What are your most anticipated films of 2009?

[Watashi]

This is about the same time last year that Spinal did the 2008 anticipation thread.

If 2009 holds steady and nothing gets delayed, it should be an improvement over 2008.

In no order:

Up (Pete Docter)
Watchmen (Zach Snyder)
Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)
Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
Avatar (James Cameron)
Public Enemies (Michael Mann)
Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese)
The Road (John Hillcoat)
The Lovely Bones (Peter Jackson)
Kick-Ass (Matthew Vaughn)
Funny People (Judd Apatow)
The Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)
Year One (Harold Ramis)

No idea on the foreign stuff yet.

[Dukefrukem]

Avatar is me #1. Has been for a long time.

I feel like there's something else coming this summer too... can't put my finger one it.

Edit: not Star Trek...

[Amnesiac]

http://www.nyums.com/images/08jan/wildthings_3.jpg

[Ezee E]

Shutter Island is now Ashecliffe.

[Raiders]

Saw XXXVII

[The Mike]

The Wolf Man
Watchmen
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Kick-Ass

[Ivan Drago]

1. Watchmen
2. Inglorious Basterds
3. Tree of Life
4. Ashecliffe
5. Public Enemies
6. Where The Wild Things Are
7. Year One (Ramis)
8. Up
9. The Informant
10. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
11. The Wolf Man
12. The Soloist
13. Bruno
14. Terminator: Salvation
15. Star Trek

[Ezee E]

Others to consider from noteworthy directors/writers:

This Side of the Truth (Ricky Gervais)
The International (Twyker)
The Wolf Man (Joe Johnston)
State of Play (Kevin MacDonald)
Whatever Works (Woody Allen)
Enter the Void (Gaspar Noe)
Thirst (Chan-Wook Park)
Nailed (David O. Russell)
Broken Embraces (Pedro Almodovar)
Agora (Alejandro Amenabar)
Biutiful (Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu)
The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
Amelia (Mira Nair)

[The Mike]

Can't believe I forgot Terminator: Salvation.

[Ezee E]

1. Inglorious Basterds
2. Avatar
3. Ashecliffe
4. Enter the Void
5. Where the Wild Things Are
6. The Road
7. The Lovely Bones
8. Tree of Life
9. The Hurt Locker
10. Nailed

Looks like an awesome year on paper. Much better than this year.

[Dukefrukem]

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

That's the one I was thinking of!

That's my #2

and maybe GI JOE is my #3, even though I already know it's going to be god awful.

[Derek]

Saw XXXVII

I haven't begun anticipating that one yet, but needless to say I sure as hell anticipate my anticipation for it!

[ledfloyd]

a serious man
whatever works
margaret
where the wild things are
sugar
the limits of control
broken embraces
the road
the soloist
up
year one
inglorious bastards
public enemies
the imaginarium of dr. parnassus
adventureland
sherlock holmes (only cause of RDJ)
nine

that's all that's coming to mind at the moment.

[Morris Schæffer]

Avatar




Terminator: Salvation
Star Trek XI
Inglorious Basterds
The Road

[Stay Puft]

I Come With The Rain (Tran Anh Hung)
Mei Lanfang (Chen Kaige)

Still waiting. It looks like Chen's film will come out at the end of the year in China, which I guess makes it a 2009 release here. Tran's is still floating in post-production.

And of course there are films from obvious "heavy hitters" such as Terence Malick and Pedro Almodovar. Those go without saying.

[Amnesiac]

3. Tree of Life


Doesn't quite beat out my anticipation for Where The Wild Things Are but... yeah, most definitely anticipating this one.

[Ivan Drago]

Che is coming out this year after all. Edited list for that and added Star Trek.

[The Mike]

Dude, forgot about G.I. Joe. I should wipe out everything else on my list but Wolf Man and that.

[Amnesiac]

New Where The Wild Things Are photo and an interview with Jonze (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39145):

http://www.aintitcool.com/images2008/WTWTAsunsetbig.jpg

[Sven]

Sooooooooooooooo encouraging.

[Sycophant]

Sooooooooooooooo encouraging.Seriously. I was really worried about the status of the project, but this has me giddy with anticipation. If 2009 gives me Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are AND Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox (schedule for a November 6 releae), anything else will just be gravy.

[Amnesiac]

Yeah, that interview, and picture, definitely solidified the film as my most anticipated for 2009.



Moriarty: It makes sense. Like I’ve seen how my kid reacts if you lose control of your anger. They’re little batteries, they soak it up and then it comes back out in the craziest of ways. You don’t know how and you don’t know when, but it’s not gonna be the same coming out as it was going in. You learn real quick to be careful about what you do and express in front of them, and how.
That’s something that I don’t know if I’ve ever seen someone try to talk about in film. Like I think we try and make kids into saints in movies, and we kind of smooth off the rough edges, and it’s just so much more interesting to see a real kid, and to see how kids try and process the world.

