The 49 Films That Will Define 2010
Total Film has compiled a list of what they believe will be the most important films of 2010, and I kinda have to agree with the majority of their selection.
Particularly excited about what was news to me - that Daft Punk are doing the music for Tron: Legacy, about "Paul" (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost back together, woohoo!), about "I Love You, Phillip Morris" (Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor as lovers) and about the cast of "The Expendables".
Here are my picks:
Shutter Island (19 February)
The Talent: Directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Michelle Williams.
The Pitch: DiCaprio's Federal agent investigates the disappearance of a woman at a creepy island asylum and begins to doubt both the authorities and his own sanity.
The Hook: This is Scorsese and DiCaprio's fourth film together, and looks like it has the kind of tight dramatic plotting that could finally see their partnership ignite and win over the DiCaprio doubters.
Black Death (26 February)
The Talent: Directed by Chris Smith of Severance fame. Starring Sean Bean.
The Pitch: Bean leads a band of medieval men-on-a-mission as they hunt down a necromancer (yes!) in plague-hit England.
The Hook: You read the pitch, right? Sheffield's finest cine-son is back in leather and chain-mail for the first time since the Rings trilogy, and the plot is a deliciously brooding, dark-ages adventure yarn.
A Couple Of Dicks (26 February)
The Talent: Written by the Cullen brothers, directed by Kevin Smith and starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan.
The Pitch: A classic buddy cop comedy, with Willis and Morgan as partners tracking down a stolen collectable baseball card.
The Hook: The script has enjoyed big buzz for years, and Smith (directing someone else’s writing for the first time) describes it as "Dante and Randal as cops". Sold! Also, everything Tracy Morgan does, says or thinks is funny.
I Love You Phillip Morris (February)
The Talent: Glenn Ficarra and John Requa direct, Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor star.
The Pitch: Carrey’s salesman nobody has a life-changing car crash, convincing him to come out as gay and to lead a fraud-filled life which lands him in jail. Where he meets the love of his life…
The Hook: Brave and bizarre, Phillip Morris tackles gay romance with a straight face and no small measure of poignancy. Plus, the last time Carrey mixed dark comedy and hearbreak we got Eternal Sunshine.
Iron Man 2 (30 April)
The Talent: Directed by Jon Favreau, starring Robert Downey Jr., Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke.
The Pitch: More of the box office gold hammered out by last year’s smart metal man adventure, this time with Rockwell and Rourke also filling out battle suits.
The Hook: The last one was great, and this one will have more money, more bad guys, and more ass-kicking. Expect it to be the blockbuster of the year - particularly in a distinctly blockbuster-light year.
Robin Hood (14 May)
The Talent: Ridley Scott directs Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett.
The Pitch: A retelling of the classic folk tale, with Crowe the nobleman’s son returned from the Crusades to find the evil Sheriff of Nottingham oppressing the hell out of England.
The Hook: Scott and Crowe seem to have dropped the original hook – the film was called Nottingham and toyed with the idea of heroism and villainy. Instead, they've simply decided to make the best Robin Hood ever. Sounds good.
Predators (9 July)
The Talent: Nimród Antal directs, Topher Grace, Adrien Brody and (yeah!) Danny Trejo star.
The Pitch: Another group of hard men – this time dangerous multinational criminals – battle the off-world hunters in a direct sequel to the 1987 action classic.
The Hook: Producer Robert Rodriguez has cleverly stated that the title is a reference to James Cameron’s Aliens, and that’s the kind of follow-up he’d like to make: a mean, explosive escalation. We’re in.
Inception (16 July)
The Talent: Directed by Christopher Nolan, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
The Pitch: We have barely an idea. DiCaprio is an exec caught in a blackmail scandal. Then people start floating around the place...
The Hook: Nolan hasn’t made a bad film, and has delivered at least three genuine masterpieces. If The Prestige was his The Conversation (perfect magic made in between franchise giants) could this be his Apocalypse Now?
