WE ARE coming up to December, which means there must be a Peter Jackson movie in the offing. And this year it is The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (employ suitably stentorious voice here).
Opening on December 13, the Hobbit sequel does more to expand the Lord of the Rings experience, drawing on characters from the appendices as well as The Hobbit book, which is really a slim little volume in comparison with the LOTR epics.
The first film was slow-paced, but beautiful to behold, so expect more of the same – and brace yourself for Benedict Cumberbatch overload. He voices the dragon in The Hobbit, plays Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate (which also opens on December 13) and of course he is the bad guy in the Star Trek sequel which has just came out on DVD. He will also be seen in August: Osage County (March 14) and, of course, the third season of Sherlock starts on BBC TV on January 19.
Thor 2 started cleaning up at the global box office last weekend. It’s the first Marvel film to do so that doesn’t star Iron Man, so the Norse God looks set to become a drawcard all on his own.
Ender’s Game dominated the US box office two weekends ago, but Thor 2 has eclipsed it and, with Hunger Games 2 about to start, Gavin Hood’s film may not claw its way up back up in North American territory.
The overseas marketing has emphasised Harrison Ford’s gruff teacher/ commander character at the expense of the Ender character played by Asa Butterfield, ignoring the character that made the book such a favourite. Directed by Hood, the sci-fi adventure may do well outside US territory and it starts here on December 6, just in time to catch the all-important young adult market.
The Hunger Games sequel, though, Catching Fire, is the biggie. Again starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss and the other Hemsworth brother, Liam, plus Josh Hutcherson, the film has been getting fairly strong reviews at selected previews. It opens on November 22. This bodes well for the other two films that will tell the story of the third book.
Children can look forward to time-travelling turkeys in Free Birds (December 6), a debut animation from effects company Reel FX and distributor Relativity Media, or Disney’s take on Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen fairy tale, Frozen (December 6).
In the absence of a Bond movie, adults are having to settle for some Christmas cheer in the form of Tyler Perry’s Madea Christmas (December 13) or Black Nativity (December 6), but these are aimed at lovers of slapstick comedy and inspiration, faith-based movies.
On the more action-driven side, 47 Ronin (December 27) is the movie martial arts-mad Keanu Reeves has been wanting to make for a while. The gorgeous imagery in the trailer hints at influences ranging from Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki to woodblock artist Katsushika Hokusai.
There are plenty of big names popping up on our circuit next month: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone team up for Escape Plan (December 13) while Woody Allen directs Cate Blanchett and Alec Baldwin in Blue Jasmine (December 20); and Ridley Scott tackles Cormac McCarthy’s screenplay in The Counselor (December 20), which stars Michael Fassbender, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz and Brad Pitt. Jon Turteltaub brings together Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Kevin Kline and Morgan Freeman in Last Vegas (December 20), while Kimberly Peirce directs Chloe Moretz in Carrie (January 3).