When the world seems full of doom and gloom, there are always those special people that step up and make you feel good about life. When I hear stories about these heroes, I feel compelled to share them. Not long ago, I wrote about such a thing happening when Somchai Yoosabai, a Bangkok firefighter, single-handedly saved a young autistic boy with the help of his Spider-Man costume.

Today, we have another story of people doing something special for someone out of the goodness of their hearts.

Colby Curtin, a 10-year old girl described as fun, active and mature for her age, was diagnosed with a rare vascular cancer nearly three years ago and since then she has been fighting strong against it. For the last month or so however, her condition got worse and she would not live for long.

After seeing previews for Up attached to Monsters vs. Aliens, Colby absolutely had to see the upcoming Disney-Pixar 3-D film as lover of movies and animals herself. The problem was that by the time the film came out, she quickly became too ill to be brought to a theater to see it. And in those few days before her condition worsened, her mother’s request for a wheelchair came unanswered as the weekend passed by.

A photo of Colby Curtin by family friend Carole Lynch

The family feared that she would pass away without ever seeing the film. Terrell Orum-Moore, a family friend, was determined not to let that happen and began cold-calling Disney and Pixar to try to get someone to help.

The big obstacle for Orum-Moore was Pixar’s automated telephone system which asked for a specific name of an employee to pass the call through. Guessing names, she was able to get through to someone and the folks at Pixar listened to the story of dying Colby Curtin and agreed to fly someone out there the following day with a copy of the DVD.

The family friend then called Colby’s mother, Lisa Curtin, and told her the good news. Lisa asked her daughter if she could hang on just a bit longer to see the film. Colby responded:

“I’m ready (to die), but I’m going to wait for the movie,”

The following day, around lunch hour, the Pixar employee arrived with the DVD in hand and plenty of gifts.

They watched the film together but Colby couldn’t see much of the movie with pain forcing her eyes closed. Her mother helped by detailing what was happening on screen. After the film ended, the employee, who was described as being incredibly nice was very touched by the situation, left with the movie, having helped bring Colby her last wish.

After being able to experience the film she looked forward to so much, Lisa asked her daughter Colby if she liked it and she responded that she did. Colby passed away a mere seven hours later with both of her divorced parents at her bedside. Pixar came through and was able to make her last day something very special for the young girl and her family. They weren’t using this as some marketing scheme or to benefit their brand, they simply helped out the family to make Colby’s last wish come true.

Thank you, Pixar.

What do you think of this story?

To see more details on the story, check the original article at the OC Register, linked below.

Source: Orange County Register

Beyonce is Obsessed with being number one; Tony Scott and Denzel Washington are Unstoppable; it’s all Greek to Warner Bros. with Odysseus; James Marsden hassles the “Hoff” in Straw Dogs; will DiCaprio Beat the Reaper? Catherine is Keener for Jackson.

Box Office

It looks like all the independent women threw their hands up in the air for Beyonce Knowles starring Obsessed. The female fronted film grossed $28.5 million – which is about $10 million more than the studio predicted.

Zac Efron had to settle for a runner-up spot this week with an $11.5 weekend take for 17 Again. The film has so far banked about $39 million clearly going through the door-marked profit.

Channing Tatum (who’s on the cusp of big things with G.I Joe) and Iron Man’s (but not Iron Man 2) Terrance Howard came a close third this weekend with $11.3 million for Fighting.

Iron Man himself Robert Downey Jr was fourth with The Soloist. The film which co-stars Jamie Foxx was delayed by Paramount and although reviews were good it couldn’t make enough sweet music. With a weekend gross on just over $9 million it looks like The Soloist might have to sing for its supper.

Monsters vs. Aliens earned another $8.5 million. With a total of almost $180 million – expect a sequel.

State of Play couldn’t use its good reviews to build on its audience. With just over $7 million it looks like the Russell Crowe/ Ben Affleck film will have to find its audience on DVD.

Hannah Montana: The Movie has now banked $65 million (if you care) at least Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus will be happy. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker’s Fast and Furious has powered to $145 million. I wonder how fast and furious the next installment will be?

Movie News

1. Tony Scott and Denzel Washington are like er… Tony Scott and orange filters – inseparable.
Washington is in talks to star in Unstoppable, Scott’s runaway train movie.

