Most anticipated films coming to cinemas in 2024

Published

1 year ago

December 31, 2023

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It’s been a tumultuous year for Hollywood – from the highs of Barbenheimer to the lows of the strikes.

The double-whammy of industrial action waged by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and SAG-AFTRA shuttered production for months.

Although it’s back to business, it’s far from back to normal.

The stoppage has already led to delays in the release calendar, which could be exacerbated further if there’s a logjam of reshoots and other production work to slog through.

Studios will be tightening their belts as they face invigorated union members looking to enforce their new contracts.

After COVID all but wiped out trips to see a movie on the silver screen, studios are now having to contend with the cost of living crisis.

However, the simultaneous theatrical release of Barbie and Oppenheimer – two movies collectively known as Barbenheimer – showed that post-pandemic audiences will return box office bonanzas if they believe in the film.

So as we head into 2024, here are some of the movies that are set to entertain audiences.

Wicked: Part One

We’re off to see the wizard…

The much-loved Broadway and West End musical is now being given the silver screen treatment.

The story – based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel – features the characters from L Frank Baum’s 1900 book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 film adaptation starring Judy Garland.

Wicked takes place in the Land of Oz in the years surrounding Dorothy’s arrival and tells the tale of how Elphaba Thropp, a young woman born with green skin, later becomes the Wicked Witch of the West.

The two-part film adaptation will star Cynthia Erivo (Elphaba Thropp) and Ariana Grande (Galinda Upland) and features a supporting cast including Jonathan Bailey (Fiyero Tigelaar), Jeff Goldblum (the Wonderful Wizard of Oz) and Michelle Yeoh (Madame Morrible).

Directed by Jon M Chu (Step Up 3D/In The Heights), expect colourful and big dance numbers as the cast belt out the stage show’s smash hits that include Popular, Defying Gravity and For Good.

Wicked: Part One is scheduled for release in November 2024. The second film is expected to drop a year later.

Dune: Part Two

Denis Villeneuve’s epic science fiction sequel will continue the journey of Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) as he teams up with Chani (Zendaya) and the Fremen to seek revenge against all those who destroyed his family and prevent a terrible future that only he can predict.

The film – which already boasted a stacked cast including Rebecca Ferguson (Lady Jessica), Josh Brolin (Gurney Halleck), Javier Bardem (Stilgar) and Stellan Skarsgard (Vladimir Harkonnen) – has added Austin Butler (Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen), Florence Pugh (Princess Irulan) and Lea Seydoux (Lady Margot) to the bill.

Dune: Part Two was due to be released in 2023 but was delayed due to the Hollywood strikes. It is now set for release in March 2024.

Madame Web

Madame Web is part of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.

Dakota Johnson takes on the titular role as Cassandra ‘Cassie’ Webb/Madame Web, a Manhattan paramedic and clairvoyant whose new psychic abilities apparently allow her to see into the future.

Following an incident, Cassie is forced to confront her past while trying to protect three young women from a killer Spider-Man.

Johnson is joined by Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney, who’s playing Julia Carpenter. Sweeney’s character later takes on the mantle of Spider-Woman in the comics.

While there’s been plenty of movies revolving around male Marvel Comics characters – the Iron Man, Captain America and Thor films to name but a few – there have only been a few commissioned with female leads, such as Black Widow, Captain Marvel and The Marvels.

It’s encouraging to see a studio green-light a female-led superhero film and many will be hoping for large box office returns so we get some more.

After the trailer was released, Johnson’s delivery of the line “he was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died” was given the meme treatment.

So, only time will tell if the film becomes a cult hit or is mocked online like Morbius.

Madame Web will be swinging into cinemas in February.

Joker: Folie à Deux

Joker was intended to be a standalone film but then it became one of the highest-grossing movies of 2019 and the first R-rated production to gross over $1bn.

Todd Phillips’ neo-noir psychological thriller – which saw Joaquin Phoenix pick up his first Academy Award for Best Actor – gave us fresh insight into DC Comics’ most colourful villain and Batman’s nemesis.

The Dark Knight failed to make an appearance in this Gotham City, although we did see a young Bruce Wayne. But audiences were kept entertained by Joker/Arthur Fleck’s descent into darkness.

The sequel is set to be a musical thriller, with Lady Gaga joining the cast as partner-in-crime Dr Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn.

Joker: Folie à Deux is set to be released in October 2024.

Other blockbusters to watch out for:

Furiosa
Audiences should prepare for a wild ride given George Miller’s previous Mad Max films.

The movie – a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road – will see Anya Taylor-Joy take over from Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa.

The post-apocalyptic action-adventure will also star Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, playing Dementus.

Mean Girls
The much-loved 2004 comedy – starring Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams – was turned into a Broadway show, which has now been transformed into a new musical film.

