Kong, movie musicals hope to rule box office this holiday season

By: DAVID GERMAIN - Associated Press | Wednesday, November 23, 2005 7:23 AM PST ∞

Harry Potter doesn't just have the fate of the magical world on his shoulders. This time, the teen wizard is trying to save Hollywood, too.

In this year of mediocre studio flicks, with movie attendance at its slowest pace since the mid-1990s, audiences might kill for a big film that really delivers.

Well, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," which kicked off the holiday film season in big fashion last Friday with an opening three-day total of $101.4 million in box office receipts, really delivers. As Harry and his pals work their way through Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, each of the movie adaptations of J.K. Rowling's novels grow richer and more involving.

Along with "Harry Potter," the other 900-pound gorilla on the holiday schedule is Peter Jackson's epic update of "King Kong," starring Naomi Watts as the beauty who becomes the bait to capture a giant ape.

The season's other film highlights include an old-guard music legend and two Broadway musicals on film.

Another early holiday release last weekend was "Walk the Line," a Johnny Cash biopic starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.

Here's a look at some of the other holiday film season highlights:

Curtain up

Mel Brooks' "The Producers," which went from Hollywood comedy classic to Broadway musical sensation, returns in a new film version. Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick reprise their stage roles as producers who set out to create a Broadway flop ---- a musical called "Springtime for Hitler" ---- so they can pocket a fortune in unspent cash conned from investors.

"Rent," directed by Chris Columbus ("Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"), is adapted from the stage smash centered on Manhattan bohemians who find love and friendship amid the daily struggle against poverty, addiction and AIDS.

"The protagonists are not the usual sort of people in musicals," said Rosario Dawson, who plays an HIV-positive heroin addict in "Rent." "Transsexual people with HIV and AIDS, people who are drug addicts, are making a lot of lifestyle choices that toleration-wise we have a big problem with. But it's interesting to me to see the humanity in the choices they make and how they're dealing with the same things everyone else deals with."

High drama

Reclusive director Terrence Malick ("The Thin Red Line") returns with his first film in seven years. "The New World" stars Colin Farrell in a historical epic about 17th-century colonial leader John Smith, his romance with American Indian princess Pocahontas (Q'orianka Kilcher), and the roots of American Indian exploitation by white settlers.

It's a tougher, more authentic rendering of the story than the Pocahontas fable schoolchildren learn, Farrell said.

"It's a turning point in history, the birth of a nation, and the death almost of a culture," Farrell said. "The culture still exists, the Native Americans that remain, but they began to take a severe beating from the day the English arrived onwards."

All dolled up

A healthy crop of costume drama and period pieces are on the way, led by "Memoirs of a Geisha," directed by Rob Marshall ("Chicago") and starring Ziyi Zhang in an adaptation of the best-seller about a woman who rises from poverty to become an enchantress to Japan's most powerful men.

Keira Knightley joins the corset crew for a new adaptation of Jane Austen's romance and social satire set in 18th-century Britain, "Pride & Prejudice," which opened Nov. 10.

Helen Hunt, Scarlett Johansson and Tom Wilkinson star in "A Good Woman," based on Oscar Wilde's comedy of romantic schemers, "Lady Windermere's Fan," updated to the 1930s Italian Riviera.

From director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant, who died last spring, comes "The White Countess," a romantic drama with Ralph Fiennes and Natasha Richardson as unlikely comrades in 1930s Shanghai as the Japanese occupation nears.

And the season's true costume queen may be Cillian Murphy in a flashy, cross-dressing role as an orphaned Irishman mincing his way through IRA violence and London's 1970s glam scene in Neil Jordan's "Breakfast on Pluto."

In a family way

Standing-room-only domiciles are big this fall with the remake "Yours, Mine & Ours," starring Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo as widowed newlyweds whose collective kid count is 18 and "Cheaper by the Dozen 2," with Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt in a sequel to a remake about a family of 12 offspring.

The ensemble comic drama "The Family Stone" features Sarah Jessica Parker, Diane Keaton, Claire Danes and Luke Wilson in the story of a clan that takes a severe dislike to the uptight businesswoman engaged to one of their fair sons.

Rob Reiner's "Rumor Has It" stars Jennifer Aniston, Shirley MacLaine and Kevin Costner in a post-"Graduate" comedy about a woman who learns her family may have been the basis for the book and movie "The Graduate."

