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Sunday, January 8, 2012
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L AWRENCE J OURNAL -W ORLD
The most anticipated movies coming out in 2012 Theaters to be flooded with sequels, prequels and reboots By Eric Melin Special to the Journal-World
Total box office receipts in 2011 dropped 4 percent from the year previous, but looking at the slate of movies scheduled for release this year, it doesn’t appear that Hollywood is changing its strategy much. 2012 looks like a lot of franchise continuations and reboots, as well as plenty of big-budget action movies and prestige pictures. In fact, at least 27 sequels, prequels or spin-offs are planned for release this year. Here are 10 of the most anticipated films of 2012 that already have.
John Carter — March 9 “Finding Nemo” and “WALL-E” director Andrew Stanton is mixing live-action with a heavy amount of computer-generated imagery for his adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs pulpy sci-fi hero known to most fans as “John Carter of Mars.” Largely based on Burroughs’ first novel in the series, “A Princess of Mars,” this project has been in development hell since the 1980s and has changed hands and concepts many times since then. “Friday Night Lights” star Taylor Kitsch is in the lead role, and Disney has a lot riding on the success of this one, as Stanton is hoping to make a trilogy of “Mars” movies. The Hunger Games — March 23 Suzanne Collins’ series of young-adult adventure books has been nothing short of a sensation, so it’s no surprise its first filmic adaptation would be hugely anticipated. “The Hunger Games” is di-
King,” part one of the movie adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s prequel “The Hobbit” will finally reach theaters. After a long battle with New Line, MGM’s financial woes, and director Guillermo del Toro coming and going, Peter Jackson will finally deliver the epic and unexpected journey of Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) to the screen with the same production team responsible for the Oscar-winning “Rings” trilogy. Expectations couldn’t be any higher.
rected by Gary Ross (“Pleasantville,” “Seabiscuit”) and stars Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence as two teens in a post-apocalyptic future where a televised event forces competitors to fight to the death. Lionsgate has a lot of faith that the movie will be a big hit because it already has a sequel in the works
The Avengers — May 4 Marvel has seemingly everything riding on “The Avengers.” It is the culmination of five years of careful setup in movies like “The Incredible Hulk,” “Iron Man” and its sequel, “Thor” and, most recently, “Captain America: The First Avenger.” All of the title characters will come together with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) in 3-D to battle for the fate of the planet — and writer/director Joss Whedon (“Serenity”) is the guy responsible for making sure that the story is compelling, the action is amazing and that none of the strong Marvel personalities get lost in an ensemble picture. The Amazing Spider-Man — July 3 After pulling the plug on “Spider-Man 4” due to budget concerns, Sony Pictures decided to take Peter Parker back to high school with a new cast and director. Former music video director Marc Webb, whose only previous feature is the eccentric rom-com “(500) Days of Summer,” was an interesting choice to helm a superhero blockbuster, but Webb should have a good handle on character and he got approval to shoot the movie in 3-D rather than have it be up-
2012’S BIG FILM RELEASES will feature a lot of franchise continuations and reboots, as well as plenty of big-budget action movies and prestige pictures. graded in post. Andrew Garfield (“The Social Network”) is the teen web-slinger, while Emma Stone (“Easy A”) will play his love interest Gwen Stacy in this reboot, which is said to be focused on Parker developing his abilities. Welsh actor Rhys Ifans is an inspired choice as Dr. Curt Connors, the one-armed man who becomes The Lizard.
The Dark Knight Rises — July 20 After bending minds two summers ago with “Inception,” director Christopher Nolan returns to his wildly successful Batman franchise for the final chapter. Christian Bale’s last outing as the caped crusader takes place eight years after the events of “The Dark Knight” and stars Tom Hardy as the bone-crushing villain Bane and Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle — an enigmatic Gotham personality who becomes Catwoman.
