So Long, Summer: 2016 Fall & Winter Movie Preview

A lot of us are doing Back to School shopping, so like it or not, summer is drawing to a close.

Suicide Squad just overcame a critical keel-hauling with box office gold, and it feels like that’s going to pretty much act as the capstone on the summer movie-going season. Latecomers Sausage Party, Pete’s Dragon, Hell or High Water and Hands of Stone could all see some sleeper success, while Ben-Hur is destined for disaster.

So what’s next? Looking ahead to the fall and winter months, I have to say, it doesn’t exactly look like the most awe-inspiring autumn, let alone Christmas. Unquestionably, films are going to surface we didn’t see coming, but as it stands now, there’s less than ten films that look cool enough to lure me into the theater. It’s a surprisingly short list this year.

The Magnificent Seven  (9/23) – Most remakes are just a cash-grab, but this 21^st Century Tombstone from Antoine Fuqua feels like the real McCoy, and seems likely to continue Chris Pratt’s winning streak. Note that these are all different characters than we saw in the Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner classic.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (9/30) – This feels like the return of the real Tim Burton – a surreal tale of misfits and outcasts. It’s sure coming out at the right time of the year.

Birth of a Nation (10/07) – by all accounts, Nate Parker’s Sundance triumph about slavery in the South is the film of the moment and seems destined to win Best Picture. But it’s still really early and Toronto hasn’t even happened yet. But as of now, Birth is the front-runner.

The Girl on the Train (10/07) – This Emily Blunt mystery was a massive best-seller and has already been tagged as this years’ Gone Girl. Fall’s a great time for a smart, moody thriller, and Blunt’s been picking ‘em really well.

Doctor Strange (11/04) – I love all the ingredients here. The Marvel Universe, I loved the comic, Cumberbatch is awesome – but that first trailer is a little too Inception lite, and we need a bigger sense of the supernatural forces at play here. Hopefully a stupendous trailer’s just around the corner. Marvel so rarely stumbles, and I want this one to be worthy.

Arrival (11/11) – Denis Villeneuve’s first sci-fi film before embarking on Blade Runner 2? Count me as interested! Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. Villeneuve is an astonishing talent, so here’s hoping this doesn’t end up being The Invasion. 

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (11/18) – Harry Potter is back in bookstores again, and the winter months have always been very welcoming to J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world. Here’s to new characters and environments agreeing with audiences.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (12/16) – Reshoots be damned, this is the Mt. Everest of the holiday season. Disney is banking on December lightning striking twice, and director Gareth Edwards could sure use some love. It’s hard to imagine anything dampening my enthusiasm for this unique Dirty Dozen take on that galaxy far, far away. Plus, two words: Darth Vader.

Passengers (12/21) – More sci-fi, from John Spaihts' 2007 Black List story, tagged as one of the best unproduced scripts of the year. Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt star as two voyagers on an interstellar colony ship. Hundreds of travelers are in suspended animation for a journey lasting over a century. When Pratt somehow wakes up early, he decides to thaw out a companion, rather than endure a lifetime of solitude. Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game) directs.

That's about it! I'm sure there will be other standouts yet to emerge, but from where I'm sitting here in August, these are the ones I'm most intrigued by.