It’s hard to predict which films we’ll be talking about this time next year, since 2019’s buzziest “prestige” films won’t emerge until the major festivals (like Sundance in January, Cannes in May, and Venice, Telluride, and Toronto in September). But even so, it’s clear that Hollywood is in a strong position to repeat its record-busting 2018, with a queue of upcoming 2019 releases that includes the next Avengers film; standalone movies about Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, and the Joker; two X-Men films; a Fast & Furious spinoff; three live-action remakes of beloved Disney animated films; sequels to Toy Story, Men in Black, and Frozen; biopics of Fred Rogers and Elton John; and movies from beloved directors like Jordan Peele (of Get Out), Greta Gerwig (of Ladybird), and M. Night Shyamalan (of Unbreakable and Split).
We’re even getting a detective noir flick starring Pikachu.
Here’s to another banner year at the movies — here are 65 films to look forward to, including all of the above and a lot more.
January
Glass (January 18)
Glass completes a trilogy for director M. Night Shyamalan, along with 2000’s Unbreakable and 2017’s Split. In the new installment, David Dunn (Bruce Willis) and Elijah Price, a.k.a. Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson), both from Unbreakable, find themselves entangled with the Beast, the most aggressive of Kevin Wendell Crumb’s (James McAvoy) personalities. Anya Taylor-Joy also returns as Casey Cooke, who survived her encounter with the Beast.
The Kid Who Would Be King (January 25)
In The Kid Who Would Be King, a young boy who’s bullied at school finds himself in an unexpected position when he pulls King Arthur’s sword Excalibur from a stone. The film, written and directed by Joe Cornish (Ant-Man, Attack the Block), stars Louis Ashbourne Serkis (son of Andy Serkis) alongside Tom Taylor, Rebecca Ferguson, and Patrick Stewart.
February
Arctic (February 1)
Arctic is a stark man-against-nature film that premiered at Cannes in May 2018. Starring Mads Mikkelsen as a resourceful man stranded in the Arctic wilderness, Arctic doesn’t employ too many fancy tricks or frills: It’s just a simple, straight-ahead survival drama that lets Mikkelsen showcase his considerable acting chops, leaving viewers as impressed with his stamina as we are with his character’s.
What Men Want (February 8)
What Men Want inverts Nancy Meyers’s 2000 rom-com classic What Women Want, which starred Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. In this version, sports agent Ali Davis (Taraji P. Henson) suddenly finds herself with the ability to hear what men are thinking — and uses the superpower to get ahead of her male colleagues.
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (February 8)
As the subtitle suggests, this is a sequel to 2014’s The Lego Movie, in which Lego Duplo invaders threaten Bricksburg’s way of life. Emmet (Chris Pratt), Lucy (Elizabeth Banks), Batman (Will Arnett), Superman (Channing Tatum), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), and others must help save the world. The film adds new voices to its returning cast, too: Tiffany Haddish, Maya Rudolph, and Stephanie Beatriz also star.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (February 22)
In the third installment of the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) has finally become chief and can at last create his peaceful, dragon-friendly community. His dragon Toothless is lured by the charms of another, very attractive dragon. But when their community is threatened, Hiccup and Toothless must embark on a dangerous journey in order to protect their beloved home. Cate Blanchett, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Kit Harington, F. Murray Abraham, Gerard Butler, and Kristen Wiig also lend their voices to the film.
March
Greta (March 1)
This truly wild movie, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall, stars Chloë Grace Moretz and Isabelle Huppert in a twisted cat-and-mouse game that’s part Victorian-style horror, part psychosexual madness. It’s a weird and disturbing tale of a naive young woman who befriends an older woman she meets on the subway, only to find herself being stalked.
Climax (March 1)
Even some critics who don’t love director Gaspar Noé’s characteristically provocative movie pyrotechnics (his last film, Love, released in 3D, sparked arguments over whether it was just straight-up porn) were taken in by Climax at Cannes last May, where the film ultimately took home the top prize in the Directors’ Fortnight competition. It centers on a group of hip-hop dancers who, following an intense performance, discover that someone has spiked their sangria with LSD. The film then becomes a terrible drug trip that will leave audiences reeling, and some applauding.