Clout on the catwalk Books can come with tweeting
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sites, blogs and Facebook, all Associated Press of a sudden you can follow a model and know who she is.” NEW YORK — Social media Models with online followis giving a voice to models ings can also create extra buzz who, for the most part, have for brands they represent. “I built their careers as pretty, imagine, for example, that Vicnon-speaking faces. toria’s Secret likes that DoutThey’ll tweet what they had zen (Kroes) has so many Twitfor breakfast, post behind- ter followers and that she tells the-scenes photos on Tumblr them, ‘Watch the Victoria’s and use Facebook to cultivate Secret show I’m in at 9 p.m.,” “friends” around the world. Patterson said. Tech-savvy fashion followers In addition, social media are eating it up, gaining entry lets models show the interto a world that is so often be- esting lives they lead off the hind velvet ropes. runway, and it’s a way for “I realized there was an au- chatty, likable personalities dience interested in what I to shine. That could tip the had to say, not just the images balance of who makes it big from my work,” said model and who doesn’t, said MiCoco Rocha, who alternates chael Flutie, of the E! show personal posts and lightheart- “Scouted.” ed tidbits with “If you have a more busi10 beautiful I realized there was nesslike plat- an audience interested girls, all diaform to highmonds in the light brands in what I had to say, not rough to be the and maga- just the images from my next Christy zines she’s work.” Turlington or shooting for Cindy Crawas well as her ford, you have favorite social — Model Coco Rocha to narrow it and charitable down somecauses. how and you’re At age 23, Rocha is no lon- going to narrow it down to the ger the new girl in town, but four who can communicate reher fan base of more than ally well digitally,” he said. 200,000 Twitter followers Flutie, a veteran agent and and 66,000 Facebook friends manager, added that being (plus Tumbler, Google Plus photogenic is no longer the and Instagram accounts and only requirement: “If you blog readers) gives her “lon- can’t walk and talk, you can’t gevity,” she said. “Because I really be a successful ambashave a voice and I’m sticking sador of a brand. You have to to having that voice, I feel like be able to communicate.” I have extended my career.” Models should also know Name recognition increas- how to Google. There’s no es a model’s value, said Sean excuse for a model with thouPatterson, president of the sands of cyber followers to not Wilhelmina agency. Mod- know the name of a company’s els who become celebrities, CEO when she shows up to online or otherwise, might shoot its catalog, Flutie said. even help reverse the trend Liane Mullin, co-founder of movie and pop stars with of Modelinia.com, an online “relatable” personal stories industry hub, notes that modtaking the A-list advertising els have a lot of credibility jobs and magazine covers when it comes to posts about that used to go to models. “fashion, beauty, fitness, nuWith the day of the super- trition and food. That’s what model over, models have be- they’re experts in. If they reccome more “interchangeable ommend a mascara, they’ve and disposable,” Patterson had it put on them 10,000 said. But social media may times, and I’ve never worn change that by letting models that much mascara myself, define themselves: “With fan then I trust her opinion.” By Samantha Critchell
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of “Harry Potter” fame, the movie’s chilling posters (an old-timey portrait of two children with their eyes scratched out) and creepy trailer have set the tone for a horror lover’s dream.
“Home” by Toni Morrison The 1993 Nobel Prize winner and Princeton professor’s next novel comes out in May, and it is sure to hit home for many in this current time of dwindling war and racial undertones. Morrison’s story is that of a black Korean War veteran, who returns from service to a racist America and a home different from the one in his memory. That environment plus the scars left by the war wind a tale of survival and self-defeat. “Breakdown” by Sara Paretsky Kansas native and KU graduate Paretsky’s newest novel hit shelves Jan. 3. It’s her most recent novel about her barrier-breaking female private investigator, V.I. Warshawski. In this installment, the daughters of some of Chicago’s most powerful stumble upon a freshly murdered man in
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for you. A quick Google search located one such company, ScanCafe, that can provide 7-megapixel scans for 29 cents each. That quality of scan would provide good prints to at least 8 inches by 10 inches. That’s about as cheap as you’re going to get for this tedious task. Some places charge more but will scan in higher resolutions for larger prints. Once your images have been scanned and are moved to a hard drive or disc, you can easily start duplicating, emailing, printing or creating the modern-day version of a
While the film will not be in 3-D, Nolan is utilizing even more scenes in IMAX than he did in “The Dark Knight” to take advantage of the format’s wider scale and improved picture quality.
The Bourne Legacy — August 3 In the feud between Paul Greengrass, the director of the last two “Bourne” movies, and Tony Gilroy, the writer of all three, star Matt Damon chose to side with Greengrass. Universal, however, had a script for the continuation of the action series that didn’t include Jason Bourne, but instead centered around another assassin created by the black-ops Treadstone organization. That’s the movie that got the green light, largely thanks to Gilroy’s script and his offer to direct the film as well. Jeremy Renner plays Treadstone’s latest victim, while Edward Norton is the
an abandoned cemetery. V.I. must unearth whether the killing is associated to a hostile Senate campaign, a rich man’s long-ago childhood or something else all together.
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villain, Rachel Weisz costars, and Joan Allen and Albert Finney return to the franchise.
Gravity — November 21 Alfonso Cuarón’s last film, “Children of Men,” was one of the most chilling and poignant sci-fi movies ever made, so his new movie, “Gravity,” starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock as two astronauts fighting for survival in a damaged space station, has a lot to live up to. With the soon-to-be-Oscarwinning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (“The Tree of Life”) on board, the vast expanse of space will no doubt look amazing. The entire movie was shot digitally and will be screening in 2-D, 3-D and IMAX when it hits theaters.
