Calendar

SEPTEMBER

"Solomon and Gaenor." Nominated for an Oscar for best foreign-language film last spring, this Welsh-language love story stars Ioan Gruffudd, who acquired a following last year in the British miniseries, "Captain Horatio Hornblower." Gruffudd and Nia Roberts play, respectively, a Jewish salesman and a Christian girl who have a Romeo-and-Juliet affair shortly before World War I.

"Solas." Benito Zambrano's Spanish love story about a lonely woman (Ana Fernandez) who is trapped by poverty and despair in a nameless city in Southern Spain. Maria Galiana plays her selfless mother.

The Shooting Gallery Film Series, Part 2. This series of sleepers was introduced last spring and produced one long-running hit, "Croupier." The new installment started last Friday with "Titanic Town" and continues with "Human Resources," "One," "Barenaked in America," "Non-Stop" and "A Time For Drunken Horses."

"Love and Sex." Valerie Breiman directed this story of a single woman, played by Famke Janssen, working at a woman's magazine. Jon Favreau has the leading-man role.

"This Is Spinal Tap" (reissue). Rob Reiner's classic 1984 send-up of rock music documentaries, about the touring troubles of an extra-loud British band.

Experience Music Project Film Series, Sept. 13-Nov. 29 at EMP's 200-seat auditorium. This Wednesday-night series will include the Seattle premieres of "Songs for Cassavetes," "Passing Through," "The Beat Experience" and "Louis Prima: The Wildest."

"The Sorrow and the Pity" (reissue). Famous as the movie Woody Allen can't stop watching in "Annie Hall," Marcel Ophuls' great 1970 documentary is made up largely of interviews with those who lived through the Nazi occupation of France.

"Bait." The busy Jamie Foxx, who starred in "Any Given Sunday" and "Held Up," plays a criminal involved in a sting operation in this comedy-thriller directed by Antoine Fuqua ("The Replacement Killers").

Resfest Digital Film Festival, Sept. 14-16 at the Cinerama. The world's longest-running digital film festival follows the San Francisco Sept. 7 premiere of its 2000 program with a three-day run in Seattle.

"The Exorcist - The Version You've Never Seen." Often called the scariest movie ever made, William Friedkin's 1973 thriller now includes more than one full reel of "lost" footage. It also features a new six-track surround soundtrack. It will be reissued Sept. 22 in 600 theaters.

"Along Came a Spider." Sequel to "Kiss the Girls," with Morgan Freeman once more playing detective Alex Cross. He's on the trail of a serial killer again. The director is Lee Tamahori, who made "Once Were Warriors" and "The Edge."

"The Watcher" (aka "Driven"). Another serial-killer thriller, about a murderer who plays cat-and-mouse games with an FBI agent. Keanu Reeves, James Spader and Marisa Tomei are the stars. The first-time writer-director is Joe Charbanic.

"The Ballad of Rambling Jack." Aiyana Elliott's documentary about her father, Jack Elliott, won the Special Jury Prize for Artistic Achievement at the Sundance Film Festival in January. It opens with Elliott's appearance on a 1969 segment of "The Johnny Cash Show" and includes footage that suggests his influence before and after that date.

"Urbania." Jon Shear's film of Daniel Reitz's play, "Urban Folk Tales," won this year's Golden Space Needle for best actor for Dan Futterman. Also in the cast are Alan Cumming as an old friend and Josh Hamilton as an ambiguous bartender.

"Urban Legends: Final Cut." A thriller starring Jennifer Morrison as a student filmmaker whose crew members fall prey to fatal accidents while they're shooting her movie about urban myths. Hart Bochner and Marco Hofschneider are also in the cast. Directed by John Ottman, who did the music for "The Usual Suspects."

"An Alain Resnais Retrospective," Sept. 15-Nov. 19. The Grand Illusion will show such famous Resnais classics as "Night and Fog," "Hiroshima Mon Amour" and "Last Year at Marienbad," as well as such lesser known works as "Love Unto Death," "Muriel," "Same Old Song" and "Smoking."

"Woman on Top." Comedy starring Penelope Cruz as a cook who abandons her husband and his Brazilian kitchen for a new culinary career in San Francisco. Directed by Fina Torres, who made the candy-colored "Celestial Clockwork."

"Nurse Betty." Neil LaBute's first film since "Your Friends and Neighbors" stars Renee Zellweger as a waitress who's obsessed with a soap opera star (Greg Kinnear) and manages to convince him of her acting talent. Aaron Eckhart is her hopeless husband; Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock are the hitmen on her trail. John Richards and James Flamberg's script won the best screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival last spring.

