There’s cause for excitement

Studios are currently consumed with Oscar campaigns for last year’s films, and the ongoing writers strike leaves the slate for 2009 uncertain. Happily, 2008 promises to deliver a plethora of movies to keep audiences in the moment. Here, some of the anticipated highlights.

WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND AGAIN: SEQUELS

This year brings expected smashes in franchises that seem like annual events, if they aren’t in fact: The sixth “Harry Potter,” which reunites the cast with their last director, David Yates (opening Nov. 21); the as-yet untitled new James Bond movie, starring Daniel Craig and directed by “The Kite Runner’s” Marc Forster (Nov. 7), and “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” directed by Adam Adamson, who guided the first “Narnia” to a $300-million box office (May 16).

Two other sequels will test the adage about time and fonder hearts, or at least answer the question about action heroes and aging gracefully: Harrison Ford returns after 19 years to play Indiana Jones for the fourth time, starring in Steven Spielberg’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (May 22). And Sylvester Stallone, apparently not satisfied to check his nostalgia at the door with 2006’s “Rocky Balboa” -- which earned an impressive $70-plus million -- returns as the star and director of the fourth “Rambo” (Jan. 25).

SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES: THE REUNIONS

In days of uncertain box-office numbers, there’s strength in returning to successful pairings. Joel and Ethan Coen turn again to George Clooney for their black comedy “Burn After Reading,” in which Clooney plays a CIA operative who loses his memoirs.

Clooney -- who also directs and stars in the April drama “Leatherheads,” about a 1920s football team -- has starred in two other Coen brother movies, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and “Intolerable Cruelty.” He is joined by “Oceans” trilogy cohort Brad Pitt as well as “Michael Clayton” costar Tilda Swinton (release date TBA).

The CIA also figures in the project responsible for reuniting Russell Crowe with Ridley Scott, the director who led him to glory in “Gladiator.” In the as-yet untitled film, Crowe plays an agent working with a journalist (Leonardo DiCaprio) to hunt down a terrorist (Oct. 10). Two other partners on the hunt for a bad guy are “Heat” costars Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, two New York City cops looking for a killer in Jon Avnet’s “Righteous Kill.” (April 18).

No ammunition figures in the reunion of Jude Law and Natalie Portman, who played contentious lovers in 2004’s “Closer” and now star in Wong Kar Wai’s English-language debut, “My Blueberry Nights.” Nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the film stars singer Norah Jones in her acting debut as a heartsick woman on a cross-country journey (Feb. 13).

GOING FOR BIG LAUGHS: TENT POLE COMEDIES

For all of the studios’ hand-wringing about what will attract audiences after a year of flat attendance, there is only one sure thing: Will Smith. Smith’s “I Am Legend” grossed more than $200 million, becoming his seventh straight movie to make it well past $100 million. Smith has two projects this year -- Peter Berg’s superhero comedy “Hancock” (July 2) and “Seven Pounds,” about a man who falls in love with a woman as he tries to kill himself (TBA) -- but one man can only do so much.

That leaves 50 other opening weekends for the competition, which includes Jim Carrey’s December comedy “Yes Man,” in which a man decides to (you guessed it) say yes to everything. (Carrey himself said yes to one other project: Voicing the CGI Seussian elephant in “Horton Hears a Who!,” due March 14.)

Adam Sandler and Owen Wilson are kidding around in their upcoming comedies, Sandler as a man who realizes that the stories he tells his young nephews are coming true in “Bedtime Stories” (Dec. 25), and Owen Wilson in “Drillbit Taylor,” about children who hire a bodyguard to protect them on the schoolyard (March 21).

And in what seems like a slam dunk, Will Ferrell -- who scored on the ice with the $100-million-plus “Blades of Glory” -- plays an owner-coach-player of a basketball team determined to get to the NBA Finals in “Semi-Pro” (Feb. 29).

NOVEL IDEAS GET TO THE BIG SCREEN: ADAPTATIONS

After Diane Lane cuckolded Richard Gere -- and earned an Oscar nomination for her efforts -- in 2002’s “Unfaithful,” they return in September, she as a married woman who falls for him in “Nights in Rodanthe,” George C. Wolfe’s adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ heartstrings-pulling bestseller. (Lane, one of this year’s busiest actresses, also stars in the upcoming films “Killshot,” based on Elmore Leonard’s novel; the thriller “Untraceable” and Doug Liman’s sci-fi “Jumper.”)

Also torn between two lovers is King Henry VIII in “The Other Boleyn Girl,” based on Phillipa Gregory’s novel and adapted by “The Queen” screenwriter Peter Morgan. Natalie Portman stars as Anne Boleyn, with Scarlett Johansson as her sister, Mary, and Eric Bana as the king (Feb. 29).

In P.J. Hogan’s adaptation of Sophie Kinsella’s novel “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” the tortured relationship is between Isla Fisher and her credit cards (fall), while the woman breaking down in Helen Hunt’s directorial debut, “Then She Found Me,” based on Elinor Lipman’s novel, has her family to blame (May 23).

All of these authors stand to benefit at the bookstore if the films perform, but one may get a posthumous boost. Brad Pitt and director David Fincher, both of whom are coming off less-than-impressively-performing projects with “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” and “Zodiac,” respectively, team up for the adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” about a man who ages backward (Nov. 26).

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF: PERIOD DRAMAS

Last year, there were certain actors whom audiences couldn’t get enough of -- as long as it didn’t involve their actual acting. Angelina Jolie earned critical raves as Mariane Pearl in “A Mighty Heart” but got dissed at the box office; Tom Cruise fared no better in “Lions for Lambs,” the first release made under MGM’s United Artists since Cruise and his producing partner Paula Wagner began running the company.

Both actors are set to change their fortunes this year by going back to the past. Jolie, who will also appear in “Wanted,” based on Mark Millar’s graphic novels, stars in “Changeling” (Nov. 7), a 1920s drama about a woman whose son is kidnapped; when he is returned to her, she suspects he is not her child. Ron Howard was set to direct, but after signing up to helm “Frost/Nixon,” followed by 2009’s “Angels & Demons,” the “Da Vinci Code” prequel, he bowed out. Clint Eastwood, who resuscitated Hilary Swank’s career when he directed her in “Million Dollar Baby,” took the reins.

Cruise tries to jump-start his box-office power, as well as that of United Artists, with the World War II drama “Valkyrie,” about an assassination attempt of Hitler (Oct. 3). Joining “Valkyrie” in the European trenches are Derek Luke, Michael Ealy and John Leguizamo, who star in Spike Lee’s “Miracle at St. Anna,” about four black American soldiers stationed in Tuscany during World War II who become caught behind enemy lines (fall).

CREATURE COMFORTS: SCI-FI FANTASIES

New YORK is no place to be in “Cloverfield,” a modestly budgeted film about a monster who destroys the city (Jan. 18). The film is produced by “Alias’ ” J.J. Abrams, who steps in as director to steer the 11th “Star Trek” film into space with a young crew on board. Another TV talent stepping behind the camera is “X-Files” creator Chris Carter, who makes his feature directing debut with July’s untitled “X-Files” sequel, starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny.

BATTLE OF THE SEXES: ROMANTIC COMEDIES

There are enough romances on the horizon to keep hearts fluttering -- Patrick Dempsey realizes he loves his friend in “Made of Honor” (May 2); Ryan Reynolds is a divorcing dad in “Definitely, Maybe” (Feb. 14); and Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey are estranged spouses on a treasure hunt in “Fool’s Gold” (Feb. 8) -- but the one that really counts is the return of the original gossip girls when “Sex and the City” finally hits the big screen (May 30).