Notable in 2010

The cast are in films on the notable films of 2010 list.  More to come (I will update when they come out).  Cam has a lot of movies coming out in 2010.

Remember Me
Opens: March 12th 2010
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Emilie de Ravin, Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper, Lena Olin
Director: Allen Coulter

Summary: A rebellious young man in New York City has a strained relationship with his father ever since tragedy separated their family. A twist of fate bring him in contact with a young woman whose spirit unexpectedly heals and inspires him.

Analysis: Girl #1: "OMG did you hear? Edward, I mean Robert Pattinson, has a new movie"
Girl #2: "Seriously? God he's so hot. You mean it's not the next Twilight?"
Girl #1: "Uh-uh, its like a love story"
Girl #2: "It's not that Spanish gay sh*t again, that stuff was gross"
Girl #1: "Nah, it's him and that Aussie girl from 'Lost' and they totally make out, she's such a lucky cow"
Girl #2: "Bitch, doesn't she know he's mine. I'm so there, text me the details"

We're still very much in the eye of the storm when it comes to Robert Pattinson. The scruffy, unassuming 23-year-old Brit didn't really ask for the media storm and fangirl craze surrounding him, but he has it anyway. The one good thing about it is that he can use it to push non-"Twilight" films of his that would otherwise go unnoticed at the box-office.

Whether he has the goods to become a strong actor however remains in question as his performances in the likes of "Little Ashes" and the "Twilight" films haven't met with acclaim. The former however was a far too ambitious role beyond his depth as yet, the latter is a character with an admittedly limited range of playability. 'Remember' at last gives us a vehicle that seems suitable for him and could crossover into "A Walk to Remember" or "The Notebook" style sleeper hit.

He's also got some strong support on hand with a screenplay by "Rachel Getting Married" scribe Jenny Lumet, and direction from TV directing great Allen Coulter ("Hollywoodland," "Rome," "The Sopranos"). Should Lumet's script keep the genuine and raw emotional power of 'Rachel', combined with the impressive supporting cast on offer, we should have good drama. Will Pattinson fit comfortably into that or be the weak link in the chain along the lines of Zac Efron in "Me and Orson Welles" or Ben Affleck in "The Sum of All Fears"?

The Roommate
Opens: September 17th 2010
Cast: Minka Kelly, Leighton Meester, Cam Gigandet, Matt Lanter, Danneel Harris
Director: Christian E. Christiansen

Summary: College freshman Sara is randomly assigned to live in a dorm with another girl named Rebecca who outwardly seems sweet and normal. She soon finds her safety and the lives of those closest to her jeopardized as Rebecca's strange and increasingly murderous true personality emerges.

Analysis: Early Fall means only one thing - time for another poor man's PG-13 thriller featuring a "Gossip Girl" star. Chace Crawford's "The Haunting of Molly Hartley" in 2008, Penn Badgley's "The Stepfather" in 2009, and in 2010 we get this "Single White Female" for today's generation with Leighton Meester as the creepy and ultimately murderous stalker chick. Added to that a supporting cast almost entirely from shows on The CW and you've got cross-promotion heaven.

The big question here is what the hell is Oscar-nominated Danish film director Christian E. Christiansen ("Nynne," "Razone," "At Night") doing directing this? I understand the desire of foreign film directors to break into Hollywood anyway they can, but even hits in this genre like John Polson's "Swimfan" didn't exactly help him out much on scoring future jobs.

A few script reviews have popped up online and sound atrocious, with the biggest thing of note being essentially a variation on Fatal Attraction's 'bunny-in-the-boiler' scene albeit with a different appliance and pet. Meester's psycho bitch character gets some fun antics, but nothing as creative as Steven Weber's skull-piercing stiletto heel death in 'Female'. Wait for the cable re-run.

The Runaways
Opens: March 19th 2010
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Michael Shannon, Scout Taylor-Compton
Director: Floria Sigismondi

Summary: The story of the hugely influential and first successful all-girl hard rock band which began in late 1975 as a novelty act of teenaged girls performing in leather and lace. The girls ended up proving to be serious and influential musicians over the next four years.

