Well, it\u2019s that time of the year again when I write \u201cWell, it\u2019s that time of the year again to look ahead to some of the new movies opening in the UK in the next 12 months.\u201d As usual, January and February are stuffed full of awards season hopefuls. This year, these include the musical La Land , which I\u2019ll be reviewing in next week\u2019s NS , and Manchester By the Sea , a tale of grief and guilt that is the exact antithesis of La Land in terms of mood (both open on 13 Jan). Also hoping for trophies and trinkets are Jackie (20 Jan), in which Natalie Portman plays JFK\u2019s widow, and Moonlight (17 Feb), the lyrical story of a young, gay, African-American boy growing up in Miami. Look out for Cameraperson , in which the documentary cinematographer Kristin Johnson assembles a touching visual memoir using odds and ends from films she has shot. That opens on 27 January, as does the belated sequel T2 Trainspotting , which reunites the cast and crew of Danny Boyle\u2019s 1996 original. The German comedy Toni Erdmann (3 Feb), about the comically fraught relationship between a woman and her prankster father, took home the five top prizes at the recent European Film Awards.
After the first few months of 2017, release dates tend to be fully confirmed only for studio blockbusters, which bagsy their berths many months and even years before opening. A case in point is the Fast & Furious series: not only is the eighth instalment opening in April (with Helen Mirren a surprise addition to the cast) but parts nine and ten are already booked into the schedule \u2014 for 2019 and 2021 respectively, in case you want to leave some space free in your diary. Or book a holiday.
Later in the year, though, I\u2019m looking forward greatly to Under the Silver Lake , a kidnapping thriller starring Andrew Garfield and Riley Keough (who was so impressive as the gangmaster in American Honey ); it\u2019s written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, who made the chilling It Follows , and he has had the good sense to retain the services of that film\u2019s composer, Disasterpeace. Armando Iannucci is back with his second comedy, The Death of Stalin , with a killer cast including Jeffrey Tambor, Steve Buscemi, Andrea Riseborough and Michael Palin. The Snowman is a stylish-looking thriller starring Michael Fassbender and adapted by Tomas Alfredson ( Let the Right One In , Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ) from the Jo Nesb\u00f8 novel. Another Swedish director, Ruben \u00d6stlund, returns with The Square , which stars Elisabeth Moss and Dominic West and concerns a museum installation space where only good things can happen. Knowing this director\u2019s sensibility, the film should become a talking point in the vein of his previous, provocative black comedies Play and Force Majeure.
Let\u2019s hope for good things also from Stephen Frears\u2019s Victoria and Abdul , with Judi Dench as Queen Victoria (for a second time: she first played the part 20 years ago in Mrs Brown ) in the story of the monarch\u2019s relationship with an Indian clerk (Ali Fazal). The screenplay is by Lee Hall, who wrote Billy Elliot. The Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan follows his Palme d\u2019Or-winning Winter Sleep with Le poirier sauvage , while Pawel Pawlikowski, director of the highly-regarded Ida , offers the tale of a Polish love affair in Cold War. Other notable filmmakers returning this year include Lynne Ramsay with You Were Never Really Here , starring Joaquin Phoenix as a war veteran rescuing women from sex traffickers; Aki Kaurism\u00e4ki with a droll new comedy-drama, The Other Side of Hope ; Todd Haynes with the children\u2019s fantasy Wonderstruck ; and Lucretia Martel with Zama , her long-awaited follow-up to the extraordinary psychological drama The Headless Woman.
New Terrence Malick movies were once a cause for breathless anticipation. After the double non-whammy of To the Wonder and Knight of Cups , audiences may well be wary of Song to Song , formerly known as Weightless , though the cast-list is dazzling: Ryan Gosling, Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Michael Fassbender, Christian Bale, Rooney Mara and Benicio del Toro. There is, naturally, a new Woody Allen film, as yet untitled; this one stars Kate Winslet, who was originally lined up as the star of Allen\u2019s Match Point before dropping out at the eleventh hour and leaving the part open for Scarlett Johansson. And who could not be excited by the prospect of another oddball fantasy from Yorgos Lanthimos, director of Dogtooth and The Lobster? His latest, The Killing of a Sacred Deer , stars Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman. Intentionally blank faces and affectless line readings are to be expected.