The Expendables (20 August)
The Talent: Directed by Sylvester Stallone, and starring every bicep in Hollywood.
The Pitch: Sylvester Stallone directs the ultimate ‘80s action flick 20 years too late: a crew of mean mercenaries head to South America to chew bubblegum, kick ass and overthrow a government.
The Hook: It’s a who’s-who of Hollywood hardmen: Stallone, Statham, Lundgren... Even Schwarzenegger and Willis. Expect muscle, fire, and brainless brilliance.
Tron Legacy (17 December)
The Talent: Jeff Bridges. Enough said.
The Pitch: The son of Bridge’s arcade ace Kevin Flynn investigates his disappearance and is swallowed into an updated and more dangerous version of the computer world.
The Hook: It’s Tron. With better graphics. Daft Punk do the music. It’s in 3D. It should look and sound like the future squared.
Hereafter (December 2010)
The Talent: Directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Matt Damon, written by Peter Morgan.
The Pitch: A supernatural thriller with Damon as a medium who can talk to the dead but, according to Morgan, prefers not to.
The Hook: Anything Eastwood, Damon or Morgan do individually is worth seeing, this three times so. Plus it’ll be interesting to see how Morgan (who wrote The Queen, The Damned United and Frost/Nixon) contends with fantasy rather than history.
Mute (TBA 2010)
The Talent: Duncan Jones will direct, Sam Rockwell will cameo.
The Pitch: Still vague – Jones has called it a “city film” and it’ll be a mystery that takes place in a future version of Berlin.
The Hook: Vibe-wise, Jones has pitched his Moon follow-up as a homage to Blade Runner, and revealed that Rockwell will cameo in a direct continuation of Moon’s stunning ending. Excitement.
Paul (TBA 2010)
The Talent: Greg Mottola directs, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost write and star.
The Pitch: Pegg and Frost’s comic book geeks are on a road trip across the States when they meet an alien called Paul outside Area 51.
The Hook: Pegg and Frost. Frost and Pegg. It’s the first time the two have been onscreen together since Hot Fuzz, and it’s going to be awesome.
Particularly excited about what was news to me - that Daft Punk are doing the music for Tron: Legacy, about "Paul" (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost back together, woohoo!), about "I Love You, Phillip Morris" (Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor as lovers) and about the cast of "The Expendables".
Here are my picks:
Shutter Island (19 February)
The Talent: Directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Michelle Williams.
The Pitch: DiCaprio's Federal agent investigates the disappearance of a woman at a creepy island asylum and begins to doubt both the authorities and his own sanity.
The Hook: This is Scorsese and DiCaprio's fourth film together, and looks like it has the kind of tight dramatic plotting that could finally see their partnership ignite and win over the DiCaprio doubters.
Black Death (26 February)
The Talent: Directed by Chris Smith of Severance fame. Starring Sean Bean.
The Pitch: Bean leads a band of medieval men-on-a-mission as they hunt down a necromancer (yes!) in plague-hit England.
The Hook: You read the pitch, right? Sheffield's finest cine-son is back in leather and chain-mail for the first time since the Rings trilogy, and the plot is a deliciously brooding, dark-ages adventure yarn.
A Couple Of Dicks (26 February)
The Talent: Written by the Cullen brothers, directed by Kevin Smith and starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan.
The Pitch: A classic buddy cop comedy, with Willis and Morgan as partners tracking down a stolen collectable baseball card.
The Hook: The script has enjoyed big buzz for years, and Smith (directing someone else’s writing for the first time) describes it as "Dante and Randal as cops". Sold! Also, everything Tracy Morgan does, says or thinks is funny.
I Love You Phillip Morris (February)
The Talent: Glenn Ficarra and John Requa direct, Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor star.
The Pitch: Carrey’s salesman nobody has a life-changing car crash, convincing him to come out as gay and to lead a fraud-filled life which lands him in jail. Where he meets the love of his life…
The Hook: Brave and bizarre, Phillip Morris tackles gay romance with a straight face and no small measure of poignancy. Plus, the last time Carrey mixed dark comedy and hearbreak we got Eternal Sunshine.
