Fall movie preview: what's headed for the multiplex this fall

Besides "W." and "Milk," here's a look at some other films of interest headed for Seattle-area theaters through Thanksgiving; note that release dates are tentative and can change faster than you can say, "Where's Harry Potter?" (For the record, the new Harry Potter movie has moved to summer 2009. Feel free to mutter your favorite Bad-Word-Equivalent Charm here.)

The franchises

Call it the Most Awesome Movie Ever, or the end of civilization as we know it: "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" bops onto movie screens everywhere Oct. 24. Expect middle schools to report sparse attendance that day. James Bond (aka Daniel Craig) returns for another shaken-not-stirred adventure, "Quantum of Solace" (Nov. 14), this time pitted against bad guy Mathieu Amalric ("The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"), and no, I don't understand the title either.

Jason Statham stars in "Transporter 3" (Nov. 26), still specializing in non-obstetrical "high-risk deliveries." And a book franchise makes its screen debut: "Twilight," based on the first novel of the popular girl-meets-vampire series by Stephenie Meyer, comes to theaters Nov. 21. Kristen Stewart plays the girl; Robert Pattinson (last seen as Cedric Diggory in the "Harry Potter" movies) is the vamp.

The Oscar bait

Summer is over, and awards season gets under way — just like that. Joel and Ethan Coen, Oscar winners this year with "No Country for Old Men," return with "Burn After Reading" (Sept. 12), a comedy about a CIA agent's memoirs, starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney. Clint Eastwood, always an Oscar force, directs "Changeling" (Oct. 24), a 1920s drama with Angelina Jolie as the mother of a missing child. Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman do the epic romance thing in "Australia" (Nov. 14), directed by Baz Luhrmann ("Moulin Rouge"); Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Danny Glover face a mysterious epidemic in the drama "Blindness" (Oct. 3), directed by Fernando Meirelles ("The Constant Gardener").

Charlize Theron and Viggo Mortensen star in "The Road" (Nov. 21), based on the apocalyptic Cormac McCarthy novel. Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes don 18th-century garb — and look fetching, no doubt — for "The Duchess" (Sept. 26). Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson joins Dakota Fanning and Queen Latifah for "The Secret Life of Bees" (Oct. 17), based on Sue Monk Kidd's popular novel.

Spike Lee directs the World War II drama "Miracle at St. Anna" (Sept. 26), while Joe Wright ("Atonement") directs Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. in "The Soloist" (Nov. 21), about the friendship between a homeless musician and a journalist. And, should all of this sound a bit dour, there's always "Happy-Go-Lucky" (Oct. 17), a comedy about a very cheery teacher, directed by frequent Oscar nominee Mike Leigh ("Vera Drake," "Topsy-Turvy").

The remakes

Many years in the making, "The Women" (Sept. 12) is finally in theaters; based on the Clare Boothe Luce play and the 1939 George Cukor film, it stars Meg Ryan as a woman with a cheating husband and Annette Bening as her scheming best pal. (No men are in this movie, and if you have a problem with that, go count the women in "Tropic Thunder.") On the testosterone side, Nicolas Cage stars in the remake of "Bangkok Dangerous" (Sept. 5), based on the 1999 tale of a Bangkok hit man, directed by the Pang Brothers.

The comedies

An ensemble cast featuring Gillian Anderson, Kirsten Dunst and Simon Pegg stars in "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" (Oct. 3), based on Toby Young's comic memoir. Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott (you know, that guy who looks like a young Jim Carrey) join a Big Brother program in "Role Models" (Nov. 7). Robert De Niro plays a producer desperate to get a movie made in the Hollywood satire "What Just Happened?" (Oct. 3), co-starring Bruce Willis and Stanley Tucci. Alfre Woodard and Kathy Bates play a pair of friends and matriarchs in "Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys" (Sept. 12), and Drew Barrymore, Salma Hayek, Andy Garcia and George Lopez voice some pampered pooches in "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" (Oct. 3.)

And one of the season's biggest comedies just got very sad: The very funny Bernie Mac, who starred with Samuel L. Jackson in "Soul Men," died earlier this month at just 50. Let's hope the film, in theaters Nov. 14, will be a worthy tribute to him.

The horror

A TV reporter and camera operator capture strange images during a mysterious quarantine; this movie is called, natch, "Quarantine" (Oct. 10). And it just wouldn't be fall without another ultra-violent "Saw" flick, would it? "Saw V," no doubt crammed-full of serial-killer gore and creative methods of torture, opens Oct. 24.

The ones where people chase things

If you like dramas in which cops chase down bad guys, here are two featuring NYPD's finest: "Righteous Kill" (Sept. 12), with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, and "Pride & Glory" (Oct. 24), starring Edward Norton and Colin Farrell. Neil LaBute's "Lakeview Terrace" (Sept. 19) plays with the formula a bit: Samuel L. Jackson, as an LAPD cop, takes aim against his neighbors (Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington).

Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe continue their long partnership in "Body of Lies" (Oct. 10), a CIA thriller also starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan chase down a potential assassination in "Eagle Eye" (Sept. 26). Guy Ritchie, aka Mr. Madonna, directs "Rocknrolla" (Oct. 31), in which art thieves chase shady London underworld types, or maybe the other way around. The always-fabulous Tom Wilkinson, whom I'd never bet against in a chase, and Gerard Butler co-star. And Mark Wahlberg plays a DEA agent on the run in "Max Payne" (Oct. 17), alongside Mila Kunis and Beau Bridges.

The ones where people throw things

Not too many sports movies this fall; perhaps we're all too Olympic-ed out. Would somebody please make a movie about the shadowy world of synchronized diving? Anyway, "The Express" (Oct. 10) features Rob Brown as Ernie Davis, the first black football player to win the Heisman Trophy; Dennis Quaid is his tough coach. And "Morning Light" (Oct. 17) follows a crew of sailors on an open-sea sailing competition. (OK, so they don't throw anything but maybe their cookies; I'm just trying to fill out the category.)

The kid stuff

Other than "High School Musical 3" (see above), kids should be flocking to "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" (Nov. 7), the animated comedy in which a gang of New York Zoo creatures heads overseas. "Bolt" (Nov. 21) features the voices of John Travolta and Miley Cyrus in an animated tale of a dog who stars in an action TV show. "City of Ember" (Oct. 10) is a family-friendly fantasy adventure based on the book by Jeanne Duprau and starring Saoirse Ronan, the talented and impossible-to-pronounce young star of "Atonement." And, for kids who like their animation with a few monsters mixed in, "Igor" (Sept. 19) is the promising-sounding tale of a hunchback lab assistant determined to win the Evil Science Fair. Awww.

The relationships

Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn play a married couple struggling to visit all four divorced parents over the holidays in "Four Christmases" (Nov. 26); Diane Lane and Richard Gere get romantic in "Nights in Rodanthe" (Sept. 26), based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks. Ricky Gervais falls for recent widow Téa Leoni in "Ghost Town" (Sept. 19); only problem is that her late husband (Greg Kinnear) is still hanging around.

Is "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" (Oct. 3) an erratically spelled homage to "The Thin Man"? Probably not; word is it's about a teenage musician who desperately needs a new girlfriend. And finally, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" (Oct. 31) is about exactly what it sounds like — but it's directed by Kevin Smith ("Clerks"), and isn't really a porno.

The documentaries

Nonfiction films on a variety of topics will grace the arthouses this fall: gay Muslims ("A Jihad for Love," Sept. 5); the 2004 presidential election ("Stealing America: Vote by Vote," Sept. 19); the careers of blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo ("Trumbo," Sept. 12), artist Keith Haring ("The Universe of Keith Haring," Sept. 19) and publisher Barney Rosset ("Obscene: A Portrait of Barney Rosset and Grove Press," Nov. 21); the global issue of child slavery ("Call + Response," Oct. 10); the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina ("Trouble the Water," Oct. 17); and Bill Maher's take on the state of world religion ("Religulous," Oct. 3).

The ones you missed at SIFF

"Battle in Seattle," the not-quite-filmed-here drama about the WTO riots, opened the Seattle International Film Festival earlier this year. It opens for a regular run Sept. 19. Alan Ball's controversial "Towelhead" (Sept. 19) is about a young Arab-American girl's sexual obsession with an older man; Clark Gregg's "Choke" (Sept. 26), based on Chuck Palahniuk's novel, stars Sam Rockwell as a con man.

The lovely Ludivine Sagnier ("Swimming Pool") plays a TV weather girl torn between two men in Claude Chabrol's "A Girl Cut in Two" (Oct. 3). "The Unknown Woman" (Oct. 24), from Giuseppe Tornatore ("Cinema Paradiso"), is a suspenseful story of a Ukrainian woman haunted by her past. A young hermaphrodite struggles with sexual identity in the Argentine drama "XXY" (Sept. 26), and Jamie Bell ("Billy Elliott") plays a teenage oddball in "Mister Foe" (Sept. 12).

The western

Because westerns never die. Ed Harris, who hasn't directed a film since his 2000 debut "Pollock," has assembled a strong cast for "Appaloosa" (Oct. 3): Viggo Mortensen, Renée Zellweger, Jeremy Irons and himself. And, presumably, a lot of horses.

The festivals

Always a pleasure, the Port Townsend Film Festival (www.ptfilmfest.com) unspools Sept. 26-28 with special guest Piper Laurie ("Carrie," "The Hustler") and an unprecedented number of world-premiere films. The 13th annual Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (www.seattlequeerfilm.com), one of the largest local festivals, will take place Oct. 17-26 at several venues. And Northwest Film Forum's annual Local Sightings festival (www.nwfilmforum.org), showcasing the work of Northwest filmmakers, will take place Oct. 3-8.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com