Stars Colliding As Film Worlds Open

Newcastle Herald

Saturday January 3, 2009

JAMES JOYCE

SEQUELS, prequels and grim comic book heroes are set to dominate the box office again in 2009, with new instalments of Harry Potter, Transformers, Star Trek and Terminator expected to be among the top money-makers in Australian cinemas.

The return of Titanic director James Cameron with science-fiction epic Avatar also shapes as one of the events of 2009.

And we catch a final glimpse of Heath Ledger in The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, the film he was making at the time of his death.

Australians love going to the movies, buying between $10 million and $12 million worth of tickets every week.

Ledger's The Dark Knight was 2008's big-ticket item and Warner Bros hopes for a repeat this year with Watchmen.

Based on a bleak 1980s graphic novel about a band of faded superhero vigilantes, Watchmen is directed by 300's Zack Snyder.

It's due out in March, although Warner's ownership rights wrangle with 20th Century Fox is due back in court on January 20 and could delay the release.

Hugh Jackman bares his comic book claws again on April 30 in Wolverine, a spin-off prequel to the X-Men trilogy.

Partly filmed on Blacksmiths Beach, the dark movie is set 20 years before X-Men and tells how a young soldier became a clawed, mutton-chopped mutant.

Another Aussie set for action hero status this year is Sam Worthington.

Cameron cast the 32-year-old star of Bootmen, Gettin' Square, Dirty Deeds and Somersault in the lead role in his virtual-reality sci-fi Avatar, due in December.

He also recommended the actor to director McG to star with Christian Bale in Terminator Salvation. The fourth chapter in the robot franchise opens in June, though Arnold Schwarzenegger won't be back.

Perhaps the most eagerly awaited sequel is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth movie in the wizard series, in which the star pupil of Hogwarts goes to war with evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes's young nephew Tiffin plays Voldemort as a child).

Another entry in a long-running franchise is Star Trek 11.

Directed by Lost creator J.J. Abrams, the prequel stars Chris Pine as young Kirk, Zachary Quinto as his Vulcan-human No 2 and Leonard Nimoy in a cameo as the old Spock.

John Cho from the Harold and Kumar movies is Sulu, Simon Pegg powers up the dilithium crystals as Scottie and Eric Bana is the Enterprise crew's Romulan nemesis.

Other sequels include The Da Vinci Code follow-up Angels and Demons, starring Tom Hanks as Professor Robert Langdon, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, with Aussie hottie Isabel Lucas joining Shia LeBeouf and $200 million worth of computer-generated Autobots and Decepticons.

The cartoon wars continue after success in 2008 for both Pixar (with Wall-E) and DreamWorks (Kung Fu Panda): DreamWorks unleashes Monsters Vs Aliens in April and Pixar has "coming-of-old-age" fable Up in June.

Kids will also have new instalments of Ice Age, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Night at the Museum, plus Disney's first black cartoon princess in the traditional animation Princess and the Frog.

The closest things to 2008's hit chick flick Sex and the City may be He's Just Not That Into You, a Valentine's Day romance starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore and Scarlett Johansson, or Confessions Of A Shopaholic, with Aussie Wedding Crashers star Isla Fischer.

Fischer's hubby, Borat joker Sacha Baron Cohen, returns in May with Bruno, a catwalk caper with a gay Austrian fashionista.

Elsewhere, Johnny Depp plays a gangster in Michael Mann's Public Enemies, Russell Crowe is Robin Hood's adversary in Ridley Scott's Nottingham and Robert Downey jnr has the title role in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes.

Also due later in the year is Ledger's swansong, The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus.

Director Terry Gilliam cast Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell to share Ledger's incomplete role as a man who discovers his fiancee's soul has been promised to the devil.

2009 AT THE MOVIES

THIS MONTH

BRIDE WARS Bridezillas brawl,

with Kate Hudson and Anne

Hathaway

VALKYRIE Tom Cruise as a Nazi

FEBRUARY

HES JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU

W Oliver Stone does President

George Bush, with Josh Brolin as W

GHOST TOWN Ricky Gervais sees

dead people

THE INTERNATIONAL Naomi Watts

and Clive Owen expose a rotten

bank

DEFIANCE Daniel Craig leads

Jewish resistance fighters in WII

MARCH

WATCHMEN

CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC

DUPLICITY Tony Gilroy

(Michael Clayton) corporate

thriller starring Julia Roberts and

Clive Owen

APRIL

INKHEART Brendan Fraser

family fantasy

MONSTERS Vs ALIENS

PINK PANTHER 2 Steve Martin

returns as Clouseau, John Cleese

co-stars

FAST & FURIOUS Vin Diesel and Paul

Walker race again

UGLY TRUTH Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde)

romantic comedy starring Gerard Butler

(PS, I Love You) and Katherine Heigl (27 Dresses)

DRAGONBALL Live-action version of Japanese

manga cartoon

RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN Disney sci-fi with

Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock)

17 AGAIN High School Musical pin-up

Zac Efron rehashes that old Tom Hanks

comedy Big

STATE OF PLAY Political thriller with

Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck

WOLVERINE

MAY

STAR TREK 11

BRUNO

ANGELS AND DEMONS

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 2 Sequel

to the Ben Stiller family hit

JUNE

TERMINATOR: SALVATION

UP

TRANSFORMERS 2

JULY

ICE AGE 3

LAND OF THE LOST

Will Ferrell outruns CGI dinosaurs

PUBLIC ENEMIES Johnny Depp as a

1930s gangster

2012 More large-scale apocalypse with Roland

Emmerich (10,000BC, Day After Tomorrow)

HARRY POTTER AND THE

HALF BLOOD PRINCE

FUNNY PEOPLE Judd Apatow

(40-Year-Old Virgin/Superbad)

comedy-drama starring Adam Sandler

AUGUST

GI JOE Toy spin-off with Channing Tatum as

a special ops commando

THE PROPOSAL Sandra Bullock romances

Ryan Reynolds

PELHAM 123 Denzel Washington tackles

hijacker John Travolta in remake of 1978

Walter Matthau thriller

SEPTEMBER

SURROGATES Bruce Willis sci-fi

OCTOBER

THE INFORMANT Steven Soderbergh

(Erin Brockovich) whistle-blower

thriller starring Matt Damon

NOVEMBER

WOLFMAN Benicio Del Toro gets hairy-scary

DECEMBER

NOTTINGHAM Ridley Scott does Robin Hood,

with Russell Crowe as the Sheriff

ALVIN 2 More chipmunk antics

THE FANTASTIC MR FOX George Clooney

and Cate Blanchett lend voices to animation

of Roald Dahl

PRINCESS AND THE

FROG

SHERLOCK HOLMES

Robert Downey jnr

is Holmes and Jude

Law is Watson in Guy

Ritchies detective caper

AVATAR Sam

Worthington sci-fi

FAVOURITE FILMS OF 2008

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© 2009 Newcastle Herald

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