M. Aznavour, Boléro, Rosalie, L'Amour ouf, La Planète des Apes... The 50 films most anticipated by exhibitors in 2024

In 2024, spectators who do not like to take risks will be served by finding many of their favorite heroes in sequels, prequels or remakes. Just after Les Segpa au ski, released on December 27, the start of the school year will open with La Couleur Pourpre, reviewed by Blitz Bazawule. Has Steven Spielberg's film, starring Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover, released in 1985, aged too much? Response on January 24 with this remake starring Fantasia Barrino, Halle Bailey and Danielle Brooks in a musical version, produced by Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and Quincy Jones.

For the February holidays, operators are betting on the popular comedy Retirement House 2 by Claude Zidi Jr, with Kev Adams, Jean Reno, Daniel Prévost, Liliane Rovère and Firmine Richard. This time, our seniors find themselves in their ephad in the middle of a pandemic. During the spring of Cinema (March 24-26) and at Easter, place for the fourth KungFu Panda, Ghostbusters and Ducobu 5 by Elie Semoun. We will also discover the fifth opus of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. This time, the lizard and the giant gorilla fight together against a new enemy.

On May 22, in the middle of the Cannes Film Festival (May 14-25), another monkey will return to the screen. Several generations after the reign of the endearing and intelligent Caesar, the primates took power. Humans have regressed to the wild and live in seclusion. Find out in Planet of the Apes: Wes Ball's New Kingdom. We will continue with the noisy sequel to Mad Max: Fury Road with Furiosa by George Miller, with Chris Hemworth and Charliza Theron. In June, Will Smith returns in Bad Boys IV, a detective comedy whose first opus dates back to 1995... We will shudder at the spin-off of the horror film Quietly: Day 1 with Lupita Nyong'o.

The cinema festival (June 30-July 3) will be an opportunity to see the Pixar sequel, Vice-Versa 2. Nine years later, Riley has grown up. In his brain, Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear will find themselves facing new emotions with Anxiety, Envy, Boredom and Embarrassment. Not embarrassed at all by the Olympics in France, American studios will send their worldwide releases as usual from July 4. On the summer menu: Despicable Me 4, Garfield Heroes Despite Himself, Deadpool 3 and the return of the slobbering monster Alien. At the start of the school year, operators are crossing their fingers with Tim Burton's Beetlejuice 2 and then Joker: Madness for Two with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. Christmas already promises to be more packed than in 2023 with a sequel to Venom (as sloppy as Alien?), Gladiator by Ridley Scott, and The Count of Monte Christo with Pierre Niney signed by Alexandre de la Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte in the same vein as their Three Musketeers with François Civil. Children will be treated to a Disney centered on the deceitful feline Mufasa: The Lion King and the lightning-fast blue hedgehog from Sonic 3.

Due to the six-month strike in Hollywood, the first half of the year is currently unusually poor in American films. To attract crowds, our cinema bosses are only counting on twelve (!) American films between now and the end of June. From January 3, after the success of Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, operators hope that the French will be seduced by the story of his wife Priscilla in the eponymous biopic by Sofia Coppola. The second part of Dune by Denis Villeneuve is scheduled for February. The American studios will especially draw in May at the time of the Cannes festival. In The Fall Guy, Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt find themselves on the set of a film where the star disappears. Blue

Faced with this Anglo-Saxon void, French films have a path ahead of them until the end of June. As long as you make the public want to go see them, of course. Yvan Attal is the first to draw with Un Coup de Dice starring Guillaume Canet followed by The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer (Cannes 2023), a love story between Nazis in a concentration camp. Three biopics from the 17th, late 19th and early 20th centuries, all by female directors, are expected. Raphaël Personnaz will play the endearing Maurice Ravel in Boléro by Anne Fontaine. Karin Viard will be Madame de Sévigné by Isabelle Brocard. Rosalie will introduce us to the story of the bearded woman in 1870 told by Stéphanie Di Giusto with Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Benoît Magimel. In May, as the Olympic flame passes, immersed in the atmosphere of the Olympics in L'Esprit Coubertin with Benjamin Voisin.

We will also be expected to laugh a lot during these six months. In addition to Retirement Home 2 with Kev Adams, Dany Boon and Jérôme Commandeur will be in Les Chèvres!, a wacky animal trial where Josette, a young herbivore is wrongly accused of the murder of a marshal. Fabrice Eboué and Audrey Lamy are reunited in Happy Winners, showing that winning the Loto will turn into a nightmare. Claudia Tagbo will be the star of Karaoke, Thierry Klifa presents Les Rois de la piste which features a family of little Dalton-style burglars with Ben Attal, Nicolas Duvauchelle and Mathieu Kazzovitz. Just before summer, cinema bosses are counting on Ici et y-bas with Ahmed Sylla and Le Larbin with Kad Merad and Clovis Cornillac.

The second half will be exceptionally busy with blockbusters. Faced with Joaquin Phoenix who returns disguised by freezing Joker, Tim Burton awakens the universe of his fantastic comedy Beetlejuice which dates back to 1988. If Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis do not return in this new opus, Monica Bellucci joins Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O'Hara who reprise their roles. In the fall, Robert De Niro will once again be an Italian-American mobster in Barry Levinson's Alto Knights. After Napoleon, Ridley Scott returns with Gladiator 2. And Venom, one of the few superheroes of the year, is back in action.

When it comes to blockbusters, French producers are not left out. Jérôme Seydoux continues to exploit the Alexandre Dumas vein with Le Comte de Monte-Christo. After Narco (2004) and Le Grand Bain (2018), Gilles Lellouche, 52, returns as director with the musical romantic comedy L'Amour Ouf with François Civil, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Malik Frikah, BenoÎt Polevoorde and Alain Chabat. In the end, the most anticipated French film of the year 2024 is Monsieur Aznavour with Tahar Rahim in the role of the singer of La Bohème. A biopic with the Medhi Idir-Grand Corps Malade duo behind the camera, under the production of Jean-Rachid Kallouche and brothers Eric and Nicolas Altmayer. If the film is ready in time to be shown to Thierry Frémaux at the latest in April, a very media screening with the entire Aznavour family on the steps in Cannes, on May 22, the centenary of the birth of Charles Aznavour, is to be held. hope.