Acting is about as precarious as professions get. because success is never contingent on merely an actor’s talent and skill – it’s reliant on writing, directing, co-stars, and even marketing conspiring to make the best of their work.

And so, while a promising upcoming project is never a guarantee of critical and/or commercial success, it’s also fair to say that these impending movies afford the strongest opportunities to date for these actors to truly blow us all away.

While many of these actors are already firmly celebrated in their own right, they’ve never had a chance quite like this. 

Whether going totally outside of their wheelhouse, working with universally acclaimed filmmakers, or taking a role that just might win them an Oscar, these actors are all imminently due to appear in what will probably be their finest work to date.

Again, nothing is ever guaranteed and we’ve all seen our fair share of can’t-fail productions go down the tubes, but short of anything going disastrously wrong, these films should deliver the most celebrated work these actors have ever been a part of…

It’s not unfair to say that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s filmography has been a wildly mixed bag at best, largely defined by broad-skewing blockbuster vehicles that offered him little opportunity to stretch himself dramatically.

But if you thought Johnson’s upcoming role as MMA fighter Mark Kerr in Benny Safdie’s new sports drama The Smashing Machine was promising, he’s already got an even more ambitious and intriguing project in the works.

Back in February, it was announced that Johnson is set to star alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Emily Blunt in a new crime drama directed by the great Martin Scorsese.

Johnson will reportedly star as a “ruthless Hawaiian crime boss” in a project which he and co-star Blunt assembled together before bringing to DiCaprio and Scorsese.

Though the film hasn’t yet landed a studio, it’s said to be a hot ticket item around Hollywood, and given the star wattage involved, it surely won’t be long before it’s ready to go.

Needless to say, this is a gigantic opportunity for Johnson to reinvent himself as a performer, and prove to all his doubters that he’s got some serious untapped dramatic chops.