"Ring of Fire." Robert Redford's son, James, wrote this drama about professional bull riding, starring Kiefer Sutherland and Marcus Thomas as competitive brothers.

"Girlfight." A runner-up for best actress and best director at the Seattle International Film Festival, Karyn Kusama's beautifully shot, Brooklyn-based drama stars Michelle Rodriguez in a breakthrough performance as a teenage boxer who falls for another fighter (Santiago Douglas). John Sayles, who helped produce it, has a featured role as her exacting schoolteacher.

"Remember the Titans." Close on the heels of another football movie, "The Replacements," Boaz Yakin's new film is based on the forced integration of a Virginia football team in the early 1970s. Denzel Washington and Will Patton co-star.

"Cherry Falls." Serial-killer thriller about a murderer who targets small-town virgins. The director is Geoffrey Wright, who made the ultra-violent "Romper Stomper."

"Goya in Bordeaux." Carlos Saura, the master director who made "Carmen" and "Blood Wedding," teams up with Oscar-winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro for a portrait of the Spanish artist, played by Francisco Rabal.

"Almost Famous." Writer-director Cameron Crowe's first movie since "Jerry Maguire" is a delightful, surprisingly sweet attempt to capture a pivotal moment in the history of rock 'n' roll, as a 15-year-old music fan covers a favorite band's 1970s tour for Rolling Stone. Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Jason Lee and Philip Seymour Hoffman head the cast.

"Skipped Parts." Tamra Davis' tart American comedy transcends the cliches of coming-of-age movies, thanks primarily to the wry perspective of its seventh-grade hero, who celebrates his status as a Wyoming pariah in 1963. In the role of his wild-but-doting mother, Jennifer Jason Leigh seems to have captured the naughty early-1960s spirit of Tuesday Weld.

"Beautiful." Sally Field makes her directing debut with this story of a working-class girl (Minnie Driver) who wants to win a beauty pageant. Kathleen Turner and Joey Lauren Adams are in the cast.

"Crime and Punishment in Suburbia." Loosely based on Dostoyevsky's novel, this contemporary version stars Monica Keena and Vincent Kartheiser as a high-school girl and her boyfriend. Ellen Barkin, Michael Ironside and Jeffrey Wright are in the cast.

"The Fantasticks." It's rumored that Michael Ritchie's 5-year-old film of the longest-running play (and musical) in American theater history will finally be opening Sept. 22 in New York and Los Angeles. It stars Joel Grey, Jean Louisa Kelly and Joey McIntire. We'll believe it when we see it.

"The Way of the Gun." Christopher McQuarrie, who won an Oscar for writing "The Usual Suspects," makes his directing debut with this story of two criminals (Ryan Phillippe, Benicio Del Toro) who kidnap a pregnant surrogate mother (Juliette Lewis). James Caan and Scott Wilson Diaz are also in the cast.

The Port Townsend Film Festival, Sept. 22-24. Tony Curtis is scheduled to appear, along with two of his best movies, "Sweet Smell of Success" and "Some Like It Hot," at the first film festival to be held at the remodeled Rose Theater. Turner Classics Movie host Robert Osborne is also set to visit. The lineup of movies includes "A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict," "No Coffee, No TV, No Sex," "Sordid Lives," "Black and White in Color," "The Lost Lover" and "Georgica."

"Under Suspicion." Stephen Hopkins, the director behind "Ghost and the Darkness" and "Lost in Space," made this psychological thriller starring Morgan Freeman as a police captain and Gene Hackman as a former colleague involved in a murder case.

"The Broken Hearts Club." Greg Berlanti from "Dawson's Creek" directed this romantic comedy about a group of baseball-playing West Hollywood gay men (played by Timothy Olymphant, Dean Cain, John Mahoney and others) who bond during a tragedy.

"Time Regained." Raul Ruiz's lengthy account of the last days of Marcel Proust, played by Marcello Mazzarella. Also in the cast: John Malkovich, Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Beart, Vincent Perez, Marie-France Pisier and Chiara Mastroianni.

"Tigerland." He's back: Joel Schumacher, the director of last year's "8mm" and "Flawless," returns with a low-budget, anti-war boot camp story set during the Vietnam War and featuring a cast of unknown actors.

"The Yards." Ellen Burstyn plays Mark Wahlberg's mother in James Gray's film about an investigation into a policeman's death. James Caan, Faye Dunaway, Charlize Theron and Joaquin Phoenix are in the cast.

