Coming soon: 40 unmissable movies

Director Edgar Wright and stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost bring their so-called ‘three flavours Cornetto trilogy’ to a close with this comical sci-fi adventure. Pegg and Frost (and three other yet-to-be-confirmed men of similar age who may or may not be Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman and Eddie Marsan) play a group of friends united for one night to re-enact a pub crawl which changed all their lives. But as ominous portents gather in the London skies, it becomes clear that a small apocalypse may in fact be brewing.

‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Hot Fuzz’ have entered the higher echelons of the British comedy pantheon, and while Pegg and Frost have gone seriously off the boil in the years since ‘Fuzz’, with appearances in the likes of ‘Paul’, ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ and (shudder) ‘A Fantastic Fear of Everything’, Wright is still firing on all cylinders, directing ‘Scott Pilgrim’, producing ‘Attack the Block’ and writing ‘Tintin’, which bodes well for this inevitable reunion. And if ‘The World’s End’ does spell the end of this fruitful partnership, at least they’ll go out with a bang…

‘The World’s End’ is out on Aug 14 2013.

Perhaps it was inevitable or perhaps we’re just lucky, but Ron Burgundy is officially back in 2013. The original, endlessly quotable ‘Anchorman’ wasn’t a huge smash on its release in 2004, but its popularity grew through word of mouth and DVD sales, and has come to define star Will Ferrell in the public imagination: many of his other roles – from racing driver Ricky Bobby to President George W Bush – have consciously riffed on the chauvinistic, tonsorially challenged Ron.

The plot of the new film is still very much under wraps – all we know is that, according to co-writer and director Adam McKay, it’ll involve ‘a custody battle and bowling’. But expect the full cast of the first movie to return – not just Ferrell and feminine foil Christina Applegate, but supporting players Paul Rudd, Steve Carrell and Fred Willard, and ass-kicking cameo artists like Vince Vaughn, Luke Wilson, Ben Stiller and Tim Robbins. Go fuck yourselves, San Diego!

‘Anchorman: The Legend Continues’ is out in 2013.

The animated adventure ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’ was one of the most pleasant surprises mainstream American cinema produced in the past decade, combining kid-friendly high-octane action, ‘Pixar’-esque pathos and an inventive and witty script following the antics of Flint Lockwood, the young inventor whose food-making machine spirals threateningly out of control. With none of the original creative team on board, this sequel is a less mouthwatering prospect. But the entire voice cast is returning (minus Bruce Campbell, for reasons unexplained), which we choose to take as a good sign.

The plot sees Flint going to work for a shady technology company which has been given the task of cleaning up his home following the spaghetti tornado of part one, but it’s not long before he discovers that his creation is still active, and has moved beyond food-based weather and is now busily creating mutant food monsters, including (according to Wikipedia) shrimpanzees, tacodiles and apple pythons.

‘Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers’ is out on Oct 25 2013.

Still flying the mumblecore flag almost a decade after he helped found the movement with ‘Kissing on the Mouth’ and ‘Hannah Takes the Stairs’, could Joe Swanberg’s longtime resistance to the lure of the big bucks be thawing? Does Duplass-sized megastardom await? The basis for this supposition is that the actor-writer-director-editor-etc has cast relatively well-known actress Anna Kendrick and still-not-that-well-known ‘Tron: Legacy’ star Olivia Wilde in his latest improv-heavy free-for-all, ‘Drinking Buddies’.

Plot-wise, the film sounds like it’ll follow the usual Swanberg template of a gang of hip twentysomething types meeting to discuss life, love and the nature of reality. And it’ll definitely hold to his established freewheeling technique – Kendrick has stated in interviews that she got no script or notes to work from. But will success spoil Joe Swanberg? Somehow, we doubt it.

‘Drinking Buddies’ is out in 2013.

Anyone checking out the promotional materials for ‘A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swann III’, which heavily feature Bill Murray in chaps, Jason Schwartzmann with a ludicrous ‘fro and Charlie Sheen in aviator shades, could be forgiven for thinking that Wes Anderson has another movie out, mere months after ‘Moonrise Kingdom’. And while the film does seem to be cut from similar, achingly well-patterned cloth, this is in fact the brainchild of former Anderson collaborator and son-of-Francis, Roman Coppola.

It’s the writer-director’s first feature since his poorly received debut, the oddball ’60s-set spy spoof ‘CQ’, and follows Sheen’s large-living ladies’ man as he begins to suffer fever dreams in the wake of a traumatic breakup. The film seems to be playing at least in part on Sheen’s public notoriety, but whether he’ll get the opportunity to bang on about warlocks and tiger blood remains to be seen. Here’s hoping.

‘A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swann III’ is out in 2013.