Ten, plus a few more. I was going to post the 2010 films that I’m looking forward to earlier, but now I’m sort glad I got distracted and waited. The Book of Eli was one of the films and, well, now having seen it, I was a little disappointed. But here are 10 more (with the trailers, if they are out) I’m still excited about:
Shutter Island (Feb. 19): Any creepy thriller-type movie, set in an even creepier, isolated institution for the criminally insane, will draw me in, but the fact it’s directed by Martin Scorsese and stars Leonardo DiCaprio just adds icing to the cake.
Alice in Wonderland (Mar. 10): Who ISN’T excited about this one? Johnny Depp playing another eccentric character with wild hair; Helena Bonham Carter as the sadistic Queen of Hearts; Anne Hathaway as the lovely White Queen; newcomer Mia Wasikowska as Alice, the Aussie actress I thought was so achingly good in the first season of HBO’s In Treatment; and of course, director Tim Burton, who is just THIS shy of being completely bonkers – which is why I love his movies.
Clash of the Titans (Mar. 26): I’ve already mentioned my slight obsession with the cheesy 1981 original, so this is really a no-brainer for me, especially since the special effects are going to be on a whole other level. The Krakken, Medusa, all that great Greek mythology. And then there’s Sam Worthington as Perseus …
Date Night (April 9): Tina Fey and Steve Carell yuck it up in this comedy about a bored, married couple, who trek to the Big Apple for a romantic dinner to try to spice things up and get a whole lot more than they bargained for. It’s The Out-of-Towners meets After Hours. I sure hope it’s funny.
Iron Man 2 (May 7): If the trailer is any indication, this sequel looks fairly kick ass – and snarky, as only Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark can be. I’m sure it won’t be able to topple Avatar‘s box office grosses, but I predict it’ll be the biggest hit of the summer.
Toy Story 3 (June 18): Here we go again, with Buzz, Woody and the gang! I’ve missed them, and knowing that same Pixar quality is behind this third installment, I feel pretty confident I won’t be disappointed.
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (June 30): Oh come on, you KNEW I’d put this one on my list! I’ve got to know what happens in this most obsessive werewolf-vampire-human love triangle ever (and because I haven’t read the books, don’t spoil it for me). Releasing the third Twilight in the summer is also a minor stroke of genius. If anything else might beat Iron Man 2, Eclipse would be it.
Inception (July 16): Ah, writer/director Christopher Nolan, back to his cleverly twisty ways with his latest sci-fi thriller about a world where entering dreams is possible and wielding the human mind by injecting one single idea, can be used in both valuable – and dangerous – ways. Great cast, too: Leo DiCaprio (another year he’s having), Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, Marion Cotillard, Ken Watanabe, Lukas Haas and Michael Caine.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part One) (Nov. 19): What else? Even though I mourn the end of the Harry Potter saga in print, at least I know I’ve got two more movies to go, which will be the best of them yet, I predict. After that, I may just have to re-read the novels all over again.
Gulliver’s Travels (Dec. 22): Jack Black as a travel writer named Lemuel Gulliver, who takes an assignment in Bermuda but ends up on the island of Liliput, where he towers over its tiny citizens? Oh yeah, I’m there. Also stars Jason Segel, Emily Blunt and Billy Connolly.
I’m also curious about: Dear John (Feb. 5), to see Channing Tatum in love, natch; The Runaways (March 19), to see Dakota Fanning as a rock star; Sex and the City 2 (May 28), for the obvious reasons; Jonah Hex (June 18), to see if Megan Fox has something different up her sleeve; The Social Network (Oct. 1), to see if they can really make a movie about how Facebook got started interesting; Tron: Legacy (Dec. 17), again the obvious reasons; it’s Tron! And The Green Hornet (Dec. 22), to see how Seth Rogen will look as a superhero. He has lost weight, so at least there’s THAT.