With the Oscars for 2023 releases in the rearview mirror, we look to the movie slate for the rest 2024. And we’re left with a lot of questions. With the studios’ slow resolution of the actor and writer strikes halting production for months, for example, will the release schedule feel thinner than years past? And considering Marvel has scaled back in the wake of recent flops and the loss of an actor who was supposed to play their primary villain for the foreseeable future, will the handful of summer blockbusters lined up be enough to keep the box office afloat? Will there be less competition at the Oscars next year?

In this episode of The Long Take Review, P.T., Greg, Antonio, and I try to wrap our heads around the rest of the year in film via a Movie Hype Draft. Each of us must select four different films that we think are the most anticipated — in the eyes of the public, critics, Oscar voters, or maybe just our hearts. In the process, we discuss sequels and prequels, rising stars, insanely early Oscar buzz, and the types of movies we can never resist.

We plan to score our picks this time next year, using three combined metrics: box office, awards, and our own happiness score. Once a film was selected, it was no longer eligible, which means that some of us tried to strategize based on our turn order and what we thought our friends would pick. After you’ve listened to the episode, we’d love to hear your thoughts on whose roster gets you the most hyped.

You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[SPOILER WARNING: I will list our final picks below. If you have not listened to the episode and would prefer to hear our discussion before voting, please turn back now!]

Antonio’s Picks

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (dir. George Miller)

Ella McCay (dir. James L. Brooks)

We Live in Time (dir. John Crowley)

Hard Truths (dir. Mike Leigh)

Greg’s Picks

Megalopolis (dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

Monkey Man (dir. Dev Patel)

The Nickel Boys (dir. Ramell Ross)

Twisters (dir. Lee Isaac Chung)

Jen’s Picks

Blitz (dir. Steve McQueen)

Nosferatu (dir. Robert Eggers)

Deadpool & Wolverine (dir. Shawn Levy)

Bird (dir. Andrea Arnold)

P.T.’s Picks

The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim (dir. Kenji Kamiyama)

Kinds of Kindness (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos)

I Saw the TV Glow (dir. Jane Schoebrun)

Evil Does Not Exist (dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi)

All music licensed through Epidemic Sound.

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