5: The Jungle Book I hope they get the animals right. It seems like the realism of the animals was important but the quick cuts in the trailer don’t inspire much confidence. The cast is star-studded which means almost nothing so I don’t know why I mentioned it. Scarlett Johansson as Kaa the snake is an interesting idea and judging by her voice over in the trailer, she really nails it. This is a Disney movie, so they’re just adapting the animated movie from 1967 and bringing in “elements” of the Rudyard Kipling novel instead of going back to the novel which is why this is #5. It is also going to have some musical numbers but I’m betting they’ll much tamer than in the animated version. It’ll be really interesting to see how those play out.
4: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies This is at the top of my list of books to read this year. This has a chance to end up being a great movie, but because I don’t know enough about it yet, I’m putting it at #4. I know a lot of people are probably tired of zombies but I’ve been on a zombie-free diet for a while now and I think I’m ready to get back in. I’m not really familiar with Pride & Prejudice so it’ll be interesting to see if the zombie version stands on its own. The last zombie-book-turned-movie that I remember was World War Z and I was very disappointed with that adaptation. It probably would have been impossible to make a major motion picture that was true to that source but the attempt was really disappointing. I’m betting that this will turn out much better. But it comes out February 5th so I’d better hurry up…
3: Snowden I’m sure this one will be the least like the book and possibly not even like real life, but I have faith in Oliver Stone directing and Joseph Gordon Levitt might be fun to watch in the titular role. Stone co-wrote the screen play based on two books by Luke Harding (The Snowden Files) and Anatoly Kucherena (Time of the Octopus), which will make a fun episode of the podcast at some point. The movie was originally planned to come out on Christmas 2015 but it was pushed back due to the visual effects not being ready. It’s now slated to release in May. In the mean time go check out Citizen Four if you want to learn more about the man, Edward Snowden.
2: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot As I’ve said before, I really love Tina Fey and based on the trailer, this movie looks hilarious. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (a well-used title) is based on The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan (2011) by Kim Baker, and will star Tina Fey, Margo Robbie and Martin Freeman. It’ll be a lot of fun to compare the book and the movie and see how much of the humor Fey brought with her and how much was there to begin with.
1: The BFG Steven Spielberg can do no wrong. And Roald Dahl can do no wrong. Well neither of those statements is 100% true but the team up under the Disney banner should be pretty good. I can’t wait to go back and read this book again before seeing the movie. I’m glad that it seems to be keeping somewhat of a creepy tone but it’ll be interesting to see how Melissa Mathison handle the ending. That name probably isn’t familiar to many people, but it’s familiar to Spielberg – the last film they worked on together was a little film known as E.T. She passed away just a couple of months ago in November of 2015. The BFG will be dedicated in her honor.
The BFG has been 25 years in the making and with a summer release date, it seems like Disney is pretty confident in it. This is the first Roald Dahl book that Disney has adapted since James and Giant Peach (1996), which came in at a scant 79 minutes.
Bonus: Deadpool We don’t do comic book movies, I swear! But if we did, this would probably be #1. I’m really hoping that this movie works and that’s it’s as funny as it seems to be. But more than anything else, I hope it’s a commercial success because it will encourage Marvel to expand the mature side of the MCU.