2005's movie listings are making quite a few freaks and geeks go apeshit in anticipation.
1. King Kong - A Christmas without a new Peter Jackson movie seems odd. Thankfully, King Kong will brighten next year's Seasoned Madness.
2. Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith - The final prequel to the 1977 classic hits theatres around the globe in May. Expect retro-70s design and lots of heavy breathing.
3. Batman Begins - Forget the camp crap of Batman Forever or Batman and Robin. Memento director Chris Nolan steers the American Psycho star through a labyrinth of dark places. Mind-buggeringly good support cast (Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Morgan Freeman, Rutger Hauer)
4. Sin City - Frank Miller, inspiration behind the Batman Begins grit, penned this noir comic back in the 90's. He teams up with Robert Rodriguez to put three of the stories onto film; Sin City, That Yellow Bastard, and The Big Fat Kill. Another gob-smacking cast, and Tarantino directs a story.
5. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams is dead but, before the dolphins took him, he wrote the screenplay for this movie.
6. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - not my thing, but Miss Ann Thrope made me include it.
7. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - I'm not throwing out the Gene Wilder DVD yet, but Depp and Burton are the right people for the job.
8. Aeon Flux - If this movie is half as kinky as the TV4 show, I'm in. With Charlize Theron in the lead role, I might be in twice!
9. War of the Worlds - Having grown up with the spooky soundtrack and a vivid imagination, this film will have some strong preconceptions to improve upon. Spielberg and Cruise did a good job on Minority Report, so here's hoping there's not a friendly ET in sight.
10. The Brothers Grimm - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas director Terry Gilliam returns to the big screen after The Man Who Killed Don Quixote washed out.
11. The Rum Diary - F&L in Las Vegas stars Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro twist one of HST's tales into celluloid.
12. The Fountain - Darren Aronofsky has been linked to many almost-movies since Requiem for a Dream shattered people in 2000. There's been Batman: Year One, Watchmen, and Kazuo Koike's Lone Wolf and Cub. Although they are currently filming this post-modern masterpiece, I'll wait til the trailers start popping up before getting too hopeful.