Tina Fey is back in the writer’s chair and returns as Ms Norbury.

American singer and actress Renee Rapp (The Sex Lives of College Girls) will be reprising her Broadway role of mean girl Regina George.

Challengers
Zendaya’s spicy romcom was one of the casualties of the Hollywood strikes and was delayed from its initial release date of September 2023 to April 2024.

The Emmy and Golden Globe winner stars as a former tennis player turned coach who has transformed her husband (Mike Faist) into a Grand Slam champ.

Tensions soon run high during a challenger event that brings ex-love Patrick (The Durrells’ Josh O’Connor) back into their lives.

Twisters
The epic 1996 disaster film Twister, starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, is getting a reboot. This “new chapter” will star Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People) and Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick).

Borderlands
Gearbox Software/2K’s popular looter shooter video game series is heading for the big screen with an ensemble cast that includes Cate Blanchett (Lilith), Kevin Hart (Roland), Jack Black (Claptrap) and Jamie Lee Curtis (Dr Patricia Tannis).

Director Eli Roth (Hostel/The Green Inferno) is behind the camera and co-wrote the script.

Nosferatu
Nosferatu is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her.

Following Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), it is the second remake of the 1922 German expressionist film of the same name written by Henrik Galeen – which in turn is an unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula.

Fresh from the hot mess of TV show The Idol, Lily-Rose Depp (Ellen Hutter) will be joined by Bill Skarsgard (Count Orlok) and Nicholas Hoult (Thomas Hutter) in the highly anticipated horror.

The film marks Focus Features’ ongoing collaboration with writer and director Robert Eggers (The Northman) and is set to be released in December 2024.

MaXXXine
At the time of writing, MaXXXine is yet to be given a release date. The final instalment of Ti West’s X trilogy will most likely appear at some point in 2024.

The movie will follow Maxine (Mia Goth) – the sole survivor of the first film – as she sets out for fame and success in 1980s Los Angeles.

Fans of the slasher franchise are in for a treat with a cast that includes Elizabeth Debicki (The Crown), Michelle Monaghan (Mission: Impossible III), Bobby Cannavale (The Watcher), Lily Collins (Emily in Paris), singer-songwriter Halsey, Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad) and the legendary Kevin Bacon.

The Strangers: Chapter 1
The Strangers: Chapter 1 is not a reboot of the slasher franchise but is instead the first instalment of a new trilogy of standalone sequel films.

Riverdale alum Madelaine Petsch and Cruel Summer’s Froy Gutierrez will find themselves facing off against thee murderous masked strangers after their car breaks down during a road trip.

The trilogy will explore what happens to the victims and will detail who the killer psychopaths are and where they came from. Chapter 1 is due to be released in May, with the following two films expected throughout 2024.

Beetlejuice 2
More than three decades on, we’re finally getting a sequel to the family horror comedy.

Tim Burton is back behind the camera with Michael Keaton (Betelgeuse), Winona Ryder (Lydia Deetz) and Catherine O’Hara (Delia Deetz) reprising their roles from the 1988 original. Jenna Ortega, fresh from working with Burton on Netflix series Wednesday, will be playing Ryder’s daughter.

The film is due to be released in September 2024 but is said to be at risk of delay due to the Hollywood strikes.

Gladiator 2
Ridley Scott is back in the director’s chair for this sequel to his Oscar-winning film.

Previous leading man Russell Crowe (Maximus Decimus Meridius) has duly been replaced by Paul Mescal (Normal People), who takes over from Spencer Treat Clark as Lucius Verus.

The historical drama – set years after the events of the 2000 film – will centre on Lucius, who is now a grown man.

Connie Nielsen (Lucilla), Derek Jacobi (Senator Gracchus) and Djimon Hounsou (Juba) are returning to reprise their roles from the original, while Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal have been added to the bill.

Deadpool 3
Ryan Reynolds will suit up for a fourth time as Wade Wilson/Deadpool. He first appeared as the Marvel Comics character in the 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

This time he will be joined by good friend Hugh Jackman (James ‘Logan’ Howlett/Wolverine) and Jennifer Garner, who’s reprising her role of assassin Elektra Natchios following her turn in Daredevil and Elektra.

Emma Corrin – who played Diana, Princess of Wales in The Crown – has been cast in a lead villain role.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3
The much-loved Sega video game character will rock and roll in another action adventure.

Venom 3
Tom Hardy is set to return for a third outing as Eddie Brock/Venom in the untitled Let There Be Carnage sequel.

Kraven the Hunter
Alongside Venom 3 and Madame Web, Kraven the Hunter is part of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.

Kick-Ass and Bullet Train star Aaron Taylor-Johnson takes on the titular role as we learn how the iconic villain came to be.

