An impressive line-up of big names, big concepts and big movies are set to turn up the heat in Australian cinemas this winter. LEIGH PAATSCH reveals the new releases you can’t afford to miss.
THE BOOGEYMAN
Chris Messina, Sophie Thatcher
Opens June 1st
L-R: Sophie Thatcher as Sadie Harper and Vivien Lyra Blair as Sawyer Harper in The Boogeyman. Picture: 20th Century Studios
Foreground: A psychiatrist ill-advisedly agrees to see a new patient who shows up on the doorstep of his home. Days later, the shrink’s kids are hassled incessantly by a mysterious nocturnal presence.
Background: Based on a 1973 short story by legendary horror writer Stephen King, this innately creepy affair was heading straight to the streaming platforms until incredibly strong reactions from test audiences indicated cinemas were the right way to go. Sure to be yet another King hit along the lines of It.
Close-Up: Who, or indeed, what is The Boogeyman? Let’s just say that if you were one of those kids who preferred to sleep with the light on, this movie will take you back to your unhappy place immediately. Lead actors Messina (the mouthy lawyer in Air) and Thatcher (the hit series Yellowjackets) are both in great form.
SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE
Voices of Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld
Opens June 1st
Miles Morales is Spider-Man (Shameik Moore) in Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse.
Foreground: Miles Morales catapults across the Multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence.
Background: Sorry, Batman. Apologies, Superman. Commiserations, Avengers and associates. The only name in the superhero biz whose brand just keeps getting bigger every year is Spidey. This is the long-awaited return to his artful, all-illustrated Spider-Verse guise, which won the 2019 Best Animation Oscar.
Close-Up: With the original movie roundly celebrated for its incredible visual flair, the follow-up (the first instalment of a two-part saga ending next year) ups the ante by using a different animation style for every universe visited in the multiverse.
THE FLASH
Ezra Miller, Michael Keaton
Opens June 15th
The DC Comics stable has been looking to one-up their Marvel rivals with a Flash movie for well over a decade. Picture: Warner Bros
Foreground: Barry Allen uses his super speed to change the past, but his attempt to save his family creates a world without super heroes, forcing him to race for his life in order to save the future.
Background: The DC Comics stable has been looking to one-up their Marvel rivals with a Flash movie for well over a decade. Warner Bros. has spent in excess of $300 million to set the ball rolling, making this one of the most expensive movies of 2023.
Close Up: The plot’s journey-back-in-time premise opens the door for Michael Keaton to return to his famous role as Batman (aka Bruce Wayne) for the first time in 30 years. Will be interesting to see how the public responds to leading man Miller, considering the multiple controversies he has been involved in over recent years.
ELEMENTAL
Voices of Leah Lewis, Catherine O’Hara
Opens June 15th
Pixar’s Elemental is already being mentioned in the same company as the classic Inside Out. Picture: Supplied
Foreground: Can fire and water truly ever get along? Two elemental opposites – the female fire figure Ember and the male water figure Wade – are about to find out, with help from friends made of land and air.
Background: In animation circles, a story premise as thematically ambitious as this can only be the work of the team at Pixar. This striking-looking production is already being mentioned in the same company as the Pixar classic Inside Out.
Close Up: There is a lot riding on Elemental’s box-office performance for Pixar after the studio experienced an uncharacteristic flop with last year’s ill-fated Toy Story spin-off Lightyear. Trailers suggest this will be much more appealing to the all-ages crowd than the bulk of Pixar’s recent works.
NO HARD FEELINGS
Jennifer Lawrence, Matthew Broderick
Opens June 22nd
Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) and Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) in No Hard Feelings. Picture: Columbia Pictures
Foreground: A broke Uber driver accepts a sketchy job from an oddball couple wanting their introverted 19-year-old son coaxed out of his shell before college.
Background: At some point in the past five years – heck, let’s just blame Covid yet again, OK? – comedies all but disappeared from our movie schedules regularly. If any movie is going to buck that trend and get us laughing again, it will be this. Check out the trailer. It rocks.
