50 films to look for­ward to in 2017 – part 1

While 2016 was a pret­ty excep­tion­al year for new movies, we think this year is already shap­ing up to be even bet­ter. To help you decide what to see and what to swerve, we’ve com­piled a handy list of some of our most hot­ly-antic­i­pat­ed films. Here are 50 upcom­ing titles you’d be mad to miss in 2017.

Eta 3 February

Take note: Toni Erd­mann is one of the most mirac­u­lous films of the new mil­len­ni­um. Writ­ten and direct­ed by Maren Ade, this sparkling comedic fam­i­ly dra­ma cen­tres on the often strained rela­tion­ship between par­ents and chil­dren. Prac­ti­cal jok­er Win­fried attempts to recon­nect with his worka­holic daugh­ter through absurd humour that forces her to rethink his role in her life. The film was par­tic­u­lar­ly suc­cess­ful at the 29^th Euro­pean Film Awards, tak­ing home five prizes includ­ing Best Film, and we’re tip­ping it for great­ness in 2017.

Eta 21 July

The strong-look­ing lat­est offer­ing from Christo­pher Nolan is set to hit screens sum­mer 2017. An impres­sive lead cast of Tom Hardy, Cil­lian Mur­phy and Ken­neth Branagh star in this sto­ry of the unprece­dent­ed Allied evac­u­a­tion from Dunkirk dur­ing the Sec­ond World War, and intrigu­ing­ly it also sees the screen debut of One Direc­tion singer Har­ry Styles. Nolan’s direct­ing prowess aside, the sub­ject mat­ter alone makes this one of the most eye-catch­ing releas­es of the year. Check out the trail­er here.

Eta spring 2017

Michael Haneke reteams with the cast of his 2012 Oscar-win­ner Amour for Hap­py End, a fam­i­ly dra­ma set against the back­drop of the Euro­pean refugee cri­sis in Calais. Star­ring Math­ieu Kasso­vitz along­side Haneke reg­u­lars Isabelle Hup­pert and Jean-Louis Trintig­nant, this one is all but guar­an­teed to have its world pre­mière at the Cannes Film Festival.

Eta 19 May

Appar­ent­ly unde­terred by the luke­warm recep­tion that Prometheus received, Rid­ley Scott is back in the hot seat for Alien: Covenant. Hav­ing avoid­ed watch­ing Alien 3 after it was released and report­ed­ly strong­ly dis­lik­ing it one he final­ly saw it decades lat­er, Scott has now decid­ed to make a ​‘sequel-sub­sti­tu­tion’. Only Michael Fass­ben­der, Noo­mi Rapace and Guy Pearce reprise their roles from Prometheus, with Kather­ine Water­ston enter­ing the fray as the crew of the colony ship Covenant dis­cov­er what they think is an unchart­ed par­adise is actu­al­ly a dark, dan­ger­ous world.

Eta unknown

Very lit­tle is cur­rent­ly known about Lynne Ramsay’s next project, adapt­ed from Jonathan Ames’ novel­la, but we do know that it stars Joaquin Phoenix and rel­a­tive new­com­er Eka­te­ri­na Sam­sonov. The for­mer plays Joe, an ex-Marine who is hired by a New York politi­cian to save his daugh­ter from the per­ils of the sex trade. Ear­ly reports sug­gest the film will be sim­i­lar in tone to Nicholas Wind­ing Refn’s Dri­ve, which gives the film an excit­ing edge.

Eta 5 May

A new stop-motion ani­mat­ed fea­ture from Swiss direc­tor Claude Bar­ras, My Life as a Cour­gette fol­lows a young orphan boy, nick­named Cour­gette by his late moth­er, and as he enters a new fos­ter home. Despite strug­gling to fit in at first, Cour­gette begins to thrive with the help of kind police­man Ray­mond and fel­low orphan Camille. This charm­ing yet melan­choly tale is not to be missed.

Eta unknown

An explo­ration of the Boston Marathon bomb­ing in 2013, Stronger sees Jake Gyl­len­haal take on the role of Jeff Bau­man, a local man who aids the police in track­ing down the per­pe­tra­tors, despite hav­ing suf­fered a heavy trau­ma dur­ing the attack. David Gor­don Green’s lat­est is based on first-hand accounts from Bau­man, whose auto­bi­og­ra­phy of the same name was released in 2014.

