After months-long closures, audiences could experience movies on the big screen possibly in August.
It still promises to be a banner year for big-screen experiences as Unhinged starring Russell Crowe is set to be the first theatrical release post-pandemic, with Mulan, Tenet, and Bill & Ted Face the Music following closely behind.
Christopher Nolan has always been vocal about his preference for traditional theatrical experiences and the importance of films being shown on large screens. In an essay for the Washington Post, the director writes, “I hope that people are seeing our exhibition community for what it really is: a vital part of social life, providing jobs for many and entertainment for all.”
Almost every movie has had its release date pushed back due to the pandemic. Here’s a list of new dates which, in some cases, are currently scheduled as early as July. Dates are subject to change and we’ll update our movie listing page as new information becomes available.
Unhinged
Starring: Russell Crowe, Caren Pistorious, Jimmi Simspon
Director: Derrick Borte
Release Date: July 31, 2020
A psychological thriller that takes something we've all experienced - road rage - to an unpredictable and terrifying game of cat and mouse. Rachel (Caren Pistorius) is running late getting to work when she crosses paths with a stranger (Russell Crowe) at a traffic light. Soon, Rachel finds herself and everyone she loves the target of a man who feels invisible and eager to teach her a series of deadly lessons.
Mulan
Starring: Liu Yifei, Donnie Yen, Jason Scott Lee
Director: Niki Caro (The Zookeeper’s Wife)
New Release Date: August 21, 2020
Disney’s focus on making live-action versions of its animated films has not only proven profitable and entertaining for audiences, but it’s also allowed the 96-year-old studio to redress cultural stereotypes found in its earlier films.
Here, an all-Asian lead cast assembles for a remake of the 1998 film that is being touted as a big-budget martial arts epic that showcases female empowerment. Director Niki Caro oversees the film, which casts Liu Yifei as Hua Mulan, who disguises herself as a young man to serve in the Imperial Army in place of her ailing father (Tzi Ma).
Tenet
Starring: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Michael Caine
Director: Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk)
New Release Date: TBA
One of the film’s stars, Robert Pattinson, had to be locked alone in a room before he was allowed to see the script for Tenet, so do you really think you’re going to get a rich and pithy plot synopsis here before it hits theatres? Nope.
What we can tell you is that director Christopher Nolan shot his espionage thriller all over the world — India, Estonia, Denmark, Italy, Norway, the U.S. and the U.K. — using a combination of 70 mm and IMAX film, and with a formidable cast that includes John David Washington, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Debicki.
Bill & Ted Face the Music
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, William Sadler
Director: Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest)
Release Date: August 28, 2020
It’s been three decades since we met “Bill” S. Preston, Esq. (Alex Winter), and “Ted” Theodore Logan (Keanu Reeves), two clueless high school students failing history class who get the opportunity to travel through time, meeting historical figures like Lincoln, Napoleon and Joan of Arc, with the help of a time machine phone booth and a guide named Rufus (the late George Carlin). They ace their history presentation and are told that their terrible band, Wyld Stallyns, is fated to write a song so great it saves the world.
Well, Bill and Ted are now middle-aged, and that world-saving song has yet to be written.
This trilogy — following Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991) — has long been in the works, and a couple of years ago co-writer Ed Solomon said the script had the older Bill and Ted going back in time to meet their younger selves through footage from the old movies. We don’t know if that idea stuck, but we sure hope so!
A Quiet Place Part II
Starring: Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Djimon Hounsou
Director: John Krasinski (A Quiet Place)
New Release Date: September 4, 2020
John Krasinski returns to the director’s chair for the highly anticipated follow-up to the hit 2018 post-apocalyptic horror film. The second installment picks up right where the first film ended, following the surviving members of the Abbott family (Emily Blunt, Noah Jupe and Millicent Simmonds) as they struggle with grief and the terrors of the outside world. And through flashbacks, audiences will finally learn how the world went silent. A Quiet Place Part II promises just as many, if not more, edge-of-your-seat moments than the first chapter.
Related: In this episode of Hello Movies, John Krasinski shares his unique directorial and writerly perspective on hiding from those creepy giant spider things in A Quiet Place Part II.
Candyman
Starring: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett
Director: Nia DaCosta
New Release Date: October 16, 2020
With help from director-producer extraordinaire Jordan Peele (Get Out, Us), rising talent Nia DaCosta co-writes and directs this reimagining of the 1992 horror classic Candyman for a contemporary audience. A “spiritual sequel” to the first film, this new Candyman returns to the neighborhood where the legend began: the now-gentrified section of Chicago where the Cabrini-Green housing projects once stood. This marks DaCosta’s first feature film but judging by all the praise Peele has been giving her in the media, this won’t be her last.
Wonder Woman 1984
Starring: Gal Gadot, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal
Director: Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman)
New Release Date: October 2, 2020
The new film is set during the Cold War, and Diana Prince, a.k.a. Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) is reportedly working as an American spy against the Soviet Union. And, surprise! Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), a First World War pilot and her love interest in the first film, seems to be alive and well despite the fact he was killed at the end of the initial story.