If Washington cho-cho-choses (I know I made that joke before) the action pic will be their fifth film together…

Their fourth The Taking of Pelham 123 opens on June 12.

Source: Variety

2. Warner Bros. have won a major bidding war for the script Odysseus.
According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“The story centers on the legendary hero Odysseus, famed king of Ithaca, who returns to his island after 20 years of fighting the Trojan Wars, only to find his kingdom under the brutal occupation of an invading force. Odysseus single-handedly defeats every last man and takes back his wife, his son and his kingdom.”

Warner’s seem to love Greek based movies – a few years ago they had Troy, 300 and they have the forthcoming Clash of The Titans.

Haven’t they heard the expression “beware of Greeks bearing gifts”?

Source: Variety

3. James Marsden will play the Dustin Hoffman role in Rod Lurie’s Straw Dogs remake.
The former X-Man will star in the film which is due to start shooting in August.
The controversial original film Sam Peckinpah saw an American return to his wife’s rural village in England, only for the locals to turn nasty.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

4. Brian Koppelman and David Levien have been hired to adapt the Josh Bazell novel Beat the Reaper in the hopes that Leonardo DiCaprio will star.

“The drama, being developed as a potential star vehicle for Leonardo DiCaprio, revolves around a Manhattan ER doctor whose life becomes complicated when a mobster recognizes him from his former life as a hitman.”

Well, we haven’t seen this since A History of Violence.

Source: Variety

5. Catherine Keener will join former James Bond Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman, Sean Bean, Kevin McKidd in Christopher Columbus’ Percy Jackson.

The non Warner Bros. produced Greek fantasy film “put(s) Greek gods in modern times, (it) involve (s) Poseidon’s half-human son, Percy, who is on a quest in modern America to prevent a war among the gods.”

Keener will play Percy’s mother in the film which is currently shooting in Canada.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

That’s it for now. See you at the movies.

Zac Efron might be 17 Again but he’s also No.1 at the box office; Reese Witherspoon is Nice; Sean “Diddy” Combs goes Greek; Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning go Somwhere for Sofia Coppola; Felicity Jones is a woman in Ricky Gervais’ The Men At The Pru and Brotherhood’s Blake Masters fires  2 Guns for Universal Pictures.

Box Office
Zac Efron is a movie star. The High School Musical star’s role in 17 Again helped the film make $24 million over the weekend. The body swap comedy also stars Friends‘ Matthew Perry as an older Efron. Poor guy - a decade ago he was headlining (mediocre) romantic comedies and now he’s supporting a tween star.

In second place was State of Play starring Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck. Again about 10 years ago this would have opened at number one when the two stars were at their peak. Now, they’ll have to settle for a $14 million runner-up position. With good reviews this one just might have legs.

Hannah Montana: The Movie dropped over 70% for a third place finish. The film grossed about $12.5 million over the weekend giving the Miley Cyrus film a $56 million total.

Monsters Vs Aliens and Fast and Furious both banked about $11 million over the weekend bringing their totals to $161 and $135 respectively.

Crank High Voltage didn’t have much juice over the three days with a weak $7 million debut. Has the profitable Jason Statham action genre finally run its course?

Observe and Report dropped over 70% this weekend with a second weekend take of just $4 million. The film will be lucky to see a $25 million finish.

Movie News

1. Reese Witherspoon will produce and may star in an adaptation of en Sacks’ novel
Nice. According to Variety:

“The protag(onist) is a magazine writer who accidentally kills her boyfriend. She finds a way to get rid of the body and discovers that killing boyfriends is easier than breaking up with them.”

I cant say that I’m much of a Witherspoon fan, so I’ll be sitting this one out.

Source: Variety

2. Rapper with many names Sean “Diddy”/”Puff Daddy” Combs has signed onto the sequel to Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The film entitled Get Him To The Greek stars controversial British comedian Russell Brand, Jonah Hill, Elisabeth Moss and Rose Byrne.
According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“In the film, Combs plays the role of Sergio, an executive who owns a record label. Moss will play Daphne Binks, the girlfriend of Aaron Greenberg (played by Hill), while Brand plays an out-of-control rocker named Aldous Snow. Byrne will play Jackie Q, a scandal-ridden pop star and Snow’s character’s newest love interest.”

Judd Apatow produces. There’s a surprise!