Captain Marvel (March 8)
Brie Larson is Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel, and she’s here to save the day. Set in the 1990s, the character’s first solo film fleshes out the backstory of Captain Marvel, who will play a critical role in the Avengers’ fight against Thanos in April’s Avengers: Endgame. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the indie husband-and-wife directing team who made films like Half Nelson and Mississippi Grind, are at the helm.
Us (March 15)
For his follow-up to Get Out, Jordan Peele has made Us, a terrifying-looking horror film starring Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, and Tim Heidecker on a beach vacation gone very wrong. It’s a monster story that also appears to combine tropes from home invasion horror and the age-old trope of the doppelgänger.
Where’d You Go, Bernadette (March 22)
Based on Maria Semple’s best-selling 2012 novel of the same name, Where’d You Go, Bernadette stars Emma Nelson as Bee Branch, a 15-year-old girl whose mother, Bernadette (Cate Blanchett), disappears right before a family vacation. Bee starts investigating, uncovering secrets about her mother’s past in the process. Richard Linklater (Boyhood, Before Sunrise) co-wrote and directed the film, which also stars Kristen Wiig, Judy Greer, Laurence Fishburne, and Billy Crudup.
Dumbo (March 29)
Disney is really getting into the “live action” business, particularly after the runaway success of 2017’s Beauty and the Beast; Dumbo is one of several such movies this year based on classic animated Disney properties (the other two are The Lion King and Aladdin). The always-fantastical Tim Burton helms Dumbo, which stars Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Eva Green, and Alan Arkin.
Her Smell (March 29)
In Her Smell, Elisabeth Moss is mesmerizing whirling dervish Becky Something, the strung-out lead singer of a ’90s girl-punk group called Something She. Shot in long, kinetic scenes, the film chronicles Becky’s lowest point and slow climb out of addiction and despair. It’s thrilling, funny, and heartbreaking, with an unforgettable performance by Moss.
April
Pet Sematary (April 5)
Based on Stephen King’s 1983 horror novel, Pet Sematary is the harrowing tale of a doctor (Jason Clarke) and his wife (Amy Seimetz) who move from Boston to rural Maine and discover a burial ground in the woods behind their house. Their elderly neighbor (John Lithgow) becomes a friend of the family and warns them away from the cemetery. But tragic events set in motion an evil that’s beyond what they ever could have imagined.
The Best of Enemies (April 5)
Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell star in The Best of Enemies, based on true events that took place in the early 1970s in Durham, North Carolina. Henson plays Ann Atwater, a civil rights activist, and Rockwell plays Ku Klux Klan leader C.P. Ellis. The two were fierce enemies but co-chaired a two-week community meeting when courts ordered that Durham’s schools be desegregated. The results had far-reaching repercussions both socially and personally.
Peterloo (April 5)
In Peterloo, Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky, Another Year) chronicles the events of Britain’s Peterloo Massacre, which occurred 200 years ago, in 1819. On August 16 of that year, about 60,000 citizens from the greater Manchester area gathered peacefully to demand reform in Parliament, as well as expanded voting rights — but armed government militias charged on the crowd, killing about 15 people and wounding 700 others. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival last fall and stars Rory Kinnear, Maxine Peake, and Pearce Quigley.
Hellboy (April 12)
Hellboy is an R-rated reboot of the 2004 original, starring Stranger Things’ David Harbour as Hellboy, a powerful demon working for the governmental organization known as the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, who must stop the sorceress Nimue (Milla Jovovich). Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim, and Thomas Haden Church also star in what’s been touted as a much grittier film than the previous version, which starred Ron Perlman.
Missing Link (April 12)
The animation geniuses at Laika (Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings) return with Missing Link, the tale of an adventurer named Sir Lionel Frost (Hugh Jackman) who sets off on an expedition to prove the existence of a legendary creature known as Mr. Link (Zach Galifianakis). Frost is accompanied on his travels by another adventurer, Adelina Fortnight (Zoe Saldana). Timothy Olyphant and Emma Thompson also lend their voices to the project.
Under the Silver Lake (April 19)
Under the Silver Lake is a twisted postmodern neo-noir that’s set in contemporary Los Angeles but folds itself back onto classic Hollywood tropes. The film — from It Follows director David Robert Mitchell — stars Andrew Garfield as a hapless, aimless hipster who finds himself investigating the disappearance of a Marilyn Monroe-styled girl next door (played by Riley Keough). It’s blatantly knowing in how it recycles the tropes that Hollywood has pressed on its women characters, but it poses the possibility that pop culture is all recycling anyhow and there might not be any way out of that. It’s cheerily pessimistic and imaginative all at once.
