Holiday preview: Calendar
November
Nov. 9
Skyfall
(PG-13) Daniel Craig’s 007 returns after a four-year layoff — and the stakes are higher than ever. MI6 is under attack from a sadistic cyberterrorist (Javier Bardem) targeting Judi Dench’s M, while Bond globe-trots from Istanbul, Turkey, to Shanghai to the Scottish Highlands exercising his license to kill. Director Sam Mendes introduces new faces to the franchise: Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, Ben Whishaw, and Bond girls Naomie Harris and Bérénice Marlohe. ”I wanted to go back to that feeling of watching a Bond movie for the first time,” says Mendes. ”I wanted to bring the wit and the fun and the surprises.” —Chris Nashawaty
Lincoln
(PG-13) Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Honest Abe in Steven Spielberg’s biopic, written by Tony Kushner, about pivotal months in the 16th president’s life.
LUV
(R) A former drug dealer (Common) takes his young nephew (Michael Rainey Jr.) under his wing.
Nature Calls
(R) A devoted scoutmaster (Patton Oswalt) tries to toughen up some young couch potatoes — including the 10-year-old son of his brother (Johnny Knoxville).
A Royal Affair
(R) Denmark’s Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film chronicles an illicit relationship between a young 18th-century Danish queen (Alicia Vikander) and a humble court physician (Mads Mikkelsen).
Nov. 16
Anna Karenina
(R) In director Joe Wright’s adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic, Keira Knightley plays a woman who cheats on her husband (Jude Law) with a young military officer (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2
(PG-13) Kristen Stewart’s Bella has chosen her man, gotten hitched, given birth to a fast-growing half-vampire baby (Mackenzie Foy), and turned into a vampire. Next on her list? Taking down the red-eyed Volturi.
Nov. 21
Life of Pi
(PG) In this fantasy-adventure, the title character (newcomer Suraj Sharma) finds himself lost at sea but not alone. He is stranded aboard a lifeboat with a ferocious Bengal tiger. (As bad as things got for Tom Hanks in Cast Away, at least Wilson the volleyball never tried to eat him.) Both Pi and the tiger are refugees from the same sunken ship, the first example of how director Ang Lee’s 3-D adaptation of Yann Martel’s 2001 novel questions whether anything is really coincidence. ”What’s most valuable in Yann’s book is that he talks about faith,” Lee says. ”It’s abstract, but very realistic.” By clashing the harrowing with the surreal, Lee hopes audiences find a spark of transcendence. —Anthony Breznican
Red Dawn
(PG-13) Shelved during MGM’s financial woes, this remake stars Josh Hutcherson and Chris Hemsworth as teens defending America against an invading army of evil North Koreans.
Rise of the Guardians
(PG) Rough-and-tumble animated versions of Santa, the Easter Bunny, Jack Frost, and the Tooth Fairy form an Avengers-like team to challenge the bogeyman.
Silver Linings Playbook
(R) This dramedy starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence as lovable head cases won the People’s Choice Award at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
Nov. 23
Hitchcock
(PG-13) Anthony Hopkins embodies the famous horror director during the shooting of Psycho in 1959. Scarlett Johansson costars as Janet Leigh, and Helen Mirren plays Hitch’s devoted but long-suffering wife, Alma Reville.
Rust and Bone
(R) Marion Cotillard courts Oscar voters as a trainer of killer whales who loses her legs in a tragic accident.
Nov. 30
California Solo
(Not Rated) An aging British rocker (Robert Carlyle) living in L.A. is charged with DUI and threatened with deportation unless he can prove his absence would cause ”extreme hardship” to his ex-wife (Kathleen Wilhoite) and estranged daughter (Savannah Lathem).
The Collection
(R) When a high school student (Emma Fitzpatrick) gets kidnapped and placed within a treacherous labyrinth by a psychopathic killer (Randall Archer), her father (Christopher McDonald) assembles a team of mercenaries to retrieve her.
Dragon
(R) The Chinese drama, about a detective whose investigation into a double homicide comes close to unearthing a papermaker’s dark past, premiered at 2011’s Cannes Film Festival.
