12 SF, Horror and Fantasy Movies To Look Forward To For 2016

2016: Films for Your Diary. Or Not

♦ Jack Graves takes a  quick tour of films that may, or may not, make your New Year 

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Set between ‘Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith’ and ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ (but closer to the latter), a group of rebels attempt to steal the plans for the Death Star. They need to get rid of this Death Star obsession IMHO.  Started filming on July 1st, 2015 at Pinewood Studios, London, and it’s rumoured that Peter Cushing will be digitally resurrected as Grand Moff Tarkin. Josh Trank was originally slated to direct but was let go by Disney, because Trank clashed with producers during the filming of ‘Fantastic Four’ – also produced by Simon Kinberg. *sad trombone*

Release Date: December 16 2016

Patient Zero

Matt Smith (Doctor Who) takes on a leading role in ‘Patient Zero’ alongside ‘’ star Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones) and veteran Stanley Tucci.  After an unprecedented global pandemic has turned the majority of humankind into violent “Infected,” a man gifted with the ability to speak the Infected’s new language leads the last survivors on a hunt for Patient Zero and a cure.

Release Date: 2 September 2016

Warcraft

Telling the story of the initial encounters between humans and orcs, the film emphasizes the Alliance’s and the Horde’s sides of their conflict. It’s an adaptation of an incredibly violent video game: what’s not to like?

The Space Between Us 

‘The Space Between Us’ is an unusual beast: a sci-fi romance. ’Ender’s Game’ star Asa Butterfield plays a sixteen-year-old boy who grows up on Mars and falls in love with a girl on Earth (Britt Robertson of ‘Tomorrowland’), whom he has been communicating with. The film is the story of his journey to see her.

Release Date: 29 July 29 2016

Passengers

Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt star in this story about a malfunction on a spacecraft traveling to a colony planet and transporting thousands of people that awakens a passenger 60 years too early. Faced with the prospect of growing old and dying alone, he eventually decides to wake up a second passenger.

Release Date: 21 December  2016

Moana

Walt Disney Animation Studios introduce a new Princess to inspire/exploit young girls, in this computer-animated musical fantasy set in the ancient South Pacific. Moana Waialiki, a sea voyaging enthusiast and natural-born navigator from a long line of navigators teams up with the demigod Maui in search of a fabled island. Based on the real mythology of the Pacific Islanders the film features the vocal talents of newcomer Auli’i Cravalho, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Alan Tudyk. WWE fans know the Rock himself is descended from Pacific Islanders and takes his heritage very seriously. Lin-Manuel Miranda of ‘In The Heights’ and ‘Hamilton’ fame writes the film’s songs  

Release Date: 23 November 2016

Kubo and the Two Strings

Kubo lives a quiet, normal life in a small shoreside village until a spirit from the past turns his life upside down by re-igniting an age-old vendetta. This causes all sorts of havoc as gods and monsters chase Kubo who, in order to survive, must locate a magical suit of armor once worn by his late father, a legendary Samurai warrior. Stop-motion animation specialists Laika Entertainment delivered hits such as  ‘Coraline’, ‘ParaNorman’, and ‘The Boxtrolls’. Features the voices of Matthew McConaughey, Charlize Theron, Rooney Mara, Ralph Fiennes, and George Takei. Oh my!

Release Date: 19 August 2016

Independence Day: Resurgence

Like it or hate it, the likely 5000lb gorilla in the SF room is this sequel to ‘Independence Day’. Two decades after the first Independence Day invasion, Earth is faced with a new extra-terrestrial threat. But will mankind’s new space defenses be enough? Jeff Goldblum and the rest of the crew are back – can President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman) defeat the alien threat? Does Mac OSX interface to alien technology in the incredibly convenient way that original Mac OS did?  Will Windows 10 show up? 20th Century Fox tell us: 

We always knew they were coming back. After ‘Independence Day’ redefined the event movie genre, the next epic chapter delivers global spectacle on an unimaginable scale. Using recovered alien technology, the nations of Earth have collaborated on an immense defense program to protect the planet. But nothing can prepare us for the aliens’ advanced and unprecedented force. Only the ingenuity of a few brave men and women can bring our world back from the brink of extinction.

Release Date: 24 June 24 2016

The Witch 

Lots of  buzz from Sundance about this film:

New England, 1630: William and Katherine lead a devout Christian life, homesteading on the edge of an impassible wilderness, with five children. When their newborn son mysteriously vanishes and their crops fail, the family begins to turn on one another. ‘The Witch’ is a chilling portrait of a family unraveling within their own fears and anxieties, leaving them prey for an inescapable evil.

With Scott Snyder and Jock’s Witches getting such positive press, possibly Wiccans are the new black, sorry, zombies, for 2016.

Release 26 Date: February 2016

Ghostbusters

Starring Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones the film was signed off by Dan Aykroyd after years protecting this franchise/ being a dog-in-the-manger (depending on your point of view).  Directed by the man best known to you as Mr. Eugene Pool in Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Paul Feig, this will rock or shock. Or both. I’m sure we are all waiting with bated breath.

Release Date: 15 July 2016

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them

The adventures of writer Newt Scamander in New York’s secret community of witches and wizards seventy years before Harry Potter reads his book in school. No Potter, but  Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander explores the Potterverse and travels to America sending the magical community into crisis when a magical creature escapes in the New York City of 1926.  J K Rowling’s screenwriting debut. Which is nice.

Release Date: 18 November 2016

Gods of Egypt

Alex Proyas (Dark City) directs this goofy looking epic starring Gerard Butler and Rufus Sewell. A young thief battles the evil god Set (played by Scot Gerard Butler) with the aid of fellow god Horus (Nikolaj Costa-Waldau from Game of Thrones). Proyas’s first film since 2009’s Knowing but it may be an entertaining mythic rollercoaster ride like Clash of The Titans. We can hope.

Release Date: 26 February 2016