Avengers: Endgame (April 26)
The Avengers are back again, after the destruction wrought by Thanos upon the human race at the end of 2018’s Infinity War, with the Russo brothers returning to direct once again. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is stuck in space, and Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Captain America (Chris Evans), and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) are planning a huge attack on Thanos, after many of their friends and allies were swept away. Things are dire, in other words. And it might be up to Captain Marvel to save the day.
May
Pokémon Detective Pikachu (May 10)
I sort of can’t believe this movie is real, but, well, here we are. Detective Pikachu looks like it takes some cues from hardboiled detective noir to tell the story of a young man named Tim (Justice Smith) who teams up with Pikachu (voiced by Ryan Reynolds), who … is a detective … to solve the mystery of Tim’s father’s disappearance and uncover a threat to the wider world of Pokémon. From the trailer, the film looks lighthearted and spunky, and given the long-running success of Pokémon toys, games, and entertainment, it should be a huge hit.
John Wick: Chapter 3 (May 17)
Keanu Reeves is back as the haunted hit man John Wick in the third installment of the fan-favorite action franchise. In this one, he’s on the run, the target of a number of trained assassins following his killing of a member of the High Table, the council of crime bosses who control the world’s most powerful criminal organizations. Halle Berry, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, Laurence Fishburne, Anjelica Huston, and, delightfully, Jason Mantzoukas also star.
Aladdin (May 24)
The first look at the costumes for Disney’s new live-action Aladdin seemed a bit less promising than many had hoped. But interest in the film still runs high, especially since it’s being directed by Guy Ritchie, whose hard-edged caper sensibility — developed in films like Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (along with the recent Robert Downey Jr.-starring Sherlock Holmes films) — seems like an intriguing fit for the material.
Ad Astra (May 24)
Director James Gray’s previous movie was The Lost City of Z, in which Charlie Hunnam played an early-20th-century explorer headed to the farthest reaches of the Amazon. Now he’s turned his gaze upward for Ad Astra, in which Brad Pitt plays an astronaut who must travel to the outer reaches of space to find his missing father. It’s a vaguely Interstellar-sounding plot, which Gray co-wrote with Ethan Gross, who worked as a writer and story editor on the sci-fi TV series Fringe.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (May 31)
Kyle Chandler, Sally Hawkins, Vera Farmiga, and Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown lead the cast of this sequel to 2014’s Godzilla, which earned praise for reimagining the classic story in ways that bucked the convention of the monster blockbuster. This installment adds a few more god-sized beasts to the mix, and humanity is threatened once again.
Rocketman (May 31)
Dexter Fletcher (who replaced Bryan Singer as director of the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody after Singer was fired) takes the helm of this Elton John biopic, starring Taron Egerton as the singer. Jamie Bell, Richard Madden, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Gemma Jones also star. And if the runaway success of Bohemian Rhapsody due to massive fan interest is any indication, Rocketman will hit big at the box office too.
June
X-Men: Dark Phoenix (June 7)
Dark Phoenix is the 12th movie in the X-Men universe and a sequel to 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse, and it’s based on the “Dark Phoenix Saga.” In this installment, set a decade after Apocalypse, the X-Men travel to space for a rescue mission. But when they’re hit with a solar flare, Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) loses control and unleashes her darker side, the Phoenix. And her companions must face her wrath.
The Secret Life of Pets 2 (June 7)
For The Secret Life of Pets 2, Patton Oswalt replaces Louis C.K. as the voice of lovable Jack Russell terrier Max, who stole hearts in the 2016 animated film that chronicled the capers pets get into while their owners are away for the day. (It’s like Toy Story, but with dogs and cats and rabbits and so on.) Kevin Hart, Eric Stonestreet, Jenny Slate, Ellie Kemper, Lake Bell, Dana Carvey, Hannibal Buress, and Bobby Moynihan all return for this sequel, with new additions Tiffany Haddish, Nick Kroll, Pete Holmes, and Harrison Ford.
Men in Black: International (June 16)
The Men in Black are back again in this spinoff of the original series, which premiered in 1997 and starred Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. This time around, Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson headline as London-based MIB agents who must save the universe from the latest threat of aliens. Liam Neeson, Rebecca Ferguson, Kumail Nanjiani, Rafe Spall, and Emma Thompson also star.
