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VANESSA REDGRAVE

HOW ABOUT YOU?: Vanessa Redgrave, Hayley Atwell, Imelda Staunton, Brenda Fricker, Joss Ackland, Orla Brady, Joan O’Hara (Directed by Anthony Byrne; Written by Jean Pasley; Ferndale Films) Who does Vanessa Redgrave think she is, anyway--some kind of movie star? Well, that’s just who she is--or, rather, who she plays--in this comedy-drama. As for the kind of movie star she is, she’s the kind who was far from a superstar during her lackluster career in Irish films. And now she’s taken on the off-screen role of superbitch, the leader of a cantankerous quartet of seniors who’ve been left behind in a County Wicklow retirement home while their fellow residents are spending the Christmas holiday with their families. Redgrave and her cronies--Imelda Staunton and Brenda Fricker as erstwhile high-society sisters and Joss Ackland as former judge--are not about to budge an inch when the determined young manager of the residence (Hayley Atwell, acclaimed star of the Irish TV series, “The Line of Beauty”) makes a stab at turning them into good, cooperative scouts. May the best generation win. If “How About You” sounds familiar to you, you’ve probably had the pleasure of reading “Hardcore,” the Maeve Binchy short story upon which it is based. Opening date to be announced

KEANU REEVES

STREET KINGS: Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans, Common, The Game, Amauray Nolasco, Naomie Harris, Jay Mohr (Written and directed by David Ayer; Fox Searchlight) The corrupt cop who takes the law into his own hands in order to advance a personal agenda is no stranger to our urban society. In his illicit scheme to play judge and executioner of people he has sworn to protect, he is the perfect poster boy for a new century that promises to be as cold-hearted as any the world has ever known. We’re thinking of the kind of vicious lawmen made so disturbingly real by Denzel Washington in “Training Day” (2001) and Kurt Russell in “Dark Blue” (2002), two uncompromising thrillers written by David Ayer. Now Ayer will direct his screenplay of another bad-cop story, this one based on an unpublished script by noir master James Ellroy. Keanu Reeves plays an LAPD officer who, at the time of the L.A. riots and the O.J. Simpson trial, is publicly shamed for his violent, unorthodox work habits. The switch here is that the man with a badge makes a huge effort to redeem himself. The question is, will his captain--played by Forest Whitaker--buy his act of contrition? Another question: how innocent is the captain himself? Now Playing

CHRISTINA RICCI

PENELOPE: Christina Ricci, James McAvoy, Catherine O'Hara, Reese Witherspoon, Richard E. Grant, Peter Dinklage, Simon Woods, Ronni Ancona, Nick Frost, Lenny Henry (Directed by Mark Palansky; Written by Leslie Caveny; Type A Films) What’s a girl to do when she is literally born with the face of a pig? With a little luck and a lot of pluck, she could follow the example of Miss Piggy and become a superstar. But that’s not what the heroine of this cheeky flick, produced by Reese Witherspoon’s Type A Films, does. She finds another path to a happy fairy-tale ending. Somewhat surprisingly, the red-hot Witherspoon does not play porcine Penelope. That plum goes instead to the equally talented Ricci, whose career has turned lukewarm of late. Now Playing

JULIA ROBERTS

DUPLICITY: Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Tom Wilkinson, Tom McCarthy, Oleg Stefan, Rick Worthy, Denise O’Hare, Kathleen Chalfant, Khan Baykal, Wayne Duvall (Written and directed by Tony Gilroy; Universal) Julia Roberts and Clive Owen, who sizzled memorably as an oversexed couple in Mike Nichols’ “Closer,” will turn up the heat again, this time in Tony Gilroy’s “Duplicity.” Gilroy, the classy screenwriter who made a smashing directorial debut with “Michael Clayton,” gives Roberts and Owen a chance to spar in the boardroom and snuggle in the bedroom as a pair of corporate competitors who are having a hot top-secret affair. Just wait till Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson, the industrialists who’ve been paying them big bucks to make war, not love, find out. Opens 3/20/09

