We Can't Wait: 2026 Cinema. (Part Three: Q-Z)

by Nathaniel R

the great animation studio Laika is back with "WILDWOOD"

ICYMI In Part One: A-F we began our look forward to 2026 movies with legacy sequels, a new Almodovar, and multiple films from a few actresses of note. We continued the anticipation with  Part Two: G-P in which we got excited about French legends, queer cinema, possible all-quadrant blockbusters, and more traditional Oscar fare like a period epic from an favored auteur and a movie chronicling the literal making of a Best Picture winner. 

Let's wrap things up with another twenty films we're hoping give us exactly what we crave in a dark theater. This grouping includes a friendly neighborhood webslinger, campy drag queens, 13th century werewolves, and one last Anne Hathaway (four films this year) who is aiming for "Entertainer of the Year" dominance...

SENSE & SENSIBILITY. SEPT 11. Focus Features.
I kept changing my mind about whether to include this one. I don't see how it's possible to top Emma Thompson & Ang Lee's 1995 classic but on the other hand Georgia Oakley's debut, the lesbian drama Blue Jean, was pretty great so I want to give it a shot. Daisy Edgar Jones, Esme Creed-Miles, George Mackay, and Herbert Nordrum take over the Emma, Kate, Hugh, and Alan Rickman roles from the 1995 classic. If history repeats itself and Daisy Edgar Jones finds the love of her life on this movie set her future man is... Frank Dillane. (For those younger readers who are like 'wut?' Emma Thompson met her future husband Greg Wise, playing the cad Willoughby, on the '95 version of this movie and they're still happily together 31 years later.)

SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY - JULY 31. Sony 
Tom Holland returns to webslinging. Previoosly in this series everyone forgot he existed thanks to a sorcerous bargain. Rumors suggest that this one has a lot of supervillains so we're hoping they're minor and it's actually a focused good vs evil action flick. You only need one great villain for an excellent superhero film.

RuPaul and Matt Rogers in STOP! THAT! TRAIN!

STOP! THAT! TRAIN! - MAY 29. Bleecker Street
Listen this drag action comedy might be absolutely terrible if the non-ambitious comedy skits on RuPaul's Drag Race are indication but it also might be silly/hilarious/enjoyably-stoopid if we're lucky. Adam Shankman (whose best work is still the movie-musical adaptation of Hairspray from way back in 2007). RuPaul, Ginger Minj, Monet XChange, Latrice Royale, Jujubee, Marcia Marcia Marcia (so underrated!), Brock Hayhoe, Brooke Lynn Hytes, and Symone. Non-drag-queens Lisa Rinna and Matt Rogers (yay!) are also in the cast. 

TUNER - MAY 22. Black Bear.
Leo Woodall (White Lotus) co-stars with long-absent Dustin Hoffman in a heist thriller about a piano-tuner who cracks safes. 

THE UNKNOWN - TBA
Lea Seydoux stars in a French drama directed and written by the co-writer of Anatomy of a Fall, Arthur Harari. 

VERITY - OCT 2. Amazon | MGM
Anne Hathaway Vehicle #4 for 2026. Seriously how is her PR team going to manage this and are they afraid of overexposure? I suppose the eternally stupid "Hathahate" movement of 2012/2013 would be a good problem to have this late into her career. That said, this movie, which is currently scheduled to be her last to open in 2026, sounds the least promising... but you never know. It's an adaptation of yet another Colleen Hoover novel about a ghost writer (Dakota Johnson) and a best-selling author (Anne Hathaway) and her husband (Josh Hartnett) and though Hoover adaptations have not been described as "quality cinema" none of them have ever had actors as charismatic as Hathaway, Johnson, and Hartnett in them. Also even if it's closer to a campy failure/guilty pleasure than "quality", Hathaway can also ride those lines with aplomb. Her filmography is full of 'is this movie actually good despite itself?' (Serenity) and 'more people should see this oddity because she's really selling it' Colossal) and 'she's the very best thing in this movie that people actually like so why is no one acknowledging that?' (Interstellar/Dark Knight Rises/Oceans 8) and  'this might be trash but watch her cook!!!' (Eileen/The Idea of You). In short she performs genuine feats of talent/charisma almost every time out.

I know the world is ending and actressexuality won't save us from insatiable greed, rampant hatred, vaccination-cancellations, LGBTQ hatred, murderous government-armed thugs, and 24/7 disinformation machine of Faux News, BUT if everything has to go to shit so quickly I hope we can all at least enjoy a couple more years of quality actressing before the world implodes. Sorry for the tangent -- my mind was wandering. Because it's not like I truly want to see Verity... just that I know I will for I have decided to seize joy (including watching actresses like Anne Hathaway that I always love) every single chance I get until end arrives.

Ethan Hawke stars in THE WEIGHT

THE WEIGHT - TBA.
Fresh off his Oscar nomination for Blue Moon, Ethan Hawke reunites with his director from the miniseries The Good Lord Bird, to headline a reportedly thrilling period film about a  group of men smuggling gold on their backs through the Pacific Northwest. An Italian cinematographer named Matteo Cocco is winning fine notices for this one so this could be a breakout picture for him. 

