We're off to see the wizard ... in IMAX 3-D!
Yes, 1939's immortal The Wizard of Oz will be returning to select theaters in an enhanced (some would say diminished) version starting on Sept. 20. It's part of Warner Bros.' 75th anniversary celebration for the film, which will enjoy a one-week theatrical run before appearing in new Blu-ray and DVD editions on Oct. 1. Of course, <I>2014<P> actually marks the movie's 75th anniversary — apparently, studio suits are poor at math unless it's in the service of counting box office returns — but never mind: If nothing else, seeing this classic once again on the big screen will help wash away the bad taste left by last spring's dismal Oz the Great and Powerful.
Still, not everyone will want to spend their dough on a film they've already seen countless times. To that end, here's a checklist of new movies coming to theaters this fall. The calendar runs through Nov. 1, the weekend before the year-end holiday film season kicks off with the Nov. 8 release of Thor: The Dark World.
Sept. 20
Members of an American dance team put their best feet forward in preparation for an international tournament in Battle of the Year ... In Prisoners, the father (Hugh Jackman) of a missing 6-year-old girl takes matters into his own hands once he feels that the detective (Jake Gyllenhaal) heading the investigation isn't working fast enough to ensure her safe return.
Sept. 27
A flight attendant (Paula Patton) uses her job flying back and forth across the country to find the perfect man in the romantic comedy Baggage Claim ... The inevitable sequel to the 2009 animated hit, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 finds inventor Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader) this time having to battle food-animals like the tacodile, the shrimpanzee and the hippotatomus ... Joseph Gordon-Levitt writes, directs and stars in Don Jon, about a porn addict who's forced to choose between his Internet hobby and the new girlfriend (Scarlett Johansson) who insists he give up his compulsion ... The writer and director of Frost/Nixon, Ron Howard and Peter Morgan, are at the wheel for Rush, a look at the real-life rivalry between Formula 1 racers James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) during the 1970s.
Oct. 4
The latest from director Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men), Gravity stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as two astronauts who find themselves adrift in space after their shuttle is destroyed ... Set in the world of online gambling, Runner Runner stars Ben Affleck as a ruthless tycoon and Justin Timberlake as the impressionable young man he takes under his wing.
Oct. 11
Tom Hanks stars as the title character in Captain Phillips, based on the true-life tale of the commanding officer whose ship was hijacked by Somali pirates in 2009 ... Machete Kills again finds Danny Trejo cast as the Mexican bad-ass who "don't text," this time surrounded by a colorful assortment of characters portrayed by returning cast members Jessica Alba and Michelle Rodriguez and newcomers Mel Gibson, Lady Gaga, Vanessa Hudgens and "Charlie Sheen as the President" ... True Grit Oscar nominee Hailee Steinfeld, who has at least eight movies opening in the next couple of years, and Douglas Booth portray the star-cross'd lovers in the latest screen version of Romeo & Juliet.
Oct. 18
Carrie will do its best to live up to the status of Brian De Palma's excellent 1976 adaptation of Stephen King's bestseller, this time with Chloe Grace Moretz as the telekinetic girl and Julianne Moore as her religious nut of a mom ... A wrongly imprisoned security expert (Sylvester Stallone) attempts a daring break with the help of a tough con (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in the action flick Escape Plan ... Benedict Cumberbatch, whose impressive resume includes stints as Vincent Van Gogh, Stephen Hawking, Star Trek's Khan and, of course, Sherlock Holmes, now tackles the role of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in the torn-from-the-headlines drama The Fifth Estate.
Oct. 25
The Counselor, in which a lawyer gets involved with drugs, features the season's best cast (Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Penelope Cruz, Bruno Ganz and more), direction by Ridley Scott and the first script written directly for the screen by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men, The Road) ... Taking a page from Sacha Baron Cohen and Borat, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa follows 86-year-old Irving Zisman (Johnny Knoxville) and his 8-year-old grandson Billy (Jackson Nicoll) as they travel across the country shocking ordinary folks and capturing their reactions on hidden cameras.
Nov. 1
Four years after co-starring in The Time Traveler's Wife, Rachel McAdams now co-stars in About Time, in which a young man (Domhnall Gleeson) pursues the woman of his dreams by using his unique gift to move back and forth through the years in an effort to get his wooing just right ... Ender's Game, based on the novel by a bestselling author, Brigham Young descendant and all-around tool Orson Scott Card, casts Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley and Harrison Ford as military leaders attempting to save Earth from an alien attack ... Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson provide the vocals for two time-traveling turkeys in the animated flick Free Birds, in which the pair attempt to prevent their kind from becoming a Thanksgiving fixture ... Four close friends (Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline) head to Las Vegas to take part in a raucous bachelor party in The Hangover Part IV — excuse me, Last Vegas.
