Captain Phillips
The 2013 Oscars weren’t that long ago and the summer blockbuster season may have just got underway but there are a series of movies heading our way over the next few months that are going to be the major award contenders.
From hard hitting drama to sci-fi to a few biopic pictures there are a whole host of quality movies that we should be getting excited about.
Even though it is incredibly early to start thinking about Oscars 2014 we take a look at some of the movies that could well be the major contenders by the end of the year.
- Inside Llewyn Davis - released 24th January 2014
It’s been a while since we have seen Joel and Ethan Coen in the director’s chair - their last project was True Grit back in 2012 - but they are set to return with Inside Llewyn Davis.
UK audiences will not bee seeing the movie until January of next year but it will feature heavily on the festival circuit throughout 2013 - in fact it will be competing for the Palme d’Or at Cannes later this month.
Joel & Ethan have also penned the script and have brought together a great cast that includes Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake and John Goodman.
Inside Llewyn Davis follows a week in the life of a young folk singer as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961.
Joel & Ethan have had great Oscar pedigree in recent years winning Best Picture for No Country For Old Men as well as being nominated for A Serious Man and True Grit.
- Saving Mr Banks - 17th January 2014
One of the movies that I am particularly looking forward to is Saving Mr Banks - and we all know how much the Academy loves a biopic picture.
The movie is based on the true story of author P.L. Travers who goes to Hollywood as Walt Disney Pictures wants to adapt her novel Mary Poppins to the big screen.
An exciting cast has been assembled as Tom Hank will play Walt Disney while Emma Thompson will take on the role of P.L. Travers while Colin Farrell, Paul Giamatti and Jason Schwartzman are all also on board.
John Lee Hancock in the director’s chair for the film for what is his first film since the success of The Blind Side - a movie that also picked up a Best Picture nomination.
Saving Mr Banks is not only a potential Best Picture nominee but don’t be surprised if Hanks and Thompson are also in the running for the acting gongs.
- The Wolf of Wall Street
We haven’t seen a Martin Scorsese/ Leonardo DiCaprio movie since Shutter Island but now the dream duo are set to return with The Wolf On Wall Street.
This will be their fifth movie together as they bring the memoir of the same name by Jordan Belfort to life.
The Wolf on Wall Street is a movie that follows a New York stockbroker who refuses to cooperate in a larger securities fraud case involving corruption on Wall Street, corporate banking world and mob infiltration.
DiCaprio will taken on the role of Belfort in the movie while Jon Favreau, Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill, Jean Dujardin and Rob Reiner are all also on board -another fantastic ensemble cast.
While Scorsese may only have won one Best Director Oscar the Academy has shown a real love of Scorsese and his movies over the years with a string of nominations in both Best Director and Best Picture category. He is most likely to feature in both once again while DiCaprio could well pick up a Best Actor nod.
- The Monuments Men - released 1st January.
I have always been a huge fan of George Clooney as a director and he is set to return with Monuments Men, an adaptation of the
The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert M. Edsel.
Clooney has once again teamed up with Grant Heslov to produce the film and pen the screenplay while he is also going to star in the film.
Clooney will be joined by Cate Blanchett, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Jean Dujardin and Matt Damon.
This will be the fifth feature film for Clooney in the director’s chair and the first since he helmed the terrific political thriller The Idea of March back in 2011.
The Monuments Man follows a group of art historians and curators who come together in a bid to locate works of art during the Second World War before they are destroyed by Hitler.
Clooney has had a good run at the Oscars since moving into the director’s chair and it does seem only a matter of time before he picks up a Best Director gong.
- Captain Phillips - released 11th October
We have already looked at one Tom Hanks movie that could well be in the running for major gongs and now we are going to look at a second in the form of Captain Phillips.
Double Oscar winner Hanks will take on the title role in a movie that tells the true story of Phillips, who was hijacked in 2009 by Somali pirates.
Very exciting the movie sees Paul Greengrass return to the director’s chair as he works with Hanks for the very first time.
Captain Phillips is the first movie for Greengrass since he helmed Green Zone back in 2010 and he has been behind United 93 and The Bourne series over the years.
- Gravity - released 18th October.
The last time we saw Alfonso Cuaron in the director’s chair he was helming the terrific Children Of Men and now he is back with another science fiction movie Gravity.
There is also ready a lot of excitement around this movie as George Clooney and Sandra Bullock are set to team up for the very first time.
Cuaron has teamed up with his brother Jonas to pen the screenplay which follows two astronauts who find themselves stranded in space.
The pair find themselves drifting through space after their shuttle is destroyed during a routine space walk. They have no link with Earth and their oxygen is running out - all they have with each other.
2013 is already shaping up to be a terrific year for science fiction films and Gravity is set to be one of the movies in this genre not to miss. But could it find itself in Oscar contention?
- The Butler
The Butler is another movie to watch out for as Lee Daniels, the man who brought us Previous, is back in the director’s chair.
The movie is based on an article written by journalist Wil Haygood and follows the life of Eugene Allen, a butler who has served eight Presidents in the White House.
From this unique vantage point, The Butler traces the dramatic changes that swept American society, from the civil rights movement to Vietnam and beyond, and how those changes affected this man’s life and family.
Oscar winner Forest Whitaker takes on the role of Allen while the likes of John Cusack, Robin Williams and James Marsden will play different American President.
This is a biopic film this is also very much an American politics story and should do very well come the awards season.
Other movies to watch out for are Rush (directed by Ron Howard), Twelve Years A Slave (directed by Steve McQueen), Nebraska (directed by Alexander Payne) and Diana (directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel).
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