Zap guns, spaceships, robots, forsaken planets, and aliens. 2013 is the year of sci-fi for Hollywood, or post-apocalyptic sci-fi to be precise. In Earth, father-son duo Will and Jaden Smith, after a crash landing, explore a planet that was evacuated by humans 1,000 years earlier, the Earth. Tom Cruise, in Oblivion, exploits an original concept involving a human-evacuated Earth. The Brad Pitt-starrer World War Z is about combating a zombie epidemic that spreads through the world. And then there is Edgar Wright’s third and final film in his Cornetto Trilogy The World’s End—about a group of friends who go on a pub crawl only to realise that they may be drinking their way towards the apocalypse.
Closer home, playing safe is the name of the game. A year that began with Race 2, Murder 3, and Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster Returns will see the film factory roll out more of the same—sequels, prequels, remakes and reboots—with only a handful of original films making the big list. David Dhawan’s remake of hit comedy Chashme Baddoor, Ram Charan Tej who’ll reprise Big B’s role in Zanjeer, Ajay Devgn as Jeetendra in the remake of 1980 hit Himmatwala, and big-budgeted sequels like Krrish 3, Dhoom 3, and Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai 2, starring Akshay Kumar and Imran Khan, will hit screens this year. A rare prequel in Bollywood, Shootout at Wadala comes in the wake of underworld drama Shootout at Lokhandwala (2007), while Aashiqui 2 is a revisit to the musical hit 1990 film of the same name. The year will end with big-budget sequels like Krrish 3, where giving Hrithik Roshan company are Kangna Ranaut and Vivek Oberoi, as a mutant and Krrish’s arch nemesis respectively. Aamir Khan will be seen taking on as the baddie in action-thiller Dhoom 3. Time for popcorn.
The Monuments Men
Director: George Clooney
Stars: George Clooney, Daniel Craig, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray
Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history and a book by Robert M Edsel, the film’s subject is similar to one of the great WWII-set action dramas, John Frankenheimer’s The Train, about the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program, an Allied group, tasked with saving pieces of art and other culturally important items before their destruction by Nazis
Elysium
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Stars: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley and William Fichtner
The director follows up his brilliant District 9 set in year 2159 where people are class-divided by luxurious life on a space station, Elysium, and misery on a dying Earth. In the differences, Max (Damon) sets out to bring the world to equality. This grand-scale sci-fi epic promises eye-catching visuals and futuristic conventions of space stations, robots and cyborgs along with basic framework of a topical-political message.
After Earth
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Stars: Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Isabelle Fuhrman
This sci-fi thriller brings on screen a contentious father-son relationship brought to life by the real father-son duo Jaden and Will Smith, who, after a crash landing, explore a planet that was evacuated by humans 1,000 years earlier, Earth.
Lone Ranger
Director: Gore Verbinski
Stars: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, Tom Wilkinson
A legend comes to life. Presumed dead, a police officer in the Old West is aided by a native American spirit warrior to become the legendary masked marauder of justice. The action-comedy has Hammer in the title role with Depp playing Tonto, his Red Indian sidekick. If the trailers are anything to go by, expect big action and gunplay, swaggering attitude, an epic scope and an uncharacteristically understated performance by Depp.
World War Z
Director: Marc Forster
Stars: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, David Morse, James Badge Dale
Based on a bestseller of the same name by Max Brooks, World War Z is about a zombie epidemic that spreads through the world, and hordes of the undead dismantle human civilisation and threaten the lives of a tiny number of survivors. Pitt plays a UN employee racing against time and fate, as he travels the world trying to stop the outbreak.
Only God Forgives
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas and Tom Burke
The director’s take on a classic revenge thriller, the preview displays the same sort of gritty, shadow-cloaked drama that made the actor and director’s first collaboration, Drive, such a critical hit. Set in the dirty underground kickboxing world of Thailand, Gosling plays a gym owner who has to take out his brother’s murderer—or perish himself.
The World’s End
Director: Edgar Wright
Stars: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Martin Freeman
After a long hiatus following their supremely witty cop movie parody Hot Fuzz, Pegg and Frost reunite with helmer Wright for the third chapter in their Cornetto Trilogy. It’ll follow five 30-something friends who reunite to recreate an epic pub crawl from 20 years earlier, and end up becoming the human race’s only hope for survival.
The Counselor
Director: Ridley Scott
Stars: Brad Pitt, Goran Visnjic, Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem
Being described as “No Country for Old Men on steroids”, insiders claim that the story— about a respectable lawyer (Fassbender) who gets in over his head after becoming involved in the illegal drug business—is one of writer Cormac McCarthy’s “most disturbing and powerful works” to date.
Twelve Years a Slave
Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender
The film will be provocative for at least two reasons: It’s directed by Steve McQueen and concerns a man who’s kidnapped in New York in the mid-1800s and sold into slavery in the South.
Oblivion
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Stars: Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman and Orga Kurylenko
A sci-fi movie from the man who gave us Tron: Legacy, the film has to be worth something. A fantasy about a former soldier (Cruise) who is the last person left on Earth after a war with an alien race. When
he encounters a crashed spacecraft with a lone survivor (Kurylenko), the two set off on an epic adventure.
Dead Man Down
Director: Niels Arden Oplev
Stars: Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace, Dominic Cooper
From the director of the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo comes a neo-noir thriller crime. In New York City, a crime lord’s right-hand man (Farrell) is seduced by one of his boss’s victims (Rapace), a woman seeking retribution.