FIREFLIES IN THE GARDEN: Julia Roberts, Ryan Reynolds, Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson, Carrie-Anne Moss, Ioan Gruffudd, Hayden Panettiere, Cayden Boyd, Shannon Lucio, George Newbern, (Written and directed by Dennis Lee; Senator International) Need proof that midwestern American families can be every bit as dysfunctional as the East Coast variety? You’re apt to find it in this semi-autobiographical drama by Dennis Lee, auteur of the well-received short, “Jesus Henry Christ.” The troubled, accident-prone Taylor clan--headed by dictatorial professor/wannabe writer Charles (Willem Dafoe) and relentlessly sacrificing mom Lisa (Julia Roberts)--suffer profusely, as do their kids, in the grim present, as well as in a string of painful incidents shown in flashback. Among the family’s favorite diversions: tormenting the titular fireflies in the garden and exploding fish on the Fourth of July. In charge of photographing all this tragic frivolity: Danny Moder, A.K.A. Julia Roberts’ husband. Click here to read the Variety review of "Fireflies in the Garden." Opening date to be announced

EAT, PRAY, LOVE: Julia Roberts (Written and directed by Ryan Murphy; Paramount) Depressed, nearly suicidal, Elizabeth Gilbert (author of the memoir upon which this film is based) decides to take a year off from her successful literary career in an attempt to get over her divorce from a seemingly ideal husband and her stressful love affair with a man who was definitely not ideal. Her plan is to flee Manhattan and spend one third of the year seeking pleasure in Italy, another third searching for spiritual serenity in India, and the final third striking a balance between the two extremes in Indonesia. And, yes, Elizabeth, played by Julia Roberts, will not say no if a suitable bachelor pops up somewhere along the way and pops the right question. If director Ryan Murphy can get the kind of performance out of Roberts that he got out of Annette Bening in “Running With Scissors,” Julia could be adding another Oscar to her collection. Opening date to be announced

THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB: Julia Roberts (Universal) How many single mothers who manage colorful Manhattan knitting shops and look like Julia Roberts do you know? Probably none, and probably the mom played by Julia Roberts in this adaptation of a soon-to-be-published novel by Kate Jacobs is truly one-of-a-kind. To lessen the pressure of her fabulous but demanding job, mother Julia meets with her favorite customers every Friday evening for the purpose of sharing the details of their various careers and indulging in what used to be called girl talk or just plain gossip. Then tragedy strikes and their knitting club becomes much more than a frivolous diversion. We only hope that tragedy does not involve Julia’s high-spirited teenage daughter (a role not yet cast). Opening date to be announced

SAM ROCKWELL

CHOKE: Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly Macdonald, Brad William Henke, Clark Gregg, Joel Grey, Bijou Phillips, Willi Burke (Written and directed by Clark Gregg; Fox Searchlight) A boy’s best friend is not always his mother, and that’s very much the case in this adaptation of "Choke," the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, cult author of "Fight Club." Yet, even though sicko lawbreaker Ida Mancini (Anjelica Huston) has always been cruel in her treatment of her son Victor (Sam Rockwell), the loyal lad foots the bill for her stay in a bizarre institution for women suffering from dementia. But how does he come up with the money, considering the fact that he is paid a mere pittance for his labors in a Colonial American theme park? Easy--he dines in elegant restaurants, pretends to be choking to death on his gourmet meal and then fleeces the sap who steps in to perform the Heimlich Maneuver. And, in his spare time, the orgasm-obsessed Victor attends 12-step meetings for sex addicts with Denny (Brad William Henke), his masturbation-crazed best friend. Meanwhile, mom's nurse (Kelly Macdonald) is hatching a scheme whereby an unsuspecting Victor will sire her child. Click here to read about more new movies based on books. Opens 9/26/08