"Dark Days." Marc Singer's prize-winning, black-and-white documentary about the New York homeless, featuring a score by DJ Shadow.

OCTOBER

"Into the Arms of Strangers." Judi Dench narrates this documentary about Britain's pre-World War II attempts to open its doors to 10,000 endangered children, most of them Jewish. Directed by Mark Jonathan Harris, who won an Oscar for his excellent film about the post-war fate of European Jews, "The Long Way Home."

"Spartacus" (reissue). The Egyptian has booked a week-long run of the restored 70mm version of the late Stanley Kubrick's 1960 Roman epic - the original "Gladiator."

"Best in Show." Christopher Guest, the star-creator of "Waiting For Guffman," directed, co-wrote and stars in this comedy about canine contestants and their owners at a dog show. Parker Posey, Catherine O'Hara and Guest's "Spinal Tap" co-star, Michael McKean, are also in the cast.

The Seattle Underground Film Festival, Oct. 12-15 at the Little Theatre and Cinema 18. Another collection of old and new oddities.

"Bamboozled." Are this year's Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence comedies really just modern minstrel shows? The question has been asked by several film critics this summer, and Spike Lee's latest picture has a similar concern. It's about a TV show, "Mantan the New Millennium Minstrel Show," that becomes a network hit.

"Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation." The latest installment in the annual festival includes the cultish "Angry Kid," Will Vinton Studios' "Mutt" and three of this year's Oscar-nominated shorts: "When the Day Breaks," "Hum Drum" and "Three Misses."

"Sound and Fury." Josh Aronson's documentary deals with the controversy within the deaf community over whether new hearing devices should be used on deaf children.

"Benjamin Smoke." Jem Cohen and Peter Sillen's documentary about the late Southern singer-songwriter, Robert Dickerson, and his fans, including Patti Smith.

"The Wind Will Carry Us." The wildly acclaimed new Iranian movie from Abbas Kiarostami, director of "Taste of Cherry" and "Through the Olive Trees." Behzad Dourani plays the leader of a telecommunications crew, which is awaiting the death of an old woman in a small village.

"Bedazzled." Peter Cook and Dudley Moore starred in Stanley Donen's witty 1968 original, about a short-order cook who tries to sell his soul to the devil and gets repeatedly humiliated. This time Brendan Fraser is the loser hero, and the devil has gone through a sex change: She's played by Elizabeth Hurley. Directed by Harold Ramis, who made "Groundhog Day."

"Cleopatra's Second Husband." Jon Reiss' debut movie, shown two years ago at the Seattle International Film Festival, starts out as a feature-length version of that great "Saturday Night Live" skit, "The Thing That Wouldn't Leave," then turns into a variation on those creepy 1960s British classics, "The Servant" and "The Collector." Boyd Kestner plays "the thing": a hunky, predatory house sitter who won't budge when an independently wealthy married couple (Paul Hipp, Bitty Schramm) return from a brief vacation.

"Santitos." A much-praised Mexican film that was produced by John Sayles and won a prize for best Latin-American film at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. It's the story of a Catholic widow (Dolores Heredia) who denies the death of her teenage daughter and goes to Tijuana and Los Angeles looking for her.

"Bittersweet Motel." Phish's feature-length concert movie.

"Rififi" (reissue). Restored version of Jules Dassin's influential 1954 French heist classic, which Dassin himself recycled 10 years later as "Topkapi." The most recent homage/steal was last year's "Entrapment."

Paramount Silent Movie Mondays, Oct. 2-30. Organist and film historian Dennis James again provides commentary and live musical accompaniment for a series of silent films: "The Lost World," "Aelita - Queen of Mars," "Peter Pan," "Submarine" and the pre-Halloween finale, "The Phantom of the Opera."

"Impostor." Gary Fleder, who made the popular but execrable "Kiss the Girls," directed this adaptation of a Philip K. Dick science-fiction story about a late-21st-century cop (Vincent D'Onofrio) who is ordered to find an alien spy (Gary Sinise). Madeleine Stowe and Mekhi Phifer are in the cast.

The Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Oct. 20-26 at the Egyptian and the Little Theatre. The lineup so far includes the sequel to the British miniseries, "Queer as Folk." More than 100 films will be shown during what Three Dollar Bill Cinema calls its "largest program ever." The full schedule will be announced Oct. 6.

