Aardman Animations/Sony Pictures Animation
"Arthur Christmas" features the voices of Ashley Jensen and James McAvoy.
Jaap Buitendijk/Paramount Pictures and GK Films
Asa Butterfield plays the title character in Martin Scorsese's "Hugo."
Paramount Pictures and Columbia Pictures
Steven Spielberg uses performance capture digital filmmaking for "The Adventures of Tintin."
Scott Garfield/Disney Enterprises
Kermit, Miss Piggy and the rest of the gang are back together in "The Muppets."
Fred Hayes/Paramount Vantage and Indian Paintbrush
Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones star in "Like Crazy," winner of the Grand Jury Prize for drama at Cannes.
Christian Geisnaes/Magnolia Pictures
Alexander Skarsgaard (from left), Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg star in "Melancholia."
Baldur Bragason/Columbia Pictures
Daniel Craig headlines David Fincher's highly anticipated "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo."
According to the Chinese zodiac, 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit.
At the multiplex this holiday season, it's more likely to be the Year of the Chipmunk. Or perhaps the Year of the Horse, if Steven Spielberg's World War I movie proves as powerful as some people expect.
In any case, animals will dominate much of the American cinema calendar for the rest of the year. Some will be historic, some exotic, some computer- animated, some operated by human hands and some merely a tattooed representation. Whatever their status, these creatures will face some impressive human competition, including Tom Cruise, "Marilyn Monroe" and Sherlock Holmes.
Here's a look at the movies set to open in area theaters through the end of the year. Dates are subject to change.
Wednesday
"The Muppets": Animals (Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Rowlf the Dog) and a rock-and-roll drummer actually named Animal are among the felt-and-foam cast members of this Disney-backed attempt to find out if puppets can hold appeal for a generation raised on Pixar.
"Hugo": Can an auteur save 3D? Hitchcock directed a "stereoscopic" film almost 60 years ago ("Dial M for Murder"), and now Martin Scorsese gives the process a try with a 1930s boys adventure that will allow the director to give full vent to his cinephilia: Ben Kingsley appears as movie "wizard" Georges Méliès, France's turn-of-the-century special-effects innovator. Based on Brian Selznick's Caldecott Award-winning illustrated novel, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," the movie sounds interesting, but its specialized subject matter and uninformative title could make it a hard sell. The intriguing cast includes Chloë Grace Moretz, Sacha Baron Cohen and Christopher Lee.
"Arthur Christmas": A computer-generated 3D fantasy-adventure about Santa's son, from Aardman Animations (the "Wallace and Gromit" series).
"The Descendants": Oscar buzz is accumulating around the first film in seven years from director Alexander Payne ("Sideways"). George Clooney stars as a lawyer in Hawaii who has to be more than a "backup parent" to two troublesome daughters when his wife goes into a coma.
"My Week with Marilyn": Michelle Williams is Marilyn Monroe and Kenneth Branagh is Laurence Olivier in a film set in 1956, during the shooting of "The Princess and the Showgirl."
"Like Crazy": The winner of the Grand Jury Prize for drama at this year's Cannes Film Festival is a romance that stars Felicity Jones as a British college student in Los Angeles who falls in love with Anton Yelchin.
Dec. 2
"Love Crime": Again showing off the fluid French she demonstrated in "Sarah's Key," Kristin Scott Thomas stars (alongside knockout Ludivine Sagnier) in a psychological thriller that was the final film of the late French director Alain Corneau.
Dec. 9
"New Year's Eve": Director Garry Marshall revisits his "Valentine's Day" formula with an all-star romantic romp that includes Hilary Swank, Sarah Jessica Parker and Robert De Niro.
"The Sitter": "Adventures in Babysitting" meets "Superbad" in a comedy with Jonah Hill, directed by ex-arthouse auteur David Gordon Green.
"Melancholia": Lars von Trier's film connects a woman's crippling depression to the literal end of the world. Kirsten Dunst won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for her lacerating performance.
"Into the Abyss": The inimitable Werner Herzog examines capital punishment in his second documentary this year (after "Cave of Forgotten Dreams").
"Blackthorn": What if Butch Cassidy survived to old age in Bolivia? Sam Shepard is the graying outlaw.
Dec. 16
"Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked": The third film in the franchise finds the Chipmunks and the Chipettes wreaking more havoc aboard a cruise ship than Gilligan did aboard the S.S. Minnow. What next? "Chip of Fools"? "Little Chip of Horrors"?
"Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows": Can even the new action-hero reboot of Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr., again) defeat Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris)?
"Young Adult": Director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody hope the "Juno" lightning strikes twice as they reunite for a story about a distressed divorcée (Charlize Theron) trying to rekindle a romance with her old hometown flame (Patrick Wilson), now a contented husband and father.
Dec. 21
"Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol": Animation director Brad Bird ("The Incredibles") leaps to live action while Tom Cruise (hide the couch!) leaps from Dubai to India to Prague as he portrays IMF agent Ethan Hunt for the fourth time.
"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo": Thanks to a stunning trailer and the directorial presence of David Fincher ("The Social Network"), hopes are high for this English-language adaptation of Stieg Larsson's best-selling Swedish mystery novel, with Rooney Mara as punkish Lisbeth Salander.
"The Adventures of Tintin": Can the superstar team of director Steven Spielberg and producer Peter Jackson make "performance capture" digital filmmaking palatable for audiences creeped out by the process in such movies as "The Polar Express"? And can they make American moviegoers care about Tintin, the beloved (in Europe) newsboy hero created by the revered Belgian comic-book artist who called himself Hergé?
Dec. 23
"We Bought a Zoo": Cameron Crowe directs Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson in a fact-based tale about a family that decides to rescue and reopen a small Southern California zoo. The first person to mention "Zanesville, Ohio" will be escorted from the theater.
Dec. 25 (Christmas Day)
"War Horse": Based on a novel by Michael Morpurgo, Steven Spielberg's other holiday film is an ambitious production about a young man who cannot forget his horse, even after the duo is pulled apart by the deadly forces of World War I. Could this be the consensus "Best Picture" that Academy voters have been waiting for?
"The Darkest Hour": Sci-fi action fans more interested in electrical death rays than Christmas tree lights can seek refuge from holiday cheer in this alien-invasion epic.
"The Artist": Critics have been going gaga for this French homage to old movies, a silent black-and-white romance set in Hollywood in 1927, at the dawn of the "talkies." Entertainment Weekly handicaps this unusual feature as a sure-fire Best Picture Oscar nominee.
- |
Comments » 0
Be the first to post a comment!
Share your thoughts
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.