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Item published by Phit on 1st February. 2 Comments.

2010 has been accused of being the movie year of 2008.

The writer strike, the current economy, timing bids for Oscar nominations, and studio setbacks led to a lot of schedule bumps in Hollywood. Movies like Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (Leonardo DiCaprio), the vampire thriller Daybreakers (Ethan Hawke, Willem DaFoe), and warzone film Green Zone (Matt Damon), are already years old, starting with filming back in 2008. But with an uptick in movie attendance during 2009, 2010 is here, and it's bringing along more than just delayed viewing fare. The new year looks plump with solid movie spectacle, and here's why we're excited:

The Last Airbender

Based on the popular Nickeloden cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender, Director M. Night Shyamalyn transitions the story into live-action and onto the big screen. The story takes place in a world divided by the four elements where each nation uses their one element in martial-arts forms to "bend" it into action - in both fighting and everyday activities. The film's protagonist, Aang is the Avatar, the hero who must learn to use all four elements in saving the world from an attack by the warring fire nation.

With a young cast and a younger audience appeal, this marks Shyamalan's first venture back to family-friendly film since a Writer credit on Stuart Little over a decade ago. With martial arts flare and a warring nation in the background, The Last Airbender is a markedly different movie from Shymalan's fame-earning 1999 The Sixth Sense. Introduced to the cartoon through his daughter, Shyamalan explained to MTV it was "The spirituality, the centering on relationships and family, on inherent optimism." that attracted him, and would be brought out in the film, rather than other expectations from the director: the Big Twist.

Despite accusations of "whitewashing" the asian-inspired cartoon's main characters, the film's initial teaser trialer looks smart: showing off the martial arts abilities of the young hero Aang and showcasing the SFX driven element "bending" in motion.

Production for the second in the three movie franchise is already underway.

Avatar: The Last Airbender
USA: 2 July, 2010
UK: 13 August, 2010

Alice in Wonderland

If it's possible to surmise that any filmmaker sees things through the looking glass, Director Tim Burton may be that man. Burton adds his unmistakable style and instantly recognizable cast to extend the film beyond the well-trodden plot of Lewis Carrol's classic tale and create something of a sequel. The new Alice returns to Wonderland to find old friends, and put an end to the reign of the Queen of Hearts, played by Helena Bonham Carter.

Between CGI, live actors, and imagination, Burton pulls together a film in which Helena Bonham Carter's adjusted head highly resembles a heart, yet manages to fit right in. An adjusted plot for well-known characters, fans of the well-known Disney movie will find this a brand new plot with much new potential for madness in Wonderland.

Directed by Tim Burton and starring Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover, Anne Hathaway and more, Alice in Wonderland will be appearing in regular format and Disney 3D.

Alice In Wonderland
USA: 5 March, 2010
UK: 5 March, 2010

ReBoot

Along with Avatar: The Last Airbender, ReBoot marks another nod to cartoons bringing up content for the movies. However, for ReBoot, "throwback" may be a more accurate term than "nod." Based on television's first venture into a full-length computer animated series, ReBoot unfolds in the city of Mainframe, where Binomes (robots) and human-like people live together with all appearances of mundane life - down to the corner diner. The hero of the series, Bob, the Guardian of Mainframe, steps in to win as "game cubes" drop from the sky, prompting games to start up that if not won, wreck havoc on the life forms accidentally trapped there by the cube's sudden appearance. Based largely around nods to early computer use, with villains the likes of Megabyte (a computer virus), and henchmen like Hack and Slash, the television series lasted a total of four seasons with more bad guys, computer games to win, and viruses to defeat for the safety of Mainframe.

The current appeal of ReBoot is something like seeing a covered dish - aside from the studio teaser, and despite a great fan base, most information has been kept hidden. Rainmaker Entertainment, the studio behind the original television series has been of late knee-deep in producing the world of animated Barbie DVD movies made to accompany the popular dolls. The straight-to-DVD studio past may be adjusting its future with the throwback movie, and despite the series cliffhanger ending, the movies will be based on the later comics, and the cliffhanger ending will be left...to hang.

Read the webcomics to catch up on the story, or check out the official 16 second teaser trailer below.

