Things are looking good for a season of original film, writes DONALD CLARKE
IN RECENT times, the last quarter of the cinematic year has conformed to an unlovely pattern. As the leaves turn brown, we are offered a series of stinking duds – neither December serious nor summer escapist – that you wouldn’t let even the dog watch. Then, as Christmas looms, one or two family films creep in, followed by the worthy Oscar contenders and the latest film in the Lord of the Narnia Potters cycle.
Happily, the last quarter of this year (indeed, this decade) looks a darn sight more promising. October is, for once, packed with interesting prospects: the new Pixar; the latest from Ricky Gervais, Shane Meadows and Wes Anderson. Those few films that are yelling at the Academy seem reasonably intriguing: Rob Marshall’s Nine, Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant, The Coens’ A Serious Man. And neither of the two potential blockbusters – James Cameron’s Avatar and Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are – are sequels.
The industry will, of course, be paying closest attention to Cameron’s 3-D, computer- generated puzzler. Is Avatar The Jazz Singer of the new century or just another exercise in hyper-hype?
You’ll know in about three months.
SEPTEMBER 18
AWAY WE GO
Sam Mendes, director of Revolutionary Road, offers a sunnier view of married life in this comic road movie. Dave Eggers, once the world’s trendiest writer, co-wrote the script.
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS
Magnificently titled family animation concerning an eccentric scientist who finds a way of turning water into food. Yeah, it’s in 3-D.
THE FIRM
Watcha , guv. It’s another football hooligan movie from Nick Love. This time he has dared to remake Alan Clarke’s searing TV movie from 1988.
SEPTEMBER 25
CREATION
Biopic of Charles Darwin starring Paul Bettany as the great man and Jennifer Connelly, Bettany’s own wife, as the influential Mrs Darwin.
CRIMSON WING: MYSTERIES OF THE FLAMINGO
Disney brings us a documentary on the Flamingos of Lake Natron in Northern Tanzania. Should be nice and soothing.
FAME
It’s going to live forever. Alan Parker’s popular 1980 film gets an inevitable remake. Cheers favourites Kelsey Grammer and Bebe Neuwirth are among the older cast members.
THE SOLOIST
Joe Wright’s much-delayed follow-up to Atonement stars Jamie Foxx as a homeless musician and Robert Downey Jr as the journalist who takes up his cause. Inspirational.
SURROGATES
One of several 2009 science-fiction films – see also Gamer and Avatar – in which human beings live their lives vicariously. This one finds Bruce Willis’s psyche inhabiting a robot.
OCTOBER 2
ARMY OF CRIME/L’ARMEE DU CRIME
The director of The Last Mitterand turns his austere eye towards the French Resistance. The film’s mildly revisionist take has raised a few eyebrows in France.
THE INVENTION OF LYING
Can Ricky Gervais break America? In his first film as writer-director he plays the first man in the world to discover lying. Funny concept.
MY LIFE IN RUINS
It’s not exactly a sequel to My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but it does star that film’s Nia Vardalos as a Greek-American having romantic adventures in the old country.
PANDORUM
The buzz is good about this science- fiction film in which the crew of a space ship awake to discover they are not alone. Dennis Quaid is among the terrified.
TOY STORY 3D
Erm? It’s Toy Story in 3-D. What more do you want to know?
OCTOBER 9
THE GOODS: LIVE HARD, SELL HARD
The antics of a group of car salesmen provide the basis for this raucous comedy. Jeremy Piven — now slowly escaping That Guy status — heads the cast.
UP
Months after its hugely successful US debut, Pixar’s latest finally makes it into Irish cinemas. As you will be aware, it follows an old man who attaches balloons to his house and flies into adventure.
ZOMBIELAND
Another week, another horror comedy. This one finds Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson adrift in a land full of zombies. It’s Zombieland.
LE DONK SCOR-ZAY-ZEE
Shane Meadows, arguably the greatest young(ish) director in Britain, offers us a mockumentary about an idiot and a white rapper. Meadows – regular Paddy Considine returns.
LOVE HAPPENS
Given that title, you probably don’t need to be told that it’s a romantic comedy starring Jenifer Aniston and someone like, oh I don’t know, Aaron Eckhart.
