Hollywood film highlights for 2024
Right now, 2024 doesn't look like it will deliver a juggernaut of movies in the way that Hollywood, still dealing with the impact of the Covid pandemic and the recent strikes, might have hoped.
Many films originally due next year have now been pushed back to 2025 - including Tom Cruise's next "Mission: Impossible", and Disney's live action "Snow White".
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. That said, the year still has a significant range of big-screen offerings, from Oscar hopefuls early in the year– to summer and autumn crowd-pleasing favourites.
So here are 10 films to look out for in 2024.
1. Dune: Part Two
Originally planned for release in 2023, it had to be delayed because of the Hollywood strikes.
Although the film was finished and theoretically could have been released as planned, stars were not allowed to carry out promotional work during the strike, which led it it being pushed to next year.
The first film was a spectacular success. This second instalment is expected to tell the second part of Frank Herbert's epic novel. Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya return, while newcomers include Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan.
(1 March)
2. Back to Black
Amy Winehouse is widely recognised as one of the UK's biggest ever musical talents, with tens of millions of records sold and countless awards.
This biopic is directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and stars Industry star Marisa Abela as Winehouse. The film's producers promise the movie will showcase Winehouse's "extraordinary genius, creativity and honesty".
(12 April)
3. The Fall Guy
Ryan Gosling will take on the lead role in a film inspired by the classic 1980s TV show which starred Lee Majors as stuntman and bounty hunter Colt Seavers.
The plot sees Seavers try to unravel a complex conspiracy after an almost career-ending accident.
(2 May)
4. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Writer-director George Miller has been making "Mad Max" movies on and off for more than 40 years, interspersed of course, with films at the other end of the spectrum like the heart warming "Babe".
His previous Max movie "Fury Road" was his fourth. It starred Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron and won six Oscars. This fifth visit to the world of "Mad Max" is a prequel centring on Theron's character Furiosa, and stars Anya Taylor-Joy as her earlier self.
(24 May)
5. Inside Out 2
This is a sequel to the blockbuster 2015 Pixar hit, which showed how 11-year-old Riley was swayed and controlled by the core emotions present in her mind - joy, anger, fear, disgust and sadness.
In this follow-up, Riley has now become a teenager, and things look set to potentially get even rockier when a brand new emotion turns up to join the others - anxiety!
(14 June)
6. Despicable Me 4
"Despicable Me 3" grossed more than USD 1bn (EUR 780m) at the global box office in 2017, so it was perhaps inevitable that this sequel would eventually arrive.
Plot details are still scarce, but there have been some suggestions that it will see the adopted children of reformed supervillain Gru (Steve Carell) becoming more deeply involved in Gru and his wife Lucy's (Kristen Wiig) anti-villain league.
(12 July)
7. Deadpool 3
Deadpool, the foul-mouthed anti-hero, might be something of an anomaly among big screen comic book stars. But he's one who has been embraced by fans.
This film will see him being firmly wrapped into the usually much more clean-cut Marvel Cinematic Universe. In this as-yet-unnamed sequel, Ryan Reynolds returns as Deadpool and is joined by Hugh Jackman, reprising his role of Wolverine from the X-Men series.
(26 July)
8. Joker: Folie à Deux
Joaquin Phoenix won an Oscar for best actor for his portrayal of aspiring stand-up comedian Arthur Fleck aka Joker in the first 2019 film. At the conclusion of the movie we saw him confined to Arkham Asylum.
The trailer for this sequel reveals him still incarcerated, but building a rapport with his psychiatrist Dr Harleen Quinzel (Lady Gaga) before he finally escapes, leading to their relationship intensifying as she in turn becomes Harley Quinn.
(4 October)
9. Venom 3
This is the third film starring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, a tenacious investigative journalist whose body also hosts a symbiotic alien life form. Something that gives him both super powers and a vicious alter ego.
Little has been revealed about what happens this time around, and at this stage it doesn't even have a title. It marks the directorial debut of Kelly Marcel who wrote the first two Venom films, as well as Saving Mr Banks and the big screen adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey.
(8 October)
10. Gladiator 2
Following the 2000 original, this sequel centres on Lucius, who we last saw as the young nephew of Joaquin Phoenix's Commodus in the first movie.
The older Lucius, played by Paul Mescal, returns after more than a decade in the wilderness. Newcomers to the cast include Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal, while Connie Nielsen and Derek Jacob, who were in the original, are back.
(22 November)
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