They say there are no certainties in life but death and taxes — but what about film sequels? Round up the bunch coming up in 2007 and you get something resembling the football scores: Spider-Man 3, Fantastic Four 2; Shrek 3, Die Hard 4; Harry Potter 5, Rocky 6; Pirates 3, Bourne 3...
For those uninspired by such formulaic Hollywood fare, there are the perverse pleasures of David Lynch’s Inland Empire (March 9), the story of a love affair between two actors (Justin Theroux and Laura Dern) making a film, and of how fiction and reality melt into each other — or do they? Nothing is what it seems, especially the ending(s). But Lynch fans will be in heaven, as this is his most baffling, mind-boggling film to date.
Another maverick returns in 2007. The Dutch director Paul Verhoeven — the man with RoboCop, Basic Instinct, Total Recall, Starship Troopers and Showgirls on his CV, which is good or bad news, according to your taste — hasn’t made a film for six years. Now he has gone home to co-write and direct Black Book (January 19). Set in Holland during the second world war, it’s the tale of a beautiful young Jewish singer (Carice van Houten) who is moved to join the resistance in the final months of the war. A sexy, thrilling, intelligent return to form.
So, yes, foreign-language films are still contenders — where awards are concerned, at least. And despite the doomsaying about audiences hating subtitles, last year saw box-office bonanzas, relatively speaking, for Michael Haneke’s Hidden and Almodovar’s Volver. This year brings Days of Glory (March 30), an award-laden French film about four north African soldiers in the second world war; and the equally fêted German film The Lives of Others (April 13), set in the early 1980s and depicting the miseries of life in the DDR through the story of an actress and her producer boyfriend, whose lives are scrutinised by the secret police.
What is a foreign-language film these days, anyway? The oddest new trend is that they are now coming from English-speaking directors. Mel Gibson has landed a best foreign-language film nomination (sic) at the Golden Globes for Apocalypto, which is in Yucatec. Scooping similar nominations is Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima (February 23), which is in Japanese. Eastwood deserves points for bravery with this companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers, which presents something we have not seen before: the Japanese point of view on Iwo Jima. Ken Watanabe, from The Last Samurai, stars; the reviews from America are raves. And how do you categorise Babel, the lauded latest from Alejandro Iñarritu (Amores Perros), which uses six languages, and Japanese sign language, as it ties up half-a-dozen story strands, winding between Morocco, the US/Mexican border and Japan? Last year, Borat aside, wasn’t a golden one for comedy; so far, this year doesn’t augur that well, either, though there is Hot Fuzz to look forward to (February 16). This is Edgar Wright’s latest collaboration with Simon Pegg, after the runaway success of Shaun of the Dead. Same premise, though: nice, ordinary Britain isn’t what it seems. This time, Pegg’s policeman (again partnered with the ursine Nick Frost) finds out what lies behind a sleepy village facade. The cream of British comics, from Steve Coogan to Bill Bailey, drop in for cameos. And from that other great comedy stable, Christopher Guest and his virtual rep company, comes For Your Consideration (February 9), a sideways look at the inanities of the film-awards system, with regulars such as Eugene Levy and Harry Shearer. That has to be the movie equivalent of a long suicide note, turned all the way up to 11.
With a cast that includes Eddie Murphy, Jamie Foxx and Beyoncé Knowles, the most anticipated musical of 2007 has to be Dreamgirls (February 2). Based on a successful Broadway production, it tells the story of the rise to stardom of a Supremes-style girl group. It seems Beyoncé (who plays the Diana Ross-alike) can really act, as well as shake her booty. Or so the Golden Globes voters think, having nominated her, along with the much-fancied Jennifer Hudson.