Spike Jonze: And I think that’s what freaked the studio out about the movie too. It wasn’t a studio film for kids, or it wasn’t a traditional film about kids. We didn’t have like a Movie Kid in our movie, or a Movie Performance in a Movie Kid world. We had a real kid and a real world, and I think that’s sort of where our problem was. In the end they realized the movie is what it is, and there’s no real way to... it’s sort of like they were expecting a boy and I gave birth to a girl.

[Laughs]

So they just needed their time to sort that out and figure out how they were going to learn to love their new daughter.

Definitely sounds promising. Doesn't seem like the studio trampled all over Jonze's vision.

[Raiders]

Figured I would use this thread to announce it seems that Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones has been moved from 3/13/09 to 12/11/09.

Not sure if this means they are going to be overhauling the film, which is bad, or if it is now going to be propped up for the Oscar season, which seems more likely since studios aren't going to release a film in December that they have little confidence in. So, I guess some sort of test or early screening was impressive.

[dreamdead]

Figured I would use this thread to announce it seems that Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones has been moved from 3/13/09 to 12/11/09.

Considering the quickness with which we'll be getting McCarthy adaptations in the next year after the success of No Country, it is rather surprising that this film is taking so long to get through the production stages. Hopefully Jackson displays the acumen that Heavenly Creatures gave so much evidence of, as I still feel that that is his best work.

My list:

Doctor's UP
Tsai's Visages
Malick's The Tree of Life
Cameron's Avatar
Hillcoat's The Road
Tran's I Come With The Rain
Jackson's The Lovely Bones

The "may it not be a disaster, but at least interesting" vote to:
Snyder's Watchmen

[Spinal]

Antichrist
Das Weiße Band
Mammoth
A Serious Man
King Shot (maybe? possibly?)

Those are the biggies.

[Raiders]

King Shot (maybe? possibly?)

I worry for your health with a film combining Jodorowsky, Asia Argento and Udo Kier. If I find out there will be monkeys in it, I'm going to have to forbid you from seeing it.

[Qrazy]

Figured I would use this thread to announce it seems that Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones has been moved from 3/13/09 to 12/11/09.

Not sure if this means they are going to be overhauling the film, which is bad, or if it is now going to be propped up for the Oscar season, which seems more likely since studios aren't going to release a film in December that they have little confidence in. So, I guess some sort of test or early screening was impressive.

I would guess the latter because I've never heard of Jackson having to overhaul a film and he has enough clout these days that I doubt a bad test screening would force him to overhaul it anyway. Still it sucks that we have to wait 9 more months now.

There's no way King Shot will come out in '09. I just hope it gets made.

[Spinal]

I worry for your health with a film combining Jodorowsky, Asia Argento and Udo Kier. If I find out there will be monkeys in it, I'm going to have to forbid you from seeing it.

It does seem too good to be true.

[Ezee E]

Figured I would use this thread to announce it seems that Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones has been moved from 3/13/09 to 12/11/09.

Not sure if this means they are going to be overhauling the film, which is bad, or if it is now going to be propped up for the Oscar season, which seems more likely since studios aren't going to release a film in December that they have little confidence in. So, I guess some sort of test or early screening was impressive.
I figured that would happen, considering we haven't seen one shot from the movie, and anything Jackson does these days will be Oscar-ish at the least.

I'm guessing it's the latter.

[eternity]

1. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Edgar Wright)
2. Nine (Rob Marshall)
3. Brief Interviews With Hideous Men (John Krasinski)
4. Blood Meridian (Todd Field)
5. Moon (Duncan Jones)
6. Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz)
7. Watchmen (Zack Snyder)
8. The Lovely Bones (Peter Jackson)
9. Pierre Pierre (Jason Reitman)
10. Whatever Works (Woody Allen)
11. Extract (Mike Judge)
12. Giant Monsters Attack Japan! (Trey Parker)
13. This Side of the Truth (Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson)
14. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (Gus Van Sant)
15. Leaves of Grass (Tim Blake Nelson)
16. Coraline (Henry Selick)
17. Giallo (Dario Argento)
18. Fanboys (Ryan Newman)
19. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Ben Stiller)
20. Jennifer's Body (Karyn Kusama)
21. Killshot (John Madden)
22. Fellini Black and White (Henry Bromell)

EDIT: Put them in order.

[Milky Joe]

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men (John Krasinski)

this!


The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (Gus Van Sant)

What is this?

[Spinal]

Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz)


Ooo, yes, this one too.

[Qrazy]

this!



What is this?

Adaptation of Ken Kesey's book I think.

[Milky Joe]

Adaptation of Ken Kesey's book I think.

Well, that's what I thought it must be, but I don't see it on his IMDB page. Is it something that's only been announced or rumored or something?

[eternity]

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117966628.html?categoryid=1 3&cs=1

Apparently Van Sant and Dustin Lance Black are team up again.

[Milky Joe]

Cool.

There's also this, Executive Produced by Van Sant: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1049402/

Howl, "A drama centered on the obscenity trial Allen Ginsberg faced after the publication of his poem, Howl."

Paul Rudd, James Franco, Mary Louise Parker, Jeff Daniels, David Strathairn, Alan Alda? I'm there.

