The past year turned out to be an incredible 12 months for cinema, with record breakers, the return of long-running franchises, and surprise blockbusters.
But as always, Hollywood will be hoping for another great year and with our pick of the below 18 films we’re sure it will be, with black superheroes, teen know-it-alls, violent ice skaters, and the final Fifty Shades Of Grey film…
Black Panther:
Is there any film more anticipated in 2018 than Marvel’s Black Panther?
Hot on the heels of DC’s Wonder Woman, the first female superhero film of the current crop of superhero films, Black Panther will finally give movie fans their first black superhero.
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Following the events of Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther – also known as King T’challa – has returned to his technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to serve as his country’s new leader.
However, trouble ensues when two foes conspire to destroy Wakanda.
Marvel will be holding their breath on the weekend of release but considering reactions to the trailer, they’ve already got a hit on their hands.
Black Panther is currently scheduled for 13 February 2018
The Post:
Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, and Tom Hanks. What more could you want from a New Year’s movie? How about some freedom of the press, and the story of how one woman helped to uncover a scandal that had been covered up by four U.S. Presidents?
The film has received rave reviews from critics, including Metro.co.uk which called it ‘particularly timely’ with director Spielberg not only underlining ‘the gravity of what is at stake, he gives it the tension of a Hitchcock thriller’.
The Post is currently scheduled for 19 January 2018
Ready Player One:
Ready Player One may just have us all heading to the cinemas on opening night to find out if Tye Sheridan really does have extraordinarily long legs as the poster suggests.
Also directed by Steven Spielberg – it’s a big year for the 71-year-old – the film, based on Ernie Cline’s novel and full of eighties pop culture references, is set in a dystopian world where Wade Watts (Sheridan) spends as much time as possible in a virtual world known as OASIS and goes by his avatar name of Parzival.
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The creator of OASIS, James Donovan Halliday (played by Mark Rylance), died several years earlier and in his will he revealed that he had created a treasure hunt inside the virtual world and the winner will not only inherit his billions but also control of the OASIS.
Ready Player One is currently scheduled for release for 30 March 2018
Solo: A Star Wars Story:
The second Star Wars spin-off has a lot riding on its shoulders.
Based on Harrison Ford’s iconic and beloved character of Han Solo, the film will not only have the beady eyes of fans pouring over it for inaccuracies and character traits, but it has also been hit with numerous issues, not least the firing of directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller just weeks before the end of production.
Acclaimed – and trusted – director Ron Howard then stepped in to finish off the shoot.
The news sent shock waves through the film industry – firing a director is not uncommon, except for when it is done so close to the end of production – but insiders claimed that star Alden Ehrenreich, who is taking on the younger version of Han, was particularly worried and had gone to LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy over concerns that ‘Lord & Miller’s screwball comedy angle was starting to interfere with what the character is really about’.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is currently scheduled for 25 May 2018
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri:
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After debuting at film festivals throughout 2017, UK audiences will finally get the chance to see what all the fuss is about when Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is released in January.
A dark tale about one woman’s battle with local police to get her daughter’s murder solved, the film has received praise and then backlash and then more praise.
What is certain though is the acclaim Frances McDormand has received for her portrayal of Mildred Hayes, who has been left torn apart by her daughter’s murder and devastated by the lack of action being taken.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is currently scheduled for 19 January 2018.
Fifty Shades Freed:
Whatever you may think of the Fifty Shades Of Grey series, you have to admit that it has struck a chord with many, many cinemagoers.
The franchise is the most successful 18-rated movie franchise in UK box office history, with the first two films taking the top two spots on the box office chart; Fifty Shades Of Grey has earned £35 million since its release on Valentines Day weekend in 2015 while Fifty Shades Darker, the sequel which was released on February 10 2017 earned £22.69 million in the first four weeks of release.
Fifty Shades Freed will see Anastasia Steele begin to question her husband Christian Grey’s controlling nature and events begin to very much spiral out of control – especially when her former boss Jack Hyde returns to get revenge.
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The third – and final – film will inevitably also rake in millions but will it pip the first film in box office receipts?
Fifty Shades Darker is currently scheduled for release for 9 February 2018
A Wrinkle In Time:
In a world of cinema that still lacks female-centric films, thank God for the upcoming A Wrinkle In Time.
The much-anticipated feature film adaptation of Madeline L’Engle beloved novel, it stars Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, and Mindy Kaling and follows 13-year-old Meg Murry (Storm Reid) who works with her brother, classmate, and three astral travelers to save her father, who is being held captive on a distant planet which under attack from an evil being who appears as a large dark cloud called The Black Thing.
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Directed by Ava DuVernay, the film has all the makings of a box office hit and Disney will be hoping that the wonder of the trailers translates to the full length feature film.
A Wrinkle In Time is currently scheduled for release for 23 March 2018.
Oceans 8:
Ocean’s 8 has all the meninists out in force so of bloody course this one was going to end up on our list.
A sequel to George Clooney’s Ocean’s 11 – itself a remake of the Frank Sinatra classic – Ocean’s 8 stars Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Rihanna, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina and Helena Bonham Carter as seven women who come together for a big old-fashioned heist at the Met Gala.
Can Ocean’s 8 perform better than the 2016 all-female Ghostbusters? God, let’s hope so.
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Ocean’s 8 is currently scheduled for 22 June 2018
New Mutants:
It can at times feel like every single movie being released is a superhero / comic book movie but finally we may just have one that breathes new life into the genre.
Especially the X-Men series.
