The global pandemic has definitely changed the way we view movies, with theatres taking a temporary sabbatical and streaming being on an all-time rise. Even though now, halls have been reopened in several countries, it will still take time to achieve full capacity. Films like Christopher Nolan’s Tenet have been released on the big screen this tumultuous year, but many other big-budget releases have been postponed for 2021 releases.
This includes both blockbusters like Black Widow and No Time To Die and potential award favorites like Dune and The French Dispatch.
Dune
A monumental work of science-fiction, the novel Dune was first released as a David Lynch venture, only to be a critical and commercial failure. Now, Canadian director Denis Villeneuve was all set to release his version of Dune this Christmas season. With an ensemble led by Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya, the film deals with the quest to inhabit a desert planet and the subsequent challenges.
The pandemic season has postponed the film for an April release next summer. It seems like Villeneuve and the studios involved are taking no risks in financial terms. While most of the director’s films have performed well, some of his iconic works like Blade Runner 2049 received widespread acclaim but bombed at the box office.
Godzilla vs. Kong
As is evident from its title, this big-budget release pits some of the film industry’s most monstrous titans against each other. A sequel to both Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla: King of Monsters, the film features cast-members from both along with new faces. It is an attempt to create a ‘MonsterVerse’, a franchise that would lead to many such crossover events in the future.
Originally, Godzilla vs. Kong was all set to release in November but it has been postponed to May 21.
F9
The ninth installment in the Fast and Furious franchise was one of the earliest films to have delayed its release date as the COVID pandemic began to spread all over. A franchise that never seems to hit the brakes, was all set to end with a tenth and final chapter. However, the latter’s production seems to be dubious at the moment and now, fans would get to see F9 by May 2021.
Each sequel in the series seems to introduce someone from any of the lead characters’ past. In this case, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) is forced to encounter his secret brother (John Cena).
Top Gun: Maverick
After several changes, the sequel to Top Gun has been slated for a July release next year. The delay in this one shouldn’t make that much of a difference as the first film dropped nearly three decades ago. Top Gun: Maverick finds an aged Tom Cruise reprising his role as Naval pilot Maverick, as he confronts his past while training a new squadron of pilots for a dangerous mission.
Tom Cruise is a star whose relevance has not faded over the years and even if Top Gun wasn’t a success among critics, the film has gone on to gain a lot of popular support. Hence, the sequel might end up doing great at the box office.
A Quiet Place Part II
John Krasinski’s silent horror A Quiet Place was quite a surprise, adding a fresh take on the oversaturated horror genre. The sequel continues from where the first film ended, detailing the journey of the Abbott family to find more fellow survivors as well as monsters other than the sound-detecting ones in the first film. Cillian Murphy and Djimon Honsou join the cast along with the recurring actors.
A Quiet Place II finds Krasinski yet again helming the direction and writing. The horror film was scheduled for an early release this year but has now been postponed to April 2021.
No Time To Die
Daniel Craig’s final outing as James Bond was supposed to be one of the biggest films of this year, with its numerous trailers and official title song (by Billie Eilish). However, after being delayed till November, No Time To Die too followed the route of other films for a summer release in 2021.
The film is expected to be quite an earner when the world of film theatres resumes normalcy. This Bond film features Cary Joji Fukunaga serving as director. While Fukunaga has helmed grounded, experimental works, it’ll be interesting to see his version of the Bond franchise.
Black Widow
Black Widow’s standalone film was long due and MCU fans were worried if she would ever get one, considering her fate in Avengers: Endgame. Black Widow serves as a prequel focusing on a mission that brings the SHIELD operative closer home to her family. A talented cast supports leading lady Scarlett Johansson, including David Harbour and Florence Pugh.
For comic-book cineverses, Black Widow was supposed to be one of the biggest releases of the year along with Wonder Woman 1984 (that’s now being released during Christmas). Now, the film is all set for a May release.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Venom’s standalone film didn’t fare well with critics but still made for a good-enough guilty pleasure to become a hit. As Woody Harrelson’s Carnage was teased by the end of the film, viewers knew that a sequel is in the making. There’s still hope that Let There Be Carnage would work on the flaws of its predecessor.
The Tom Hardy-starrer is bound to go towards a different direction this time as Andy Serkis is handling the direction. This means that audiences can probably expect a motion-capture cameo too by Serkis himself. Venom: Let There Be Carnage is scheduled to drop in theatres by next June.
The French Dispatch
The French Dispatch is an upcoming anthology film starring We Anderson's frequent collaborators like Saoirse Ronan, Edward Norton, and Willem Defoe, along with Benicio del Toro, Tilda Swinton, Timothee Chalamet, and several other actors. The ensemble seems even more ambitious than Anderson’s last live-action production, The Grand Budapest Hotel.
The film recounts three diverse tales with Anderson’s standard deadpan humor, recounted from the perspective of a French newspaper. The film is inspired by the writer-directors love for The New Yorker and some of the characters are actual real-life equivalents from the magazine.
Spiral
Chris Rock has been experimenting with dramatic roles recently. The examples can be the latest season of Fargo, as well as Spiral, a sequel in the Saw franchise. In fact, it has been advertised as Spiral: From the Book of Saw. Rock plays a detective who gets involved in a pattern of serial killings by a killer who likes playing morbid games.
Not much has been revealed but the trailer did hint towards a gritty David Fincher-like atmosphere rather than the gory tropes of the last few Saw sequels. Its release date has been shifted from this year’s May to the next one.