Nothing conventional in Hollywood gets attention except wisdom. Show the studios why movies succeed, and they'll duplicate it.
That's especially true during the awards season, which now comes earlier in the year than ever.
Gone are the days when contenders could crowd the window between Christmas and New Year's Day and expect to generate momentum all the way to the Academy Awards. Now that awards are given out earlier, voters cast their ballots earlier. So they have to get to the movies earlier, especially if DVD screeners for critics and voters are denied or delayed as they were last year because of fears about piracy. That controversy should erupt again any day now.
Today's conventional wisdom decrees that films itching for prizes should debut earlier. Perhaps the wisest of all should be Miramax Films, which watched Cold Mountain become a molehill during the Oscar race. No amount of marketing or celebrity blush made up for the fact that watching a Civil War anti-romance wasn't high among voters' holiday plans at that Aspen chateau or Caribbean hideaway.
Hollywood won't be caught flat-footed this year. Sure, a few high-profile contenders - including Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic and Steven Soderbergh's Closer - will open in December; there's still too much money in the month to resist. But the logjam of (expected) film quality during the holidays is reduced.
It seems like a gift to moviegoers, who won't have to wait as long to see what the buzz is about. One caveat: The traditional slump in new movies between New Year's Day and the Oscars, when studios concentrate on promoting nominees, will become even more dissatisfying.
Conventional wisdom says so.
For now, the anticipation of seeing films that have genuine shots at year-end glory is palpable. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, opening Friday, shows great promise in technical categories for its glowing cinematography and art deco-style menace. The Polar Express (Nov. 10) looks like an animation milestone in the making, but will Shark Tale (Oct. 1) or The Incredibles (Nov. 5) overshadow it?
After only preview trailers, it isn't hard to imagine best actor attention for Jamie Foxx, who plays the late Ray Charles in Ray (Oct. 29), and Jude Law, remaking Alfie. I want Renee Zellweger to erase my distaste for her Oscar in Cold Mountain with another performance as Bridget Jones (The Edge of Reason, Nov. 19) to remind me how irresistible she can be. I want to know if Alexander (Nov. 5) outduels Troy in the spectacle department, or Ladder 49 (Oct. 1) equals previous Oscar respect for firefighters in Backdraft.
Here's a rundown of films expected between now and Thanksgiving. As always, opening dates are subject to change.
Opening Friday
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow - Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie save the world.
Wimbledon - Kirsten Dunst swaps spider webs for a tennis net.
Mr. 3000 - Bernie Mac plays a retired baseball star whose legend needs sprucing up.
Danny Deckchair - An Aussie who went up in a balloon-lifted lawn chair and came down a celebrity.
The Mother - A 60-something widow has an affair with her daughter's lover.
National Lampoon's Gold Diggers - Two young swindlers. Two rich, batty old ladies. What could go wrong? See review Friday on Page 2B.
Sept. 24
The Forgotten - Julianne Moore stars as a woman desperately seeking her missing son. But her psychiatrist (Gary Sinise) claims she's imagining that she ever had a child. Dominic West (Mona Lisa Smile) co-stars as a pro hockey player possibly suffering from the same paramnesia.
First Daughter - The daughter (Katie Holmes) of a U.S. president goes to college where a cute suitor (Marc Blucas) has an ulterior motive. No, Holmes doesn't play twins.
Mean Creek - A teenage bully (Josh Peck) is lured by his victims into a forest, where the roots of his aggression are revealed. This Sundance Film Festival favorite co-stars Rory Culkin and Trevor Morgan.
Shaun of the Dead - Happy hour at a British pub turns nasty when flesh-eating zombies arrive. A round of Bloody Marys for everyone, please.
A Dirty Shame - John Waters proudly waves his NC-17 rating for this comedy about a meek woman (Tracey Ullman) who becomes a nymphomaniac after a head injury. Johnny Knoxville and Chris Isaak co-star.
Oct. 1
Shark Tale - Gangsters don't just sleep with the fishes in DreamWorks' animated film; they are the fishes. Will Smith's voice stars as a bottom-feeder claiming to have killed a dangerous lobster, excuse me, mobster. Jack Black, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro - at least their vocal attitudes - co-star.