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

3. Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning will star in Spofia Coppola’s Somewhere.

“(The) story centers on a bad-boy actor stumbling through a life of excess at the Chateau Marmont. With an unexpected visit from his 11-year-old daughter, he is forced to reexamine his life.”

The film will be shot in Hollywood’s famous Chateau Marmont hotel.

It sounds like someone is trying to recreate some of that Lost In Translation magic.
A bit of advice Sofia – Dorff is no Bill Murray.

Source: Variety

4. British actress Felicity Jones will join Ricky Gervais in The Men At The Pru.

“(In the 1970’s set “dramedy”) Jones will play Julie, who is led to believe by the men around her that a woman should focus on raising a family but who wants to break out and pursue a career in photography.”

Unlike most people I can’t say that I’m a fan of Gervais. I find him quite smarmy and full of himself.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

5. Blake Masters the creator of TV’s Brotherhood will adapt 2 Guns for Universal Pictures.

“Guns, written by Steven Grant with art by Mat Santolouco, follows a DEA agent and an undercover naval intelligence officer who are unwittingly investigating each other and who steal mob money for the good guys. They realize later that the mob actually got them to swipe $50 million from the CIA.”

Apparently the film will have a 1980’s buddy movie vibe, but with a modern spin.

Wasn’t that Kiss Kiss Bang Bang or Rush Hour?

It sounds interesting though – we’ll see what happens.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

That’s it for now. See you at the movies

The box office is Furious; Jack Bauer leaves 24 for Joel Schumacher’s Twelve; Paul Weitz looks at Little Fockers; Rosemarie DeWitt and Chris Cooper are Company Men; Aaron Eckhart and Nicole Kidman stare into the Rabbit Hole; we make a date for Sex and The City 2 and Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg are Prisoners.

Box office
Vin Diesel and Paul Walker raced into the number one position with Fast and Furious. The action sequel banked a massive $72 million over the weekend – showing that there is plenty of gas left in the Fast and Furious franchise. Maybe Vin Diesel will get those Riddick movies made after all.

Monster vs. Aliens dropped to second place but it still managed to gross $33 million giving the animated film a gross of over $100 million.

The Haunting in Connecticut took another $9.6 million bringing the total gross to a pretty decent $37 million.

Nicolas Cage’s hair banked another $8 million, giving Knowing a total gross of  $58 million.

I Love You, Man brought its total up to $49 million while fellow comedy film Adventureland had a disappointing opening of $6 million.

Julia Roberts and Clive Owen saw Duplicity bank an additional $4 million giving the star driven thriller a $32 million total.

Movie News

1. Joel Schumacher will direct an adaptation of Nick McDonell’S novel Twelve. According to Variety:

“Story follows a high school dropout-turned-drug dealer. His lucrative life sours when the dealer’s cousin is brutally murdered on an East Harlem playground and his best friend is arrested for the crime.”

The cast of the film includes Chace Crawford, Emma Roberts, Rory Culkin, Curtis Jackson (or 50 Cent), Ellen Barkin and Kiefer Sutherland.

Sutherland and Schumacher have made numerous films together over the years – A Time To Kill, Lost Boys, Phone Booth and Flatliners. Schumacher also directed Emma Roberts’ aunt Julia in Flatliners and Dying Young.

Did I mention that Schumacher also directed a little film called Batman and Robin?

Source: Variety

2. Paul Weitz is in talks to direct Universal Pictures Little Fockers, the second sequel to Meet The Parents.

The director has previously helmed the first American Pie film, About A Boy and In Good Company.

The Focker flick is expected to start shooting in July.

Source: Variety

3. Rosemarie DeWitt has joined the cast of Company Men and Chris Cooper is in negotiations to sign on to the film. The corporate downsizing drama will star Kevin Costner, Ben Affleck and Tommy Lee Jones.

How many Oscar winners can you fit into one film?

Rosemarie DeWitt will play Affleck’s wife while Cooper would play a white collar worker losing his job.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

4. Aaron Eckhart will join Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole.

“[The film is a] story of a happily married couple whose lives are disrupted after their 4-year-old son is killed in a traffic accident and the redemptive journey they must undertake to regain happiness.”

Sounds like a bundle of laughs. It’ll be interesting to see if Kidman can emote.

