$25 logline consults are open. And for this weekend only, I’m bringing back my 5 loglines for $100 deal. If you’ve got a handful of movie ideas and want an honest take on how they stack up against the 30,000 concepts I’ve been pitched, this is the perfect time. Tighten your premise, find the strongest idea, and make sure you’re leading with your best shot. Email me at carsonreeves1@gmail.com to get started.
If you’re anything like me, when you walk into a movie theater these days, you’re walking with your head on a swivel. The badness of the movies Hollywood has been dumping on us can come at you from any angle.
Which led me to this improbable question: Am I going to see a movie in the theater this year?
I was genuinely not sure! So I took a trip down Firstshowing’s movie release list to see if I could find anything that looked good enough that I would actually go and pay for it.
Full disclosure, going through lists these days gives me anxiety. I already go down the Black List and get depressed that there aren’t any good scripts to read. If movies are also going to steal my excitement, what do I have left? Don’t get me wrong. 90 Day Fiancé and its 10,000 spin-off iterations are entertaining. But the entirety of my viewing pleasure cannot be placed on Geno and Jasmine.
Well, I’m happy to report that there are QUITE A FEW MOVIES I deem “movie theater worthy.” It actually shocked me how many there were. Cause I was expecting, if there were any, it would be 1 or 2. But there’s more. Many more.
So, let’s go through them, shall we?
February 13 – Wuthering Heights
Okay, I’m starting off with one that I won’t see. But the reason I’m including the film is because social media is obsessed with it. Which tells me this movie is one of the few this year that has a shot at breaking out into pop culture, a rarity in 2026. Look, I thought Emerald Fennel’s Promising Young Woman was a great script and an even better movie. But I’m not on board with the projects she’s been picking since. I actually know nothing about this book other than it’s a “classic.” But, from the outside, it seems to me like its only value here is to be able to create sex scenes between Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. That might get some people’s rocks off. It doesn’t get mine. I will only see this movie if people tell me it’s a masterpiece.
March 20 – Project Hail Mary
We’ve got two Star Wars connections here. Lord & Miller, who infamously got fired from “Solo.” And Ryan Gosling, who’s going to be in the next Star Wars film. I read the book. It was great until the alien showed up. But after seeing the trailer, it looks like these extremely talented directors figured out the alien. Lord & Miller are really really good at finding that perfect comedic balance for their stories. They never get too wacky. And they never go with that boring mainstream type humor. They’re still able to convey their voice. Which I guess Kathleen Kennedy never got. Project Hail Mary feels like the perfect big-budget movie to kick off the early summer season. It just looks fun and it also looks good!
May 22 – The Mandalorian & Grogu
Ewan McGregor once famously said, ‘It’d take a bigger man than me to turn down playing Obi-Wan Kenobi.’ I’m going to echo that sentiment. It’d take a bigger man than me to not see a Star Wars movie in the theater. I may have major concerns about the franchise but Jon Favreau is going to at least put something entertaining onscreen. Now, will it be able to withstand its ruler-high stakes? No. This is the problem Star Wars has been dealing with ever since it’s tried to expand its universe. A huge reason why the original movies were so successful was because the stakes were enormous. And Star Wars hasn’t been able to replicate that in any of its films or movies, mainly because it keeps placing them inside timelines that make it impossible to bring the stakes up as high as the original trilogy. So that’s going to be a challenge for Favreau for sure. With that said, I expect this movie to be a cameo machine. I just think every awesome Star Wars character who’s ever been in the franchise is going to make a cameo and I don’t want to miss it! So count me in for Mandalorian & Grogu.