Actors in the director’s chair this year include Emilio Estevez, son of Martin Sheen, who has finally wrestled Bobby (January 26) into the can. Set on the day in 1968 when Bobby Kennedy was shot in an LA hotel kitchen, the film follows the impact the assassination had on the lives of the disparate group of people who witnessed it. Famous faces pop out of the scenery at every turn, Altman-style, from Harry Belafonte and Anthony Hopkins to Sharon Stone and Lindsay Lohan. A must-see. Another thesp behind the camera is Robert De Niro, who has directed The Good Shepherd (February 23), starring Matt Damon as a CIA man whose dedication leads to disaster — not to be confused with Steven Soderbergh’s The Good German (March 9), a cold-war thriller cum film-noir tribute starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett and Tobey Maguire. The film companies for the two releases have already heard all the Good German Shepherd jokes they want to hear, thanks, so I won’t bother.
Transporting us back to Manhattan in the 1960s will be Factory Girl (February 2), about the doomed Edie Sedgwick, model turned muse for Andy Warhol. Early reports indicate a star turn from Sienna Miller as Edie. Guy Pearce does his usual disappearing act into the features of Warhol, and one Billy Quinn, who may or may not be Bob Dylan (the singer has “issues” with the project), is played by Hayden Christensen.
Taking us a little further back, to the late 1950s, is Infamous (January 19), the surprise pleasure of the new year. You might think that the last thing we need is another film on how Truman Capote came to write In Cold Blood, but the director, Doug McGrath, has created a funny, moving account, with the British actor Toby Jones’s Capote outshining even Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Oscar-winning turn. Daniel Craig excels as Perry Smith; Sandra Bullock is superb as Harper Lee. Other outstanding performances are to be found in Blood Diamond (January 26), featuring a back-to-form Leonardo DiCaprio in a robust drama about the diamond trade in Africa. A world away, Peter O’Toole sparkles in Roger Michell’s touching and comic Venus (January 26), as an old thespian who strikes up an unlikely relationship with a teenage girl; a star-studded cast (Vanessa Redgrave, Leslie Phillips, Richard Griffiths) adds to the bittersweet enjoyment. Ditto the adaptation by Richard Eyre of Zoë Heller’s novel Notes on a Scandal, which gives Judi Dench her juiciest role since Eyre last put her at the centre of a film, in Iris. This time, she plays an acid drop of a teacher whose obsession with a colleague (Cate Blanchett) leads to havoc. Dench’s ability to convey poisonous enmity with the inflection of a pencilled eyebrow is still matchless.
Another Brit project with its eye on the prizes is Becoming Jane (March 9), the story, purportedly based on fact, of how Jane Austen’s romance with a young Irish lawyer shaped her sensibility and fuelled her fiction. The American actress Anne Hathaway makes a compelling author; and as her suitor, Laurence Fox, son of James, proves that dynasty still has impressive legs. Be warned: the ending is a three-hankie blub-fest. Critically, British film didn’t do badly last year, with releases as diverse as United 93, The Queen, Deep Water, and the gritty London to Brighton and Red Road. This year, the grit will be provided by Shane Meadows’s This Is England (release date to be confirmed), about 1980s skinheads, which has won a Bifa gong for best British independent film.
Once the awards season has been stretchlimoed away and the summer sequels are just so much stale popcorn, it will be time for weightier stuff again. One of the autumn’s contenders is Atonement (September 14), based on Ian McEwan’s wartime bestseller. The cast is like a who’s who of young British talent: James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Romola Garai, Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Mays and the Ian Charleson award-winner Nonso Anozie, all directed by the excellent Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice).
In the “here’s hoping” department, Ridley Scott pairs up with Russell Crowe yet again for American Gangster (November 9), a 1970s yarn about drug smuggling. The usually bulletproof Denzel Washington is on board, so fingers crossed this time. And the Christmas cracker should be The Golden Compass, the first of a new franchise from New Line based on the Philip Pullman trilogy His Dark Materials. Nicole Kidman plays the wily Mrs Coulter, Daniel Craig is Lord Asriel, Bond girl Eva Green is Serafina and a newcomer, Dakota Blue Richards, is Lyra. For extra kudos, Tom Stoppard is the adaptor. The only unusual note is struck by the choice of director: Chris Weitz, of American Pie notoriety.