The Great Gatsby — December 25 The last movie we got from “Moulin Rouge!” director Baz Luhrmann was the soulless “Australia,” which showed the master of effortless charm trying too hard to make a romantic epic out of leftover pieces. Let’s hope his big-budget adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic 1925 novel with Leonardo DiThe Hobbit: An Unexpect- Caprio in the lead role and ed Journey — December 14 Carey Mulligan and Tobey Nine whole years after Maguire supporting restores the release of “The Lord of Luhrmann’s sense of operatic the Rings: The Return of the melodrama.
crop of Republicans duke it out for the right to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012.
“Death Comes to Pemberley” by P.D. James Released in December “The Cove” by Ron Rash 2011, this novel re-imagines Set during World War I, Jane Austen’s characters “The Cove” is a dark, literary from “Pride and account of a love Prejudice” in a tale affair set in the of murder and mysSouth. The book tery set six years doesn’t come after Elizabeth and out until April, Darcy get their but for those happily ever after. who want to taste In it, Elizabeth’s some of Rash’s disgraced sister, Gothic writing Lydia, arrives now (his story on the eve of lines run parallel a ball with the in darkness level to shattering “Winter’s Bone”), news that her his novels “Serena,” husband, Wickham, “One Food in Eden” has been murdered. A great and “Saints at the River” book club pick, this one is all swim around similarly sure to please those looking engrossing worlds. for a juicy Victorian book in the new year. “Game Change” by John Heilemann “The Autobiography of and Mark Halperin Mark Twain” Like “The Woman in by Mark Twain Black” this book isn’t new It came out in 2010 — 100 — it came out in early 2010 years after the death of — but stands to get a movie Twain — but Volume 1 of boost thanks to getting the Twain’s planned three-part HBO Films’ treatment in autobiography is a doozy for March. The movie’s already those who can only picreceived buzz for Julianne ture him as a white-haired Moore’s turn as Sarah Palin, man in a suit writing about while the book will excite rascally Midwestern boys. anyone bored as the current In the memoir, which will
slide show. If you prefer the do-ityourself approach, consider purchasing a film scanner. Prices run from $60 to $20,000 depending on what quality and features you require. (I think the expensive ones come with 4-wheel drive.) In a quick look at film scanners available at BHPhoto Video.com, most models that cost less than $100 will scan your 35 mm slide or negative with a resolutions good for prints up to 5 inches by 7 inches or 8 inches by 10 inches, at most. Models approaching the $200-$400 range start to provide faster operation, higher resolution scans and possible batch scanning. Regardless of what ma-
Django Unchained — December 25 Quentin Tarantino has assembled a massive all-star cast for his latest take on the spaghetti western. “Django Unchained,” set in the Deep South during the time of slavery, will feature Jamie Foxx as a freed slave trained as a cutthroat assassin by a German bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz). Leonardo DiCaprio plays a Mississippi club owner, Kerry Washington is the damsel in distress and Samuel L. Jackson re-teams with Tarantino as Stephen, a brilliant slave. Rounding out the cast are such diverse actors as Don Johnson, Kurt Russell, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony LaPaglia and the RZA.
chine you have, it’s not a fun task. Scanning film one frame at a time is tedious and not a creative endeavor. But it will bring old photos back to life and result in digital files that can be shared with the whole family. You might want to check
eventually span more than 500,000 words, he tells a bit more than what we learned in history class. For example, Twain discusses his scandalous relationship with his secretary after the death of his wife.
“Taken” by Robert Crais The latest Cole/Pike series (out in late January) begins when a woman hires Elvis Cole to find her missing daughter. Going undercover to find the girl and her boyfriend that he thinks have been taken by bandits called “bajadores,” Cole himself is taken, leaving Joe Pike to find his friend in a dirty world rife with human traffickers. “Marriage Rules” by Harriet Lerner Yet another new book by a local author, “Marriage Rules,” (published Jan. 5) is getting a lot of buzz for Lawrence-based therapist Lerner. The book, written as a sort of self-help manual for the married, seems simple enough, but it’s actually a guide for having a healthy relationship — written in such a way that it makes turning things around seem manageable, one little step at a time. Bonus: It’s witty and is as clinical as it is practical.
with your mother and see if you missed any family slide shows this year. Next week I’ll go over options for digitizing prints and hard-copy documents. — Chief photographer Mike Yoder can be reached at 832-7141.