#BizTrends2019: 2019 at the movies

In tribute to the creator of worlds

On 13 November 2018, we lost the great Stan Lee, the man who gave us iconic comic book characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, and Black Panther. In tribute to this storytelling icon, we’re going to kick off our 2019 at the movies with all the comic book goodness in store for us.

“Unbreakable, what, you thought they'd call me Mr Glass?” Are we allowed to still quote Kanye West? Anyway, we kick things off with M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass. The sequel to Unbreakable (2000) and Split (2016), making up the third part of the Unbreakable series. Bruce Willis returns as the superhero David Dunn and James McAvoy in the persona of The Beast and his other split personalities. Samuel L Jackson’s Mr Glass serves as the villain that orchestrates events. Glass hits cinemas on 18 January.

Avengers: Infinity War left many cinemagoers traumatised by Thanos’s finger snap and we need to know how the good guys will make a comeback in the sequel. From the end credits scene, we do know that Captain Marvel is going to play a part in saving the day. So while we wait for the second part of Infinity War we can get ourselves clued up on Carol Danvers’s backstory in Captain Marvel on 8 March. Then bounce right over to DC’s Captain Marvel, who can’t be called by that name, Shazam. On 5 April, we get Shazam! The comic book movie we never really asked for. But here we are and at least it means we’ll see The Rock play Black Adam’s character somewhere down the line. The Hellboy series gets a more welcome revamp with David Harbour (Stranger Things) as the Big Red Demon. The film’s coming out guns blazing with an R-rating on 12 April. We get the Infinity War sequel, for now just going by Avengers 4, on 3 May. You know, the story we’re really looking forward to.

Ah, the X-Men film series, where I have only the vaguest idea of what the timeline is. The 12^th film in the series, Dark Phoenix comes out on 7 June with Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones) reprising her role as Jean Grey and unleashing the iconic Phoenix character. Apparently, our favourite neighbourhood Spider-Man survives that whole Infinity War mess, but he’s going to make it home late for supper and poor Aunt May’s worried. Spider-Man: Far From Home comes out in theatres on 5 July. The rest of the year gives us New Mutants on 2 August and Joker on 4 October.

“Go then, there are other worlds than these . . .”

It’s always okay to quote Stephen King. There’s more to the world than just comic book movies, so let’s look into that.

Remember that amazing 2011 French film, The Intouchables? It’s a pretty great film, right? Well, now you get to see it in American as The Upside, starring Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart on 11 January. Who understands French anyway? The Lego Movie gets a sequel on 8 February and How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World gets a 22 February release.

Jordan Peele brings us another horror film on 15 March titled, well, Us. Plot details are still pretty hush-hush for now and the film stars Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, and Tim Heidecker. Tim Burton has not just been sitting around twiddling his thumbs either and 29 March sees his take on Dumbo. The film stars Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, and Eva Green.

As I said, you can never go wrong with Stephen King and Hollywood agrees. We get two movies based on his books in the form of Pet Sematary on 5 April and It Chapter Two on 6 September. Another movie that we didn’t know we want but it turns out we really do is Pokémon: Detective Pikachu! I can’t even front, you guys, I’m in. I’ll be there on 10 May to watch Pikachu solve things.

John Wick is not done killing his way through hordes of bad guys in John Wick 3: Parabellum on 17 May. Disney is still on a roll and Aladdin gets the live action treatment on 24 May; Will Smith gets the role of Genie. A living legend, Sir Elton John gets a biographical musical film based on his life in the form of Rocketman on 31 May, the same day we have Godzilla trampling a city or two in Godzilla: King of Monsters. You still have a friend in Toy Story in its fourth instalment on 21 June.

The second half of the year brings highlights such as The Lion King in its live-action format, Artemis Fowl and Frozen 2. We also get a Quentin Tarantino picture titled, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood on 26 July with the Manson Family murders of 1969 serving as a backdrop. The film stars names like Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, and Dakota Fanning. We get a Star Wars Christmas again this year with Episode IX on 20 December. JJ Abrams is back in the director’s chair in the closing chapter of the new trilogy.

That's that from me. Here’s to a great 2019 at the movies. Excelsior!