Napoleon
Release date: November 24
We haven’t had a goodie from Ridley Scott since 2021’s House of Gucci. His latest project, a biopic of Napoleon Bonaparte, promises a return to his epic form. To tell the tale of Napoleon’s rise to power, Scott has teamed up once again with Joaquin Phoenix. Vanessa Kirby took over the role of Empress Josephine after Jodie Comer had to quit in a scheduling conflict. This one deserves plush velvet seats and a large carton of popcorn.
Wonka
Release date: December 15
The cast in this prequel of Roald’s Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is bursting with homegrown talent. Timothée Chalamet, so hot right now that he didn’t even have to audition, takes the lead as young Wonka. But we also have the pleasure of star turns from Hugh Grant, Olivia Colman, Rowan Atkinson, Matt Lucas, Sally Hawkins and Jim Carter. Directed by the man responsible for the Paddington movies, this musical fantasy is sure to be fun for all the family.
Saltburn
Release date: November 17
It is fitting that Emerald Fennell is the daughter of a jeweller because she is one of those bright talents who turn everything they touch into gold. Her first feature film, Promising Young Woman, which she wrote and directed, won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The psychological thriller Saltburn is her second. Expect damaged posh people, glamorous parties, big houses and a wide-eyed undergraduate from humble origins who gets caught in the crossfire of it all.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Release date: November 17
This, the fifth instalment of the $3 billion Hunger Games film series, is in a fact a prequel to the first Hunger Games book. Written in collaboration with Suzanne Collins, the books’ author, it is set 64 years before the start of the first film. The cast, crew, director and wardrobe team has been very careful to keep the film’s details in line with the movies that have come before it. After all, you can’t mess with a cultural phenomenon and fans are going to lap this one up as readily as they did the others.
Wish
Release date: November 24
Disney’s animated feature films are such a part of a childhood that we owe it to our offspring to make sure they see each one, regardless of quality, plotline or agenda. The release of Wish, the latest in the catalogue, marks 100 years of movies from the entertainment giant. Rumoured to have been based on Meghan Markle, it follows a sharp-witted idealist who makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force and, one way or another, she is able to defeat an evil ruler and save an entire kingdom. Expect the film’s anthem ‘The Wish’ to become the sound of the Christmas holidays.
The Bikeriders
Release date: December 1
Jodie Comer may have had to pass on Napoleon but she sure steals the show in The Bikeriders. Go for the cast – Comer stars alongside Austin Butler and Tom Hardy – if not for the story, which is the life and love triangles of a fictional motorcycle club in 1960s midwestern America. There are plenty of murmurs already about award-season nominations…
By Becky Ladenburg
October 2023
