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Fall film preview: ‘Sully,’ ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Birth of a Nation’ and more

By Cary Darling

cdarling@dfw.com

September 1, 2016 1:25 PM

Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in the musical ‘La La Land’ — Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in the musical ‘La La Land’ Lionsgate

The days are getting slightly cooler, the nights slightly longer, and summer’s cinematic silly season has come crashing to an end, wrecked under one of Ben-Hur’s careening chariots.

That means only one thing: The fall films are coming, replete with dramas on hot topics.

America’s thorny racial history is the focus of three films — Loving, Fences and the polarizing The Birth of a Nation.

Meanwhile, Oliver Stone’s long-awaited and delayed Snowden biopic finally leaks, while the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil-rig explosion (Deepwater Horizon) and the emotions of a soldier returning from Iraq (Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk) are also hitting the big screen.

Plus, we’re even getting an original musical, La La Land, from the director of Whiplash.

Sure, the lineup, as expected, does have its special-effects blockbusters, like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Marvel’s Doctor Strange. But even these might offer surprises. After all, the video-game-based Assassin’s Creed sports a top-tier cast led by Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard.

So, here are 33 notable films set to hit screens between September and the end of the year. As usual, release dates are subject to change.

Sept. 9

Sully: Tom Hanks? Check. Heroic story? Check. Based on real life? Check. Oscar bait? Check. Hanks gets back in Captain Phillips mode as he portrays Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot who landed the commercial plane safely in the Hudson River in 2009. But the film isn’t just about his heroic feat of aviation but also the investigation into the incident that followed. Directed by Clint Eastwood, it also stars Laura Linney, Anna Gunn and Aaron Eckhart.

Sept. 16

Snowden: Oliver Stone’s take on the Edward Snowden affair was originally set for last year. Does that mean this film, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the NSA employee who leaked classified information and fled the country, is a bust? Will it go the way of the movie about Julian Assange, The Fifth Estate, which sank without a trace in 2013? Shailene Woodley, Scott Eastwood, Nicolas Cage, Timothy Olyphant, Melissa Leo and Zachary Quinto co-star.

Bridget Jones’s Baby: The sequel to the incredibly popular 2001 hit Bridget Jones’s Diary, in which a young woman looks for love, now finds Jones (Renee Zellweger) as a new mom in her 40s. Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent return from the first film, and Patrick Dempsey co-stars (no, he’s not playing Hugh Grant’s character from the original).

Sept. 23

The Magnificent Seven: A remake of a remake doesn’t inspire confidence, but there’s a reason for hope with this one. Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Southpaw, The Equalizer) directs a solid cast — Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Matt Bomer, Peter Sarsgaard, Byung-hun Lee, Cam Gigandet, Luke Grimes — in a redo of the 1960 Western about seven gunfighters who protect a small town, which itself was an American take on Akira Kurosawa’s Japanese classic Seven Samurai.

Goat: Pop heartthrob Nick Jonas has shown surprising acting chops in the TV series Kingdom, in which he plays a sexually conflicted MMA fighter. He brings what he’s learned to this drama about college fraternity hazing gone out of control. The film was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

Queen of Katwe: Director Mira Nair (Mississippi Masala, The Namesake) returns with a biopic about Phiona Mutesi, a young Ugandan girl who becomes a world chess champion. It stars David Oyelowo (Selma) and Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave) and newcomer Madina Nalwanga as Phiona.

Sept. 30

Deepwater Horizon: The worst oil spill in American history took place in April 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. Now, that event becomes a big-budget motion picture starring Mark Wahlberg, Kate Hudson, Kurt Russell and John Malkovich. It’s directed by Peter Berg, who also has Patriots Day, his take on another American tragedy — the Boston Marathon bombing — coming in 2017.

Oct. 7

The Birth of a Nation: This chronicle of the slave revolt led by Nat Turner (played by Nate Parker, who also directs) is bound to be controversial in a year when racial politics are at the fore. Not to mention that its title is both a direct lift and rebuttal to D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film about Reconstruction with the same name. It won the Sundance Grand Jury and Audience awards but it also has been in the news lately for a less celebratory reason: It has come out that Parker and co-writer Jean Celestin, while in college, were accused of sexual assault by a woman who later committed suicide. There are calls to boycott the film. This a movie people are going to be talking about for many reasons.

