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Films For Grown-Ups If you like movies to twist your melons, next year has some treats in store. There's plenty of contenders for the title of 2011's Inception. While none are perhaps as immediately attention-grabbing as Christopher Nolan's sci-fi spectacular, we wouldn't be surprised to look back in 12 months on a year that took the cerebral action thriller to a new level. Steven Soderbergh, Doug Liman, George Nolfi: it's over to you...
The Next Three Days kicks off the new year in breathless style on January 5. A remake of Fred Cavayé's 2007 French thriller Pour Elle, Paul 'Crash' Haggis directs Russell Crowe as a desperate man who decides to bust his wife (Elizabeth Banks) out of the joint when she's convicted of murder. We're saying that if we were married to Elizabeth Banks and she was locked in prison, we'd definitely try and rescue her, but would probably chicken out at the last minute. But then we don't have Liam Neeson helping out as a hardened career criminal with handy prison-breaking skills.
On February 11, Shakespeare In Love director John Madden makes a welcome return with The Debt. Another remake of a 2007 foreign-language movie - an Israeli thriller of the same name - its split setting straddles Cold War Berlin and late '90s Europe where three Mossad agents track down a Nazi war criminal. With Sam Worthington, Marton Csokas and Jessica Chastain playing them young, and and Ciarán Hinds, Tom Wilkinson and Helen Mirren as their older versions, it's six quality thesps for the price of three. Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn are on script duties.
Russell Crowe in The Next Three Days
The Tempest, out on March 4, is another story with some writing pedigree behind it. Julie Taymor (you thought we were going to say that Shakespeare fella) picked up an Oscar nod for Frida and has previous when it comes to forging the Bard's words into screenplay form. She adapted Titus Andronicus into a more than respectable revenge thriller with Anthony Hopkins back in 1999. If The Tempest is half as leftfield as Titus - and with Prospero now Helen Mirren's Prospera, don't bet against it - we could be in for a literary treat.
If 2011 isn't the Chinese Year of the Matt Damon, it probably should be. He's got another of his eagerly-awaited releases landing on March 4 in the form of The Adjustment Bureau. Directed by George Nolfi, it looks like the closest thing the year has to Inception, boasting a love story wrapped in sci-fi thrills straight from the pages of Philip K. Dick. Literally straight from the pages of Philip K. Dick - it's an adaptation of his short story Adjustment Team. Damon is a suave congressman who falls for ballerina Emily Blunt only to run full force into a secretive organisation with malevolence in mind. Damon reunites with Bourne Ultimatum and Ocean's Twelve writer Nolfi, who makes his directorial bow.
Matt Damon and Emly Blunt in The Adjustment Bureau
Fair Game, the true-life story of CIA spook Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts), offers cinemagoers a second dose of covert thrills when it's out on the same day. Plame's identity was leaked by similarly dark forces, but we'll have to wait until March to find out exactly what they are (or check Wikipedia, if you're the impatient type). Sean Penn reunites with Watts for the third time following 21 Grams and The Assassination Of Richard Nixon, so expect plenty of on-screen chemistry. We'd hope so - he's playing her husband.
It's been a while since Robert De Niro had a juicy role to get his teeth into - four years to be exact, though it feels a lot longer - but that could all change on March 18 with the release of techno thriller Limitless. He plays a financial mogul hot on the heels of Bradley Cooper's schlebby writer who's come into possession of drug with brain-enhancing properties. Hot premise, rubbish title.
Thriller The Lincoln Lawyer, also out on March 18, has Matthew McConaughey as a hotshot attorney who's down on his luck ('Lincoln' refers to the car he works from) when he stumbles upon the case that may make him. But, this being an adaptation of Michael Connelly's crime novel, it's just as likely to break him.
If there's a Crazy Heart out there in 2011, it's probably Country Strong, a C&W drama packing enough personal demons to staff a full circle of hell. It's released on March 25 and promises to stretch Gwyneth Paltrow's acting chops in a way that Pepper Potts probably didn't, giving her the chance to show off her musical talent, too. She's a fading country star who embarks on a comeback tour that's complicated by her feelings for Garrett Hedlund's up-and-comer, a tricky home life and addiction problems Bad Blake can probably relate too.
Nine months hence and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy already looks like one of the highpoints of the year. With Let The Right One In's Tomas Alfredson behind the camera and Tom Hardy, Stephen Graham, Kathy Burke, Colin Firth and Mark Strong in front of it, it could match the genius of the BBC's award-winning '70s drama. Gary Oldman steps into Alec Guinness' worn brogues to play spymaster George Smiley on September 16.
Gwyneth Paltrow in Country Strong
Filed under 'eh?' but brimming with potential is Shakespeare authorship thriller Anonymous on September 30. Will Roland Emmerich do for the Bard what he's done to the White House, New York and Paris (twice) and destroy the reputation of Stratford's finest (Rafe Spall)? Did Rhys Ifans' Earl Of Oxford really write Hamlet? Seems like a stretch, if you ask us. He's only just recovered from hanging out with Howard Marks.
It's not the Chinese Year of Matt Damon - it's the Year of the Rabbit, we checked - but Damon is back, back, back in Contagion, Steven Soderbergh's more-than-intriguing action-thriller. The world is under threat of lethal pandemic, but luckily the greatest ensemble cast of the year is on hand to react. Alongside Damon, Soderbergh has mobilised Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Elliot Gould and Laurence Fishburne. Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston brings some handy medication know-how to the table, too. It's out on October 21.
Emilio Estevez's second directorial effort, The Way, also arrives at the tail end of the year. Like Bobby it unites him with dad Martin Sheen, a grieving father who embarks on a spiritual pilgrimage into the wilderness after burying his son. Into The Mild, they're not calling it.
Nothing says Christmas like Matt Damon a trip to the zoo, so hoorah and huzzah for We Bought A Zoo out on December 23. Yes, it's Matt Damon and rabbits together for the first time. He's a widower who buys a zoo when his wife dies and sets to work restoring its fortunes. It's a Cameron Crowe film and will no doubt (a) warm the cockles on frosty December evenings, and (b) have a crackerjack soundtrack to boot. A merry Christmas, indeed.