Ladder 49 - When a firefighter (Joaquin Phoenix) is trapped in a burning building, his former captain (John Travolta), now fire chief, pledges to bring him out alive. Comparisons to Backdraft (1991) are inevitable and welcomed by the producers because of that film's three Academy Award nominations.
The Brown Bunny - Make that the infamous Brown Bunny. Vincent Gallo's film was the scandal of Cannes last year after it was loudly booed and the filmmaker loudly protested. Gallo plays a motorcycle racer whose wanderings include explicit oral sex from a stranger (Chloe Sevigny). That's all it took for a widely despised movie to gain a distribution deal.
Woman, Thou Art Loosed - A young woman (Kimberly Elise) deals with her history of physical abuse, drug addiction and desperate poverty. Based on the book by Bishop T.D. Jakes.
Oct. 8
Taxi - Former Saturday Night Live star Jimmy Fallon built a career on other people's shtick (Adam Sandler's silly songs, Chevy Chase's Weekend Update routine), so why shouldn't his first starring role in a movie be based on a previous work? Fallon plays a cop assisted by a sharp-tongued cabby (Queen Latifah) in solving bank robberies.
Friday Night Lights - Football is even bigger than politics in Texas, where a depressed community finds reasons to live through its high school team. Billy Bob Thornton plays the coach, with Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher) as his star player and country music star Tim McGraw as a combative dad.
Raise Your Voice - Small town girl (Hilary Duff) attends a performing arts school in Los Angeles. Sounds like a West Coast version of Fame.
Oct. 15
Shall We Dance - Based on a sweet 1996 Japanese import, a businessman (Richard Gere) with two left feet begins dance lessons to meet the beautiful student (Jennifer Lopez) he spies through a window. And let's can the Gigli jokes.
Team America: World Police - The creators - or is that perpetrators? - of South Park use marionettes to spoof the war on terrorism. Call it Thunderbirds 9/11.
Oct. 22
Alfie - What's it all about? You shouldn't have to ask. Jude Law slips into the role that made Michael Caine an international star in 1966, a compulsive womanizer whose encounters change his life. His lovers include Susan Sarandon, Marisa Tomei and Nia Long.
I Heart Huckabees - This one sounds unusual, even for filmmaker David O. Russell (Flirting with Disaster, Three Kings). Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin play "existential detectives" solving the riddles of life for clients. The latest is a man (Jason Schwartzman, Rushmore) puzzled by a string of coincidences affecting his romantic and professional lives. Jude Law co-stars as a rival who hires his own karma cops.
The Grudge - Remaking Japanese horror movies is popular after The Ring. In this one, a nurse (Sarah Michelle Gellar) tangles with supernatural spirits, leaving a wake of angry corpses.
Surviving Christmas - Ben Affleck plays a man so lonely that he rents a family to share the holiday season. Not to be confused with Affleck's post-engagement blues, or John Grisham's novel Skipping Christmas that has been filmed under another title, Christmas with the Kranks.
Oct. 29
Ray - This may be something truly special. Jamie Foxx (Collateral) looks perfect as the late music legend Ray Charles, who died of liver failure in June. Charles' genius, unhampered by blindness, drug addiction and personal demons, is ripe with dramatic opportunities for director Taylor Hackford (Proof of Life, An Officer and a Gentleman).
Saw - Two men wake up chained to a corpse in a basement, gradually realizing they're captives of a serial killer. Danny Glover is the cop rushing to find them before it's too late. The buzz from the Sundance Film Festival is that this is the most disturbing thriller since Seven. We can only dream, or have nightmares.
Around the Bend - Here's an interesting family lineage for a movie: Great-grandfather Michael Caine begets Christopher Walken, who begets Josh Lucas (Sweet Home Alabama) who begets a 7-year-old son (Jonah Bobo). Together they excavate family skeletons to find a dramatic link between generations.
