollander, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Matthew Goode, while Rhys Ifans is almost unrecognisable as Russia’s greatest love machine.
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Candyman (release date: February 18)
Jordan Peele must have uttered the Candyman’s name too many times in front of the mirror, because the iconic slasher villain is back in 2021. This sequel to the cult 1992 horror movie is produced by Peele and directed by Nia DaCosta (who’s helming 2022’s Captain Marvel sequel) centres on a hipster artist (played by Watchmen and Matrix 4 star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) who moves into an old sweet factory decides to create an installation, in which viewers are encouraged to say the “c” word into a mirror. Bad move, bozo: it awakens the demon from his slumber once again.
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The Mauritanian (release date: February 26)
Almost two decades on from the invasion of Iraq, there are still more than 40 prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, where they’re held without trial but with little prospect of release. The ramifications of this imprisonment are revealed in this harrowing film, which is based on the true story of the Mauritanian Mohamedou Ould Salahi, who was held at the camp for 14 years without charge after being arrested – and rendered by the CIA – in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The Serpent’s Tahar Rahim takes the lead role – cementing him as one of the most gifted actors of the moment – with Jodie Foster as the lawyer who defends him. On the other side is Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays military prosecutor Stu Coach with an accent so thick you could spread it on toast.
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No Time to Die (release date: April)
Perhaps you hadn’t heard, but there’s a new James Bond film due. The much (much!) delayed 25th outing for 007, No Time to Die, stars Daniel Craig in his final outing as MI6’s bluntest instrument, this time facing off against Rami Malek as the terrorist leader Safin, who’s out for revenge (is he actually Blofeld? Maybe!). Throw in return visits from Ben Whishaw (Q) and Léa Seydoux (Dr Madeleine Swann), plus Billie Eilish providing the official theme song, and this looks well worth the wait.
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Mortal Kombat (release date: April)
The high-kicking, fight-to-the-death film franchise from the Nineties is getting a reboot, despite the last outing for the computer game movie, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, being universally panned in 1997. But, onwards and upwards and all that? The film – based on a script that’s been kicking around for almost two decades, but don’t let that worry you – is a tonal shift from the first one, with an R rating and Saw creator James Wan in the director’s chair. It’s not going to be Citizen Kane, but it does look like dumb, bloody fun. Altogether now: finish him!
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The French Dispatch (release date: May)
Wes Anderson’s “love letter to journalists” tells the heartwarming tale of a muckraker who goes through celebrity’s bins. Oh, wait, nope; The French Dispatch is about the Parisian bureau of a US newspaper (the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun) where Anderson alums like Bill Murray and Owen Wilson, alongside new faces including Timothée Chalamet and Léa Seydoux, pursue a trio of stories. Expect whimsy.
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Dune (release date: October)
Is Dune the film with the longest pre-production span in history? Quite possibly. Since the sci-fi novel was released in 1965, Alejandro Jodorowsky was tipped to helm a 10-hour series in the mid Seventies, but it never happened. David Lynch had a go in the Eighties that almost ended his career. In the Aughts, it was attached to a slew of names, including Peter Berg and Pierre Morel, before Blade Runner 2049‘s Denis Villeneuve came on board in 2016. Timothée Chalamet stars as Duke Leto Atreides, who’s sent to the desert planet Arrakis to guard ‘the spice’ – the most valuable drug in the universe. Looking very serious amid the incredible backdrops are Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa and Zendaya, and if you’re wondering why the score sounds so awesome – even on the trailer – it’s because Hans Zimmer is at the helm.