"Get Carter." Warner Bros. remake of the 1971 gangster movie that established the reputation of the director of "Croupier," Mike Hodges. Sylvester Stallone plays a Vegas mobster who comes home to Seattle to bury his brother. Miranda Richardson is his widowed sister-in-law, and Michael Caine, who had the leading role in the original, turns up in a supporting part. The new director is Stephen Kay, who made "The Last Time I Committed Suicide."

"Wonder Boys" (reissue). Curtis Hanson's giddy college comedy, featuring career-peak performances by Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire and Robert Downey Jr., earned some of the year's best reviews when it was released in February. But the movie bombed at the box office, so Warner Bros. is dusting it off and trying it out again for Oscar consideration.

"Meet the Parents." Ben Stiller sets off to meet his fiancee's intimidating parents, despite being warned about possible dire consequences. Robert De Niro co-stars, and the director is Jay Roach, who made "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me."

"Requiem For a Dream." Writer-director Darren Aronofsky, whose "Pi" was one of the more interesting American independent films of the late 1990s, is back with an adaptation of a novel by Hubert Selby Jr. ("Last Exit to Brooklyn"). Ellen Burstyn plays a plump Coney Island widow, Jared Leto is her aimless son and Jennifer Connelly is his girlfriend.

"Digimon: The Movie." The animated Japanese children's series, which first appeared on American television a year ago, makes its big-screen debut in a story about digital creatures engaged in an Internet battlefield.

"Bounce." Writer-director Don Roos' follow-up to his Christina Ricci classic, "The Opposite of Sex," is this romantic drama starring Gwyneth Paltrow as a widow and Ben Affleck as the advertising executive who was inadvertently responsible for her husband's death.

"Ladies Man." Feature-length comedy featuring Tim Meadows' "Saturday Night Live" character. Meadows worked on the script; the cast includes Will Ferrell, Lee Evans and Billy Dee Williams.

"The Contender." DreamWorks production starring Jeff Bridges as the U.S. president and Joan Allen as the senator he chooses to replace his deceased vice president. Gary Oldman and Christian Slater are in the cast; Rod Lurie wrote and directed it.

"Lost Souls." Janusz Kaminiski, the Oscar-winning cinematographer of "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List," makes his directing debut with this long-delayed doomsday story about a young woman (Winona Ryder) who tries to convince a New York atheist (Ben Chaplin) that the devil walks the Earth in human form.

"Billy Elliott." Julie Walters plays an English dance instructor and the mentor of an 11-year-old miner's son (Jamie Bell). When she proposes that he try out for the Royal Ballet School, his father and brother forbid him to continue.

"Dr. T and the Women." Robert Altman's new film stars Richard Gere as a popular Dallas gynecologist, Farrah Fawcett as his childlike wife and Shelley Long as his dedicated chief nurse. Laura Dern, Helen Hunt, Robert Hays, Kate Hudson, Liv Tyler and Lee Grant are in the cast.

"Pay It Forward." Mimi Leder, who made "Deep Impact" and "The Peacemaker," directed this Warner Bros. version of the Catherine Ryan Hyde novel about a social studies teacher (Kevin Spacey) who encourages a young student (Haley Joel Osment) to think of an idea to change the world for the better. Helen Hunt is his mother.

"Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2." The sequel to last year's hugely profitable horror film. Joe Berlinger, the director of two singularly unnerving documentaries about a small town witch hunt - "Paradise Lost" and "Revelations: Paradise Lost 2" - could be just the right man for the job.

"The Little Vampire." Jonathan Lipnicki, the irrepressible kid from "Jerry Maguire" and "Stuart Little," stars in this pre-Halloween release.

"Lucky Numbers." Nora Ephron's comedy about an attempt to rig a state lottery was written by Adam Resnick, who wrote and directed the wretched "Cabin Boy." Not a good sign, though the cast does include Lisa Kudrow, John Travolta and Tim Roth. Paramount originally planned a July release.

"Dancer in the Dark." Lars von Trier's lengthy, much-debated musical drama may be the first top prize winner at the Cannes Film Festival to be set in Washington state. It also won best actress for the Icelandic singer-composer, Bjork.

"Two Family House." An audience favorite at the Sundance Film Festival, Raymond DeFelitta's film stars Michael Rispoli as a perpetual loser who wants to own his own home and have his own business. He tries to sink his savings into a two-story dwelling, whose pregnant former tenant (Kelly Macdonald) still occupies the place.

"Bootmen." The creator of "Tap Dogs," Dein Perry, makes his directing debut with this story of an ambitious tap dancer (Adam Garcia) who tries to escape the steel-mill limitations of his hometown.