Source: Variety

5. Warner Bros. have set a date for Sex and the City 2. Be prepared to be carried away (again) on May 28, 2010.

The first film made a mind boggling $412.6 million worldwide.

That’s an awful lot of shoes for Sarah Jessica Parker.

Source: Variety

6. Batman and Terminator Salvation star Christian Bale may join Mark Wahlberg in Prisoners.

The plot is as follows:

“After his 6-year-old daughter and her friend are kidnapped, a small-town carpenter butts heads with a young, brash detective in charge of the investigation.  The father is a Bible-reading, deer-hunting survivalist. The cop, meanwhile, can’t wait to get to the city. Feeling failed by the law, the father captures the man he believes responsible and begins to torture him in a desperate attempt to find out what he did with the girls, whom he’s convinced are still alive.”

Bryan Singer is pondering directing the film.

Nothing is set in stone yet but if Bale, Wahlberg and Singer io sign then expect a studio to snap the project up.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

That’s it for now. See you at the movies.

I haven’t had a chance to write a review yet, but I saw Monsters vs. Aliens with my daughter this weekend and was pretty disappointed. I didn’t exactly go in with high expectations, but it was much weaker than I expected – even with the addition of 3D. It’s strictly for the 8 year old and under crowd.

So I’m happy to present these latest clips from Pixar’s next film, Up, which I’m quite sure won’t disappoint.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m not a big fan of Pixar’s Wall-E, but Up looks like a return to the type of film that has made Pixar so respected, loved and appreciated by parents starved for movies to take their kids to – which are wonderful to watch for the parents as well.

Up opens on May 29, 2009

Sources: IGN, MSN Movies, Yahoo Movies Hat tip: /Film

3D.  I remember the 1D headaches from watching some older 3D movies.  Yet the entertainment industry thinks 3D is the new tech that will help sales.  Not only is it coming to a theater near you, it’s coming to computer games and some TVs that are already set up for 3D movies.  Or will this newest effort end up in the warehouse with the massive unsold collection of 10,000 Segways?

The Potential of 3D:
Anyone remember trying to sit through a 3D movie with those totally dorky cardboard “glasses?”  Do you also remember the massive eye-ripping 1D headache that came from using those things, or was that just me?  I remember the headache because I just got it again after watching the Monsters vs. Aliens 3D movie trailer commercial that came in after the 2nd quarter of Super Bowl XLIII.

Yet 3D does have its fans.  That is if you look at some ticket sales.  3D is considered to be a success because 3D versions of movies like Meet the Robinsons and Beowulf sold twice as many 3D version tickets than their 2D version counterpart.

On a scary note, they also tout the success of the 3D flick, Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour. The Disney 3D film shattered records for a limited release movie.  Groan.

Are There Enough Theaters?
As studios start to pump out 3D products, theaters are starting to add the necessary projectors for the approximately 40 upcoming film projects coming down the pipe.  But will there be enough theaters for this big plan?

It was estimated that there would be around 5,000 theaters with the proper technology installed when Monsters vs. Aliens comes out, but the true estimate is that there are only 1,500 theaters ready to show the movie in 3D.  That’s a sobering number for the hopes Dreamworks had, considering that making a 3D movie costs much more to make than a regular film.

Then again, is this an example of studios pushing their own schedules on everyone before they’re ready?  And I presume that the costs to upgrade are on the theater chains who are already struggling with the finance balances of showing a film.

Some 3D Projects Noted:
Of the 40 planned 3D projects, a few of them you may have already heard of:

There’s already been Journey to the Center of the Earth, the previously mentioned Dreamworks’ computer-animated film Monsters vs. Aliens which is due out next March and James Cameron’s Avatar.

Journey to the Center of the Earth was the first ever live-action film that’s been shot entirely in 3D, but it also had a 2D version out.  Pixar studio is now making all of its computer-animated films in 3D.

On top of that, in the “Is Nothing Sacred” category, Disney’s Pixar is redoing Toy Story (I & II) in 3D, and George Lucas is hoping to keep his Star Wars franchise alive by redoing that in 3D.

The Home Viewing Industry:
With the home viewing industry being a nearly $36 billion industry, some big names are looking at how to get 3D into your home.  Some of the companies include Disney, Universal, Philips, Samsung, Sony, Thomson and IMAX.

