As snow continues to pound the East Coast and seasonal affective disorder hits full stride, I thought we could all use a reminder of what the rest of 2011 promises, pop culture-wise:
1. Damsels in Distress. Hallelujah, hallelujah, a new Whit Stillman film at last! If this were the only thing happening this year, it’d be enough.
2. The Pale King. David Foster Wallace’s unfinished final novel hits the stands April 15th. Mindfulness and taxes sound like a powerful brew.
3. The Muppets. (11/23). For the first time since The Muppet Christmas Carol, it would appear that Kermit and company are in the hands of folks that not only understand them, but can do them justice. When the powers behind Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Flight of the Conchords combine…
4. Britpop Revival. This summer brings reunion tours from both Blur and Pulp, as well the full slate of overdue Suede reissues that Brett Anderson just announced. And we may even see the first post-Oasis project from Noel Gallagher. God-willing, Pulp may even deign to visit these shores. God-willing.
5. Living in the Material World. Martin Scorsese’s long-awaited George Harrison documentary. The soundtrack could very well mean treasures galore from the as-of-yet unpilfered Harrison archives. The advent of Scorsese’s first children’s film, Hugo Cabret, is nothing to sneeze at either.
6. The Cabin in The Woods. Joss Whedon – who some of us consider an unfallen man, creatively speaking – brings us “the horror movie to end all horror movies” (his words). We should pray that MGM’s financial woes don’t delay the film any further. Because The Avengers is still a ways off.
7. Tree of Life. (5/27/11). The Gospel According to Terrence Malick.
8. Angles – The Strokes. (3/22). Those three records of theirs sound better and better with each year of their silence. It will be a welcome return.
9. Game of Thrones. (4/17). Fantasy finally gets the HBO treatment. Epic… meet epic.
10. New U2 Project. They’ve been hinting at four different releases, all of which sound potentially awesome. Yes, even Spiderman.
11. Precinct 17. If anyone can deliver on the “Harry Potter for Grown Ups” teaser, it’s BSG writer/producer Ronald Moore.
Other: Tarsem’s The Immortals (11/11), Nick Lowe’s Labor of Lust reissue (3/15), Elbow’s Build a Rocket Boys! (3/15), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (7/15), Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Book Of Mormon musical (3/24), untitled Jeff Lynne solo record, The Spierig Brothers’ The Power of the Dark Crystal, Breaking Bad‘s 4th Season (July sometime), Kurt Busiek’s Batman: Creature of the Night and The Witchlands, and of course… whatever obligatory posthumous MJ they throw at us.
I’m sure there’s tons I’m missing, especially of the non inner-child variety. What are you looking forward to?
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Wait … so Tartakovsky isn't working on the Dark Crystal project now? I'd been hearing for years that he was.