Michael Haneke is reunited with Isabelle Huppert in Happy End \u2014 what\u2019s the betting that the title is ironic? \u2014 and the brilliant, scrupulous Andrey Zvyagintsev follows Leviathan , arguably his best film to date, with Loveless , about the search for a vanished child.
I\u2019m looking forward also to Get Out , a racially-charged horror film from the production company Blumhouse. And who wants A Cure For Wellness? The trailer for this outlandish thriller suggests that the director Gore Verbinski has climbed Jacob\u2019s Ladder all the way to Shutter Island via Shock Corridor. But Verbinski has a good track record in unusual product ( Mousehunt , Rango ). When he isn\u2019t directing Pirates of the Caribbean films, that is.
Talking of which \u2014 there\u2019s a new one of those, directed this time by Joachim R\u00f8nning and Espen Sandberg (who made Kon-Tiki ). Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales docks in May, the same month as Ridley Scott\u2019s Alien: Covenant. The good news about this Prometheus sequel\/ Alien prequel (delete according to preference) is that the Fass is back. (In other words, Michael Fassbender, easily the best thing about Prometheus , is still in the cast.) Blockbuster fans will be sated in April by Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 and in July by Wonder Woman , World War Z 2 , War for the Planet of the Apes , a Mummy reboot starring Tom Cruise (who also turns up in August in the larky, Catch Me If You Can -style adventure American Made ) and Transformers 5. There is also Christopher Nolan\u2019s war movie Dunkirk , with Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh and \u2014 look away now, Zayn fans \u2014 Harry Styles.
October brings the tantalising prospect of Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford in Blade Runner 2049 while it\u2019s just under 12 months until we feel the Force in time once more in Star Wars Episode VIII (Dec). But I don\u2019t mind saying that the sequel I\u2019m most excited about is Paddington 2 , which should be with us in November. Can you bear the wait?
As the UK papers proudly boasted this morning, \u201cBrits won big\u201d at last night\u2019s Golden Globe awards.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association awarded accolades to Hugh Laurie, Olivia Colman and Tom Hiddleston for the BBC\u2019s The Night Manager , while Claire Foy was celebrated for her turn in Netflix\u2019s The Crown , which also won Best TV Drama. Aaron Taylor-Johnson surprised audiences by picking up the Best Supporting Actor in a Drama award for his performance in Nocturnal Animals.
So, yes, well done us. But aside from Taylor-Johnson\u2019s unexpected win, all of these awards are for TV, not film, and so they don\u2019t necessarily hint at Oscars glory for UK talent this year.
The US\u2019s interest in British television has grown and grown in the last few years. British TV exports to the US rose 10 per cent to more than $800m in 2014. Downton Abbey became American network PBS\u2019s highest-rated series in history , and Call The Midwife has also been popular on the network. BBC America has scored high ratings with Doctor Who , Sherlock , and Broadchurch, while The Night Manager and Tom Hardy\u2019s Taboo are successful BBC co-productions with AMC and FX respectively.
Meanwhile, the growth of streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon means British programming is more easily finding an international audience. US Netflix has hosted a number of British shows including Happy Valley , Peaky Blinders , The Fall , Luther , Lovesick , and Netflix originals like The Crown , while Amazon has found American audiences for Fleabag and Ripper Street \u2013 the latter was cancelled until Amazon helped fund its recommission.
So it is true that more British television is reaching a wider American audience than ever before \u2013 and scooping up more awards as a result.
But in terms of the film industry, Brits like Taylor-Johnson winning at the Golden Globes says nothing at all. As Mark Kermode wrote back in 2011 , \u201cIn truth, the movie industries of Britain and America are inextricably intertwined [\u2026] Sadly, there\u2019s little that\u2019s newsworthy about that arrangement.\u201d<\/p>\n

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