Clooney, and Muppets, and Rum, oh my! While there's always something for everyone at the movies, the coming four months appear to hold even more "something"—celebrated swashbucklers buckle anew; Shakespeare's canon is again called into question (Francis Bacon, anyone?); we spy a classic espionage novel; a Tony-Award winning play hits the screen; Jung and Freud compare notes. And for the younger set: a beloved aardvark, a feline with footgear, vivacious chipmunks, Oscar-winning penguins, etc. As for that opening trio, above: Clooney is George, starring in December's The Descendants; the Muppets are the Muppets, starring in a new vehicle; Rum is Hunter Thompson's The Rum Diary, arriving onscreen in October.

SEPT.
DRIVE
Starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
Release date September 16 (FilmDistrict, wide)
Tie-in from Mariner Books: Drive by James Sallis (Sept. 13, trade paper, 100,000 copies)
The season launches with a starry trio, including Oscar- and Golden Globe–nominated Gosling, now canoodling with Julianne Moore in Crazy, Stupid, Love. Mulligan's no slouch, either, with awards galore (and an Oscar nomination) for her knockout performance in 2009's An Education. And though Cranston's done yeoman work in movies and TV (a 1989 Baywatch episode, anyone?), he really hit his marks in 2008's Breaking Bad series, for which he earned three consecutive Emmys as drug-manufacturing dad Walter White. And did we mention that Refn won best director at this year's Cannes Film Festival?

I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT
Starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Christina Hendricks, Pierce Brosnan
Directed by Douglas McGrath
Release date September 16 (the Weinstein Company, wide)
Tie-in from Anchor Books: I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson (Aug. 16, trade paper, 150,000 copies)
This interesting cast also includes Kelsey Grammer, Greg Kinnear, and Seth Meyers. On the distaff side, Mad Men fans will recognize Hendricks's eye-popping figure from her role as Joan, the show's titian-haired vixen. And viewers can hope that Parker fares better than recently: last year's Sex and the City 2 was a bona fide bomb and of her 2009 turn in Did You Hear About the Morgans? Time said, "The movie is like a car wreck in which no one is injured but the onlookers." PW loved Pearson's "scintillating" debut: "as a hilarious and sometimes poignant update on contemporary women in the workplace, it's the book to beat."

HEADHUNTERS
Starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Aksel Hennie, Julie R. Ølgaard
Directed by Morten Tyldum
Release date TBA (Magnolia Pictures, limited)
Tie-in from Vintage Crime/Black Lizard: Headhunters by Jo Nesbø (Sept. 16, trade paper, 40,000 copies)
Before he melted from the heat, Nesbø's Snowman enjoyed a seven-week run on our Fiction list. Among the novel's stellar reviews was PW's: "Nesbø breathes new life into the serial killer subgenre, giving it a Norwegian twist and never losing his laconic hero in the process." According to a May Hollywood Reporter story about Tinseltown pursuing Scandinavian authors, "Nesbø doesn't like the [Stieg] Larsson tag, but the link hasn't hurt Headhunters, which had its market premiere in Cannes on Monday. Magnolia bought U.S. rights for the story of a corporate headhunter and secret art thief after seeing a five-minute promo in Berlin in February."

KILLER ELITE
Starring Robert DeNiro, Clive Owen, Jason Statham
Directed by Gary McKendry
Release date September 23 (Omnilab/Open Road, wide)
Tie-in from Ballantine: Killer Elite by Ranulph Fiennes (Sept. 6, mass market)
According to a recent London Telegraph story, Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes (third cousin to actors Ralph and Joseph) has discovered among his ancestors a regicide, a royal adulterer, and a knight who can be seen in the Bayeux Tapestry. Little wonder, then, that his novel, inspired by real-life events, centers on a private team of British vigilantes that sets out to eliminate a gang of cold-blooded contract killers.