Toy Story 4 (June 21)
It turns out the story wasn’t over with 2010’s Toy Story 3, so Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), Jessie (Joan Cusack), and the gang are back for another adventure. Having moved from being Andy’s toys to being Bonnie’s, all is well for the gang, until suddenly a new guy named “Forky” shows up. (He’s a semi-mangled plastic fork.) Hilarity, we must assume, ensues.
Ford v. Ferrari (June 28)
James Mangold (Logan) directs a cast led by Christian Bale and Matt Damon, who play automotive designer Carroll Shelby and driver Ken Miles in this retelling of a true story about a team of engineers and enthusiasts trying to create a car from scratch that can beat the Ferrari at the 1966 Le Mans race in France. Catriona Balfe, Noah Jupe, Jon Bernthal, Josh Lucas, and Tracy Letts also star.
July
Spider-Man: Far From Home (July 5)
There’s sort of a spoiler built into the very existence of this movie, so you may want to skip past this blurb if you’d like to avoid Marvel spoilers. But …
Spider-Man: Far From Home is set following the events of April’s Avengers: Endgame, which presumably means that Thanos’s Infinity War attempt to wipe out Peter Parker (Tom Holland), at minimum, was not successful. In this film, Peter and some of his buddies go on summer vacation to Europe. But there’s no true vacation for a Spider-Man.
The Lion King (July 19)
The third of Disney’s live-action remakes for 2019 takes on The Lion King in what’s being billed as a “photorealistic” computer animation, much like director Joh Favreau’s previous effort for Disney, 2016’s The Jungle Book. The voice cast includes Beyoncé, Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Billy Eichner, John Oliver, Keegan-Michael Key, and James Earl Jones. Four songs from the 1994 animated film are slated to return, reworked by Elton John and Beyoncé.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (July 26)
Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film tackles the Manson Family murders. The real story is gruesome enough, of course, and in Tarantino’s hands, it seems unlikely to get any tamer. The story centers on Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), an actor struggling to transition from TV to movies around the time of the killings, and his longtime stunt double (Brad Pitt). An all-star cast, including Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate, Damian Lewis as Steve McQueen, and Emile Hirsch as Jay Sebring, fills out the film.
August
Hobbs and Shaw (August 2)
This Fast & Furious spinoff is rumored to be the source of the feud between Vin Diesel and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, but it’s also a movie about Luke Hobbs (Johnson), who has to form an alliance with mercenary Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham). Vanessa Kirby, Eiza González, Idris Elba, and Eddie Marsan also star.
The New Mutants (August 2)
We get not one but two X-Men movies this year, with the aforementioned Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants. The latter is the 13th X-Men film, directed by Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars), and it’s being billed as a horror film as well: Five young mutants, imprisoned in a secret facility, discover their powers and try to escape. The cast is led by The Witch’s Anya Taylor-Joy, Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams, Stranger Things’ Charlie Heaton, Teen Wolf’s Henry Zaga, and The Originals’ Blu Hunt.
Artemis Fowl (August 9)
Kenneth Branagh directs this adaptation of the first two of Eoin Colfer’s best-selling novels, Artemis Fowl and Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident, which tell the story of a 12-year-old criminal mastermind who kidnaps a fairy to collect ransom and restore his family fortune. Newcomer Ferdia Shaw stars alongside Hong Chau, Judi Dench, and Josh Gad.
Midsommar (August 9)
Hereditary scared the pants off moviegoers last summer, and now director Ari Aster is back with a new project that we don’t know much about. It’s sure to be terrifying, though, as Florence Pugh, Will Poulter, Jack Reynor, and The Good Place’s William Jackson Harper star in a story about a young woman who goes on a summer trip that goes off the rails.
Grudge (August 16)
Based on the 2003 Japanese film Ju-on: The Grudge, this psychological horror tale is the story of a house cursed and haunted by a vengeful ghost. It’s director Nicolas Pesce’s follow-up to his inventive, uncanny, and disturbing 2016 horror film The Eyes of My Mother, and Jacki Weaver, John Cho, Andrea Riseborough, Demian Bichir, and Lin Shaye co-star.