Thrillers and killers

"Munich" is Steven Spielberg's suspense tale following a Mossad agent (Eric Bana) who leads a retaliatory mission against Palestinians suspected of killing 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics.

George Clooney and Matt Damon head the ensemble cast of "Syriana," weaving multiple story lines in a "Traffic"-like tale of political and business intrigue centered on the oil industry.

And in "Freedomland," racial tensions erupt in a blue-collar community as a cop (Samuel L. Jackson) investigates claims by a white woman (Julianne Moore) who says a black man stole her car with her 4-year-old son sleeping in the backseat.

Lawyers, guns and money

A man (Jim Carrey) loses his cushy job and turns to a life of crime with his wife (Tea Leoni) in the comic remake "Fun With Dick and Jane."

Harold Ramis directs "The Ice Harvest," a black comedy about a Christmas Eve getaway gone awry after a sleazy lawyer (John Cusack) and his partner (Billy Bob Thornton) embezzle $2 million.

Singer Usher stars in the romance "In the Mix" as a nightclub DJ who saves the life of a crime boss (Chazz Palminteri) then finds himself in dutch with the don when he falls for the mobster's daughter.

"The Matador" casts Pierce Brosnan as a burned-out hit man who finds an unlikely shoulder to lean on when he meets a traveling businessman (Greg Kinnear) in a Mexican bar.

Fantasy and sci-fi

"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" is a visual-effects feast based on C.S. Lewis' tale of four siblings whisked to a magic realm where they battle an enchantress (Tilda Swinton) who has cast the land into endless winter.

Adapted from the animated series, "Aeon Flux" stars Charlize Theron as an anti-hero assigned to assassinate a leader of an oppressive government in a post-apocalyptic future. Theron said she knew virtually nothing about action films, but the former ballerina was eager to learn the moves.

"I was very scared going in, but also really excited about doing a film using my body again," Theron said. "I like that she never spoke. This character, she was very quiet, but she was telling her story through her body. It's a very physical role."

From across the pond

OK, so Woody Allen isn't British, but the Manhattan homebody transplants himself to London for "Match Point," a dark drama about a tennis pro (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) whose comfy life with his heiress wife is threatened by a fling with a wannabe actress (Scarlett Johansson).

Stephen Frears ("High Fidelity") directs "Mrs. Henderson Presents," starring Judi Dench as an eccentric society dame who founds a theater for nude musical revues in pre-World War II Britain.

Great lechers of history

Johnny Depp is the Earl of Rochester in "The Libertine," about the aristocrat who scandalized 17th-century society with his womanizing and subversive writings.

Lasse Hallstrom ("The Cider House Rules") directs "Casanova," starring Heath Ledger as the 18th-century heartbreaker, who finds the tables turned when his latest pursuit (Sienna Miller) resists his charms.

Hitting the road

"Transamerica" stars Felicity Huffman in a gender-bending role as a transsexual about to take the final surgical step to become a woman, who ends up on a cross-country romp with a newly discovered teen son needing some "fatherly" guidance.

Anthony Hopkins plays a real-life motorcycle enthusiast who sets out to break speed records in Utah in "The World's Fastest Indian."

Cowboys in love, and hate

Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal star as ranch hands who share a summer of love then conceal their ongoing affair from their wives and families in "Brokeback Mountain," directed by Ang Lee ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).

Tommy Lee Jones makes his directing debut and stars in "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada," about a ranch boss who forces the Border Patrol agent (Barry Pepper) responsible for his best friend's death to dig up the body and haul it on horseback to a new resting place in the victim's Mexican home town.

Jones is happy the name of his debut film is such a mouthful.

"I like the title. If I were going to change it, I'd make it longer," Jones joked. "It's a mouthful, and that's a good thing. I prefer to use the Spanish title, 'Los Tres Entierros de Melquiades Estrada.' And if you can't say that, you need to see the movie twice."

These are San Diego release dates. Some films may open earlier in New York and Los Angeles. Release dates are subject to change.

Opening This Week:

"Rent" ---- Chris Columbus directs this film adaptation of Jonathan Larson's 1996 Tony-winning musical that updates Puccini's "La Boheme" to AIDS-plagued 1990s New York. Stars most of the original Broadway cast.

