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The Plot: Two siblings (Eric Bana and Olivia Wilde) rob an Indian casino, then kill a cop while making their getaway to Canada. After splitting up near the snowed-out border, they reunite and attack the family -- son (Charlie Hunnam), mother (Sissy Spacek) and retired-sheriff dad (Kris Kristofferson) -- who took her into safety.
The Buzz: Bana, who hasn’t been seen since last year’s small but acclaimed "Hanna", has been earning raves for his unlikely turn as a psychopath in "Deadfall." The movie’s budget is reportedly just $12 million -- and between its sparse set and no-frills cast, this seat-jumping thriller could prove a potent antidote to weighty Oscar-baiting dramas during the holiday season.
The Plot: This comedy based on Matthew Quick’s novel, centers around the lovelife of a bipolar patient (Bradley Cooper). After being released from a mental-health facility, he moves in with his parents (Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver), then meets a depressive widow (Jennifer Lawrence). That’s right, it’s a comedy.
The Buzz: This is the first film from embattled director David O. Russell since the Oscar-winning "The Fighter." (Former stars George Clooney and Lily Tomlin are, very publicly, not fans of working with him.) Critics, however, love him, and have already lavished praise on "Playbook," which garnered Oscar talk after screening at the Toronto Film Festival. As is Lawrence, who reportedly got the role after everyone from Anne Hathaway to Angelina Jolie expressed interest. Of Lawrence’s Skype audition, Russell told The Hollywood Reporter, "We had our choice of a lot of terrific actresses, and Jennifer came in at the eleventh hour and just stole it."
The Plot: Director Ang Lee transforms the acclaimed 2001 book into a 3D adventure about an Indian boy (Suraj Sharma), who survives a shipwreck carrying zoo animals. Taking off on a lifeboat, he makes friends with these otherwise fearsome mammals.
The Buzz: A number of directors flirted with this project before Lee came on board. Once in production, Lee hired his old "Ride With the Devil" star Tobey Maguire to play Yann Martel, the novelist who wrote the novel and appears as a character in this film. Then, desiring a fully international cast, Lee created some off-screen drama by replacing Maguire with actor Rafe Spall. That Maguire was interested in this reported $100 million film, and that two actors were essentially jockeying for the same role, should stoke curiosity.
The Plot: Victor Hugo’s timeless novel gets the big-screen musical treatment once again with director Tom Hooper ("The King’s Speech"). Here, Hugh Jackman plays an ex-con who raises the child (Amanda Seyfried) of an unwed mother (Anne Hathaway).
The Buzz: "Les Miserables'" stage productions have earned eight Tonys and reportedly more than $400 million in ticket grosses. Musicals can be a tough sell -- just see the 1998 movie version of "Les Miserables." Still, Hooper is an Oscar-winning director working with two trained stage talents (Jackman and Hathaway) and has a knack for pulling off period pieces. Said Hathaway to MTV, "This is the first time anyone has ever tried it like this."
The Plot: This remake of the 1984 movie starring Patrick Swayze replaces a Russian invasion with a North Korean one. The Spokane, Wash., counterattack is led by a band of heavily armed young vigilantes, including Chris Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson and Adrianne Palick.
The Buzz: Made in 2009, the $60 million "Dawn" was delayed after its studio, MGM, went bankrupt. In an attempt to sell the movie to another studio, its producers made the invaders North Korean instead of Chinese, so as not to upset businessmen from that country. After a flurry of edits and alterations, FilmDistrict bought the project, and it’s finally ready for viewing.
The Plot: With the support of his patient wife (Helen Mirren), aging director Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) stirs controversy by making "Psycho," a game-changing horror film that pushes the boundaries of big-screen violence and kills off its leading lady, Janet Leigh (Scarlett Johansson), just 30 minutes into its story. Jessica Biel stars as Vera Miles, the actress who plays the movie’s heroine.