Reboot
USA: Unannounced
UK: Unannounced

The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Getting to the third Narnia movie, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, has been a rough trip. The first two movies in The Chronicles of Narnia were helmed by a partnership between Disney and Walden Media, adapted from the C.S. Lewis books. After soft figures on Prince Caspian, the VFX-heavy (and costly) epic follow-up to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Disney announced in late December, 2008 that it wouldn't be continuing with the franchise. However, Walden Media wasn't ready to quit on the franchise. Backed by a film crew passionate enough about the series to add all their names into the Treader's mast inscription, Walden Media was approached by 20th Century Fox, and a new partnership made head for it's maiden voyage into the Narnia world. With the film rights, Fox gained the previous cast, director, and available sets to continue the series with the - often considered most thrilling of the series - third Narnia installment, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

The Dawn Treader picks up with King Caspian and the Pevensie children - including their horrible cousin, Eustace - this time without the two elder Pevensie's, now too old to return to Narnia. Caspian and his crew are tasked by the lion Aslan with finding the missing Seven Lords of Narnia and set out in their ship the Dawn Treader. A fantastical journey through the epic landscapes of Narnia,  with dragons, dwarves, and a particularly opinionated talking mouse (that's Chief Mouse and valiant knight, of course), the available film clips show a flawless pickup by 20th Century Fox where Narnia was almost left adrift.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader
USA: 10 December, 2010
UK: 10 December, 2010

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

The visual stunner of medieval Persia takes its spot on the big screen with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Disney makes no secret of it's motivation attaching both the big name of Jerry Bruckheimer and the studio itself to the film - and the not entirely small hint in the trailer that it's the same production as Pirates of the Carribean - audiences know they want another Pirates franchise. Picking up a plot from the popular multi-platform consul series Prince of Persia, Disney may be tied at the hip to Alladin, but make no mistake as the film rockets toward more modern live-action thrills: intricate set builds, redemption and the fate of the world at stake, nonhuman bad guys, and plenty of sharp and deadly tools along the way.

Prince of Persia follows Dastan as he teams up with rival Princess Tamina to protect the Sands of Time, a powerful weapon that enables its user to travel backward through time.

With high quality production and an action-stamped pace, in speaking to the movie blog HeyUGuys, game creator Jordan Mechnar offered his own praise and insight into the game-to-film adaptation: "It's very much the kind of movie that inspired the original game and very true to that tradition. But, at the same time, it goes beyond it. It’s more epic [than] I could have imagined."

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
USA: 28 May, 2010
UK: 28 May, 2010

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Greek mythology made modern? Not just marble statues and museums, in Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Percy and his friends face off against accusations of almighty theft, mythical beasts, supernatural powers, and less godly but equally concerning - the kidnapping of Percy's mother.

A little mythological to mix up your mundane: the shadow-induced blue greys of promotional Percy items and trailers jump out like the Harry Potter posters. Director Christopher Columbus jumps out with the Harry Potter association. A plot riddled with magical powers and a young main character accompanied by his best friends - one male, one female - jumps out as Harry Potter.

Despite the obvious ease of comparing Percy with Harry, Director Chris Columbus assured Life & Times of the source material that "It is not like any other fantasy franchise that I’d seen recently," Percy Jackson is not Harry Potter. Percy discovers that he's the son of Poseidian - surprise, the Greek Gods are real! His troubles with dyslexia in school are actually less modern, as his real trouble is he's wired for Ancient Greek rather than Algebra. With friends at his side - one another demigod, the daughter of Athena - he must use his powers to halt accusations and godly warfare as Zeus's famed lightning bolt goes missing.

For a quick two minutes of pointless odd fun, check out the 20th Century Fox official site and "find your power." Taking the quiz gives you "godly" powers over the internet. My Medusa powers turn browser pages to stone (with a clever graphic overlay).

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
USA: 12 February, 2010
UK: 12 February, 2010

Iron Man 2

In 2008, Robert Downey Jr. proved to audiences what a great character actor was as he put on the suit and brought Tony Stark to life for Iron Man. Superhero movies waxed into their prime shortly after the success with Spiderman and brought some melancholic and mediocre "sort of" heroes to the big screen for some less than super-human entertainment and angsting straight out of a teen flick. Downey Jr. put the character and excitement of comic plots back into the genre so hard with Iron Man that you could hear the sound effect bubbles of glee while Marvel created a film worth its namesake. "Praiseworthy" was the main critic statement that came up from an actor with as rocky a past as Stark's own.

