Hollywood’s highlights for 2007
LOS ANGELES – Heer ar ethe highlights of Hollywood’s 2007 film slate (and yes, the release schedules are subject to change):
Winter and spring:
ARE WE DONE YET?: The sequel to “Are We There Yet?” has Ice Cube and Nia Long stuck with a new house that’s a money pit.
THE ASTRONAUT FARMER: A former NASA astronaut ( Billy Bob Thornton) struggles to build his own rocket to travel into space.
BALLS OF FURY: A man goes undercover in the shadowy world of underground Ping-Pong tournaments in this comedy featuring Christopher Walken and George Lopez.
BECAUSE I SAID SO: An overly earnest mom ( Diane Keaton) tries to find the right man for her youngest daughter ( Mandy Moore).
BLADES OF GLORY: Disgraced figure-skating rivals ( Will Ferrell and Jon Heder) worm their way back into the sport as the first men’s pairs team.
BREACH: A young FBI man ( Ryan Phillippe) is assigned to help root out double-agent Robert Hanssen ( Chris Cooper).
BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA: An awkward boy and the new girl at school find kinship and magical adventure in an adaptation of the children’s fantasy book.
CATCH AND RELEASE: A circle of friends and an unlikely new flame help a woman ( Jennifer Garner) cope with the death of her fiance.
DEAD SILENCE: The filmmakers behind the horror hit “Saw,” James Wan and Leigh Whannell, spin a supernatural tale of a town with a bloody history.
FRACTURE: After an engineer ( Anthony Hopkins) is acquitted of trying to kill his wife, the prosecutor ( Ryan Gosling) crusades for justice.
GHOST RIDER: Nicolas Cage stars as the Marvel Comics hero who’s a motorcycle stunt rider by day, a bounty hunter of demons by night.
GRINDHOUSE: Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez each direct a segment in a double-bill of old-style B-movie thrillers.
HANNIBAL RISING: The twisted, traumatic youth of future serial killer Hannibal Lecter is examined in this prequel.
HOT FUZZ: The creators of “Shaun of the Dead” spin an action comedy about a hotshot London cop farmed out to a sleepy town’s police force.
IN THE LAND OF WOMEN: A young man becomes involved with the troubled lives of a mother and her daughters. With Meg Ryan.
I THINK I LOVE MY WIFE: Chris Rock directs and stars in a domestic comedy about a family man whose eye strays to a beautiful old friend ( Kerry Washington).
THE KINGDOM: Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner are part of an FBI team hunting terrorists in Saudi Arabia.
LUCKY YOU: A poker hotshot ( Eric Bana) faces off against his estranged dad ( Robert Duvall) in a high-stakes tournament. Drew Barrymore co-stars.
MUSIC AND LYRICS: Hugh Grant’s a pop-music has-been who teams with a quirky partner (Drew Barrymore) to write a comeback song.
THE NANNY DIARIES: A college grad (Scarlett Johannson) takes a job as nanny for a demanding Manhattan couple ( Laura Linney and Paul Giamatti).
NORBIT: Eddie Murphy plays multiple roles in the story of a put-upon man trying to escape his beastly fiance to be with his childhood sweetheart ( Thandie Newton).
THE NUMBER 23: Jim Carrey stars as a man obsessed with a book that he believes has foreboding consequences for his life.
PERFECT STRANGER: Halle Berry goes undercover as a reporter investigating her friend’s murder. With Bruce Willis.
PREMONITION: Sandra Bullock’s a woman racing to prevent a vision of her husband’s death from coming true.
THE REAPING: A former missionary ( Hilary Swank) who has become a debunker of religious phenomena stumbles on a series of Biblical plagues.
REIGN OVER ME: A dentist ( Adam Sandler) whose family died in the Sept. 11 attacks finds an unexpected shoulder to lean on from his old college roommate ( Don Cheadle).
RENO 911! MIAMI: The goofs from the TV comedy about Nevada cops hit the big-screen, taking on terrorists at a police convention in Florida.