Analysis: A curious cultural oddity in that very few of the teenage girls this film will be targeted at will have ever heard of the band or its songs. Certainly most are far more familiar with Joan Jett's 80's work like "I Love Rock N' Roll" (long before Britney did that awful cover version) than her time with The Runaways. Nevertheless the draw of two "New Moon" stars, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, as full on 70's punk chicks should be enough to get people to this biopic from acclaimed music video helmer Floria Sigismondi.

A trailer released not that long ago showed a grittier and more period-specific look than expected but also offered up hope of something with weight to it. Certainly the idea of "Revolutionary Road" scene-stealer Michael Shannon as recording producer and impresario Kim Fowley has my interest piqued. The reaction from the upcoming world premiere at Sundance however will be a bellwether, and if it goes well expect a decent sized opening for the genre.

Alice in Wonderland
Opens: March 5th 2010
Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter
Director: Tim Burton

Summary: A pseudo-sequel to the Lewis Carroll classic, Alice returns to the fantasy realm years after her first visit. Now aged 17 and not fitting into Victorian society and structure, she returns to a slightly haunted and overgrown Wonderland.

Analysis: Though his take on "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" didn't prove as definitive as hoped, Burton's new version of 'Alice' seems a slightly different and more potent beast altogether. Carroll's tale has been translated many times before of course, most notably the 1951 Disney cartoon along with the 1985 & 1999 TV versions, but none have been done with a budget of this size and Burton's trademark twisted imagination.

Visuals from the trailers look good (especially in 3D) and while Burton regulars may balk at the very kid-friendly corny antics of Depp's silly turn as the Mad Hatter in the trailers, the stellar mostly British cast in small roles like Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Matt Lucas, etc. give one hope that adults will get some enjoyment as well.

Easy A
Opens: 2010
Cast: Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes, Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci, Penn Badgley
Director: Will Gluck

Summary: A high school student who, after being ostracized by an unfounded rumor that she is sexually promiscuous, uses the rumor mill to her advantage. Soon she's able to pit puritanical students and teachers against their liberal counterparts.

Analysis: His first film, the tedious and far too tame male cheerleader comedy "Fired Up", doesn't give one hope. Nevertheless former "The Loop" and "Grosse Point" showrunner Will Gluck has returned with a far more interesting sounding premise and a cast whom generally avoid dumb studio comedies. Playwright Bert V. Royal helped out on the script which updates "The Scarlet Letter" for a modern setting. Still too early to tell how this will go.

The Experiment
Opens: 2010
Cast: Adrien Brody, Forest Whitaker, Travis Fimmel, Cam Gigandet, Clifton Collins Jr.
Director: Paul Scheuring

Summary: A remake of the German thriller "Das Experiment" which centered on a group of ordinary men recruited to take on the roles of guards and prisoners as part of a research study and examined how the effects of assigned roles, power and control affected the participants.

Analysis: This one's confusing so bear with me. Oliver Hirschbiegel ("Downfall," "The Invasion") directed the highly acclaimed 2001 German film "Das Experiment" which itself was inspired by the real life events of the Stanford University Prison Experiment in the US in 1971. Then in 2003, Maverick Films began work on "The Stanford Prison Experiement" - an entirely new film about the real 1971 incident using a script by Christopher McQuarrie ("The Usual Suspects") that he would direct.

Cut to 2006 Inferno Distribution was invited onboard to co-produce and declined as they were apparently already looking into remaking "Das Experiment" in an anonymous and contemporary U.S. setting. Legal threats and lawsuits ensued which stalled progress on both productions until it was settled in early 2008 with both companies free to develop their projects. By early 2009 "Prison Break" creator and showrunner Paul Scheuring was onboard to direct and adapt the screenplay for Inferno's remake, while Maverick's film currently sits stuck in development hell.

Shot over the summer, much of the cast has talked excitedly about the work they did on the project during recent interviews these past few months about other films. The first photos popped up at the American Film Market last month but beyond that there's no talk of a release as yet, though Sony Pictures is set to distribute the film sometime this year. Expect to hear more on this in a few months.

The Last Airbender
Opens: July 2nd 2010
Cast: Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, Dev Patel
Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Summary: A live-action film based on the Nickelodeon animated TV series. In a fantastic world where civilisation exists as four great empires, a reluctant young child sets out on a perilous journey to restore balance to a world torn apart by war.

