An Action-Packed Slate of Fall Movies

By Amit Jagwani  | 

The coronavirus pandemic and the country’s accompanying business and theater shutdowns made for an interesting — and sparse — summer at the movies. Hard decisions were made, from the choices to delay the latest James Bond film and Christopher Nolan’s potential blockbuster Tenet, to Disney’s decision to move Hamilton and Mulan out of theaters and onto their streaming service Disney+. But theaters are reopening. The comic-book adaptation New Mutants opened to just 62% of screens, but the aforementioned Tenet hopes to restore some sense of normalcy to theatre-going. Looking forward, the film industry is hoping for a swift comeback, featuring an exciting fall slate now populated and bolstered with the aforementioned delayed blockbusters. Here’s a look at how the fall currently looks both for theatrical and home-viewing releases.

September

  • Disney’s live-action Mulan remake opened September 4th on Disney+, at an additional cost to the streaming service’s flat fee, and is bringing excitement to homes across the country throughout labor-day weekend.
  • Christopher Nolan’s Tenet opened September 3 to 70% of potential screens, and the blockbuster action epic promises to be a lodestar for the industry. How Tenet performs may inform plans moving forward for other studios and releases.
  • Robert Pattinson and Tom Holland are expected to bring intensity to Netflix’s original The Devil All the Time, already garnering Oscar buzz for the streaming platform and releasing September 16.
  • Lionsgate’s Civil War plantation–era psychological thriller Antebellum was moved from theaters to a VOD release date of September 19.
  • The Boys in the Band, set around a group of gay men who gather for a party in 1968 New York, reunites the critically acclaimed 2018 Broadway cast on Netflix for a September 30 release.

October

  • Sofia Coppola’s On the Rocks reunites the director and Bill Murray alongside Rashida Jones with an October 2 release on Apple TV+.
  • Gal Gadot stars in Wonder Woman 1984, the sequel to the 2017 hit, scheduled for October 2 in theaters.
  • Also delayed from earlier this year, the Jordan-Peele-produced remake of horror classic Candyman is expected to land in theatres October 16.
  • Death on the Nile, Kenneth Branagh’s second turn as Agatha Christie’s fictionally-famous Detective Hercule Poirot (following 2017’s The Murder on the Orient Express) will be in theaters October 23.
  • Lily James and Armie Hammer star in a new adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s novel Rebecca, streaming October 21.

November

  • JD Vance’s Appalachia memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, that sought to explain the 2016 election, has been adapted into a Ron Howard feature set to come out on Netflix sometime in November. It will also have a limited theatrical release
  • Black Widow, a prequel set in the Marvel Cinematic universe, was set to be a summer blockbuster, but the Scarlett Johansson vehicle is now scheduled for release on November 6.
  • Ben Affleck headlines thriller Deep Water, based on source material from The Talented Mr. Ripley author Patricia Highsmith. Due in theaters November 13.
  • Daniel Craig’s fifth and promised-to-be-final turn as James Bond, No Time to Die, was the first big movie that Hollywood delayed, and will now release November 20.
  • Scheduled to premiere November 20, Pixar’s bringing Pete Docter back as a director with Soul, starring Jamie Foxx as a high-school music teacher who gets caught up in the supernatural.

December

  • Ryan Murphy directs a Netflix feature adaptation of Broadway smash The Prom, set to stream sometime in December.
  • Early Oscar buzz has built around Frances McDormand in Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland, out on December 4.
  • Critical darling Denis Villeneuve, who directed Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, returns to big screens with a new adaptation of sci-fi classic Dune, out December 18 and featuring a knockout cast including Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, and more.
  • Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story remake is out December 25. The legendary director promises more diversity in his Bernstein/Sondheim remake.
  • Tom Hanks in a western? Yes, please. Paul Greengrass, director of Hanks in Captain Philips, returns Christmas Day with News of the World.
Amit Jagwani
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