SMOKIN’ ACES: Cops and mobsters clash in an action romp about a federal witness with a price on his head. With Ben Affleck, Andy Garcia and Alicia Keys.
SUNSHINE: A crew of astronauts encounters terror and trauma on a mission to re-ignite the dying sun.
TMNT: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles return to battle an army of monsters. The voice cast includes Sarah Michelle Gellar and Patrick Stewart.
TYLER PERRY’S DADDY’S LITTLE GIRLS: Filmmaker Perry (“Madea’s Family Reunion”) tells the story of a single dad trying to regain custody of his daughters.
WILD HOGS: Middle-aged buddies ( Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy) find misadventure on a motorcycle trip.
ZODIAC: Robert Downey Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal lead the cast in a thriller about a serial killer who terrorized San Francisco.
Summer:
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM: Matt Damon’s amnesiac assassin is back, trying to unravel his past.
EVAN ALMIGHTY: The follow-up to “Bruce Almighty” elevates Steve Carell from supporting to lead player as a man commanded by God ( Morgan Freeman) to build an ark.
EVENING: A dying woman ( Vanessa Redgrave) shares the story of a lost love with her daughters. With Claire Danes, Toni Collette and Natasha Richardson.
FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER: Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba and their superhero pals battle a force that threatens Earth’s destruction.
1408: John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson star in an adaptation of Stephen King’s tale about a skeptical author who stays in a notoriously haunted hotel room.
HAIRSPRAY: A new big-screen take on the cult film that inspired the Broadway hit about a teen dance show, featuring John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer and Queen Latifah.
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX: The boy wizard ( Daniel Radcliffe) helps lead a secret society of students to battle sinister enemies.
HOSTEL: PART II: The follow-up to last year’s horror hit centers on three American art students who find terror on a weekend trip in Europe.
I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY: Adam Sandler and Kevin James play firefighter buddies forced by an insurance mix-up to pose as a gay couple.
THE INVASION: Nicole Kidman plays a psychiatrist who discovers the secret of an extraterrestrial epidemic that alters human behavior.
KNOCKED UP: Katherine Heigl stars as a woman whose one-night stand has parental consequences.
LICENSE TO WED: Robin Williams plays a pastor putting a couple through an outrageous marriage test.
LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD: Bruce Willis is back in “Die Hard” mode to stop an attack on the U.S. computer infrastructure.
MAMA’S BOY: A 29-year-old (Jon Heder) who still lives with his mother (Diane Keaton) dukes it out with mom’s new beau ( Jeff Daniels).
A MIGHTY HEART: Mariane Pearl ( Angelina Jolie) embarks on a search for her husband, journalist Daniel Pearl, abducted and eventually slain in Pakistan.
NANCY DREW: Author Carolyn Keene’s teen sleuth (Emma Roberts) investigates the long-unsolved death of a movie star.
NO RESERVATIONS: Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart star in a romance about a perfectionist chef placed in charge of her young niece (Abigail Breslin).
OCEAN’S THIRTEEN: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and the gang reunite for another heist caper.
ONE MISSED CALL: Cell phone messages portend the receivers’ impending deaths in a supernatural thriller with Edward Burns and Shannyn Sossamon.
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END: Friends come to the rescue of buccaneer Johnny Depp, who’s been exiled to Davy Jones’ locker.
RATATOUILLE: A rodent dreams of becoming a gourmet chef at a Paris restaurant in this latest Pixar-Disney animated comedy.
RUSH HOUR 3: Buddy cops Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker return to take on a crime clan in Paris.
SHREK THE THIRD: The newlywed ogre (voiced by Mike Myers) searches for King Arthur to take over the throne in the animated sequel.
THE SIMPSONS MOVIE: Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie leap to the big-screen in an adaptation of the long-running cartoon series.
SPIDER-MAN 3: The web-slinging superhero ( Tobey Maguire) battles two new villains as well as his own dark side.
STARDUST: Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes and Peter O’Toole lead the cast of this fantasy about a quest for a fallen star.
