Trailer Round-Up – August 13, 2016

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, directed by Gareth Edwards, is an upcoming prequel to the original Star Wars. Set just before A New Hope, Rogue One is the story of a group of resistance fighters tasked with stealing the plans for the Empire's top secret and most dangerous weapon - the Death Star. While the first trailer focused mainly on Felicity Jones' character Jyn Erso, the second offers a glimpse at the rest of the ensemble cast and teases the return of Darth Vader to the big screen. It's a fantastic trailer that builds on what we've already seen and shows us a movie that both feels unlike anything we've seen before and yet undoubtedly belongs in the Star Wars universe. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is set for a December 16, 2016 release. Allied Directed by Robert Zemeckis with a script by Steven Knight, Allied is a WWII-era romantic thriller about a pair of spies, Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) and Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard) who fall in love during a mission in Casablanca. The trailer for Allied is short and outlines the basics. A lot of what's shown feels very familiar, but with Pitt and Cotillard leading the cast, it could still make for a pretty solid romantic thriller - plus, I'm a sucker for period pieces, especially spy ones, so this is definitely on my radar now. Allied is set for a November 23, 2016 release. Arrival Arrival, directed by Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Sicario) is about a team of experts, lead by linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) who are sent to investigate the landings of mysterious spaceships across the globe. This teaser is short and to the point, establishing the very grounded and realistic approach to the premise that the movie seems to be taking. With a stellar cast that includes Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker, and master of tension Denis Villeneuve at the helm, this looks like a promising addition to the sci-fi genre. Arrival will premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 2 before being released in theatres on November 11. Bad Santa 2 Billy Bob Thornton reprises his role as Willy Soke in the Mark Waters directed sequel to 2003's black comedy Bad Santa. Original cast members Tony Cox and Brett Kelly also return, and they are joined by new arrival Kathy Bates. Bad Santa 2 is scheduled for a November 23, 2016 release. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter Milla Jovovich returns for the sixth and final installment in the Resident Evil live-action movie series, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and based on the popular video game series by Capcom. 'The Final Chapter' picks up where Resident Evil: Retribution ended and sees Alice return to The Hive installation in Raccoon City, where the nefarious Umbrella Corporation is preparing a final attack on what's left of humanity. This certainly looks and feels like every other Resident Evil movie, for better or for worse. The trailer seems heavily inspired by the marketing for the Suicide Squad, synchronizing its action beats to a catchy classic tune, in this case, Paradise City by Guns N'Roses. Going back to The Hive is yet another retread in a series that has been ripping itself off for quite some time and the trailer also shows that the infamous laser sequence from the first movie will once again be making an appearance. It's a crap trailer for what almost certainly is going to be a crap movie and the only thing good about it is that once it's out, the series will finally be put to rest. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is scheduled for January 27, 2017 release. Moana Walt Disney Animation Studios have release a new trailer for their upcoming feature Moana, directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. Moana (voice of Auli’i Cravalho), an adventurous teenager, meets the once-mighty demigod Maui (voice of Dwayne Johnson) and the two embark on an epic journey across the ocean to fulfil an ancient quest and discover themselves. Much like the debut trailer, this Olympic spot focuses a lot more on Dwayne Johnson's demigod character Maui. So far, I know more about his backstory and motivations than I do the title character - to be fair, Maui seems like a fun hero, but it does seem odd that Moana herself gets kind of relegated to the background. I wonder if that will be the case in the movie itself or if the trailers are just banking on Maui being a really good selling point and a breakout character. Moana is set for a December 2, 2016 release.