Iron Man 2 (30 April)
The Talent: Directed by Jon Favreau, starring Robert Downey Jr., Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke.
The Pitch: More of the box office gold hammered out by last year’s smart metal man adventure, this time with Rockwell and Rourke also filling out battle suits.
The Hook: The last one was great, and this one will have more money, more bad guys, and more ass-kicking. Expect it to be the blockbuster of the year - particularly in a distinctly blockbuster-light year.
Robin Hood (14 May)
The Talent: Ridley Scott directs Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett.
The Pitch: A retelling of the classic folk tale, with Crowe the nobleman’s son returned from the Crusades to find the evil Sheriff of Nottingham oppressing the hell out of England.
The Hook: Scott and Crowe seem to have dropped the original hook – the film was called Nottingham and toyed with the idea of heroism and villainy. Instead, they've simply decided to make the best Robin Hood ever. Sounds good.
Predators (9 July)
The Talent: Nimród Antal directs, Topher Grace, Adrien Brody and (yeah!) Danny Trejo star.
The Pitch: Another group of hard men – this time dangerous multinational criminals – battle the off-world hunters in a direct sequel to the 1987 action classic.
The Hook: Producer Robert Rodriguez has cleverly stated that the title is a reference to James Cameron’s Aliens, and that’s the kind of follow-up he’d like to make: a mean, explosive escalation. We’re in.
Inception (16 July)
The Talent: Directed by Christopher Nolan, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
The Pitch: We have barely an idea. DiCaprio is an exec caught in a blackmail scandal. Then people start floating around the place...
The Hook: Nolan hasn’t made a bad film, and has delivered at least three genuine masterpieces. If The Prestige was his The Conversation (perfect magic made in between franchise giants) could this be his Apocalypse Now?
The Expendables (20 August)
The Talent: Directed by Sylvester Stallone, and starring every bicep in Hollywood.
The Pitch: Sylvester Stallone directs the ultimate ‘80s action flick 20 years too late: a crew of mean mercenaries head to South America to chew bubblegum, kick ass and overthrow a government.
The Hook: It’s a who’s-who of Hollywood hardmen: Stallone, Statham, Lundgren... Even Schwarzenegger and Willis. Expect muscle, fire, and brainless brilliance.
Tron Legacy (17 December)
The Talent: Jeff Bridges. Enough said.
The Pitch: The son of Bridge’s arcade ace Kevin Flynn investigates his disappearance and is swallowed into an updated and more dangerous version of the computer world.
The Hook: It’s Tron. With better graphics. Daft Punk do the music. It’s in 3D. It should look and sound like the future squared.
Hereafter (December 2010)
The Talent: Directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Matt Damon, written by Peter Morgan.
The Pitch: A supernatural thriller with Damon as a medium who can talk to the dead but, according to Morgan, prefers not to.
The Hook: Anything Eastwood, Damon or Morgan do individually is worth seeing, this three times so. Plus it’ll be interesting to see how Morgan (who wrote The Queen, The Damned United and Frost/Nixon) contends with fantasy rather than history.
Mute (TBA 2010)
The Talent: Duncan Jones will direct, Sam Rockwell will cameo.
The Pitch: Still vague – Jones has called it a “city film” and it’ll be a mystery that takes place in a future version of Berlin.
The Hook: Vibe-wise, Jones has pitched his Moon follow-up as a homage to Blade Runner, and revealed that Rockwell will cameo in a direct continuation of Moon’s stunning ending. Excitement.
Paul (TBA 2010)
The Talent: Greg Mottola directs, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost write and star.
The Pitch: Pegg and Frost’s comic book geeks are on a road trip across the States when they meet an alien called Paul outside Area 51.
The Hook: Pegg and Frost. Frost and Pegg. It’s the first time the two have been onscreen together since Hot Fuzz, and it’s going to be awesome.