SURF’S UP: The voices of Jon Heder and Jeff Bridges are featured in this animated comedy about surfing-crazy penguins.
TALK TO ME: A charismatic black ex-con (Don Cheadle) becomes a provocative radio personality at a white-owned station in the 1960s.
TRANSFORMERS: The transforming action-figure toys get their own action spectacle as aliens battle on Earth.
28 WEEKS LATER: The follow-up to the zombie hit “28 Days Later” finds the rage virus that decimated Britain roaring back with a vengeance.
UNDERDOG: A combination of live action and computer animation brings the cartoon canine superhero to life.
Fall and holiday season:
ALIEN VS. PREDATOR 2: The battling space monsters are back at it on Earth, this time squaring off in a Colorado town.
AMERICAN GANGSTER: Denzel Washington’s a 1970s Harlem crime boss, Russell Crowe’s the misfit cop pursuing him.
ATONEMENT: Lives are altered forever by a teenager’s false accusation against her sister’s lover. With Keira Knightley.
BEAN II: Rowan Atkinson reprises his nearly silent role as the Brit who brings disaster in his wake, this time on a trip to the French Riviera.
BEE MOVIE: Jerry Seinfeld provides the voice of a bee who sues humanity for stealing his species’ honey in this animated comedy.
BEOWULF: Ray Winstone is the legendary warrior in the showdown with the monster Grendel and his mother (Angelina Jolie).
THE BRAVE ONE: A New Yorker ( Jodie Foster) pursues vigilante justice after her fiance is slain. With Terrence Howard.
EASTERN PROMISES: The life of a ruthless mobster ( Viggo Mortensen) is turned on its head when he meets a midwife ( Naomi Watts) on a mission.
ENCHANTED: A princess ( Amy Adams) is exiled from her magical land by an evil queen ( Susan Sarandon) and forced to get by in modern Manhattan.
FRED CLAUS: Santa’s naughty brother ( Vince Vaughn) is bailed out of jail by St. Nick (Paul Giamatti) and forced to work off his debt making toys at the North Pole.
THE GAME PLAN: A football quarterback (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) suddenly finds himself single dad to a daughter he never knew he had.
THE GOLDEN AGE: The follow-up to “Elizabeth” has Cate Blanchett back as Britain’s 16th century monarch, facing palace intrigue and war with Spain.
THE GOLDEN COMPASS: A girl trying to help a friend is swept up in an adventure that takes her to a fantastic alternate reality. With Nicole Kidman.
I AM LEGEND: An update of “The Omega Man” stars Will Smith as the last man in New York, surrounded by plague victims who have become ravenous fiends.
INTO THE WILD: Sean Penn directs a drama based on the true story of a young idealist ( Emile Hirsch) whose Alaska journey meets with tragedy.
MARGOT AT THE WEDDING: Nicole Kidman, Jack Black, Jennifer Jason Leigh and John Turturro star in a story of a family in crisis.
MICHAEL CLAYTON: George Clooney’s a burned-out lawyer handling dirty work for a corporate firm and winds up in a firestorm over a class-action case.
MR. MAGORIUM’S WONDER EMPORIUM: The insecure manager ( Natalie Portman) of a magical toy store inherits the business from its 243-year-old proprietor ( Dustin Hoffman).
NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS: Historian-adventurer Nicolas Cage returns for another puzzle-filled quest.
RESERVATION ROAD: Joaquin Phoenix, Jennifer Connelly, Mark Ruffalo and Mira Sorvino star in a drama set in the aftermath of a child’s death.
SAW IV: It wouldn’t be Halloween without another dose of sadistic games from the horror franchise.
THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE: A widow (Halle Berry) finds solace with her husband’s childhood friend ( Benicio Del Toro), a heroin addict.
30 DAYS OF NIGHT: An Alaskan sheriff ( Josh Hartnett) battles vampires who’ve come to take advantage of his town’s monthlong winter night.
VANTAGE POINT: Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, Sigourney Weaver and William Hurt star in a presidential assassination thriller.
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