By Andrew A. Smith
Tribune Content Agency
If you have a taste for genre films – those with an element of the extra-normal – be of good cheer: There are more than 40 scheduled for wide release in 2017. With the caveat that release dates are subject to change, here are some of the most interesting:
UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS (Jan. 6): Kate Beckinsale headlines another vampires vs. werewolves film, the fifth installment of a franchise that has already grossed $460 million worldwide. Just remember that the next time someone says women can’t carry films.
RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER (Jan. 27): Milla Jovovich stars in the fifth and final zombie(ish) movie based on Capcom’s video game series. Just remember that the next time someone says women can’t carry films and don’t think “Underworld” counts.
LEGO(r) minifigure Batman (voiced by WILL ARNETT) in the 3D computer animated adventure The LEGO Batman Movie, from Warner Bros. Pictures and Ratpac-Dune Entertainment. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE (Feb. 10): I sure didn’t expect to enjoy The LEGO Movie (2014), but I surely did, and that was because of Will Arnett’s LEGO Batman.
LOGAN (Mar. 3): This will star Hugh Jackman in his last appearance as Marvel mutant Wolverine, loosely based on the story “Old Man Logan,” about a dystopic future in which most superheroes are dead and supervillains rule the world. It will have to be a realllllly loose adaptation, since Twentieth Century Fox doesn’t have the film rights for most of the characters in “Old Man Logan,” which include cannibalistic Hulks and a blind Hawkeye. It does appear that the spaghetti-Western vibe of “Old Man Logan” will be retained, as well as the gradual aging of the main character. The rest will have to be invented.
From left: JOHN GOODMAN stars as Randa, TOM HIDDLESTON as Conrad, BRIE LARSON as Mason and JOHN C. REILLY as Marlow in Warner Bros. Pictures' and Legendary Pictures' action adventure KONG: SKULL ISLAND, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Credit: Chuck Zlotnick
KONG: SKULL ISLAND (Mar. 10): I still remember the thrill I got as a lad watching the 1933 King Kong, and have suffered through abysmal remakes ever since in hopes of feeling that thrill again. This one may or may not bring it, but here’s an item of interest: The franchise moved from Universal to Warner Bros. in 2015 in order to make possible a future Godzilla vs. Kong movie. Also, it stars two actors who will co-habitate the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tom Hiddleston (Loki) and Brie Larson (Carol “Captain Marvel” Danvers).
GHOST IN THE SHELL (Mar. 31): This movie is based on a 1989 manga about a cyborg special-ops agent, and a small kerfuffle followed when non-Asian superstar Scarlett Johansson was cast as the lead character in a story that takes place pretty much entirely in Japan. Well, kids, Forbes says Johansson was the top-grossing actor of 2016. Do you want the movie to make money or not? Still, even with the talented and popular Johansson aboard, I’m a bit nervous – often when fantastically successful franchises from other cultures are adapted in America, they fall flat. (See: “Aeon Flux.”)
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 (May 5): Supposedly this movie will reveal that (SPOILER!) Peter Quill’s true father is a character in Marvel Comics named Ego the Living Planet. That’s going to be interesting. Meanwhile, we get to hear what’s on Quill’s “Awesome Mixtape #2,” which by itself is probably worth the ticket.
CHARLIE HUNNAM as Arthur in Warner Bros. Pictures' and Village Roadshow Pictures' fantasy action adventure KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD, distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD (May 12): This film is described as a non-traditional adaptation of the Arthur legend. You know what doesn’t work with the Arthur legend? Non-traditional adaptations.
ALIEN: COVENANT (May 19): Ridley Scott returns to the franchise he created, and if the trailer is in any way indicative, this is going to be one scary movie. I can’t wait, and if you can’t either, try the Alien, Predator and Prometheus crossover called “Life and Death,” currently being published by Dark Horse.
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES (May 26): Noticeably absent in the trailers for this, the fifth movie based on the Disney attraction, is star Johnny Depp. Chalk it up to the bad publicity about his private life.
GAL GADOT stars as Wonder Woman in Warner Bros. Pictures' action adventure WONDER WOMAN, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Credit: Clay Enos. Trademark & © DC Comics
WONDER WOMAN (June 2): Gal Gadot’s Amazing Amazon was the best part of Batman v Superman, and I can’t wait to see her without those sad, grumpy men in capes around to depress everyone.
THE MUMMY (June 9): Universal wants to build a shared universe with its classic horror characters, like Marvel has with its superheroes, starting with this film. Unfortunately, they’re not going for the moody horror that made The Mummy, Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman and Invisible Man so popular in the 1930s and ‘40s. Instead, they’re going for “action-adventure,” of which we have plenty already. Too bad.
Tom Holland stars as Spider-Man in Columbia Pictures' Spider-Man: Homecoming. © 2016 CTMG. All Rights Reserved.
SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING (July 7): Spider-Man (Tom Holland) may have been the best thing in Captain America: Civil War, an exceptionally good movie with lots of other good stuff in it. So this movie, which includes Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, should be all kinds of awesome. Especially since it’s not another origin story!
Star Dane DeHaan (left), director Luc Besson (center) and star Cara Delevingne team up for EuropaCorp's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Credit: Daniel Smith
VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF THOUSAND PLANETS (July 21): Here’s an adaptation of a French graphic novel that was tremendously successful in its native land. See comments about “Ghost in the Shell” above.
THE DARK TOWER (July 28): I grew bored with the Dark Tower series of books, which no doubt marks me as a heretic among Stephen King fans. Don’t hate on me, Roland Deschain lovers, just go see this adaptation of the first book, The Gunslinger.
BLADE RUNNER 2049 (Oct. 6): If there was ever a movie that manifestly does not need a sequel, it’s Blade Runner. Yet here we are. Oh well, it’s always nice to see Harrison Ford.
KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE (Oct. 6): This movie is outrunning its source material; the graphic novel Kingsman: The Secret Service (on which the first movie was based) doesn’t yet have a sequel. That’s because there’s not much more to say, which is kinda how I feel about the movie, too.
THOR: RAGNAROK (Nov. 3): OK, everybody knows that “Ragnarok” is the Norse myth where everybody dies, right? And that Hulk and Dr. Strange are guest starring? And that Marvel superhero Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) is introduced? And that Cate Blanchett – yes, Cate Blanchett – is playing Hela, the Goddess of Death? So, yeah, this should be fun.
JUSTICE LEAGUE (Nov. 17): Please don’t suck. Please don’t suck. Please don’t suck.
STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII (Dec. 15): It appears there will be a new Star Wars movie every December for the rest of our lives. No complaints here!
THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN (Dec. 22): They can rebuild him. They have the technology. They can make him better than he was. Better, stronger, faster. But in the age of Iron Man, do we really need him?
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Replies
Star Dane DeHaan (left), director Luc Besson (center) and star Cara Delevingne team up for EuropaCorp's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.
Cara Delevingne played June Moone/Enchantress in Suicide Squad.
THE DARK TOWER (July 28): I grew bored with the Dark Tower series of books, which no doubt marks me as a heretic among Stephen King fans. Don’t hate on me, Roland Deschain lovers, just go see this adaptation of the first book, The Gunslinger.
I got bored with it half-way through the first book. I'm a big Stephen King fan, but have concluded that everything he does is not in my wheelhouse. The movie should be interesting, though.
And that Hulk and Dr. Strange are guest starring?
Hence the Banner year.
{runs and hides}
Bwah-ha-ha!
Doctor Hmmm? said:
Put me down for three:
King Kong
Alien
Star Wars
Universal of course had a shared universe in the 1940s: all of their monsters ran into Abbott and Costello. Except the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and he probably would have joined the club if they hadn't been let go from their contracts while his series was still running.
Many of the Universal Monsters met each other in the House of Frankenstein & House of Dracula movies before going on to meet Abbott & Costello, so the "Universal Universe" was there before it was strictly played for laughs. I would have loved another "House of" movie with a Mummy and an Invisible Man added to the mix.
Ronald Morgan said:
The first team up was Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman. Then somebody decided if two monsters were good more would be better. The Mummy and the Invisible Man were supposed to be in House of Dracula and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein but got cut for budget reasons. The closest we got to either of them turning up in a movie with Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolfman was the Invisible Man cameo by Vincent Price at the end of the Bud and Lou film. House of Dracula was advertised as including "The Hunchback", which actually turned out to be the doctor's nurse. They had planned to call it House of the Wolfman, but Dracula had a bigger name. For a movie called House of Dracula, Drac gets killed off pretty early in it.
I have the Universal "Complete 30 Classic Horror Movie" collection and it's interesting that they include Bud and Lou meeting Frankenstein, the Invisible Man, and the Mummy, (as well as She Wolf of London and the comedy Invisible Woman) but not Abbott and Costello Meet Jekyll and Hyde, despite it being a Universal movie with Boris Karloff in it. Apparently since they didn't make a serious Jekyll and Hyde film they didn't count that one. They also don't count Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, which also had Boris Karloff in it.
Fascinating that Bela Lugosi is identified with Dracula when he only played the actual character (he played many vampire like characters, but those tended to turn out to be Nazis) in two movies.
That "Hunchback" business seemed like it bordered on false advertising for that movie, altho it's hard to imagine a way to get someone more like Quasimodo into House of Dracula, altho a permanently Invisible Man could have shown up looking for a cure from Dr. Edelman just like the Wolfman & Dracula did. Funny, I keep forgetting that Mr. Hyde was never really a Universal Monster, but Larry Talbot filled the Henry Jekyll role anyway.
Ronald Morgan said:
Ronald Morgan said:
He first played the role on stage. The Browning film is said to be based on the stage version.
He also played the role in a 1933 Hollywood On Parade short (no. 11 in this set, from about 4 min. 20 sec.).
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