The next months in the film and series fantasy promise to be quite attractive, even if the plans of distributors are torpedoed by the strike of writers and actors. In September, an interesting film will premiere, which is an attempt to create something completely from scratch, and a fresh production by Zack Snyder is to appear on Netflix. The new series items are equally interesting.

The huge financial problems of big blockbusters, which usually make big losses at the box office this year, are bad news for creators who would like to create fantastic films in the coming years. These usually require large budgets, and therefore pose a risk to the major film studios that spend money on them. Later this year, two productions will be released in cinemas that may determine the future of such works, with the case of the Gareth Edwards film mentioned later being interesting in that it is not related to any previous production or famous novel, but is an attempt to create a fantastic world as if from scratch and deserves all the more attention.

However, the reluctance to finance spectacular pictures by major film studios does not necessarily mean that there will be no such items in the coming years. First of all, the largest streaming platforms are still interested in making fantastic films, on which we should see several attractive shows in the coming months. Secondly, the examples of “Prospect” from 2018, as well as the European “Vesper” from last year, show that cheap, yet suggestive productions can be made in this genre, of course not as effective as many works from the past, but still ingenious.

The Creator

Already in September, a production with the potential to become the best fantasy picture, unrelated to any previous production, is to appear in cinemas. We are talking about the film “The Creator” by Gareth Edwards, which has already become known from the good side thanks to “Zone X” and then Star Wars “Rogue One”. The latest spectacle, based on the script that the director wrote in partnership with Chris Weitz, will tell the story of the times of war with an army commanded by artificial intelligence, during which, on a special mission to kill the main AI architect, who has a weapon capable of wiping out all humanity from the planet’s surface, a secret service agent will be dispatched. The cast includes seasoned John David Washington, Gemma Chan, Allison Janney and Ken Watanabe.

Dune

If you think about a film that is able to challenge “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” this year, at least approaching similar box office results, it is certainly the second part of the screen adaptation of Frank Herbert’s cult novel, the premiere of which premiered in 2021. Despite the excellent ratings of critics and viewers, for obvious reasons, it left a slight unsatisfactory, after all, being only an introduction to the actual battle of Paul Atreides with the Harkonnen family. The cast known from the picture from 2021 is joined by, among others Christopher Walken, Florence Pugh and Austin Butler, who plays Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen here, in David Lynch’s memorable film played by Sting. Unfortunately, recently there has been news that many expected: despite the completion of the film, its premiere has been postponed to March next year, due to the strike of writers and actors.

The Mothership

In 2023, The Mothership, written by Matthew Charman, is to appear on Netflix, also making his directorial debut here. The streaming giant managed to gather a good cast here, because in the film we will see, among others Halle Berry, Molly Parker, Omari Hardwick and John Ortiz. The plot of the picture is to focus on the mysterious disappearance of a man, which seems to be related to an unidentified flying object that suddenly appears in the vicinity of the farm where he disappeared.

Rebel Moon

Although “The Army of the Dead” from 2021 did not convince many viewers, there are still those who believe in the directorial talent of Zack Snyder, who has such well-remembered films as “300” or “Watchmen”. His latest film, Rebel Moon, was again in development for Netflix and is again just about to kick off a series of films based on a complicated story that has had several writers in addition to the director. In its center, the inhabitants of a certain colony are placed, which begins to be threatened by great danger. Apparently, the creators were inspired by the work of Akira Kurosawa as much as the Star Wars series, so one should expect the processing of well-known motifs, on the other hand, the picture has a good cast, because next to Sofia Boutelli, Charlie Hunnam, Ed Skrein, Michiel Huisman and Cleopatra Coleman there will appear Anthony Hopkins here too.

Poor Things

Reducing the latest work of Yorgios Lanthimos to the category of a “sci-fi film” is obviously a cruel simplification, but on the other hand, there is nothing to hide that the story of a woman brought back to life thanks to the actions of a highly eccentric scientist uses well-known film motifs of this genre. At the same time, the cast of this film looks great, because we will see here m.in. Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Defoe, Christopher Abbott and Margaret Qualley. The first reviews after the screenings at the festival in Venice suggest a definite return to form by the author of “Fang” and “Lobster”, so all that remains is to wait for the date of the Polish premiere.

Aliens kidnapped my parents and now I’m feeling a little silly

The film directed by Jake Van Wagoner, already shown at Octopus, and previously reportedly very warmly received at the Sundance festival, awaits its cinema premiere in our country. It is a kind of a nice, family comedy, the starting point of which is an event in the life of a little hero who, after years of claiming that his father was abducted by a UFO. In any effort to find his parents, Calvin’s allies will be a pair of neighbors who came to the countryside from the big city. Once again, it should be mentioned that if you are looking for originality, this is certainly not here. This production is just an extremely nice proposition for the whole family (with numerous references to the classics of the genre), which is nevertheless very well watched and for this reason it should find a distributor on our market.

Astronaut

The film by Johan Renck, known mainly for the production of episodes of the series “Chernobyl”, is also waiting for its premiere, probably already in 2024. The latest production was based on the novel by Jaroslav Kalfar, published in 2017. This is a strange thing, because it is not often that a position from the Czech Republic gains such great popularity, and the main character – Adam Prochazka, the first local astronaut, is to be played here by Adam Sandler, whose partners are, among others Carey Mulligan, Paul Dano, and Isabella Rossellini.

The Three Body Problem

The hit of the first weeks of 2024 on Netflix is ​​also to be a series based on the extremely popular books from the series “Memories of the Earth’s Past” by Chinese author Cixin Liu. This will not be the first adaptation of this prose, because it was also translated into television by the writer’s compatriots, creating a 30-episode series that can be seen on Youtube. The plot of the first volume combines several threads: the times of the Cultural Revolution in China, an investigation into the suicides of outstanding physicists, a mysterious game whose aim is to save the planet from the gravitational influence of three suns, and finally the discovery that its plot is not fiction, but reality and is a challenge for all mankind.

Orphan Black: Echoes

The news of the repurchase of the rights to the popular five-season series, in which Tatiana Maslany played the main role years ago, by AMC electrified not only many fans of the Canadian series Graham Manson and John Fawcett, but also fans of a certain actress. Krysten Ritter, who is remembered mainly from “Breaking Bad” and Marvel’s Netflix series, is to play the main role here. The centerpiece of the original series was the lead character’s discovery of a human cloning conspiracy.

Fallout

In an article dealing with new science fiction productions, the long-announced Amazon Prime series must also appear, of course, based on a series of cult computer games, which should be an even bigger event than the premiere of “The Last of Us”. “Fallout” is based on classic post-apocalyptic plots, focused around the fear of nuclear conflict, to which Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” also referred. The cast of the series will include Walton Goggins, Kyle MacLachlan, and Ella Purnell. Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, responsible for the series “Westworld”, are watching over the development of the plot, and the latest rumors point to the premiere in the first months of 2024.