Nov. 5
Alexander - Will Oliver Stone's historical epic be great, like the real Alexander, or just so-so? Colin Farrell goes blond to play the Macedonian conqueror, with support from Anthony Hopkins, Val Kilmer and Angelina Jolie. No word yet on whether Stone uncovers a mysterious assassin on the grassy knolls of Greece.
The Incredibles - Pixar Animation Studios is due for a letdown after the amazements of Toy Story and Finding Nemo. This may be it, with a plot involving a dysfunctional superhero family saving the world. Then again, who initially thought Buzz Lightyear and talking fish would be so much fun?
Birth - This one sounds kind of creepy. Nicole Kidman plays a woman convinced that a 10-year-old boy (Cameron Bright) is her husband reincarnated. Early reviews have compared Jonathan Glazer's film to the works of Stanley Kubrick, chiefly The Shining for its odd-child slant and Eyes Wide Shut for its sexual undercurrent.
Nov. 10
The Polar Express - An expensive - reportedly $150-million - experiment in animation. Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks reunite to tell the story of a boy, who doesn't believe in Santa Claus, being taken for a train ride to the North Pole. The actors' performances are real, filtered through computer animation for a not-quite-real look. Whether that's a positive advance remains to be seen.
Seed of Chucky - No, it isn't the 2003 Tampa Bay Buccaneers highlight film, but something more terrifying: Jennifer Tilly returns as bride of the monster doll, and now she's pregnant. The baby shower registry is at Knives R Us.
Nov. 12
After the Sunset - Pierce Brosnan drops the James Bond pose to play a master thief whose retirement to a tropical island with his beautiful partner (Salma Hayek) is questioned by a persistent FBI agent (Woody Harrelson). Sounds a lot like Brosnan's last unimpressive stretch in The Thomas Crown Affair.
Nov. 19
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason - The happy ending to Bridget Jones's Diary couldn't last forever. Renee Zellweger returns in her Oscar-nominated role as a Londoner whose romance with Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) is on the rocks. Her rakish boss (Hugh Grant) is waiting in the wings.
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie - The goofy cartoon TV series comes to theaters, with the waterlogged hero in search of King Neptune's stolen crown.
National Treasure - Looks like a summertime movie lost its way. Nicolas Cage stars as an adventurer who must steal an original copy of the U.S. Constitution to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. Now, what would John Ashcroft do with that?
Nov. 24
Flight of the Phoenix - Another remake from the 1960s, this one focuses on plane crash survivors attempting to rebuild their aircraft. Dennis Quaid and Giovanni Ribisi are aboard.
Beauty Shop - Queen Latifah filmed a rudimentary teaser preview before production began, a savvy bit of marketing when attached to Barbershop 2: Back in Business. Her cameo in that film is the core of this one, in which she plays a beauty shop owner whose clients speak their minds about anything.
Christmas with the Kranks - Here's the John Grisham holiday comedy, based on his book, Skipping Christmas. Jamie Lee Curtis and Tim Allen star as a married couple deciding to take a vacation instead of doing the home and hearth routine. Then their daughter (Julie Gonzalo) comes home, expecting just that.
Finding Neverland - Awards buzz is building for Johnny Depp's portrayal of Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie in this film directed by Marc Forster, whose 2001 debut, Monster's Ball, was anything but a fairy tale.
Keep an eye open for:
Two British lads spending someone else's bank robbery loot in Danny Boyle's Millions; Johnny Knoxville faking his way to a Special Olympics championship in The Ringer; the future freedom fighter Che Guevara (Gael Garcia Bernal) finding his values in The Motorcycle Diaries; Bernal also starring in Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education; the IMAX adventure Vikings and Matthew Broderick as a filmmaker fronting an FBI sting in The Last Shot.
There's also the Danish drama The Inheritance; a biography of Manhattan arts maven, Rockets Redglare; John Sayles' political satire Silver City; Rhys Ifans and Samantha Morton sharing Enduring Love; Charlize Theron and Penelope Cruz with their Head in the Clouds; Christina Ricci feeling Cursed; Billy Crudup in drag for Stage Beauty; the World War I drama A Very Long Engagement; the insomniac insanity of The Machinist; the backstage romance and treachery of Being Julia; and the political documentary Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry.
