60 films to look for­ward to in 2019 – part 2

Ready to get stuck into anoth­er 12 months of new movies? To whet your appetite, here are 30 upcom­ing fea­tures we think are worth get­ting excit­ed about. When you’re done with this part of our 2019 pre­view, check out part one.

Eta 12 April (US)

A year on from the del­i­cate soul-search­ing of Let the Sun­shine In, Claire Denis is set­ting her sights high­er. The French master’s Eng­lish-lan­guage debut, which pre­miered at the Toron­to Film Fes­ti­val last autumn, sees Robert Pat­tin­son strug­gling to sur­vive in deep space along with his young daugh­ter. Denis reg­u­lar Juli­ette Binoche is also on-board. Take our word for it, this is one you’re going to want – and need – to watch again and again.

Eta TBA

Nico­las Wind­ing Refn is head­ing east again to tack­le espi­onage, exis­ten­tial­ism and the Yakuza. The Dan­ish direc­tor has described this as a ​“big, extrav­a­gant action film,” which sounds tan­ta­lis­ing enough – even more so with reg­u­lar Bond screen­writ­ers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade on board. If Dri­ve proved any­thing, it’s that Refn knows how to do slick, edge-of-your-seat action.

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Mia Wasikows­ka and Phan­tom Thread​’s Vicky Krieps make the pil­grim­age to the same island that inspired famed Swedish auteur Ing­mar Bergman, before the lines between fic­tion and real­i­ty start to blur. Mia Hansen-Løve’s lat­est sounds like a dream, and we’re expect­ing it to make an appear­ance at a major film fes­ti­val ear­ly in the year.

Eta 29 March

Disney’s live-action adap­ta­tions of their own ani­mat­ed clas­sics have by and large worked out well. The trail­er for the studio’s high-gloss Dum­bo remake sug­gests direc­tor Tim Bur­ton has got the tone just right, and with a stel­lar cast includ­ing Col­in Far­rell and Eva Green we’re ful­ly expect­ing this to clean up at the box office. We’re most­ly here for Dan­ny DeVi­to and pink ele­phants though.

Eta TBA

The next film from one of America’s great­est film­mak­ers sees 19^th cen­tu­ry fur-trap­pers embark on a voy­age from Ore­gon to Chi­na and back. Kel­ly Reichardt’s heart­break­ing Cer­tain Women was one of the stand­out films of 2017, and her return to the West for the first time since 2010’s Meek’s Cut­off is cause for celebration.

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We’re been wait­ing for Ter­rence Malick’s World War Two dra­ma for what feels like an eter­ni­ty – and now it seems the film is final­ly wrapped and ready. Matthias Schoe­naerts, Michael Nyqvist, Bruno Ganz star in this biog­ra­phy of Aus­tri­an Franz Jäger­stät­ter, a con­sci­en­tious objec­tor who refused to side with the Nazis. Expect this one to have its bow at the Berlin Film Fes­ti­val in February.

Eta 26 April

After the cat­a­clysmic fall­out of the Avengers’ last out­ing, the Rus­so broth­ers have offered few clues as to how this epic saga will be con­clud­ed. We’re still not entire­ly sure who will be return­ing, not to men­tion who or what will be revealed as the key to stop­ping Thanos. Will it be Hawk­eye? Prob­a­bly not.

Eta TBA

Fol­low­ing the intro­spec­tive poet­i­cism of 2016’s Pater­son, Jim Jar­musch is pulling a 180 with zom­bie com­e­dy The Dead Don’t Die. How­ev­er, one only needs a vague knowl­edge of the director’s fil­mog­ra­phy to know that this isn’t going be any­thing like Zom­bieland. Adam Dri­ver, Bill Mur­ray, Tom Waits, Til­da Swin­ton, Steve Busce­mi and Eraser­head cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er Fred­er­ick Elmes are all attached.

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Keanu Reeves repris­es his role as ice-cool ex-hit­man John Wick – and he’s joined this time Anjel­i­ca Hus­ton and Halle Berry, adding even more fire­pow­er to the cast. Chad Sta­hel­s­ki remains in the director’s chair, ensur­ing that this tril­o­gy-clos­er will be stick­ing to its no-non­sense action roots. Pre­pare for war.

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If you don’t already wor­ship at Tim­o­th­ée Chalamet’s feet, you will after he dons Hen­ry V’s crown in David Michôd’s forth­com­ing his­tor­i­cal epic. The Aus­tralian director’s career hit a slight bump in 2017 with War Machine, but encour­ag­ing­ly this one looks clos­er in tone and style to Ani­mal King­dom and The Rover.