Taylor-Johnson is no stranger to Marvel Comics characters, having previously played Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver) in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

The film is due to be released in August 2024 after being delayed due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Bad Boys 4
Detectives Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) will reunite once more for the fourth film in the buddy cop franchise.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
This sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife is the fifth film in the supernatural comedy’s franchise and will see the Spengler family leave Oklahoma for New York City.

The movie will bring together Ghostbusters old and new as they team up to take on a mysterious and evil force known as the “death chill”.

The Fall Guy
The 1980s hit TV show has been adapted into an action comedy starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt.

Gosling plays Colt Seavers, a seasoned but aging stuntman who’s tasked to track down a missing film star to save his ex-girlfriend’s movie.

Lee Majors, who starred in the classic TV series as the stuntman/bounty hunter, is set to appear in the film.

Mufasa: The Lion King
The Lion King prequel is expected to hit the big screen just in time for Christmas 2024.

Entertainment

Clodagh Rodgers: Eurovision star and face of Bisto gravy dies

Published

16 hours ago

April 19, 2025

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Clodagh Rodgers: Eurovision star and face of Bisto gravy dies

Clodagh Rodgers, a singer best known for representing the UK at the 16th Eurovision Song Contest, has died aged 78.

The Northern Irish singer was described as “the rock of this family” by her son Sam, who said she died on Friday 18 April.

Sam Sorbie wrote: “With a heavy heart, my dear beautiful mum Clodagh has sadly passed away after battling an illness for the last three years. She passed away peacefully yesterday, surrounded by her family in Cobham.

“Mum has lived an incredible life, full of love and happiness. Her fantastic career performing, travelling the world, devoting her life to her two sons and being the rock of this family.

“Life will not be the same without Mum, but she will finally be at peace now with dad, nanny and pappa. We all love and miss her terribly.”

A regular face on the TV in the 1970s and 1980s, Rodgers performed Jack In The Box at the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, finishing in fourth place behind Germany, Spain and the winners, Monaco.

Jack In The Box went on to reach number four in the UK singles chart, and although she entered the charts later that year with Lady Love Bug, the Eurovision track remained her biggest hit.

Rodgers began singing as a youngster and got her first record deal aged just 15.

She went on to appear on primetime shows including The Morecombe And Wise Show, The Two Ronnies, Top Of The Pops, Bruce Forsyth & The Generation Game and The Val Doonican Show.

She was chosen as the face of Bisto gravy in the 70s, following her Eurovision hit.

A talented live performer, she also starred in her own West End show Talk Of The Town, and West End musical hit Blood Brothers, as well as numerous variety shows and the pantomime Cinderella, co-starring comedian Ronnie Corbett.

Rodgers released six albums, five compilation records and numerous singles across her six-decade career. She insured her voice for £1m.

In 2001 she appeared as a recurring character in police drama The Bill.

Married twice, Rodgers leaves behind her two sons, Sam and Matt.

Entertainment

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs loses bid to delay sex-trafficking trial

Published

1 day ago

April 18, 2025

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Sean 'Diddy' Combs loses bid to delay sex-trafficking trial

Hip hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has lost a bid to delay his upcoming sex-trafficking trial by two months.

US district judge Arun Subramanian said the 55-year-old rapper made his request too close to his trial, which is due to start next month.

Jury selection is currently scheduled for 5 May with opening statements set to be heard seven days later.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to five criminal counts including racketeering and sex trafficking.

Prosecutors with the Manhattan US attorney’s office accuse Combs of using his business empire to sexually abuse women between 2004 and 2024.

Combs’s lawyers say the sexual activity described by prosecutors was consensual.

In a court filing on Wednesday, Combs’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo asked Mr Subramanian to delay the trial because he needed more time to prepare his defence to two new charges which were brought on 4 April.

The charges were of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.

Mr Agnifilo also said his team needs extra time to review emails it wants an alleged victim to turn over.

The new allegations brought the total number of criminal charges against the rap mogul to five – following the three original counts, which also included racketeering conspiracy, filed in September.

Federal prosecutors were opposed to any delay, writing in a Thursday court filing that the additional charges brought
earlier this month did not amount to substantially new conduct.

They also said Combs was not entitled to the alleged victim’s communications.

Meanwhile, Mr Subramanian is weighing other evidentiary issues, such as whether to allow alleged victims to testify under pseudonyms.

Also known during his career as Puff Daddy and P Diddy, Combs founded Bad Boy Records and is credited with helping turn rappers and R&B singers such as Notorious B.I.G, Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans and Usher into stars in the 1990s and 2000s.

But prosecutors have said his success concealed a dark side.