DOLPHIN TALE
Starring Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Harry Connick Jr.
Directed by Charles Martin Smith
Release date September 23 (Warner Bros., wide)
Tie-ins from Scholastic: a paperback picture book, Dolphin Tale: A Tale of True Friendship, and a junior novel (all in Aug.)
Winter the dolphin—who lost her tail in a crab trap, was fitted with a prosthetic tail and currently lives at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida—stars in this fictionalized account of her story. Nathan Gamble plays a boy who befriends Winter, with Freeman as the scientist who creates her prosthetic. Young readers were previously introduced to Winter in the 2009 picture book Winter's Tail by Craig, Julianna, and Isabella Hatkoff, which Scholastic has just issued in paperback.

WHAT'S YOUR NUMBER?
Starring Chris Evans, Anna Faris, Joel McHale
Directed by Mark Mylod
Release date September 30 (20th Century Fox, wide)
Tie-in from Harper Paperbacks: What's Your Number? by Karyn Bosnak (Sept. 6, trade paper, 25,000 copies)
Captain America rides again, as Evans follows up with star turn #2. Author Bosnak got the idea for her book—originally titled 20 Times a Lady—after reading a New York Post article that said the average woman has 10.5 sexual partners in her lifetime. She thought the number seemed low, and started writing outlines and proposals in 2003—eight years from idea to book to movie. According to the publisher, Bosnak was so late turning in her manuscript that her editor locked her in an office until she finished.


OCT.
REAL STEEL
Starring Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly, Kevin Durand
Directed by Shawn Levy
Release date October 7 (DreamWorks Studios, wide)
Tie-in from Tor: Steel and Other Stories by Richard Matheson (Sept. 27, trade paper, 150,000 copies; Oct. 4, mass market)
The star of this robo-boxing flick needs no intro to movie- and theater-goers, and both Lilly and Durand are familiar TV names from their roles in TV's Lost. (Durand also appeared with Jackman in the 2009 box office moneymaker Wolverine.) Director Levy switches gears (it's a robot movie, get it?) from such comedic efforts as Date Night, Night at the Museum, and two Steve Martin remakes—Cheaper by the Dozen and The Pink Panther. (His daughter Tess was in Museum and has an uncredited role in Steel.)

THE THREE MUSKETEERS
Starring Orlando Bloom, Christoph Waltz, Milla Jovovich
Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson
Release date October 14 (Summit Entertainment, wide)
Tie-in from Penguin: The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (Sept. 14, trade paper)
There's a nice symmetry in this remake: Three Musketeers shot entirely in 3-D—and, appropriately, in France. We can't think of a literary classic that's had more screen time; IMDb.com lists eight versions, dating back to 1921—an interpretation that starred the greatest swashbuckler of them all, Douglas Fairbanks. The most recent, back in 1993, starred Tim Curry and Chris O'Donnell as Cardinal Richelieu and D'Artagnan; the three valiant cavaliers were Kiefer Sutherland, Oliver Platt, and Charlie Sheen. (Yes, you read that right: insert your joke here.) Other renditions include a 1933 "modernization" that featured John Wayne and Lon Chaney Jr.; a 1987 TV series; a 2004 video starring Mickey, Donald, and Goofy; and other, er, unusual depictions.

FOOTLOOSE
Starring Kenny Wormald, Julianne Hough, Dennis Quaid
Directed by Craig Brewer
Release date October 14 (Paramount Pictures, wide)
Tie-in from Bloomsbury: a YA novelization by Rudy Josephs (Sept. 13)
Hollywood continues to mine older properties for new films, and in this update of the 1984 film that starred Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, and John Lithgow, the action shifts from Utah to Tennessee. This is the big-screen debut for Wormald, a dancer who has toured with the likes of Justin Timberlake and the Pussycat Dolls.

THE CLOCKWORK GIRL
Voices of Alexa Vega, Carrie-Ann Moss, Jeffrey Tambor
Directed by Kevin Konrad Hanna
Release date October TBA (Luximation Films, wide)
Tie-in from Harper Design: The Clockwork Girl by Sean O'Reilly and Kevin Hanna (July 12, hardcover, 15,000 copies; Oct. 4, trade paper, 40,000 copies)
According to the folks at Harper, coauthor O'Reilly "has told the Clockwork Girl story in over 200 meetings, and each time the response is the same. The listeners' eyes light up, and grown men and women—often in business suits—act like curious children." Clockwork Girl sold more than 300,000 copies in a series of five comic books before being published in July by Harper Design.

