The films, theatre and art shows to see in 2019, from Toy Story 4 and Avengers: Endgame to Van Gogh & Britain and Tom Hiddleston in Betrayal
Toy Story 4; Dir: Josh Cooley; June
Despite Disney’s emphatic assurances that we’d seen the last of Buzz and Woody, here comes Toy Story 4, an inevitable sequel to the classic animated trilogy about a bunch of dolls who occasionally come to life to torment deserving humans.
Most of the original cast has been lured back into the recording booth, with a few new voices appearing in the movie’s early teaser trailers, most notably comedians Key and Peele as a pair of plush fairground prizes.
Pixar storyboard artist Josh Cooley, producer of Inside Out short Riley’s First Date, will direct.
Dumbo / Aladdin / The Lion King; Dir: Tim burton / guy ritchie / jon favreau; March-July
Disney’s mounting obsession with live-action continues apace, as 2019 sees the animation megacorp reimagining three of its most iconic cartoons as hyper-realistic feature films filled with real, fleshy humans.
Dumbo will be a Tim Burton-directed spectacle of utterly believable flying elephants, starring Colin Farrell as a man who screams at pachyderms until the audience cries. It hits theatres in March.
The Guy Ritchie-directed Aladdin will have Will Smith filling some very big Genie boots, and stars Mena Massoud as the carpet-piloting street urchin. The film launches in May.
And The Lion King (admittedly not true live action, as it’s difficult to get real animals to behave) will be voiced by an all-star cast, with Beyoncé as Nala, and Donald Glover as Simba. Director Jon Favreau has experience with talking animals, having also directed Disney’s live action remake of The Jungle Book in 2016. It arrives at theatres in July.
Avengers: EndGame; Dir: Anthony Russo / Joe Russo; April
Little has been revealed about the plot of the upcoming Avengers: Endgame. The last movie’s shock ending lobbed a narrative grenade into the slack-jawed gobs of Marvel fans, leaving everyone guessing as to exactly how the writers can pull things back from seemingly terminal circumstances. It will almost certainly involve Marvel’s other big release of 2019, Captain Marvel, and probably some wibbly-wobbly time stuff. The teaser featured a glum looking Robert Downey Junior, and is the most watched trailer in movie history.
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu; Dir: Rob Letterman; May
This sci-fi action comedy set in the world of Pokémon stars none other than Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds as a wise-cracking Pikachu. The actor lends his facial motion capture and voice acting to the little yellow rodent, in a film that sees Pikachu team up with a young lad to solve crimes and uncover the mystery surrounding a disappearance that threatens the entire Pokémon universe and so on. Mostly, it’s about looking at a cute fuzzy Pikachu.
RocketMan; Dir: Dexter Fletcher; June
A biographical musical based on the life of the guy from the John Lewis advert, Rocketman charts the meteoric career of national treasure Elton John. The film is directed by Dexter Fletcher (who directed Eddie the Eagle, and replaced Bryan Singer as director of last year’s Bohemian Rhapsody). It stars Taron Egerton (Kingsman, and the dismal Robin Hood) as the ivory-tickler himself, though the actor wasn’t always tipped for the role. Tom Hardy was originally set to play the flower-mad musician with all the nice hats.
Captain Marvel; Dirs: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck; June
Brie Larson makes her grand entrance into the Marvel universe as she takes on the role of Carol Danvers, an ex-Air Force fighter pilot who’s on a mission to unlock the secrets of her past. Spoilers: it quickly turns out she’s the titular Captain Marvel, and has an entire film’s worth of punching and eye-lasers to get through. Set in the olden days of the 1990s, during which Earth was briefly embroiled in an intergalactic war, the film stars a digitally de-aged Samuel L Jackson. It arrives in March.
Betrayal; Harold Pinter Theatre; March-June
The Pinter at the Pinter season closes with a crescendo, with one of the late playwright’s most revered plays.
It follows Emma and Jerry who embark on an extramarital seven-year affair set between London and Venice and told in reverse order.
With only one other character, there’s plenty of chance for Hiddlestoners to see their idol – Tom Hiddleston, most famous for playing Loki in the Marvel franchise – in action in the meaty part of Jerry. Expect a flurry for tickets.