Horror Film Festival, Oct. 27-Nov. 2 at the Egyptian. The Halloween-week specials include "Evil Dead 2."

"Stardom." Denys Arcand, the French-Canadian creator of "Jesus of Montreal," directed and co-wrote this satire about the perils of celebrity, staring Dan Aykroyd, Thomas Gibson, Jessica Pare, Charles Berling, Robert Lepage and Frank Langella.

NOVEMBER

"You Can Count on Me." Perhaps the most widely praised film at the most recent Sundance Film Festival, Ken Lonergan's independent stars Laura Linney as a single mother, Mark Ruffalo as her self-destructive brother, Jon Tenney as her boyfriend and Matthew Broderick as her insulting boss.

"Men of Honor." The true story of Carl Brashear, the first African-American Navy diver, played by Cuba Gooding Jr. Directed by George Tillman Jr., who made "Soul Food," it co-stars Charlize Theron, Hal Holbrook and Robert De Niro as the Mississippi-born diver, Billy Sunday.

"The Decalogue." The late Krzysztof Kieslowski's 10-part, 10-hour Polish miniseries, produced for television in the late 1980s, was inspired by the Ten Commandments in the Bible. Each contemporary story is a modern illustration of a commandment.

"Quills." Philip Kaufman's adaptation of Doug Wright's prize-winning play about the Marquis De Sade (Geoffrey Rush) and Abbe de Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix). Kate Winslet and Michael Caine are in the cast, and Wright did the screenplay.

"The 6th Day." Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in Roger Spottiswoode's tale of a future in which cattle, fish and even the family pet can be cloned. Also in the cast: Robert Duvall, Michael Rapaport, Tony Goldwyn and Michael Rooker.

"The Legend of Bagger Vance." Robert Redford is back in the director's chair for this adaptation of Steven Pressfield's 1995 novel. Will Smith has the title role - a wise, mysterious golf caddy - and the cast includes Matt Damon, Charlize Theron, Jack Lemmon and Bruce McGill.

"Me and Isaac Newton." Paul Allen's latest movie was one of the special events of the recent Seattle International Film Festival, where students from Lakeside and Garfield schools attended the movie and an appearance by one of its "stars," Dr. Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist and co-founder of the string theory. He's one of seven scientists interviewed by director Michael Apted, who made the "7 Up" series about the lives of British schoolchildren.

"Charlie's Angels." An update of the 1970s television series, starring Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu. Barrymore and Betty Thomas co-produced the picture, which involves a threat to worldwide corporate security. Bill Murray has a key role.

"A Hard Day's Night" (reissue). Miramax's restoration of the Beatles' joyous 1964 musical comedy about their early days as a pop phenomenon. Originally scheduled for a 1999 reissue, it's back on this fall's schedule.

"Red Planet." Carrie-Anne Moss plays the pilot of a mission to Mars in 2050, when Earth is dying and the colonization of Mars is regarded as the only alternative to obliteration. Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore and Terence Stamp accompany her on the trip in this Warner Bros. drama directed by newcomer Antony Hoffman.

"Little Nicky." Adam Sandler plays the son of Satan. Sandler worked on the script; the supporting cast includes Harvey Keitel, Patricia Arquette, Rhys Ifans, Jon Lovitz, Ozzy Osbourne and Kevin Nealon.

Polish Film Festival, Nov. 2-13 at the Broadway Performance Hall. One of the most enduring local festivals, this showcase for brand-new and old movies has recently premiered the semi-lost classics of several famous Polish directors. Among the visiting filmmakers are Olaf Lubeszenko and Peter Lukas. The lineup will include 18 features and six shorts.

Women in Cinema Festival, Nov. 3-9 at the Egyptian. Previously held in January, then moved to November last year, the popular annual festival is returning to play across the street from the Polish festival.

"Rugrats in Paris - The Movie." Set in a Parisian amusement park called Reptarland, this follow-up to the surprisingly popular first "Rugrats" movie features the voices of Susan Sarandon, Debbie Reynolds and John Lithgow.

"How the Grinch Stole Christmas." Ron Howard directs Jim Carrey in the big-screen version of the Dr. Seuss story. Rick Baker did the special makeup effects, and the cast includes Bill Irwin, Christine Baranski and Jeffrey Tambor.

"Unbreakable." Reminiscent of Peter Weir's "Fearless," writer-director M. Night Shyamalan's follow-up to "The Sixth Sense" deals with the sole survivor of a major accident. Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore head the cast.