Some sports telecasts have already taken place in 3D and there’s a push to develop TVs where you won’t need glasses at all.  (That confuses all three of me.)

The idea is that since Hi-Def made such an impact, 3D HD will be even bigger.  Right now we already have some 3D products in the home.  An estimated 1 million 3D-ready HDTVs made by Mitsubishi and Samsung are already in U.S. homes.  The basic concept from the Philips brand is to place a lens over the screen to create the effect.

Even The Computer Is Not Immune:
Madden NFL, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and FIFA Soccer are coming to the 3D world, and Bioshock can now be transformed into 3D via a package from DDD (Dynamic Digital Depth) and their TriDef 3D Experience.

Do I even want to touch on the process being pitched to make Blu-Ray discs viewable in 3D?  Nah, not right now.

What do I think?
3D needs to be watchable.  It needs to be able to be experienced without the headaches, or more precisely, without the glasses.  It needs to not be a distraction.

What does a 3D platform add to a story?  Most 3D scenes seem to be extraneously injected camera angles to take advantage of a spear being thrust in your face and other such moments where scenes, people or objects are filmed.

Pointing to the successes of 3D sales from a teenage pack of swarming Miley Cyrus fans or Meet the Robinsons and Beowulf may be giving these movies more credit than they deserve and sending a lot of serious funds down the wrong entertainment avenue.  Or are they?  Is this where they think the fan base is really heading?  Yeesh.

As far as that 3D trailer during the Super Bowl, I was impressed… NOT!  There were maybe two moments that looked cool.  The very opening with the paddle ball moment, and then later on in the SoBe commercial that followed it up, when a lizard smacked the screen.  OK, those did look cool, but the rest of the air-time just seemed dark, fuzzy and confusing to me.

A closing note on a very scary development that most of us probably didn’t see coming:  The Huffington Post reports that a Hong Kong “production” company is looking to create the first ever 3D porn movie.  Oh my, the possibilities are just way too frightening to even try to consider.

Back To You:
So is it me, or are you feeling the same, underwhelming emotions about this potential process?

Sources: USA Today, Portfolio.com, Telegraph.co.uk, Huffington Post, /Film,

The first batch we have, thanks to Ain’t It Cool News, is five G.I. Joe character posters that give us absolutely nothing new – It’s just more of the same good looking people wearing black armor and holding guns. I get it. I’ve already seen all these characters in similar poses sporting the exact same equipment – In fact that’s all we’ve ever seen for this movie.

I’d say they really need to show us something new and some actual footage but we already know they’re going to on Sunday with their first ever teaser trailer during the Super Bowl, so hopefully that will generate some excitement as these posters don’t.

Take a look and see what you think:

Next we have some retro-styled character posters for Monsters vs. Aliens. Similar to the G.I. Joe posters, these aren’t that spectacular or special. However, since we’ve already seen multiple trailers for this movie, the characters in this case, are able to sell themselves - especially to the younger audience who are already in love with some of the characters (notably B.O.B. played by Seth Rogen).

Similar to G.I. Joe, this movie is making a big marketing splash during the Super Bowl with their highly anticipated 3-D full length trailer, where they distributed millions upon million pairs of 3-D glasses all over the states.

Here are the posters:

I look forward to these trailers so I’ll treat these images as a teaser for Sunday. What do you think of the posters?

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra hits theaters August 7, 2009 and Monsters vs. Aliens debuts March 27, 2009.

Sources: JoBlo, Ain’t It Cool News

We’ve all heard stories of the insane amounts of money it costs to run TV spots during the Super Bowl ($3 million for a 30 second spot this year) but it’s certainly not stopping several of the major studios from debuting their highly-anticipated trailers during this year’s broadcast from Tampa Bay.

The following snippet from a Variety article lists the confirmed trailers:

Confirmed for this year’s roster are high-profile titles like Paramount’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” “Star Trek” and “G.I. Joe“; Sony’s “Angels and Demons“; DreamWorks Animation’s “Monsters vs. Aliens“; and Universal’s “Land of the Lost” and its fourth installment in “The Fast and the Furious” franchise. Disney is also planning to use the game to raise the profile for Pixar’s next toon, “Up.”

As we expected a while ago, we will be getting the very first ever trailer for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as well as G.I. Joe which we haven’t had any new information on in a very long time.

