A look ahead at the coming year in movies includes resurrecting long-dormant franchises, as 2020 will feature a number of films taking viewers on a nostalgia trip.
On Jan. 17, “Bad Boys for Life” will reunite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence for the third installment of the buddy cop action series, a full 17 years after the second film and 25 years after the original.
Speaking of a long time ago, a “Top Gun” sequel comes out on June 26. “Top Gun: Maverick” will be out 34 years after the original, and feature Tom Cruise back among a new generation of U.S. Navy fighter pilots.
“Ghostbusters” was remade in 2016 with an all-female cast, but the new “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” seems to pretend that it never even happened: a line in the film’s trailer suggests there hasn’t been a ghost sighting in 30 years. The 2020 movie, with Paul Rudd and Finn Wolfhard and directed by Jason Reitman (son of original “Ghostbusters” director Ivan Reitman), comes out on July 10.
There will be more summer nostalgia in “Bill and Ted Face the Music,” with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter reprising their roles in the sci-fi comedy series, after the first two installments came out in 1989 and 1991.
Eddie Murphy has been on a roll lately, getting awards buzz for his performance in “Dolemite is My Name” and having a great return to SNL in hosting its Christmas show. In 2020, he’ll star in “Coming 2 America,” the sequel to the 1988 romantic comedy.
The movie is set to come out in August and include Arsenio Hall and James Earl Jones, who were in the original, along with Tracy Morgan, Leslie Jones and Wesley Snipes.
There will be plenty of big action movies coming out in the spring and summer, most of them sequels, superhero movies or both. “The Purge 5” will be out in July, and if five sequels sounds like a lot, “Fast & Furious 9” comes out in May.
Wonder Woman will be back with Gal Gadot starring in “Wonder Woman 1984,” and Scarlett Johansson will star in “Black Widow,” the first spotlight of the character which Johansson has played in several previous Marvel movies. The newest James Bond film, with Daniel Craig starring in “No Time to Die,” is out April 8, featuring Rami Malek as the main villain.
Disney continues its string of remakes with “Mulan,” a live-action version of the 1998 film that comes out on March 27. Also in March will be “A Quiet Place: Part II,” a sequel to the hit 2018 horror film starring Emily Blunt and John Krasinski.
Other 2020 films will include “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” written and directed by Aaron Sorkin and about the group charged in 1969 by the federal government with conspiracy and other charges, after the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. That is set to be released in September.
“Greyhound,” written by and starring Tom Hanks and coming out in May, will be a World War II film where Hanks plays a U.S. Navy Commander on his first war-time assignment. Steven Spielberg’s first musical, a remake of “West Side Story,” is scheduled to come out in December.
Another movie scheduled for December is “The Last Duel,” directed by Ridley Scott and based on the 2004 book “The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in Medieval France.” It stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who also wrote the screenplay — the first time they’ve teamed up on a script since “Good Will Hunting” in 1997. “The Last Duel” makes is set for a Christmas Day release.
This story first appeared on amny.com.
