  Nicole Kidman and Dakota Blue Richards star in "The Golden Compass."
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For once, something that pro-war and anti-war forces can agree on. They don't want to see movies about Iraq.
Or Afghanistan.
Or even war, unless it happens in space and people have lasers and clones and robots.
And the Middle East? Forget it.
In the Valley of Elah, Rendition, even the action-heavy The Kingdom have all underperformed at the box office -- sobering news for Lions for Lambs, the war-on-terror-themed Tom Cruise and Robert Redford collaboration that opens Friday, as well as for an industry starved for a blockbuster.
The past two months, packed with prestigious star vehicles and aspiring Oscar contenders, have produced a paucity of hits: among them, the decidedly non-prestigious The Game Plan and the inept Saw IV.
The riveting Michael Clayton with George Clooney? Brad Pitt's majestic The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford? Ang Lee's erotic Lust/Caution? None registered with audiences, who will only have themselves to blame in future years if sombre, weighty dramas fall by the wayside in favour of The Game Plan 3.
After a commercially bleak fall, and potential labour strife in the year ahead, can the Christmas season bring Hollywood executives some cheer?
The coming weekend might mark a turning point. Two heavily-hyped productions -- American Gangster and Bee Movie -- are expected to play broadly, potentially propelling the box office to record-breaking heights. That's doubly important for Gangster which, like The Departed last year, hopes to generate enough Oscar momentum to join such hopefuls as Atonement, Gone Baby Gone, Sean Penn's Into The Wild and the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men in potential awards contention.
The following is a rundown of the 10 movies upon which, perhaps, most hopes are pinned -- from special effects extravaganzas, to edgy and obvious best-picture wannabes.
If you don't care for them? Well there's always next Christmas, which will be stuffed with such franchise entries as a new Harry Potter, a new James Bond, The Da Vinci Code followup Angels and Demons, and a new Star Trek. None of which, presumably, will be set in Iraq.
THERE WILL BE BLOOD
(Jan. 4)
Blood, sure, but will there be Academy Awards? That's the question for this enigmatic wild card, which opens for an Oscar-qualifying run in New York and L.A. at the end of December. Daniel Day-Lewis -- is it too early to declare him a certainty for the best-actor category? -- stars as Daniel Plainview, a rugged, ruthless oil prospector at the turn of the 20th century with an unquenchable thirst for crude. When he tries to swindle oil-rich land out from under some religious rubes, though, the story reveals an epic reach that encompasses faith, corruption, greed and even the unraveling of the then-young American dream. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia), who adapted Uptown Sinclair's novel Oil!, this epic could be the movie -- and, in Day-Lewis' case, the performance -- of the year.
THE GOLDEN COMPASS
(Dec. 7)
The Hobbit? Who needs The Hobbit? New Line made a not-so-subtle nod to its Lord of the Rings cash-cow when it featured said ring in the teaser trailer for this attempt at a fresh fantasy franchise. And, indeed, all the spectacularly lavish trappings are here: extraordinary parallel universes, wondrous creatures (a warrior polar bear, for one), scheming evil-doers (Nicole Kidman as a willowy wicked witch) and a child (Dakota Blue Richards) who holds the key to survival. New Line has pumped about $200 million into this film, directed by blockbuster newcomer Chris Weitz (About A Boy), which might, in turn, hold the key to New Line's financial future. Golden Compass already has infuriated the religious right, because Philip Pullman's source material casts the Roman Catholic Church as the antagonists. The moviemakers, perhaps wary of overtly offending millions of potential consumers, have reportedly played down the theological overtones; the villains now are said to be anonymously non-Catholic.
CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR
(Dec. 25)
Now that filmgoers have overwhelmingly sent the message they don't want to think about the Middle East, are they ready to laugh about it? Or at least snigger? That would be the hope, presumably, keeping this big-budget political comedy afloat. (Because when I hear "big-budget political comedy" I think "massive box office.") Tom Hanks, paired here with a brittle-looking Julia Roberts, stars as real-life U.S. Senator Wilson, a boozing, hard-living horndog who, in the early 1980s, led a one-man campaign to supply aid and weapons to Afghanistan freedom fighters locked in combat with the invading Soviets. Of course, decades later, the U.S. and its allies would be fighting the Taliban, who those freedom fighters gave rise to -- I love the smell of dramatic irony in the morning. A history lesson on Afghan mujahideen funding is not exactly holiday fare. Then again, who better to make it at least entertaining than director Mike Nichols and writer Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, A Few Good Men)?