One trailer that has already generated quite a bit of hype is that of Monsters vs. Aliens which DreamWorks Animation is promoting through a full 90-second trailer and the distribution of 125 million pairs of 3D glasses as the trailer will be aired in 3D. This blows my mind and I’m happy that we’re getting some innovative marketing that will get the kids involved.

Some studios such as Warner Bros. (who have Terminator Salvation, Harry Potter 6 and Watchmen coming out) and Fox (who has Wolverine, Ice Age 3 and Night at the Museum 2 debuting this year) have not purchased any ad time however they could be holding out till last minute to get a reduced rate by NBC to fill its remaining open slots.

The Super Bowl is one of the most watched television events in the world and is probably the only broadcast where people actually look forward to the commercials – now us movie buffs have even more to get excited about this year!

Are you excited for the plethora of teasers header our way during the February 1st broadcast?

Source: Variety

As 2008 approaches its end and we think back on all the big films of the year, we must take time to look forward at what is to come. That is exactly what we will do now – And I don’t use the term “we” lightly as I enlisted the help of the entire Screen Rant team to help me share with you our individual and collective thoughts of what movies to look forward to in 2009.

We began the tradition last year with the most anticipated movies of 2008, and here’s your bright, shiny 2009 version!

This was not an easy task to say the least. While there are several obvious big-name titles coming out next year, there are also 765 movies planned to debut next year in total (according to Movieweb). Narrowing that down to just ten is not the easiest of tasks especially when certain films have shared little information with us so far (wink wink nudge nudge to James Cameron’s Avatar).

Using all of our individual choices and an elaborate scoring system that took hundreds of hours to deliver its results (OK, I made up that last bit), I summed up and calculated our overall most anticipated movie of 2009 list for the Screen Rant team.

I present to you, Screen Rant’s Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2009:

10. Monsters vs. Aliens – March 27, 2009

Dreamworks’ big 3D-animated film of 2009

Featuring an abundance of well-known voice talent and a hilarious plot, this film looks like fun for all. Along with Disney’s Up we expect a pair of solid animated films next year. I’ll also be seeing this one in 3D!

9. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – June 26, 2009

The sequel to the loved and hated Summer blockbuster of 2007.

Can Michael Bay turn some of those frowns upside down with this sequel that he co-wrote? Will there be more robots, less people, better story, less corniness and better characters? We hope so and some of us are looking forward to finding out from this action-adventure.

8. Up – May 29, 2009

Disney Pixar’s next 3D-animated experience.

The beautiful-looking 3D-animated film about a 78 year-old man and a young boy stuck together on a wondrous journey into a lost world. I’m definitely seeing this one in 3D.

7. Public Enemies – July 1, 2009

The notorious life of gangster John Dillinger brought to the big screen.

Starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and several other stars featured in other big films next year, this 1930s-style crime and dime movie should be awesome. Little has been shown so far, but we have high expectations from the cast and story alone.

6. Inglourious Basterds – June 2009 (exact release date still to be determined)

Quentin Tarantino’s World War 2 Epic is finally arriving.

Tarantino’s been subject to some mixed reviews on his most recent projects – can this be the one to turn it around? We’re certainly hoping and looking forward to it and its interesting cast includes Brad Pitt, Mike Myers and Eli Roth.

5. X-Men Origins: Wolverine – May 1, 2009

Wolverine’s origins are detailed in this prequel to the X-Men trilogy.

Hugh Jackman – Sexiest Man of the Year – is back in his career-making and fan-favorite invulnerable adamantium-laced claw-sharpening mutant. I’m sold on the support characters alone – this movie should be tons of fun – but will the story be any good?

4. Terminator Salvation – May 22, 2009

The fourth Terminator feature film starts a new trilogy.

The franchise hits the big screen again in this sequel/prequel to the Terminator Franchise. Starring Christian Bale as John Connor and a plethora of new Terminator designs, we look forward to McG’s new direction for the franchise.

3. Star Trek – May 8, 2009

The rebirth of the franchise is upon us thanks to J.J. Abrams.

Can this prequel/reboot of a film bring Star Trek back to the mainstream and make it “cool” once again? While Star Wars dwindles in the aftermath of the prequels and animated Clone Wars, Star Trek has the opportunity to nab the Sci-Fi throne.