"102 Dalmatians." Glenn Close is back as Cruela De Ville in Disney's live-action sequel to its 1996 remake of the 1961 cartoon. Gerard Depardieu is also in the cast.

"The Golden Bowl." James Ivory's adaptation of the Henry James novel, with Jeremy Northam as a destitute Italian prince, Kate Beckinsale as his fiancee, Nick Nolte as her father, and Uma Thurman as an American socialite.

"Malena." Giuseppe Tornatore, who made "Cinema Paradiso" and last year's "Legend of 1900," is back with this Italian-language period piece.

"Venus Beauty Institute." Nathalie Baye plays a veteran beautician at Bulle Ogier's Parisian salon. The movie swept the Cesars (French Oscars) earlier this year. Baye won the Golden Space Needle for best actress for this film and "An Affair of Love."

"The Trench." Novelist William Boyd makes his directing debut with this powerful drama, suggestive of a smaller-scale "All Quiet on the Western Front," about British soldiers preparing for battle in a World War I trench. His book, "The New Confessions," had a similar focus.

"Once in the Life." Laurence Fishburne wrote, directed and stars in this cautionary tale about estranged half brothers who are both involved in crime. They reconnect by chance in a police station.

"What's Cooking." One of the minor irritants of the most recent Seattle International Film Festival was this grating and predictable drama starring Alfre Woodard and Mercedes Ruehl (the one standout in the cast) as matriarchs celebrating a nightmarish Thanksgiving in Los Angeles.

DECEMBER

"All the Pretty Horses." Billy Bob Thornton's film of the Cormac McCarthy novel, starring Matt Damon as a Texas teenager and Henry Thomas as his best friend. Together they set off on horseback for Mexico, where the cowboy life still exists. Mike Nichols is the producer. In an unusual move, Miramax recently picked up the rights from Columbia TriStar.

"The Vertical Limit." Martin Campbell, who made "The Mask of Zorro" and "GoldenEye," directed this adventure story starring Chris O'Donnell as a young climber involved in a rescue effort at the world's second highest peak, K-2.

Northern Lights Film Festival, Dec. 1-7 at the Varsity. A collection of movies from Iceland, including "Honour of the House," "Tears of Stone," "Movie Days," "No Trace" and the Oscar-nominated "Children of Nature."

"Songcatcher." Janet McTeer, a best-actress Oscar nominee earlier this year for "Tumbleweeds," gets another starring role in Maggie Greenwald's story of an Appalachian musicologist in the early 1900s. Aidan Quinn and Jane Adams are in the cast.

"Proof of Life." Russell Crowe established his acting credentials with an Oscar nomination for "The Insider," then followed it up with his first box-office smash, "Gladiator." He and David Caruso play professional hostage negotiators in this Taylor Hackford movie about the kidnapping of an American engineer (David Morse). Meg Ryan plays the engineer's wife.

"The Family Man." Nicolas Cage plays a single Manhattan executive who wakes up one morning to find he's living the life he might have had if he'd married his only love (Tea Leoni). Directed by Brett Ratner, who made "Rush Hour."

"What Women Want." Mel Gibson vehicle about an executive who discovers he can hear what women are thinking. He uses his newfound talent to outwit his boss (Helen Hunt). Written and directed by Nancy Meyers, who made the popular remake of "The Parent Trap."

"13 Days." Dramatization of the Cuban missile crisis, starring Kevin Costner and Bruce Greenwood.

"Enemy at the Gates." World War II drama about the battle of Stalingrad, starring Jude Law, Ed Harris and Joseph Fiennes. The director is Jean-Jacques Annaud, who made "Seven Years in Tibet" and "Quest for Fire."

"Miss Congeniality." Sandra Bullock plays a loose-cannon FBI agent who goes undercover as a beauty pageant contestant. Her mission: to stop a bombing. Michael Caine plays a pompous pageant consultant and the supporting cast includes Benjamin Bratt, Candice Bergen and William Shatner.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Ang Lee won considerable praise earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival for this Chinese-language action film starring Michelle Yeoh as an aristocrat's daughter.

"Shadow of the Vampire." Nicolas Cage co-produced this fictional version of the making of F.W. Murnau's "Nosferatu," starring John Malkovich, Eddie Izzard, Udo Keir and Willem Dafoe.

"Finding Forrester." Gus Van Sant directs three Oscar winners - Sean Connery, Anna Paquin and F. Murray Abraham - in screenwriter Mike Rich's story of the relationship between an eccentric, reclusive novelist and a gifted young basketball player.