Analysis: Its been quite the decade for M. Night Shyamalan who started it as a household name with labels of a moodern-day Hitchcock thanks to the likes of "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs". Today he's considered more of a one-trick pony and in some cases a punchline due to rampant stories of egomania run wild and a series of much derided onscreen flops like "Lady in the Water" and "The Happening".

Thus 'Airbender' marks a potential return to form for the helmer. An adaptation of the hit cartoon series "Avatar", the film's name was changed to avoid confusion with James Cameron's epic, the pre-existing story and formula for young adult-aimed adventure fantasy epics takes the auteur outside of his usual "Twilight Zone"-esque thriller comfort zone.

In fact this is a genre plagued by pedestrian visuals and often drenched in far too much exposition, so the benefits of his atmospheric shooting style and restrained use of dialogue can definitely be seen as a plus. The story sounds interesting enough, though the 'Chosen One' prophecy angle is becoming more and more tiring with each and every show and film that exploits overused Messiah mythology.

The film has undergone a bit of a controversy for its 'whitening up' of the multi-ethnic cast of the animated series. That story wasn't helped by the reveal that "Slumdog Millionaire" star Dev Patel was actually a replacement for the whiter-than-snow Jesse McCartney for the film's villain. As we approach the release though it's likely that criticism will die down and the debates over the film's quality will take over.

A Nightmare on Elm Street
Opens: April 30th 2010
Cast: Jackie Earle Haley, Rooney Mara, Kyle Gallner, Thomas Dekker
Director: Samuel Bayer

Summary: A remake of Wes Craven's seminal 1984 horror classic. A group of teenagers find their dreams haunted by a figure, a badly burned man with razor knives for fingers. His name is Freddy, and if he kills you in the dream then you die in real life.

Analysis: Leatherface, Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers have all had their due, now comes the inevitable update of arguably the biggest of the 80's horror titans - Freddy Krueger. As per usual, Platinum Dunes brought in a music video director, a grittier visual aesthetic and a bunch of good looking young actors with recent small screen experience to pad out the victims list.

Unlike his masked and mute counterparts who could frankly be played by anyone of decent height and build, Krueger has always been inexorably tied to actor Robert Englund. From the chilling heights of the first, third and seventh film to the embarrassing lows of the second, fifth and sixth film (not to mention the cable series spin-off), Englund was the rock which the franchise built on. Thus the big question here is how will Jackie Earle Haley go as a replacement.

During production there was talk of the less than stellar script, in-fighting between the director and the producers over various issues, and Haley himself being unhappy. Troubled sets however don't mean a lot in the final analysis, and the early trailer looked impressive. The more realistic burn victim style makeup, replacing Freddy's bolognese face for something more akin to a four cheese sauce, is still too hidden for the moment and so remains a big question mark as to its effectiveness in motion.

An early test screening review for the film cited it as a typically thin but flashy effort in line with Dunes' other remakes, a few jump scares but nothing like the atmosphere or depth of the original. However it did credit Haley as nailing the character, and does suggest that the storyline sticks close to the original even if it avoids some of Craven's more famous moments (such as Johnny Depp's famously bloody demise).

Priest
Opens: August 20th 2010
Cast: Paul Bettany, Karl Urban, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Lily Collins
Director: Scott Stewart

Summary: A warrior priest disobeys Church law by teaming with a young sheriff and a beautiful priestess. The three band together to track down a band of renegade vampires who have kidnapped the priest's niece before they turn her into one of them.

Analysis: After playing an archangel for director Scott Stewart in next month's "Legion", Paul Bettany finds himself demoted on Christianity's corporate ladder to being merely a humble priest, not the first or likely last time the Brit will play a man of the cloth.

What sounds like yet another vampire movie actually resembles a classic Western in tone, albeit one with supernatural elements and Gun fu. Though its based on the Korean comic series, the film bares very little resemblance to its rich and very complicated source material where fallen angels and zombies are key components of the story.

Work on the project began a few years ago and initially Sam Raimi was to produce, Andrew Douglas ("The Amityville Horror") was to direct, and both Gerard Butler and Steven Strait were to star. That incarnation fell apart and the project started over from scratch earlier this year, though Raimi remains attached to produce alongside Michael DeLuca.

How this version will go though is hard to say. Comparisons will be made to other efforts the genre, such as "John Carpenter's Vampires", though as long as it keeps a certain sense of gravity to it the film could prove a cult hit.

Source for the other movies
xoxo
Carrie