The 20 must-see films of Fall 2017 includes several awards contenders and the next a summer movie season that spanned from the highs of critical/box office hits like Wonder Woman, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Dunkirk to the lows of commercially-underperforming critical bombs such as The Mummy and The Dark Tower, the hope is that this fall's offerings will be more consistently strong in their quality. Fortunately, this year's crop of autumn and winter holiday seasonal releases reads as being quite promising on paper.
Every fall/early winter frame brings with it a mixture of awards-hopeful prestige films and crowd-pleasing features, so 2017 won't be a departure in that respect. There's still arguably as much (if not more) in the way of promising titles than usual to look forward to, over the months that remain in 2017. Case in point: in addition to the aforementioned franchise releases, Fall 2017 brings with it a long-awaited sequel to a sci-fi classic, an original Pixar animated film, a new Hugh Jackman musical and the latest original creations from auteurs such as Guillermo del Toro and Alexander Payne.
Per tradition, these films are listed in the order of their theatrical release date - meaning, we leave it to you, the readers, to decide which ones are your most anticipated releases of the Fall 2017 Movie Season. In addition, this list only includes the films that are going into wide release between September and December of this year. (Late December Oscar-qualifying releases will be covered in our next Winter/Spring Preview, instead.) With that in mind, here is Screen Rant's 2017 Fall Movie Preview - The 20 Films to See.
IT (September 8)
2017 may go down as the year of Stephen King, based on the sheer number of movie and TV adaptations of the prolific author's body of work that have been or will be released (see The Mist, Mr. Mercedes, Gerald's Game, etc.). Not only is Warner Bros. Pictures' IT film adaptation (arguably) the most widely anticipated King adaptation of the bunch, it's also the one with the greatest potential to hit it big at the box office while pleasing moviegoing audiences, critics and longtime fans of King's original horror novel alike.
IT, similar to The Dark Tower movie, spent several years in early development and went through some major creative changes (swapping out Beasts of No Nation helmer Cary Fukunaga for Mama director Andy Muschietti), before it finally went into production. The film only covers half of King's source material (itself, some 1,138 pages long), focusing on the experiences of a group of young children who bond together - forming "The Losers Club" - as they find themselves terrorized by an ancient evil entity that has long resided in their hometown.
The begin filming IT Part 2 next year and it's difficult to imagine that he won't end up doing just that either, even if IT Part 1 fails to live to the hype currently surrounding it.
mother! (September 15)
There's a whole lot of mystery surrounding writer/director Darren Aronofsky's mother! at the moment - including, why its title is written that way and what the movie is even about to begin with. Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem star in the film as a couple whose seemingly tranquil existence is disrupted by the arrival of some unexpected guests (Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer). Things thereafter go very wrong very quickly, though how and why are questions that most everyone connected to the project is remaining tight-lipped about for the moment.
For his part, mother! is Aronofsky's first directorial effort since his big-budget Biblical retelling Noah in 2014 and comes off as something of a spiritual sequel to his Oscar-winning psycho-drama/thriller Black Swan; right down to the literal cracks appearing in Lawrence's face on the mother! posters, a la Natalie Portman's cracking dollface in the marketing for Black Swan. Characters who end up spiraling downwards in their efforts to transcend their everyday lives has been a thematic motif of Aronofsky's past work, so mother! is no exception in that respect.
Whereas Black Swan was released in the prime of awards season in 2010, mother! is arriving ahead of the pack with a mid-September launch. The movie will screen at the Toronto International and Venice Film Festival before it begins its theatrical release, but the release date does raises questions about whether or not Paramount Pictures sees this one as a potential Oscar contender. For fans of Aronofsky's previous work, however, mother! aims to deliver another stylish descent into madness that should (hopefully) be their cup of tea.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (September 22)
a new Kingsman comic arriving shortly before The Golden Circle hit theaters, but the latter is otherwise an original spin on the franchise, crafted by Vaughn and his writing partner Jane Goldman.
The Golden Circle sees Taron Egerton's Gary 'Eggsy' Unwin forces with the Kingsmen's aptly-titled U.S. counterparts, the Statesmen, in order to do battle with another twisted villain (Julianne Moore's Poppy, to be exact) bent on achieving some sort of world-domination. Newcomers this time around include Channing Tatum, Halle Berry and Pedro Pascal, while Colin Firth is also back as Harry Hart - though beyond having an eyepatch, we've yet to find out what Harry is like, after having somehow survived a bullet to the head.
Whereas the first Kingsman was an unexpected smash success (grossing $414 million at the worldwide box office), The Golden Circle is more of a known "brand" now and comes loaded with higher expectations, because of that. So far though, it looks like the sequel will please those who found the original Kingsman to be a a stylishly fun secret agent adventure and should become a commercial hit in its own right, especially given the lack of direct competition that it will be facing in theaters.
