Sicario

Earlier this year, Taylor Sheridan added “Oscar nominee” to his resume. The actor-turned-screenwriter-turned-director quickly made a name for himself with Sicario, then wooed the Academy with last summer’s surprise critical hit and Best Original Screenplay nominee Hell or High Water. This year Sheridan returns with his third crime drama, Wind River, directing from his own script for the first time.

Let’s say you’ve been given three wishes by one of those C-list celebrities that keep appearing as the Ghost of Christmas Whatever in Hallmark specials. What do you wish for? Since I like to think of myself as a good person, I’d probably spend the first two wishes ridding the world of hunger and violence or cleaning up our carbon footprint with a snap of my fingers. But my third? That one I might waste on unlimited money, so I could continue to make movies that solidifies Emily Blunt as the biggest action star of our generation. Forget Scarlett Johansson; after The Huntsman: Winter’s War, Sicario, and Edge of Tomorrow, Blunt is the woman to beat in my book.

A Sicario sequel seemed intriguing enough before we found out that Denis Villeneuve wouldn’t be very involved (because he’s filming another sequel — Blade Runner 2) and that Emily Blunt — the heart and soul of Sicario — wouldn’t be returning, either. But with Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin on board and a promising new director in tow, we’re still willing to give Soldado a chance. And as it turns out, the sequel isn’t so much a sequel as it is a standalone or a spinoff, and it might be part of a bigger anthology trilogy. You know, like American Horror Story: Drug Cartel.

Sam Mendes has already said Spectre will be his last Bond film. So who will pick up the franchise afterwards? One filmmaker is already adding his name to the list of candidates: Denis Villeneuve.

In this week’s most intriguing and sort of odd sequel news, Lionsgate is already developing a sequel to Sicario, Denis Villeneuve’s new drug war thriller starring Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro. While the film doesn’t hit theaters for another couple of weeks, Villeneuve’s latest has already become a hit with critics following its debut at TIFF, and apparently Del Toro’s character is compelling enough to warrant a sequel.

If you’ve watched a movie in the last 25 years and thought to yourself “God, this film looks great,” odds are it was shot by Roger Deakins. The master cinematographer of such modern classics as The Shawshank Redemption, No Country for Old Men, and Skyfall is considered the best director of photography working today by almost everyone on the planet (except the Academy, which has nominated him twelve different times but never given him an Oscar).

Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario continues to drop increasingly intriguing — and unnerving — trailers, the latest of which primarily focuses on Benicio Del Toro’s Alejandro, revealed to be quite the imposing hitman. Judging by Villeneuve’s previous films, Sicario isn’t your average drug war action-thriller, and these trailers definitely reinforce that idea.

If you were a fan of Prisoners or Enemy, here’s a movie you’ve got to have your radar: Sicario, the latest from director Denis Villeneuve.