You're probably already aware of this year's biggest movies (Indiana Jones 4, Iron Man, The Dark Knight, The Happening, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Incredible Hulk). But what about next year?
At the request of a friend, today I'll take a look at the most anticipated movies of 2009. If the WGA strike goes on for much longer, 2009 will be when studios and production companies run out of screenplays to produce!
Here they are (ranked subjectively by my level of anticipation).
13. The Road
This post-apocalyptic novel by Cormac McCarthy (No Country For Old Men) follows a man and his child as they journey across the country after an unknown disaster destroyed civilization as we know it. Sounds depressing to me, but McCarthy is a master wordsmith, and his novels to date have made great movies (although I think I'm the only person who enjoyed All the Pretty Horses). Consummate cool-guy Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn/Hidalgo) is playing the main role, while Charlize Theron is attached to play his dead wife in flashbacks. If you want to see just how cool Viggo can be, watch A History of Violence.
12. The Alchemist
This is one of my favorite books of all time. Go read it and you will instantly be a better person. The movie has been in "development hell" for several years, but Laurence Fishburne, who's writing, directing, and starring as the titular character, has recently promised a 2009 release.
11. Wolverine
I wasn't a huge fan of the X-Men franchise. There were things I liked, but the idiocy of characters like Storm, Cyclops, and virtually every villain were enough to turn me off. I also hate Bryan Singer. Nevertheless, one of the main things I did like was Hugh Jackman, so I've got my hopes up for his solo spin-off, directed by Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) and featuring creepmaster Liev Schreiber and baby-faced Michelle Monaghan as Stryker and the Silver Fox. Reportedly the movie will explore Wolverine's origins (he's over 100 years old).
10. The Goonies 2
I'm not kidding. Writer/producer Steven Spielberg and director Richard Donner both say the original DVD is selling so well that a sequel is inevitable. That means Sam Astin (a.k.a. Samwise Gamgee), Josh Brolin (the hick from No Country For Old Men), and Cory Feldman might be back on the big screen searching for treasure and screaming "HEY YOU GUYS!!!"
9. The Green Hornet
Here's a golden age crimefighter you've probably never heard of. Think Dick Tracy with a blackbelt. A few years ago, some French guys made a pretty cool fan film that inspired Seth Rogen of all people (Knocked Up's leading man) to produce and star in a feature film. The biggest question now is who will play the Green Hornet's Asian sidekick, Kato. Stephen Chow and Tony Jaa are both in talks. If you've never seen Tony Jaa in action, check this out (ignore the awful music):
8. Thor
Not the actual Norse god, but the Marvel version of him. Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust) is set to helm this one, with Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend) on script duty. It's part of Marvel's build-up to an eventual Avengers movie, along with this year's Iron Man and Incredible Hulk.
7. Spider-man 4
Let's all agree, the third one sucked. But the first two were great, weren't they? Columbia Pictures has already committed to releasing at least three more. Luckily, Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst say they'll come back for at least one more if director Sam Raimi is involved. Raimi's probably going to end up directing the two Lord of the Rings prequels based on The Hobbit, so he'll likely just be a producer on the fourth Spider-man. The good news is that master screenwriter James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) has been hired to pen the script, and Columbia has restricted the villain count to two per movie. So far, the Lizard and Kraven the Hunter are the top possibilities according to the executive producers.
6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Part 1
That's right, I said part one. Just last week Warner Brothers announced they would split the 700-page tome into two films. Probably a smart move on their part. Pretty soon they aren't going to have any more Potters to make millions with. Why not stretch it out? Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth ) also confirmed this week that he'll be directing at least one of them.
5. Transformers 2
Director Michael Bay fast-tracked the screenplay on this huge sequel so that it would get finished before the WGA strike. What should we expect this time? According to Bay, an aircraft carrier Decepticon, Dinobots, Constructicons, and Soundwave. Sounds good to me. I'd pay $7.50 just to hear Optimus Prime talk again.
4. Y: The Last Man
DJ Caruso is directing, with Shia LaBoeuf likely to star (are they the next Scorsese/Leo, or Spielberg/Hanks?) in this adaptation of the critically-acclaimed comic series by Lost writer Brian K. Vaughn (he co-wrote next week's episode along with Cloverfield writer Drew Goddard). The sprawling epic follows the last man on Earth, after an unknown plague almost instantly wipes out every other male mammal on the planet. That's right, Shia LaBeouf plays one man among 3 billion women. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? It's not, apparently. Caruso says the movie will be the first in a trilogy.
3. Neverwhere
If you don't know who Neil Gaiman is yet, you should be ashamed. He wrote the screenplay for Beowulf, the acclaimed Sandman graphic novels, the award-winning books American Gods, Anansi Boys, and Stardust, which was recently adapted to film. This year Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas) is making another stop-motion movie based on Gaiman's Coraline. So far, Neverwhere has been a BBC miniseries, a novel, and a graphic novel. I read the novel, and loved it. It takes place in the seedy, mythical underworld of London, where an ordinary man gets involved with some really weird stuff. I'm hoping he gets M. Night Shyamalan to direct.
2. Interstellar
This is Stephen Spielberg's next sci-fi epic. In his words, it's about "a group of explorers who travel through wormholes and into other dimensions." Sounds cool to me. And Jonathan Nolan is writing the script (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight). I'm a big Spielberg fan, but I haven't really liked anything he's done since 1993's Jurassic Park (except for Minority Report, which was decent). I'm hoping Interstellar will be a return to form, and we can all forget about The Terminal, The Lost World, A.I., and War of the Worlds.
1. Watchmen
No less than the graphic novel that got me into comics. It's amazing. Written by Alan Moore (V For Vendetta), it "is set in 1985, in an alternative history United States where costumed adventurers are real and the country is edging closer to a nuclear war with the Soviet Union (the Doomsday Clock is at five minutes to midnight). It tells the story of a group of past and present superheroes and the events surrounding the mysterious murder of one of their own."
Even better, Zach Snyder is directing (300). The image at the top of the post was hidden in the trailer for 300, and is apparently a special effects test for Rorschach, one of the story's characters. Check out the official site where Synder keeps a production blog.
And don't forget, Lost premieres tonight! I'll post my thoughts/theories tomorrow right here. Same bat-time, same bat-channel.
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