"Yours, Mine & Ours" ---- Dennis Quaid and Renee Russo play single parents with a combined 18 children who decide to tie the knot.

"Just Friends" ---- Ryan Reynolds and Amy Smart star in this romantic comedy about a formerly obese music industry executive who runs into his best friend from high school and falls in love with her all over again.

"In the Mix" ---- R&B star Usher makes his film debut in this hip romantic comedy as New York club DJ Darrell who is hired as a bodyguard for Dolly, the daughter of a mobster (Chazz Palminteri) after he saves the don's life. All's well until sparks fly between Darrell and Dolly (Emmanuelle Chriqui).

"The Ice Harvest" ---- John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Randy Quaid and Oliver Platt co-star in this black comedy about a group of Wichita con artists trying to avoid the law and find love ones Christmas Eve.

"Naked in Ashes" ---- Paula Fouce's documentary chronicles the yogis of India, whose barefoot pilgrimages and feats of extreme physical endurance are all in the name of finding spiritual truth.

Dec. 2:

"Aeon Flux" ---- Adapted from Peter Chung's enigmatic, animated sci-fi TV series, Charlize Theron plays an underground operative fighting a totalitarian regime 400 years in the future.

"The Dying Gaul" ---- Craig Lucas ("Longtime Companion") directs this film adaptation of his stage play about a Hollywood screenwriter (Peter Sarsgaard) facing a moral dilemma when a studio offers him $1 million for his autobiographical screenplay about his lover's death from AIDS, but only if they will change the lover's sex to a woman.

"Protocols of Zion" ---- Documentary by Mark Levin ("Slam") examines the conspiracy theory among hate groups that Jews instigated the terrorist attacks on 9/11 in a bid to rule the world.

Dec. 9:

"Chronicles of Narnia" ---- C.S. Lewis' beloved, Christian-based children's fantasy book series finally makes its way to the big screen with a first installment, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." CGI animation will bring Aslan, the talking lion, and his other fanciful friends to life in this live-action story of four WWII-era English children who fight evil in a secret world they enter through their wardrobe.

"Syriana" ---- A beefy, bearded George Clooney stars as CIA agent Bob Barnes in this political thriller about oil-company intrigue, governmental corruption and terror. Co-stars Jeffrey Wright, Matt Damon, Chris Cooper, William Hurt.

"Loggerheads" ---- A three-part drama that deals with adoptive families facing personal trials during Mother's Day weekend in North Carolina.

"Dorian Blues" ---- Michael McMillian stars in this coming-out drama about a gay teen leaving his conservative small town for college and, hopefully, love, in New York.

"Ushpizin" ---- Made by members of Israel's ultraorthodox community, this drama tells the story of a financially troubled Jerusalem couple who believe that con artists who show up on their doorstep one day were sent by God as an answer to their prayers for deliverance from debt.

Dec. 14:

"King Kong" ---- "Lord of the Rings" master Peter Jackson revives the classic beauty and the beast drama about a giant ape on the rampage in New York. Stars Naomi Watts as Kong's romantic obsession and Jack Black as a conflicted ape-chaser.

"The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" ---- Tommy Lee Jones stars in this Western drama about a Texas rancher who embarks on a cross-border odyssey into Mexico to bury a murdered friend.

Dec. 16:

"Brokeback Mountain" ---- Ang Lee directs his sexy film adaptation of Annie Proulx's novella about cowboys in love, starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal who keep their romantic weekends a secret from their devoted wives.

"Memoirs of a Geisha" ---- Rob Marshall ("Chicago") directs this sweeping adaptation of Arthur Golden's romantic novel about a penniless Japanese girl who finds a new life and love in the geisha houses of World War II-era Japan.

"All the King's Men" ---- An idealistic, populist Southern politician slowly succumbs to political corruption. All-star cast includes Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Hopkins.

"The Family Stone" ---- When the button-down son of an eccentric family (Dermot Mulroney) brings his even more button-down girlfriend (Sarah Jessica Parker) home for the holidays, a cold front sets in. Co-stars include Luke Wilson, Claire Danes, Rachel McAdams and Diane Keaton.

