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Hot-button issues
If George Clooney is destined to be our generation's Cary Grant, but with a political streak, then playing a corporate cad seeking redemption is the next logical step. That's the role in "Michael Clayton" as a law firm's "fixer" brought in on a high-stakes class-action case by the senior partner (Sydney Pollack) when the chief litigator (Tom Wilkinson) has a meltdown. Tilda Swinton stars as the lawyer for the other side, an agro-chemical firm. But the MVP here could be writer and first-time director Tony Gilroy, who wrote the screenplays for all three "Bourne" movies (Oct. 12).
Grace Is Gone - John Cusack plays a hardware-store manager who must deal with telling his daughters that their mother has died in Iraq (October).
The Hunting Party - A camera crew (Richard Gere, Terrence Howard, Jesse Eisenberg) goes looking for a Bosnian warlord in this darkly comic thriller, directed by Richard Shepard ("The Matador") (Sept. 14).
In the Valley of Elah - When a returned Iraq War veteran disappears, his military father (Tommy Lee Jones) and a cop (Charlize Theron) try to uncover the truth in a drama directed and written by Paul Haggis ("Crash") (Sept. 21).
The Kingdom - An FBI team, led by Jamie Foxx, investigates a terrorist bombing in Saudi Arabia (Sept. 28).
The Kite Runner - Mark Forster ("Finding Neverland") directs this adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's best-seller about an immigrant in California who returns to Afghanistan to help a friend whose son is in trouble (Nov. 16).
Lions for Lambs - Robert Redford, who directed, plays a professor whose star pupils (Michael Pena and Derek Luke) enlist to fight in Afghanistan - and whose plight becomes a contentious issue for a senator (Tom Cruise) and a reporter (Meryl Streep) (Nov. 9).
Rendition - Reese Witherspoon leads a powerhouse cast - Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin and Peter Sarsgaard - in this timely story of a woman who digs for answers when her Egyptian-born husband is mysteriously spirited away to be interrogated by the CIA (Oct. 19).
Drama
As with most of Todd Haynes' movies ("Storytelling," "Velvet Goldmine," "Welcome to the Dollhouse"), you're either going to pick up on his wavelength with "I'm Not There" or you aren't. The movie purports to be inspired by "the lives and time of Bob Dylan," and to emphasize the singer-songwriter's many lives, Haynes has cast six actors - including Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett - to show how many roads Dylan has walked down (November).
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - Brad Pitt plays James, and Casey Affleck plays the man who killed him, in this brooding Western (September).
Bella - The lives of an ex-soccer player and a waitress intersect in New York (November).
Control - A biography of Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division who killed himself at age 23 (November).
December Boys - Four teen orphans (one played by "Harry Potter's" Daniel Radcliffe) in Australia face their last chance for adoption (September).
Elizabeth: The Golden Age - Cate Blanchett again plays Queen Elizabeth I, in her stormy relationship with Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen) (Oct. 5).
Feel the Noise - A South Bronx teen in trouble goes to Puerto Rico to find refuge, his estranged father and reggaeton music (Oct. 5).
Interview - A reporter (Steve Buscemi) and a starlet (Sienna Miller) square off in a match of verbal and emotional jiujitsu (opens today).
Into the Wild - Sean Penn directs and adapted Jon Krakauer's best-seller, which traces the last days of a New Jersey man (Emile Hirsch) who took off for adventure in Alaska (Oct. 19).
Martian Child - A man (John Cusack) copes with his fiancée's death by adopting a 6-year-old who thinks he's from Mars (Nov. 2).
Reservation Road - A hit-and-run accident brings two fathers - the one who caused it (Mark Ruffalo) and the victim's daddy (Joaquin Phoenix) - toward a fateful confrontation in this drama, directed by Terry George ("Hotel Rwanda"), that also stars Jennifer Connelly and Mira Sorvino (Oct. 19).
Return With Honor - A car crash changes the plans for a returning LDS missionary (Sept. 14).
Sleuth - Kenneth Branagh directs this remake of the two-character mystery, with Jude Law in the Michael Caine role and Caine taking Laurence Olivier's part (October).
Things We Lost in the Fire - Danish director Suzanne Bier ("After the Wedding") makes her English-language debut with this story of a widow (Halle Berry) who makes a connection with her husband's troubled best friend (Benicio Del Toro) (Oct. 26).
This Is England - Director Shane Meadows based this story, about a British kid who falls in with skinheads, on incidents from his own life (Sept. 14).
Trade - Teen girls are kidnapped by Mexican sex traffickers in a drama that co-stars Kevin Kline as a Texas cop (Sept. 21).
Fantasy/horror
Robert Zemeckis has been honing his brand of motion-capture computer animation for a while now, most notably with "The Polar Express." But his "Beowulf" could be a breakthrough, as his characters often look like the voice actors portraying them, including Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins and Robin Wright Penn. Beowulf himself, though, is a good deal more buff than the actor playing him: "Sexy Beast's" Ray Winstone (Nov. 16).
The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising - A boy learns he is the last warrior to fight the forces of The Dark, led by Christopher Eccleston ("Doctor Who," "Heroes") (Oct. 5).