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The Eng­lish-lan­guage debut from Lour­des and Amour Fou direc­tor Jes­si­ca Haus­ner cen­tres on genet­i­cal­ly-engi­neered plants manip­u­lat­ing liv­ing organ­isms in what sounds like a mod­ern spin on ​‘The Day of the Trif­fids’. The prospect of Ben Whishaw being plunged into a tale of hor­ti­cul­tur­al hor­ror is a very entic­ing one indeed.

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An ensem­ble piece about the dis­so­lu­tion of a South Amer­i­can drug lord, spear­head­ed by A Most Vio­lent Year direc­tor JC Chan­dor. From the lens of Roman Vasyanov (End of Watch) and the pen of Mark Boal (Zero Dark Thir­ty), this is like­ly to be a method­i­cal, grit­ty crime film. Ben Affleck stars oppo­site Pedro Pascal.

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Set in New York’s dia­mond dis­trict, a man’s jew­ellery busi­ness is jeop­ar­dised by some rather unsavoury behav­iour. Direct­ed by the Safdie broth­ers, whose hit-and-run fever dream Good Time was one of our top films of 2017, Uncut Gems is bound to bring some­thing new to the bloat­ed crime genre. The film stars Lakei­th Stan­field, Judd Hirsch and Adam San­dler in anoth­er seri­ous role.

Eta 20 December

If some­one were to cre­ate an algo­rithm for a suc­cess­ful cin­e­mat­ic musi­cal, ​‘Tom Hoop­er’ and ​‘Cats’ would sure­ly be the first key­words inputted. The Les Mis direc­tor has embraced the para­ble of the Jel­li­cles and Heav­en­side Lay­er for his next project, forc­ing Idris Elba, Sir Ian McK­ellen and Judi Dench into a feline fren­zy that will stay true to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s original.

Eta 15 March

Get Out was not so much a social­ly-con­scious hor­ror as it was a major cul­tur­al event, even shat­ter­ing the genre-igno­rant Acad­e­my to win Best Orig­i­nal Screen­play. Jor­dan Peele’s sec­ond fea­ture is there­fore unmiss­able. Along­side Lupi­ta Nyong’o and Win­ston Duke, Elis­a­beth Moss, Anna Diop and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II star in this haunt­ing thriller about a couple’s beach­side get­away being inter­rupt­ed by some unin­vit­ed guests.

Eta 5 April

Jacques Audiard’s star-stud­ded west­ern, based on Patrick deWitt’s acclaimed 2011 nov­el, made waves at the Venice and Toron­to Film Fes­ti­vals in 2018. The film tracks the mishaps of the triv­ial­ly-named assas­sins, played by Joaquin Phoenix and John C Reil­ly, as they hunt down Riz Ahmed’s gold prospec­tor – with Jake Gyl­len­haal not far behind.

Eta 28 June

In the wake of his depar­ture from Bond 25, Dan­ny Boyle is return­ing to safer ground for his next direc­to­r­i­al effort. Penned by Four Wed­dings and a Funer­al and Love Actu­al­ly writer Richard Cur­tis, this as-yet unti­tled project fol­lows a song­writer who dis­cov­ers that he is the only per­son in the world to remem­ber the Bea­t­les fol­low­ing a sud­den bout of glob­al amne­sia. Lily James and Ana de Armas also star.

Eta TBA

Set in the world of high art, and see­ing to amp up the ani­mos­i­ty between artists and col­lec­tors, this is Dan Gilroy’s lat­est explo­ration into the dark­est nooks of the human psy­che. The Night­crawler direc­tor reunites with Jake Gyl­len­haal and Rene Rus­so for a bit­ing cri­tique of the increas­ing­ly-com­mer­cial art world.

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Adapt­ed from Don­na Tartt’s 2013 nov­el and adapt­ed for the screen by Peter Straugh­an (Frank, Tin­ker Tai­lor Sol­dier Spy), The Goldfinch sees direc­tor John Crow­ley team up with Nicole Kid­man, Sarah Paul­son and Jef­frey Wright for what looks to be an emo­tion­al­ly rich dra­ma. Crow­ley pre­vi­ous­ly impressed with 2015’s Brook­lyn.

Eta TBA

On an island where time has lost all mean­ing, two chil­dren must fight to secure their longterm hap­pi­ness. Benh Zeitlin’s sec­ond fea­ture treads in the paw-prints of 2012’s Beasts of the South­ern Wild, merg­ing fan­ta­sy with human dra­ma. The promis­ing young direc­tor has once again opt­ed to cast unknown child actors.

