Genre Sequels and Prequels Coming This Year

While tooling around IMBD, I noticed a list of forthcoming sequels and prequels. What was interesting about the list was how it was dominated by genre titles. Here’s a short summary of those coming out this year.

Currently in theaters:

The fourth entry in the Scream franchise, which was first released in December of 1996, is now in theatres. The first film featured Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, a teenager who is targeted by a mysterious mask-wearing killer on the anniversary of her mother’s murder. Each successive movie has also focused on Prescott and the anniversary, but with a slightly different twist each time. Scream 4 takes place 10 years after the first film.

Coming Soon

May 2011

The fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series starring Johnny Depp as pirate Jack Sparrow is coming to theaters in May. This time Jack and fellow pirate Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) are searching for the fountain of youth. Interesting side note … Ponce de Leon, who is famous for a similar quests, is my ancestor.

June 2011

The fifth film in the X-Men series is a prequel to the first three films. X-Men: First Class is set in the 1960s and focuses on the relationship between Professor X and Magneto. James McAvoy is stepping into the shoes of the younger Professor Charles Xavier, played by Patrick Stewart in the first three films, and Michael Fassbender is portraying the younger Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto, played by Ian McKellen in the early films.

July 2011

	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, which continues from Part 1, which was released in November of last year and is currently available in DVD, concludes the Harry Potter series of films. Based on the seven-part series of young adult novels by J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter world has been building a robust fantasy fandom since it hit bookstores in 1997.
	In the third film of the Transformers franchise, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the Autobots learn of a Cybertronian spacecraft hidden on the Moon. They race against the Decepticons to reach it and learn its secrets, hoping the knowledge will turn the tide in the Transformers’ final battle.

August 2011

	You can’t cheat death … but boy can you milk it for a series of horror flicks! Each of the Final Destination films features a group of people who, for some reason, don’t die in a horrible accident when they should have. So death stalks them, killing them in the same order they should have died in the original accident. In Final Destination 5, the accident is the collapse of a suspension bridge.
	The second film in the reboot of the Planet of Apes film series, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, stars James Franco as a scientist whose work to cure Alzheimer’s results in the first talking apes. This film is not based on any of the original films, but re-interprets the origin story using the overall mythology.
	The fourth Spy Kids film from director Robert Rodriguez does not feature Carmen and Juni from the first three films. Instead, they have cameos providing gadgets to a new generation. Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World takes place eight years after the third film, and the Spy Kids department is now defunct. When a maniacal Timekeeper (Jeremy Piven) attempts to take over the world and stop time, retired spy Marissa (Jessica Alba) is thrown back into the action along with her stepchildren, who don’t really like her.

October 2011

Not much information is available an the forthcoming Paranormal Activity 3, other than its currently set to release in October. Given that the first two films were low budget but big money makers, it makes sense that they would try for a third installment.

November 2011

Like Harry Potter‘s final two films, the latest entry in the Twilight Saga is broken into two parts. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 will be released this fall, with Part 2 set to release next year. Now Edward and Bella are expecting a child that could pose a threat to both the wolf pack and vampire coven.

December 2011

In time for Christmas, the sequel to the 2009 Robert Downey Jr. take on the famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows has Holmes and Watson trying to outwit the nefarious Professor Moriarty.

Other sequels and prequels due out sometime this year include:

• Scary Movie 5 – the fifth in the horror film spoof franchise
• Wrong Turn 4 – a series of slasher films started in 2003 with straight to DVD sequels
• Creepshow – this is actually a remake/reboot of the popular anthology films fo the 1980s
• [REC] Génesis – The third film in the series of Spanish zombie apocalypse films