The Buzz: Between Hitchcock and HBO’s "The Girl" (about the making of "The Birds"), Hollywood has suddenly gotten sentimental about Hitchcock. And Hopkins' spot-on portrayal of the curmudgeonly film icon is already garnering praise from online cinephiles. "Hitchcock’s so enigmatic in one sense," says Hitchcock’s director, Sacha Gervasi ("Anvil") told Entertainment Weekly. "Someone who portrays zero emotion. We didn’t really know emotionally that much about Hitchcock, and suddenly you have this whole world that opens up when Anthony Hopkins plays the role. It’s extraordinary."
The Plot: Brad Pitt and his "Assassination of Jesse James" director, Andrew Dominik, throw their weight behind this adaptation of the novel "Cogan’s Trade." Pitt plays an enforcer who teams with a friend (James Gandolfini) to hunt down the cons who robbed a Mob-sponsored poker game.
The Buzz: Oscar-savvy producer Harvey Weinstein pushed the movie’s release date to better position it for Academy Award attention, after it made big splashes on this year’s festival circuit for being a crime drama with a bigger message. "What Andrew wanted to do with this film was interesting," Pitt told Interview, in explaining why he took the role. "He wanted to talk about America -- and America as a business -- but he wanted to hide it within this low-end crime drama."
The Plot: A constellation of stars lend voices to this 3D computer-animated movie, based on the "Guardians of Childhood" series. In it, a nefarious spirit (Jude Law) sets out to take over the world, but is interrupted by the do-good efforts of a young boy (Chris Pine) and his otherworldly friends: Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin), the Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman), and the Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher).
The Buzz: Based on the popular kids series, the $145-million movie will also get a boost from its videogame tie-in. And thus far, the DreamWorks film, which kicks off the studio’s ambitious slate of animated movies over the next four years, has already won a Hollywood Animation Award for its eye-opening visuals.
The Plot: Two siblings (Eric Bana and Olivia Wilde) rob an Indian casino, then kill a cop while making their getaway to Canada. After splitting up near the snowed-out border, they reunite and attack the family -- son (Charlie Hunnam), mother (Sissy Spacek) and retired-sheriff dad (Kris Kristofferson) -- who took her into safety.
The Buzz: Bana, who hasn’t been seen since last year’s small but acclaimed "Hanna", has been earning raves for his unlikely turn as a psychopath in "Deadfall." The movie’s budget is reportedly just $12 million -- and between its sparse set and no-frills cast, this seat-jumping thriller could prove a potent antidote to weighty Oscar-baiting dramas during the holiday season.
The Plot: On the eve of WWII, the King (Samuel West) and Queen (Olivia Coleman) of England head to upstate New York for a weekend to stay with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Bill Murray), his wife Eleanor (Olivia Williams, Murray’s costar in "Rushmore"), and his cousin-mistress Daisy (Laura Linney).
The Buzz: According to early reviews, Oscar-nominated Murray ("Lost in Translation") may very well be headed to the ceremony again for this biopic that compliments the actor’s real-life eccentricity. "It’s much harder to play beloved than to play a rotten guy," Murray said before the film's screening last month, "that really sets a high bar for your behavior and your acting and what you project." Also fine-tuning his performance: Roger Michell, the director behind "Notting Hill and Venus," which won legendary actor Peter O’Toole an Oscar nomination in 2007.
The Plot: Once a soccer champ, a loser dad (Gerard Butler) decides to coach his little son’s soccer team. While pulling his life back together, he hopes to prevent the ex-wife (Jessica Biel) he’s still in love with from getting remarried. But he also hopes to score a sportscaster job through a romantic prospect Catherine Zeta-Jones).
The Buzz: Real-life lady’s man Butler seems determined to have a similar affect on female moviegoers. His previous rom-coms, "The Bounty Hunter" and "The Ugly Truth," proved decent in the box-office department -- but any success was credited to his costars Jennifer Aniston and Katherine Heigl (respectively). "Playing for Keeps" will more accurately test his pull in this genre.