Eta unknown

Ruth Wil­son and Sean Bean star in this new mys­tery thriller from direc­tor Clio Barnard (The Arbor, The Self­ish Giant). Wil­son stars as Alice, who returns to her fam­i­ly farm after 15 years to claim the ten­an­cy she believes is right­ful­ly hers only to face a hos­tile recep­tion from her estranged broth­er. The film is adapt­ed from the nov­el ​‘Tres­pass’ by Rose Tremain.

Eta sum­mer 2017

After 2013’s crim­i­nal­ly under­rat­ed Snow­piercer, South Kore­an direc­tor Bong Joon-ho and Til­da Swin­ton join forces again in this action dra­ma. Lil­ly Collins, Paul Dano and Jake Gyl­len­haal also star in a film about a young girl named Mija who risks every­thing to pre­vent a pow­er­ful, mul­ti-nation­al com­pa­ny from kid­nap­ping her best friend – a mas­sive ani­mal name Okja.

Eta unknown

Queen Anne, the last monarch of the House of Stu­arts, has yet to receive a sig­nif­i­cant biopic. Step up Yor­gos Lan­thi­mos, the Greek direc­tor whose The Favourite excit­ing­ly stars Olivia Col­man in the lead role. Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz are also on board for this his­tor­i­cal dra­ma about the polit­i­cal machi­na­tions behind the scenes dur­ing the reign of this Eng­lish Queen.

Eta spring 2017

James Gray’s fol­low-up to 2014’s The Immi­grant tells the true sto­ry of British explor­er Per­cy Fawcett’s trav­els to Ama­zo­nia in the 1920s. Hop­ing to dis­cov­er a lost civil­i­sa­tion in the treach­er­ous, unchar­tered jun­gle, Faw­cett (Char­lie Hun­nam) ignores the ridicule he faces from his con­tem­po­raries and devotes his life to his work. Robert Pat­tin­son and Sien­na Miller co-star.

Eta 17 February

Keanu Reeves returns as John Wick in the sequel to Chad Stahelski’s hit­man thriller. Orange is the New Black’s Ruby Rose is a notable new addi­tion to a cast which remains large­ly in tact from the first film. This time Wick trav­els to Rome to face dead­ly assas­sins, includ­ing a for­mer col­league with dan­ger­ous inten­tions. The all-guns-blaz­ing trail­er has cer­tain­ly piqued our interest.

Eta unknown

Adam Dri­ver looks set to take his fine form into 2017 with a key role in Steven Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky. Fol­low­ing two broth­ers as they plan a heist dur­ing a NASCAR event, the film boasts an all-star cast that also includes Daniel Craig, Chan­ning Tatum, Katie Holmes and Hilary Swank. Soderbergh’s return to fea­ture film­mak­ing fol­low­ing his ​“retire­ment” in 2014 has all the mak­ings of a tri­umphant comeback.

8 Decem­ber

Pixar’s Coco is a Mex­i­can Day of the Dead themed sto­ry of music and fam­i­ly with an entire­ly Lati­no cast, includ­ing Ben­jamin Bratt and Gael Gar­cía Bernal. The sto­ry fol­lows Miguel, a young music fan who fights against his family’s belief that they have been cursed by musi­cians of the past. Lee Unkrich of Mon­sters Inc and Find­ing Nemo fame directs along­side Adri­an Molina.

Eta 28 April

When Guardians of the Galaxy sur­prised every­one by becom­ing the high­est-gross­ing super­hero film of 2014, a sequel was inevitable. We’re expect­ing more of the same: fun char­ac­ters, an awe­some sound­track and plen­ty of that trade­mark Mar­vel ban­ter. The plot sees Peter Quil­l/S­tar-Lord (Chris Pratt) learn his true parent­age, with Zoe Sal­dana, Karen Gillan, Bradley Coop­er and Vin Diesel all repris­ing their roles.

Eta 10 February

Annette Ben­ing looks a sure bet to pick up her fifth Oscar nom­i­na­tion for her role in 20^th Cen­tu­ry Women, which explores three women’s sto­ries from South­ern Cal­i­for­nia in the 1970s. Begin­ners direc­tor Mike Mills has lined up Elle Fan­ning and Gre­ta Ger­wig to star along­side Ben­ing in a vital explo­ration of wom­an­hood inspired by his own mother’s depression.