Killing Them Softly
(R) To quote Brad Pitt in his Chanel No. 5 commercial: The likelihood of us watching a gangster tale starring him, Ray Liotta, James Gandolfini, and Argo‘s Scoot McNairy is … ”inevitable.”
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning
(R) Twenty years after the original Universal Soldier, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren are still bearing arms (in both senses of the word) as Vietnam casualties reanimated by the government to fight once more.
December
Dec. 7
Deadfall
(R) Eric Bana and Olivia Wilde play a brother-sister duo who attempt to escape a blizzard-ridden U.S. after a casino heist goes wrong.
The Fitzgerald Family Christmas
(Not Rated) More than 20 years after walking out on his family, a man (Ed Lauter) hopes for a reunion in director Edward Burns’ new domestic drama.
Hyde Park on Hudson
(R) This biopic traces the affair between Franklin D. Roosevelt (Bill Murray) and his distant cousin Margaret Suckley (Laura Linney) over a weekend in upstate New York in 1939.
Lay the Favorite
(R) A sports gambler (Bruce Willis) finds an unlikely protégée in a stripper (Rebecca Hall).
Playing for Keeps
(PG-13) A former pro soccer star (Gerard Butler) returns home to coach his son’s team, but he can’t keep himself from playing the field — with the team’s soccer moms, that is.
Dec. 14
Any Day Now
(R) In the 1970s, a gay couple (Alan Cumming and Garret Dillahunt) adopt a boy with Down syndrome (Isaac Leyva).
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
(Not Yet Rated) In the prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Gandalf (Ian McKellen) enlists Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and a band of dwarves to take back a stolen treasure.
Save the Date
(R) While one commitment-phobic sister (Lizzy Caplan) rejects a proposal from her boyfriend, the other (Alison Brie) can’t stop obsessing over planning her wedding.
Stand Up Guys
(R) An elderly hitman (Christopher Walken) must kill his longtime comrade (Al Pacino). But first, the two men enjoy a final crime-filled night on the town.
Dec. 19
Amour
(PG-13) Director Michael Haneke’s drama about an elderly couple (Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva) won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Monsters Inc. 3D
(PG) Following 3-D rereleases of The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Finding Nemo, Disney/Pixar is sending Mike and Sully back into theaters. (Due in 2013: Monsters University.)
Zero Dark Thirty
(R) Kathryn Bigelow’s first film since The Hurt Locker is a fact-based drama focused on a CIA analyst (Jessica Chastain), Navy SEALs, and the successful hunt for Osama bin Laden.
Dec. 21
Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away
(Not Yet Rated) The latest 3-D special event doesn’t feature a pop star like Justin Bieber or Katy Perry, but it makes up for that with mind-boggling acrobatics tailored to the big screen.
The Impossible
(PG-13) While vacationing at a Thai resort in 2004, a family of five led by Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts get separated during the deadly tsunami.
Jack Reacher
(PG-13) Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise), a former military cop and the itinerant hero of Lee Child’s best-selling thriller novels, investigates a series of sniper killings.
Not Fade Away
(R) For his first feature, Sopranos creator David Chase reunites with James Gandolfini for a coming-of-age tale about suburban New Jersey teens who form a rock band in the 1960s.
On the Road
(R) In the first-ever adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel — a Beat Generation classic — Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund crisscross America with Kristen Stewart in a ’49 Hudson sedan.
This Is 40
(R) In director Judd Apatow’s latest comedy, a spin-off of his 2007 hit Knocked Up, we catch up with Pete and Debbie (Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann) as they grapple with the realities of getting older.