September (4)
It: Chapter 2 (September 6)
The kids of the hit 2017 film It, based on Stephen King’s novel, are now grown up and still grappling with the terrors that haunted them as children. Argentine horror director Andrés Muschietti returns as director, and Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, James McAvoy, and Bill Skarsgård star.
Untitled Danny Boyle/Richard Curtis Project (September 13)
There’s very little information available about this project at the moment, but a movie from a team composed of Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Sunshine) and Richard Curtis (Love Actually, About Time, Notting Hill) sounds absolutely fascinating. Lily James, Kate McKinnon, Ana de Armas, Ed Sheeran, and more are set to star in a story about a musician who realizes he’s the only person on earth who remembers the Beatles.
Downton Abbey (September 20)
Fans of Downton Abbey rejoiced when it was announced that the characters from the beloved TV show — and the grand house itself — would return for a feature film this fall. The movie presumably will pick up sometime after the show’s last episode, which aired in 2015. Nobody knows what it will be about, but there will probably be some intrigue, romance, and heartbreak. It’s Downton Abbey, after all.
The Kitchen (September 20)
In what sounds suspiciously like a comedic take-off of 2018’s Widows, The Kitchen stars Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss as the wives of mobsters who take over their husbands’ operation after the husbands are arrested by the FBI. Set in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood in the 1970s, the film is the directorial debut of Straight Outta Compton co-writer Andrea Berloff.
October
Zombieland 2 (October TBD)
It’s been a decade since the first Zombieland, and it turns out the undead have evolved. So Wichita (Emma Stone), Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), and Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) must evolve how they live too, unless they want to turn up dead. (Or undead.) Bill Murray returns as himself, Dan Aykroyd joins him, and Zoey Deutch also stars.
Gemini Man (October 4)
Ang Lee’s next film is a big-budget science fiction action thriller about an assassin who’s trying to escape a younger clone of himself. Will Smith stars alongside Clive Owen, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Benedict Wong.
Joker (October 4)
The Joker gets a standalone film in the Warner Bros. DC Extended Universe, with the title character played by Joaquin Phoenix — which feels like good casting even if the idea of a character study of a villain who is terrifying precisely because he seems to have come from nowhere is a bit dubious. In this telling, he’s a failed standup comedian, which sounds pretty chilling all on its own. Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Bill Camp, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, and Marc Maron also star.
The Goldfinch (October 11)
Based on Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2014 novel, The Goldfinch tells the life story of Theodore Decker (Ansel Elgort), who survives a terrorist attack on the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a boy and, eventually, grows up and gets himself entangled in the world of art forgeries. Jeffrey Wright, Luke Wilson, Nicole Kidman, and Sarah Paulson also star in the film directed by John Crowley (Brooklyn).
The Addams Family (October 11)
America’s favorite macabre clan is getting the animated treatment from directors Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan (Sausage Party). In this story, the family ends up in a feud with a reality TV producer while also preparing for a visit from out-of-town relatives. Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloë Grace Moretz, Finn Wolfhard, Nick Kroll, Bette Midler, and Allison Janney lend their voices to the project.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (October 18)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13666079/beautifulday.jpg)
TriStar PicturesFollowing the runaway success of the 2018 documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor, about Fred Rogers — that is, Mister Rogers — Tom Hanks stars as the kindly children’s TV star in a biopic directed by Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me?). Matthew Rhys plays Lloyd Vogel, an Esquire journalist assigned to profile Rogers. Chris Cooper also stars.
Note: As you’ll undoubtedly notice below, there are few details and images about the movies slated for release near the end of the year, but there are still enough interesting tidbits whet the appetite.
November
Untitled Terminator Reboot (November 1)
There’s a new Terminator movie on the horizon — and this one’s a reboot, not a sequel. It’s not entirely clear how that will work, since Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton are both reprising their roles as the Terminator and Sarah Connor. The plot is still being kept under wraps; Mackenzie Davis is also set to star.
Charlie’s Angels (November 1)
Elizabeth Banks directs a new reboot of the much-rebooted franchise from the 1970s, starring Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, Ella Balinska, Banks, Patrick Stewart, and Djimon Hounsou. The plot has not yet been disclosed, but we can probably expect some ass-kicking.
Kingsman 3 (November 8)
Next to nothing is known about the upcoming third installment in the Kingsman franchise, but if you’ve seen the 2014 and 2017 films, then you know we’re in for a darkly funny, occasionally violent good time.
