WOULD-BE BLOCKBUSTERS
Pushed back from a summer release, the thriller The Kingdom (September 28) mixes action-movie theatrics with a potent political setting (the aftermath of the bombing of an American compound in Saudi Arabia) for a volatile combination that could mean box-office gold.
The Farrelly brothers attempt to salvage their careers as comedy hit-makers by re-teaming with Ben Stiller for The Heartbreak Kid (October 5), a remake of the 1972 Neil Simon comedy.
The trend toward big-budget adaptations of literary fantasy epics continues with The Seeker: The Dark is Rising (October 5), the theoretical first in a series based on the books by Susan Cooper.
Jerry Seinfeld returns from his pop-culture exile as the co-writer, producer and star of the computer-animated Bee Movie (November 2), in which he voices a neurotic honeybee who decides to sue humanity.
Vince Vaughn tests his mettle as America’s new king of comedy by attempting a Christmas movie, Fred Claus (November 9), in which he plays the schlubby, Vince Vaughn-esque brother to Paul Giamatti’s Santa.
More epic fantasy arrives with Beowulf (November 16), this time in the same CGI motion-capture style as The Polar Express (also from director Robert Zemeckis). The age-old story gets updated with the computerized likenesses of Angelina Jolie and Anthony Hopkins, among others.
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
Stranger Than Fiction screenwriter Zach Helm makes his directorial debut with Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (November 16), a whimsical fantasy in the Willy Wonka mold, starring Dustin Hoffman and Natalie Portman.
And somehow someone has found a Stephen King story that hasn’t yet been made into a movie, so seasoned King-adapter Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) tackles The Mist (November 21), a more traditional horror tale than the uplifting King yarns he’s taken on in the past.
OSCAR BAIT
Fresh off the success of A History of Violence, director David Cronenberg embraces his newfound respectability by re-teaming with Violence star Viggo Mortensen for the dark thriller Eastern Promises (September 21).
Oscar-winner Paul Haggis follows Crash with In the Valley of Elah (September 21), a political drama about a couple (Tommy Lee Jones, Susan Sarandon) searching for their missing Iraq war-vet son.
Sean Penn gets back in the director’s chair for Into the Wild (September 21), based on the megapopular nonfiction book by Jon Krakauer. Emile Hirsch stars as a rebellious young man who shuns modern society for a harrowing life alone in the elements.
Although it’s had its release date pushed back several times and supposedly fared poorly with test audiences, the somber western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (limited release September 21; Las Vegas release TBA) has dark-horse potential to be one of the season’s most interesting, challenging films, with Brad Pitt as the famous Old West outlaw in his declining years.
Another recent Oscar-winning director returning this season is Brokeback Mountain’s Ang Lee, whose latest, the Chinese-language World War II thriller Lust, Caution (limited release September 28; Las Vegas release TBA), is so steamy that it’s been handed an NC-17 rating.
Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited (limited release October 5; Las Vegas release TBA) finds a couple of his regular players (Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman) playing brothers alongside Adrien Brody in a story that takes the three to India, where they attempt to rekindle their fraternal love.
The true-crime story American Gangster (November 2) has both blockbuster and awards potential, with Ridley Scott directing Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe in the gritty saga of a battle between police and a Harlem drug kingpin in the 1970s.
Tom Cruise attempts to prove he’s still a box-office draw after his recent tabloid travails as both star and producer of Lions for Lambs (November 9), a political drama co-starring and directed by Robert Redford.
In perhaps the most exciting awards-baiting moment of the season, the Coen brothers hope to erase the memory of the disappointing The Ladykillers with No Country for Old Men (limited release November 9; Las Vegas release TBA), a bloody, grim noir based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy.
GUILTY PLEASURES
Plagued by conflicts between the studio and its visionary director, Julie Taymor, Across the Universe (September 21), a sprawling musical featuring a catalog of Beatles tunes and a story meant to encapsulate the spirit of the 1960s, will most likely be a horrific train wreck, but Taymor’s track record (Titus, Frida) means that it will at least be a unique, fascinating train wreck.
A future Las Vegas buried under the desert is the setting for Resident Evil: Extinction (September 21), the third and allegedly final film based on the post-apocalyptic video-game series.
Wolf Creek helmer Greg McLean returns with Rogue (October 12), another gruesome horror tale set in the backwoods of Australia, this time concerning a killer crocodile.
There’s more horror in the graphic-novel adaptation 30 Days of Night (October 19), which has an awesome high concept: Vampires take up residence in an Alaska town whose proximity to the North Pole guarantees an entire month of darkness during which they can run free.
Ben Affleck tries for some career rehabilitation with his directorial debut Gone Baby Gone (October 19), based on a novel by Mystic River author Dennis Lehane and starring Affleck’s brother Casey as a dedicated Boston detective.
And back in the potential-train-wreck category is the endlessly delayed Southland Tales (November 9), from Donnie Darko auteur Richard Kelly. A science-fiction-musical-comedy with a cast that ranges from The Rock to Justin Timberlake to Miranda Richardson to Mandy Moore, it received baffled responses at Cannes last year but has been in the editing room ever since. Like Across the Universe, it may very well be awful, but at least it won’t be boring.