OCTOBER 16
COUPLES RETREAT
Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn write and star in a comedy about a bunch of friends who try to heal their fractured relationships at a tropical resort. Is this what might have become of the Swingers guys?
ONG BAK 2: THE BEGINNING
Prequel to one of the bashiest, thumpiest martial arts flicks of recent years, Ong Bak 2 takes us back to ancient Thailand for more energetic mayhem.
THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR PARNASSUS
One of the great mysteries of the season. Following the death of Heath Ledger, star of this Faustian fantasy, Terry Gilliam somehow managed to paste together a finished version of the film. Bound to be interesting.
THIRST
Park Chan-wook, director of Oldboy, turns to vampires for this stylish horror, which shared the Jury Prize at the Cannes film festival. The film is, somewhat surprisingly, based on Émile Zola’s Thérèse Raquin.
TRIANGLE
That’s the Bermuda Triangle, methinks. Christopher Smith, director of Severance and Creep, takes to the seas for another gruesome thriller. Melissa George is one of those in peril.
ARMOURED
It’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, but with a truck. Matt Dillon and Laurence Fishburne play two members of a gang that begins squabbling after robbing an armoured van.
OCTOBER 23
SAW VI
The horror cycle seems to have gone on longer than Coronation Street and we’re not rid of it yet. The makers promise that episode six will reveal the final details of Jigsaw’s master-plan. If you say so.
CIRQUE DU FREAK: THE VAMPIRE’S ASSISTANT
Slipping in just ahead of Twilight 2, Paul Weitz’s adaptation of Darren Shan’s horror saga deals with a teenager who unknowingly triggers a war between two ancient factions of vampires.
THE COVE
Brave, appalling documentary that documents the annual slaughter of thousands of dolphins in the waters around a Japanese national park. A winner at Sundance.
THE FANTASTIC MR FOX
How much more whimsical can Wes Anderson get? Well, he has just adapted an admired Roald Dahl story into a curious-looking stop-motion animation. Sure to be agreeably odd.
OCTOBER 30
9
Animator Shane Acker expands his Oscar-nominated short into a feature. Produced by Tim Burton, the film follows a ragdoll boffin as he engages with the apocalypse. Not to be confused with Nine.
AN EDUCATION
Already highly praised, Lone Scherfig’s film dramatises an incident in the early life of ace journalist Lynn Barber. Peter Sarsgaard is the cad leading Carey Mulligan astray.
MICHAEL JACKSON: THIS IS IT
This is it? What is it that this is? Knocking together footage from Michael Jackson’s last rehearsals into a feature, this odd entity does sound just a tad creepy. A perfect tribute to Jacko then?
NOVEMBER 6
THE WOLFMAN
Another film that’s been juggled all over the schedules, the latest crack at the werewolf myth stars Benicio del Toro as the unhappy lycanthrope.
BRIGHT STAR
...would I were steadfast as thou art. That’s Keats, you know. Jane Campion’s biopic features pale Ben Wishaw as the poet and Abbie Cornish as his beloved.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
But it’s only November. Robert Zemeckis persists with digitally rendered actors for his adaption of Dickens’s (genuinely) timeless tale. A version of Jim Carrey stars as Scrooge.
LAW-ABIDING CITIZEN
The ever-busy F Gary Gray directs Gerard Butler in the story of a man who sets out to avenge his wife’s death from a prison cell. DA Jamie Foxx is keen to thwart his schemes.
TAKING WOODSTOCK
After several weighty projects, Ang Lee offers a light-hearted retelling of the story behind the Woodstock rock festival. Comedian Demetri Martin plays one of the organisers.
JENNIFER’S BODY
Diablo Cody, writer of Juno, returns with a horror film concerning the ghastliness of high school. Karyn Kusama directs Megan Fox as the titular possessed woman.
NOVEMBER 13
2012
What is it with Roland Emmerich and the end of the world? This time a cataclysm floods the planet and sends us all scurrying into boats. Didn’t Roland already make this under the title The Day After Tomorrow?
THE WHITE RIBBON/DAS WEIßE BAND
The reliably fascinating, impressively severe Michael Haneke won the top prize at Cannes for his study of life in a German village in the months before the beginning of the first World War.