Iron Man 2 is a sequel to be excited over, if only to see the outrageous but still lovable billionaire Tony Stark back in play - and with the world onto his superhero side job, this time he'll be acting up for crowds, loving the attention, and unabashedly driven by the glory (okay, and the girl, and the greater good). Iron Man 2 will bring more character arcs to the foreground, and a second suit - another much lauded performance actor - Don Chedle as War Machine. Whiplash takes the role of villian this time around as Stark and his friends team up to take out the bag guy, save the world, do good, yada yada, and make a buck.

The phrase "wielding it like a kid with a potato gun," comes to mind when considering the previous Iron Man and Stark with his super suit. And who doesn't love seeing a gleeful billionaire kid waving around a multi-million dollar superpowered jet fueled "gun?"

With a straightforward title mashed into the year of drawn out movie titles, if Downey Jr. brings back the character audiences loved the first time around, we only expect the same straightforward audacity to bring out a great movie with Iron Man 2.

Iron Man 2
USA: 7 May, 2010
UK: 30 April, 2010

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I

With the Harry Potter movie franchise coming to an arc before the finale, Part I of Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows pulled out all the stops in fan access, opening up a 68-page set spread to Empire magazine in its February 2010 issue. Another no-stop zone to add, both halves of the final installment in the Potter franchise will get the 3D treatment. However, the ultimate open-treatment for fans may not be for everyone, as actor Daniel Radcliffe offered an open invitation back in 2009 to the Obama family for a set visit (President Obama's daughters are big fans of Potter). Sources are mixed on whether the invitation ever panned out.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, with Hogwarts under the growing power of the evil Lord Voldemort, Harry Potter, Ron Weasly, and Hermoine Granger are forced to drop out of school. To deal with the consequences of the growing evil, Harry and his friends must isolate themselves and seek out and destroy the three Horcruxes - dark power sources where Lord Voldemort stores away part of his soul to gain immortality.

While Harry Potter may be considered classic amidst the fantasy movie explosion, backed by Rowling's popular series and with continued public interest, even as the series actors are growing up and the movie franchise comes to a close next year, Hogwarts has more in store yet for 2010. Orlando's Universal Studios theme park opens up with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter later this year, inviting visitors to soar above Hogwarts with Harry before walking down to Ollivander's wand shop and finding more magic there.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I
USA: 19 November, 2010
UK: 19 November, 2010

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Snarky comments about sparkly vampires aside, Eclipse for 2010 is bound for box office success. Eclipse gives fans more of what they want: vampires, werewolves, and Bella, mixed together into a perfect storm culminating in what narrows down to the ultimate mindset of "Team Edward v. Team Jacob."

Eclipse brings Edward back home to Forks, Washington as he and Bella reunite - both losing their more morbid danger-seeking activities of New Moon. However, since Edward's leaving Forks, Bella has made room in her heart for another, the wolf pack's own Jacob Black. A revenge driven vampire seeks Bella's death as a way to destroy Edward, and vampire and wolf must break hatreds to unite for the one they both love.

An early script leak brought fans some initial flurry, and with filming completed alongside New Moon, the big question seems to be "how well will Eclipse follow the book that all the fans fell in love with?"

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
USA: 30 June, 2010
UK: 9 July, 2010

Tron Legacy

In Tron: Legacy, Disney harkens back to an original (Tron) and brings back the cast to set it off. The pull of the original Tron was the cutting edge technological focus, with films like the Matrix trilogy in between 1982 and 2010, can Tron: Legacy still pull off being ahead of the visual film game?

Set as a 3D release, Tron: Legacy follows 27 year old Kevin Flynn as he searches out his father's disappearance only to end up mixed into the same fate. Flynn's brilliant computer programmer father has been trapped for 25 years inside the technology he helped build, and despite being the father of the technology, the cyber universe has little in the way of child-like admiration. Father and son set out to escape the cyber universe through spectacular visual effects.

With a soundtrack driven by electronic music duo Daft Punk and entering into the visual arena 3D following James Cameron's Avatar, Tron: Legacy still got raving remarks from fans with the trailer release at 2009 Comic Con.

Tron: Legacy
USA: 17 December, 2010
UK: Unannounced

All told, 2010 is looking to be a big gamble year for studios. Twilight Saga and Harry Potter aside, the majority of 2010 blockbusters are franchise starters rather than sequels trying to squeeze out the next buck from the same excitement as the original. A good year for potential after a spectacular year for the Hollywood box office. 3D, IMAX, VFX, no matter the special add-ons, 2010 is taking full advantage of great source materials in the fiction and fantasy realm, and sending them to the big screen with - here's hoping - some big results and big enjoyment in store.

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