JUNO
(Dec. 14)
This sharp, much-lauded comedy from second-time feature filmmaker Jason Reitman (son of Ivan, as well as helmer of Thank You For Smoking) might be the breakout of the holiday season. It could also materialize as this year's Oscar underdog, at least for screenwriter Diablo Cody and Canadian star-on-the-rise Ellen Page. Page plays a teen who, upon becoming pregnant, seeks the perfect adoptive home for her unborn child. Enter Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman as the prospective parents. Bateman's Arrested Development co-star, Michael Cera -- whose career is red-hot these days after this summer's raunch-com Superbad -- plays the father of Page's baby.
I AM LEGEND
(Dec. 14)
After more than a decade languishing in development, this science-fiction thriller casts Will Smith as the lone survivor of a plague that has turned humans into cannibalistic mutants. The story is adapted from Richard Matheson's I Am Legend (also the basis for 1971's Charlton Heston-led The Omega Man). In Matheson's original the mutants were vampires, but this version is said to play down the traditional bloodsucking. If a $150-million apocalyptic opus seems a tad heavy, consider that Smith is, speaking of last men standing, possibly the only genuinely bankable star left in Hollywood. (On a side note, 10 years ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger was going to star in this for Alien director Ridley Scott.)
ENCHANTED
(Nov. 21)
Is Amy Adams, Oscar nominated for her performance in Junebug, the girl who can fill Julia Roberts' now-vacant glass slipper and become Hollywood's resident princess? Actresses declared "The Next Julia" are as populous as palm trees in California. Remember when Canadian Rachel McAdams was being anointed as this after Wedding Crashers? The more pressing concern is: Does Adams have the appeal to carry this cartoon-out-of-water comedy? Here she plays the role of a fairytale princess -- literally, as the first several minutes of the film are rendered in 2D animation -- who, after being victimized by a curle witch, is stranded in modern-day New York City. The trailer looks cute. So does Adams. Is that enough? We're going to guess it is.
ATONEMENT
(Dec. 7)
One of the few fall offerings to gain some traction with critics (at the Toronto filmfest in September) and, presumably, academy voters. This period drama, set in 1935, based on Ian McEwan's best-selling 2002 novel, concerns a blossoming romance between Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and Turner (James McAvoy), which is destroyed -- as are their lives -- by false accusations made by Cecilia's younger sister, Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan). Joe Wright, who last worked with Knightley in the acclaimed Pride and Prejudice, directs.
SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET
(Dec. 21)
Formerly flouncy Johnny Depp doffs the puffy pirate shirt of Capt. Jack Sparrow for black (hey, it's a Tim Burton movie) in this macabre musical adapted from the Stephen Sondheim's production. And yes, that means Depp sings as he stars as a man exacting blood-soaked revenge on those who wrongly imprisoned him. The supporting cast includes Helena Bonham Carter (Burton's wife), as meat-pie loving Mrs. Lovett, Alan Rickman as a corrupt judge and Borat's Sacha Baron Cohen as a flamboyant rival barber. Depp's vocals are said to be impressive, as is the Grand Guignol blood-letting he commits to celluloid.
THE MIST
(Nov. 23)
Frank Darabont, the most persuasive adaptor of all things Stephen King (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile), tackles King's terrifying tale of a group of smalltown strangers stranded in a grocery store when an ominous cloud seems to blot out the rest of the world. Thomas Jane and Andre Braugher star, but expect scene-stealing Marcia Gay Harden -- as a Bible-thumper whose religious zealotry turns murderous -- to emerge as the most monstrous creature.
NATIONAL TREASURE 2: BOOK OF SECRETS
(Dec. 21)
The 2004 original was superfluous, unremarkable and derivative of The Da Vinci Code. But hey, it made $173 million in North America, so producer Jerry Bruckheimer is bringing back Nicolas Cage as a treasure hunter/adventurer trying to unravel more arcane secrets of American history. Jon Voight reprises his role as Cage's father, while recent Oscar winner Helen Mirren joins the cast -- another example of Bruckheimer deftly casting fabulously gifted actors in fabulously profitable trash.
