Action/suspense

It's the beginning of the end for the Hogwarts gang in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1" (Nov. 19). Director David Yates, who has helmed "Order of the Phoenix" and "Half-Blood Prince," is splitting the seventh and final book in J.K. Rowling's series into two parts (the finale will arrive in theaters in July 2011). It's not just a cynical marketing ploy to let Warner Bros. squeeze more juice from the biggest movie franchise of all time, but a necessity to get a plot-dense book onto the screen without cutting something that the fans will miss.

Two thrillers place their stars in tight squeezes: Danny Boyle's made-in-Utah "127 Hours" (Nov. 19) casts James Franco as adventurer Aron Ralston, who was pinned in a Utah slot canyon; and in the Sundance Film Festival hit "Buried" (Oct. 8), a U.S. truck driver (Ryan Reynolds) is buried in a coffin, with only a lighter and a cellphone.

"Let Me In" (Oct. 1) has a great starting point: the Swedish thriller "Let the Right One In," in which a boy discovers the little girl who moved in next door is actually a vampire. The American version, directed by Matt Reeves ("Cloverfield"), boasts a strong cast — Chloe Grace Moretz ("Kick-Ass") as the girl vampire, Kodi Smit-McPhee ("The Road") as the boy and Richard Jenkins ("Eat Pray Love") as the vampire's aged protector. Whether it can produce the same chills as the original is the big mystery.

Ben Affleck directs, co-wrote and stars in "The Town" (Sept. 17), a gritty crime drama in which he plays a member of a bank-robbery crew who falls for a hostage (Rebecca Hall). Meanwhile, an Australian crime family is hit with violence inside and out in the Sundance hit "Animal Kingdom" (opens Friday, Sept. 10). Vincent Cassel plays a real-life French gangster in a pair of films, "Mesrine: Killer Instinct" and "Mesrine: Public Enemy #1" (both to be determined). And Chinese director Zhang Yimou remakes the Coen brothers' noir thriller "Blood Simple" for "A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop" (Oct. 1).

"Unstoppable" (Nov. 19) is a title that could describe the frequent pairing of star Denzel Washington and director Tony Scott (they also worked together on "Crimson Tide" and "Déjà Vu," among others). Here, Washington and Chris Pine ("Star Trek") play railroad engineers who must figure out how to keep a runaway freight train from ramming through a city.

Based on a DC Comics title, "Red" (Oct. 15) is a funny/exciting spy thriller about a retired CIA assassin (Bruce Willis) who enlists a mousy government clerk (Mary Louise Parker) and reunites with some old spy buddies (including Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren and John Malkovich) to find out who's trying to kill him.

Russell Crowe plays a man trying to bust his wife (Elizabeth Banks) out of prison in "The Next Three Days" (Nov. 19). Dwayne Johnson smashes a lot of cars in "Faster" (Nov. 24) as an ex-con seeking revenge on the men who killed his brother. An arsonist (Edward Norton) tries to manipulate his parole officer (Robert DeNiro), using his wife (Milla Jovovich) as bait, in "Stone" (Oct. 8).

Sci-fi/horror

Science fiction goes cerebral with "Never Let Me Go" (Oct. 15), an adaptation of the 2005 Kazuo Ishiguro novel about British students (including Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan) who are being raised for a dark purpose. Director Clint Eastwood goes supernatural with "Hereafter" (Oct. 22), which dovetails three stories ­— one involving Matt Damon as a psychic who communicates with the dead.

"Skyline" (Nov. 12) imagines an alien invasion of the Earth. In "Monsters" (to be determined), an alien infestation has turned Mexico into a quarantine zone — through which a journalist tries to escort a tourist. "Resident Evil: Afterlife" (opens Friday, Sept. 10) once again pits Milla Jovovich against infected undead in Los Angeles, this time in 3-D.

A social worker (Renee Zellweger) discovers an abused 10-year-old isn't all that innocent in the long-delayed "Case 39" (Oct. 1). And Wes Craven directs "My Soul to Take" (Oct. 8), in which a serial killer targets seven teens all born on the day he was supposed to have been killed.

Two horror franchises duke it out for the Halloween audiences: "Paranormal Activity 2" (Oct. 22) tries to recapture the success of last year's surprise low-budget shocker; while "Saw 3D" (Oct. 29), the seventh in the long-running slasher series, throws the gore in the audience's face (good thing you're all wearing glasses).

Kids

Disney revamps the Rapunzel story with "Tangled" (Nov. 24), a 3-D computer-animated tale that pits the long-haired princess (voiced by Mandy Moore) against a rogue (voiced by "Chuck's" Zachary Levi).

What does a supervillain do when his hero is killed? That's the conundrum for "Megamind" (Nov. 5), a baddie voiced by Will Ferrell. Brad Pitt, Tina Fey and Jonah Hill also perform voice work for director Tom McGrath ("Madagascar") in this 3-D computer-animated movie.

Computer-animated animals in 3-D show up in the form of wolves in "Alpha and Omega" (Sept. 17) and with owls in "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole" (Sept. 24).

Comedy

The many complications of sex provide fodder for laughs this fall: A high-school girl (Emma Stone) discovers her reputation ruined when she lies about sex in "Easy A" (Sept. 17); three guys try to help a buddy lose it in "The Virginity Hit" (to be determined); Robert Downey Jr. plays a businessman trying to get cross-country for the birth of his first child, but dealing with a childish traveling companion (Zach Galifianakis) in "Due Date" (Nov. 5); and a mismatched couple (Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel) are put in charge of a baby in "Life As We Know It" (Oct. 8).