Dec. 25
The Guilt Trip
(Not Yet Rated) The premise is high-concept but simple: A young inventor (Seth Rogen) embarks on a cross-country road trip with his neurotic widowed mother (Barbra Streisand). ”We haven’t seen Barbra do a character like this — a genuine, authentic person — in a long time,” says director Anne Fletcher (The Proposal). Credit the role’s realness to screenwriter Dan Fogelman (Crazy, Stupid, Love), who based the story on a journey he took in 2007 with his beloved ”pain-in-the-ass Jewish mother,” who died in 2008. ”Barbra studied a lot of pictures and videos of my mom,” he says. ”If my mom knew Barbra was playing her in a movie, she’d be pretty happy.” —Adam Markovitz
Django Unchained
(Not Yet Rated) Quentin Tarantino’s 19th-century-set spaghetti Western will probably have more anachronisms than a Trekkie at a Civil War reenactment. But then again, Pulp Fiction already showed us how much the director cares about chronological consistency. Naturally, the soundtrack probably won’t be limited to a few ditties on the ol’ saloon pianey. ”Quentin would hear certain music and just rewrite things. He’d let the music drive him,” says Jamie Foxx, who stars as a former slave seeking to release his still-enslaved wife. ”I thought that was great, because that’s how I think. Music is everything.” —Keith Staskiewicz
Les Misérables
(Not Yet Rated) Director Tom Hooper’s follow-up to his Oscar winner The King’s Speech adapts the beloved stage musical based on Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel.
Parental Guidance
(PG) A pair of grandparents (Billy Crystal and Bette Midler) attempt to babysit their grandchildren despite their constantly hovering daughter (Marisa Tomei).
West of Memphis
(R) This Peter Jackson-produced documentary chronicles the harrowing justice-system journey of the West Memphis Three, who were accused of murder in 1993 but released from prison last year.
Dec. 28
Promised Land
(PG-13) Matt Damon and John Krasinski co-wrote and star in a topical drama, pitting a natural-gas company exec (Damon) and an environmentalist (Krasinski) against each other in a rural community debating the issue of fracking.
Quartet
(PG) Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut is set inside a British retirement home for classical musicians that’s upended by the arrival of a fussy retired opera star (Maggie Smith).
January
Jan. 4
A Dark Truth
(R) Andy Garcia plays an Anderson Cooper-type talk-show host who exposes a company’s long-covered-up massacre in South America.
Texas Chainsaw 3D
(R) In the 38 years since the original horror classic hit theaters, fan enthusiasm for roaring chain saws has never waned. Hence this modern-day sequel.
Jan. 11
Gangster Squad
(R) Originally slated for release in September, this high-octane crime movie from director Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) was pushed back in the wake of the Aurora, Colo., shootings, which eerily mirrored a scene in the film that depicted a gangland massacre in a movie theater. Now, with that sequence removed, audiences will finally get to see Ryan Gosling and Josh Brolin as a pair of Los Angeles cops assigned to take down notorious 1940s Mob kingpin Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn). ”I like the idea that it’s a throwback movie, but it’s also an action movie,” Brolin told EW during filming. ”I’d want to see it.” —Josh Rottenberg
Struck by Lightning
(Not Yet Rated) Glee’s Chris Colfer wrote and stars in a film about a high schooler who resorts to blackmail to launch a literary journal.
Jan. 18
Broken City
(R) NYC’s ruthless mayor (Russell Crowe) enlists an ex-cop (Mark Wahlberg) to learn if his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is cheating.
The Last Stand
(Not Yet Rated) A drug-cartel leader (Eduardo Noriega) tries to escape across the Mexican border by eluding a dogged sheriff (Arnold Schwarzenegger).
Mama
(PG-13) Two mysterious girls rescued from the wilderness have a sinister agenda for their new caretaker (Jessica Chastain).
Jan. 25
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
(R) The long-on-the-shelf reimagining of the Grimm brothers’ fairy tale stars Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton as gun-wielding grown-up versions of the once-kidnapped children.
Movie 43
(R) This anthology comedy, a series of short films co-directed by Peter Farrelly, Elizabeth Banks, Brett Ratner, and nine others, seems to star half of Hollywood (Emma Stone, Terrence Howard, Chris Pratt, Hugh Jackman, etc.).
Parker
(R) A professional thief (action stalwart Jason Statham) teams up with a beautiful novice crook (Jennifer Lopez) to pull off a massive heist in Palm Beach.
TBA Jan.
Ginger & Rosa
(Not Yet Rated) In 1962, a young dreamer named Ginger (Elle Fanning) is torn from her best friend, Rosa (Alice Englert), by her parents’ fighting and the looming threat of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