Resident Evil: Extinction - Milla Jovovich straps on the guns for a third installment of the video-game-based franchise (Sept. 21).
Saw IV - Just because Jigsaw died in No. 3 doesn't mean there aren't ways to beat this franchise into the ground (Oct. 26).
30 Days of Night - Josh Hartnett plays a sheriff in northern Alaska, battling vampires who figured out the perfect place to feast without sunlight (Oct. 19).
Documentary
Two documentaries look at the horrors of Darfur, the Sudanese province where some 450,000 have died from violence and disease in the wake of armed conflict. "The Devil Came on Horseback" sees Darfur through the eyes of a U.S. Marine who witnessed the genocide and spoke out on it (Sept. 14). "Darfur Now" profiles six activists - the most famous is the American actor Don Cheadle - working to bring the world's attention to the victims (November).
For the Bible Tells Me So - An examination of religion and homosexuality, and the un-Christian ways the religious right uses the gay community as a political target (Oct. 19).
Gypsy Caravan - A look at the Rom people, aka gypsies, at five places around the globe (Sept. 21).
How to Cook Your Life - German director Doris Dorrie profiles a Zen priest and cook who finds Buddhist lessons in food preparation (November).
In the Shadow of the Moon - The Apollo astronauts recall their trips to the moon (Sept. 28).
Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten - Julien Temple chronicles the life of the Clash's late guitarist (November).
Kurt Cobain: About a Son - Director AJ Schnack (who profiled They Might Be Giants in "Gigantic") explores the life of Nirvana's late frontman, using never-heard audiotape interviews with Michael Azzerad (Oct. 19).
Lake of Fire - Firebrand director Tony Kaye ("American History X") takes on a hot-button topic: abortion (Nov. 9).
My Kid Could Paint That - The tale of a 4-year-old painting prodigy and the questions raised whether her art is real or instead done by her father (Nov. 16).
Strange Culture - Through interviews and re-enactments, director Lynn Hershman Leeson tells of artist Steve Kurtz, who stands accused of being a bioterrorist (Sept. 21).
Romance
If any director can create visuals to match the music of the Beatles, it would be Julie Taymor, who brought surreal spectacle to "Frida" and "Titus" (as well as the Broadway version of "The Lion King"). "Across the Universe" stars Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood as Jude and Lucy, two star-crossed kids who get caught up in the political turmoil of the 1960s. The movie has had its own share of turmoil, with reported battles between Taymor and studio exec Joe Roth. Here's hoping they can take a sad song and make it better (Sept. 21).
Dan in Real Life - Steve Carell plays the title character, an advice columnist with his own relationship problems: The woman he wants (Juliette Binoche) is dating his brother (Dane Cook) (Oct. 12).
Feast of Love - Love stories intertwine in an Oregon town, with a cast that includes Morgan Freeman, Greg Kinnear, Selma Blair and Radha Mitchell (Sept. 28).
The Jane Austen Book Club - Six California readers (including Emily Blunt, Maria Bello and Amy Brenneman) meet up and discover their love lives resemble the relationships in Austen's books (Oct. 5).
I Could Never Be Your Woman - Michelle Pfeiffer plays a single mom who finds love with a younger guy (Paul Rudd) (Oct. 5).
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With - Comedian Jeff Garlin wrote, directed and stars as an overweight Chicago man looking for love (Oct. 5).
Silk - A 19th-century silkworm smuggler (Michael Pitt) becomes obsessed with a Japanese concubine, even as his wife (Keira Knightley) suspects his infidelity (September).
2 Days in Paris - Julie Delpy wrote, directed and stars in this story, as part of a couple (with Adam Goldberg) trying to rekindle their romance in Paris, where her parents and several ex-boyfriends live (to be determined).
Why Did I Get Married? - Tyler Perry adapts his stage play about marriage (Oct. 12).
Foreign
In his first movie since "Brokeback Mountain," Ang Lee is getting into trouble over sex again. This time, in the Chinese World War II thriller "Lust, Caution," it's the explicit sex scenes between stars Tang Wei and Tony Leung. The movie has earned an NC-17 rating, and the distributors won't change the movie to assuage the MPAA. So much for caution. (Oct. 12).
The Bubble - Three Tel Aviv roommates create a refuge from external strife when one of them brings home his boyfriend, a Palestinian (Oct. 26).
Dans Paris - A divorced man (Romain Duris) moves back in with his dad in this French family drama (Sept. 28).
Love for Sale - A Brazilian woman in need of money decides to raffle off her body (Oct. 5).
Molière - The French playwright's life gets the "Shakespeare in Love" treatment (opens today).
12:08 East of Bucharest - Residents of a Romanian town recall the revolution against Ceaucescu, and whether it ever happened, in this drama (Sept. 28).
Cops and robbers
One to watch: Before Ben Affleck became a tabloid punchline - thanks to J.Lo, "Gigli" and the whole Bennifer thing - he did win a freakin' Oscar for co-writing "Good Will Hunting." So let us not dismiss Affleck's directorial debut, "Gone Baby Gone," out of hand. It's based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, whose work also inspired "Mystic River," and travels down the same dark Boston alleys. It stars Morgan Freeman and Affleck's little brother Casey as cops deeply affected by a missing-persons case (Oct. 19).