June 12 – Disclosure Day
You guys know how obsessed I am with aliens and UFOs. How obsessed are we talking? I went to AI the other day and I asked it why there wasn’t a bigger public reckoning after The Phoenix Lights back in the 90s (an event where thousands of people in Phoenix saw a giant ship pass over the city). And it came back at me saying there wasn’t really any evidence. Only speculation. There’s no actual proof. So I followed up by asking it, “If the government wanted to cover up an event like The Phoenix Lights, what would it do?” And AI listed the 5 main things it would do. Which, coincidentally, were exactly what happened! I pointed this out to AI and told it to be better. Carson = 1. AI = 0. The point is, we need disclosure to happen and I sense that Spielberg, who we know brings in the best experts in the world when it comes to this stuff (see: Close Encounters of the Third Kind) brought in people who really really know what’s going on. In that way, his movie is potentially a pseudo-documentary. I’m here for it. I admit that the movie itself looks lacking. But if I learn some stuff about aliens I didn’t previously know, it’s worth it.
June 19 – The Death of Robin Hood
This is another movie I will not be seeing. But I know a lot of you are looking forward to it. I actually get quite a few e-mails from people who don’t know what Scriptshadow is, saying they found my review of the script through a Google search and they want to read it. I would not advise that. The script is really awful, guys. Like such an enormous letdown. It starts strong, which is why it’s so disappointing what comes after. But I’m telling you, if you get your hopes up for this, you will be devastated by how the script completely falls apart after the first act.
June 19 – Toy Story 5
Woody and Buzz are one of the most iconic duos ever. They’re magic together. And Pixar’s got a unique thing on their hands in that this is an animation and not real life. For that reason, they can extend this duo’s life out longer than it would have lasted had this been a live action movie. Toy Story is an example of the power of character. It’s something I think a lot about these days. As AI becomes more of a threat, the one area where it’s clueless is creating a great character from scratch. It can put Luke Skywalker’s face in these mini Star Wars AI adventures and make us feel something. But that’s built off the shoulders of writers from 50 years ago. And it’s literally the only thing that makes the short work. Creating lovable interesting emotionally-affecting characters requires a human calling. And that’s why I will see this movie. Cause not only are Woody and Buzz great characters. But Toy Story has another dozen strong characters as well. And plus there hasn’t been a bad Toy Story movie. Which is incredible. What other franchise can say that?
June 26 – Supergirl
Oh boy. Okay, I admit that I’m not seeing this because the movie looks good. I’m seeing it for two other reasons. One, I like Milly Alcock. And two, this movie has a lot of pressure on it in regards to James Gunn’s future with DC. Superman did okay. This will be his second film (this time as producer). And I’m curious what we’re going to get. I want it to work. The idea of a “super person” who’s a complete mess in their personal life is a strong place to start from for a character. Which, no doubt, is exactly why Gunn fast-tracked the film. I’ve said it before on the site. One of the cheat codes for creating interesting characters is to create someone who is at extreme odds with something within themselves. A character struggling to fix themselves also being tossed into a scenario where they must save others? You’ve got a movie there. This is exactly what Hancock did. And that was a great premise as well. So, we’ll see.
July 17 – Cut Off
This one may become the sleeper hit of the summer. It’s the only major studio comedy. And the premise is comedic gold: “Two wealthy siblings who are suddenly cut off from their parents’ financial support, are forced to navigate adult life and financial independence for the first time.” The best comedy tends to be fish-out-of-water scenarios. And this is one nobody else has thought of until now, for some reason. It’s going to be so fun watching Jonah Hill and Kristin Wiig attempt to operate in a completely foreign world. I always say that good comedy concepts make you immediately start imagining hilarious scenes. Just putting these two in a supermarket for the first time is going to be hilarious. Learning what items actually cost. I have high hopes for this one.
July 17 – The Odyssey
Looks like I’ll have a double feature this weekend! Ah yes, how can you say no to Christopher Nolan and his most ambitious movie ever? Am I an Odyssey fan? No. Kids back in 8th grade might have even called me an Odyssey-hater. But this is basically Christopher Nolan doing his version of Clash of the Titans, and that’s enough for me. I’m certainly more interested in this than I was Oppenheimer. Plus, you gotta respect a guy who has absolutely no hobbies, no interests, and no friends, outside of moviemaking. Dude just wants to leave a legacy. This is an Opening Day watch.
