THIS YEAR'S MOVIES, PART TWO

Mortensen plays a Russian mobster in this thriller which teams Cronenberg with the Oscar-nominated writer of Dirty Pretty Things.

Original Disney musical mixing animation and live action, in which a fairy tale princess finds herself in the real New York.

From the makers of Date Movie comes a comedy so criminally unfunny that watching it is like a form of slow torture -- if they decide to parody the Hostel/Saw/Turistas genre next, they should subject their characters to repeated viewings of Epic Movie. It has a few, small things in its favor -- Shearmur's parody score is pretty good, Hammond's impression of Johnny Depp in Pirates is spot-on, and Crispin Glover is an inspired choice to play Willy Wonka, though of course the filmmakers fail to think of anything actually funny for him to do. Not to put too fine point on it, but this film is shit (please forgive the cussing).

God (Freeman) visits Evan (Carell), the weatherman from Bruce Almighty who's now a congressman, and persuades him to build an ark. This is reputedly the most expensive comedy ever made, but between Carell and Freeman it's got to be at least a little bit funny.
POSTPONED FROM LAST YEAR

Romantic family drama based on Minot's novel, with the most amazing group of actresses the movie year is likely to see. Cunningham wrote the novel The Hours, whose film version had a similarly stunning cast. Director Koltai is an Oscar-nominated cinematographer (Malena) who also directed the acclaimed Holocaust drama Fateless.

The blandest superheroes in current cinema go up against the Silver Surfer in what can only be an improvement over the previous Fantastic Four film (though the return of the same writer and director isn't encouraging).

This coming-of-age comedy-drama may finally come out this year, or maybe it won't.
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A movie star dog ends up lost and living in a firehouse. People really still make movies about movie star dogs? Don't they remember Won Ton Ton? And from the writers of Face/Off?

Gere and Danes search for a missing girl. The director helmed the Infernal Affairs trilogy (remade as The Departed).
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Director Hoblit returns to Primal Fear territory, as DA Gosling investigates accused wife murderer Hopkins. The big question: could anyone believe Anthony Hopkins as a murderer?

Giamatti is Santa Claus, Vaughn his brother; the teaser trailer is funny at least.

A surprisingly effective updating of the To Sir, with Love formula, with Swank as a real-life teacher who got her warring Long Beach students to write about their lives in journals. In the script by Fisher King writer LaGravanese, even the seemingly thankless characters like unsympathetic supervisor Staunton and impatient husband Dempsey get well written scenes, and Swank's emotional openness is as appealing as ever.

Football star The Rock discovers he has a little girl. Awwww. Chalk up another tough guy cliche role for the wrestler's rising career.

Wild teen Lohan is forced to stay with grandmother Fonda. Movie star Lohan misbehaves, ticking off Georgia Rule's studio head leading to a publically published letter to the young star. Which story has more drama? And which one has Hector Elizondo? (Hint: this is a Garry Marshall film.)

Bread and Chocolate may have the silliest title of the year, but Ghost Rider has the silliest trailer, featuring a motorcycle riding superhero (Cage) whose head is a flaming skull. Writer-director Johnson made Daredevil, and Ben Affleck in a red leather suit with devil horns seemed cooler. On the plus side, Christopher Young's score will be a nice appetite whetter for his Spider-Man 3.

Damn those Hollywood filmmakers and their cheap, cash-in sequels. 1998's Elizabeth was such a boxoffice smash that its director and stars Blanchett and Rush feel the need to cash another big paycheck. Hacks. (The IMDB lists Bollywood maestro A.R. Rahman as the composer -- THAT could be interesting).

Based on the detective novel by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River). Affleck (Ben, that is) gave his best performance yet in Hollywoodland; who knows, maybe he can direct too.

Rodriguez and Tarantino present a double feature of fake B-movies, Planet Terror and Death Proof. Could be wonderful (and at the very least fun), and will be appreciated by those who felt Sin City and the Kill Bill films were too damn artsy.

The John Waters comedy turned smash Broadway musical becomes a movie musical, with an impressive cast including Travolta and Walken as the young heroine's mom and dad (no, that's not a typo). While Dreamgirls was not the flop that Phantom, Rent and Producers turned out to be on the big screen, it was neither the smash hit nor the Best Picture nominee its filmmakers must have hoped for, so maybe Hairspray can become the first true blockbuster movie musical since Chicago.

Zombie remakes the Carpenter classic. On the plus side, it should be fun to see McDowall take over the Donald Pleasance role. On the minus side, it's the new film from the director of House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects.

By the last Lecter film, Red Dragon, Anthony Hopkins's acting seemed to be moving into Vincent Price territory, so it makes sense that this inevitable Lecter prequel should practically turn the character into a young Dr. Phibes, as the post-adolescent Lecter (Ulliel, star of A Very Long Engagement and Strayed) uses a variety of methods to kill off those he holds responsible for the death of his family. The trailer looks fun (Webber directed Girl with a Pearl Earring), and considering how low Harris brought the series with Hannibal (with ample help from Ridley Scott), anything might be a step up.
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Nothing much to report, except that the fifth in the series adds yet more top notch UK actors (Bonham Carter, Staunton), a new writer (Michael Goldenberg, whose credits include Contact and Bed of Roses), and a new director and composer (whose many previous teamings include the TV productions State of Play and The Girl in the Cafe).

National Guardsmen go up against the desert mutants. Last year's remake wasn't bad (I may be one of the few who prefer it to the original Craven film), but did it really cry out for a sequel?

Following the boxoffice disasters of Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter films, the writer of About a Boy and the director of Shopgirl attempt to bring another fantasy series to the screen. What were they thinking?