"Pulse" ---- Japan's Kiyoshi Kurosawa ("Cure") directs this techno-horror thriller about a mysterious floppy disk that seems to trigger the ghostly appearances of suicide victims.

Dec. 21:

"The Producers" ---- Mel Brooks' comedy ---- first a film, then a Tony-winning Broadway musical, and now a film again ---- stars Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in their acclaimed roles as a pair of crooked Broadway producers who intentionally stage a Hitler-themed flop in order to embezzle money from their investors. Uma Thurman and Will Ferrell co-star.

"Fun With Dick and Jane" ---- In this holiday comedy, Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni play a well-heeled American couple who take revenge on Dick's former employer after he's falsely blamed for an Enron-like scandal and they lose everything.

"Cheaper by the Dozen 2" ---- Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt co-star in this family friendly sequel about a summer lakeside vacation that turns cutthroat when they and their 12 children enter a contest against a large, overachieving rival family.

Dec. 23:

"The Ringer" ---- Johnny Knoxville stars in this comedy about an able-bodied man who enters the Special Olympics (pretending he's mentally disabled) in the hope of winning a cash prize to pay off his uncle's gambling debts.

"Munich" ---- Steven Spielberg's terrorism drama revisits the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, by Palestinian terrorists and the follow-up investigation by Israel's elite Mossad agents. Stars Eric Bana as the lead Mossad operative.

"Transamerica" ---- Felicity Huffman stars as a preoperative transsexual man whose goal of becoming a woman is sidelined when a child he never knew he had gets into trouble with the law.

"Hoodwinked" ---- Glenn Close, Patrick Warburton and Jim Belushi provide the voices for this animated children's film about a team of animal cops investigating a disturbance at the home of Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother.

"Breakfast on Pluto" ---- Cillian Murphy ("28 Days Later") stars in this surreal drama about a young man searching for his identity as a transvestite cabaret singer in 1970s London.

Dec. 25:

"Rumor Has It" ---- Jennifer Aniston and Mark Ruffalo star in this romantic comedy about a woman who goes in search of her long-absent birth father (Kevin Costner) in the hope that he can walk her down the aisle at her wedding.

"Mrs. Henderson Presents" ---- Dame Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins co-star in Stephen Frears' British comedy based on the real-life story of an eccentric aristocrat who created a nude revue to save the sagging fortunes of her London vaudeville theater.

"Wolf Creek" ---- Action drama based on a true story about three British backpackers abducted by a deranged criminal while camping in the Australian Outback.

"Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices" ---- Documentary by Robert Greenwald ("Outfoxed") investigates the family run megastore chain that critics say is destroying American family values and creating a welfare nation with its cutthroat business practices.

"Casanova" ---- Heath Ledger and Sienna Miller star in this romantic drama about the legendary lover and the one woman who refused his advances. Lasse Hallstrom ("Chocolat," "Cider House Rules") directs.

"Match Point" ---- Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers star in Woody Allen's latest romantic comedy set against the backdrop of England's tennis tournament, Wimbledon.

Early January:

"The New World" ---- Terence Malick's historical love story stars Colin Farrell and Q-Orianka Kilcher as 17th century explorer John Smith and the American Indian princess, Pocahontas.

"The Matador" ---- Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear star in this Richard Shepherd drama about a hit man and a traveling salesman whose lives become intertwined at a Mexico City bar.

"The Libertine" ---- Johnny Depp stars as the decadent 17th century English aristocrat John Wilmot, whose affairs and scandalous plays lead to his downfall.

"Freedomland" ---- Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore star in this film adaptation of the Richard Price novel about racial tension that develops in a small town when a white woman accuses a black man of stealing her car with her child in the back seat.

"Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story" ---- Steve Coogan stars in this movie wthin a movie about a movie crew's struggle to adapt a notoriously unfilmable novel.

"Grandma's Boy" ---- Allen Covert ("50 First Dates") plays a 30-something video game designer forced to move in with his grandmother when he loses his apartment.

"Date Movie" ---- From the makers of "Scary Movie" and "Spy Hard," this parody spoofs the romantic comedy film genre.

"Tristan & Isolde" ---- The medieval legend about an English knight and an Irish princess who find forbidden love becomes an epic film.

"Hostel" ---- Quentin Tarantino's brutal pulp thriller explores the seamy worlds of human trafficking, sex tourism and organized crime.