We’re sharing the 2018 Focus Features Film Slate with you. Read up on what’s new for 2018 from Focus Features.
THOROUGHBREDS
March 9, 2018 (Limited)
Writer/Director: Cory Finley
Cast: Olivia Cooke, Anya Taylor-Joy, Anton Yelchin, and Paul Sparks
Childhood friends Lily and Amanda reconnect in suburban Connecticut after years of growing apart. Lily has turned into a polished, upper-class teenager, with a fancy boarding school on her transcript and a coveted internship on her resume; Amanda has developed a sharp wit and her own particular attitude, but all in the process of becoming a social outcast. Though they initially seem completely at odds, the pair bond over Lily’s contempt for her oppressive stepfather, Mark, and as their friendship grows, they begin to bring out one another’s most destructive tendencies. Their ambitions lead them to hire a local hustler, Tim, and take matters into their own hands to set their lives straight.
7 DAYS IN ENTEBBE
March 16, 2018
Director: José Padilha (Narcos, Elite Squad)
Writer: Gregory Burke (’71)
Cast: Rosamund Pike, Daniel Brühl,
Eddie Marsan, Ben Schnetzer, Lior Ashkenazi, and Denis Ménochet
A gripping thriller inspired by the true events of the 1976 hijacking of an Air France flight en route from Tel Aviv to Paris, the film depicts the most daring rescue mission ever attempted
TULLY
April 20, 2018
Director: Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air, Young Adult)
Writer: Diablo Cody (Juno, Young Adult)
Cast: Charlize Theron, Mackenzie Davis, Mark Duplass, and Ron Livingston
A new comedy from Academy Award®-nominated director Jason Reitman (Up in the Air) and Academy Award®-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno). Marlo (Academy Award® winner Charlize Theron), a mother of three including a newborn, is gifted a night nanny by her brother (Mark Duplass). Hesitant to the extravagance at first, Marlo comes to form a unique bond with the thoughtful, surprising, and sometimes challenging young nanny named Tully (Mackenzie Davis).
WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?
June 8, 2018
Director: Morgan Neville
From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville (20 Feet from Stardom), Won’t You Be My Neighbor? takes an intimate look at America’s favorite neighbor: Mister Fred Rogers. A portrait of a man whom we all think we know, this emotional and moving film takes us beyond the zip-up cardigans and the land of make-believe, and into the heart of a creative genius who inspired generations of children with compassion and limitless imagination.
CAPTIVE STATE
August 17, 2018
Director: Rupert Wyatt (The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Escapist, The Gambler)
Writers: Erica Beeney (The Battle of Shaker Heights) and Rupert Wyatt
Cast: John Goodman, Ashton Sanders, Jonathan Majors,
Colson Baker, Vera Farmiga
Set in a Chicago neighborhood nearly a decade after an occupation by an extra-terrestrial force, Captive State explores the lives on both sides of the conflict—the collaborators and dissidents.
THE LITTLE STRANGER
August 31, 2018
Director: Lenny Abrahamson (Room)
Writer: Lucinda Coxon (The Danish Girl), based on the novel by Sarah Waters
Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson, Will Poulter, and Charlotte Rampling
THE LITTLE STRANGER tells the story of Dr. Faraday, the son of a housemaid, who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. During the long hot summer of 1948, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall, where his mother once worked. The Hall has been home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries. But it is now in decline and its inhabitants—mother, son, and daughter—are haunted by something more ominous than a dying way of life. When he takes on his new patient, Faraday has no idea how closely, and how disturbingly, the family’s story is about to become entwined with his own.
BOY ERASED
September 28, 2018 (Limited)
Writer/Director: Joel Edgerton (The Gift, Loving)
based on Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family by Garrard Conley
Cast: Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Joel Edgerton, Cherry Jones, Michael “Flea” Balzary, Xavier Dolan, Troye Sivan, Joe Alwyn, Emily Hinkler, Jesse LaTourette, David Joseph Craig, Théodore Pellerin, Madelyn Cline, and Britton Sear
Boy Erased tells the story of Jared (Hedges), the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, who is outed to his parents (Kidman and Crowe) at age 19. Jared is faced with an ultimatum: attend a gay conversion therapy program – or be permanently exiled and shunned by his family, friends, and faith. Boy Erased is the true story of one young man’s struggle to find himself while being forced to question every aspect of his identity.
MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS
November 2, 2018 (Limited)
Director: Josie Rourke (artistic director of The Donmar Warehouse)
Writer: Beau Willimon (The Ides of March, House of Cards)
based on My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots by John Guy
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, Jack Lowden, Joe Alwyn, Gemma Chan, Martin Compston, Ismael Cordova, Brendan Coyle, Ian Hart, Adrian Lester, James McArdle, with David Tennant, and Guy Pearce
Mary, Queen of Scots explores the turbulent life of the charismatic Mary Stuart. Queen of France at 16 and widowed at 18, Mary defies pressure to remarry. Instead, she returns to her native Scotland to reclaim her rightful throne. But Scotland and England fall under the rule of the compelling Elizabeth 1. Each young Queen beholds her “sister” in fear and fascination. Rivals in power and in love, and female regents in a masculine world, the two must decide how to play the game of marriage versus independence. Determined to rule as much more than a figurehead, Mary asserts her claim to the English throne, threatening Elizabeth’s sovereignty. Betrayal, rebellion, and conspiracies within each court imperil both thrones—and change the course of history.
ON THE BASIS OF SEX
TBD
Director: Mimi Leder (Deep Impact, The Leftovers)
Writer: Daniel Stiepleman
Cast: Felicity Jones, Armie Hammer, Justin Theroux, Kathy Bates, Sam Waterston, Jack Reynor, and Cailee Spaeny
The film tells an inspiring and spirited true story that follows young lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg as she teams with her husband Marty to bring a groundbreaking case before the Supreme Court and overturn a century of gender discrimination. The feature will premiere in 2018 in line with Justice Ginsburg’s 25th anniversary on the Supreme Court.
JOHNNY ENGLISH 3
TBD
Director: David Kerr (Inside No. 9)
Writer: William Davies (Johnny English, Johnny English Reborn)
Cast: Rowan Atkinson, Olga Kurylenko, Ben Miller, and Emma Thompson
In Johnny English 3, a new adventure begins when a cyber attack blows the cover of all active undercover agents in Britain and its mastermind threatens the world with further disruption. The secret service can now rely on only one man—Johnny English. Currently teaching at a minor prep school, English is called back to duty to find the wily hacker and swan-dives headfirst into action. But for this mission to succeed, it will take all of his skills—what few he has—as the man with yesterday’s analog methods faces off with tomorrow’s digital technology.
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