Watch your troubles away?

When times get tough, the studios get going. In the coming year, they’ll be working to lure audiences into theaters with escapist thrillers, futuristic fantasies, feel-good comedies and devil-we-know sequels. Here are highlights of what’s in store.

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Thrills a minute: action films

Clive Owen partners with two sought-after leading ladies: In “The International” with Naomi Watts, he plays an Interpol agent battling a corrupt bank (Feb. 13), and in Tony Gilroy’s “Duplicity,” he stars opposite Julia Roberts as a conning corporate spy (March 20). Also getting revenge on corporate culture is Matt Damon, who rats out a price-fixing agriculture conglomerate in Steven Soderbergh’s “The Informant” (Sept. 18).

The action goes underground in Tony Scott’s “The Taking of Pelham 123” -- a remake of a 1974 film -- starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta, in which hijackers capture a New York City subway train (July 31), while Paris is the setting of the Liam Neeson thriller “Taken,” about a father trying to rescue his daughter from sex traffickers (Jan 30). And the BBC miniseries “State of Play” goes to Washington in the Kevin Macdonald-directed adaptation about the murder of a politician’s mistress, with Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck (April 17).

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Backtracking: fact-based dramas

Gangster John Dillinger, played by Johnny Depp, is the subject of director Michael Mann’s 1930s era “Public Enemies,” costarring Christian Bale as FBI agent Melvin Purvis (July 1).

Wooden spoons are the weapons of choice in “Julie & Julia,” writer-director Nora Ephron’s biopic of Julia Child, played by Meryl Streep (Aug. 7), while Hilary Swank wings it in “Amelia,” Mira Nair’s biopic of Amelia Earhart costarring Ewan McGregor and Richard Gere (Oct. 23).

Two musicians take center stage in upcoming projects: George Tillman Jr.’s “Notorious” stars rapper Jamal Woolard as the late Notorious B.I.G. (Friday), and, in Joe Wright’s “The Soloist,” Jamie Foxx is Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless, Juilliard-trained cellist befriended by an L.A. Times reporter played by Robert Downey Jr. (April 24).

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Future tense: sci-fi fantasies

Studios are banking their precious summer slots on perennial favorites. “Mission: Impossible 3” director J.J. Abrams travels back to Captain Kirk’s early days in “Star Trek,” an origins story (May 8); Christian Bale shoulders John Connor’s struggles in the McG-directed “Terminator: Salvation” (May 22); and Will Ferrell and Anna Friel inhabit a remake of the campy TV show “Land of the Lost,” directed by Brad Silberling (June 5).

Superheroes battle it out in the prequel “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” starring Hugh Jackman (May 1), and in Michael Bay’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” starring Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox (June 26). Additional box-office muscle comes from Brendan Fraser, who reteams with “The Mummy” director Stephen Sommers for “G.I. Joe” (Aug. 7).

Original fare joins the competition with “10,000 B.C” director Roland Emmerich looking into the future with “2012,” in which John Cusack, Woody Harrelson and Thandie Newton face Armageddon (July 10).

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States of the union: romantic comedies

If only real-life weddings were as entertaining. The role of Bridezilla is played by Sandra Bullock in June 12’s “The Proposal,” about a boss trying to marry her assistant to avoid deportation. (A smitten Bullock stalks a CNN cameraman in the March 6 comedy “All About Steve.”) The guys get their say with “I Love You, Man,” starring Paul Rudd as a groom searching for the perfect best man (March 20), “The Hangover,” about a Las Vegas bachelor party gone wrong (June 5), and “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,” with Matthew McConaughey as a man haunted by his exes (May 1).

Un-altered relationships are the subject of “He’s Just Not That Into You,” with an ensemble cast including Jennifer Anniston and Scarlett Johansson (Feb. 6). Gerard Butler puts Katherine Heigl to the test with his theories of love in “The Ugly Truth” (April 3), and in Nancy Meyers’ as-yet untitled Christmas comedy, Meryl Streep is fought over by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, who has “The Pink Panther 2” on Feb. 6.

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Book ‘em: screen adaptations

The actor who plays him is old enough to strip naked on Broadway, but Harry Potter is still stuck at Hogwarts in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the sophomore J.K. Rowling adaptation by David Yates (July 17). Also re-pairing are “The Da Vinci Code” director Ron Howard and Tom Hanks in their second Dan Brown adaptation, “Angels & Demons” (May 15).

Bestselling author Dennis Lehane gets the celluloid treatment with the Martin Scorcese-directed, Leonardo DiCaprio-starring “Shutter Island” (Oct. 2). Alice Sebold’s tale of a murdered girl, “The Lovely Bones,” is interpreted by Peter Jackson, who directs Rachel Weisz and Mark Wahlberg (Dec. 11).

Two other bestselling female authors making it to the big screen are Sophie Kinsella, whose “Confessions of a Shopaholic” stars Isla Fisher and is directed by P.J. Hogan (Feb. 13), and Jodi Picoult, whose novel “My Sister’s Keeper,” about a girl seeking emancipation from her parents, stars Cameron Diaz, Alec Baldwin and Abigail Breslin, and is directed by Nick Cassavetes (June 26).

Finally, Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are,” which caused a creative rumpus between the director and Warner Bros., arrives in theaters Oct. 16.

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Kidding around: family films

Giving voice to their inner children are George Clooney and Cate Blanchett in Wes Anderson’s animated adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” (Nov. 6), Reese Witherspoon in “Monsters vs. Aliens” (March 27), and Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz, who vocalize the travails of guinea pigs saving the world in “G-Force” (July 24). Queen Latifah and Denis Leary heat up “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” (July 1), Pixar has “Up,” a story of a man who travels to South America when he ties balloons to his house (May 29), and “Toy Story” goes 3-D on Oct. 2.

For those who like their action live, Ben Stiller returns in “Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian” (May 22), Dwayne Johnson stars in both “Race to Witch Mountain” (March 13) and “Tooth Fairy” (Nov. 13), and Robin Williams and John Travolta team up for “Old Dogs,” in which business partners find themselves at the mercy of 7-year-old twins (Nov. 25). “Inkheart,” about storybook characters who come to life, stars Brendan Fraser (Jan. 23), and, in “Imagine That,” Eddie Murphy plays an executive caught up in his daughter’s imaginary life (June 12).

Much to the delight of girls everywhere, the Hannah Montana movie arrives on April 10, the Jonas Brothers perform in 3-D on the big screen on Feb. 27, Ashley Tisdale stars in the aliens-attack drama “They Came from Upstairs” (July 31), and Emma Roberts checks into “Hotel for Dogs” (Friday).

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