Happy New Year, everybody! May the worst part of your 2020 be all the bad puns about perfect vision you will surely be bombarded I with. I should know, as I will be doing some of the bombarding. But before we look forward properly, we need to take a quick look back as a bunch of stuff happened while we were busy stuffing our faces with Christmas pudding.
So here are all the major movie trailer releases and news tidbits you may have missed while we took a break over the holidays:
- A Quiet Place Part II
Following on from the brief teaser just before the Xmas break, Paramount released the full trailer for A Quiet Place Part II and I’m already feeling stressed out. Much like director John Krasinksi’s breakout 2018 horror, this trailer is a study in tension (that bus scene!). It also gives us our first quick look at how this apocalyptic world came about (and maybe even a way to allow Krasinski to also reprise his role in front of the camera despite his fate in the first film). A Quiet Place Part II releases on 20 March 2020.
Following the deadly events at home, the Abbott family (Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe) must now face the terrors of the outside world as they continue their fight for survival in silence. Forced to venture into the unknown, they quickly realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.
- Doctor Sleep Director’s Cut
Despite being a damn good movie, Doctor Sleep bombed hard at the box office. And as such, it’s getting a pretty quick turnaround for home release on 21 January 2020. Warner Bros. clearly still believe in the movie though as the home release boasts a Director’s Cut that includes changed scenes and many previously unseen scenes that extend the film’s running time to three hours!
- High Fidelity
Hulu released the first trailer for their TV series remake of High Fidelity, the cult classic 2000 film starring John Cusack that was adapted from Nick Hornby’s best-selling 1995 novel. The upcoming series makes several changes from the original, including casting Zoe Kravitz in the gender-swapped lead role. It debuts on Hulu on 14 February 2020.
A departure from Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel and beloved 2000 film, Hulu’s High Fidelity centers on Rob (Zoë Kravitz, who also serves as an executive producer), a female record store owner in the rapidly gentrified neighborhood of Crown Heights, Brooklyn who revisits past relationships through music and pop culture, while trying to get over her one true love.
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
In the wake of the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, director/writer JJ Abrams and co-writer Chris Terrio did a whole LOT of talking about the movie, answering some lingering questions from fans. And some of those answers were just straight-up dumb, like what Finn was trying to tell Rey throughout the movie. Face meet palm. Oh and Terrio – just like many fans I’ve spoken to – also wishes that the movie could have been split into two parts. Maybe if they did that, then some of the utterly important lore and backstory that fills in several major plotholes would have made it into the movie instead of only showing up in the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Visual Dictionary. Or, you know, in Fortnite!
- John Henry
Terry Crews is a hero wielding a big hammer. Ludacris is a bad guy with a thing for golden jewellery. No, this isn’t a race-swapped remake of the fight between Thor and Thanos but rather the trailer for vigilante movie John Henry.
Ex-gang member, John Henry (Terry Crews), traded violence for a quieter life taking care of his aging father (Ken Foree) in South Los Angeles. Henry meets two immigrant children running from his former gang leader (Chris “Ludacris: Bridges) and has to decide whether to revisit his troubled past to help give the two children a better future.
- Uncharted
In news that would be funny if it wasn’t so sad, the Uncharted movie has lost director Travis Knight (Bumblebee, Kubo and the Two Strings). For those keeping count at home, that makes six different filmmakers who have been attached and then bailed on this stuck-in-development movie adaptation of the beloved videogame franchise. And this time it’s all Spider-Man’s fault.
Star Tom Holland (who will be playing a young version of fortune hunter Nathan Drake in a prequel story set before the games) has had his workload reshuffled thanks to Marvel and Sony working out a new deal to co-produce Spidey movies, and with Spider-Man 3 set to start shooting mid-2020, it clashed with Knight’s schedule. It’s now been about a decade since this film was first announced, so waiting another half a year or so while a new director gets tapped surely doesn’t even count by this point.