July 31 – Spider-Man Brand New Day
One of the best things that the Spider-Man producers lucked into was that Tom Holland will look like he’s 18 until he’s 58. They can just keep popping these movies out of the oven forever. And I got no issues with it at all. I love these films. I was just thinking about this the other day. The two most reliable superhero franchises are Spider-Man and Batman. Which is so strange because one is about this brooding intense depressed dude. And the other is about this happy swingy fun guy. They’re polar opposites. — Now, what makes this newest Spider-Man more of a curiosity than the others is that Tom Holland has more control now. He signed a new contract where that was part of the contract. He demanded that they write his favorite Spider-Man villain into the story (The Punisher). You also have a new director on the franchise (Destin Daniel Cretton). Let’s see if these new elements get in the way of what, otherwise, has been a blueprint for how to create the perfect superhero franchise.
Aug 14 – Flowervale Street
Okay, not many people know about this one. Flowervale Street is the new film by David Robert Mitchell, the guy who did It Follows. It’s a 1980s set sci-fi thriller about a suburban family (Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor) who notice bizarre events in their neighborhood, leading them and their neighbors to be transported to the prehistoric era, where they must survive against dinosaurs. What’s also interesting about this film is that it’s a Bad Robot movie. So JJ Abrams is involved. At this point, it’s not clear to me if this is going to be Mitchell doing the low-budget version of a giant adventure, which is what he seems to like. Or going big. Because this is a very big idea. I’d say this one is in the top 5 of movies I’m looking forward to.
October 2 – Digger
This is going to be the big artsy film of the year. It’s got Alejandro G. Iñárritu (The Revenant, Birdman) directing and it’s got Tom Cruise starring. The only current premise available is: The most powerful man in the world embarks on a frantic mission to prove that he’s humanity’s savior. And it’s listed as a black comedy. So I’m guessing that it’s going to be in the “Birdman” tone. Iñárritu can definitely get too artsy for my taste. But Cruise is really good at understanding what the mainstream audience member wants. So I’m hoping that he’s able to rein Iñárritu in a little. Either way, it’s going to be an interesting film for sure.
November 13 – The Great Beyond
Guess who’s baaaaaaaaack. JJ Abrammmmms. Mr. Mystery Box himself. The haterz are out in full force. But let me counter that hate by offering you two of the hottest actors in the business right now: Glen Powell and Jenna Ortega. All we know about the plot is that it follows a young couple struggling to survive against a supernatural entity. And that’s the way JJ wants it. We know he hates people already knowing the plots to his movies. This man’s writing was built on a very specific writing tool: the element of surprise. Look, if I’m being 100 with you guys, I think JJ’s lost his fastball. And I think that Glen Powell may be fool’s gold. And I know that Jenna Ortega is full of herself. So, I’m not convinced the elements are going to come together to make a beautiful harmonic symphony. But what’s cool about this movie is that it’s an original idea. Whenever I see original ideas, I think, “This means you could’ve written a spec script that got purchased and made into this movie.” So, it’s great news for writers.
December 18 – Avengers Doomsday
What does an 800 million dollar movie look like? For the first time ever, we’re going to find out. How can you not go watch a movie whose success or failure is going to determine the next decade in Hollywood? “Doomsday” has a Mandalorian problem. It’s coming into the theater limping rather than sprinting. There aren’t even any Marvel movies coming out this year to build up hype for it. It looks like Spider-Man is going to do its own thing. Avengers Doomsday reminds me, almost exactly, of what happened with Rise of Skywalker. They both sensed the fans becoming restless. They both hired the directors that built the franchise (JJ for Star Wars, Russos for Marvel). They both brought beloved dead characters back (Solo and The Emperor for Star Wars, Downey Jr. for Doomsday). It felt desperate then and it feels desperate now. But look, I’m rooting for the Russos to blow my socks off. I want this movie to be great. Especially because the next Marvel movie has a great hook (a gladiator ring of superheroes fighting each other). But if this bombs, we won’t even care about that. The marketing for this movie so far has been awful. Get on your P’s and Q’s Marvel! Let’s hope Doomsday doesn’t live up to its name at the box office.