Sonic the Hedgehog (November 15)
Not to be outdone by Disney’s live-action efforts, Sega’s video game character Sonic the Hedgehog is getting a live-action remake of his own. Ben Schwartz voices Sonic, Jim Carrey voices his nemesis, Dr. Robotnik, and James Marsden voices a sheriff named Tom Wachowski who travels to San Francisco to help Sonic in his battle against Robotnik.
Margie Claus (November 15)
Melissa McCarthy has a Christmas movie this year, playing Santa’s wife, who must save Christmas when Santa goes missing. She’ll once again be directed by her husband Ben Falcone, with whom she’s previously worked on projects like Tammy and The Boss.
Frozen 2 (November 27)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2513704/frozen_wide.0.jpg)
DisneyIt’s a sequel to Frozen. Need I say more?
Knives Out (November 27)
Between Star Wars projects — The Last Jedi and his upcoming standalone trilogy — director Rian Johnson decided to make a quick little film with some friends. The result is Knives Out, a “modern murder mystery in a whodunnit style,” which is a great fit for a director who broke out with Brick, an old-school noir mystery set in a contemporary California high school. Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, and Chris Evans star.
December
Untitled Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Sequel (December 13)
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle turned out to be one of the surprise hits of 2017, and its follow-up reunites the same cast — including Karen Gillan, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and The Rock — with a few new faces, including Awkwafina.
Cats (December 20)
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical is getting the big-screen treatment, directed by Tom Hooper, who also directed the 2012 film adaptation of Les Misérables that won Anne Hathaway a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Questions abound: Will they wear cat suits? Will there be new songs? Will it measure up to people’s memories of the Broadway show? But the cast is absurdly stacked: Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift, James Corden, Ian McKellen, Laurie Davidson, Idris Elba, Judi Dench, Rebel Wilson, and more.
Star Wars: Episode IX (December 20)
J.J. Abrams returns for the final installment of the third Star Wars trilogy. The plot, details, and subtitle are yet to be announced, but Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, and John Boyega will almost certainly be back. And maybe Mark Hamill too?
Little Women (December 25)
Greta Gerwig is following her beloved 2017 film Lady Bird with an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel Little Women. Fans of the 1994 version starring Winona Ryder may raise an eyebrow, but Gerwig’s cast has won over most skeptics, with Saoirse Ronan as Jo, Emma Watson as Meg, Florence Pugh as Amy, Eliza Scanlen as Beth, Meryl Streep as Aunt March, Laura Dern as Marmee, and Timothée Chalamet as Laurie.
TBD
The Irishman (TBD)
Netflix spent an extraordinary amount of money — more than $140 million — on Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, which, in true-to-Scorsese fashion, is still awaiting a release date (though it will most likely debut on the film festival circuit this fall). With a cast that reads like a Scorsese greatest hits compilation — Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino, Harvey Keitel, and Bobby Cannavale, among others — it’s a tale of crime families and mob bosses, including the man who says he killed Jimmy Hoffa.
Jojo Rabbit (TBD)
Following his Thor installments, director Taika Waititi returns with Jojo Rabbit, a dark comedy about a young boy in Nazi Germany and his imaginary friend, a rabbit. Waititi stars alongside Roman Griffin Davis, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson, and Leave No Trace breakout star Thomasin McKenzie.
The Last Thing He Wanted (TBD)
Dee Rees, who directed the marvelous and overlooked Mudbound in 2017, adapts Joan Didion’s 1996 novel about a reporter who quits her job at the Washington Post during the 1984 presidential elections to care for an ailing father. Ben Affleck, Anne Hathaway, and Willem Dafoe star.
The Lighthouse (TBD)
Robert Eggers, whose debut feature The Witch was a breakout hit at Sundance in 2015, returns with a black-and-white fantasy horror film starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson. The film is being described as “a fantasy horror story set in the world of old sea-faring myths.” Chills!
Parasite (TBD)
Korean director Bong Joon-ho is back after 2017’s Okja with a family drama that sounds a lot like his 2006 film The Host. It’s a story about two families who have nothing to do with one another — or do they? Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Chang Hye Jin, Cho Yeo-Jeong Cho, Choi Woo-sik, and Park So-dam star.
Author: Alissa Wilkinson
Read More