THE RUM DIARY
Starring Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, Aaron Eckhart
Directed by Bruce Robinson
Release date October 28 (Film District, limited)
Tie-in from Simon & Schuster: The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson (Oct. 4, trade paper)
Film District is an upstart that's off to a roaring start. Earlier this year its horror film, Insidious, was made for $1.5 million; according to an April article in BoxOfficeMojo.com—"Insidious Lingers Longer than Expected"—it's racked up $45 million and counting. Also in April, its movie version of the nonfiction book Soul Surfer turned into a YA hit. Film buffs will recall Robinson's 1987 cult classic, Withnail and I; he was also Oscar-nominated for the screenplay of Roland Joffe's The Killing Fields (1984). The combination of producer, writer/director, and topnotch cast bode well for a highbrow hit.

ANONYMOUS
Starring Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, David Thewlis
Directed by Roland Emmerich
Release date October 28 (Columbia Pictures, wide)
Tie-ins from Newmarket Press: Anonymous: William Shakespeare Revealed (Oct. 4, simultaneous hardcover/trade paper, 5,000 copies); Anonymous and the Shakespeare Authorship Question, edited by Paul Sugarman et al. (trade paper, Oct. 4, 3,000 copies)
Did Will Shakespeare really write all those plays? That's the premise that inspired director Emmerich, whose film purports that Edward de Vere (Ifans), the earl of Oxford, was the real Bard of Avon as well as the center of a power struggle within Queen Elizabeth's court. The film not only turns on a mystery that's puzzled the literati for centuries but also offers an opportunity to watch the great Vanessa Redgrave at work. (Her character's younger screen incarnation offers an All in the Family bit of casting: it's Joely Richardson, Redgrave's daughter.)


NOV.
THE FABRIC OF THE COSMOS
Starring Brian Greene (host)
Release date: November 2, 9, 16, 23 (four one-hour programs, PBS/Nova, wide)
Tie-in from Vintage Books: The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene (Feb. 8, 2005, trade paper)
The PBS/Nova imprimatur once again promises cultural excellence. PW's starred review of the 2004 Knopf hardcover (subtitled Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality) praised Greene's "felicitous narration... [and] popular science writing of the highest order." Greene previewed his Fabric in a June interview: video.pbs.org/video/1984907962/.

PUSS IN BOOTS
Voices of Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis
Directed by Chris Miller
Release date November 4 (Paramount/DreamWorks Animation, wide)
Tie-ins from Simon & Schuster/Simon Spotlight: six tie-ins, including a novelization by Lara Bergen, 8×8 storybooks, an early reader, and a 3-D movie guide (all Oct. 18)
This spinoff from the four-film Shrek franchise—which has grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide—is a prequel that focuses on Puss (voiced by Banderas), Kitty Softpaws (Hayek), and Humpty Dumpty (Galifianakis). Director Miller has been with the Shrek films since the beginning, first as a storyboard artist, and later co-directing Shrek the Third.

TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY
Starring Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, John Hurt
Directed by Tomas Alfredson
Release date November 18 (Focus Features, wide)
Tie-in from Penguin: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré (Sept. 27, trade paper)
The most recent cinematic interpretation of le Carré's cold war tale starred three other noted Brits—Alec Guinness, Ian Bannen, and Ian Richardson—and screens were a lot smaller. We're talking about a 1979 mini-series, which ran for a whopping 290 minutes. At the helm was John Irvin (Ghost Story; The Dogs of War); this Tinker's director, Alfredson, won ecstatic notices for his 2008 vampirefest, Let the Right One In. Firth and Oldman drew raves for their performances when the film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, and Variety called it "one of the most buzzed-about titles on the market"—tell it to George Smiley.

