2006 Preview

Bryan Singer's 'Superman Returns' heads up our list of the films to look out for next year.

Dec 23 2005

'A Cock and Bull Story'
Release date: January 20
Michael Winterbottom's adaptation of Laurence Sterne's supposedly unfilmable novel 'The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy' is a joy from start to finish. Rob Brydon excels, Steve Coogan has never been better, and we doubt that a funnier film will be released all year. To read our LFF review of the film, click here.

'Hidden'
Release date: January 27
Michael Haneke's superb film about the host of a literary TV chat-show (Daniel Auteuil) plagued by an anonymous, vaguely threatening voyeur with a video camera covers countless issues of contemporary life - less a crime mystery than a gripping metaphysical meditation. To read TO's Cannes coverage of the film, click here.

'Lady Vengeance'
Release date: February 10
'Lady Vengeance' sees Chan-Wook Park completes the revenge trilogy that began with 'Sympathy for Mr Vengeance' and continued with 'Oldboy' - and mercifully, it lives up to his previous two efforts. Absorbing, haunting and utterly unforgettable, this is one lady who is sure to give audiences a few sleepless nights in 2006.

'Good Night, and Good Luck'
Release date: February 17
'Confessions of a Dangerous Mind' proved that George Clooney could direct, but 'Good Night, and Good Luck' truly marks him out as a master of the craft. An understated account of one news team's efforts to stand up to Senator Joe McCarthy during the 1950's witch-hunts, it grips from start to finish. And with the one-two punch of this and 'Syriana', Clooney is all set to stir up a nest of political vipers over the next few months.

'L'Enfant'
Release date: March 10
The Dardenne Brothers tread familiar territory here - the lives of the alienated, marginalised and impoverished on the noisily industrialised streets of Seraing - and miraculously produce, yet again, something wholly fresh and wholly moving. To read our coverage of the Time Out LFF screening of 'L'Enfant', click here.

'V for Vendetta'
Release date: March 17
Alan Moore's brilliant graphic novel finally makes it to the big screen, with Natalie Portman as Evey Hammond and Hugo Weaving as the iconic V. James McTeigue makes his helmingl debut with the film, although having worked as second unit director on the 'Star Wars' and 'Matrix' films, he has a good pedigree. And with material as incendiary as this, it's bound to be one of the most talked about films of the year. To read our 'V for Vendetta' set visit, click here.

'The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada'
Release date: March 31
2006 could very well be the year of the western, with 'Brokeback Mountain', 'The Proposition' and 'The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada' all hitting the screen in the first half of the year. The latter is a genuinely touching, blackly comic tale of freindship and redemption that features a powerhouse performance from Tommy Lee Jones. To read our thoughts on the film from Cannes, click here.

'Hostel'
Release date: April 21
'Cabin Fever' was good, but 'Hostel' will be Eli Roth's first bona fide horror classic. To give the plot away would do a disservice to this precocious writer-director, but Time Out visited the Prague set earlier this year (click here for that piece) and can guarantee that 'Hostel' will satisfy both gore-hounds and those who like their horror a little more cerebral.

'Superman Returns'
Release date: July 14
As usual we'll be swamped with sequels and remakes next summer, with 'X-Men 3', 'Sin City 2' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest' all set to pack them in at the multiplexes. But the one we're looking forward to is 'Superman Returns'. Director Bryan Singer knows a thing or two about making big-budget blockbusters with brains, and star Kevin Spacey was surely born to play the balding megalomaniac Lex Luthor.

'Southland Tales'
Release date: September 15
While little is known about this one at present, that fact that 'Southland Tales' is Richard Kelly's first feature since his dazzling debut 'Donnie Darko' is enough to have us queueing up on opening day. Set in an LA of the near future, the plot apparently revolves around a disparate group of characters celebrating the 4th of July. And while a cast consisting of The Rock, Mandy Moore and Seann William Scott may not exactly set the pulse racing, we've nevertheless heard amazing things about the production, and believe that this could be the surprise package of the year.

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