Among 2008’s expected highlights are (clockwise from above) Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet reunited in “Revolutionary Road,” Tom Cruise as a Nazi in “Valkyrie,” Meryl Streep as a singing mom in “Mamma Mia!”
and matronly nun in “Doubt,” and
Angelina Jolie in “The Changeling.”
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are reunited for the first time since “Titanic.” Brad Pitt is a man who ages backward. Benicio Del Toro portrays Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara in one or possibly two films.
These stars and their newest flicks are already some of the heavy favorites for next year’s Oscars – even before the red carpet at the Kodak Theatre has been rolled up.
Predicting Oscars so far in advance is a tricky pursuit. A year ago, “Juno” was an obscure teen comedy listed as a 2008 release. “The Golden Compass” looked like the next “The Lord of the Rings” on paper, but eventually bombed with critics and moviegoers.
The star of “Compass,” past Best Actress winner Nicole Kidman, will give it another try by reuniting with her “Moulin Rouge” director, Baz Luhrmann, for “Australia,” an epic World War II romance co-starring Hugh Jackman.
That’s assuming “Australia,” scheduled for release in December, actually arrives in theaters before year’s end.
A year ago, the list of hopefuls included the film with Del Toro, then called “Che” and now known as “Guerrilla” and set in 1964 New York City.
It still doesn’t have an official release date, nor does “The Argentine,” a companion piece set in 1956 Cuba – also starring Del Toro as Guevara. Both have wrapped production under the direction of previous winner Steven Soderbergh, which makes them automatic Oscar bait.
More certain is the December release of “Revolutionary Road,” a marital drama set in 1950s Connecticut starring DiCaprio and five-time nominee Winslet.
It is directed by Winslet’s hubby, Sam Mendes, who won an Oscar for his last examination of suburban angst, “American Beauty.”
Another Oscar favorite, Cate Blanchett, is cast opposite Pitt, the man who regresses to childhood in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” from his “Fight Club” director, David Fincher. This one has major literary cachet, being adapted from an obscure short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Oscar speculation at this point is based largely on past performance, so there is much interest in the latest film from Clint Eastwood, who has directed two Best Picture winners. Angelina Jolie, who has her own Oscar, stars in “The Changeling” as the mother of an abducted child in this drama set in the 1930s.
Here are some other titles being touted as Oscar contenders for a year from now:
* Two-time nominee Tom Cruise tries to regain Oscar cred as a real-life Nazi colonel who led an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in “Valkyrie,” directed by Bryan Singer of “Superman Returns.”
* Two-time winner and 14-time nominee Meryl Streep demonstrates her versatility by singing in the year’s big adaptation of a Broadway smash, the ABBA musical, “Mamma Mia!” Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan co-star.
* Did we say versatility? Streep stars in “Doubt,” with John Patrick Shanley directing the screen adaptation of his play about a nun (Streep) who suspects a popular priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) of molesting a boy at a Catholic school.
* Past winner Sean Penn stars as Harvey Milk, the openly gay San Francisco official who was assassinated in the 1970s, in the long-planned “Milk.” Director Gus Van Sant, nominated for “Good Will Hunting,” has assembled a strong cast that includes Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch and James Franco.
* Frank Langella, of “Starting Out in the Evening,” plays the ousted president in Ron Howard’s “Frost/Nixon,” a film version of the actor’s Broadway triumph that reunites him with his co-star in the play, Michael Sheen, of “The Queen.”
* Oscar loves Holocaust films, and “Defiance” stars Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell as Jewish brothers who escape from Nazi-occupied Poland to join up with Russian forces.
* Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott, who struck Oscar gold with “Gladiator” but were less successful with “American Gangster,” go back to the well with “Body of Lies,” also starring DiCaprio as a former journalist who teams up with Crowe’s CIA official to track down an al Qaeda leader in Jordan.
* Finally, it’s Oscar déjà vu. George Clooney reunites with Pitt and directors Joel and Ethan Coen for yet more CIA shenanigans in “Burn After Reading”
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