Fall 2024 movies: Let's spend our nights with gladiators, witches and a young Donald Trump

We have reached that point in September when there are fewer days between today and Thanksgiving than between now and the last Fourth of July, and let’s pause for ... just ... a ... moment ... to let that sink in.

Here at Popcorn Central Headquarters, that can mean only one thing: It’s Fall Preview time!

Our list of 10 promising titles is quite disparate, from a new film by the legendary Francis Ford Coppola to a sequel almost guaranteed to be polarizing to a couple of highly anticipated stage adaptations to the latest exercise in digital transformation. Let’s dive in.

‘Megalopolis’ (Sept. 26)

The 85-year-old Francis Ford Coppola spent an estimated $120 million of his own money to finance this decades-in-the-planning fable that was marred by allegations of misconduct by Coppola on set (denied by the director) and received mixed reactions from critics at film festivals. What we know for certain is this is a wildly ambitious epic starring Adam Driver as an architect named Cesar in a fictional American city called New Rome, and he can freeze the moment by proclaiming, “Time, stop!” With a cast that includes Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza. Giancarlo Esposito, Dustin Hoffman, Talia Shire and Laurence Fishburne, “Megalopolis” might not be great, but it’s almost sure to be interesting.

‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ (Oct. 3)

Joaquin Phoenix won Oscar for 2019’s “Joker” and I thought it was merited — but it was the kind of splashy, physique-changing and attention-getting performance that polarized critics and audiences, though the film made piles of dough. Phoenix and director Todd Phillips seem to be doubling down on the risk factor with “Folie à Deux,” a jukebox musical/courtroom drama, with the spectacularly talented Lady Gaga joining the insanity as one Harleen “Lee” Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn. Hey, what better place for a meet-cute than the Arkham State Hospital for the criminally insane.

‘The Apprentice’ (Oct. 11)

One million years ago, the Chicago Sun-Times address was a charmingly squat building at 401 N. Wabash, which was razed to make room for the Trump International Hotel & Tower. When I’m on Wacker Drive and I look across the river, I can almost see the ghost of the newsroom in what is now an upscale hair salon — and I can remember a time when Donald Trump was most famous for being the host of the popular reality competition show “The Apprentice.” Decades before that, Trump was an ambitious and conniving businessman in New York City, and this fictionalized biopic focuses on the relationship between young Trump (Sebastian Stan) and his mentor, the notorious and vile Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Let the record show that Sebastian Stan has now played Donald Trump, Jeff Gillooly and Tommy Lee. He’s his own documentary about the crazy 1980s and 1990s.

‘Saturday Night’ (Oct. 11)

         It takes a certain level of artistic courage to make a film about the debut of “Saturday Night” aka “Saturday Night Live,” but director/co-writer Jason Reitman (“Thank You For Smoking,” “Juno,” “Up in the Air”) might be just the filmmaker to do it. Gabriel LaBelle plays Lorne Michaels, Cory Michael Smith is Chevy Chase, Ella Hunt portrays Gilda Radner and how about J.K. Simmons as ... Milton Berle!? Oh, and Nicholas Braun aka Greg on “Succession,” plays Andy Kaufman and also Jim Henson, because why not.

‘Nickel Boys’ (Oct. 25)

Director RaMell Ross, who was nominated for an Oscar for the brilliant documentary “Hale County, This Morning, This Evening,” turns to historical fiction in this prestige project adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead. The Nickel Academy is based on the infamous Dozier School for Boys, a reform institution in Florida that for more than a century engaged in the systematic abuse and in some cases murders of students. With the gifted Ross as director and co-writer (along with Joslyn Barnes) and a cast including Ethan Herisse, Daveed Diggs and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, “Nickel Boys” has the aura and promise of an important and necessary film.

‘Here’ (Nov. 1)

         “This was our home,” says the elderly man to his wife, as they stand in an empty house. “We lived here.”

The trailer for “Here” is beautiful — and a little unsettling. This reunion of “Forrest Gump” director Robert Zemeckis, writer Eric Roth and stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright makes use of what Zemeckis calls “digital makeup” to “de-age” Hanks and Wright so they can play teenagers and to take the characters through the decades. Based on the graphic novel by Richard McGuire, “Here” keeps the camera fixed on a single spot of land, from the very distant past to the extreme future, with the primary story focused on the couple played by Hanks and Wright. I’m not sure I’ve been more excited to see a movie all year.

‘The Piano Lesson’ (Nov. 8)

August Wilson’s masterful, Pulitzer Prize-winning play gets the big-screen treatment from the Washington family: Denzel is the executive producer, Malcolm directs, and John David is one of the stars in a cast that includes Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Fisher, Erykah Badu, Michael Potts and Danielle Deadwyler. Set in mid-1930s Pittsburgh, “The Piano Lesson” chronicles the Charles family, with the heirloom piano in the living room serving as the symbol and a reminder of the family’s past — and the centerpiece of a sibling dispute in the present time frame of the story. Given the source material and the roster of talent behind and in front of the camera, it’s difficult to see how this project can miss. 

‘Heretic’ (Nov. 15)

Hugh Grant had a legendarily great run as a romantic leading man from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s, with “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “Notting Hill” and “Love Actually” the highlights, but he has embraced a darker side in recent projects such as the feature film “The Gentlemen” and the limited series “The Undoing.” Grant has what sounds like his most villainous role yet in “Heretic,” playing a seemingly affable fellow who welcomes two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East and Sophie Thatcher) into his home and puts their faith to the test. Something tells me Grant won’t be quoting the words of David Cassidy while he was still with the Partridge Family in this one.

‘Gladiator II’ (Nov. 22)

Nearly a quarter-century after Russell Crowe took home the best actor Oscar for one of the all-time best warrior performances in “Gladiator,” which won a total of five Academy Awards including best picture, there’s been talk of a second chapter. I’m kind of surprised they didn’t go with the title of “Gladiators” instead of the pedestrian “Gladiator II,” but that quibble aside, expectations are through the roof for this sequel. The great lion Ridley Scott, now 86, returns to direct, with a cast led by some of the most in-demand actors working today, including Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger, not to mention legends Denzel Washington and Derek Jacobi. As an added bonus, Connie Nielsen reprises her role as Lucilla from the original film.

‘Wicked’ (Nov. 22)

Frank Baum’s 1900 novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” gave birth to the classic 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz,” which inspired Gregory Maguire to publish the very clever novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” in 1995, and that inspired the award-winning, long-running smash hit musical that premiered on Broadway in 2003, and now finally we’re getting the two-part film adaptation. Cynthia Erivo stars as Elphaba, who later becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, while Ariana Grande is Galinda, who is destined to become Glinda the Good. The intermission for this one is a bit longer than the break in a Broadway play — like a year longer. “Wicked Part Two” is scheduled to be released on Nov. 21 of next year.

That means it’s eligible for the 2025 Fall Preview, which will roll around before you know it.