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The Girl on the Train: Emily Blunt stars in this London-set mystery thriller about a train passenger who takes it upon herself to search for a missing woman. It’s a bit of a switch for director Tate Taylor, who’s best-known for the James Brown biopic Get On Up and Oscar nominee The Help. Justin Theroux, Luke Evans, Lisa Kudrow, Allison Janney and Edgar Ramirez co-star.

Oct. 14

American Honey: One of the most anticipated indie films of the year, it won two jury prizes at Cannes and was nominated for the Palme d’Or. Set in a somewhat fantastical Midwest where groups of young people still road-trip selling magazine subscriptions, this is a 2 1/2 -hour “musical” starring Sasha Lane and Shia LaBeouf. Variety’s Guy Lodge was blown away by it, writing that it’s “constantly, engrossingly active, spinning and sparking and exploding like a Fourth of July Catherine wheel.”

The Accountant: Ben Affleck may become a hero to number-crunchers and paper-pushers everywhere as he portrays an autistic forensic accountant with a penchant for fisticuffs and action in this thriller from Gavin O’Connor, the director who made one of 2011’s best films, Warrior. Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor also star.

Oct. 28

Inferno: Once again Tom Hanks brings the world of Dan Brown’s mysteries to life as the popular Robert Langdon character. This time he’s joined by Felicity Jones and Ben Foster as they race to stop a deadly plot. Ron Howard, who oversaw the previous Brown-related films, The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, directs.

Nov. 4

Doctor Strange: Comic-book fans have been hyped up for this one for awhile. Doctor Strange is a Marvel superhero who protects our planet from supernatural enemies. If nothing else it has a strong cast, including Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role as well as Tilda Swinton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Benjamin Bratt and Mads Mikkelsen. But the trailer doesn’t inspire much reason to believe it’s going to break out of the comic-book straitjacket.

American Pastoral: In the wake of the well-received film adaptation of Philip Roth’s Indignation, another of his works comes to the screen. This one revolves around a family in the turbulent ’60s and ’70s and is considered one of Roth’s best works, winning the Pulitzer Prize and being named one of Time magazine’s greatest novels of all time. Ewan McGregor directs and stars along with Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Connelly and Rupert Evans.

Bleed for This: Every young male actor in Hollywood, it seems, has to do a boxing movie, and now it’s Miles Teller’s turn to get all beefy and bloody. He portrays the real-life Vinny Pazienza, who made a comeback after suffering a nearly fatal auto accident. Based on a true story, it’s directed by Ben Younger, whose first film back in 2000 was the strong ensemble work Boiler Room.

Nov. 11

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk: Based on the bestselling novel by Dallas writer Ben Fountain, this drama from director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Life of Pi) revolves around an Iraq war vet coming home and being celebrated as a guest of the Dallas Cowboys in a halftime event. But this “victory” turns out to be bittersweet. Newcomer Joe Alwyn plays Billy. Kristen Stewart, Garrett Hedlund, Chris Tucker, Vin Diesel and Steve Martin also star.

Arrival: Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, who helmed one of last year’s best films, Sicario, comes back with this film about a team investigating alien crafts that have landed. Amy Adams is a linguist who must decode what the visitors are trying to say. Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker co-star.

Nov. 18

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: A Harry Potter prequel of sorts, this is J.K. Rowling’s tale about Newt Scamander and his adventures with wizards and witches in New York set 70 years before Potter. Eddie Redmayne stars and David Yates, who oversaw four of the Potter films, directs. A sequel is already set for 2018.

Loving: Austin’s Jeff Nichols is one of this country’s best young directors, and here he throws the spotlight on two little-known heroes of American history. Joel Edgerton (The Gift) and Ruth Negga (Preacher) portray Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial Virginia couple given a prison sentence in 1958 for breaking anti-miscegenation laws. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court. And the film may be going all the way to the Oscars; there’s been a loud buzz about the movie after its screening at Cannes, where Nichols was nominated for the Palme d’Or.