[Ezee E]

The thing I'm most curious about with the new Solondz movie is what he'll be doing to Paris Hilton.

I tell Solondz fans that she's in his next movie and they all burst out laughing.

[eternity]

The thing I'm most curious about with the new Solondz movie is what he'll be doing to Paris Hilton.

I tell Solondz fans that she's in his next movie and they all burst out laughing.


Mr. Scott: Say, "Nigger, fuck me."
Vi: Oh, but I... I can't... say that.
Mr. Scott: Say, "Ni...”
Vi: Ni...
Mr. Scott: "... gger."
Vi: ...gger.
Mr. Scott: Say, "Nigger."
Vi: Nigger.
Mr. Scott: "Fuck me hard."
Vi: Fuck... me... hard.

I assume something around here.

[Sxottlan]

2009 looks ridiculously good on paper.

1. Star Trek
2. Avatar
3. Tree of Life
4. Up
5. Red Cliff
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
7. The Lovely Bones
8. Watchmen
9. Ashcliffe
10.Whatever Works


19. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Ben Stiller)

What the...?

[Morris Schæffer]

Wow! Trek before Avatar eh Sxottlan?:)

[Qrazy]

2009 looks ridiculously good on paper.

1. Star Trek
2. Avatar
3. Tree of Life
4. Up
5. Red Cliff
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
7. The Lovely Bones
8. Watchmen
9. Ashcliffe
10.Whatever Works



What the...?

Yeah it looks like Spielberg handed off the reins... i.e. shat all over the project.

[Sxottlan]

Wow! Trek before Avatar eh Sxottlan?:)

Well, I haven't seen anything of Avatar, and while the quick plot synopsis floating around isn't blowing my mind (or the 3-D prospect), I'm mainly going on it being Cameron at this point more than anything else.

[eternity]

What the...?
http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/10/23/ben-stiller-in-talks-to-helm-the-trial-of-the-chicago-7/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1070874/

[Sxottlan]

http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/10/23/ben-stiller-in-talks-to-helm-the-trial-of-the-chicago-7/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1070874/

Don't get me wrong. I like it when a director tries something very different. Frankly, if Ben Stiller were attached I'd be far more intrigued than someone more expected.

The story isn't anything that I'd bemoan if it didn't go well.

[transmogrifier]

Figured I would use this thread to announce it seems that Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones has been moved from 3/13/09 to 12/11/09.

Not sure if this means they are going to be overhauling the film, which is bad, or if it is now going to be propped up for the Oscar season, which seems more likely since studios aren't going to release a film in December that they have little confidence in. So, I guess some sort of test or early screening was impressive.

Eno's doing the score (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/dec/18/brian-eno-peter-jackson-soundtrack)

[Ivan Drago]

I assume something around here.

Haha wow. What's that from?

[eternity]

Haha wow. What's that from?

Storytelling

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250081/

[Dukefrukem]

2012

[Russ]

Storytelling

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250081/
Heh. Just saw it for a third time. It's Solondz' most personal film -- and his least focused -- still, the film is a big, fat

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/631/resized1christmiddlefinlr0.jpg

to his critics. With each viewing, it has risen estimably in my rankings.

[SirNewt]

New Where The Wild Things Are photo and an interview with Jonze (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39145):

http://www.aintitcool.com/images2008/WTWTAsunsetbig.jpg

I had to stop reading because I was hyperventilating. :pritch:

[Russ]

Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz)
Ooo, yes, this one too.
Looking at the credits, I see that this is actually a sequel to Happiness, with a new cast taking on the roles originally played by Dylan Baker, Jane Adams, Philip Seymour Hoffman, etc.

Inspired filmmaking or career suicide?

[Ezee E]

Solondz can get away with it. Plus, I'm curious what he'll be doing with Paris Hilton in it.

[Mara]

Just a note: my feelings regarding The Lovely Bones are mixed because the book was so mind-numbingly bad. I listened to the audio version of it during a heavy-commuting time of my life, and I practically swerved into oncoming traffic, I was so annoyed.

[Mara]

I hadn't heard about This Side of Truth, but I love Gervais. Excited now.

The cast, by the way, is stellar:

Jennifer Garner (I like her. Shut up.)
Jonah Hill
Jason Bateman
Tina Fey
Patrick Stewart
Rob Lowe
Christopher Guest
Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development reunion with Bateman!)

[Ezee E]

Just a note: my feelings regarding The Lovely Bones are mixed because the book was so mind-numbingly bad. I listened to the audio version of it during a heavy-commuting time of my life, and I practically swerved into oncoming traffic, I was so annoyed.
I didn't hate it that much, but there are some definite problems towards the end of the book.

[Raiders]

Just a note: my feelings regarding The Lovely Bones are mixed because the book was so mind-numbingly bad. I listened to the audio version of it during a heavy-commuting time of my life, and I practically swerved into oncoming traffic, I was so annoyed.

It's rather annoying written, but I think it has some good stuff in there, certainly enough to springboard a superior film.