9 Comments
SarzyThat's a pretty decent list -- the only thing I can think of off the top of my head that's missing is Centurion, Neil Marshall's newest film (he directed The Decent, which was one of the best horror films of the decade. Doomsday was also underrated, as far as I'm concerned).
Also, Mute will unfortunately not be coming out in 2010, as Duncan Jones has already committed to another film.
gwiz665You've been busy, my boy. Good list. Lots of fun coming out.
EndAllWow, I'm excited for nearly every one of these movies. Thanks for putting the list up here.
xxovercastxxI don't keep track of what's going on in the movies these days, so the vast majority of these are completely new to me.
Shutter Island looks like it could be an interesting story and probably very well acted. It seems it might fall prey to being a predictible rehash of overdone ideas and cheesy "Boo!" cinematography.
I'll keep an eye open for Black Death. Hopefully it's shot more like LoTR and less like 300. Hopefully it can rise above being another medieval action movie riding the coat tails of LoTR.
A Couple of Dicks... yeah, no thanks.
Phillip Morris seems like another brainless comedy. Pass.
I hate Iron Man. The end.
Robin Hood... I'll have to see more. The idea of another remake of this story doesn't thrill me. I'd have been more interested by the original concept, probably.
Predators... Seriously? Didn't we run this far enough into the ground 19 years ago with Predator 2, nevermind the AvP disasters?
Inception... need more info.
Based solely on the cast, The Expendables seems, well, expendable.
Tron Legacy... against my better judgment, I'm looking forward to this. It will almost certainly be fresh and unique even if it's not good.
Hereafter, Mute... need more info.
Paul... Doesn't look like my kinda thing.
Sarzy>> ^xxovercastxx:
Predators... Seriously? Didn't we run this far enough into the ground 19 years ago with Predator 2, nevermind the AvP disasters?
I'd agree, except Predators is directed by Nimrod Antal, who did the surprisingly effective thriller Vacancy from a couple of years ago. Between that and his equally good debut feature, Kontroll, he's definitely on my radar in a big way (his next film, Armored, opens this weekend. I have high hopes, despite how long it's been sitting on the shelf).
Inception... need more info.
It's Christopher Nolan. That's all the info you need. Seriously, look at the man's filmography -- he can do no wrong. Just based on Nolan's involvement and that short teaser from a few months back, that's probably my most anticipated movie of next year.
imstellar28 says...>> ^Sarzy:
That's a pretty decent list -- the only thing I can think of off the top of my head that's missing is Centurion, Neil Marshall's newest film (he directed The Descent, which was one of the best horror films of the decade.
of all time! That movie scared the shit out of me. To date its still my favorite horror movie by far.
Farhad2000At this time am only looking forward to Avatar and that Moon directed movie...
dannym3141Me and my friend used to always talk in jest about who we'd get in our film 'when we made one'. We'd add to it over the years. Almost exclusively hard asses/ass kickers from history to the present - kurt russel, the rock, bruce willis, arnie (of course), dolph, terry tate, terry crews, richard dean anderson, stallone, statham... i can barely remember the entire list because we had a cast of probably approaching 50.
Of course as the list grew we rapidly discussed and immediately turned aside the notion of a plot. We decided as the list reached over 20 that we'd probably be able to start the film off by having a random guy walk past and say something, and then have all the cast quip back and forth between each other, quipping their way to the end of the film. We both love them for the one liners so we thought, you know, the whole film could be one liner after one liner.
Now... there's a pub in preston, lancashire, england where all this used to go down. I never specifically saw anyone there, but i'm almost certain that stallone was sat nearby with pen and pad, because i'll be damned if "The Expendables" isn't what we came up with brought to life.
I might as well take a gun and one bullet into the cinema with me, because if the expendables isn't awesome ...... well.. life isn't worth living anymore.
kymbosPredator was for me such a seminal film, all the sequels etc never lived up to the potential. I'm glad to see someone is going to have a genuine attempt at a sequel that befits the name.
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