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DECEMBER 20: One of the most beloved books in all of children's literature, E.B. White's Charlotte's Web comes to the screen for a second time (following an animated 1973 version), this time in an FX-heavy, live-action rendition starring Dakota Fanning as the little girl who loves a pig named Wilbur and Julia Roberts providing the voice of the spider who saves the animal from being served up for supper. Others providing vocals for various animals include Robert Redford, Steve Buscemi, Jennifer Garner and Oprah Winfrey.
DECEMBER 22: Robert De Niro directs and costars in The Good Shepherd, a complex Cold War thriller about a spy (Matt Damon) involved with the CIA during its formative years ... It's Jurassic Park meets Discovery Place, as the comedy Night at the Museum focuses on a third-shift watchman (Ben Stiller) who learns that the creatures on display have a habit of coming alive after the sun goes down ... Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the boxing ring, along comes Rocky Balboa, the sixth installment in the 30-year-old series about a boxer (60-year-old Sylvester Stallone) who repeatedly goes the distance ... We Are Marshall tells the true story of a college -- and, in particular, one of its coaches (Matthew McConaughey) -- that tries to cope after a plane crash kills most of the members of its football team.
DECEMBER 25: A remake of the 1974 cult favorite, Black Christmas centers on a sorority house whose members are being bloodily dispatched one-by-one by a serial killer ... Dreamgirls, the screen version of the Broadway smash, is loosely based on the real-life story of Diana Ross and the Supremes, with Beyonce Knowles as the group's lead singer, Anika Noni Rose and American Idol loser Jennifer Hudson as the backups, Jamie Foxx as their sly manager and Eddie Murphy as a popular R&B singer.
LIMITED RELEASES: Anthony Minghella directs his former stars Jude Law (Cold Mountain, The Talented Mr. Ripley) and Juliette Binoche (The English Patient) in Breaking and Entering, in which an architect begins an affair with the mother of the boy who's been ransacking his office ... Candy stars Heath Ledger as a heroin-addicted writer who falls for an art student (Abbie Cornish, presently in A Good Year) ... Set in a bleak and barren future when women can no longer get pregnant, Children of Men stars Clive Owen and Julianne Moore as two activists who try to protect a young woman (Claire-Hope Ashitey) who learns that she is miraculously carrying a child inside her ... DOA: Dead or Alive, based on the popular video game, rips off the plot of Enter the Dragon with its storyline of several martial arts experts who are invited to compete in a secret tournament being held on a remote island ... The story of Edie Sedgwick (played by Siennna Miller), one of the superstars "created" by Andy Warhol (Guy Pearce), is related in Factory Girl ... Not to be confused with The Good Shepherd (see Dec. 22 above), Steven Soderbergh's The Good German stars George Clooney as an American journalist who gets involved in a labyrinthine mystery in post-World War II Berlin; Cate Blanchett and Tobey Maguire costar ... Eight British lads cope with various distractions -- including the groping hands of one of their teachers (Richard Griffiths) -- in the stage-to-screen saga The History Boys ... René Zellweger essays the title character in Miss Potter, a fanciful look at Peter Rabbit author Beatrix Potter; Ewan McGregor lends support ... A crafty teacher (Judi Dench) takes advantage of the fact that a married peer (Cate Blanchett) has engaged in an affair with an underage student in the drama Notes On a Scandal ... Based on the W. Somerset Maugham novel (and filmed before in 1934 with Greta Garbo), The Painted Veil centers on the tumultuous marriage between a workaholic doctor (Edward Norton) and his unfaithful wife (Naomi Watts) in 1920s China ... The innovative Guillermo del Toro (Mimic, The Devil's Backbone) is behind the Spanish import Pan's Labyrinth, in which a young girl (Ivana Baquero) discovers a fantasy world next to her house that may or may not exist only in her imagination ... Director Tom Tykwer (of Run, Lola, Run fame) serves up Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, about a man (Ben Whishaw) who resorts to killing as he tracks down the perfect fragrance; Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman head the supporting cast ... Peter O'Toole has been Oscar-nominated seven times without ever winning, so expect a huge award push for Venus, in which the septuagenarian plays an ailing actor who strikes up a relationship with a teenage girl (Jodie Whittaker) ... A Cannes winner for Best Actress (shared by lead Penelope Cruz and her five co-stars) and Best Screenplay, Pedro Almodovar's Volver focuses on the relationships between the female members (including a ghost!) of a family that's been put through the emotional wringer.
