When it comes to film, prequels, sequels and reboots will continue to rule in 2013. Although we seem to have survived the apocalypse, super heroes are still more popular than ever with Iron Man, Thor, Superman, Wolverine and Robocop all reappearing through the year. Even Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger are teaming up again for The Tomb, while Bruce Willis proves truly hard to kill with the fifth installment of his Die Hard franchise also due to be released.
A wave of post-apocalyptic blockbusters will also hit theatres. In Oblivion, Tom Cruise will play a droid repairman trying to save mankind, while Will Smith and son, Jayden Smith, team up to explore a planet Earth evacuated by humans 1,000 years earlier in M. Night Shyamalan’s After Earth. It’s no wonder Steven Spielberg’s Robopocalypse, an ambitious adaptation of the best-selling sci-fi novel by Daniel H. Wilson, had to be pushed for a 2014 release with so much post-apocalyptic material on offer.
Unnecessary sequels of the year include but are not limited to The Hangover III, Fast and Furious 6, The Smurfs 2 and Riddick. However, new chapters to some all time favourite films such as The Anchorman, Monsters Inc., Kick Ass, The Hobbit and Sin City will also likely be welcomed. Whether they will stand up to their originals, it’s an entirely different matter.
Jurassic Park, The Little Mermaid and Star Wars episodes Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith will also be simply re-released, but this time in the ever-profitable 3D format.
But 2013 is also promising to be an exciting year for cinema. Sundance Film Festival has a record slate of female filmmakers in its line-up, Bollywood celebrates its 100th anniversary and a prolific new wave of works hailing from Romania, the Middle East and South America is set for take over on the international film festival circuit.
Here are some of the films we’re looking forward to seeing this year:
Gravity
Nothing in 2013 promises to be as visionary and revolutionary as Alfonso Cuarón’s astronaut thriller Gravity. Early test screenings were received with enthusiasm and trusted sources such as James Cameron and Guillermo del Toro have reported that new technology has been created specifically for the film shot by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (Tree of Life). It is said it will change the way some movies are made in the fashion of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Much praise has also gone for lead Sandra Bullock in what many have speculated is the best performance of her career, a great feat considering she is apparently the only person on screen for most of the film as an astronaut trying to get back to Earth after an accident ruins her space station. The film reportedly features several long takes, including a 17-minute single take opening shot and the best CGI effects ever seen on screen. The official trailer released for the movie keeps it all under wraps…
The Great Gatsby
The most hyped Australian flick of the year (in co-production with the US) was initially scheduled to be released during last year’s Christmas with an eye on the awards season, but it was eventually reshuffled to 2013 after studio executives claimed the film would be ‘the perfect summer movie around the world’.
According to Warner Bros distribution chief Dan Fellman, moviegoers should believe the hype surrounding Australian director Baz Luhrmann’s latest work. ‘Based on what we’ve seen, Baz Luhrmann’s incredible work is all we anticipated and so much more,’ he said in a statement. ‘It truly brings Fitzgerald’s American classic to life in a completely immersive, visually stunning and exciting way. We think moviegoers of all ages are going to embrace it, and it makes sense to ensure this unique film reaches the largest audience possible.’
Shot in 3D at Sydney’s Fox Studios, The Great Gatsby stars Australians Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher and Gemma Ward and will feature music by the likes of Kanye West, Jay-Z and Florence and The Machine.
Frances Ha
The hipster generation finally gets the refreshingly warm, honest and offbeat treatment it deserves by director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding). Following their collaboration in Greenberg, Baumbach teams up with his real-life partner and mumblecore darling Greta Gerwig – who also co-writes – for this Woody Allenesque and nouvelle-vague like black-and-white dramedy. Obviously set in Brooklyn, the hipster capital of the world, and featuring music by David Bowie, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones and composer Georges Delerue, Funny Ha is the ultimate bittersweet portrait of an awkward moustache-sporting, vintage-obsessed generation that like all others is only doing the best it can to survive, both emotionally and professionally.
Before Midnight
Some of the sequels hitting screens this year are very welcome indeed, Richard Linklater’s follow up to Before Sunrise and Before Sunset is one of them. Like in the second installment, we’ll meet Jesse and Celine 9 years later, this time in Greece. It seems like this may be the last chapter in what has become one of contemporary cinema’s most revered love affairs. Linklater told Vulture that fans of the films will definitely have something to look forward to. ‘I know for sure that people who like the first two, who are invested in those characters, will totally get something from the movie. This is for them.’
