2019 | 30 Films to Look Forward to This Year – Part 2
We continue our run down of the films to look forward to in 2019. If you missed the first part of this list, read it here.
May – June
John Wick 3: Parabellum – May 17
Our favourite hitman is back once again. Following on from the events of John Wick: Chapter 2, Keanu Reeves’ legendary assassin must fight his way out of New York with a $14 million global contract out on his head.
Ad Astra – May 24
Crime thriller maestro turned prestige filmmaker James Gray (The Lost City of Z, We Own the Night) directs this sci-fi starring Brad Pitt as an astronaut who searches for his father (Tommy Lee Jones). His dad left Earth twenty years previously to look for signs of extra-terrestrial life.
Ireland’s own Ruth Negga also co-stars. While expected to be out for May 24, Gray recently in an interview with The Film Stage cast doubt on whether the movie would be finished in time.
July – August
The Dig – Jul 14
Winner of Best Irish Film at the Galway Film Fleadh, The Dig stars Black 47 and Michael Inside’s Moe Dunford as a man released from prison for a murder he can’t remember committing. He winds up forced to help his victim’s father find her body.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Jul 26
Quentin Tarantino returns this year with his most ambitious sounding movie to date. In 1969 Los Angeles, around the time of the Charles Manson murders, a TV actor (Leonardo Di Caprio) and his stunt double (Brad Pitt) embark on an odyssey to make a name for themselves in the film industry. They are neighbours to actress Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie).
Also in the large ensemble cast is Al Pacino, Bruce Dern, Dakota Fanning, Damian Lewis, Scoot McNairy. To learn more about the film, DP Robert Richardson teased some details about the project to Collider.
Midsommar – August
Writer-director Ari Aster’s follow-up to last year’s critical darling Hereditary, Midsommar centres on a couple who travel to Sweden to visit their friend’s rural hometown for its fabled mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.
Florence Pugh, Will Poulter and the Irish Jack Reynor play the three leads. An Irish release date has not been set but Midsommar’s US release date is August 9 so one can expect it around then.
September – October
The Woman in the Window – Sep 27
Joe Wright (Hanna, The Darkest Hour) directs this script from Tracy Letts (Killer Joe) about an agoraphobic woman living alone in New York who begins spying on her new neighbors only to witness a disturbing act of violence. Amy Adams, Julianne Moore and Gary Oldman are the stars.
The Kitchen – September
Straight Outta Compton scribe Andrea Berloff makes her directorial debut with this crime-comedy drama about the wives of New York gangsters in 1970’s Hell’s Kitchen. They continue to operate their husbands’ rackets after their spouses are imprisoned. Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and Elizabeth Moss play the leads while Domhnall Gleeson features as an intense Vietnam vet/hitman. Like Midsommar, this does not have an Irish release date but is out in America September 20.
Gemini Man – Oct 4
Ang Lee directs this sci-fi revolving around an aging assassin (Will Smith) seeking to exit his career but finding himself up against a younger clone of himself, who can predict his every move.
Joker – Oct 4
The Hangover’s Todd Phillips writes and directs this new origin for the classic DC character. Joaquin Phoenix stars supported by Robert De Niro and Zazie Beetz.
November – December
Knives Out – Nov 24
Plot details for this whodunit murder mystery are being kept under wraps. However, given its the latest from Rian Johnson (The Last Jedi, Looper) and the stacked cast (Chris Evans, Christopher Plummer, Daniel Craig, Don Johnson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Lakeith Stanfield, Michael Shannon and Toni Collette), this had to make the list.
Star Wars: Episode IX – Dec 19
As of yet untitled, the finale to the Star Wars sequel trilogy will be helmed by The Force Awakens‘ writer-director JJ Abrams
No release dates yet
Float Like a Butterfly
Winner of an Independent Film Award at TIFF 2018 as well as the Audience Award at Cork Film Festival last year, we would be shocked if this does not get an Irish cinema release. Hazel Doupe plays a 15-year-old Traveller. Inspired by her idol Muhammad Ali, she wants to box but her ex-convict father has other plans for her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX_OC9N_ERk
The Irishman
The most expensive movie of Martin Scorsese’s career, this Netflix gangster drama teams the legendary filmmaker back with Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, along with Al Pacino. It centres on Frank Sheeran (De Niro), a labor union official with mob connections, recalling his involvement in the slaying of Jimmy Hoffa, (Pacino) an American labor union leader and criminal.
Despite going over budget thanks to the visual effects needed to make its older cast appear up to 30 years younger at various points throughout the film, Netflix hope to have this out sometime in 2019.
The Nightingale
Jennifer Kent’s follow-up to 2014’s The Babadook is expected to come out here this year. Set in 1825, The Fall’s Aisling Franciosi plays a young Irish convict woman who chases a British officer through the rugged Tasmanian wilderness, bent on revenge for a terrible act of violence he committed against her family.
