Film details on Tron 2, A Nightmare on Elm Street remake, A-Team, Beverly Hills Cop 4 and much much more

Below are details of more than 40 genre films that movie studios are moving forward with, despite current problems negotiating with SAG over a new contract for its actor-members. Variety published the original list, and I decided to add additional details on most of the projects, which consist of many of the largest films that will be released over the next three years, including numerous comic-based adaptations, horrors, thrillers and adventure movies. I also added some additional films that weren’t featured and gathered as much info on all of the projects that I could. Getting an overview of what’s ahead, we can see that Hollywood has gathered together a strong slate of projects to entertain is with. Hopefully SAG and the studios will work out their differences and these films will all be delivered on time.

Many big budget sequels, including Transformers 2, Night at the Museum 2 and Angels & Demons, are safely in production, although some of the following films will be pushed back, if there is indeed an actor’s strike.

COLUMBIA

• Zombieland (2010)
  Starring: Woody Harrelson
  Director: Ruben Fleischer
  In a world overrun by zombies, a guy described as “the most frightened person on Earth” looks to help find refuge for a band of survivors. 
• Edwin A. Salt (2010)
  Starring: Angelina Jolie
  Director: Phillip Noyce
  An espionage thriller that was to originally star Tom Cruise. The main character was switched to a woman, and Jolie was then attached to the project. I’m a big fan of Noyce, and I think he’ll do a solid job on the film – plus the content is in his wheelhouse, having helmed Clear and Present Danger, Patriot Games, and more recently Catch a Fire, all tight action thrillers.
• The Green Hornet (2010)
  Starring: Seth Rogen, Stephen Chow
  Director: Stephen Chow
  Seth Rogen is finishing up the script for the action comedy, based on the original masked crime fighter/newspaperman, and his kung-fu sidekick Kato (who usually stole the show in the 1960’s TV series starring Bruce Lee and Van Williams).

DIMENSION FILMS

• Sin City 3 (2011)
  Starring: Johnny Depp, Michael Clarke Duncan
  Directors: Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez
  On a dark night in Sin City, an ex-Navy SEAL named Wallace (Depp rumored) saves a young woman named Esther from killing herself, who is later kidnapped by a mysterious group.
• Devil’s Knot (2010)
• Short Circuit (2010)
  Remake of the 1986 John Badham film Short Circuit, where Number 5, one of a group of experimental military robots, develops self-awareness and consciousness after being struck by lightning.

DISNEY

• Alice in Wonderland (2010)
  Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Matt Lucas, Michael Sheen, Geraldine James
  Director: Tim Burton
  Based on the Lewis Carroll classic tale, with Mia Wasikowska as Alice, Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter and Matt Lucas as Tweedledee/Tweedledum.
• TR2N a.k.a. Tron Sequel (2010)
  Starring: Jeff Bridges, Karl Urban, John Hurt (unconfirmed)
  Director: Joseph Kosinski
  The long-in-development sequel will be shot entirely in stereoscopic 3D. CLICK HERE to watch a bootleg trailer from this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.
• Mars Needs Moms
  This film will be produced by Robert Zemeckis and uses advanced motion-capture film. It will be based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author Berkeley Breathed’s children’s book Mars Needs Moms, about a boy named Milo, who stows away on board a Martian ship, in order to save his kidnapped mother. 
• The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2009)
  Starring: Nicolas Cage
  Director: Jon Turteltaub
  A new version of the classic 1799 Johann Wolfgang Goethe poem, that focuses on a young apprentice to a powerful magician. 
• Wild Hogs 2 (2009)
  Director: Walt Becker
  Touchstone Pictures is producing this sequel to the 2007 surprise hit. No word yet on if the original cast will return for the new movie. 