- Justice League
Zack Snyder is still teasing his now-almost mythical “Snyder Cut” of Justice League as the filmmaker released a batch of brand new black and white pics for the film. This may have gotten Snyderphiles excited, but they were soon left confused as Snyder attempted to finally set the record straight on just how far along his version of the embattled 2017 superhero film was. The director first claimed that the CGI and score was “not 100 percent finished” but then said that original composer Tom Holkenborg, aka Junkie XL, already had the score covered and that the VFX was complete. So yeah, make of that what you will.
- Murder Mystery
Murder Mystery, the painfully bland and unfunny action-comedy starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, was the biggest release on Netflix for 2019. Yes, bigger than Stranger Things S3, The Witcher, and The Irishman. I don’t even know what to say about that.
- Cats
And keeping with movies with different versions, in a completely unprecedented move, Universal Pictures has informed cinema chains that a new version of Cats with improved CGI is being re-released in theatres. Yes, a movie is getting patched post-release. Welcome to 2020. This surprising turn of events is a response to the Broadway musical feature film adaptation’s hilariously horrific reviews (You have to read some of these!). Unfortunately, with the film already being trashed by both critics and general audiences alike as possibly the worst release of 2019 and currently on track to lose Universal around $100 million, “improved visual effects” will not save it one bit.
- WandaVision
The Mandalorian may have ended but there’s a whole lot more coming to Disney+. And the House of Mouse revealed a new trailer showing off all the upcoming additions to their streaming service this year… with one surprising change. It would appear that production on the Marvel show WandaVision is much further along than anticipated as the mysterious upcoming show is now set for release in 2020 with Falcon and the Winter Soldier instead of its original 2021 release date.
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
One of the most intriguing aspects of WandaVision is that it will reportedly be leading straight into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness with Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff even joining Benedict Cumberbatch in the comic book sequel. Know what else will be in Doctor Strange 2? Some horror. That’s according to Marvel overlord Kevin Feige (via SyFy Wire):
I wouldn’t necessarily say that’s a horror film, but it is, as Scott Derrickson — our director — has pitched it, a big MCU film with scary sequences in it. When I was a kid in the ‘80s, Spielberg did an amazing job [doing that]. There are horrifying sequences in Raiders [of the Lost Ark] that I would, as a little kid, [cover my eyes] when their faces melted. Or Temple of Doom, of course, or Gremlins or Poltergeist. These are the movies that invented the PG-13 rating, by the way — they were PG and they were like, ‘We need another [rating].’ But that’s fun, it’s fun to be scared in that way and not a horrific, torturous way, but in a way that is legitimately scary because Scott Derrickson’s quite good at that. But scary in the service of an exhilarating emotion.
Oh and besides for the horror, there’s also going to be a brand new character who is going to be a big surprise.
The next Doctor Strange film, for instance, features some new MCU characters that will be making their debut in that movie. You won’t expect or won’t guess who it is, but we found a cool way to make it work because we want to make a particular type of movie there. And there was a character we always wanted to do something who we think will fit really well there.
- Moon Knight
Staying with Marvel and horror we have some rumours for the upcoming Disney+ show Moon Knight. Coming via popular (and pretty reliable) Marvel scooper Daniel Richtman, these latest rumours allege that ex-Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is currently one of the actors being eyed by Marvel for the titular lead role of mythical vigilante Marc Spector. That’s an incredibly intriguing choice.
On top of that, Richtman claims that the show will also feature Marvel’s version of classic horror characters Dracula and Werewolf By Night. The latter has been rumoured for some time now actually, but this is the first time we’re hearing about the lord of vampires also popping up.
- Deadpool 3
Hold onto your chimichangas, as Ryan Reynolds briefly confirmed what we’ve all known is already happening: Marvel Studios is in early development on Deadpool 3. Reynolds revealed as much while appearing on morning talk show Live! With Kelly and Ryan. 09:22 in the clip below has the relevant quote.
- Sonic the Hedgehog
Move over Baby Yoda! Following on from the second trailer for the Sonic Hedgehog movie in which Paramount revealed the massive CGI reworking of the blue speedster, an exclusive Japanese TV spot and trailer were released giving us our first look at both Baby Sonic and the Emerald Hills environment pulled straight from the classic games. Sonic the Hedgehog releases on 14 February 2020.
Last Updated: January 6, 2020
