Make way for the veterans
New installments of Indiana Jones, Dune and Mission: Impossible, and the latest films by Coppola, Scorsese and Nolan are among the most anticipated new releases of 2023
In 1981, the year in which Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II almost died in attacks, Raiders of the Lost Ark was released. Perhaps the world needed fictional heroes in those turbulent times, or perhaps the public simply wanted classic adventures. The fact is that the archaeologist with a hat, a whip and a gun, the result of the tandem George Lucas-Harrison Ford (hugely successful with Star Wars) and Steven Spielberg (who had directed Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind), was a success. Forty-two years later, on June 30 we will see the premiere of the fifth and final installment of the saga, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. With Ford having just turned 80, the plot was always destined to include the passage of time as one of its themes.
Tom Cruise was 34 and already a huge star when Mission Impossible was released in 1996. Now 60, he is still in top form. Paramount recently released a video from the filming of the franchise’s seventh installment, in which Cruise makes a spectacular motorcycle jump and deploys a parachute. No one stunted for him. Cruise has also just taken the box office by storm and got rave reviews with Top Gun: Maverick of course. The premiere of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One , on July 14, is one of the most anticipated films of the season. It is the first part of the seventh installment, to be divided into two parts, as with Harry Potter.
Spielberg and Scorsese
More veterans are on the agenda in 2023. Steven Spielberg launches The Fabelmans (Feb. 10), his new autobiographical story which has earned five Golden Globe nominations and is coming strong into the Oscar race . It stars a boy living in Arizona in the late fifties and early sixties.
For his part, Martin Scorsese adapts the non-fiction best-seller Killers of the Flower Moon. Several members of the Osage tribe (Oklahoma) were killed in the 1920s after becoming billionaires by finding oil on their reservation. Scorsese has two regulars on board for this project: Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.
The director of La La Land, Damien Chazelle, returns with a film also set in the 1920s, this time in Hollywood. Babylon tells a story of ambition and excess with Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt as protagonists. Robbie also plays Barbie (July 21) in a film directed by Greta Gerwig that will undoubtedly distance the famous doll from the archetype of the object woman.
Christopher Nolan brings us Oppenheimer (July 21), a portrait of the physicist who played a fundamental role in the development of the atomic bomb; Denis Villeneuve releases the second part of his galactic epic Dune (November 3) and another Disney animated film becomes a real picture, The Little Mermaid (May 26).
As for films with the best chance of awards, The Banshees of Inisherin is released on February 3, Empire of Light arrives on March 3, and the Swedish Triangle of Sadness will arrive in cinemas on February 17.
FEATURE FILMS AND SERIES
Why renew subscriptions?
Streaming platforms offer a great arsenal ofnew releases, sequels and spin-offs
jordi camps linnell / jcamps@epa.cat
If you are considering whether to renew, cancel or get new subscriptions to the streaming platforms that dominate the TV series market, it will be difficult to decide, with such a huge number of titles available.
To begin with, we already have (since January 16) the adaptation of one of the most popular Playstation games, The last of us (HBO Max), a new story set in a post-apocalyptic scenario, in which the survival of humanity is threatened by a deadly virus. Nothing original, but the fact that it stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey (discovered in Game of Thrones) and was created by the same creators of Chernobyl and the screenwriter of the video game, is an added value. Speaking of Pascal, he also returns behind the mask of the galaxy’s most famous bounty hunter, The Mandalorian, in the third season of the hit Disney+ series, accompanied, of course, by Grogu, the baby Yoda.
For superheroes fans, if you enjoyed Peacemaker (HBO Max) or The Boys (Amazon Prime), there are new installments of both series.
You can also discover more about Echo (Disney+), the spin-off of Hawkeye, starring the character of Maya Lopez. If you prefer something more romantic and/or melodramatic, news of the return of Outlander and Bridgerton (both on Netflix) will set your pulse racing. Two more series focused on adolescent sexual awakening that will continue to develop their characters are Sex education (Netflix) and Euforia (HBO).
Ambition, power and rampant capitalism also return with a new season of Succession (HBO), or if you prefer a good laugh, try the comedy Ted Lasso (Apple TV), about an American hired to coach an English football team.
