Planning Ahead

NOVEMBER 7

ELF Jon Favreau’s Christmas-themed comedy has funnyman Will Ferrell livin’ large as Buddy, a misplaced human raised by Santa’s elves who’s on the hunt in the Big Apple for his real pop (James Caan). See story on page 49. (New Line)

IN MY SKIN Director, writer, and star Marina De Van explores the human psyche through the character of a research analyst who becomes obsessed with her body after an accident leaves her horribly scarred. (Wellspring)

JUST AN AMERICAN BOY An on-the-road documentary (from director Amos Poe) featuring country-music singer Steve Earle. Includes live performances and commentary on post-9/11 America from the antiwar entertainer’s Jerusalem tour. (Artemis Records)

LOVE ACTUALLY After having scripted the consummate romantic comedies Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Bridget Jones’s Diary, Richard Curtis makes his directorial debut with a comedy about…romance, of course. The star-studded ensemble making up the 10 varied story lines includes Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, and Laura Linney. (Universal)

NOVEMBER 12

MY ARCHITECT Director Nathaniel Kahn’s documentary retraces the footsteps of his famous father, Salk Institute architect Louis Kahn, from Bangladesh to Jerusalem, in an effort to understand him as artist and father. (New Yorker)

NOVEMBER 14

ANYTHING BUT LOVE In a tribute to ’50s-era musicals, Billie Golden (Isabel Rose) is a cabaret singer caught in a love triangle between a pensive piano player (Andrew McCarthy) and her high school sweetheart (Cameron Bancroft). (Samuel Goldwyn)

LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION That wascally wabbit and the rest of the gang are together again in a live-action flick costarring Jenna Elfman and Brendan Fraser. This time, Team Tune is on an adventure to reunite Fraser with his dad (Timothy Dalton). Joe Dante (Gremlins) directs. (Warner Bros.)

MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD Russell Crowe is swashbuckling Capt. Jack Aubrey in a high-seas adventure from director Peter Weir. See story on page 62. (Twentieth Century Fox)

TUPAC: RESURRECTION It seems not even death can stop rap star Tupac Shakur. Filmmaker Lauren Lazin has pieced together a portrait of the artist using interviews, journal entries, poetry, home movies, and never-before-seen concert footage. (Paramount)

NOVEMBER 19

THE MISSING Fresh off an Oscar for A Beautiful Mind, director Ron Howard shifts from ivy halls to the open plains of the late-19th-century Southwest, where a frontier woman (Cate Blanchett) reunites with her estranged father (Tommy Lee Jones) to rescue her kidnapped daughter (Evan Rachel Wood). See story on page 56. (Columbia)

NOVEMBER 21

THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS In Canadian director Denys Arcand’s drama — a Cannes prizewinner for Best Actress — a family separated by distance and differences must learn to overcome their dissension after they are brought together by a dying patriarch. (Miramax)