hmv.com previews... 2019's Best Movies - Comedy
Over the next two weeks, we're going to be previewing 100 of 2019's best movies. Today, it's the comedies...
Where'd You Go, Bernadette?
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Billy Crudup, Emma Nelson, Kristen Wiig, Judy Greer, Laurence Fishburne, Troian Bellisario
Director: Richard Linklater
Release Date: Spring
Originally due in 2018, Richard Linklater's adaptation of Maria Semple's best-selling novel finally arrives in the spring of 2019.
Blanchett plays Bernadette Branch, an agoraphobic architect who goes missing prior to a family trip to Antarctica, leaving her daughter to try and track her down, a mission that turns into a great adventure...
Starring: Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding, Emma Thompson, Michelle Yeoh
Director: Paul Feig
Release Date: November 15th
After branching out into drama with chic effort A Simple Favour, director Paul Feig returns to comedy and teams with British acting royalty.
Emma Thompson and theatre writer Bryony Kimmings provide the screenplay for this festive romp, which will be led by Game Of Thrones' Emilia Clarke and Crazy Rich Asians leading man Henry Golding.
Plot details are currently thin on the ground, but given the title, and release date, you can expect things to get pretty festive...
Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis' As Yet Untitled Beatles Comedy
Starring: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Kate McKinnon, Ed Sheeran, Ana de Armas, Lamorne Morris
Director: Danny Boyle
Release Date: June 28th
Regrettably, this isn't the title for Boyle and Curtis' comedy, but it'll do until we get the formal one.
The movie will tell the story of a man who wakes up one day to find he is the only person who can remember the songs of The Beatles.
To pull this off, Boyle has recruited Ed Sheeran for his first movie role proper, and the X singer will be on singing duty too.
From on-set reports, the production has deployed thousands of extras, so expect some big concert scenes...
The Beach Bum
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, Isla Fisher, Snoop Dogg, Jonah Hill, Martin Lawrence, Jimmy Buffett
Director: Harmony Korine
Release Date: Spring
Seven years after he got everybody talking with Spring Breakers, Harmony Korine returns with an equally provocative adventure.
The film follows McConaughey's Moondog, a rebellious type and committed stoner with a cult following. Judging by the trailer, it's going to be an absolute riot.
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Michelle Dockery, Henry Golding, Hugh Grant, Jeremy Strong, Colin Farrell, Charlie Hunnam
Director: Guy Ritchie
Release Date: May 24th
After dabbling with literary icons Sherlock Holmes, King Arthur and Aladdin, Guy Ritchie returns to more familiar turf for his next trick. A good old-fashioned crime caper.
The film, which is billed as a return to Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch days, will follow a British drug lord attempting to cash out on his highly profitable empire by selling it off to a dynasty of Oklahoma billionaires.
Starring: Rebel Wilson, Anne Hathaway, Alex Sharp, Ingrid Oliver
Director: Chris Addison
Release Date: May 10th
The hit comic caper Dirty Rotten Scoundrels gets a new take for 2019, with Rebel Wilson and Anne Hathaway leading the way.
Wilson and Hathaway play two broke con artists, who agree to try and take down a naive tech billionaire, with the loser forced to leave town.
Chris Addison, stand-up comedian and star of The Thick Of It, makes his feature film debut behind the camera on this one.
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Rose Byrne, Isabela Moner, Tig Notaro, Margo Martindale, Octavia Spencer
Director: Sean Anders
Release Date: February 15th
Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne get a lot more than they bargained for in this family comedy.
Wahlberg and Byrne lead the way as Ellie and Pete, a couple who decide to become foster parents, but quickly find themselves in over their heads when they agree to take care of three unruly children...
Starring: Seth Rogen, Charlize Theron, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Alexander Skarsgård, Randall Park, Bob Odenkirk, Andy Serkis
Director: Jonathan Levine
Release Date: June 7th
Seth Rogen takes centre stage here as Fred Flarsky, an unemployed journalist, who decides to resurrect his career by attempting to court his childhood crush and babysitter Charlotte Field, played by Charlize Theron.
Dan Sterling, writer on The Interview, reunites with Rogan for this new one.
Horrible Histories: The Movie - Rotten Romans
Starring: Nick Frost, Sebastian Croft, Kim Cattrall, Craig Roberts. Kate Nash, Derek Jacobi, Alexander Armstrong, Lee Mack, Warwick Davis, Lucy Montgomery, Kevin Bishop, Chris Addison
Director: Dominic Brigstocke
Release Date: July 26th
The hugely successful series of books, which puts a comic spin on historical events for children, is now heading for cinemas, with Rotten Romans up first.
The story will follow Sebastian Croft's Ati, a Roman teenager with brains but very little brawn who is always coming up with clever schemes.
When one of those schemes falls foul of Emperor Nero, he is forced to join the army and is sent to a miserable, cold, wet Britain...
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, Elisabeth Moss, Common, Domnhall Gleeson
Director: Andrea Berloff
Release Date: Autumn
Andrea Berloff, writer on Sleepless and Straight Outta Compton, makes her directing debut with this comedy-drama.
Set in 1970s New York, it follows McCarthy, Moss and Haddish, who play the wives of Irish mobsters who are forced to take over operations after the FBI arrests their husbands.