Over the next two weeks, we're going to be previewing 100 of 2022's best movies. We end today with the big-hitters, the blockbusters...
Over the next two weeks, we're going to be previewing 100 of 2022's best movies. We end today with the big-hitters, the blockbusters...
Avatar 2
Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Edie Falco, Michelle Yeoh, Jemaine Clement, Cliff Curtis, Kate Winslet, Sigourney Weaver
Director: James Cameron
Release Date: December 16th
Originally due for release all the way back in 2014, 2022 finally looks set to be the year when James Cameron's sequel to the second biggest movie in cinema history arrives.
This time, we pick up with Jake Sully and Neytiri in Pandora and discover that they have formed a family and are doing anything to stay together.
However, they are forced to leave their home and explore the different regions of Pandora; when an old threat returns to finish what they started.
This is the first of Cameron's four planned sequels which are due in 2024, 2026 and 2028.
Jurassic World: Dominion
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeff Goldblum, Omar Sy, Jake Johnson, Justice Smith, Sam Neill, Laura Dern
Director: Colin Trevorrow
Release Date: June 10th
After some Covid related delays, the follow-up to 2018's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom hits in the summer of 2022.
Set four years after Fallen Kingdom, dinosaurs are now living out in the world and we're all dealing with the consequences...
Dominion sees Colin Trevorrow return to direct the third instalment of the trilogy that began with Jurassic World.
Trevorrow has written the script with Emily Carmichael, having composed the story with regular writing partner Derek Connolly.
Top Gun: Maverick
Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Ed Harris
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Release Date: May 27th
It’s been talked about for decades and was due in summer of 2020, but it'll now be gliding onto screens in the summer of 2022.
Top Gun was released in 1986 and starred Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer and Kelly McGillis and told the story of a group of students at the United States Navy's elite fighter weapons school, who compete to be best in the class.
Joseph Kosinski, best known for directing Tron: Legacy, takes charge of the sequel, which sees Cruise and Kilmer return, with Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell
and Ed Harris joining the cast.
The film takes place 34 years after the events of the original and pits Cruise's gifted, but cocky Peter "Maverick" Mitchell as the new flight instructor of Top Gun, in which he guides Bradley, son of his one-time best friend Goose, who seeks to become an aviator much as his father was.
Mission: Impossible 7
Starring: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Release Date: September 30th
After the rapturous reception for Mission: Impossible Fallout, Paramount have ordered two new instalments of the Tom Cruise led franchise, the first of which will debut in November.
Plot details are scant indeed, but we do know that Cruise Ethan Hunt will be facing down Esai Morales as the film's key villain.
Let the sparks fly...
Babylon
Starring: Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Katherine Waterston, Max Minghella, Flea, Samara Weaving, Tobey Maguire, Olivia Wilde
Director: Damien Chazelle
Release Date: December 26th
Damien Chazelle, after his trip to space with First Man, returns to Earth with Babylon, a story set in old Hollywood.
With a very starry cast, the film is set in the late 1920s during the movie industry’s transition from silent films to talkies and has been described as “The Great Gatsby on steroids.”
Lightyear
Starring: Chris Evans
Director: Angus MacLane
Release Date: Summer 2022
The most beloved of Pixar's adventures gets an origin story as it charts the origin story of Buzz Lightyear, the space ranger who inspired the toy that played such a key role in the Toy Story franchise.
Chris Evans voices Lightyear, while Angus MacLane, co-director on Finding Dory is in charge of this one.
The synopsis for the film reads as follows: "The sci-fi action-adventure presents the definitive origin story of Buzz Lightyear — the hero who inspired the toy — introducing the legendary Space Ranger who would win generations of fans."
John Wick: Chapter 4
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Lance Reddick, Donnie Yen, Rina Sawayama, Shamier Anderson, Bill Skarsgård, Clancy Brown, Ian McShane
Director: Chad Stahelski
Release Date: May 27th
The follow-up to 2019's hit third instalment, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, will arrive in the spring of 2022.
Plot details are non-existent at the moment, but we'll pick up with John Wick on his knees after the High Table has turned its back on him. It's unlikely he'll stay down for long...
For the new film, singer Rina Sawayama joins the cast, along with Hiroyuki Sanada, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård, Shamier Anderson and Scott Adkins.
The Woman King
Starring: Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, John Boyega, Adrienne Warren, Sheila Atim, Jayme Lawson
Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Release Date: September 16th
Gina Prince-Bythewood, director of The Old Guard and Beyond The Lights, stewards this historical epic.
Set in the Kingdom of Dahomey, which is part of modern-day Benin, Davis plays Nanisca, the general of the all-female military unit, who meets Nawi, an ambitious recruit.
Together, the pair fight enemies who have violated their honour, enslaved their people, and threatened to destroy everything they have lived for.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Mads Mikkelsen, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Callum Turner, Jude Law
Director: David Yates
Release Date: April 8th
After some production delays, the follow-up to 2018's Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald drops in April.
This time, we find ourselves in the 1930s and following the Wizarding World's involvement in World War II.
With Grindelwald's power rapidly growing, Albus Dumbledore entrusts Newt Scamander and his friends on a mission that will lead to a clash with Grindelwald's army, and will lead Dumbledore to ponder how long he will stay on the sidelines in the approaching war.
The character of Gellert Grindelwald, the dark wizard and key villain of the series, who was portrayed by Johnny Depp in the first two movies, will be played by Mads Mikkelsen in this new film.
Death On The Nile
Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Tom Bateman, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Rose Leslie, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Saunders, Letitia Wright
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Release date: February 11th
After the huge success of Murder On The Orient Express, 2020 will see Kenneth Branagh return as Agatha Christie's magnificently moustached detective Hercule Poirot and to the director’s chair.
Set during a luxurious cruise on the Nile River, Death On The Nile turns into another classic Christie whodunnit when a murder is discovered on board.
Gal Gadot will play Linnet Ridgeway Doyle, a rich heiress who marries a man who had previously been engaged to her best friend, a decision that brings dire consequences…
