6. Downton Abbey (September 20th)
It’s been three years since “Downton Abbey” closed its gates after a five-year run on ITV, but fans are still longing for a continuation to Julian Fellowes’ period drama. When the news of a “Downton Abbey” film broke out back in 2018’s summer, they couldn’t be more happier.
Despite the declining quality in its final seasons, when it became maybe too much of a soap opera, “Downton Abbey” was at its best a superb series which really captured the post-Edwardian life of the British aristocracy and benefited of a stellar cast which included among others Dame Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville and Penelope Wilton.
Most of the original cast (including Smith in her first on-screen role since 2015’s “The Lady in the Van”) are set to return for this 2019 feature film continuation of the series. Along them come new cast members including Imelda Staunton and Geraldine James. Details on the film’s plot are pretty much remaining shrouded. A reserved teaser trailer was released a few weeks ago and so far we only know that it will be bigger in scale than the television series and that it will be set one year and a half after its finale. We really hope that this will turn out to be a new “Gosford Park” or even better.
7. The Woman in the Window (October 4th)
After 2017’s “Darkest Hour”, which earned Gary Oldman a Best Actor Academy Award, director Joe Wright teams once again with Oldman, but also brings along Amy Adams, Julianne Moore and Wyatt Russell for his upcoming thriller film based on A.J. Finn’s novel of the same name.
“The Woman in the Window” will follow Anna Fox (Amy Adams), an alcoholic child psychologist who witnesses a crime while spying on her neighboring family (played by Oldman and Moore), but is not taken seriously by the police and begins to doubt what she saw.
We are really looking forward to this film. Joe Wright has proven to be a very capable director (“Atonement” and “Pride and Prejudice” come to mind) and a cast comprising of Amy Adams, Gary Oldman and Julianne Moore can only mean good things.
8. The Goldfinch (October 11th)
In 2014, Donna Tartt’s novel about an adolescent who survives a terrorist attack at an art museum and is left without his mother, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and praised by critics for its riveting story and its vivid characters so we are really excited to see how the film adaptation will turn out.
“The Goldfinch” is directed by John Crowley, whose 2015 movie “Brooklyn” was nominated for three Academy Awards and won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film and will star Ansel Elgort as the film’s protagonist. Nicole Kidman, Sarah Paulson and Denis O’Hare are also starring in supporting roles.
9. Little Women (December 25th)Greta Gerwig’s follow-up to “Lady Bird” will feature an impressive cast which includes Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Timothée Chalamet, Meryl Streep, Laura Dern, Chris Cooper and Bob Odenkirk (we’ve told you it’s impressive).
The movie will tell the coming-of-age story of four sisters in the post-Civil War America and is the 8th film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 classic novel of the same name. A trailer is yet to be released but with its talented cast, rich source material and Greta Gerwig’s helm, “Little Women” already ranks among our most expected films of 2019.
10. The Irishman (TBA)
What happens when you take a director like Martin Scorsese, you add a cast consisting of Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Harvey Keitel and you even manage to get Joe Pesci out of retirement? Well, you probably get the most expected film of 2019.
“The Irishman” is based on Charles Brandt’s book “I Heard You Paint Houses” and will be released by Netflix sometime around the second-half of 2019. The film will follow the real-life story of Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran (Robert De Niro), a labor union official with mob connections who claimed to be involved in the killing of labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino).
While we have been pretty disappointed with Robert De Niro’s late-career role choices, we’ve never seen a bad De Niro – Scorsese collaboration so chances are that “The Irishman” will mark De Niro’s return to form. Add to that we’ll get to see Joe Pesci once again on screen – what a shame it took so long – and what remains to be done is only hope that “The Irishman” won’t fail to reach its full potential.