2. Avatar – December 18, 2009

James Cameron’s epic bleeding-edge film that we know nothing about.

Even though we have seen literally (almost) nothing from the film, hopes and hype are high for this potential industry-changing film. We put our faith in James Cameron and his notion of quality of quantity film-making.

1. Watchmen – March 6, 2009 (pending trial?)

Warner Brothers’ next blockbuster DC Comics film.

Can it compare to this year’s The Dark Knight? Will Fox Studios’ litigation proceedings delay or harm the film? We hope that Fox stops interfering and playing this money-grabbing game.

And now for our regular readers, I thought you’d be interested in the breakdown on what each of the writers here at Screen Rant picked as their most looked forward to movies…

To start, I’ll share my Top 10 most anticipated for next year and give a little explanation of my choices:

1. Watchmen
2. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
3. Star Trek
4. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
5. Inglourious Basterds
6. Terminator Salvation
7. Avatar
8. Public Enemies
9. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
10. G.I. Joe

The Wolverine origins flick recently made the jump into my top three simply because of the trailer that was released two weeks ago. I’m a huge Gambit fan and seeing some amazing scenes with him made me super excited for the film. The caveat to this is that if I find out Gambit does not have his Cajun accent in the film – then this movie will no longer by featured in my list.

We know very little about James Cameron’s Avatar and we’ve seen even less so it’s very difficult to gauge where it should rank but I threw it in there anyways because of the hype of the film, the crazy technology being employed to produce it, and the fact that it’s Cameron’s baby. I also threw in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus for the simple fact that it is Heath Ledger’s last film ever and the casting additions that were made to complete Ledger’s role in the film were pretty astonishing.

For fun, I also threw in G.I. Joe as my last pick even though we’ve not seen any real footage and there is some negative press surrounding some pre-screenings of the trailer for the film.

Next, we have Screen Rant Master Vic Holtreman’s Top 10 list:

1. Star Trek
2. Watchmen
3. Avatar
4. Terminator Salvation
5. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
6. Up
7. Monsters vs. Aliens
8. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
9. The Surrogates
10. The Road

Vic is a massive Trek fan so his number one choice is a given. His top three can easily shift around depending on what kind of marketing the three films get and it’s the top six in the list he really looks forward to – with the last four added to round off the top 10.

Vic is looking forward to the fourth installment to the Terminator franchise and has confidence that McG will do a good job. He’s also hoping that Up will make up for his disappointment with Wall-E. On the other hand, Vic is also anticipating the Wolverine-centric movie but is not sure if it will be that good.

Next up, we have the master of television, Bruce Simmons:

1. 2012
2. Sherlock Holmes
3. Star Trek
4. Knowing
5. Public Enemies
6. Terminator Salvation
7. Watchmen
8. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
9. The Surrogates
10. Fast & Furious

Bruce’s list is quite unique with him being the only one to include 2012, Knowing and Fast & Furious. Those two choices have him on shaky ground here as a continuing writer (JUST kidding!).

The following is Heath McKnight’s most anticipated films of 2009.

1. Watchmen
2. Avatar
3. Up
4. Monsters vs. Aliens
5. Terminator Salvation
6. The Road
7. X-Men Origins Wolverine
8. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
9. Sherlock Holmes
10. The Wolf Man

Heath shows some favor to the two big animated films of next year and does not include Star Trek in his list.

Next up is Niall Browne and his Top 10:

1. Edge of Darkness
2. The Surrogates
3. The Wolf Man
4. Public Enemies
5. The Taking of Pelham 123
6. Avatar
7. Watchmen
8. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
9. Terminator Salvation
10. Inglourious Basterds

Niall has Edge of Darkness starring Mel Gibson in comeback-mode as his unique #1 choice for next year.

The most anticipated films of 2009 for Jamie Williams:

1. Inglourious Basterds
2. Avatar
3. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
4. Ashecliffe (also known as: Shutter Island)
5. Up
6. Star Trek
7. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
8. Observe and Report
9. Terminator Salvation
10. The Lovely Bones

Jamie’s list includes several unique picks such as Ashcliffe and The Lovely Bones and is the only one that does not include Watchmen. Despite that, for some reason we continue to let him write for the site…

The following is Carl Lee’s Top 10 list for next year otherwise know as his “Top-5 Comic Films” as he points out:

1. Watchmen
2. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
3. Push
4. Kick Ass
5. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
6. Public Enemies
7. Inglourious Basterds
8. Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
9. Monsters vs. Aliens
10. Assassination of a High School President

Carl makes the unique picks of having Push and Assassination of a High School President in his Top 10.

