Star Turns--What You Should Know About The Current And Upcoming Projects Of Your Favorite Players

By Guy Flatley

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CLINT EASTWOOD

HEREAFTER

Matt Damon, Cecile De France, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jay Mohr, Lyndsey Marshal, Marthe Keller, Richard Kind, Mylene Jampanoi, Steve Schirripa, Jenifer Lewis (Directed by Clint Eastwood; Written by Peter Morgan; Warner Brothers)

Last year, Matt Damon was so beautifully directed by Clint Eastwood in “Invictus” that he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor of 2009. This year, Damon—arguably the most subtle and versatile star on today’s American film scene—is apt to walk off with a Best Actor statuette for playing a mysterious, possibly supernatural, character in this offbeat thriller, which was helmed by Eastwood and written by Peter Morgan, author of “The Queen” and “Frost/Nixon.”

What exactly is it that's so special about George, the modest factory worker portrayed here by Damon? Mostly, it’s the fact that he can access individuals who’ve been dead for quite some time and even manage to have a heart-to-heart, soul-to-soul chat with them. But, in truth, George doesn’t treasure his psychic skills nor is he eager to put them at the service of troubled survivors. Still, when a young British boy asks him to contact his deceased twin or a beautiful journalist (Cecile De France) seeks his help in coping with the aftermath of a weird near-death experience caused by the 2004 Asian tsunami, how can George possibly say no? Now Playing

AARON ECKHART

THE RUM DIARY

Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, Aaron Eckhart, Richard Jenkins, Giovanni Ribisi, Amaury Nolasco, Michael Rispoli (Written and directed by Bruce Robinson; FilmDistrict)

It’s been 12 years since Johnny Depp played Raoul Duke, a hell-raising journalist, in the film version of Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” Nobody, including the author, believed that Duke was anyone other than Thompson himself. Now Depp is playing Paul Kemp, an eccentric reporter in “The Rum Diary,” the autobiographical novel the late Hunter published when he was 22.

Set in San Juan, Puerto Rico, during the fifties, “Diary” depicts the chaotic, booze-and-drugs fueled adventures of a brawling Hunteresque freelancer from New York who tries to twist himself into a latter-day Hemingway. Opens 10/28/11

RABBIT HOLE

Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest, Sandra Oh, Jon Tenney, Giancarlo Esposito, Tammy Blanchard (Directed by John Cameron Mitchell; Written by David Lindsay-Abaire; Fox Searchlight Pictures)

The serenity of a suburban family is shattered when a four-year-old boy is killed by the driver of a speeding car. Will a visit from the teenager who was behind the wheel bring solace to the boy’s mother, or will it fill her with rage?

David Lindsay-Abaire's play won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and Cynthia Nixon was awarded a Tony for her performance as the grief-ravaged woman. Does that mean Nicole Kidman, who received an Oscar for "The Hours," will be nabbing another statuette? Now Playing

JESSE EISENBERG

THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Rooney Mara, Max Minghella, Armie Hammer, Joseph Mazzello, Bryan Barter, David Selby (Directed by David Fincher; Written by Aaron Sorkin; Columbia)

It was 2003, and they didn’t have Facebook then. But before the year was out, they were well on their way with a revolutionary internet forum for making mostly unseen, occasionally unworthy friends out of total strangers. The person generally credited with bringing this miracle to global life was a nerdy Harvard undergraduate student and computer programmer named Mark Zuckerberg, played here by the scarily persuasive Jesse Eisenberg. And, as we all know, this chilly, self-centered, socially gauche, morally cloudy entrepreneur became the youngest billionaire the world has ever known. He also became a mega-celebrity looked up to by millions and put down by millions more. As the poster for the film so eloquently points out, "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies."

In Rashomon fashion, the meteoric rise of this Citizen Kane-like character is viewed by director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin from the perspective of various associates and friends of Zuckerberg, many of whom were discarded along the way and some of whom had their bitter days in court with him, battling for a slice of the astronomical Facebook profits.

Top critics have heaped praise on Fincher and Sorkin and on their fresh, largely unfamiliar cast. You’d probably be smart to bet on “The Social Network” in numerous Oscar categories. If you don't feel sure about your selections, why not check with some of your friends on Facebook? But only the ones you can trust.

CHIWETEL EJIOFOR

SALT

Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daniel Olbrychski, August Diehl, Daniel Pearce, Hunt Block, Andre Braugher, Olek Krupa (Directed by Phillip Noyce; Written by Kurt Wimmer; Columbia Pictures)

Picture Tom Cruise as a loyally red-white-and-blue CIA officer who is suddenly forced to dash and smash, hide and seek, furtively around the globe on the next-to-impossible mission of clearing himself of charges that he is in fact a dirty-rotten Russian spy. Now picture Angelina Jolie in that same role. That’s right—Tom changed his mind at the last minute about participating in this project, so director Phillip Noyce and screenwriter Kurt Wimmer simply performed a sex change, undoubtedly increasing the action thriller’s potential box-office take. For, as moviegoers have demonstrated on numerous occasions, they love nothing more than watching Angelina truly kick butt. Now Playing