Close Up: We haven’t seen a lot of Jennifer Lawrence recently, let alone in an edgy, boundary-pushing comedy with, err, frank subject matter. Reactions at a ComicCon preview in April indicate Lawrence is in cracking form. This could be the biggest crowd-pleasing dirty joke-fest since the Bridesmaids era.
TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS
Michelle Yeoh, Anthony Ramos
Opens June 22nd
True Transformers will flip over the addition of a huge fleet of new characters and model designs. Picture: Paramount
Foreground: In the 1990s, a chaotic scene unfolds as the Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons join the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons on Earth.
Background: Since bursting on to the scene in 2007, the Transformers universe has aptly kept right on changing shape, form and style in its never ending pursuit of new audiences. As the blockbuster spin-off hit Bumblebee proved, viewers are yet to tire of the franchise.
Close Up: Though this is essentially a Bumblebee sequel, filmmakers are promising a darker, steelier approach than before, citing the 90s classic Terminator 2: Judgment Day as a big influence here. True Transformers will flip over the addition of a huge fleet of new characters and model designs.
INDIANA JONES & THE DIAL OF DESTINY
Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Opens June 29th
Still got it … Harrison Ford is back for his fifth Indiana Jones flick. Picture: Lucasfilm
Foreground: Upon the return of an old and evil rival, Indy must don his hat and pick up his whip once more to ensure an ancient powerful artefact doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
Background: This fifth Indiana Jones flick is shaping as though it will be the last for the world’s favourite archaeological adventurer. Harrison Ford is now 80 years of age, and series creators George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have ruled out ever recasting the iconic part.
Close Up: With a huge fanbase spanning multiple generations, you can expect there will be a long queue outside cinemas wanted to say goodbye to Indy. Though Ford has been “de-aged” in some flashback sequences, he is definitely “acting his age” for most of the picture.
Harrison Ford has always been keen to shoot another ‘Indiana Jones’ movie.
THE NEW BOY
Cate Blanchett, Aswan Reid
Opens July 6th
Cate Blanchett stars alongside newcomer Aswan Reid who plays the orphaned character in The New Boy. Picture: Ben King
Foreground: In the outback of the 1940s, an indigenous orphan boy arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery run by a renegade nun.
Background: Though just the third film for Australian writer-director Warwick Thornton, the weapons-grade potency of his first two masterful works (Samson and Delilah, Lucky Country) has expectations running high here. After all, the great Blanchett rarely shows up for local fare these days.
Close Up: At a recent premiere screening in Cannes, Blanchett had much of her thunder stolen by co-star Aswan Reid, an 11-year-old unknown trying his hand at screen acting for the first time. Cate has generously backed the praise for Reid, hailing him as a future star in “a new golden age of Australian cinema.”
While speaking about producing and starring in her latest film ‘The New Boy’, Cate Blanchett admitted she is “always trying to get out of acting”.
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD RECKONING: PART ONE
Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell
Opens July 13th
Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning – Part One from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
Foreground: Ethan Hunt and his IMF team must track down a dangerous weapon that threatens the future of humanity. A mysterious madman is looking to get his hands on the same thing.
Background: The seventh outing in the long-running Mission: Impossible series has been undoubtedly the most difficult to make, with the $370 million production forced to shut down repeatedly during the Covid-infested years of 2020-21.
Close Up: As always, Tom Cruise continues to raise the risk factor in famously doing all the stunt work he can on an M: I set. This movie forms half of a two-part finale for the franchise, with Cruise’s Ethan Hunt definitively signing off on his last death-defying assignment this time next year.
OPPENHEIMER
Cillian Murphy, Florence Pugh
Opens July 20th
The success of this venture depends on how the sound, fury and destructive force of a nuclear explosion can be captured on screen.
Foreground: The life story of scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his conflicted role in America’s development and deployment of the atomic bomb.