The LEGO Ninjago Movie (September 22)
Warner Bros. Pictures' LEGO Movie franchise officially became a shared universe this year, with the release of the critically-acclaimed spinoff The LEGO Ninjago Movie, a film inspired by the martial arts-themed Ninjago LEGO toyline (and its cartoon TV series adaptation, Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu), that revolves around a team of ordinary teens by day, ninjas on the side, as they battle one Lord Garmadon (Justin Theroux) - the evil father of their leader, Lloyd (Dave Franco).
It's not clear yet if LEGO Ninjago Movie - itself, co-directed by Charlie Bean (Robotboy, TRON: Uprising) - has any direct connections to the previous LEGO Movie releases or simply exists in the same "LEGO universe within the real-world" that was introduced in the original LEGO Movie. The film isn't strictly a big screen version of the Masters of Spinjitzu TV show either, despite featuring many of the same characters as its protagonists. Whether LEGO Ninjago Movie's standalone qualities help or hurt it remains to be seen, for related reasons.
With that it mind, LEGO Ninjago Movie seems poised to uphold the standard of quality established by the previous LEGO Movie installments - offering a nice blend of kid-friendly humor and storytelling with parody-oriented comedy that will appeal more to older moviegoers. LEGO Ninjago Movie may also offer the best action sequences and set pieces of any LEGO cinematic release yet, thanks to the martial art fights here being modeled after real-life choreography designed by Jackie Chan (who also lends his voice to Master Wu in the film).
Battle of the Sexes (September 22)
Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris have only directed one feature-length movie (2012's Ruby Sparks) in the decade since the duo broke out as filmmakers in 2006, with the Oscar-winning Little Miss Sunshine. That changes this year with the release of Battle of the Sexes, a true story-inspired sports comedy/drama that reunites the directors with their Little Miss Sunshine star Steve Carell. The latter is starring in the film opposite the newly-minted Oscar winner Emma Stone, who previously costarred with Carell in the 2011 rom-com Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Battle of the Sexes dramatizes the real-life 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King (Stone) - then an active World Number One professional tennis player - and Bobby Riggs (Carell), a former World Number One player and Wimbledon winner, as part of a bid on Riggs' part to recapture his former glory. Rounding out the cast of the film are such names as Alan Cumming, Elisabeth Shue, Sarah Silverman and Stone's Birdman costar, Andrea Riseborough - all of them drawing from a screenplay written by Oscar-winner Simon Beaufoy (Everest).
Combing the allure of a socially/politically-charged historical sports showdown with the sort of charming character-driven drama/comedy that Dayton and Faris have become known for delivering as storytellers, Battle of the Sexes has the potential to be another critical darling for its directors (and all other concerned parties). The movie's awards season prospects are iffier by comparison, but the odds seem in favor of both Carell and Stone getting some recognition for their performances in the film - assuming it lives up to expectations, of course.
American Made (September 29)
Tom Cruise and plane stunts have (quietly?) become synonymous over the past few years - see the star's aircraft-hanging in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and zero-gravity maneuvers in The Mummy - and will continue to be a thing in the future for Cruise, during his sequels American Made once again finds Cruise performing some dangerous aerodynamic moves, in the service of a movie about real-life pilot-turned CIA recruit and eventual drug cartel smuggler, Barry Seal.
American Made reunites Cruise with his Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman (before the duo re-team for the sequel to that sci-fi action film, tentatively titled perform a dangerous plane stunt during production on the film (which was titled Mena in early development).
It remains to be seen if American Made gains some (if any) traction during the impending awards season, but the film should provide a better opportunity for Cruise to flex his acting muscles than most of his recent, more crowd-pleasing, action-oriented offerings have of late. Late September has proven to be fruitful ground for respectable fact-based drama/thrillers in years past (see Everest and Deepwater Horizon, for example), so the stage is set for American Made to become a modest success in its own right, at the very least.
Blade Runner 2049 (October 6)
Sir Ridley Scott returns at long last to the Blade Runner universe (as a producer only, this time around) with this year's sequel Arrival and made a name for himself crafting such visually-striking, moody crime drama/thrillers as Prisoners and Sicario.
Blade Runner 2049 stars Ryan Gosling as K, a Los Angeles-based Blade Runner who goes searching for the long-missing Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), after he uncovers a long-buried secret that could change the (futuristic dystopian) world as he knows it. The Blade Runner sequel also features such in-demand talent as Robin Wright, Dave Bautista, Jared Leto and Mackenzie Davis (who previously worked with Scott on The Martian) in key roles that have been partially revealed but, like the film itself, are mostly surrounded in mystery at the moment.