Eta 27 October

Chris Hemsworth has bulked up again (report­ed­ly smash­ing 6000 calo­ries a day) in order to reprise his role as the blond-locked light­ning god for Thor 3. Hunt for the Wilder­peo­ple direc­tor Tai­ka Wait­i­ti is tak­ing on this Mar­vel mega-movie, which accord­ing to pro­duc­er Kevin Feige will play an impor­tant role in set­ting up Avengers Infin­i­ty War: Parts 1 & 2. No pres­sure, then.

Eta unknown

Spring Break­ers writer/​director Har­mo­ny Korine is behind this hor­ror/crime-thriller star­ring James Fran­co, Robert Pat­tin­son, Al Paci­no and Beni­cio Del Toro. Korine has hint­ed that the film is the sec­ond part of his so-called ​‘Flori­da Tril­o­gy’. This time the action cen­tres on an ex-con­vict and his quest for revenge against a gang­ster rap­per friend who let him take the fall for a rob­bery they com­mit­ted 14 years earlier.

Eta sum­mer 2017

We weren’t expect­ing any­thing spe­cial from this reboot, that is until we caught a first glimpse of Tom Hol­land in the Spidey suit in Cap­tain Amer­i­ca: Civ­il War. Once again we will see how young Peter Park­er begins to nav­i­gate his new­found iden­ti­ty as the web-sling­ing super­hero. Let’s just hope Mar­vel brings some­thing new to the table.

Eta 18 August

Edgar Wright’s lat­est, Baby Dri­ver, is rumoured to be based on a music video for Mint Royale’s track ​‘Blue Song’, which Wright him­self direct­ed. The film fol­lows a young get­away dri­ver who finds him­self tak­ing part in a heist which is doomed to fail­ure. Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm and Lily James star.

Eta unknown

Ali­cia Vikan­der plays Danielle Flinders, an oceanog­ra­ph­er prepar­ing for a dive to the ocean floor while her for­mer lover (James McAvoy) is held cap­tive by Jiha­di fight­ers on the east coast of Africa. Based on the JM Ledgard nov­el of the same name, Sub­mer­gence is a sto­ry of love and endurance in the face of extreme adver­si­ty from ace Ger­man direc­tor Wim Wenders.

Eta unknown

Mar­tin McDon­agh has been rel­a­tive­ly qui­et since 2012’s Sev­en Psy­chopaths, but the writer/​director is return­ing in 2017 with this dark com­e­dy star­ring Frances McDor­mand and Woody Har­rel­son. She plays a moth­er who, des­per­ate for answers in her daughter’s mur­der case, begins a war with the local police by paint­ing three bill­boards with slo­gans to high­light their inad­e­qua­cies. Sam Rock­well and Peter Din­klage are also involved.

Eta 28 July

The lat­est Stephen King work to be made into a fea­ture film, The Dark Tow­er is a sci-fi west­ern co-writ­ten and direct­ed by Niko­laj Arcel. With a cast that includes Idris Elba and Matthew McConaugh­ey, it focus­es on the quest of a fron­tiers­man knight (Elba) who, along with a young boy who stum­bles into the mag­i­cal realm, must reach the epony­mous Dark Tow­er and save his world from extinction.

Eta late 2017

French mas­ter Claire Denis helms this Robert Pat­tin­son-star­ring dra­ma. Set in the future, it casts Pat­tin­son, Patri­cia Arquette and Mia Goth as a group of crim­i­nals who accept a mis­sion in space. In doing so they become the sub­jects of a human repro­duc­tion exper­i­ment. We couldn’t be more intrigued by this win­ning combination.

Eta 25 August

Edge of Tomor­row direc­tor Doug Liman teams up with Tom Cruise again for this thriller biopic. Pilot Bar­ry Seal lands a job for the CIA as a drug run­ner in the 1980s. While film­ing on loca­tion in Medellin, Colum­bia, a plane crash on the last day of shoot­ing killed two stunt pilots, delay­ing the film.

Which films are you most look­ing for­ward to see­ing in 2017? Let us know @LWLies