So Erik-with-a-k covered the coming comedies of 2009, Scott was all over the horror picks (though his inclusion of Race to Witch Mountain still boggles my mind), Eric-with-a-c nabbed the family-friendly fare, and Elisabeth went over the geek fodder that awaits. But while I respect their calendar years and made-up math alike, I've opted to divide my list of 2009's action and adventure flicks into four categories: Action Flicks I Couldn't Care More About, Action Flicks I Couldn't Care Less About, Action Flicks That I Hope Surprise Me, and Those Which Fell In Between. Enjoy!

Action Flicks I Couldn't Care More About: First and foremost -- Watchmen (March 6th). It's one hell of a graphic novel and looks to be one hell of an adaptation (with or without the Giant Blank), and come Fox or high water, it'll see the light of day soon enough. Then there's Public Enemies (July 1st), which has me sold on not the subject matter, but sheer pedigree: Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp and Christian Bale as '30s gangsters. (It doesn't hurt that the earliest word ranges from damn good to great.) On the skimpier side, I can only hope that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 17th) streamlines its source material as the previous one had, and I can only hope that Crank 2: High Voltage (April 17th) lives up/down to the depravity of its predecessor. There's one last action movie that I couldn't care more about because, well, I've already seen a version of it. The international cut of Taken (January 30th, though reportedly opening with some R-dodging trims) is about as brisk and butt-kicking as one might hope out of a man-on-a-mission kidnapping thriller, and if you disagree, I'll send Liam Neeson to change your mind.

Above: Johnny Depp as John Dillinger in Public Enemies, and Christian Bale as John Connor in Terminator: Salvation

To celebrate the new year, Entertainment Weekly has gone live with a gallery full of brand new photos from some of the hottest films in 2009. Among them we have the much-anticipated Michael Mann-directed Public Enemies, starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, more cool images from Terminator: Salvation, another first look at Where the Wild Things Are, the debut image from the Judd Apatow-produced Year One (directed by Harold Ramis), a duo of images from The Taking of Pelham 123 remake, another shot from Pixar's Up, Beyonce in Obsessed, Meryl Streep in Julie and Julia, a little somethin' from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, an image from The Ugly Truth, Angels & Demons, Watchmen, Jonas Brothers Concert Movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Land of the Lost ... and I believe that's it. Check out the first image from Year One below, then head after the jump for a few more -- while the rest can be found over at EW.


Year One - in theaters June 19
When a couple of lazy hunter-gatherers (Jack Black and Michael Cera) are banished from their primitive village, they set off on an epic journey through the ancient world.

Now before anyone gets too excited, keep in mind that when it comes to Dark Shadows on the big screen, nothing is ever a done deal. Over a year ago, the news surfaced that Johnny Depp and Tim Burton were putting their heads together to bring the 1960's TV series to the big screen. But, as we all know, a certain girl falling down a rabbit hole took priority. But, in a conversation with Yes Man producers, Richard D. Zanuck and David Heyman, Collider scored some news about the adaptation via 'Hollywood Royal', Mr. Zanuck. According to him, "Dark Shadows is going to be Tim's next project after Alice in Wonderland and they'll be shooting it next summer in London".

For those of you who might not remember the campy awesomeness that was Dark Shadows, here is a little primer: Shadows premiered back in 1966 and was considered a 'Gothic soap' that made the leap into the supernatural a few months into its run by adding werewolves, ghosts, zombies, and various other monsters, and most importantly, a vampire by the name of Barnabas Collins. Numerous TV revivals of the series and feature film adaptations have been attempted, but none have ever lasted despite the strong fan base for the 40-plus year old soap.

Both Depp and Burton are avowed Shadows fans, so it makes perfect sense that the duo would be reluctant to let the project fall by the wayside in spite of the delay. But, it is going to be no easy task to bring the soap onto the big screen, even with two die hard fans like Depp and Burton behind the wheel.

Sound off below and tell us if you would like to see Dark Shadows on the big screen...

So you remember those rumors a few weeks back that Russell Brand was signing up as Johnny Depp's 'heir apparent' in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise? Well, it looks like Brand might be playing a charming drunk, but it's not going to be as part of the Sparrow clan. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Brand has started putting together a remake of the 1981 Dudley Moore comedy, Arthur, for Warner Brothers (with an eye of making it a starring vehicle).

The original starred Moore as a boozy playboy who will only inherit his massive fortune on the condition that he marries an heiress selected by his family. When he falls for Liza Minnelli (in the form of a working class woman) he turns to his valet (John Gielgud) for help when forced to choose between money and love.

After making a splash in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Brand started lining up plenty of projects for 2009, including, Bedtime Stories, Julie Taymor's The Tempest, and Get Him to the Greek (which reunites him with the Sarah Marshall crew). The timing really could not be better for Brand to take a little vacation stateside since he seems to be having a tough time in his native land.

When Arthur was first released, the film was a bit hit, and snagged Oscars for Supporting Actor and original music. But, I would be willing to guess that a lot of Brand's fans weren't born when the original was released and won't know the difference. Although, for me, the only true love able drunk on the big screen is Nick Charles..if anyone can make this remake work, it's Brand.