All About Eve; Noel Coward Theatre; February 2 – April 27
The classic 1950s Bette Davis film, about a conniving aspiring actress who takes advantage of an ageing Broadway star, is brought to the West End stage this spring with original music by PJ Harvey. Bringing together the disparate-until-now fandoms of Mammia Mia! and The X Files, Gillian Anderson plays the leading lady while Lily James stars as her sinister protegée.
Les Damnés (The Damned); Barbican; June
France’s prestigious Comédie-Francaise theatre company will pay a rare visit to Blighty for this play about a family of German industrialists that slide into collusion with the Nazi regime.
One of the few state theatres left – and the only one with its own actors – it’s also thought to be one of the oldest companies in the world.
Acclaimed director Ivo Van Hove takes the reigns for this French language production, filling the stage with a huge cast comprising 30 actors and technicians.
When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other; National Theatre; January – March
Another big name production putting bums on seats in the spring is this laboriously-titled exploration of sex and gender starring Cate ‘two Oscars’ Blanchett alongside Game of Thrones’ Stephen Dillane.
Playwright Martin Crimp says he used Samuel Richardson’s 18th century novel Pamela: Or Virtue Rewarded as a ‘provocation’ for the new work, which is a fancy way of saying ‘inspired by’.
Theatregoers are so excited by the prospect of Blanchett in the flesh that there’s a ballot for tickets.
All My Sons; The Old Vic; April – June
Sally Field makes her West End debut in yet another Arthur Miller revival. Starring alongside the Hollywood legend is the actress behind Queen Victoria and former Dr Who companion Jenna Coleman.
Jeremy Herrin directs the duo in this emotionally fraught drama alongside Bill Pullman – the president in Independence Day. The story is set in post-war America and explores Miller’s favoured themes of grief, the power of secrets and the shattering of the American Dream.
Field is worth the trip alone but strap in, it’s going to be emotional.
Grief is the Thing With Feathers; Barbican; March – April
Flat-capped peaky blinder Cillian Murphy returns to our TV screens and the stage in 2019. The latter is for a stage adaptation of Max Porter’s novel of the same name, adapted by Irish award-winning playwright Enda Walsh.
The action centres on two bereaved boys mourning their mother in a London flat with a fantasist father until a crow, Mary Poppins-like, flies in one day to help the family process their grief. Plus, if the poster of Murphy in a dressing gown with mud running down his chest doesn’t get you going, we don’t know what will.
Van Gogh & Britain; Tate Britain; March – August
Perhaps the most famous painter of the 19th century is the star of perhaps the biggest blockbuster show of the year. The Tate Britain will focus on how van Gogh’s brief – but “crucial” – time in the UK played a major role in inspiring the artist.
The show will include works including Shoes, Starry Night on the Rhône, L’Arlésienne and Sunflowers, the latter being one of the most recognisable paintings ever smeared onto canvas. Expect giant queues, packed rooms and a smashing show.
Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition; Design Museum; April – September
The Design Museum has gone from strength to strength since it moved into its new Kensington premises. But its upcoming show focusing on the most famous of English directors, Stanley Kubrick, looks set to be the best yet. It will include props and costumes, set models and rare photographs, shedding light on the unique and often baffling process undertaken by one of the most enigmatic minds ever to stand behind the camera. Highlights will include installations devoted to The Shining and A Clockwork Orange.
Dorothea Tanning; Tate Modern, February – June
Dorothea Tanning may not be as instantly recognisable a name as Salvador Dali, but her impact on the surrealist movement is no less monumental. This first large-scale exhibition of her work for 25 years brings together more than 100 paintings, sculptures and installations.
Works to look forward to include her earlier, increasingly surreal paintings, her latter sculptures featuring twisted human forms made from fabric, and a collection of poems published when she was 101.
Antony Gormley; Royal Academy; September — December
The RA secures something of a coup with this major exhibition of the work of sculptor Antony Gormley. Described as a “conversation between old works and new”, it will feature pieces both iconic and never before seen.
The exhibition will focus on the integral role of place on works of sculpture, interrogating the unusual spaces in the RA galleries, as well as returning to familiar Gormley themes of the link between the physical self and the created object.