The most anticipated films of 2019: 31-40

From Dumbo the flying elephant and Lego aliens to the origin story of Batman baddie Joker, here’s the second in a five-part look at key titles for 2019

31. Dumbo

Disney continues to ransack its classic cartoon back catalogue, and puts Tim Burton to work on a live-action version of the flappy-eared elephant, with Michael Keaton along for the ride as shifty entertainment mogul VA Vandermere.

32. Parasite

Bong Joon-ho returns to his South Korean roots after English-language movies Okja and Snowpiercer: details of this one are foggy, but apparently there are no creepy-crawlies, just a family of four, each of whom has “unique characteristics”.

33. Zombieland 2

Ten years after the first outing, a sequel for the much-loved post-apocalyptic horror comedy, with original cast members Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg and Abigail Breslin reunited, along with director Ruben Fleischer.

34. Pain & Glory

Pedro Almodóvar returns with an autobiographical meltdown movie about a film director “reflecting on the choices he’s made in life, as past and present come crashing down around him”. Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz star, obviously.

35. Resistance

Not a remake of the British alternative-history drama from 2011, but a Hollywood-goes-to-war yarn in which Jesse Eisenberg plays (I kid you not) Marcel Marceau in his pre-mime days, when as a resistance fighter he helped save hundreds of kids from the Nazis. From Secuestro Express director Jonathan Jakubowicz.

36. Lego Movie 2

Watch a trailer for Lego Movie 2

Let’s hope everything remains awesome in the Legoverse for this second helping (Lego Batman, of course, was a spin-off). Emmett, Lucy and co are plunked down in a Blade Runner-type wasteland, where the righteous Lego-ites are being menaced by vile Duplo invaders. Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks and Will Arnett are back, with Tiffany Haddish as shape-shifter Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi.

37. Joker

Make it more like Scorsese, they said, and so the man himself was attached to produce this Batman spin-off (until he dropped out, presumably to concentrate on The Irishman). Still, we have Joaquin Phoenix directed by Todd Phillips in what’s being punted as a gritty, street-style origins story for the great Gotham City bad guy.

38. The Woman in the Window

Tracy Letts adapts AJ Finn’s bestselling domestic noir about an agoraphobic woman who witnesses one of her neighbours carrying out a violent act in Joe Wright’s first film since Churchill biopic Darkest Hour. This one also stars Gary Oldman, alongside Amy Adams, Julianne Moore and Brian Tyree Henry.

39. Light of My Life

A couple of years after his Oscar win as a grieving janitor in Manchester By the Sea and a decade since his last outing as a director (Joaquin Phoenix mockumentary I’m Still Here), Casey Affleck is both behind and in front of camera for this Leave No Trace-ish yarn about a father and daughter trapped in the woods.

40. Detective Pikachu

Back in 2014, The Lego Movie was a lesson in how to give the most unpromising material a sassy, smart-talking makeover: this Pokémon-related movie has taken the idea to extremes by hiring Ryan Reynolds, Deadpool himself, as the voice of the sleuthing incarnation of Pokémon’s squeaking yellow cat thing. Bound to be massive.

Guardian film

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