by Nathaniel R
Austin Butler and co-stars in "Masters of the Air"
With the 95th Academy Awards wrapped, it's time to look to the future. We already talked about the next projects for this past season's hot directors and actresses. Now let's look at the leading and supporting men. What's next for them?
AUSTIN BUTLER
Like most modern stars, Butler is juggling both TV and movies now. He's already shot the World War II miniseries Masters of the Air (fellow Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan is also in it). The big movie news...
...that we've known for some time now is that on November 3rd, he'll have himself a knife fight with Timothée Chalamet in Dune Part Two, as evilsexy Feyd Rautha (that's the Sting role from the 1984 film version for you non-readers). The other movie he's already filmed is the latest from Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Loving) called The Bikeriders. It's about a motorcycle club in the midwest. That film has a strong cast including Jodie Comer, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Karl Glusman, and Boyd Holbrook. So while Butler isn't shooting anything right at this moment (that we know of) there are three high profile projects already wrapped and we imagine the scripts are arriving by truckload post Elvis.
Colin as "The Penguin" in The Batman (2022)
COLIN FARRELL
Sadly, for those of us who wanted Farrell to win an Oscar, there are no movie projects on the horizon. It's all TV roles. Farrell will next be seen in a Apple TV+ series Sugar from City of God director Fernando Meirelles. He'll then reprise his prosthetic-burdened Penguin role in an HBOMax series about that infamous villain. He's also attached to a miniseries about the Iran-Contra scandal playing Oliver North... though we never believe any project will actually happen until it's in pre-production and everyone is signed on.
BRENDAN FRASER
Though we won't see him as "Firefly" in Batgirl (since Warner Bros permanently shelved that completed film) he has three other supporting roles in the near future from movies he's already shot. He's part of the ensemble of Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, he's in a comedy called Brothers (with Josh Brolin and Peter Dinklage headlining), and a sci-fi film indie Behind the Curtain of Night about a man who can see his past lives. It'll be interesting to see if Fraser's career goes back to low profile or if the Oscar afterglow will have any lead offers coming his way.
BRENDAN GLEESON
There's no post-Oscar nom excitement yet in terms of roles and we might not see him onscreen in 2023. He has a voice role in the animated film A Greyhound of A Girl. In 2024 he'll return to the big screen for the Joker sequel Joker: Folie à Deux starring Joaquin Phoenix in the titular role opposite Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn.
Brian Tyree Henry will reprise his voice role of "Jefferson Davis" in Across the Spiderverse
BRIAN TYREE HENRY
He was busy before that first nomination and he'll stay that way. You can hear him doing voicework in the new animated feature The Magician's Elephant right now on Netflix and then in June more animated vocals for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. But we'd always rather see great actors faces than just hear their voices so thankfully there's some live-action roles too. He's part of the ensemble of the summer FX miniseries Class of '09 about FBI agents reuniting after a friend's death. After that, though we don't know quite when, he'll co-star in a TV series called Sinking Spring for Apple TV+ . As far as movie roles go, he's already shot the sequel Godzilla and Kong (it's due in theaters in a years time since those titular vfx characters take a long time to come together in post). The movie project that sounds most interesting by far is Flint Strong, a biographical sports drama about a female boxer from Michigan that's written by Barry Jenkins and directed by the cinematographer Rachel Morrison (Black Panther, Mudbound). Despite his busy schedule we hope he makes time to come back to Broadway too.
Judd Hirsch in "Showing Up"
JUDD HIRSCH
He's currently on view in season 10 of The Goldbergs, after which he'll pop up on movie screens in Kelly Reichardt's new drama Showing Up (starring Michelle Williams). He's also shot a family drama about a Little League baseball player called Rally Caps.
BARRY KEOGHAN
The new father and freshly Oscar-nominated rising star is in the ensemble of the aviation miniseries Masters of the Air (with Austin Butler). He's also already shot Emerald Fennell's (Promising Young Woman) new thriller Saltburn with Carey Mulligan. Two projects currently shooting (or maybe in post?) are the thriller Bring Them Down in which he comes into conflict with Christopher Abbott and an Untitled Film from Trey Edward Shults (Waves, Krisha) which was co-written by and will co-star The Weeknd.
PAUL MESCAL
He's been in demand since his breakthrough Normal People and after making good on that promise both on stage (A Streetcar Named Desire) and on screen (Aftersun) the demand will surely continue. Next up is the dance drama Carmen (directed by Natalie Portman's husband). After that two other films he's already shot: a sci-fi thriller called Foe with Saoirse Ronan and a drama/fantasy called Strangers from Andrew Haigh (Weekend, 45 Years) with Claire Foy, Jamie Bell, and Andrew Scott.
Further away there's a bunch of stuff, too. There's geat variety and exciting collaborators coming so he and his team are choosing well on paper! He's already started shooting the movie adaptation of Sondheim's musical Merrily We Roll Along with Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein but given that Richard Linklater is shooting that one like Boyhood across the span of several years (the passage of time is a huge part of that particular musical) we won't see the results until the 2030s. Mescal is also attached to four more features that haven't started filming yet: There's Gladiator 2 (co-starring Barry Keoghan, Paul Mescal, and Denzel Washington), an espionage thriller A Spy by Nature, a European border-hopping drama The End of Getting Lost from Mustang director Deniz Gamze Ergüven, and a World War I era gay romance The History of Sound with Josh O'Connor from South African director Oliver Hermanus (Living, Moffie).
BILL NIGHY
This year's oldest Best Actor nominee has always been a workaholic actor, on stage, tv, and film with 160+ film and television credits already, and he's not slowing down at 73. He has three features in post: a thriller called Role Play, a sports drama about homeless men called The Beautiful Game, and a horror film called The First Omen. He's also doing voicework on two new animated features: 10 Lives and Dragonkeeper.
KE HUY QUAN
The former child star and freshly Oscared 51 year-old actor will next be seen on two Disney+ series, American Born Chinese about a young boy who becomes involved in battle between the Gods of Chinese mythology and the second season of Loki. He's also done some sort of voice-work for an upcoming sci-fi adventure film called The Electric State about an orphaned teenager (Millie Bobby Brown) and her robot. Jenny Slate, Giancarlo Esposito, Billy Bob Thornton, and Anthony Mackie also have voice roles since there are multiple robots in the story but that's probably not coming until 2024 as visual effects films have long post-production periods.
We're very curious what kind of roles he'll be offered post EEAAO since there's not much arriving in 2023 and it generally takes a couple of years to see the after-effects of that sort of breakout hit / comeback.
Which of these projects and careers are you most excited about?