The Boat That Rocked | Release Date: TBA
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh

Plot summary:

Inspired by the British pirate radio revolution in the ’60s, the majority of the film’s shoot will take place in a large rusty metal fishing trawler moored off the coast of England in the very waters that kept the rock of the ’60s booming into the U.K.”

This just looks bad on so many levels. Methinks Philip Seymour Hoffman is done with Oscar shopping.

Chandni Chowk to China | Release Date: January 16th, 2009
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Mithun Chakraborty, Chia Hui Liu

Plot summary:

“From the hustle-bustle of Chandni Chowk to the hutongs of Beijing, the electric energy of Shanghai and sheer breathtaking Chinese landscapes, “Chandni Chowk to China” chronicles the lunatic adventures of a hapless simpleton cook from Delhi. As he goes to seek his destiny, he finds himself thrown into a crazy world of megalomaniac villains, femme fatales, crazy inventors, Chinese mysticism and outlandish kung-fu assassins!”

Bollywood meets Chinese martial arts flick! Now how did I not see that coming? It’ll either be pure marketing genius and the birth of a two market genre (adored in India and China) or a total disaster.

The Day The Earth Stood Still | Release Date:
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Kathy Bates

Plot Summary:

“The Day the Earth Stood Still” is 20th Century Fox’s contemporary reinvention of its 1951 classic. Keanu Reeves portrays Klaatu, an alien whose arrival on our planet triggers a global upheaval. As governments and scientists race to unravel the mystery behind the visitor’s appearance, a woman (Jennifer Connelly) and her young stepson get caught up in his mission – and come to understand the ramifications of his being a self-described “friend to the Earth.”

Well, you know anything with Keanu Reeves is usually compared to Lawrence of Arabia so I’ll just let the magic unfold of its own accord without comment.

Frost/Nixon | Release Date: December 12th, 2008
Starring: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell

Plot Summary:

Oscar-winning director Ron Howard brings to the screen writer Peter Morgan’s (“The Queen,” “The Last King of Scotland”) electrifying battle between Richard Nixon, the disgraced president with a legacy to save, and David Frost, a jet-setting television personality with a name to make, in the untold story of the historic encounter that changed both: “Frost/Nixon.” Reprising their roles from Morgan’s stageplay are Frank Langella, who won a Tony for his portrayal of Nixon, and Michael Sheen, who fully inhabited the part of Frost onstage in London and New York.

Reviews are pretty marvellous (CNN, National Post, Globe & Mail), and as a closet poli-wonk it’s my kung fu. If you’re looking forward to this as much as I am, check out The Fog of War, a docu-interview about/with former SecDef Robert McNamara, one of the architects of the Vietnam War (available on DVD), and The Trials of Henry Kissinger, a reviting Christopher Hitchens polemic on Nixon’s storied former National Security Advisor and SecState.