FOX

• Avatar (December 18, 2009)
  Starring: Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana, Laz Alonso, Sam Worthington, Joel Moore, Stephen Lang, Wes Studi, CCH Pounder, Matt Gerald
  Director: James Cameron
  A band of humans are pitted in a battle against a distant planet’s indigenous population. 
• Date Night (2010)
  Starring: Steve Carell, Tina Fey
  Director: Shawn Levy
  Comedy that teams Carell and Fey on the big screen. 
• A-Team (June 12, 2009)
  Starring: Bruce Willis, Woody Harrelson, Ice Cube
  Director: John Singleton
  Based on the Stephen J. Cannell-created 1980’s TV series, the film follows a group of Iraq War veterans looking to clear their name with the U.S. military, who suspect the four men of committing a crime for which they were framed. 
• Ramona (2010)
  Director: Elizabeth Allen
  Based on the Ramona series of novels by author Beverly Cleary. Ramona Quimby lives on Klickitat Street. The stories of her adventures begin in Beezus and Ramona, and Beezus finds four-year-old Ramona an exasperating little sister.
• Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (November 13, 2009)
  Director: Chris Columbus
  Based on the book by Rick Riordon, the film is about Poseidon’s son at age 12, who sets out on a quest in present-day America to rescue his mother, return Zeus’ stolen lightning bolt and prevent a civil war from erupting among the gods. 
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010)
  The film is based on Jeff Kinney’s best-selling illustrated novel, which chronicles the exploits of a wise-cracking middle school student named Greg Heffley, over the course of an academic year.
• Town House (2009)
  Director: John Carney
  The story follows the son of a dead music legend, who manages to live as a recluse by slowly selling off his dad’s memorabilia. But he runs out of things to sell and is forced to sell the townhouse his father left him, and he comes to terms with himself and his role as a father to a teenage son. The film is based on a novel by Tish Cohen.
• Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 (2010)
• Orbit (2009)
  Director: Tom Bezucha
• Family Wedding
  Director: Rick Famuyiwa

MGM

• The Cabin in the Woods (2009)
  Director: Drew Goddard
  The script for this horror film was co-written by Goddard and Joss Whedon, and is described as an unusual take on the familiar cabin in the woods formula.
• Fame (September 25, 2009)
  Starring: Thomas Dekker, Kay Panabaker, Collins Pennie, Kherington Payne
  Director: Kevin Tancharoen
  A new version of the 1980 musical drama, which followed the travails of students at the New York Academy of Performing Arts. 
• The Matarese Circle (2010)
  Starring: Denzel Washington
  Director: David Cronenberg (in negotiations)
  An adaptation of a Robert Ludlum conspiracy thriller. 
• RoboCop (2010)
  Director: Darren Aronofsky
  David Self, who wrote the script for the upcoming Wolfman remake, is writing the screenplay for the RoboCop update, which follows a part man, part machine cop.
• Sin City 2 (2010)
  Starring: Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Clive Owen, Rose McGowan, Jaime King, Mickey Rourke, Antonio Banderas, Michael Clarke Duncan, Brittany Murphy, Michael Madsen, Devon Aoki, Danny Trejo, Powers Boothe
  Directors: Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez
  In the dark bowels of Sin City, Dwight plans his vengeance against Ava Lord, the woman who betrayed him, while Nancy trys to cope with Hartigan’s death.

MARVEL STUDIOS

• Iron Man 2 (May 7, 2010)
  Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard
  Director: Jon Favreau
  Continuing the events of the first film, with Terrence Howard possibly making the transition to the character War Machine.
• Thor (July 16, 2010)
  Director: Kenneth Branagh
  The Marvel comic adaptation is based on the character created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, a partially disabled medical student named Dr. Donald Blake, who discovers his unknown alter ego, the Norse warrior. 

MIRAMAX

• The Debt (2010)
  Starring: Helen Mirren
  Director: John Madden
  A Nazi war criminal is pursued by a group of agents who take the law into their own hands in order to bring him to justice. 
• Man on a Train
• Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (2011)

NEW LINE

• Torrente (2010)
  Remake of the Spanish movie franchise. 
• Sex and the City 2 (2011)
  Sequel to the HBO series-based movie, about the lives and friendships of four New York women.
• A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
  Director: Wesley Strick
  Remake of the film that introduced horror icon Freddy Krueger, the serial killer who wields a glove with embedded finger blades and kills people in their dreams, resulting in their deaths in reality. 
• Gears of War (2010)
  Director: Len Wiseman
  The film adaptation of the console game about mankind’s epic struggle for survival against the dominating Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the planet’s crust.