Between Villeneuve's already-proven knack for cerebral science-fiction storytelling and the strong ensemble cast assemble here, there's more than fair reason to believe that Blade Runner 2049 will be a worthy successor to its touchstone predecessor. Of course, the sequel will also address some big questions that have long surrounded the original Blade Runner (namely, if Deckard is secretly a replicant), so there is also a real risk that it will divide the franchise's fanbase nearly as much as Scott's Alien movie prequels have (see Prometheus and this year's Alien: Covenant).
Marshall (October 13)
Actor Chadwick Boseman made a name for himself by portraying the real-life historical figures Jackie Robinson and James Brown in the acclaimed biopics 42 and Get On Up, respectively, before he donned his Vibranium-enhanced costume to play T'Challa aka. Marshall sees Boseman return to his roots, in a manner of speaking, by bringing yet another groundbreaking American icon to life in the form of the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall.
Directed by Reginald Hudlin, Marshall zeroes in on a particularly-important case in its namesake's legal career, at a point when he was still a lawyer working for the NAA. Rounding out the film's cast are Beauty and the Beast costars Josh Gad and Dan Stevens, along with Empire's Jussie Smollett, American Crime Story's Sterling K. Brown and Kate Hudson (Deepwater Horizon), among others. Meanwhile, the Marshall script was co-written by Michael Koskoff - a decorated attorney who even served of the Black Panther Party in the 1970s - and his son, Jacob Kaskoff (Macbeth [2015]).
There hasn't been as much buzz surrounding Marshall as other impending fall releases ahead of this year's awards season but, based on the pedigreee of most everyone involved with the project, it's easy to imagine this one proving to be one of the more exceptional additions to the Hollywood biopic genre in awhile. Boseman, for his part, has yet to earn either a Golden Globe and/or Oscar nomination for a performance - could that change with his latest portrayal of a trail-blazing figure from the 20th century?
The Snowman (October 20)
Director Tomas Alfredson has developed a reputation in recent years for making gorgeously chilly and slow-burn genre movies, thanks to his adaptations of the vampire novel Let the Right One In and the John le Carré spy tale, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The Swedish filmmaker is back this year with what looks to be another beautifully cold and bleak dramatic thriller adaptation in the form of The Snowman, a film based on author Jo Nesbø's book of the same name - one of the many Nesbø stories that revolve around the brilliant-but-unorthodox Oslo detective, Harry Hole.
The Snowman stars Michael Fassbender as Harry Hole and follows the top-notch investigator on a dangerous case that concerns a elusive serial killer who, as the title suggests, only strikes their victims in the wintertime (and has been doing so for many years). Swedish actor-turned Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation breakout star Rebecca Ferguson plays Harry's younger and less experienced partner in the film, while the ing cast is rounded out by Charlotte Gainsbourg, James D'Arcy, J.K. Simmons, Chloë Sevigny and Val Kilmer, among others.
Ridley Scott was among those considered to helm The Snowman (prior to Alfredson g on), while Martin Scorsese was even attached to call the shots at one point, before he wound up serving as an executive producer instead. The source material has always been of interest to some prestigious talent, in other words, and could make for quite the memorably disturbing crime flick, in Alfredson's own capable hands. With Lisbeth Salander not due to return to the big screen until next year (in The Girl in the Spider's Web), it will be up to Mr. Hole to deliver a healthy dose of Swedish Noir in the meantime.
Suburbicon (October 27)
While George Clooney has starred in four movies directed by the Coen Brothers to date (including last year's Hail, Caesar!), Suburbicon marks the first time that Clooney serves behind the camera on a film that was co-written by the Coens. Clooney won't be appearing onscreen in the movie either, unlike what he did on his previous five feature-length directorial efforts. This time around, Clooney's frequent costar and Ocean's Eleven trilogy player, Matt Damon will be the one headlining, with Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac (both of whom have teamed up with the Coen Brothers before) rounding out the ensemble.
Suburbicon takes place in the eponymous town - which, in the 1950s, is a seemingly idyllic neighborhood devoid of any crime and general strife. Everything changes when local working-class husband Gardner Lodge (Damon) and his family are struck by a tragedy that, in turn, begins to expose the dark truths about Mr. Lodge and the sordid underbelly of the Suburbicon community at large. The film begs comparison to the Coen Brothers' Oscar-winning Fargo in this respect, as Lodge's downward descent is further fueled by his own series of bad decisions.
Since the Coen Brothers typically direct their own screenplays (with exceptions, like the Gambit remake, Unbroken and Bridge of Spies), there is fair reason to wonder if Clooney will be able to put his own artistic stamp on Suburbicon - or if the film will come off as being "Coen Brothers-lite". Even if the latter does prove to be the case, however, now (arguably) feels like the fitting time for a not-really-a-comedy like Suburbicon to make it way to the big screen, under Clooney's sturdy guiding hand.