Pacific Rim
No blockbuster looks more exciting than Guillermo del Toro’s homage to Japanese Kaiju films. Del Toro described the film to Wired as ‘a very, very beautiful poem to giant monsters. Giant monsters versus giant robots.’ While spectacular action sequences and grand visual effects are to be expected, anyone familiar with Del Toro’s prolific career knows the director respects his characters and never shies away from human elements in his films. A sequel to Pacific Rim is already planned and word on the street is that Del Toro has created a very original and unique universe that could end up being as remarkable and important as the Star Wars and Star Trek films.
The Darkside
Australian director Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah) has spent 2012 collecting real Aboriginal ghost stories for his doco-drama The Darkside, currently shooting in New South Wales. A collection of poignant, funny, sad and absurd ghost tales, The Darkside will provide a black perspective on the afterlife. Thornton has enlisted some of Australia’s most iconic actors as his storytellers including Deborah Mailman, Sheri Sebbens, Bryan Brown, Leah Purcell, Brendan Cowell and Sacha Horler. The film will also feature traditional dances and songs. Media has been reporting strange events happening on the set of the production, so we’re definitely expecting The Darkside to be one of the spookiest offerings of 2013.
I’m So Excited
Spanish master Pedro Almódovar seems to have lightened up with his upcoming ensemble comedy I’m So Excited. Although the international title got a bit lost in translation dropping its double meaning from the Spanish original, Los Amantes Pasajeros (The Fleeting Lovers/The Passenger Lovers) looks like a promising return to the director’s early sexually charged melodramatic comedies. The film is said to be set entirely on a plane heading to Mexico City with passengers and crew forced to confront a life-threatening situation. But very little drama and thrills are to be expected as hilarious confessions and musical numbers unfold. Almódovar has enlisted regulars Cecilia Roth, Javier Cámara and Lola Dueñas with Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas, Carmen Machi, Pepa Charro and Papo Vega making cameo appearances. The film is rumoured to premiere at Cannes Film Festival this year and if the teaser trailer is anything to go by, it’ll be quite hysterical.
The Grandmaster
After almost three years in production and almost a decade of preparation, Chinese auteur Wong Kar-Wai’s martial arts epic biopic The Grandmaster will open this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Set in 1930’s China, the film is about Bruce Lee’s mentor Ip Man and sees Wong reunite with actors Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Ziyi Zhang. Wong has described the film as his ‘dream project’, while Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick has said the film is ‘a new and exciting facet to his body of works’, with Wong creating ‘an artful, visually powerful genre film.’
Sound City
When Paul McCartney joined the surviving members of Nirvana for a recent Hurricane Sandy relief concert, many were amused while some, like Courtney Love, were left unimpressed. It was later revealed that the song performed by the group, ‘Cut Me Some Slack’, had been written for the forthcoming documentary Sound City, by Foo Fighter’s front man and ex-Nirvana Dave Grohl in his directorial debut. The star-studded film about the famous Los Angeles music studio where some of the greatest rock albums were made also sees Grohl ‘explore the human element of music in an age of technology.’ Sound City features Neil Young, Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks, Trent Reznor, Rick Rubin, Barry Manilow, Pat Smear, John Fogerty, and many others.
Lovelace
A number of controversial sexually charged releases are set to hit screens in 2013. From James Franco in a risqué performance in the gay S&M arthouse Interior. Leather Bar. to the saucy Australian/French drama Two Mothers starring Naomi Watts and Robin Wright as best friends who fall in love with each other’s sons, but it’s the biopic of American porn-star Linda Lovelace, the protagonist of the most successful porn film in history, Deep Throat, that is likely to get most of the attention. Rop Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s Lovelace stars Amanda Seyfried (Les Miserábles, Gone) as a porn actress stuck in a violent relationship with abusive husband Chuck Traynor (Peter Sarsgaard). She would later become an advocate fighting against the industry that launched her stellar career. The film also stars Hank Azaria, James Franco, Sharon Stone and Sarah Jessica Parker. Not to be confused with Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story, which is also due for release later this year and at one point was to be starred by Lindsay Lohan, which can never be a good sign.