American Gangster
The rise of drug lord Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) and the cop (Russell Crowe) trying to bring him down are profiled in this drama from director Ridley Scott ("Gladiator") (Nov. 2).
The Brave One
Jodie Foster plays a woman seeking revenge on the gang members who killed her boyfriend, in a drama directed by Neil Jordan ("The Crying Game") (Sept. 14).
Eastern Promises - David Cronenberg directs this thriller about a midwife (Naomi Watts) who stumbles into the dangerous world of a Russian mobster (Viggo Mortensen) (Sept. 21).
Funny Games - German director Michael Haneke remakes his 1997 thriller in which psychotic teens terrorize a family (Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Devon Gearhart) in their vacation cabin (November).
No Country for Old Men - The Coen brothers adapt Cormac McCarthy's novel about a man (Josh Brolin) who finds $2 million and a stash of heroin - with an aging lawman (Tommy Lee Jones) and a cold-blooded killer (Javier Bardem) not far behind (Nov. 16).
Shoot 'Em Up - Clive Owen protects a baby wanted by gangster Paul Giamatti in this gun-crazy flick (opens today).
3:10 to Yuma - Christian Bale plays a rancher who helps escort a criminal (Russell Crowe) to the prison train in a remake of a classic 1957 Western (opens today).
We Own the Night - A nighclub manager (Joaquin Phoenix) must protect his brother (Mark Wahlberg) and dad (Robert Duvall) from Russian mobsters (Oct. 12).
Comedy
The new version of The Heartbreak Kid, a Neil Simon script directed in 1972 by Elaine May, stars Ben Stiller as a guy who finds the perfect woman (Michelle Monaghan). Unfortunately, he finds her on his honeymoon after marrying the woman (Malin Akerman) he thought was perfect but isn't. Will these three comic sensibilities - Simon's verbal wit, the Farrellys' absurdist streak and Stiller's on-the-edge Everyman - be a match made in heaven? We'll find out (Oct. 5).
The Brothers Solomon - Will Arnett and Will Forte are brothers who need to become fathers to get an inheritance (opens today).
The Comebacks - Sports movies get spoofed in this football comedy (Oct. 19).
The Darjeeling Limited - Three estranged brothers (Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson) find themselves bonding on a train across India in the latest from Wes Anderson ("The Life Aquatic With Steve Zizzou") (October).
Finishing the Game - Studio executives, with 12 minutes of unused Bruce Lee footage, try to find a replacement for the martial-arts star (November).
Good Luck Chuck - A guy (Dane Cook) realizes all his girlfriends get married after breaking up with him, so he's leery of finding true love with Jessica Alba (Sept. 21).
Lars and the Real Girl - Ryan Gosling plays a young man who develops a relationship with a blow-up doll (Oct. 12).
Margot at the Wedding - Noah Baumbach follows up "The Squid and the Whale" with this dysfunctional tale starring Nicole Kidman as a woman determined to stop her sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh) from marrying an unworthy guy (Jack Black) (November).
Mr. Woodcock - A guy (Seann William Scott) learns his mom (Susan Sarandon) is marrying his former tormentor, his P.E. teacher (Billy Bob Thornton) (Sept. 14).
Run, Fatboy, Run - A loser (Simon Pegg) decides to train for a marathon to win back his ex-fiancée (Thandie Newton) in David Schwimmer's directing debut (Oct. 26).
Sydney White - Amanda Bynes plays a college student who helps seven geeky frat boys in this "Snow White" update (Sept. 21).
The Ten - Ten dovetailed stories about the Ten Commandments from the guys behind "Wet Hot American Summer" (Sept. 14).
Wristcutters: A Love Story - A young man (Patrick Fugit) finds himself in an afterlife for suicidal people in this dark comedy (November).
Kids
Hollywood's history with Santa Claus hasn't been a sleigh ride. The original "Miracle on 34th Street" was great, but we've also had "The Santa Clause" trilogy, "Santa Claus: The Movie," a not-so-hot "Miracle on 34th Street" sequel and - of course - "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians." Now Paul Giamatti dons the red suit in "Fred Claus," which centers less on St. Nick and more on his bitter older brother (played by Vince Vaughn), who wreaks havoc on the North Pole proceedings. It's directed by David Dobkin ("Wedding Crashers"), and the byplay between Vaughn and Giamatti in the trailer has been getting laughs since last Christmas (Nov. 9).
Bee Movie -Jerry Seinfeld gives his voice to a computer-animated bee (Nov. 2).
The Game Plan - Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson plays a football star who learns he has a daughter (Sept. 28).
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium - Dustin Hoffman is Mr. Magorium, who aims to bequeath his magical toy shop to the store's manager (Natalie Portman), but the store isn't too keen on the idea (Nov. 16).
Moondance Alexander - A rebellious teen (Kay Panabaker) persuades a horse breeder (Don Johnson) to let her train one of his ponies (Oct. 19).