The 50 most anticipated new movies of 2024

polygon.com:

Followers of the movie release calendar just can’t get a moment’s peace: As soon as COVID-19-era disruptions were smoothed out and production pipelines mostly restored in 2023, a lengthy two-guild strike threw everything out of whack again. Delays, shifts, and cancellations galore added to the usual mix of theatrical releases and (fewer, but still notable) direct-to-streaming productions.

Then again, it wouldn’t be a look at the movie year that lies ahead without a bunch of unpredictable shifts, no matter the cause. Even if the first quarter of 2024 looks more barren than usual and a few superheroes may have flown straight out of the summer skies, the year still has plenty of titles worth anticipating — as this list of 50 particularly exciting-sounding movies proves. This year has ghosts, apes, pandas, sentient emotions, killer ballerinas, gladiators, vampires, sandworms, bioexorcists, and no fewer than three Spider-Man movies that do not feature Spider-Man. As always, these dates are subject to change, but here’s how 2024 is shaping up right now.

Release date: In theaters Jan. 12
Director: Jeymes Samuel
Cast: LaKeith Stanfield, Omar Sy, Teyana Taylor

Jeymes Samuel, who previously directed Netflix’s visually arresting all-star WesternThe Harder They Fall, turns his sights on a Biblical adventure with a comic twist. There’s definitely something rather Life of Brian about the idea of Clarence (LaKeith Stanfield), the twin brother of the apostle Thomas, positioning himself as a new messiah to better his station in life.

Release date: In theaters Jan. 12
Directors: Samantha Jayne, Arturo Perez Jr.
Cast: Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Tina Fey

The unusual movie-to-stage-musical-to-movie-musical pipeline has one all-time-great