Tomorrowland
Speculation over the nature of this Brad Bird picture has been raging for quite a while. Once going under the working title 1952, the project was once rumoured to be a Star Wars sequel, a Buck Rogers remake, or maybe an adaptation of an EE 'Doc' Smith novel.
Those theories have been largely dispelled since, but even now, we're not entirely sure what Tomorrowland's about. We know it shares a name with Disney's famous theme land, and we know that George Clooney will star as an inventor, Hugh Laurie will play the villain, and Britt Robertson will play the heroine - but that's about it.
There's a curious air of secrecy surrounding the film, but that's merely fuelled our interest. Brad Bird is, after all, the director behind such films as The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and 2011's hugely successful Misson: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. His presence alone makes this enigmatic science fiction project worth looking forward to.
The Secret Service
The last time Matthew Vaughn and Mark Millar got together, we ended up with the original Kick-Ass. Vaughn turned down the chance to make another X-Men film (following X-Men: First Class) to helm The Secret Service instead, and the film currently sits on the schedules for November 2014.
There's an essence of a junior James Bond to the film, as it follows an experienced secret agent who takes on a young apprentice. Colin Firth plays the former, with Taron Egerton tackling the role of the latter. And the cast is rounded out by the likes of Michael Caine and Samuel L Jackson. Furthermore, there are rumours of cameos from names such as David Beckham, Elton John, Adele and Lady Gaga. They've not been confirmed, though.
This does look an interesting project, whether they're included or not. As with Kick-Ass, Millar and Vaughn are keeping the budget low and the level of creative control high. It worked well for them last time, and there are plenty of reasons why it should all work well this time around too.
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley's classic novel has been told and retold many times on the big screen, from James Whale's 1931 classic starring Boris Karloff, to the 2007 British TV version, which cast Helen McCrory as geneticist Dr Victoria Frankenstein. 2014 will add a further two retellings of The Modern Prometheus to that list: the action fantasy I, Frankenstein, starring Aaron Eckhart, and Frankenstein, penned by Chronicle screenwriter Max Landis.
The latter's the one we're most looking forward to, partly because we were so impressed by Chronicle, but also because his description of what he's written sounds so strange. Landis' version of Frankenstein, as well as being based on Shelley's text, is also inspired by the story that has shifted and altered over the course of its retelling. In an interview with Aint It Cool, Landis rightly pointed out that the character Igor, for example, didn't even appear in the original novel, and only showed up in later Universal sequel - as played by Bela Lugosi.
Landis' adaptation, then, will itself be a kind of Frankenstein's creation, with bits of half-remembered story pieced together to create something different. Daniel Radcliffe is set to play Igor, James McAvoy's cast as Victor Von Frankenstein, and Jessica Brown Findlay will play a character named Lorelei. The film will, Landis says, be about "friendship and science, genius and madness, love and ambition, life and death."
Mad Max: Fury Road
Poor George Miller. Not only has the director's fourth Mad Max film spent more than two decades in development hell, it's also faced all kinds of hardships since it finally went into production a few years ago, from rain storms forcing a shift in locations, and budget overruns to some early 2013 reshoots.
Thankfully, there are signs that the Mad Max: Fury Road saga will have a happy ending, with anonymous sources stating that Miller's related sequel is actually very good - it's even said that Warner Bros were so happy with what they saw, they even gave Miller some extra money to go back and shoot some extra scenes to beef up one of Fury Road's major action set pieces.
The presence of Tom Hardy in the lead role also gives us hope, as does Miller's persistence in getting his sequel made: Mad Max 2 was a classic film, and with Fury Road picking up straight after the events of that film, we're hoping the belated follow-up will recapture some of its brilliance.
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