We've seen a few photos from the set, but Empire has snagged the first official images from Michael Mann's Public Enemies, starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in what has to be one of the most anticipated on-screen match-ups of 2009. In the flick, which is based on the book by Bryan Burrough, Bale will portray FBI agent Melvin Purvis, who, under the guidance of J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup), waged a full-on war against the country's most notorious (and successful) criminals -- namely John Dillinger (Depp), Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum) and Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham). It's a pretty wild true story, and one Mann and his cast should have a ball with. Check out an image of Bale after the jump, and the full images in this month's issue of Empire Magazine.

Public Enemies hits theaters on July 1, 2009.

At the request of the studio, we have removed this photo.



An image of Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland has arrived online via something called Fangirl Magazine, and my initial feelings are that it's a fake -- something some fan doctored-up in an attempt to have a little fun with the online community. Also, since Depp's Mad Hatter will most likely be presented to us in motion capture, this image (if real) would have to either be concept art or, perhaps, a painting of the character that may or may not show up in the background of a scene. It is quite creepy, though, the way he clutches that rabbit -- and so if this is fan made, kudos to its creator. That said, I'd expect the final version to have a little more color ... but it probably won't be too far off from this. Here are two real images from the set. What do you think?

Check out a larger version of the above image in the gallery below alongside a few other versions of the classic character for comparison.

Back when I was in London, word had it Tim Burton was in pre-production on his Alice in Wonderland -- but it seems the director has begun shooting some of his live-action scenes for the film, and a bunch of spy photos featuring Mia Wasikowska (Alice) have arrived online via INF. The images also include shots of Burton's main squeeze Helena Bonham Carter whose baby is all dressed up in period garb ... preparing for a cameo, perhaps? Of course, Johnny Depp was just officially announced as the Mad Hatter, and the final product will be a mix of live action and motion-capture animation. One imagines the scenes featuring Alice before she arrives in Wonderland (ie: these two photos) will be shot in live action, with the majority of the Wonderland stuff all in motion-capture. Oooh, this flick is gonna be freaky ...



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[via Slashfilm]

With the success of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, it was pretty much inevitable that more would come our way. But it wasn't all signed, dotted, and crossed until now. Variety reports that Johnny Depp has finally signed on for a fourth film. I can only hope that this time around, he gets the passion and the girl. Or at the very least, I hope she doesn't pick a bland dude who lacks charisma and chemistry instead. Ick.

But that's not all, folks! Depp, with a big ol' soft spot for iconic roles lately, has signed on for one more (two if you count Mad Hatter in Burton's Alice in Wonderland). As briefly reported yesterday, he's also going to play Tonto as part of Jerry Bruckheimer's adaptation of The Lone Ranger. The man must like his Bruck. I'm glad he's part Cherokee so there's more basis to this pick than just "Holy crap Depp is awesome and brings in big money!" But that leaves a pressing question:

We still don't have the Lone dude himself. Is there an actor out there who would make a good Lone Ranger, AND be able to fight his way out of Depp's talented shadow? Weigh in below!

Johnny Depp never forgets his director friends. According to Variety, he's teaming up again with his Pirates of the Caribbean main man, Gore Verbinski, for Paramount's animated feature Rango. The movie will realize the dreams of thousands (nay, millions) of women worldwide as it casts Depp in the role of household pet. He'll go on an adventure to discover his true self -- which, I think, involves discovering he is Johnny Depp, commander of women.

Verbinski cooked up the story himself, but gave the writing job to John Logan. He will direct the movie as a nice relaxing break from adapting Bioshock. Some of us do yoga, some of us direct Paramounts "most ambitious star-driven entry into animation."
The effects will be handled by ILM, who did such brilliant work on Pirates' Davy Jones. According to Verbinski himself, Rango will be using top-notch CG techniques "that will allow us to capture and translate every aspect of Johnny's performance, using it to drive the computer-generated character in a way that has yet to be seen in an animated feature." This sounds kind of terrifying to me -- Depp's household pet is left unspecified in the article, and I now have a vision of a dog or a turtle with Depp's face. Or they are going the Angelina Jolie / Beowulf route.

All joking aside, I do think another Depp and Verbinski pair-up can only yield good results -- and it will be fun to see (hear?) Depp do more voice work. The movie starts production this January, and is slated for a March 2011 release.

What can we say -- it's MTV hour here on Cinematical. While grabbing any and every actor ever involved in a superhero film during the Toronto International Film Festival, MTV managed to get a kinda sorta confirmation from Michael Caine that both Johnny Depp and Philip Seymour Hoffman were being considered for the roles of Riddler and Penguin in the next Batman movie. I know, we've gone over this already -- they're just rumors -- but according to Caine, a Warner Bros. executive backed it all up.

Here's what he told MTV: "I was with [a Warner Bros.] executive and I said, 'Are we going to make another one?' They said yeah. I said, 'How the hell are we going to top Heath? And he says 'I'll tell you how you top Heath - Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin.' I said, 'S–t, they've done it again!'"

Of course, said exec could be talking hypothetically, in a "We top Heath by bringing on two more A-listers to play two popular villains" sorta way. Seeing as there's no script and no deal for Christopher Nolan (yet), I'm pretty sure they're not at the stage where offers are going out. But it is reassuring to see the studio listening to the fans and actively pursuing a way to "top Heath" -- know what I mean? Then again, maybe both Depp and Hoffman know more than they're letting on ...

Whaddya think?