New Stills From Universal Pictures’ THE THING, LARRY CROWNE, & DREAM HOUSE

For those true geeks who keep a calendar of the upcoming movies throughout the year, Universal Pictures has some films that you may want to keep your eye out for. I’m the most interested in the first picture above for the 3rd version of THE THING and still wondering if it’ll be able to hold it’s own against the claustrophobia of the classic 1951 original and the shock value of John Carpenter’s 1981 horror film.

THE THING
Release: 10/14/2011

Genres: Thriller
Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton
Directed By: Matthijs van Heijningen
Produced By: Marc Abraham, Eric Newman

Synopsis:

Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival when an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists. The shape-shifting creature, accidentally unleashed at this marooned colony, has the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being. It can look just like you or me, but inside, it remains inhuman. In the thriller THE THING, paranoia spreads like an epidemic among a group of researchers as they’re infected, one by one, by a mystery from another planet. Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has traveled to the desolate region for the expedition of her lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up. When a simple experiment frees the alien from its frozen prison, Kate must join the crew’s pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time. And in this vast, intense land, a parasite that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish. THE THING serves as a prelude to John Carpenter’s classic 1982 film of the same name. Directed by Matthijs van Heijningen, the thriller is produced by Strike Entertainment’s Marc Abraham and Eric Newman (Dawn of the Dead).

LARRY CROWNE
Release: 7/1/2011

Genre: Dramatic comedy                                           
Cast: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Bryan Cranston, Cedric the Entertainer, Taraji P. Henson, Gugu Mbatha Raw, Wilmer Valderrama, Pam Grier, Rami Malek, George Takei, Grace Gummer, Rita Wilson, Jon Seda
Directed by: Tom Hanks
Written by: Tom Hanks & Nia Vardalos
Produced by: Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman
Executive Producers: Philippe Rousselet, Steven Shareshian, Jeb Brody, Fabrice Gianfermi, David Coatsworth         

Oscar® winners Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts reunite for a dramatic comedy about how the hard knocks from today’s recession inspire one everyday guy to undergo a personal reinvention: Larry Crowne.

Synopsis:

Until he was downsized, affable, amiable Larry Crowne (Hanks) was a superstar team leader at the big-box company where he’s worked since his time in the Navy.  Underwater on his mortgage and unclear on what to do with his suddenly free days, Larry heads to his local college to start over.  There he becomes part of a colorful community of outcasts, also-rans and the overlooked all trying to find a better future for themselves…often moving around town in a herd of scooters.  In his public-speaking class, Larry develops an unexpected crush on his teacher Mercedes Tainot (Roberts), who has lost as much passion for teaching as she has for her husband.

The simple guy who has every reason to think his life has stalled will come to learn an unexpected lesson: when you think everything worth having has passed you by, you just might discover your reason to live.

THE CHANGE UP
Release: 8/11/2011

Genre: Comedy
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Jason Bateman, Leslie Mann, Olivia Wilde and Alan Arkin
Directed by: David Dobkin
Writers: Jon Lucas & Scott Moore
Produced by: David Dobkin, Neal H. Moritz
Executive Producers: Jeff Kleeman, Joseph Caracciolo, Jr., Jonathon Komack-Martin, Ori Marmur

Synopsis:

Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman star in The Change-Up, from director David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers), writers Jon Lucas & Scott Moore (The Hangover) and producer Neal Moritz (Fast & Furious, Click). The R-rated comedy takes the traditional body-switching movie, ties it up tightly and throws it off a cliff.

Growing up together, Mitch (Reynolds) and Dave (Bateman) were inseparable best friends, but as the years have passed they’ve slowly drifted apart. While Dave is an overworked lawyer, husband and father of three, Mitch has remained a single, quasi-employed man-child who has never met a responsibility he liked. To Mitch, Dave has it all: beautiful wife Jamie (Leslie Mann), kids who adore him and a high-paying job at a prestigious law firm. To Dave, living Mitch’s stress free life without obligation or consequence would be a dream come true.

Following a drunken night out together, Mitch and Dave’s worlds are turned upside down when they wake up in each other’s bodies and proceed to freak the &*#@ out.

Despite the freedom from their normal routines and habits, the guys soon discover that each other’s lives are nowhere near as rosy as they once seemed. Further complicating matters are Dave’s sexy legal associate, Sabrina (Olivia Wilde), and Mitch’s estranged father (Alan Arkin). With time not on their side, Mitch and Dave comically struggle to avoid completely destroying each other’s lives before they can find a way to get their old ones back. 

JOHNNY ENGLISH REBORN
Release: 09/16/2011

Genre: Comedy spy-thriller
Cast: Rowan Atkinson, Gillian Anderson, Dominic West, Rosamund Pike, Daniel Kaluuya
Directed by: Oliver Parker
Writers: Hamish McColl, William Davies
Produced by: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Chris Clark
Executive Producers: Debra Hayward, Liza Chasin

Synopsis:

Rowan Atkinson returns to the role of the accidental secret agent who doesn’t know fear or danger in the comedy spy-thriller Johnny English Reborn. In his latest adventure, the most unlikely intelligence officer in Her Majesty’s Secret Service must stop a group of international assassins before they eliminate a world leader and cause global chaos.

In the years since MI-7’s top spy vanished off the grid, he has been honing his unique skills in a remote region of Asia. But when his agency superiors learn of an attempt against the Chinese premier’s life, they must hunt down the highly unorthodox agent. Now that the world needs him once again, Johnny English is back in action.

With one shot at redemption, he must employ the latest in hi-tech gadgets to unravel a web of conspiracy that runs throughout the KGB, CIA and even MI-7. With mere days until a heads of state conference, one man must use every trick in his playbook to protect us all. For Johnny English, disaster may be an option, but failure never is.

DREAM HOUSE
Release: 09/30/2011