PARAMOUNT

• Footloose (2010)
  Starring: Zac Efron
  Director: Kenny Ortega
  Update of the 1984 Herbert Ross film that starred Kevin Bacon as a city boy who moves to a small town where rock music and dancing have been banned.
• The Last Airbender (2010)
  Director: M. Night Shyamalan
  The story follows the adventures of the successor to a long line of Avatars who must put aside his irresponsible ways and stop the Fire Nation from enslaving the Water, Earth and Air nations. 
• Morning Glory (2009)
  Director: Roger Michell
  Comedy which centers on a struggling female news producer and the iconic anchorman she recruits to revive a failing network morning show. 
• Beverly Hills Cop 4 (2010)
  Starring: Eddie Murphy
  Director: Brett Ratner
  Ratner and Murphy are also working The Incredible Shrinking Man remake together, which is also due out in 2010, so I am not sure if that project trumps this one, or if this film is indefinitely postponed. Eddie Murphy is attached to reprise his role as Detroit detective Axel Foley. The three original films grossed $712.9 million worldwide. The last one was released in 1994.
• Us & Them (2009)
• G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra (August 7, 2009)
  Starring: Dennis Quaid, Channing Tatum, Brendan Fraser, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Sienna Miller, Rachel Nichols, Christopher Eccleston, Marlon Wayans, Jonathan Pryce, Ray Park, Arnold Vosloo, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Saïd Taghmaoui, Karolina Kurkova, Byung-hun Lee
  Director: Stephen Sommers
  An elite military unit made up of special operatives known as G.I. Joe, operate out of “The Pit”, and take on an evil organization led by a notorious arms dealer. 

UNIVERSAL

• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2009)
  Starring: Michael Cera
  Director: Edgar Wright
  Scott Pilgrim must defeat his new girlfriend’s seven evil ex-boyfriends in order to win her heart. 
• Untitled Nancy Meyers comedy (December 25, 2009)
  Starring: Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin
  Director: Nancy Meyers
• Couples Retreat (2009)
  Starring: Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Faizon Love, Jon Favreau
  Director: Peter Billingsley
  The story follows four couples who go to a tropical island resort. While one couple is there to work on their marriage, the others are there to play but soon realize that participation in the couple’s therapy program is not optional. 
• BioShock (2010)
  Director: Gore Verbinski
  Upcoming game adaptation that unfolds as a the player barely survives a plane crash and lands in icy uncharted waters, only to discover an undersea city called Rapture, which is a failed utopia whose citizens had embraced genetic engineering before the city descended into pure anarchy. Power and greed have run amok and the city has succumbed to civil war.
• Get Him to the Greek (2009)
  Starring: Russell Brand, Jonah Hill, Katy Perry, Christina Aguilera, Pink, Dee Snider
  Director: Nicholas Stoller
  The upcoming comedy follows a fresh-out-of-college insurance adjuster who is hired to accompany an out-of-control British rock star to a concert at L.A.’s Greek Theater. 
• Nottingham (2009)
  Starring: Russell Crowe
  Director: Ridley Scott
  An update of the Robin Hood story, that focuses on a love triangle between Robin Hood, Maid Marian and the archer’s arch nemesis, the Sheriff of Nottingham.  

WARNER BROS.

• Human Factor (2009)
  Starring: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon
  Director: Clint Eastwood
  A look at life for Nelson Mandela after the fall of apartheid in South Africa during his first term as president when campaigned to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup event, as an chance to unite his countrymen. 
• Jonah Hex (2010)
  Directors: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor
  Bloody Disgusting posted a rumor yesterday, that Josh Brolin may play Jonah Hex in the adaptation of the DC Comic about a gunslinger known for having the right side of his face disfigured and wearing a Confederate army uniform, who was a part-time bounty hunter, whose adventures always ended in blood.
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part I in 2010 and Part II due in 2011)
  Starring: Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Rupert Grint, Bonnie Wright, David Thewlis, Jason Isaacs, Brendan Gleeson, Timothy Spall
  Director: David Yates
  The final, two-part installment in the franchise, which begins production in February of 2009.
• Book of Eli (January 15, 2010)
  Starring: Denzel Washington
  Directors: The Hughes Brothers
  The post-apocalyptic drama focuses on a future where America is a wasteland and a lone warrior (Washington) fights to bring society the knowledge (hence “book) that is key to its redemption. 
• Clash of the Titans (2010)
  Director: Louis Leterrier
  A remake of the 1981 mythical adventure about Perseus. To win the right to marry his love Andromeda and fulfill his destiny, he had to battle both Medusa and the Kraken monster in order to save the Princess. Special effects in the 1981 film were created by FX master Ray Harryhausen. 
• Suckerpunch (2010)
  Director: Zack Snyder