"The Tailor of Panama." John Boorman's adaptation of John Le Carre's 1996 spy novel, starring Pierce Brosnan, Geoffrey Rush, Jamie Lee Curtis, Harold Pinter and the star of Boorman's "The General," Brendan Gleeson. Le Carre, who acted as executive producer, shares script credit with Boorman and Andrew Davies.

"Moulin Rouge." Baz Luhrmann, who made "Strictly Ballroom" and "Romeo and Juliet," co-wrote and directed this musical set in the Parisian nightclub in 19th-century Paris. Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor are the stars; the supporting cast includes Jim Broadbent and John Leguizamo as Toulouse Lautrec.

"Cast Away." Director Robert Zemeckis, who made "What Lies Beneath," is back already with this Tom Hanks movie about a systems engineer who is marooned on a remote island. Helen Hunt plays his girlfriend. The script is based on an idea by Hanks and screenwriter William Broyles.

"Traffic." Based on Simon Moore's excellent 1989 British miniseries, director Steven Soderbergh's third film in 14 months (following "The Limey" and "Erin Brockovich") stars Michael Douglas, Benicio Del Toro, Don Cheadle, Amy Irving and Dennis Quaid. If it's anything like the original, it will be the most blistering statement on the drug war ever to be released by a major studio.

"An Everlasting Piece." DreamWorks' tale of two barbers, one Catholic, one Protestant, in Northern Ireland in the 1980s. Directed by Barry Levinson, it stars Brian F. O'Byrne and Barry McEvoy - who also wrote the script.

"State and Maine." David Mamet wrote and directed this comedy about the making of a movie in rural New England. The cast includes Alec Baldwin, Sarah Jessica Parker and those Mamet regulars, William H. Macy and Rebecca Pidgeon.

"Original Sin." Originally called "Dancing in the Dark" after the Cornell Woolrich novel that inspired it, this Angelina Jolie vehicle concerns a femme fatale who marries a lonely tycoon.

"Anti-Trust." MGM thriller starring Ryan Phillippe as a college graduate who gets to work for his mentor (Tim Robbins) and discovers his darker side.

"The Gift." Sam Raimi's Southern thriller stars Cate Blanchett, Keanu Reeves and Oscar winner Hilary Swank ("Boys Don't Cry") in the story of a widow with "the gift" of psychic vision. Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson wrote the script.

"Chocolat." Not to be confused with Claire Denis' 1989 film of the same name, Lasse Hallstrom's new film stars Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche in the story of a mysterious woman who opens a small-town chocolate shop in the late 1950s.

"O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Ethan and Joel Coen's latest comedy is set in the South in the 1930s. George Clooney, Tim Blake Nelson and John Turturro play chain-gang escapees, and John Goodman is a traveling salesman.

"Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000." The director of the "Scream" movies is presenting rather than directing this Bram Stoker update, starring Jonny Lee Miller, Omar Epps and Christopher Plummer.

"Kingdom in the Sun." Sting provided the songs for this Disney animated musical about a prince who is transformed into a llama. Voices include David Spade, Eartha Kitt and John Goodman.

COMING SOON, MAYBE THIS YEAR

Untitled Michael Winterbottom Project. Wes Bentley, the discovery of "American Beauty," returns in a new film from British director Winterbottom, who made "Wonderland" and "Welcome to Sarajevo." It's based on Thomas Hardy's "The Mayor of Casterbridge."

"Running Free." Sergei Bodrov, the Russian filmmaker who directed the Oscar-nominated "Prisoner of the Mountains" and now lives in Los Angeles, made this account of the life of a horse. Chase Moore is the orphaned stable boy who adopts her. It opened earlier this year in New York.

"Down to Earth" (aka "I Was Made to Love Her"). The latest remake of "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" stars Chris Rock as a stand-up comic who dies prematurely and gets sent back to Earth to inhabit an inappropriate body. Warren Beatty played the lost soul in 1978's "Heaven Can Wait"; Robert Montgomery did it first in "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (1941). "Down to Earth" was the title of a 1947 musical semi-remake, which was later redone as "Xanadu" (1980).

"Texas Rangers." James Van Der Beek takes the "Young Guns" route with Steve Miner's post-Civil War Western. Dylan McDermott and Rachael Leigh Cook are his costars. Originally scheduled for a late-summer release, this one might not show up until next year.

"Novocaine." Writer-director David Akins' tale of a prosperous dentist (Steve Martin) whose organized life is disturbed by a young patient.