Hollywood sequels
The Wolverine
Director: James Mangold
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Will Yun Lee, Tao Okamoto
“A more focused Wolverine story with the adamantium-clawed mutant with a distinct lack of mutant cameos in the sixth installment,” says the director. The film is set sometime after the disastrous events of X-Men: The Last Stand. Logan travels to Japan where he takes on the crime bosses of Tokyo. But the film is not all about samurai swordfights and gangs of ninjas; it also looks to explore Logan’s soul.
The Hangover Part III
Director: Todd Phillips
Stars: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and Justin Bartha
No wedding, no bachelor party, but another wild day awaits the wolfpack in the final film in The Hangover franchise. The director promises more craziness and raunchy jokes which will “not follow the same template, but is very much a new idea”. We can’t wait to watch what goes wrong this time.
Iron Man 3
Director: Shane Black
Stars: Robert Downey Jr, Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce, Gwyneth Paltrow
This film promises to expose grittier plot with Tony Stark (Iron Man) played by Downey Jr facing off The Mandarin (Kinsley). When Stark finds his personal world destroyed by his mysterious antagonist, he embarks on a journey of rebuilding and retribution. Iron Man 3 isn’t just a test of Stark’s mettle but of his values and resolve as well. As the film’s tagline goes: ‘Does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?’
The Smurfs 2
Director: Raja Gosnell
Stars: Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Katy Perry
The blue little smurfs continue their adventure away from their comfort village in The Smurfs 2. This time, the beloved creatures are swept away to Paris as the evil wizard Gargamel kidnaps Smurfette, who has to face new baddies, Vexy and Hackus, two mischievous Smurf-like creatures also known as the Naughties. To save Smurfette, Papa Smurf, Clumsy, Grouchy, and Vanity will once again enlist the help from Patrick and Grace Winslow and their son Blue.
Fast and Furious 6
Director: Justin Lin
Stars: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, and Luke Evans
Expect bigger and more intense car-chase scenes as the film moves away from the underground car-racing theme. It catches up with Dominic Toretto (Diesel) and his racer buddies, enjoying the spoils from their ‘last job’ in Rio when Federal Agent Hobbs (Johnson) comes knockin’. Hobbs has been pursuing a criminal mastermind Owen Shaw (Evans) and his elite driving force across the world, with Dom and team being his one last hope at taking Shaw down.
G.I.Joe 2: Retaliation
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum, Dwayne Johnson, Ray Park, Adrianne Palicki
In this semi-reboot/sequel to the 2009 film G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, Snake Eyes (Park) and Duke (Tatum) return with a batch of new heroes Lady Jaye (Palicki), Roadblock (Johnson), as well as the villainous, Firefly (Ray Stevenson). After a terrorist attack leaves US defences scattered, the group of remaining Joes seek the assistance of original “Real American Hero” Joe Colton (Willis), to strike back at Cobra.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Director: Francis Lawrence
Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Philip Seymour Hoffman
A sci-fi adventure film based on Suzanne Collins’ novel, Catching Fire, it’s the second installment in The Hunger Games trilogy. Angered by Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark’s (Hutcherson) dual win in the 74th annual Hunger Games, which defied the traditional rulebook, President Snow (Sutherland) proclaims a 75th anniversary Quarter Quell—to once again fight for the honour of their district and their lives. It will also be interesting to see what happens with Hemsworth as he moves centre stage.
Riddick
Director: David Twohy
Stars: Vin Diesel, Karl Urban, Katee Sackhoff, Jordi Mollà
With an ‘R’ rating for the threequel, Riddick (Diesel) follows the titular, infamous protagonist stranded on a barren planet, home to dangerous alien beasts. Activating an emergency beacon alerts two ships: one carrying a new breed of mercenary, the other captained by a man from Riddick’s past.
Classic Hollywood
Man of Steel
Director: Zack Snyder
Stars: Henry Cavill, Russell Crowe, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon
Snyder in the director’s chair and Christopher Nolan’s involvement in the reboot of the Superman series makes Man of Steel a film to watch out for. Cavill is the brand new hunk in the red cape. If the Internet buzz is anything to go by, the film focuses on the transition from Clark Kent to Superman. And so, it promises to come with a touch of realism and dark undertones.
Star Trek Into Darkness
Director: J J Abrams
Stars: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Benedict Cumberbatch
A sequel to the 2009 Star Trek, and the 12th in the series, is being billed as an action thriller. After the crew of the USS Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organisation, Captain Kirk (Pine) leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one-man weapon of mass destruction. One of the most-talked-about projects, mostly because of the persistently hidden true identity of Cumberbatch’s villainous character.
Evil Dead
Director: Fede Alvarez
Stars: Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Jessica Lucas
A remake of as beloved an ’80s film as The Evil Dead, the forthcoming Evil Dead has a better pedigree than most. Five friends head to a remote cabin, where the discovery of Naturon De Monto (Book of the Dead) leads them to unwittingly summon up demons living in the nearby woods, who possess the youngsters in succession until only one is left to fight for survival.
The Great Gatsby
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Tobey Maguire
Baz Luhrman’s dazzling visuals and DiCaprio’s acting talents come together for the fourth cinematic adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age classic novel The Great Gatsby. And, for all Bollywood fans, add Amitabh Bachchan to the mix and the film is a must-watch. The film is about the mysterious self-made millionaire Gatsby (DiCaprio) and his doomed romance with the shallow, flighty Daisy Buchanan (Carey).