WERWULF - DEC 25. Focus Features
Robert Eggers continues his medieval / mythological obsessions with this lychathropic drama set in 13th century England. What's more it will have dialogue in Middle English! All of his films have ranged from good to great so it would be foolish to skip one. That said, there are a couple of things to worry about here. One is that the best werewolf cinema never seems to reach the level of greatness that top notch examples of vampire, zombie, or frankenstein monsters have. Second, though I don't have anything against Aaron Taylor-Johnson the way some film fans do, we've yet to see real evidence that the actor has enough magnetism to carry a movie rather than support the leads from the safety of the ensemble. If Taylor-Johnson doesn't step up at least we'll have Willem Dafoe and Ralph Ineson, very reliable supporting actors, to help prop this drama up.

WICKER - TBA
In this comic fantasy, Olivia Colman weaves herself a fantasy husband (Alexander Skarsgard). Those two actors are enough of a draw but we also read that the movie has great Makeup effects. Craft Oscar nomination forthcoming? 

WILDWOOD - OCT 23.
Laika returns with a stop motion fantasy. This might be the movie I'm most excited for all of 2026 as I've loved all of their animated features (especially Boxtrolls, Coraline, and ParaNorman). Oscar has done Laika wrong for years and probably will again given that yet another Toy Story (sigh) is coming. If there's any Oscar in the Animation Feature category I'd like revoked it's Toy Story 4's because why was that necessary? When there isn't one undeniable contender in a kind of weak year, why not make it up to the studio that you keep stiffing for inferior movies even if Missing Link was hardly Laika's best work? 

YAKUSHIMA'S ILLUSION - TBA
Festival favourite Naomi Kawase directs this drama starring Vicky Kriep as a heart transplant surgeon sent to Japan where the procedure is taboo.  

AND FINALLY... SOME UNTITLED PICTURES AS WELL AS PICTURES WE FORGOT IN PARTS ONE OR TWO...

GAIL DAUGHTRY AND THE CELEBRITY SEX PASS. TBA
Comedy from David Wain starring Zoey Deutch (so good in Nouvelle Vague!) as a woman who heads to LA hoping to sleep with Jon Hamm. If it's half as funny as Wain's Wet Hot American Summer it'll be a treat! 

HEXED - NOV 25. Walt Disney
This Disney original is about a type A mother and her weird son. They discover that his oddball nature is actually magical. 

Leviticus

LEVITICUS - TBA. Neon
A queer horror picture about a supernatural force that takes the form of the person you're most attracted to.. 

I WANT YOUR SEX TBA and THE INVITE. A24 TBA
Two Olivia Wilde movies that premiered at Sundance. In the first, directed by the long-missing Gregg Araki Cooper Hoffman is invited to be her sex slave. In the second movie, which Wilde directed herself, she and Seth Rogen get involved with their upstairs neighbors Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton, who are in an open relationship and throw sex parties. I know people didn't really love her last directorial effort (Don't Worry Darling, 2022) but I thought her debut behind the camera (Booksmart, 2019) was just excellent. So I'm excited for this third film. 

We don't yet know who will distribute JOSEPHINE but it has Oscar dreams

JOSEPHINE - TBA
The winner this year at Sundance! Josephine, directed by Beth De Araujo, is an intense drama about a child in trauma (Mason Reeves) with Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan winning strong reviews as her confused desperate parents. Sundance winners don't always become Oscar players but people seem to think this one has the potential. We would personally LOVE to see Tatum finally get his due as a fine actor. 

ONE NIGHT ONLY. AUG 7. UNIVERSAL
This is a romantic comedy starring Callum Turner (who we're not quire sure we "get" yet) and Monica Barbaro but the synopsis sounds like it's also dystopian as there is apparenty only one night a year when premarital sex is legal. We've been eager to see what Monica Barbaro can do post Oscar nomination for A Complete Unknown and this might tell us. 

UNTITLED CODY FERN DIRECTORIAL DEBUT - TBA
Currenly filming in Montreal the gorgeous Australian actor  (American Crime, American Horror Story) movies behind the camera for a film that could be a feast for actressexuals. Sarah Paulson leads a cast that includes Naomi Watts, Odessa A'Zion, and Dianne Wiest (!!!) in a story about a famous actress whose life begins to unravel during a production of "Mother Courage".

UNTITLED JESSE EISENBERG MUSICAL COMEDY - TBA
While Jesse Eisenberg's writer/director debut When You're Finished Saving the World was somewhat middling his sophomore feature A Real Pain was amazing. We're hoping that the third time is even better. This comedy is about a shy woman (Julianne Moore) who loses herself in community theater. Paul Giamatti, Cara Buono, Halle Bailey, Havana Rose Liu, and Tony winners Bonnie Milligan and BERNADETTE F***ING PETERS co-star. We don't know how much of a "musical" it really is but if Eisenberg doesn't let Milligan and Peters sing, we will have to question him forevermore.

Whew that was a lot of movies between these three parts. What are you excited for this year?

Comments

[jules]

Kind of slim pickings here compared to the other two lists, but as a huge fan of Hawke and Moore I'm looking forward to The Weight and Jesse Eisenberg's new film.