The ‘Post’ looks at some of the more highly anticipated movies being released in early 2017.
By SHAWN RODGERSLIAM NEESON stars in Martin Scorsese’s ‘Silence.’(photo credit: COLLIDER)
From the return of the ‘Trainspotting’ lads to Wolverine once again baring his claws, 2017 is shaping up to be another great year for movies. There is something for everyone’s tastes here. Here are some movie releases you don’t want to miss.‘Silence’ Iconic director Martin Scorsese had been wanting to make his latest movie Silence for nearly 30 years. He was given the book that it is based on – Shusaku Endo’s 1966 novel – by a bishop after a screening of his famously controversial The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988.The Italian-American director has said he was struck by the questions the book raises about faith, doubt, weakness and God’s role in the face of human suffering. But getting the screenplay right alone took the Oscar-winning director 15 years, and finding funding proved difficult.The story follows Portuguese missionaries Father Sebastian Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Francisco Garupe (Adam Driver) as they travel to Japan in the 17th century to investigate the fate of their teacher and mentor Father Ferreria (Liam Neeson).Both Driver and Garfield lost about 9 kg. for their roles, which Driver said helped put him in the mindset of his weary and frightened young priest.“You’re playing a persecuted 17th century Jesuit priest. So it’s good to, I think, have a little struggle. Also you’re very tired and hungry, as are the characters,” said Driver in a recent interview with Reuters.So far early screenings of the movie have garnered strong reviews.Silence will be released in Israel on January 19.‘Live by Night’ Following up on the award-winning 2012 movie Argo, Ben Affleck’s next directorial project is the Prohibition- era crime drama Live by Night. The film tells the story of Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck), a Boston gangster who also happens to be the estranged son of a Boston police captain, and who starts running a bootlegging operation in Florida.The cast includes Elle Fanning, Brendan Gleeson, Sienna Miller, Zoe Saldana, and Chris Cooper.The film was adapted from a novel by Dennis Lehane, the author of Mystic River and whose novel Gone Baby Gone was previously adapted into a film by Affleck.“This is the first movie I’ve made that was really constructed on purpose,” Affleck said in a recent interview with Variety. “I wanted it to feel classic, like it could have been made in the 1970s or even the ’40s – not doing too much cutting, not having very tight close-ups, allowing scenes to play and giving the actors space to play across the frame.”Live by Night will be released in Israel on January 26.‘Split’ According to early reviews, it seems that director M. Night Shyamalan is back in top form with his twisty new thriller. Split, which Shyamalan wrote and directed, is his follow-up film to last year’s The Visit, which garnered some of his better reviews in past years. The Oscar nominee’s last few projects (The Last Airbender and After Earth) were heavily criticized, failing to earn the same level of acclaim he once garnered with successes like The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable.Split tells the story of a man named Kevin (James McAvoy), who is host to 23 different personalities.Compelled by unclear motivations, Kevin abducts three young girls following a birthday party and keeps them in what appears to be a bunker of sorts. As the girls attempt to make sense of what is going on and why they are being kept alive, it becomes very clear that there is a war waging among a handful of Kevin’s identities, stirred up by the potential materialization of a 24th personality referred to as “The Beast.”In an interview with the Daily Record, McAvoy said he had struggled with portraying multiple characters.“Of the personalities I played, there were two that were very difficult.I was just trying to make it real, at the same time as trying not to be exploitative of a condition people live with, while using it as a fuel to tell a fantastic story, a fantastical story.”Split will be released in Israel on February 2.‘Trainspotting 2’ After years of rumors and speculation, the long-awaited sequel Trainspotting 2 will be arriving in theater next February. It has been 19 years since Danny Boyle introduced movie audiences to characters like Mark Renton, Sick Boy, Spud, and Begbie. Played by Ewan McGregor, Johnny Lee Miller, Ewen Bremner and Robert Carlyle respectively, the four will reunite for the first time onscreen since the success of the original 1996 film.The movie is based on author Irvine Welsh’s Porno, the 2002 follow- up to his Trainspotting novel.The plot revolves around Renton who has fled to Amsterdam with the £16,000 drug deal profits he stole at the end of the 1996 hit film. The former heroin addict has become a fitness fanatic after ditching drugs but returns to Edinburgh a “broken man” at the start of the new movie to seek solace from his old associates. Author Welsh said of the sequel: “In some ways, I think it’s a better movie… They have become such iconic characters and this is going to cement that status even more.” So prepare for more drugs, mayhem and an even bigger lust for life.Trainspotting 2 will be released in Israel on February 9.‘Logan’ X-Men fans can get their claws into Hugh Jackman’s last appearance as the self-healing, Adamantium- clawed mutant Wolverine in Logan.The storyline of Logan takes place in a future where virtually all of the other X-Men are gone – either dead or destroyed by the evil Essex Corporation. The only other surviving member is Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who’s suffering from Alzheimer’s. And Logan’s (Hugh Jackman) own healing powers are waning. Their only hope to save the world is a young girl named Laura (Dafne Keen), a female clone created from Logan’s DNA. The film also stars Boyd Holbrook, Richard E. Grant and Stephen Merchant.“The goal was to make something human,” said Logan director James Mangold in a recent interview.“We made an effort to scale back on the gloss and green screen.”Jackman has revealed that Logan will mark the final time he portrays the character, after appearing in the role in eight previous X-Men movies.“It just felt like it was the right time to do it,” he has said. “And let’s be honest, 17 years. I never thought in a million years it would last, so I’m so grateful to the fans for the opportunity of playing it.”Logan will be released in Israel on March 2.