20 Awesome Upcoming Films That are NOT Sequels, Remakes Or Reboots

Sequels are a necessary evil and remakes have their place, but sometimes you have a cinematic itch that only an original property can scratch. Check out these 20 new movies coming soon that aren’t sequels to already successful hits, reboots of existing properties or remakes of old TV shows. How refreshing…

Straight Outta Compton
Released: 28th August

Gangsta rappers don’t come much more gangsta than NWA, and the fact this biopic of the hip hop trailblazers comes with the stamp of approval from Dr Dre and Ice Cube – including a starring role for Cube’s son, O'Shea Jackson, Jr – should mean the world to hardcore fans. As the industry’s foremost angry rappers, NWA changed the scene forever, and they did so while producing some of America’s rawest, realest rap – get the soundtrack for the full experience.

Masterminds
Released: 28th August

Picture Owen Wilson and Zach Galifianakis decked out in their finest nineties fashions and you’ve already got the hook of this riotous heist comedy, based on the real-life Loomis Fargo robbery that scored a gang of 8 robbers around £10 million in cash in 1997. Throw in roles for Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis and current SNL queen Kate McKinnon and you’ve got a contender for the funniest comedy of the year. Sorry, ‘Ted 2’.

Legend
Released: 11th September

Twice the Tom Hardy for just the one ticket? Sign us up! Hardy, in the form of his life after 'Mad Max: Fury Road’, plays not one but two gangsters – Ronnie and Reggie Kray, to be precise – in Brian 'LA Confidental’ Helgeland’s East End thriller. It’s hard to see past Tom Hardy squared, but Emily Browning, 'Kingsman’ star Taron Egerton and Christopher Eccleston round out a legendary cast befitting the notorious criminals.

The D Train
Released: 18th September

The script was named one of the hottest unproduced screenplays in the industry’s infamous 'Black List’ nominations, but it finally got made and it’s almost here. 'The D Train’ stars Jack Black as the lame but loveable organiser of his high school reunion, who hits the road in order to convince the most popular kid in school – now a grade-A douchebag, played convincingly by James Marsden – to attend the party.

Everest
Released: 25th September

It’s claimed more lives than every slasher movie villain in history, so why has no one made a proper movie about how deadly Mount Everest is before? This spectacular epic, shot on location in Nepal, puts climbers Jason Clarke and Jake Gyllenhaal in the thick of all manner of peril: snowstorms, avalanches and the kinds of high altitude stunts that make you very glad you’re stuck on terra firma. Expect the IMAX sections to be otherworldly.

The Martian
Released: 2nd October

Shades of 'Interstellar’ abound, as Matt Damon returns to deep space in Ridley Scott’s thriller only to find himself isolated once more when he’s presumed dead during a mission on the Red Planet. With only his wits to keep him alive (“I’m going to have to science the s**t out of this!” he tells himself), Damon’s astronaut finds space’s lack of atmosphere hard to bear in this eagerly anticipated adaptation of the Andy Weir best-seller.

Crimson Peak
Released: 16th October

Guillermo del Toro doesn’t take horror lightly – 'Crimson Peak’ could be his most twisted and bloody movie to date, and that’s saying something from the director of 'Pan’s Labyrinth’. Mia Wasikowska is the writer who marries into Tom Hiddleston’s eccentric family and quickly discovers that his homestead is haunted and not at all what it seems. Come for the scares, stay for the period costumes, take the scares home with you.

The Last Witch Hunter
Released: 30th October

This Vin Diesel vehicle may well be a franchise starter if it’s anything like the 'Fast & Furious’ movies, so the sequel might be disqualified from next year’s list, but we like what we see. Diesel plays the last of an ancient order protecting humanity from the world’s worst witches – the fact that he does so by wielding a sword of fire just makes us want it more. Forget 'Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters’ – this could be the real deal.

Bridge Of Spies
Released: 6th November

You shouldn’t need any reason to see this film other than those four little words “A Steven Spielberg movie”, but we’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and admit it’s been a while since The Beard knocked out a banger. Tom Hanks will be looking to add to his Oscar collection as a CIA agent tasked with rescuing a Soviet pilot during the Cold War – expect intrigue, mystery, whispering, men in suits banging desks and lots of backwards 'R’s.

Sicario
Released: 6th November

Emily Blunt makes her play for Oscar glory in this brutal organised crime thriller, starring as an FBI agent out of her depth against Mexico’s gangland criminals and narcotics cartels. Pitched at the pointy end of 'Traffic’’s war on drugs, 'Sicario’ – which translates as 'hitman’ – is the latest pulse-pounder from director Denis Villeneuve, who brought us kidnap thriller 'Prisoners’ and last year’s underrated cult classic, 'Enemy’.

