2013 Preview: November

We are now two months away from the end of 2013 and the start of a new year of movies. Welcome back to Rhode Island Movie Corner’s year-long preview of the films set to come out during 2013. This is Part 11 and today we’ll be looking at the lineup for the month of November 2013. There are quite a lot of films to talk about this month, including some blockbuster sequels, a couple of animated films (including Disney’s latest), and much more.

NOVEMBER 1- A trio of films open up the month, along with the nationwide expansion of a major awards contender.

*The first animated film of the month, ‘Free Birds’, is directed by Jimmy Hayward (director of 2009’s ‘Horton Hears a Who!’). The film focuses on two turkeys (voiced by Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson) that team up and steal a time machine to travel back in time in order to change history so that the turkey is no longer a staple of the Thanksgiving menu.

*Author Orson Scott Card’s 1985 best-selling novel ‘Ender’s Game’ gets its big-screen adaptation directed by Gavin Hood (‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’). After an alien race known as the Formics attack Earth, a group of young children are trained in order to find the next leader of the ‘International Fleet’. Hugo’s Asa Butterfield stars at the titular Ender alongside Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, and Viola Davis.

*A group of Hollywood legends headline ‘Last Vegas’, a comedy directed by Jon Turteltaub (‘National Treasure’). Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Kevin Kline, and Morgan Freeman star as a group of friends who head to Vegas for a bachelor party when Douglas’ character gets married.

*It seems like this year’s Oscar race will come down to two films; Alfonso Cuaron’s ‘Gravity’ and ’12 Years a Slave’, directed by Steve McQueen (‘Shame’). Based on the book of the same name by Solomon Northup, the latter film tells the tale of Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a violinist living with his family as a free man in New York in the year 1841. However, he is then forced into slavery in the South. The cast includes Michael Fassbender as Northup’s vicious slave owner, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt, Paul Giamatti, and more.

NOVEMBER 8- Only one film is set to open this week but hey, when that film’s a Marvel film, you can see why no one else wants to compete with it.

*The next film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ‘Thor: The Dark World’, the sequel to 2011’s ‘Thor’, hits theaters as the second film in Marvel’s ‘Phase Two’. Chris Hemsworth reprises his role as the titular Asgardian God of Thunder, as he fights to save the Nine Realms from a new threat; the Dark Elves led by Malekith the Accursed (Christopher Eccleston). The majority of the main cast from the first film, including Natalie Portman as Thor’s love interest Jane Foster, Tom Hiddleston as Thor’s brother/nemesis Loki, and Anthony Hopkins as their father Odin, return to reprise their roles from the previous film and are joined in this film by Eccleston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Zachary Levi (Levi replacing Joshua Dallas in the role of Fandral).

NOVEMBER 15- Again, only one film this time; this one being a sequel to a film that came out 14 years ago.

*Malcolm D. Lee, cousin of Spike Lee, directed a romantic dramedy in 1999 called ‘The Best Man’. Now, 14 years after that film was released, Lee and the main cast of the original film (Taye Diggs, Morris Chestnut, and Regina Hall among others) return for ‘The Best Man Holiday’.

NOVEMBER 22- The next entry in the Hunger Games franchise goes up against a Vince Vaughn comedy.

*Vince Vaughn stars in ‘Delivery Man’, a remake of director Ken Scott’s 2011 film ‘Starbuck’. Vaughn plays a man who learns that, through being a sperm donor, he has fathered over 500 children. When most of them try to sue the sperm bank in order to reveal this information, he must decide whether or not he should come forward about it. Chris Pratt and Cobie Smulders co-star.

*The first film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ best-selling book series, ‘The Hunger Games’, opened to very positive reviews and almost 700 million at the box office when it opened back in March 2012. Its first sequel, ‘Catching Fire’, will hit theaters this weekend. Francis Lawrence (‘I Am Legend’, who will also helm the final two films, ‘Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2’) takes over directing duties from Gary Ross for the film, which finds Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) caught in a rebellion that is brewing in the districts of Panem following their victory in the 74^th annual Hunger Games. Woody Harrelson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, and Lenny Kravitz return with most of the original cast and are joined by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Sam Claflin, and Jena Malone.

NOVEMBER 27 (Wednesday):  The biggest week of the month starts early with 4 major releases, including Disney’s newest film and an American remake of a Japanese classic.

*Director Spike Lee’s newest film, ‘Oldboy’, is a remake of the 2003 South Korean film of the same name. Josh Brolin stars as a man who is imprisoned for years, eventually seeking revenge against those responsible once he gets out. The film also stars Sharlto Copley, Elizabeth Olsen, and Samuel L. Jackson.

*The latest Disney film, ‘Frozen’, is based off of the fairy tale ‘The Snow Queen’ by Hans Christian Andersen, author of ‘The Little Mermaid’. The film is co-directed by Chris Buck (co-director of Tarzan) and Jennifer Lee (screenwriter for ‘Wreck-it Ralph’). The film follows Anna (Kristen Bell), a princess of the land of Arendelle, who has to team up with a mountain man named Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and a snowman named Olaf (Josh Gad) to find her sister Elsa (Idina Menzel), the other princess of Arendelle who has the ability to create snow and ice who, after having gone into hiding, caused an eternal winter across the land. The film will feature songs written by Robert and Kristen Anderson-Lopez (‘Avenue Q’).

*While not starring in it, Sylvester Stallone produced and wrote the screenplay for ‘Homefront’, an action-thriller starring Jason Statham as a DEA agent who comes into contact with a group of drug traffickers led by a meth kingpin named Gator (James Franco). The film also stars Winona Ryder and Kate Bosworth.

*Finally, there’s ‘Black Nativity’, which is an adaptation of a retelling of the Nativity story with a black cast originally written by Langston Hughes. The cast includes Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, and Jennifer Hudson.

And that’s the film lineup for November 2013. Come back next month for the final part of this year-long preview where we’ll take a look at December’s lineup of movies.