Galifianakis also pops up in a mental hospital as a patient who mentors a clinically depressed teen (Keir Gilchrist) in the seriocomic "It's Kind of a Funny Story" (Oct. 8). And Duhamel plays a groom who becomes the center of a tug of war between the bride (Anna Paquin) and her maid of honor (Katie Holmes) in "The Romantics" (to be determined).

Kristen Bell plays a woman who learns her brother is marrying her high-school nemesis (Odette Yustman) in "You Again" (Sept. 24), which presents Betty White in her annual "risqué grandma" role. Meanwhile, a young TV producer (Rachel McAdams) has to deal with a crusty anchorman (Harrison Ford) and his new morning-show partner (Diane Keaton) in "Morning Glory" (Nov. 12).

Woody Allen is back, sending married couples (Anthony Hopkins and Gemma Jones, Naomi Watts and Josh Brolin) through anxieties and changes in "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger" (Oct. 22). Philip Seymour Hoffman's directing debut, "Jack Goes Boating" (Oct. 8), casts the actor as a New York cabbie on a blind date (with Amy Ryan). Gemma Arterton ("Clash of the Titans") is "Tamara Drewe" (to be determined), a British newspaper reporter who learns her rural childhood home is being sold.

A Greek restaurant undergoes major changes, to the consternation of the regular clientele, in the German "Soul Kitchen" (Sept. 17). A professional "Heartbreaker" (Oct. 1) is hired to break up a couple in this French comedy. A former conductor (Aleksei Guskov) sees a chance to redeem himself in "The Concert" (to be determined), which co-stars Melanie Laurent ("Inglourious Basterds").

Drama

Spend all day on Facebook? Now you can learn about the backbiting that went into the creation of the popular website in "The Social Network" (Oct. 1). Jesse Eisenberg plays the billionaire 20-something Mark Zuckerberg, working with director David Fincher ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") and a script by Aaron Sorkin ("A Few Good Men," "The West Wing").

Some of this year's dramas are taken from true stories of modern war and the Cold War: Naomi Watts plays Valerie Plame, the CIA operative who was outed by Bush administration officials, in "Fair Game" (Nov. 19), co-starring Sean Penn; gamesmanship between the Soviets and Ronald Reagan (Fred Ward) draws in a French diplomat in "Farewell" (Sept. 24); and a Chinese ballet star (Chi Cao) falls for an American ballerina (Amanda Schull) in "Mao's Last Dancer" (Sept. 24).

More drama from real-life stories: Hilary Swank plays a woman who goes from high-school dropout to law-school grad to spring her brother (Sam Rockwell) from prison in "Conviction" (Oct. 29); Diane Lane plays the Denver housewife who owned the racehorce "Secretariat" (Oct. 8); James Franco plays poet Allen Ginsberg in "Howl" (Oct. 22); Colin Firth portrays King George IV, overcoming a stammer with the help of a speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush), in "The King's Speech" (to be determined); and the early life of John Lennon (Aaron Johnson) is depicted in "Nowhere Boy" (to be determined).

Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, who played an unhappily married couple in "Brokeback Mountain," portray young lovers who encounter success and tragedy in "Love and Other Drugs" (Nov. 24). Preteen love happens for neighbors in the 1960s in "Flipped" (opens Friday, Sept. 10) and for Irish runaways in "Kisses" (opens Friday, Sept. 10).

The economy inspires Oliver Stone to bring back his "greed is good" tycoon, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), in the sequel "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" (Sept. 24), co-starring Shia LeBeouf and Carey Mulligan. In "The Company Men" (to be determined), laid-off workers deal with the downside of a down economy.

Tyler Perry adapts Ntozake Shange's play "For Colored Girls Who Have Contemplated Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf" (Nov. 5), which explores the lives of 20 black women (including Whoopi Goldberg, Janet Jackson and Phylicia Rashad). A businessman (James Gandolfini) adopts a teen stripper (Kristen Stewart) in the Sundance drama "Welcome to the Rileys" (to be determined).

In "Burlesque" (Nov. 24), a nightclub owner (Cher) deals with a diva (Kristen Bell) and trains a fast-rising dancer (Christina Aguilera, in her movie debut). A high-school dweeb (Devon Graye) tries out for the wrestling team, getting help from his unemployed brother (played by WWE star John Cena), in "Legendary" (opens Friday, Sept. 10).

An Israeli tank crew's mission goes wrong in "Lebanon" (Sept. 24), an acclaimed war drama. A film producer (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing) reaches the breaking point in the French drama "Father of My Children" (Oct. 1). A brother and sister deal drugs in a Japanese city's red-light district in French director Gaspar Noé's "Enter the Void" (Oct. 22).

And for lovers of the classics, Jean-Luc Godard's New Wave capstone "Breathless" (Nov. 5), starring Jean-Paul Belmondo as a thief and Jean Seberg as his worried girlfriend, gets a 50th-anniversary re-release.

Documentary

Pat Tillman quit the NFL after 9/11 and joined the Army. When he was killed in Afghanistan, the government trumped up a hero's sacrifice — while covering up the details of a "friendly fire" death. "The Tillman Story" (Sept. 17) sets the record straight about Tillman's life and death, and the complicity of the Bush White House, Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon and a pliant news media in the deception.

Another kind of identity change ­— Joaquin Phoenix's self-transformation into a bearded performance artist — is chronicled by Casey Affleck in "I'm Still Here" (Sept. 17). Still more questions of identity, this time online, are explored in the Sundance sensation "Catfish" (to be determined).

What's to be done with America's education system? Director Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth") asks the question in "Waiting for 'Superman' " (Oct. 15) and finds some uncomfortable answers.

Speaking of the decline of America's education system, Johnny Knoxville and his pals fire up the stunts for "Jackass 3D" (Oct. 15). Consider yourselves warned.

Release dates are tentative and subject to change.