Black Mass
Released: 13th November

Johnny Depp is used to hiding behind pale-faced make-up and googly eyes, but Tim Burton’s fingerprints are nowhere to be found in this biopic of master criminal turned informant Whitey Bulger. A transformative role in the truest sense, 'Black Mass’ could be a return to form for Depp; a man who has spent the best part of the last decade in unnecessary sequels, remakes and terrible Tim Burton vanity projects. Here’s hoping.

Steve Jobs
Released: 13th November

Cupertino legend Steve Jobs has already been the subject of one biopic – 'jOBS’, starring Ashton Kutcher – but that didn’t have Aaron Sorkin writing the dialogue. It didn’t have an actor like Michael Fassbender in the title role either, and despite the fact he looks nothing like the Apple guru, Fassbender could bring the quiet intensity that simmered just beneath the surface of Jobs’ calm and collected exterior.

The Good Dinosaur
Released: 27th November

Retooled, recast and pushed back a whole year when the Pixar 'brain trust’ decided they wanted to knock it into shape, 'The Good Dinosaur’ has made us wait, but the second Pixar movie of the year could be even more affecting than 'Inside Out’. Young Apatosaurus Arlo goes AWOL after an accident and must trek across treacherous countryside to find his parents while becoming a surrogate father himself to a small feral child called Spot.

Sisters
Released: 18th December

We’ll happily support any movie that figures out a way to get Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in the same room, but new comedy 'Sisters’ finds a way to make that even more fun than it has any right to be. The hilarious Golden Globe hosts play siblings who throw one last crazy party at their old family house – esteemed guests include Maya Rudolph, 'The Mindy Project’ star Ike Barinholtz and, um, WWE wrestler John Cena.

In The Heart Of The Sea
Released: 26th December

Whale ho! Ron Howard’s sea-faring adventure makes 'Moby Dick’ look like 'Finding Nemo’. Based on the story on which inspired Herman Melville’s famous book, 'In The Heart Of The Sea’ sees Captain Chris Hemsworth and his finest sailors take on a whale that’s been taking advice from the shark in 'Jaws’ as it holds a grudge and attempts to sink them. Journalists will race to secure the poster quote: “You’ll have a whale of a time!”

The Hateful Eight
Released: 8th January 2016

Any new Quentin Tarantino movie is cause for celebration, but given 'The Hateful Eight’ is coming off the back of 'Django Unchained’, his most successful movie to date, and it’s in the same genre… well, we’re extra excited. Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walt Goggins and of course Samuel L Jackson make up just half of the title players as bounty hunters trapped in a web of deception – haters gonna hate but we’re going to love it.

The Revenant
Released: 15th January 2016

This survival thriller has all the ingredients to repeat the Oscar success enjoyed by 'Birdman’ director Alejandro Iñárritu at last year’s awards show. Set during the 1820s, Leo DiCaprio plays a frontiersman who is left for dead after a bear mauling but seeks a path of vengeance against the men who abandoned him. Tom Hardy is one of those men. Also, did you read the bit about bears? And Leo? And 'Birdman’? Just give it the Oscar already.

Deadpool
Released: 5th February 2016

Superheroes are ten-a-penny these days, but Deadpool is different. He knows he’s a superhero for starters, and he knows he’s starring in a superhero movie, which gives him an edge that the 3,246 other screen superheroes currently taking up screens 1-10 of the multiplex lack. Ryan Reynolds reprises the role he butchered in 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine’, so expect plenty of meta commentary and more than a little bad language.

Hail, Caesar!
Released: 26th February 2016

No, it’s not a biopic of everybody’s favourite Expendable – it’s a new Coen Brothers movie! More than that, 'Hail, Caesar!’ is a new Coens comedy, with a comic cast to die for. Stalwarts Josh Brolin, George Clooney and Frances McDormand return, but new additions Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill promise to make this story of a movie studio 'fixer’ set in Hollywood’s Golden Age one to watch.

Grimsby
Released: 4th March 2016

Borat does Bond – what more do you need to know? Quite a bit, as it turns out. Sacha Baron Cohen has kept a tight lid on his spy comedy set in the glamorous climes of the British coastal town, but co-stars including Rebel Wilson claim the script is one of the funniest they’ve ever read. If the citizens of Grimsby themselves have been given cause to complain, then at least we know Cohen is on his usual acerbic form.

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