AN INCREASING number of cinemas are reopening with new safety protocols designed to keep masked audiences safe in the soothing dark of the auditorium.
Beginning on August 26 with Christopher Nolan's ingenious sci-fi thriller Tenet, the rest of the year boasts high-profile releases that can only be enjoyed on the big screen. Prepare to gasp, scream, sob and whoop with delight as we reignite our enduring love affair with the cinema-going experience.
:: TENET
Sci-Fi/Action/Thriller. John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Sir Kenneth Branagh, Sir Michael Caine. Director: Christopher Nolan.
Released: August 26
IT HAS been 10 years since British writer-director Christopher Nolan gleefully twisted the minds of audiences with his high-stakes espionage thriller Inception starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tom Hardy.
The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture and deservedly took home golden statuettes for sound, visual effects and Wally Pfister's stunning cinematography.
Nolan's new adventure, which is shrouded in secrecy, is the first major studio blockbuster to storm multiplexes since the pandemic and promises another jaw-dropping feast for the senses.
Shot on 70mm film and Imax, Tenet follows a tenacious and highly skilled operative (John David Washington from BlacKkKlansman) as he attempts to avert Armageddon.
A Russian oligarch (Sir Kenneth Branagh) is connected to a mystery that can only be solved by abandoning preconceived ideas about the linear flow of time.
Robert Pattinson and Sir Michael Caine co-star.
:: THE NEW MUTANTS
Sci-Fi/Horror/Action/Thriller. Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Blu Hunt, Charlie Heaton, Henry Zaga, Alice Braga. Director: John Boone.
Released: September 4
ONE year after Dark Phoenix failed to reenergise the X-Men film franchise, director John Boone and co-writer Knate Lee journey inside the minds of five young people with extraordinary abilities in The New Mutants.
Dr Cecilia Reyes (Alice Braga) brings these gifted patients to a secret institution, claiming she can cure them if they accept treatment under her care.
The five volunteers include Danielle Moonstar aka Mirage (Blu Hunt), who harnesses other people's fears to create illusions, Illyana Rasputin aka Magik (Anya Taylor-Joy), younger sister of Colossus who can amplify her psychic abilities to devastating effect, Rahne Sinclair aka Wolfsbane (Maisie Williams), who metamorphoses into a werewolf, Sam Guthrie aka Cannonball (Charlie Heaton), who can project himself forward at jet speed, and Roberto da Costa aka Sunspot (Henry Zaga), who can channel solar energy.
As these five so-called 'mutants' share stories about when their powers manifested, they begin to doubt the sincerity of Dr Reyes' actions.
:: WONDER WOMAN 1984
Sci-Fi/Action/Adventure/Romance Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, Robin Wright, Connie Nielsen. Director: Patty Jenkins.
Released: October 2
RELEASED in 2017, the first big screen outing for Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman drew uncomfortable yet vital attention to gender imbalance behind the camera when it became the highest grossing film of all time by a solo female director.
Patty Jenkins returns to helm of the eagerly anticipated sequel, working from a script she co-wrote with Dave Callaham and Geoff Johns, which relishes the dubious fashion choices and toe-tapping music of the 1980s.
At the end of the first film, Amazonian warrior Diana Prince embraced her destiny as Wonder Woman but lost her sweetheart, dashing American pilot Steve Trevor, in the climactic melee.
In the next chapter, Diana is reunited with Steve and seeks to make her mother Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) proud by using her strength to protect mankind.
Unfortunately, she faces a new threat from slippery media mogul Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) and archaeologist Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig), who is reborn as the super-powered Cheetah.
Diana may need more than her golden lasso and bulletproof bangles to vanquish these formidable adversaries.
:: NO TIME TO DIE
Action/Thriller/Romance. Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Lea Seydoux, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Rami Malek, Christoph Waltz, Ben Whishaw, Lashana Lynch, Jeffrey Wright. Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga.
Released: November 12
DANIEL Craig's fifth and final mission as James Bond was one of the first high-profile films to push back its original April release date in response to the Covid pandemic, choosing a prime berth in November to leave audiences shaken and stirred by spectacular action sequences shot on location in Italy, Jamaica, Norway and Britain.
Set five years after the events of Spectre, No Time To Die begins with Bond (Craig) retired from active duty, trying to salve deep emotional wounds with the help of his psychiatrist lover, Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux).
Good friend Felix Leitner (Jeffrey Wright) ushers 007 back into the fold, reuniting the spy with M (Ralph Fiennes), Q (Ben Whishaw), Eve Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and a ballsy new 00 agent, Nomi (Lashana Lynch).
They face a sadistic and terrifying adversary, Safin (Rami Malek), who knows how to burrow beneath Bond's skin and exploit his most deeply rooted fears.