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN, PART 1
Starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
Directed by Bill Condon
Release date November 18 (Summit Entertainment, wide)
Tie-ins from Little, Brown/Megan Tingley Books: Breaking Dawn (Oct., trade paper; Nov., mass market); an illustrated movie companion by Mark Cotta Vaz (Dec.; combined first printing: 1.1 million copies)
Harry Potter did it, Twilight is doing it, and the Hunger Games may do so, as well: if you've got a hot property, stretch it out. Though both parts of the final Twilight film were shot together, part two is slotted for a November 16, 2012, release. Much of the pre-release chatter has centered around how Condon (Dreamgirls) will be able to secure a PG-13 rating for the film, given some of the book's gritty particulars.

HAPPY FEET TWO
Voices of Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Pink
Directed by George Miller
Release date November 18 (Warner Bros., wide)
Tie-ins from Penguin/Price Stern Sloan: a novelization, two storybooks, and a sticker activity book (Oct. 13; combined first printing: 300,000 copies)
Wood and Williams reprise their roles in this computer-animated sequel to 2006's Happy Feet, which won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature; Pink takes over the role of Gloria from the late Brittany Murphy. Even before its Oscar win, Happy Feet was a success, opening at #1 upon release and grossing nearly $200 million in the U.S. Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, and Modern Family's Sofía Vergara also voice roles.

THE MUPPETS
Starring Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper
Directed by James Bobin
Release date November 23 (Walt Disney Pictures, wide)
Tie-ins from Little, Brown: four tie-ins—a junior novel from Little, Brown BFYR, and two early readers and a reusable sticker book from LB Kids (Oct. 11; combined first printing: 325,000)
It's hard not to be excited at the prospect of a new Muppets film—the first since 1999's Muppets in Space, which was not exactly a hit. This one, though, may prove otherwise: Segel and Nicholas Stoller co-wrote the screenplay, in which the Muppets band together to fight off an oil tycoon (Cooper) who's threatening Muppet Theater. All-star cameos (a Muppet hallmark) include Billy Crystal, Lady Gaga, Ricky Gervais, and Neil Patrick Harris.

HUGO
Starring Asa Butterfield, Chloë Moretz, Ben Kingsley
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Release date November 23 (Paramount Pictures, wide)
Tie-in from Scholastic Press: Scholastic will release Selznick's The Hugo Movie Companion Book, with photographs, interviews, and artwork (Nov. 1, 100,000 copies)
Based on Brian Selznick's 2007 The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which won the Caldecott Medal, Scorsese's first film to be shot in 3-D (not to mention the storied director's first squarely aimed at children) goes up against The Muppets in what looks to be a big Thanksgiving weekend at the movies. Butterfield plays Hugo, which is not his first leading role drawn from the world of children's books: he also starred in 2008's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

ARTHUR CHRISTMAS
Voices of James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent
Directed by Sarah Smith
Release date November 23 (Sony Pictures Animation, wide)
Tie-ins from Sterling: five tie-ins, including a novelization, early reader, and sticker book. (Oct. 4)
This 3-D computer-animated holiday film features the voice of McAvoy (most recently seen on screen as Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class) in the title role of Arthur Christmas, the youngest son of Santa Claus. The movie is produced by Aardman Animations, the studio behind Wallace & Gromit, and is its first 3-D offering.

A DANGEROUS METHOD
Starring Viggo Mortensen, Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender
Directed by David Cronenberg
Release date November 23 (Sony Pictures Classics, limited)
Tie-in from Vintage Books: A Most Dangerous Method: The Story of Jung, Freud, and Sabina Spielrein by John Kerr (trade paper)
What goes around comes around. The Dangerous screenplay is based on Christopher Hampton's play The Talking Cure, which is based on Kerr's book. Kerr's dad is noted theater critic Walter Kerr, and mom is Jean Kerr, whose Please Don't Eat the Daisies became a Doris Day movie. And there's more: Oscar winner Christoph Waltz was initially cast as Freud, but dropped out in favor of Water for Elephants. Had he stayed, it would have been his second collaboration with Michael Fassbender since their work on Inglourious Basterds.