Nocturnal Animals: Native Texan director Tom Ford, who earned kudos with his first film, A Single Man, in 2009, returns with this thriller starring Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal about a woman who thinks her ex-husband might want her dead.

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Manchester By the Sea: There’s awards talk about the latest from director Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count on Me) about an uncle who has to take care of his teenage nephew. Casey Affleck, Kyle Chandler and Michelle Williams star.

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Nov. 23

Moana: Disney has to be wishing that this year’s animated holiday-time film will fare better than last year’s Pixar project, The Good Dinosaur. Moana focuses on a Polynesian girl who sets sail in search of a legendary island. The roster of voice actors includes Dwayne Johnson and Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords).

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Rules Don’t Apply: Warren Beatty gets behind the camera for the first time since directing Bulworth in 1998 to tell a story about a romantic triangle. It stars Alden Ehrenreich, Taissa Farmiga, Ed Harris, Alec Baldwin and Lily Collins.

Allied: Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard star in a WWII-era romantic thriller, directed by Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future). He may be the perfect guy to pull off an updated Casablanca.

December TBA

Lion: Dev Patel had a strong role this year in The Man Who Knew Infinity, but this one may turn out to be his best since his breakthrough in Slumdog Millionaire. He plays an Indian man, adopted by an Australian couple as a boy, who goes on the hunt for his birth parents. Rooney Mara and Nicole Kidman co-star.

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December 2

La La Land: This could either be a laughable debacle or a triumphant return of the traditional movie musical. Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, J.K. Simmons and John Legend star in this romantic love letter to Los Angeles. It’s also about two crazy kids who can’t get enough of each other. It’s directed by Damien Chazelle, whose previous films (Whiplash, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench) also celebrated the joy of music, but let’s hope Simmons isn’t yelling so much this time.

Dec. 16

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story: Another “Star Wars” film already? Well, yes and no. Rogue One is set in the same universe as the other films but follows a different group of characters portrayed by a very different cast. And what a solid international cast it is: Ben Mendelsohn, Felicity Jones, Riz Ahmed, Mads Mikkelsen, Diego Luna, Donnie Yen and Forest Whitaker are some of those involved. Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla) directs.

Collateral Beauty: After so many films that are either unwatchable (Suicide Squad, After Earth) or simply not memorable (Concussion, Focus), Will Smith joins a solid cast — Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet, Naomie Harris, Keira Knightley, Edward Norton, Michael Peña — for a drama about an advertising executive’s fall from grace. It’s directed by David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada).

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The Founder: Michael Keaton can probably expect an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s, especially since the film is directed by John Lee Hancock, who’s no stranger to Oscar consideration. He made The Blind Side and Saving Mr. Banks.

Dec. 21

Assassin’s Creed: Films based on video games generally have not fared so well. This one might buck the curse considering it stars Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Michael Kenneth Williams, Jeremy Irons and Brendan Gleeson. Then there’s the director, Aussie bad boy Justin Kurzel, who exploded onto the scene with the grim Snowtown and his searing take on Macbeth, also starring Fassbender.

Passengers: It’s not a Christmas movie season without a new Jennifer Lawrence project. She’s back this year in a science-fiction tale about two passengers in hibernation aboard a ship headed into deep space. But, alas, they wake up early. Chris Pratt and Michael Sheen co-star, and the director is Norway’s Morten Tyldum, who made The Imitation Game and the fantastic Norwegian thriller Headhunters in 2011.

Sing: In a world run by animals, a koala decides to launch a singing competition. That’s the premise in this animated tale featuring the voices of Matthew McConaughey, Scarlett Johansson, Seth MacFarlane, Jay Pharoah, Reese Witherspoon, Nick Offerman and Nick Kroll.

Dec. 25

Fences: Denzel Washington stars in and directs this adaptation of the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning August Wilson play about black family life in the ’50s. Washington knows the material well, as he also starred in Fences on Broadway. Viola Davis co-stars. Wilson wrote a draft for a script before his death in 2005 and Tony Kushner (Angels in America) was brought in to finish it.

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Cary Darling: 817-390-7571, @carydar

This story was originally published September 1, 2016 at 1:25 PM with the headline "Fall film preview: ‘Sully,’ ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Birth of a Nation’ and more."