They say his alleged abuse included having women take part in recorded sexual performances called “freak-offs” with male sex workers, who were sometimes transported across state lines.

Combs has been in jail in Brooklyn since September, having been denied bail.

He also faces dozens of civil lawsuits by women and men who have accused him of sexual abuse.

Combs has strenuously denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

Entertainment

Warfare’s Alex Garland: ‘Being anti-war is not the same as saying it should never happen’

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2 days ago

April 18, 2025

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Warfare's Alex Garland: 'Being anti-war is not the same as saying it should never happen'

Alex Garland says while it’s “the most obvious statement about life on this planet” that the world would be a better place without war, it “doesn’t mean it should never happen”, and there are “circumstances in which war is required”.

The Oscar-nominated screenwriter and director told Sky News: “I don’t think it is possible to make a statement about what war is really like without it being implicitly anti-war, inasmuch as it would be better if this thing did not happen.

“But that’s not the same as saying it should never happen. There are circumstances in which war is required.”

His latest film, Warfare, embeds the audience within a platoon of American Navy SEALs on an Iraqi surveillance mission gone wrong, telling the story solely through the memories of war veterans from a real 2006 mission in Ramadi, Iraq.

Garland says the film is “anti-war in as much as it is better if war does not happen,” adding, “and that is about the most obvious statement about life on this planet that one could make.”

Comparing it to ongoing geopolitical conflict across the world, Garland goes on: “It would be better if Gaza had not been flattened. It would be better if Ukraine was not invaded. It would it better if all people’s problems could be solved via dialogue and not threat or violence…

“To be anti-war to me is a rational position, and most veterans I’ve met are anti-war.”

The screenwriter behind hits including Ex Machina, 28 Days Later and The Beach says this film is “an attempt to recreate something as faithfully and accurately as we could”.

‘War veterans feel invisible and forgotten’

Almost entirely based on first-person accounts, the 15-rated film opens with soldiers singing along to the video of Swedish dance hit Call On Me – complete with gyrating women in thong leotards.

It’s the only music in the film. The remaining score is made up of explosions, sniper fire and screams of pain.

Garland co-wrote and co-directed the film alongside Hollywood stuntman and gunfight coordinator Ray Mendoza, whom Garland met on his last film, Civil War.

Mendoza, a communications officer on the fateful mission portrayed in the film, says despite the traumatic content, the experience of making the film was “therapeutic”.

Mendoza told Sky News: “It actually mended a lot of relationships… There were some guys I hadn’t spoken to in a very long time. And this allowed us to bury the hatchet, so to speak, on some issues from that day.”

Turning to Hollywood after serving in the Navy for 16 years, Mendoza says past war film he’d seen – even the good ones – were “a little off” because they “don’t get the culture right”.

Mendoza admits: “You feel like no one cares because they didn’t get it right. You feel invisible. You feel forgotten.”

With screenings of Warfare shown to around 1,000 veterans ahead of general release, Mendoza says: “They finally feel heard. They finally feel like somebody got it right.”

As to whether it could be triggering for some veterans, Mendoza says decisively not: “It’s not triggering. I would say it’s the opposite, for a veteran at least.”

‘I’m an actor – I love my hair’

A tense and raw 90-minute story told in real time, the film’s ensemble cast is made up of young buzzy actors, dubbed “all of the internet’s boyfriends” when the casting was first announced.

Mirroring the Navy SEALs they were portraying, the cast initially bonded through a three-week bootcamp ahead of filming, before living together for the 25-day shoot.

Black Mirror’s Will Poulter, who plays Eric, the officer in charge of the operation, says the film’s extended takes and 360-degree sets demanded a special kind of focus.

Poulter said: “It required everyone to practise something that is fundamental to Navy SEAL mentality – you’re a teammate before you’re an individual.

“When a camera’s roaming around like that and could capture anyone at kind of any moment, it requires that everyone to be ‘on’ at all times and for the sake of each other.

“It becomes less about making sure that you’re performing when the camera lands on you, but as much about this idea that you are performing for the sake of the actor opposite you when the camera’s on them.”

Another of the film’s stars, Reservation Dogs’ D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, plays Mendoza and is the heart of the film.

Woon-A-Tai says the cast drew on tactics used by real soldiers to help with the intense filming schedule: “Laughter is medicine… A lot of times these are long takes, long hours, back-to-back days, so uplifting our spirit was definitely a big part of it.”

He also joked that shaving each other’s heads in a bonding ritual the night before the first day of filming was a daunting task.

“As actors, we love our hair. I mean, I speak personally, I love my hair. You know, I had really long hair. So yeah, it definitely takes a lot of trust. And you know, it wasn’t even at all, but you know it was still fun to do.”

Warfare is in cinemas now.