FROST/NIXON: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Sam Rockwell, Kevin Bacon, Matthew Macfadyen, Oliver Platt, Patty McCormack, Toby Jones, Jenn Gotzon, Rebecca Hall (Directed by Ron Howard; Written by Peter Morgan; Universal) Richard Nixon may be the second worst president the American public ever had to endure. In 1977--three years after bidding a mortifying adieu to the White House, thereby avoiding impeachment because of the Watergate scandal--he agreed to appear in a series of televised conversations with British media giant David Frost. Nixon learned too late that he should have played harder to get; as it turned out, Frost stripped him bare, exposing his soul for anyone who owned a television set to see. Fortunately, Peter Morgan, author of the screenplay for “The Queen,” decided to explore the confrontation between these two strong-willed men in dramatic terms. The resulting play was a triumph in London and on Broadway. Best of all, director Ron Howard had the smarts to nail Frank Langella and Michael Sheen, the duo who brought Nixon and Frost to riveting life on stage (Langella won a Best Actor Tony for his take on Tricky Dicky). An unexpected bonus: Patty McCormack, the kid who received an Oscar nomination for her playing of the title role in the 1956 flick "The Bad Seed," plays the long-suffering Pat Nixon this time out. Opens 12/5/08

EVERYBODY’S FINE: Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell (Written and directed by Kirk Jones; Miramax) A lonely, no-longer-young widower just doesn’t know what to do with himself. Then, one day, it strikes him that what he really needs to make his life meaningful is to hook up with each of his geographically scattered kids again. He could be dead wrong about that. De Niro is the wandering dad in this remake of "Stanno Tuti Bene," Giuseppe Tornatore’s 1990 Italian comedy-tearjerker starring Marcello Mastroianni. Barrymore, Beckinsale and Rockwell play his grown-up brats. Click here for Vincent Canby's 1991 review of the original "Everybody's Fine" in The New York Times; to read about more new movie remakes, click here; for Guy Flatley's 1973 New York Times interview with Robert De Niro, click here. Opening date to be announced

MARK RUFFALO

SHUTTER ISLAND: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Max Von Sydow, Emily Mortimer, Elias Koteas, Patricia Clarkson, John Carroll Lynch, Jackie Earle Haley (Directed by Martin Scorsese; Written by Laeta Kalogridis; Paramount) Based on the frenzied 2003 novel by Dennis Lehane, author of “Mystic River” and “Gone Baby Gone,” “Shutter Island” spins a dark, dizzy tale. Set in 1954, it revolves around the efforts of U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio), a crazed war vet and recent widower, and his gullible partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) to capture a murderess who has escaped from Ashecliffe Hospital, a home away from home for the criminally insane. As it turns out, this funny farm, located on a rocky island off Boston Harbor, is no laughing matter. The warden himself boasts, “We take only the most damaged patients...we take the ones no other facility can manage.” And it’s clear that some of the doctors and nurses are even more damaged than the patients and may be on the verge of hatching a horrific scheme. All that the increasingly edgy Teddy and the seriously deranged occupants of Ashecliffe need are a raging hurricane, hordes of rampaging rodents, and the sudden return of the slippery, blood-thirsty femme fatale. Which is undoubtedly what director Martin Scorsese will give them in his bid to top the unblushing Grand Guignol of “Cape Fear” and “The Departed.” Opens 10/2/09

MARGARET: Anna Paquin, Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, J. Smith-Cameron, Jeannie Berlin, Matthew Broderick (Written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan; Fox Searchlight) One of the funniest and most moving films of 2000 was “You Can Count on Me,” written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan, whose biggest prior claim to movie fame was his screenwriting contribution to “Analyze This,” the Robert De Niro-Billy Crystal comedy released the year before. If you saw “You Can Count on Me,” you know that the tyro director drew astonishing performances from Laura Linney as a single mother, Mark Ruffalo as her screwed-up brother, and Matthew Broderick as the petty, despotic boss who unexpectedly becomes her red-hot lover, even though he is already married to a conspicuously pregnant bore. Now Lonergan has gone behind the camera again, this time as the director of his own screenplay about a Manhattan teenager with plenty of problems, not the least of which is her mom, a neurotic actress. Plus she is a bit unhinged about a bus accident she recently witnessed--an accident that may not have been an accident. The troubled teen is being played by Anna Paquin, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for “The Piano” when she was a mere tot. Maybe this time it will simply be a Best Actress Oscar. To read Guy Flatley's 1998 interview with Anna Paquin, click here. Opening date to be announced

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