Could it be that Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal), a metahuman with the ability to control minds, is fooling the criminal into seeing him? Kristen Wiig plays the villain Cheetah. There have been different versions of the Cheetah character in the Wonder Woman canon, and this one is heiress and archaeologist Barbara Ann Minerva, who transforms into Cheetah after undergoing a tribal ritual.
The French Dispatch
Starring: Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Elisabeth Moss, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand
Director: Wes Anderson (Isle of Dogs)
New Release Date: October 16, 2020
Wes Anderson’s latest ensemble dramedy—his tenth film—was scheduled to premiere in the summer but will now hit theaters in the fall. Although the trailer is enigmatic, what we do know about The French Dispatch is that it’s “a love letter to journalists set at an outpost of an American newspaper in 20th century Paris.”
The film stars the usual A-list collaborators: Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand and Jason Schwartzman, while stars of the moment Timothée Chalamet (Little Women) and Elizabeth Moss (The Invisible Man) make their Anderson debut. If there’s one thing we can bet on, it’s that this quirky film will live up to the hype.
Black Widow
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour
Director: Cate Shortland (Berlin Syndrome)
New Release Date: November 6, 2020
Scarlett Johansson debuted the role of Natasha Romanoff, the former KGB assassin turned SHIELD operative, in 2010’s Iron Man 2 and established herself as Black Widow, the sole female member of the original Avengers. She finally gets her own pic, a mid-sequel set just after the events of 2016’s Captain America: Civil War that finds Romanoff devasted after the Avengers rift and grappling with her dark past. David Harbour portrays Russian super soldier Red Guardian; Rachel Weisz stars as seasoned spy Melina; and Florence Pugh is Yelena, who is like a sister to the emotionally fragile Romanoff.
No Time to Die
Starring: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Ana de Armas
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga (Jane Eyre)
New Release Date: November 20, 2020
What will we do without those abs and piercing blue eyes? This 25th Bond film marks Daniel Craig’s fifth and final outing as superspy 007, and we expect he’ll go out with a bang rather than a whimper.
Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, and co-written by Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the film finds the retired Bond living a quiet life in Jamaica when his old pal and CIA operative Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) calls on him to help locate a missing scientist, hurtling the former secret agent into the orbit of nasty villain Safin (Rami Malek).
Free Guy
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jodi Comer, Lil Rel Howery, Joe Keery, Taika Waititi
Director: Shawn Levy (Reel Steel)
New Release Date: December 11, 2020
Shawn Levy’s epic adventure-comedy begs the ol’ question: Is this real life or is this just fantasy? In Free Guy, Ryan Reynolds plays Guy, a bank teller who quickly discovers he’s merely a background player in an open-world video game. In true Reynolds fashion, hilarity ensues as he races against time to save the game before the developers can shut it down.
Also bringing copious amounts of action and comedy on screen are Jodie Comer (Killing Eve), Joe Keery (Stranger Things), Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit), and notorious scene-stealer Lil Rel who, without a doubt, will have us in stitches within the first half-hour.
Dune
Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson
Director: Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049)
Release Date: December 18, 2020
Frank Herbert’s beloved 1965 novel about a family who moves to the inhospitable planet of Arrakis (a.k.a. Dune) to manage harvesting of “spice” has topped many lists of the all-time greatest science-fiction novels, and it has long been Canadian director Denis Villeneuve’s dream to give it another shot. Here, he casts Timothée Chalamet as that intrepid family’s son Paul Atreides (played by Kyle MacLachlan in the first film); Oscar Isaac as Paul’s father, Duke Leto Atreides; and Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica.
We’re rooting for them, especially since this is just the initial film of Villeneuve’s planned two-part adaptation of Herbert’s novel.
Top Gun: Maverick
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Val Kilmer, Miles Teller
Director: Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion)
New Release Date: December 23, 2020
Bro culture is alive and well in this long-in-the-works sequel to 1986’s iconic Top Gun, which starred a then 24-year-old Tom Cruise as cocky naval pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, who feels the need…the need for speed.
Now in his fifties and still cocky, Maverick works as a flight instructor and is tasked with training the son (Miles Teller) of his late pal Goose, who died while flying with Maverick all those years ago. Val Kilmer returns as Maverick’s rival turned friend Iceman — he is now a vice admiral — and Jennifer Connolly appears as Maverick’s love interest, a single mom and bar owner. At last year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Cruise said the film is “a love letter to aviation.... I really wanted to give you all an experience of what it’s like to be in that aircraft."
Here are all some additional films you may have been gearing up for that have been pushed until 2021:
Peter Rabbit 2 - January 15, 2021
The Eternals - February 12, 2021
Ghostbusters: Afterlife - March 5, 2021
Morbius - March 19, 2021
F9 - April 2, 2021
Minions: Rise of Gru - July 2, 2021
Jungle Cruise - July 30, 2021
With files from Marni Weisz.