This remake of Robert Harmon's 1986 cult classic is, surprisingly, not terrible, and certainly a big improvement over producer Michael Bay's Chainsaw and Amityville remakes. On the plus side, the film has a lot of momentum and narrative drive, the direction actually favors slowly building suspense over jittery camerawork and overly fast cutting, and James Hawkinson's scope cinematography is first rate (one panoramic view of a truck stop at sunset is breathtaking). On the minus side, the gore is excessive, the song choices (especially the use of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" during the rolling police car ballet) are intrusive, Jablonsky's score lacks the memorable unease of Mark Isham's music for the original and, most damagingly, Sean Bean (who seemed like an ideal choice for the role) comes across as an irritating creep, the kind of guy you'd move away from on the bus, rather than the charismatic menace Rutger Hauer portrayed in the original (Harmon had Hauer read the Hannibal Lecter scenes in the novel Red Dragon for inspiration).

Richard Gere plays Clifford Irving, who sold a fraudulent Howard Hughes autobiography in the '70s. The trade papers gave this film very favorable reviews a few months ago, and Variety called Burwell's score "delightful." On his website, Burwell discusses his approach to the score: "It seemed that it would help a 21st-century audience to put themselves in his shoes if the score hewed to a 1970's pop sound. As Irving's grasp of reality deteriorates, the pop sound also reinforces his delusional optimism/paranoia and undercuts the appearance of 'dramatization.'"
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This time, it's three women who face torture and peril in Eastern Europe. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the first Hostel, but having women as the protagonists can only up the ugliness factor, and I fear the filmmaker will be desperate to outdo the original's grue, which was prodigious.

The makes of Shaun of the Dead return for this comedy about a tough big city cop who finds crime in a small town. The trailers use David Shire's awesome Taking of Pelham One Two Three theme.

First starring vehicle for SNL's Samberg (of "Lazy Sunday" fame) about a daredevil moped rider.

Smith plays the beleaguered post-catastrophe hero in this long-in-development remake of Richard Matheson's classic novel, this time from the director of Constantine. The last remake Goldsman and Protosevich collaborated on was Poseidon; should we take that as bad sign? (Making the best bad film of 2006 is not an honor one should be too proud of.)

Mom Pfeiffer falls for younger man Rudd. Tracey Ullman plays Mother Nature -- that can't be a good sign.
POSTPONED FROM LAST YEAR

Sandler and James play a pair of fireman who pretend to be a gay couple to collect benefits. Hey, don't blame me, I didn't write the damn thing.

Eric Rohmer is one of the most critically revered of contemporary European filmmakers, and who is his American equivalent? Alexander Payne? Richard Linklater? Well, Chris Rock is making a bid for the title, as he remakes Rohmer's 1972 Chloe in the Afternoon, casting himself as a married man tempted to stray.

Kasdan, son of Lawrence and Meg, brother of Jake, makes his filmmaking debut with this story of TV writer Brody and his relationship with a family of women -- because the problems of TV writers are universal.
POSTPONED FROM LAST YEAR

Haggis follows up Crash with this fact-based drama about Jones searching for his son, an Iraq War vet who disappeared after returning to the States. So despite the pairing of Jones and Sarandon, this isn't The Client II.

This alien invasion thriller from the director of Downfall is actually an official (if very loose sounding) remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
POSTPONED FROM LAST YEAR

Remember Ghost? Well, imagine it with a teenager in the lead, and there you go. Enjoy.
POSTPONED FROM LAST YEAR

The director of Shakespeare in Love and Proof takes on Elmore Leonard, as Lane and Jane find that Witness Protection doesn't guarantee their safety. This finished filming a year ago; that may not be a good sign.
POSTPONED FROM LAST YEAR

No, not an American remake of Lars Von Trier's one terrific film (Stephen King already did that for TV as Kingdom Hospital) but a thriller about an elite team of U.S. agents investigating a series of killings in Saudi Arabia. Berg has gone making terrible films (Very Bad Things) to good films (Friday Night Lights) in only a few years, so we hope the upward trend continues, and there's also a new Elfman score to look forward to.

The best-selling Afghanistan-set novel reaches the screen courtesy of the writer-director team that brought us Stay. Uh-oh.

Heigl and Rogen's one night stand results in pregnancy, leading them to attempt an actual relationship. The trailer is very funny, and I'm impressed that Apatow would follow up the smash hit 40 Year Old Virgin with a project featuring even more obscure lead actors.

Today's Film Score Daily asked whether anyone could confirm whether Dario Marianelli actually was the composer of Christopher Hampton's adaptation of ATONEMENT, as reported by Imdb. It may be of interest to you that on Daniel Schweiger's film music radio show, Philip Glass said while commenting on THE SECRET AGENT (directed by Hampton) that he'd been in discussions with the director to do a new film. Unless Hampton has something else up his sleeve (and I'm surprised he's been given a big chance like this after IMAGINING ARGENTINA bombed at Cannes 3 years back), I would guess that's this project.

If it is Glass, it's slightly good news, but perhaps a Marianelli score would have been more interesting (novel, that is), or even a score by the last composer to tackle a film adapted by Ian McEwan, Jeremy Sams (ENDURING LOVE).

Interesting to see Cave and Ellis hired by fellow Australian Andrew Dominik for ASSASSINATION [OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD]. I guess Dominik must have liked THE PROPOSITION score. (Hard to blame him, actually.)

As a Western fan, I'm a little ashamed to confess I didn't see The Proposition. The trailer made it look incredibly pretentious, and the filmmakers' previous film was Ghosts...of the Civil Dead, which must be one of the worst titles I've ever heard (even worse than Blood and Chocolate).

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