Next up is the Top 10 list for Kofi Outlaw:

1. Avatar
2. Watchmen
3. Terminator Salvation
4. Star Trek
5. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
7. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
8. Up
9. Monsters vs. Aliens
10. Friday the 13th

Kofi admits that Friday the 13th is his guilty pleasure. I forgive him as I put G.I. Joe as my number ten.

Last but not least we have Screen Rant’s newest writer, Ross Miller, and his most anticipated films of 2009:

1. Watchmen
2. Inglourious Basterds
3. Public Enemies
4. The Soloist
5. Terminator Salvation
6. Up
7. Star Trek
8. Sherlock Holmes
9. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
10. Notorious

Ross includes the unique Top 10 movie picks of The Soloist and Notorious.

That’s it for our individual lists.

So there you have it, sliced every which way! Special mentions also go out to The Surrogates, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Sherlock Holmes, The Wolf Man and the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus for all being included in several of our individual top-10 lists. Some of those just barely missed out on being included in the finalized top-10 and we are certainly looking forward to them as well, among others.

What movies are you looking forward to in 2009? Are you as excited for next year’s slate of films as I am?

And here’s a final question for you: Which of our writers’ movie tastes best match yours?

The story revolves around California girl Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon, Legally Blonde), who is hit by a meteorite from outer space and grows to 49-feet-11-inches tall. A secret part of the military swoops in to capture her and she’s introduced to other “monsters” the military has been rounding up over the years.

When a mysterious alien robot lands on Earth, the unlikely group of misfits are brought in under desperate order from the President (Stephen Colbert, TV’s The Colbert Report). With the guidance of General W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland, TV’s 24), this crew of monsters are called to combat against the aliens and save the world from imminent doom.

The animated feature also includes: The Missing Link (Will Arnett, TV’s Arrested Development), Dr. Cockroach Ph.D (Hugh Laurie, TV’s House), B.O.B. (Seth Rogan, Knocked-Up), and alien leader Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson, TV’s The Office).

Monster vs. Aliens is directed by Rob Letterman (Shark Tale) and Conrad Vernon (Shrek 2) is produced by Lisa Stewart (I Think I Love My Wife) and co-produced by Jill Hopper and Latifa Ouaou. One thing that’s very odd about this film is that there is no mention of who the writers are – anywhere. Not on any of the movie database sites, official sites for Dreamworks or the film itself, or even in press releases for the movie. More than likely, the film is a studio-wide project with many members contributing to it. This potentially portends a disconnected project, but what they’ve put together looks pretty good so far.

From the first trailer, nothing seemed too out of the ordinary but this latest clip looks like an attempt to set a new bar for animated action. Along with 50-foot-woman Susan come action sequences on a massive scale. From what must have been a huge array of scattered ideas, DreamWorks has whittled this down to a handful of characters that look to provide a (hopefully) fun film.

[See post to watch Flash video]

Monster vs. Aliens arrives March 27, 2009.

Source: MSN.com

This week, DreamWorks debuted the first official trailer for their 3D-animated feature Monsters vs. Aliens. You may have seen a leaked version earlier this summer on the web but now we have the official complete version.

The film features an awesome cast including Seth Rogan, Will Arnett, Paul Rudd, Hugh Laurie, Reese Witherspoon, Kiefer Sutherland, Rainn Wilson and Stephen Colbert. Colbert of course, will play the President of the United States, much like he does in the Marvel Comics universe.

I think it looks great and I laughed out loud several times watching the trailer. It should be tons of fun for all audiences and you can never go wrong with that.

This is the first full feature film to utilize DreamWorks Animation’s Ultimate 3D process. It was produced in full 3D from the beginning as opposed to converting the film to 3D once completed. It is being designed to be quite a spectacle in IMAX 3D and what has been shown so far is apparently very impressive.

The plot of the film speaks for itself through the trailer so take a look and see what you think:

[See post to watch Flash video]

Monsters vs. Aliens will be out on March 27, 2009.

Source: Big Movie Zone