Background: Filmmaker Christopher Nolan has been renowned as a game-changer in cinematic circles for two consecutive decades thanks to his revered Batman/Dark Knight trilogy, and epics such as Inception and Dunkirk. He certainly won’t be daunted by a true story of this daunting scale.
Close Up: Nolan and his team know the success of this venture will ultimately depend how the sound, fury and destructive force of a nuclear explosion can be captured on screen. His crew built their own replica of a nuclear testing facility deep in the desert region of New Mexico.
BARBIE
Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling
Opens July 20th
Ryan Gosling is Ken in Barbie the movie. Picture: Supplied
Margot Robbie stars as Barbie in the movie. Picture: Supplied
Foreground: After being expelled from Barbie Land for not being the perfect doll, Barbie journeys to the real world to find true happiness. But what will become of Ken?
Background: A movie based on the iconic Barbie fashion doll line has been in the works for 20 years. However, advance word suggests this big-budget, candy-coloured, disco-dancing daydream from filmmaker Greta Gerwig (Little Women) will be attempting something more sophisticated than merely a cute flick for kids.
Close Up: If any movie is going to get the whole world’s attention this winter, it will be Barbie. The casting of Robbie and Gosling as Barbie and Ken looks absolutely spot-on, as does a staggeringly esoteric support cast (most of whom are playing alternate versions of Barbie and Ken). If it can live up to all the high-concept hype, a new blockbuster franchise will begin right here.
MEG 2: THE TRENCH
Jason Statham, Wu Jing
Opens August 3rd
The original The Meg was the genuine surprise hit of 2018, grossing $800 million worldwide. Picture: Supplied
Foreground: A daring research team’s latest exploratory diving mission spirals into chaos when a sinister mining operation releases a group of ancient, angry monster sharks.
Background: The original The Meg was the genuine surprise hit of 2018, grossing $800 million worldwide with its catchy combo of the 3 Js (Jaws, Jurassic Park and Jason Statham). There was only one prehistoric mega-shark in the first movie. This time, there will be three of ‘em!
Close Up: Statham’s co-star Wu Jing may not be well-known round these parts, but he is a huge star back home in China on the back of blockbuster hits like The Wandering Earth and Wolf Warrior. The breakout star of the first Meg movie, a little Yorkie pooch named Pippin, also returns for the sequel.
ASTEROID CITY
Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks
Opens August 10th
Liev Schreiber, Steve Carell, Steve Park, and Hope Davis in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City. Picture: Focus Features
Foreground: In 1955, students and parents from across the US meet in a remote desert town for the annual Junior Stargazer convention, a gathering set to be disrupted by world-changing events.
Background: This is the work of acclaimed writer-director Wes Anderson, whose unique, hyper-designed style in movies such as The Grand Budapest Hotel and Fantastic Mr Fox has made him one of the few brand-name filmmakers left in the business.
Close Up: Movie premiered this week in Cannes to a very positive response. As always, Anderson has attracted a cast that other directors can only dream of, including Margot Robbie, Edward Norton, Steve Carell and Tilda Swinton.
Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks and Steve Carell attend the world premiere of Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” at the Cannes Film Festival. (23 May)
FORCE OF NATURE: THE DRY 2
Eric Bana, Jacqueline McKenzie
Opens August 24th
After the record-breaking success of The Dry during Covid, there just had to be a sequel – a deadset don’t miss.
Foreground: When five women embark on a hiking retreat and only four return, Federal Agents Aaron Falk and Carmen Cooper must head into the mountains to investigate the strange disappearance.
Background: After the record-breaking success of The Dry – racking up a $20 million-plus gross in the Covid era was a specular feat for a homegrown offering – there just had to be a sequel. And that sequel just had to be adapted from best-selling author Jane Harper’s second book Force of Nature.
Close Up: The casting of the great Jacqueline McKenzie going head-to-head with Eric Bana in the co-lead roles is an inspired move. The support cast (which includes Richard Roxburgh, Deborra-lee Furness and Anna Torv) is top-loaded with great Aussie talent, and the various Victorian bushland locations look spectacular. Mark this down as a deadset don’t miss.