HARRY BROWN
The indefatigable Michael Caine is back in harness for this study of an elderly veteran who sets out to avenge his best friend’s murder. Emily Mortimer and Liam Cunningham are also on board.
NOVEMBER 20
A SERIOUS MAN
After several star-studded jamborees, the Coen Brothers bring together a cast of largely obscure actors for a dark comedy concerning a Jewish academic and his failing marriage.
THE INFORMANT
Busy, busy Steven Soderbergh is in populist mode for this drama focusing on (the true-life “Lysine price-fixing conspiracy”. The trailer suggests that Matt Damon might be a hoot.
TWILIGHT: NEW MOON
The second film based on Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga re-unites Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson for more mumbly teen-vampire action. This time there are werewolves about the place also.
GLORIOUS 39
Writer-director Stephen Poliakoff makes a rare move from telly to cinema with this tale of a family teasing itself apart in the run-up to the second World War. A hugely classy cast includes Romola Garai, Christopher Lee and Julie Christie.
NOVEMBER 25
NINE
It’s Oscar time. A staggering number of Academy Award winners – Day-Lewis, Cruz, Cotillard, Dench, Kidman, Loren – star in this adaptation of Maury Yeston’s Broadway musical based on Fellini’s 8½. Not to be confused with 9.
NOVEMBER 27
BUNNY AND THE BULL
Described as “a road movie set entirely in a flat”, the first film from The Mighty Boosh team sounds barmier than a weekend in Barmy Town. As expected, Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt star.
THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE
Busy, busy Steven Soderbergh is in experimental mode with this lo-fi production that, the director claims, is influenced by Antonioni’s Red Desert and Bergman’s Cries and Whispers. Ooo! Get him.
NINJA ASSASSIN
The title says it all. James McTeigue, director of the strangely culty V for Vendetta, persuades the economically named Rain (a Korean pop star, apparently) to play one of the world’s deadliest killers.
DECEMBER 4
THE BOX
Richard Kelly, the man behind Donny Darko, offers this adaptation of Richard Matheson’s chilling story Button, Button. With Cameron Diaz and James Marsden.
CRACKS
Made in Ireland, the directorial debut of Jordan Scott (daughter of Ridley), takes us among the girls of an elite English boarding school. Eva Green adds glamour.
THE DESCENT PART 2
The sequel to Neil Marshall’s brilliant subterranean horror flick.
THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS
A strange project. George Clooney stars in an adaptation of Jon Ronson’s fascinating non-fiction account of the US army’s attempts to engage with the paranormal.
NATIVITY
The team behind British wedding-comedy Confetti reunite for another improvised romp. This time the subject is a school nativity play. Timely.
PLANET 51
We humans are the terrifying alien invaders in this animation.
DECEMBER 11
CASE 39
Barely two months after Pandorum, that film’s director, Christian Alvart, offers us another thriller. Renée Zellweger stars.
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s children’s book has been in production for a suspiciously long time. The gorgeous, enormously popular trailer has, however, sent expectations skyrocketing.
THE LIMITS OF CONTROL
Jim Jarmusch’s latest elliptical drama features Isaach De Bankolé as a contract killer encountering a bunch of oddballs while travelling through Spain.
THE STEPFATHER
You guessed right. It’s a remake of the classic 1987 shocker that starred that bloke out of Lost. This time round, Dylan Walsh from Nip/ Tuck is the stepdad.
DECEMBER 18
AVATAR
We’ve heard James Cameron droning on Newsnight. We’ve argued about that iffy trailer on the net. Now, finally we’ll get to see Cameron’s 3-D epic.
ST TRINIANS: THE LEGEND OF FRITTON’S GOLD
Sequel to the unnecessary remake of the classic British wild schoolgirl comedy.
DECEMBER 26
NOWHERE BOY
Video artist Sam Taylor Wood moves into features with an examination of the early life of John Lennon.
SHERLOCK HOLMES
Guy Ritchie has recast the Baker Street sleuth as an energetic action hero. Mind you, given that Holmes is played by Robert Downey Jr, he’s probably still pretty barmy.
ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE SQUEAKQUEL
Squeakquel? Get it? You may snort, but the first talking-rodent flick was one of the most successful films of 2007.
