Coming up in 2019

So what is coming up in 2019…

• From director Jon S. Baird (Filth), the world’s most famous comedy duo – Laurel and Hardy – embark on their swan song tour of post-war Britain in Stan & Ollie, starring Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly.

• M. Night Shyamalan brings us Glass, a sequel to Unbreakable and Split featuring the characters of David Dunn (Bruce Willis), Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) and Elijah Price/Mr Glass (Samuel L. Jackson). Co-stars Sarah Paulson. Could be great or could be terrible – this is M. Night Shyamalan we are talking about so it could be as good as The Sixth Sense or as bad as Lady in the Water or The Last Airbender.

• From director Josie Rourke and writer Beau Willimon (House of Cards), Mary Queen of Scots tells the true story of how she attempted to overthrow her cousin Elizabeth I and her years of imprisonment that followed. Starring Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie.

• Christian Bale teams up again with writer/director Adam McKay (The Big Short) to bring us Vice. Bale plays the former US Vice President Dick Cheney…That is something I never thought I would ever say/write/think. Bale is said to have gained 40lbs for the role…Christian, why do you always put your body through such torture? Co-stars Amy Adams, Alison Pill, Steve Carell and Sam Rockwell as George W. Bush…Something else I never thought would happen.

• A lot of the Oscar-buzz is surrounding Peter Farrelly’s Green Book. Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) is an Italian-American bouncer who becomes a driver for an African-American classical pianist called Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) whilst touring the Deep South in the 1960s.

• The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part…Will everything still be awesome?

• This year Dexter Fletcher had to finish off Bryan Singer’s Bohemian Rhapsody. Now he is releasing his own music biopic – Rocketman. Starring Taron Egerton as Elton John and Jamie Bell as Bernie Taupin.

• Toy Story 4…The film I am most concerned about. It could be as perfect as Toy Story 3 was or the Toy Story-equivalent of The Phantom Menace. All we know is that the story involves Woody searching for Bo Peep. The teaser was encouraging though, especially the one featuring new characters played by Keegan- Michael Key and Jordan Peele…And supposedly Keanu Reeves is going to feature.

• Following in the footsteps of The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast, we are getting a live-action version of The Lion King, directed by John Favreau. Starring:

• Donald Glover – Simba
• Chiwetel Ejiofor – Scar
• Keegan-Michael Key – Kamari
• James Earl Jones – Mufasa
• Alfre Woodard – Sarabi
• Billy Eichner – Timon
• Seth Rogen – Pumbaa
• Beyonce – Nala
• John Oliver – Zazu

• The “ninth” film from Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is set in 1969 Los Angeles; a TV actor and his stunt double attempt to break into the film industry, during the time of the Charles Manson murders. This being a Tarantino film, expect an all-star cast:
• Margot Robbie, Leonardo DiCaprio (his first film since winning the Oscar for The Revenant), Brad Pitt, Dakota Fanning, Al Pacino, James Marsden, Kurt Russell, Timothy Olyphant, Damian Lewis, the late Burt Reynolds, Tim Roth and many more

• The rebooted Star Wars franchise comes to a conclusion with Episode IX. This film also sees the return of J. J. Abrams to the director’s chair. It will also be the last ever Star Wars film to be composed by John Williams.

As for TV to watch in 2019…

• The final season of Game of Thrones.

And, as equally significant...

• After a four-year hiatus, the return to the small screen of True Detective. Season one was a masterpiece, but season two felt like a step backwards. HBO gave the green light for a third season in August 2017 and Nic Pizzolatto is back as the main writer, joined by David Milch (Deadwood). Two of the episodes will be directed by Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin and Green Room) and the others by David Sackheim and Pizzolatto. The plot revolves around two missing children in the Ozarks (Arkansas/Missouri) over three separate periods. The cast includes Oscar winner Mahershala Ali, Ray Fisher, Carmon Ejogo, Stephen Dorff, Sarah Gadon and Scoot McNairy.

My top TV of 2018

Yes, I have actually bothered to watch some television this year and have a top TV moment. And that it...

The final series of The Bridge

Thanks must go to my sister for introducing me to this show. The Scandinavian crime series came to an end this year with its fourth instalment. It has successfully followed in the footsteps of The Killing in becoming an international success. And it made a big leap in terms of shows on British TV - moving from its usual BBC Four slot to 9.00pm on Friday nights on BBC Two. Welcome to the big leagues. Mind you, considering everything else on at the same time, what else were you going to watch?

Caution, some SPOILERS!!!

The obsessive, unorthodox, socially-awkward and emotionally complex Saga Norén (Sofia Helin) is a character we cannot help but fall in love with, as she begins the series spending time in prison unjustly for the death of her mother. She is now living in fear and vulnerable. Throughout all four series, we admire Saga for her methodical and professional approach to her job and her social incompetence. It is also a very accurate portrayal of Asperger's. Meanwhile, whilst investigating the death of the head of Denmark’s immigration board, Henrik Sabroe (Thure Lindhardt) is still searching for his missing daughters after learning about the death of his wife at the end of the previous season. Henrik is now as much a part of the show as his predecessor Martin Rohde was.
Again, as with the previous series, the presentation of the victims (I honestly could not think of any other words to use here) is visually spectacular; the last time I was impressed by this was when I was very much into Hannibal. There is also the right combination of thrill and excitement - to solve this mystery - and drama - having a connection with the characters. It is a dark show - both thematically and the cinematography.

Creator Hans Rosenfeldt made the choice not to kill off either of the two leads - this would have been the obvious and, for many, expected thing to do. For that, we all thank him. We also thank him for all the thrills, cliffhangers, second-guessing, intensity and treating us, the audience, as intelligent human beings. Every time you think you have an idea who the main culprit is, but that quickly gets thrown out the window. The US remake and the other copycats of this series (i.e. The Tunnel) pale in comparison.

What else is there to say? "Takk" for the memories...Now I want to go on holiday to Sweden and Denmark.

By the way, Saga’s 1977 Porsche, in ‘Jager Grun’ was sold at auction for £125,000, over four times the initial estimate.