Eta TBA

The colour­ful mind behind Hunt for the Wilder­peo­ple and Thor: Rag­narok has lined up an adap­ta­tion of Chris­tine Leunens’ book ​‘Caging Skies’ for his next project. It sees Tai­ka Wait­i­ti him­self play Adolf Hitler, here an imag­i­nary friend to a Hitler Youth mem­ber who dis­cov­ers that his moth­er (Scar­lett Johans­son) is shel­ter­ing a Jew­ish girl.

Eta 31 May

If last year’s Ram­page didn’t quite scratch your mon­ster-sized itch, then the next instal­ment in Legendary’s Mon­ster­Verse promis­es to do just that. Pit­ting Godzil­la against Moth­ra and King Ghi­do­rah, Michael Dougherty’s block­buster stars Vera Farmi­ga, Charles Dance and Mil­lie Bob­by Brown. With Godzil­la vs Kong arriv­ing in 2020, we’re expect­ing big things from this one.

Eta 1 November

Fol­low­ing the won­der­ful 2018 doc­u­men­tary Won’t You Be My Neigh­bor?, this till unti­tled biopic stars Tom Han­ks as Amer­i­can TV per­son­al­i­ty Fred Rogers. Marielle Heller assumes direc­to­r­i­al duties, hav­ing recent­ly helmed Can You Ever For­give Me? to huge acclaim. This true-life sto­ry couldn’t be in safer hands.

Eta 4 Oct

After the deba­cle of Sui­cide Squad and Jus­tice League and par­tial redemp­tion of Won­der Woman and Aqua­man, Todd Phillips plans to set the DCEU on the right course with this Jok­er ori­gin sto­ry. Ear­ly glimpses of Joaquin Phoenix as the tit­u­lar antag­o­nist sug­gest that Jok­er will avoid the schlock­i­ness and cheap fan ser­vice of pre­vi­ous DC offerings.

Eta 15 February

Hav­ing med­dled with aliens on the streets of South Lon­don, Joe Cor­nish final­ly returns after a sev­en-year hia­tus with his fol­low-up, The Kid Who Would Be King. In what looks like a cross between King Arthur and The Goonies, young Alex (played by Louis ​“Son of Andy” Serkis) acci­den­tal­ly pulls a sword from a stone, lead­ing to a leg­endary clash with Rebec­ca Ferguson’s vil­lain­ous Morgana.

Eta 21 June

If the finale to Toy Sto­ry 3 didn’t leave you a blub­ber­ing mess, Pixar are giv­ing it anoth­er go by reunit­ing Woody and the gang for a road trip with a new cast mem­ber, Forky. Josh Coo­ley directs this lat­est tale of children’s toys find­ing their place in the world, with Kee­gan-Michael Key and Jor­dan Peele adding their vocal tal­ent to the mix.

Eta 20 September

Straight Out­ta Comp­ton writer Andrea Berloff marks her direc­to­r­i­al debut with this ensem­ble crime thriller cen­tring on the wives of Hell’s Kitchen’s mean­est gang­sters. Melis­sa McCarthy, Tiffany Had­dish and Elis­a­beth Moss head up what sounds like a ​’70s-set answer to Steve McQueen’s recent Wid­ows.

Eta TBA

If The Last Jedi proved any­thing, it’s that Rian John­son isn’t one to play it safe. The director’s home­spun take on an Agatha Christie-esque who­dunit serves as a wel­come coun­ter­point to Ken­neth Branagh’s more faith­ful Mur­der on the Ori­ent Express – and it’s equal­ly stacked with tal­ent, includ­ing Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Michael Shan­non and Ana de Armas.

Eta TBA

It’s fair to say that The Big Lebows­ki has amassed a healthy cult fol­low­ing since its release 20 years ago, even spawn­ing its own reli­gion, Dudeism. With Going Places, actor and some­time direc­tor John Tur­tur­ro focus­es on the life and times of the Dude’s bowl­ing adver­sary, Jesus Quin­tana. With Bob­by Can­navale and Susan Saran­don attached, Lebows­ki fans can rejoice – your church is about to get a whole lot bigger.

Eta TBA

Robert Eggers turned heads in 2015 with his crit­i­cal­ly-laud­ed folk hor­ror The Witch, and he’s return­ing this year with a mys­tery about an age­ing light­house keep­er, apt­ly named Old (Willem Dafoe). Shot in black-and-white on 35mm film, The Light­house sounds like anoth­er unnerv­ing vision from this up-and-com­ing director.

Read part one of our 2019 pre­view here