SAN ANTONIO — Movies may not be the first thing Texans get excited about when the temperatures and leaves start to fall—not in a state where what happens on the gridiron Friday nights can make or break a community's spirit for that weekend.
But sure as high school football games will draw thousands of spectators, so too will crowds across the country have a wealth of opportunity to catch Texas-born Hollywood talent at their local multiplex.
The curtain has raised on the so-called "awards season" portion of the movie calendar, where in addition to your requisite holiday-season blockbusters – the "Hunger Games" prequels, "Wonkas" and "Aquamans" of the world – there also awaits a compelling slate of smaller-in-budget-only projects vying for pole position in the Academy Awards race. The established directors with films releasing in the coming weeks and months are a who's-who of cinema masters, including Sofia Coppola, Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese. But you won't have to look very far for evidence that Texas has its own strong tradition of actors and directors who made it big on the big screen.
Here are some of the biggest Texas names whose upcoming movies you should keep on your radar, so long as the continuing actors' strike doesn't put a wrench in studios' release plans.
Jesse Plemons
The Dallas native (and fairly recent Oscar nominee) already co-headlined one of the biggest TV projects of the year in HBO's "Love & Death," itself a story with Texas roots. Now the 35-year-old "Friday Night Lights" alumnus joins Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro in Scorsese's crime epic "Killers of the Flower Moon," about a 20th-century conspiracy to kill members of the Osage tribe and feed off the wealth of their oil-rich land.
Plemons steps into the shoes of FBI agent Tom White, who played an integral role in revealing the schemers behind the murders. It isn't his first time working with the iconic director behind "Taxi Driver" and "The Wolf of Wall Street"; he also had a small role in Scorsese's "The Irishman."
"Killers of the Flower Moon" opens Oct. 20.
Glen Powell
If "Top Gun: Maverick" didn't make Glen Powell a household name, the upcoming romcom "Anyone But You," which pairs him with "Euphoria" superstar Sydney Sweeney, just might. Directed by "Easy A's" Will Gluck, "Anyone But You" stars Austin-born Powell and Sweeney as two college archnemeses who reunite after many years and pretend to be a couple, only to eventually... well, you can probably guess the rest.
"Anyone But You" doesn't come out until the Christmas season, but Powell is already receiving raves for a separate turn in "Hit Man," the latest drama from Texas director Richard Linklater, upon that movie's premiere at the Venice Film Festival. "Hit Man," which could end up being a stealth Oscar contender, was reportedly bought by Netflix for a hefty $20 million sum. But the streamer hasn't announced release plans as of yet.
"Anyone But You" opens Dec. 15. A release date for "Hit Man" has not been announced.
Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal
The newest work from Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar is a 31-minute Western-romance, so it stands to reason a couple of Texans – one of them born here, another who spent some of his childhood years here – would headline "Strange Way of Life." The movie, which has been described as Almodóvar's take on "Brokeback Mountain," looks to feature the director's trademark melodrama, as well as the bold use of color fit for a film starring two actors with Lone Star State roots.
"Strange Way of Life" releases Oct. 6.
Tommy Lee Jones and Jamie Foxx
Another movie headlined by not one, but two Texas names, "The Burial" tells the semi-true story of a lawyer (played by Jamie Foxx, of Terrell, Texas) who steps in to save the owner of a funeral home (Tommy Lee Jones, born in San Saba) targeted by corporate big-wigs.
"The Burial" releases Oct. 13 on Amazon Prime.
Ciara
The Grammy-nominated singer and Fort Cavazos native has starred in a couple movies before, but nothing that brings with it the expectations of director Blitz Bazawule's upcoming "The Color Purple" adaptation. The movie, starring several A-listers like Halle Bailey, Taraji P. Henson and Colman Domingo, brings it with aspirations for Oscar glory, and has a prime holiday-season release date.
"The Color Purple" opens on Christmas.
Michael Urie
A Houston native best-known for his recurring role on "Ugly Betty," Michael Urie is exchanging small-screen comedy for big-screen drama with his role in "Maestro," Bradley Cooper's sophomore directorial effort about the relationship between legendary composer Leonard Bernstein (played by Cooper) and Carey Mulligan's Felicia Montealegre Bernstein.
Urie plays Jerome Robbins, a choreographer, theatre director and frequent collaborator of Bernstein's.
"Maestro" releases Dec. 20 on Netflix.
Robert Rodriguez and Wes Anderson
In addition to the previously aforementioned Richard Linklater – whose "Hit Man" is a (no pun intended) hit at fall festivals but has no set release date after being acquired by Netflix – Robert Rodriguez and Wes Anderson are two other prolific Texas directors with new works also coming to Netflix.
September saw the release Rodriguez's "Spy Kids: Armageddon," a reboot to the San Antonio native's family-friendly action series that turned 22 this year. (Our critic said the movie, while slightly less loony and slightly more derivative than past installments, is just weird enough in the right places to hold you over for 90 minutes.)
Meanwhile, Houstonian Wes Anderson, fresh off some of his best reviews in years for "Asteroid City," is bringing not one, not two, but four shorts adapting famous Roald Dahl works to Netflix this fall. "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar" arrives first on Sept. 27, followed by "The Swan," "The Rat Catcher" and "Poison" on Sept. 28, 29 and 30, respectively.
As has become the case with most of Anderson's movies, the four-short project boasts a deep bench of A-Listers, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel and Ben Kingsley. (Meanwhile, "Asteroid City," which our critic called one of the best movies of the year so far over the summer, is available to stream on Peacock.)
"Spy Kids: Armageddon" is now on Netflix. Wes Anderson's four short films adapting Roald Dahl books arrive on Netflix in late September.