DEC.
ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: CHIP-WRECKED
Voices of Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jesse McCartney
Directed by Mike Mitchell
Release date December 11 (20th Century Fox, wide)
Tie-in from HarperFestival: Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked: The Junior Novel by Finn Perdita (Nov.)
Say what you will about this computer-animated/live action series derived from the 1980s cartoon (and critics usually don't have anything nice to say): the Chipmunks make bank. Alvin and the Chipmunks made more than $361 million worldwide, and 2009's Squeakquel took in more than $443 million. Both were in the top 10 of moneymaking films for the years they were released.

THE DESCENDANTS
Starring George Clooney, Mary Birdsong, Kaleigh Kennedy
Directed by Alexander Payne
Release date December 18 (Fox Searchlight, wide)
Tie-in from Random House: The Descendants by Kaui Kart Hemmings (Nov. 1, trade paper)
Here's a promising double play: George Clooney, who needs absolutely no intro, and Alexander Payne, who needs—well, okay, maybe a slight intro. Some 14 years after Nebraska-born Alexander Constantine Papadopoulos graduated from UCLA film school (M.F.A. in theater arts), he directed and wrote (with his coauthor, Jim Taylor) the widely praised 2004 comedy, Sideways. That movie won a fistful of awards and got another fistful of nominations in the categories it didn't win. Should Descendants not strike it rich, Payne has no one but himself to blame: he's on the very short list of directors who has final cut rights to his films.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
Starring Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer
Directed by David Fincher
Release date December 21 (Columbia Pictures, wide)
Tie-in from Vintage Crime/Black Lizard: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Nov. 1, trade paper; Nov. 22, premium edition)
This is the first of the American movies; the three Swedish-language versions have a $200 million box office worldwide. And check out these well-known names. Craig, the latest—some would say hottest—Bond, James Bond: check. Plummer, the venerable Canadian actor with a 50-year stage and film résumé: check. Fincher, a director's director twice nominated for an Oscar (The Social Network; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button): check. Rooney Mara: who? Given the increase in press and the Tinseltown buzz, that question will be moot as soon as this one opens.

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN
Voices of Jamie Bell, Daniel Craig, Andy Serkis
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Release date December 23 (Paramount Pictures, wide)
Tie-ins from Little, Brown: a middle-grade novelization by Alex Irvine and a chapter book by Stephanie Peters are joined by four tie-ins from LB Kids (two early readers, a reusable sticker book, and an 8×8 storybook); (all Nov. 1; combined first printing: 450,000 copies)
Hergé's beloved adventurer comes to the big screen with a lot of talent (Spielberg, Peter Jackson) and money behind him. First in a planned trilogy, the film uses motion-capture animation from Jackson's Academy Award–winning company Weta Digital, which has provided special effects for the Lord of the Rings and X-Men films, among many others. Given the weight and expectations behind the project, can Tintin finally hit big with U.S. audiences?

EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE
Starring Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Tom Horn
Directed by Stephen Daldry
Release date December 25 (Warner Brothers, limited; wide in January)
Tie-in from Mariner Books: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (Nov. 1, trade paper, 200,000 copies)
One Tom's got quite a Hollywood résumé; the other, somewhat less so. Though 13-year-old Horn had never acted before, he wasn't exactly a neophyte before the cameras; last fall, he won $31,800 on Jeopardy. In this harrowing story, 11-year-old Oskar Schell searches New York for the lock that matches a mysterious key left by his father when he was killed in the 9/11 attacks.

WAR HORSE
Voices of Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, David Thewlis
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Release date December 28 (Touchstone/DreamWorks, wide)
Tie-in from Scholastic: a paperback tie-in edition (Nov.)
From book to play (with five Tony Awards) to movie—Spielberg's second directorial outing in December, like Tintin, also has its roots in Europe, based on Michael Morpugo's 1982 novel about a boy's horse that is sold to fight in the British cavalry during WWI. The combination of a boy-and-his-horse story with a long tradition of acclaimed Spielberg war films could add up to a holiday hit.