"Soul Survivors." A thriller about a college freshman who is suspended between life and death after a devastating car accident. Wes Bentley and Casey Affleck co-star.

"Made." Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn, the swinging bachelors of "Swingers," are back in this comedy about struggling Los Angeles boxers who get caught up in a mob money-laundering scheme. It marks Favreau's directing debut.

"About Adam." Gerard Stembridge's romantic comedy stars Stuart Townsend as a stranger who takes over an Irish family. Frances O'Connor and Kate Hudson are in the cast.

"Company Man." Satire about an early-1960s Connecticut grammar-school teacher who accidentally becomes an international espionage hero. Sigourney Weaver, Doug McGrath, Denis Leary, Ryan Phillippe and Alan Cumming are in the cast. McGrath co-directed it with Peter Askin.

"Le Cercle Rouge." Reissue of Jean-Pierre Melville's 1970 thriller about an ex-con and an escaped murderer who join forces on a jewel heist. Alain Delon stars.

"The Center of the World." Wayne Wang and Paul Auster's erotic drama about a young computer wizard (Peter Sarsgaard from "Boys Don't Cry") who persuades a stripper (Molly Parker) to spend three days with him in Las Vegas.

"Town and Country." Originally set for a release more than a year ago, this troubled Warren Beatty/Diane Keaton romantic comedy could appear anytime. Goldie Hawn and Garry Shandling co-star.

"Daddy and Them." Billy Bob Thornton wrote, directed and stars in this much-delayed tale of a family reunion in Little Rock, Ark. Thornton and Laura Dern play a passionate couple (the movie was made before he split with Dern and married Angelina Jolie), and Diane Ladd (Dern's real-life mother) is her mother. The late Jim Varney is his troubled uncle, and the supporting cast includes Andy Griffith, Brenda Blethyn, Jamie Lee Curtis and Ben Affleck.

"O." Playwright Tim Blake Nelson, who won a Seattle International Film Festival prize for his film-directing debut, "Eye of God," returns with this update of Shakespeare's "Othello," starring Mekhi Phifer as a basketball star, Josh Hartnett in the Iago role and Julia Stiles (who recently played Ophelia to Ethan Hawke's Hamlet) as Desdemona.

"My First Mister." Christine Lahti, who won an Academy Award for directing a short subject several years ago, directed this feature film about a rebellious teenager (Leelee Sobieski) and a repressed older man (Albert Brooks).

"The Old Man and the Sea." After more than a quarter of a century of existence, IMAX finally won an Oscar for this animated version of Hemingway's story. So far, it hasn't had a local booking. Ditto for several other IMAX movies that are doing solid business in other cities.

"The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me." Tim Kirkman, director of the documentary, "Dear Jesse," made this adaptation of David Drake's monologue, in which Drake recreates his account of growing up gay after the Stonewall uprising.

"It's the Rage." Shown on cable earlier this year, Jim Stern's film of Keith Reddin's play stars Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels, Gary Sinise, Anna Paquin, Robert Forster and David Schwimmer. It recently had a New York theatrical run.

"Time Regained." Raul Ruiz's lengthy tale of the dying Marcel Proust, played by Marcello Mazzarella. Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Beart and Vincent Perez are in the cast.

"Simon Magus." Ian Holm plays the devil in Ben Hopkins' romantic fantasy, set in 19th-century Europe and co-starring Rutger Hauer as a poet and Noah Taylor as a visionary outcast.

"Faithless." Liv Ullmann directed this Ingmar Bergman script, starring Lena Endre as a successful stage actress who destroys her marriage when she has an affair with her husband's reckless friend (Krister Henriksson).

"Buddy Boy." Aiden Gillen, the bad boy of "Queer as Folk," plays a voyeuristic stutterer who lives with his invalid mother (Susan Tyrrell) in Mark Hanlon's character study.

"Birthday Girl." Nicole Kidman plays a Russian mail-order bride who unexpectedly brings her family with her. Ben Chaplin is her co-star.

"The Wisdom of Crocodiles." Jude Law plays a seductive man who appears to have everything; Elina Lowensohn is the moody, uncommitted new woman in his life. Timothy Spall and Jack Davenport play the detectives who investigate the disappearance of his latest conquest.

"Chain of Fools." Steve Zahn plays the world's worst barber, evicted by his landlord, dumped by his wife (Lara Flynn Boyle) and threatened by a customer (Jeff Goldblum) in this Warner Bros. release. It was directed by the Swedish commercial directing collective, Traktor.