New Mutants follows five young adults who are held in a secret facility against their will leading to the discovery that they are, in fact, mutants. Featuring up and comers Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, Charlie Heaton, Henry Zaga, and Blu Hunt, the film is being helmed by Josh Boone – who directed Stuck In Love and The Fault In Our Stars and so is au fait when it comes to teen drama.
New Mutants is currently scheduled for 11 April 2018
Ant-Man And The Wasp:
Speaking of superhero movies… 2015’s Ant-Man was one of several new heroes introduced to the MCU as Phase Two drew to a close and some of the old favourites began to see their stories wind down.
It was warmly received and no one was surprised when it got the greenlight for a sequel – this time with Evangeline Lilly’s Hope van Dyne (aka Wasp) getting involved in the mission with Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man.
Can the sequel match the success of the first one? It’s directed once again again by Peyton Manning, but with a new team of writers, they’ve certainly got their work cut out.
Ant-Man And The Wasp is currently scheduled for release for 3 August 2018
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Mary Poppins Returns:
In 2018 it will have been 54 years since Julie Andrews first swept into the lives of Jane and Michael Banks as Mary Poppins, but the Nanny who always suggests a spoonful of sugar is back, and this time Emily Blunt is stepping into her shoes.
Much has been made of the decision to make this movie, a sequel to the original which is so beloved by many the world over. But with Emily Blunt on board, as well as the man-who-can-do-no-wrong Lin-Manuel Miranda, hopes are indeed higher than Uncle Albert when he tells a joke.
Mary Poppins Returns is currently scheduled for 21 December 2018
Venom:
Tom Hardy in a Marvel film? Yes please.
The British actor takes on the lead role in a superhero film for the first time, although Venom is of course an anti-hero, working with and against superheroes.
Intended as the first film in Sony’s Marvel Universe, adjunct to the MCU, the film is also a spin-off from the Spider-Man series – Venom, also known as Eddie Brock, appeared in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3, played by Topher Grace, although we never met him as his alter-ego.
Venom is currently scheduled for release for 5 October 2018
All The Money In The World:
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One of the more intriguing entries for 2018, All The Money In The World is the Ridley Scott film that he reshot weeks after Kevin Spacey was accused by many different men of sexual assault and harassment.
Spacey’s role as J. Paul Getty was considered supporting and many thought the reshoot would focus on key scenes but when it finally screened to critics, several things become apparent – that the character was in fact major role, that Spacey’s replacement, Christopher Plummer, had given one of his best performances ever, and that Scott was one heck of a filmmaker for pulling off this feat.
All The Money In The World is currently scheduled for release for 5 January 2018.
I, Tonya:
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Based on the absolutely batshit insane true story, I, Tonya follows the life of former figure skating champion Tonya Harding who was part of a conspiracy to attack rival skater Nancy Kerrigan, to stop her competing at the 1994 Winter Olympics.
If that doesn’t get you in the cinema, what will?
I, Tonya is currently scheduled for release for 20 February 2018
AquaMan:
Ezra Miller’s The Flash may have been the star of 2017’s Justice League but Jason Momoa’s AquaMan will be the first member of the DC Superhero team to get his own film in 2018.
But will it be the box office smash and critical darling Wonder Woman was – or will it falter like every other DC Warner Bros film has done so far?
Momoa has a strong presence and commanded the screen easily against the likes of Ben Affleck in Justice League; in fact ne of his final scenes with the League is a brilliantly hilarious moment and truly offers some real hope for the stand alone film.
AquaMan is currently scheduled for release for 21 December 2018.
Bohemian Rhapsody:
Whether Bohemian Rhapsody will even get a release in 2018 is still up in the air but for now, studio 20th Century Fox have the much-troubled Queen biopic set for a December release.
The film has gone through a number of cast and crew changes since being announced seven years ago but in 2017 it finally seemed like things were on track, with Emmy award winner Rami Malek taking on the role of icon Freddie Mercury and X-Men director Bryan Singer sitting in the director’s chair.
By early December though, production was halted and days later Singer was fired, ‘reflecting a growing clash between Singer and Malek’ as well as rash on-set behaviour from Singer and regular no-shows on set.
Days later, two months after the allegations against Harvey Weinstein were published, Singer was forced to ‘categorically denied’ claims that he raped a 17-year-old boy in 2003.
Despite the issues the film has had, production continued with the hiring of Dexter Fletcher as director, and as the film has the blessing of the remaining members of Queen – Brian May is an executive producer – this should be an interesting one to watch.
Bohemian Rhapsody is currently scheduled for release for 28 December 2018
Lady Bird:
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One of the most critically acclaimed films of 2017, yet Lady Bird won’t even be released in the UK until February.
The film – which has received three SAG nominations and four Golden Globe nominations and looks set to be a hit at the Baftas and Oscars – is an early 2000s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale that follows Saoirse Ronan’s 17-year-old precocious high schooler and her turbulent relationship with her mother (Laurie Metcalf) who is trying to keep the family together.
Lady Bird became the best-reviewed film on Rotten Tomatoes, taking over from Toy Story 2 as the movie with the most consecutive Fresh reviews and zero Rotten reviews against it.
Reason enough to go and find out what all the fuss is about.
Lady Bird is currently scheduled for release for 16 February 2018
Avengers: Infinity War:
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This is it, the Big One.
All the Marvel superheroes we’ve come to know and love since Iron Man was released in 2008 will collide in a huge battle to stop Thanos in his quest to collect all the Infinity Stones.
Given that this is the first of a two-parter film, we have a feeling Thanos is going to achieve his goal in this one to set up the sequel nicely, and while this is clearly a play to take all our money – Marvel can have it.
Avengers: Infinity War is currently scheduled for release for 27 April 2018
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