Chance of being any good: 70%
In a nutshell: As a giant asteroid approaches Earth and with the apocalypse inevitable a man and his neighbour set out to find his high school sweetheart.
Lorene Scafaria makes her directing debut with this Steve Carrell vehicle. Scafaria, who also wrote the screenplay, previously worked on Nick And Norah's Infinite Playlist and has some minor acting roles to her name. Carrell will play the man in search of his long lost (soon to be permanently lost) love whilst his neighbour is played by Keira Knightley. Romantic-Comedy hi-jinks are sure to ensue but if Scafaria can introduce some melancholy and doesn't cop out on the ending then this could be something worth paying attention to.
Chance of being any good: 45%
In a nutshell: A playwright struggles with mental issues as the world around her threatens to unravel.
This reunites film school professor Jay Anania with his student James Franco after last year's little-seen Shadows And Lies (which filmcritic.com's Don Willmott did see... and didn't like). Anania's previous work hasn't been well received but this should be notable firstly for Franco (whose increased presence since the Oscars should guarantee it more exposure) and secondly because it continues Winona Ryder's comeback (she stars as the playwright) in a role that has echoes of her portrayal of a similarly damaged individual in Black Swan.
Chance of being any good: 70%
In a nutshell: Two slackers attempt to save the world from alien invasion whilst tripping on a super-powerful drug known only as 'Soy Sauce'.
This could be the sleeper-hit of next year. Based on David Wong's cult book of the same name, the film will star newcomers Chase Williamson and Rob Mayes as the lead duo with Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown and Glynn Turman (as a character called Detective Lawrence 'Morgan Freeman' Appleton) backing them up. The concept sees the drug allow users to have out of body, cross-time, cross-dimensional experiences but, like every drug, there are risks and these two don't seem to have the safest of hands. Bubba Ho-Tep writer/director Don Coscarelli will direct having also adapted the novel into a screenplay.
Chance of being any good: 50%
In a nutshell: An alien explorer finds himself trapped on the mysterious planet, Earth.
The Weinstein's latest attempt to establish an animation arm to their studio, Escape From Planet Earth is brought to you by some of the team behind their previous effort Hoodwinked. Rainmaker Entertainment have some early test footage available on their website, although this seems to have been produced without the help of Brendan Fraser, who will play Scorch, the lead alien. Hot Tub Time Machine's Rob Corddry and Craig Robinson are reunited, if only in voice form.
Chance of being any good: 10%
In a nutshell: The son of an NYPD officer falls in with his father's ex-partner and a team of rogue cops.
The latest 50 Cent vehicle, 'fiddy' has managed to assemble a supporting cast that includes Robert De Niro and Forest Whitaker in some capacity, as well as Desperate Housewives' Dana Delany. The plot sounds like your standard cop thriller and the director (Jessy Terrero) has nothing of note to his name apart from another 50 Cent thriller, Gun, and a couple of the rap star's music videos. File under 'outside bet'. Very outside.
Chance of being any good: 40%
In a nutshell: A mother and her daughter move into a house next door to a property where a terrible murder took place some years before.
Soon-to-be-megastar Jennifer Lawrence stars in this horror film from a script by Dream House writer David Loucka. A release date for this has been set for 20th April in the US with distribution in other territories likely to follow. Lawrence will star with support coming from Elisabeth Shue as her mother and Max Thieriot as the boy next door. Thieriot, who did nothing with an admittedly poor script in My Soul To Take, will get another chance to show that he deserves to be part of the same group of up'n'comers that Lawrence is about to graduate from.
Chance of being any good: 5%
In a nutshell: Two CIA agents fight it out after falling for the same woman.
McG directing an action-comedy-romance? Based on a script that has been circling Hollywood since 2001? This should be awful. The saving grace (which gives it that 5%) is the talented lead casting of Tom Hardy and Chris Pine but really, especially given that Reese Witherspoon is the love interest, this has little chance of making it past the crap-detector. Audiences will get a chance to find out on 17th February when the film is scheduled to be unleashed in both the US and the UK.
