Movies and TV shows to watch in 2021

Despite many difficulties, Ivan Reitman had been planning a third Ghostbusters movie for years. In the end, his son Jason managed to put it together, but it is not easy to imagine the result (thankfully). Dan Aykroyd will be there, Sigourney Weaver will be there, Ernie Hudson will be there and, despite endless negotiations, Bill Murray will be there, too. But they will not be the protagonists. The main characters will be some youngsters, and Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard is one of them. And it won’t even be set in New York. Maybe this is the only way to make something meaningful out of it. Expected in March.

It was supposed to be the movie of the Italian New Year’s Eve, but since all movie theatres shut down, it was postponed to 2021. There is already a first trailer and a few scenes, but in the videos available online, the most accurate shots on Diabolik’s equipment, the lair and the technological design wasn’t made by Manetti Bros, but rather shot by others specifically for the teaser. The final look (which will perhaps be the most important thing) has therefore not yet been revealed.

It is not the Japanese animated series but the American one with real actors. This remake has been in the works for a long time, but only got the green light this year, so we will see it next year. The cast is made up of unfamiliar names (which is always promising) but there is no more detailed info about it. The idea is of course to recreate that mix of science fiction and noir that was at the very basis of the original product, along with that sense of loneliness and abandonment. It won't be easy.

This is the prequel to The Sopranos. It was created because series creator David Chase wanted to work on it even though it’s been over 10 years since it ended, and he wanted to do it with the idea of a prequel. The Sopranos is the most important series of this new era of television seriality, and Chase is one of the most influential and revolutionary screenwriters. The film is set in the 60s and 70s, Tony Soprano is played by James Gandolfini’s son and will be made available on HBO Max in March. We already have high expectations for this.

Scheduled for March 2020, the second movie by John Krasinski, the actor who starred in A Quiet Place and made his directorial debut with that movie, will be released in April 2021. The idea is still the same (the Earth has been invaded by monstrous aliens who are extremely sensitive to sound, and a family has figured out how to survive without making any noise), but now they venture further away from the area in which they live and discover different creatures. It is clear that this is all a pretext, the only important thing is the creation of suspense through sound design.

Wes Anderson’s latest movie was to premiere at Cannes Film Festival, which was forced to cancel the 2020 edition due to the Covid pandemic. In May, the Festival asked Anderson if he could wait a whole another year, not project his movie anywhere and not let anyone see it, as to present it during next year’s edition. Wes Anderson said yes, so he now has to wait a year to present the movie in Cannes, in May 2021. So far, we haven't seen anything but the design of the environments (which however in a Wes Anderson movie represent at least 50% of the final result).

April is supposed to be the release date, but nobody believes it. To recoup all the costs (300 million dollars), the new 007 movie needs all the cinemas to be open, and also at full capacity. That’s why it’s the most postponed movie of all. It can’t come out until the situation has gone back to normal, because no one can afford to lose money on this film. It will certainly be the last one with Daniel Craig.

Not many people were interested in yet another spin-off, as well as in yet another way in which Marvel (i.e. Disney) exploits its intellectual properties. However, Loki, the series on Thor's brother played by Tom Hiddleston, immediately stole the spotlight thanks to its first trailer. The style, the irony, the acting and therefore the expectations are high, and not for what it talks about (a kind of consequence of the events of Endgame) but for the way it does it. Expected in May.

It seems incredible to say, but Paolo Sorrentino’s new movie, despite its title, will have nothing to do with the most famous hand of God, Maradona’s, but probably with the second hand of God, that of the Christian divinity. It will be a story set in Naples in the years when Sorrentino was young, when his real-life parents died on a trip that he should have gone on too, were it not for the fact that Napoli was playing that weekend. To follow the team, he did not leave with them and thus survived. The hand that saved him is a superior force or perhaps that of the Napoli player himself.

This is the first movie that comes to mind when talking about postponements. It was supposed to come out these days, but it has been postponed until October 2021. Even though it’s all good to go, the movie will have to wait for a time when there will be an adequate amount of people filling the movie theatres. In the meantime, Warner Bros. has announced that, like all the movies scheduled for 2021, when Dune will be projected in the theaters, it will also be available on HBO Max, Warner’s streaming platform. Of course, if there’s a movie you want to see at the cinema...

In December 2021, a year from now, we’ll have a new Matrix. We’ll experience the return of Lana Wachowski (who at the time had not yet changed gender and therefore her name), the return of Keanu Reeves and the return of Carrie Ann Moss in a movie that changed American cinema, imported Asian style and action, created a new idea of science fiction, and launched a trend. It is impossible for this movie to be as influential and important as the original, but the unfortunate history of the Wachowski sisters in Hollywood is made of failures that are nevertheless good movies. Maybe this one will be a good movie, too.