20 Fall Movies We Can't Wait to See

Summer's almost over, but there's a lot to look forward to at the multiplex before the end of the year; here are the coming attractions we've got high hopes for, from ''9'' to ''Jennifer's Body'' to ''Where the Wild Things Are'' to ''Avatar''

9

September 9

A post-apocalyptic adventure starring a band of nine sentient puppets fighting crazy murderous robots? Produced by Tim Burton and the dude who directed Wanted? Based on Shane Acker's Oscar-winning short? Yes, please.

THE INFORMANT!
September 18

Steven Soderbergh takes on corporate whistleblowers in this based-on-a-true-story drama, starring Matt Damon (who packed on 30 pounds and sports a '70s 'stache for the role).


JENNIFER'S BODY
September 18

Megan Fox stars as a demonic maneater in this Diablo Cody-written high school horror flick. I'm sorry, did we mention that Megan Fox is in it?


SHUTTER ISLAND
October 2

A Martin Scorsese horror film. Just let that roll around in your brain for a bit: ''Martin Scorsese horror film.'' And ''starring Leonardo DiCaprio'' doesn't hurt either.


CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY
October 2

Michael Moore continues his documentary examination of America's systemic failings with his latest.


COUPLES RETREAT
October 9

Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau, together again! A cluster of couples (played by folks like Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell, and Malin Akerman) head to a tropical paradise for a little sensual healing. Wackiness ensues.


ZOMBIELAND
October 9

Woody Harrelson vs. the walking dead! It's so on!


THE ROAD
October 16

Viggo Mortensen stars as a father escorting his son through a post-apocalyptic nightmare in this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.


WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
October 16

Let the wild rumpus begin! Director Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich) brings his outcast sensibilities to one of kidlit's most infamous outcasts: Maurice Sendak's Max (played by young Max Records).


A CHRISTMAS CAROL
November 6

Robert Zemeckis puts the Charles Dickens classic through the 3-D CG magic machine for his take on an honest-to-goodness scary ghost tale. Plus, Jim Carrey plays, like, 87 characters in it. (Okay, he plays seven, including Ebeneezer Scrooge himself.)


PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL 'PUSH' BY SAPPHIRE
November 6

Sundance audiences (and jurors) were gaga over this story of an illiterate Harlem teenager (Gabourey Sidibe) dealing with an unwanted preganacy — Precious won both the Grand Jury and Audience prize at the festival.


2012
November 13

There are actors in this prophesy-heavy explode-athon — John Cusack, Chewitel Ejiofor, and Oliver Platt among them — but they inevitably play second fiddle to the massive property damage that director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) does so well.


THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX
November 13

Director Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums) is tackling a different kind of family for his first foray into stop-motion animation: a band of foxes threatened by local farmers. Luckily, this family is being voiced by George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, and Bill Murray.


THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON
November 20

Yeah, we're pretty sure you know what this is all about. Werewolves and vampires and pretty girls, oh my.


 BROKEN EMBRACES
November 20

For the record, the ongoing collaboration between actress Penélope Cruz and director Pedro Almodóvar is right up there with De Niro and Scorsese, Depp and Burton, and Mifune and Kurosawa. We'll watch whatever they do together. Even laundry.


NINE
November 25

Wait — Daniel Day-Lewis, Penélope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren; all in a musical directed by Rob Marshall, who all but resuscitated the movie musical with Chicago? And the Broadway show it's based on was, itself, inspired by Federico Fellinni's classic 8 1/2? Seriously, where's the queue?


THE LOVELY BONES
December 11

Peter Jackson steps back from world-spanning epics to tell an adventure of a different sort: the journey a young girl (Saiorse Ronan) takes while solving her own murder. After the fact. (Yes — SPOILER ALERT — she's a deceased detective.)


AVATAR
December 18

After 10 years of not making a narrative feature, James Cameron returns to science fiction with this mostly CG, totally 3-D mindblower — about a young man (Sam Worthington) who travels to a far-flung planet and finds alien love in the process.


DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE MORGANS?
December 18

Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker play an estranged NYC couple who find a new lease on their marriage when they get dumped into the Witness Protection Program in rural Wyoming.


SHERLOCK HOLMES
December 25

Few things seem as surefire — especially post-Iron Man — as Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson.