What you may need to know:

1. Denzel Washington takes on the Russian Mafia in this reboot of Edward Woodward’s sexagenarian vigilante from the 1980s.

2. The font size in Denz’s copy of “The Old Man and the Sea” @0:02 must be only massive. Could be double spaced though.

3. We looked at the teaser back in May. This one has some added badassery @2:09.

4. The last time Washington worked with director Antoine Fuqua, he bagged the Oscar for Training Day (2001).

5. Other 80s TV shows ripe with reboot potential include Jake and the Fatman with Aaron Eckhart and Gerard Depardieu, Mr. Merlin with Martin Sheen and Justin Bieber, or BJ and the Bear with Zac Efron. Andy Serkis would do the monkey in mo-cap, obvs.

6. If any of the above projects materialise in the next five to ten years, I’d like a producer’s credit.

7. Broadsheet Prognosis: We’re quite Taken with this.

Release Date: November 26 (Ireland)

(DelBoy is away.  Mark writes on culture and whatnot for WhyBother.ie

What you may need to know:

1. Michael Keaton plays a down-at-heel actor, once famous for playing iconic superhero “Birdman,” but now struggling to reclaim the respect of his peers.

2. It’s been 25 years since Batman (1989) forever changed big studio attitudes to comic book movies. Expect much meta-referential in-jokery.

3. Keaton’s presence automatically improves any project by at least 25%.

4. Birdman is director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s first comedy, after the weighty (geddit?) 21 Grams (2003) and Babel (2006).

5. It’s Kind of a Funny Story (2010) showed that Zach Galifianakis can do serious, but if it’s funny you’re after then Between Two Ferns is where it’s at.

6. There’s talk of this being presented as one continuous take a la Hitchcock’s Rope (1948). If anyone can pull that trick off, it’s Gravity’s (2013) Oscar-winning cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki.

7. Broadsheet Prognosis: We’re all over this.

Release Date: January  2,  2015 (UK)

(Delboy is away)

Mark writes on culture for WhyBother.ie

What you may need to know:

1. Wait… what?

2. Well, the worldwide box office for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) was a cool $136m on a budget of $10m, so this was a no-brainer.

3. Worst sequel title since I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (2006). Or ‘Great Expectations 2: Greater Expectations’.

4. Dev Patel really needs a new agent.

5. Google Richard Gere and the first result is still ‘Richard Gere Gerbil’. Once and for all… that never happened.

6. Broadsheet Prognosis: Smells like wee and sherry.

Release Date: February 27,  2015.

(Delboy is away)

Mark writes on culture on WhyBother.ie.

What you may need to know:

1. Art dealer Charles Mortdecai (Johnny Depp) searches for a stolen painting with the code to a lost bank account containing Nazi gold. With Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Goldblum, Ewan McGregor and Olivia Munn.

2. How has Depp never been in a Wes Anderson Movie?

3. If you’re wondering who Depp is channeling here – that would be Terry Thomas.

4. We won’t be happy unless he uses “beastly” as an adjective at least once. While twirling that moustache.

5. Mortdecai is based on a P.G. Wodehouse-style series of books by Kyril Bonfiglioli. Don’t expect a trilogy.

6. @0:37 – we call that “pulling a Cheney.”

7. Broadsheet Prognosis:  “Air hair lair”

Release Date: 30th January 2015 (UK).

(Delboy is away)

Mark reports on cultural matters, including movies at his blog WhyBother.ie

What you may need to know:

1. Davin is an Irish-made movie made to mark this year’s World Suicide Prevention Day (September 10).

2. It won’t cost you a thing to watch.

3. Davin Director Graham Jones was responsible for How to Cheat in the Leaving Cert (1998).

4. David Murray was last seen on our screens in RTE’s headscratcher Amber.

5. Ireland has the second highest suicide rate in Europe.

6. RIP Sean Maguire.

7. Broadsheet Prognosis: Timely.

Release Date: Available now (above).

Thanks Mark Ryall

What you may need to know

1. The Stephen Hawking biopic released its first trailer yesterday, charting Hawking’s [Cambridge] university romance with future wife Jane Wilde and his diagnosis with Motor Neuron Disease.

2. It’s not a Beautiful Mind (2001).

3. The film is based on Jane Hawking’s 1997 memoir ‘Travelling to Infinity: My life with Stephen’. a little friendier than her earlier work ‘Music to Move the Stars’ which focused on their divorce.

3. James Marsh, responsible for Oscar-winning documentary Man On Wire (2008), directs.

4. Eddie Redmayne was one of Vanity Fair’s ‘Best Dressed’ for 2012. It’s all been downhill since then.

5. Both leads have previously modeled for Burberry.

6. Needs more Homer

7. Broadsheet Prognosis: Always go full genius.

Release date: January 2, 2015

(Delboy is away)

What you may need to know:

1. The Fifty Shades… trilogy have sold over 100 million copies thus far. No, seriously.

2. And yes, the books were primarily based upon Twilight fan fiction written by author E.L. James.

3. The movie is directed by visual artist turned film director Sam Taylor Wood, shot by Oscar nominated Armagh man Seamus McGarvey, and adapted for the screen (well, he did a polish on the script, apparently) by Patrick Marber, AKA Peter O’Hanra-Hanrahan.

4. Mr. Gray? Jamie Dornan, from Co. Down. You may remember him from BBC serial killer thing The Fall.

5. Anstasia Steele? Dakota Johnson, daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith.

6. Broadsheet Prognosis: Girls night out SORTED.

Release Date: Valentine’s Day 2015

Thanks Miguel Rivas

What you may need to know

1. Remember the creepy doll from The Conjuring (2013)? Well SHE GOT HER OWN MOVIE.

2. Note to expectant fathers: if you’re going to buy your heavily pregnant partner a gift, don’t get her a FREAKY LOOKING DEMON DOLL.

3. Best YouTube comment # 1: ‘OMG, I just had the biggest scare. Almost immediately after finishing this trailer, there was a loud series of knocks at the door (I’m upstairs) which were soon followed by the sound of the screen door being moved (based on how it’s designed there’s no point in moving it unless you’re trying to enter). I grabbed my bat and waited for minutes expecting someone to be busting in. Finally, I ventured downstairs and found the items my neighbor had borrowed from me placed in between the screen door and regular door. Like holy shit, I get so easily paranoid when I’m tense.’

4. Best YouTube comment # 2: ‘This looks dumb as shit, but it will still rope in the suckers.’

5. Broadsheet Prognosis: Good luck, Chuck(ie)

Release Date: Halloween

What you may need to know.

1. 24 hours in the life of Nick Cave. It’s a documentary. Except it’s not.

2. @’25 – WINSTONE! YOU SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGG!

3. Nick’s had a good run with movie screenplays of late, what with The Proposition (2005) and Lawless (2012). Have a gander HERE at the bonkers script he wrote, at Russell Crowe’s behest, for Gladiator 2.

4. @1’36 – KYLIE!

5. Remember the time Nick starred in a movie with Brad Pitt?

6. Broadsheet Prognosis: Cave in

Release Date: Autumn

What you may need to know:

1. Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaapaldi!

2. ‘Into Darkness’? Seriously? A bit Star Trek, no?

3. The first feature-length episode is directed by Ben Wheatley, who did Kill List (2010) and A Field In England (2013).

4. Give the Daleks a rest for a bit. Bring back Master instead.

5. Unrelated matter: Colin Farrell in True Detective? Seriously?

6. Broadsheet Prognosis: We promised we wouldn’t get excited. And now we’re excited.

Release date: August
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