There's plenty of festival buzz on David Cronenberg's latest, starring Viggo Mortensen as an innocuous small-town husband and father with some dark secrets in his past. Of course at Cannes, the French always love anything that makes Americans look like psycho killers. And Cronenberg is Canadian. Hmmm. Opens Fri., Sept. 23.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Claymation rules! Nick Park and the Aardman Animations team expand the adventures of man and mutt to feature length. Here they must battle some kind of garden-raiding ghoul. And as we all know from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, rabbits can be fierce! Opens Fri., Oct. 7.
Part-time Northwest resident Cameron Crowe snagged a screenwriting Oscar for Almost Famous. His new rom-com pairs Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst, a very handsome couple, but we're guessing the real stars will be the words between them. After Crowe's Vanilla Sky, this looks like a return to terra firma. Opens Fri., Oct. 14.
Jarhead
I'm not sure, after Gunner Palace, if America is ready for more war movies. But under the direction of Sam Mendes (American Beauty), this adaptation of Marine Anthony Swofford's much-praised memoir of the first Gulf War should be noticed. Not that the current Gulf War is likely to be over by then. Opens Fri., Nov. 4.
The Matador
Bond is dead, long live Bond. Everyone at Sundance loved ex-007 Pierce Brosnan's louche, self-caricaturing turn as a hit man going to seed in Mexico. It's basically a mismatched-buddy comedy, with Greg Kinnear playing Felix to Brosnan's Oscar. This should also be about the right time in the fall to enjoy a flick that's not gunning for an Academy Award. Opens Fri., Nov. 4.
The New World
Every so often, Terrence Malick emerges from obscurity to prove he's a genius, and the recluse act sometimes works—as with The Thin Red Line. (Though it can be pushed too far, as with Kubrick.) This time he tackles the myth- encrusted 17th-century settlement of America, with Colin Farrell encountering our continent's original, rightful inhabitants. Shot by Emmanuel Lubezki (Sleepy Hollow) with mostly natural light, it's sure to be gorgeous, like all Malick works. Opens Wed., Nov. 9.
Film Calendar
Opening dates subject to change. Call theaters to confirm.
SEPTEMBER
16 JUST LIKE HEAVENReese Witherspoon is dead in what sounds like a more cheery spin on Ghost. She falls for Mark Ruffalo, who may have commitment issues with a dead chick.
23 FLIGHTPLAN It's Panic Room at 40,000 feet, as Jodie Foster must again defend her kid against sneering villains. Didn't we just see this movie when it was called Red Eye?
30 SERENITY Based on some old cult TV show we've never heard of (2002's Firefly), it apparently concerns a space-ship crew made up of unusually young and good-looking people. What are the odds of that?
OCTOBER
7 IN HER SHOESToni Collette plays the "fat" resentful sister to carefree Cameron Diaz in this chick-lit adaptation. But Curtis Hanson (8 Mile) has a way of elevating genre material.
7 LOCAL SIGHTINGS Area auteurs get their due, through Oct. 13. Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., 206-267-5380, www.nwfilmforum.org.
7 MIRRORMASK Comic-book fans will recognize the names Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, then flock to this fantasy picture. Women, on the other hand, will be at In Her Shoes.
14 DOMINOKeira Knightley in image-makeover mode, playing a tough-as-nails bounty hunter whose father happened to be actor Laurence Harvey. Did we mention she's still a babe?
