The 2008 calendar of Hollywood releases in Australia looks more varied, more creative and more tantalizing than last year—on paper, anyway. Premiere magazine may have been a tad optimistic when it listed “51 new flicks to look forward to.” But when you look at the wealth of talent involved, behind and in front of the cameras, there’s genuine cause for excitement and anticipation.

Top-shelf directors such as Steven Spielberg, David Fincher, Marc Forster, Christopher Nolan, Bryan Singer and Guillermo del Toro rarely make films that fail to entertain, stimulate or engage. And it’s heartening to see the new generation of stars like Shia LaBeouf, James McAvoy, Seth Rogen and Emile Hirsch taking their place alongside their elders such as Will Smith, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise. 

By most yardsticks, 2007 was a satisfying cinema year. Nationally, box-office grosses in Oz rose by 3% to $895 million, the second biggest on record.  Industry executives reckon that equates to a 1% lift in ticket sales when you factor out the average increase in ticket prices. Slim, but at least heading in the right direction.

The top 10 grossing titles were a diverse and diverting bunch: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Shrek the Third, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, The Simpsons Movie, Transformers, Spider-Man 3, The Bourne Ultimatum, Happy Feet, Night at the Museum and Wild Hogs.
  
Apart from that, there were the guilty pleasures of Knocked Up and Superbad; audacious British comedy Death at a Funeral; one man’s remarkable journey to the Alaskan wilderness in Into the Wild; George Clooney at the top of his game in Michael Clayton; Angelina Jolie as the brave wife of kidnapped reporter Danny Pearl in A Mighty Heart; while Boxing Day saw the launch of stirring dramas No Country for Old Men and Atonement.

So what does 2008 promise?  Compared with the surfeit of sequels last year, we’ll see the latest instalments of popular franchises including Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Ball, with Shia LaBeouf as the young Indie (due to debut in May). The Pevensie siblings are pulled back to Narnia after an absence of 1,300 years in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (June).  Maria Bello takes over from Rachel Weisz as Brendan Fraser's wife and Luke Ford's mum in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (September).  Marc Forster is directing the 22nd James Bond adventure, Quantum of Solace, with Ukranian Olga Kurylenko as 007’s new leading lady and French actor Mathieu Amalric as the sinister villain; that and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince are both scheduled for November.

We’ll see an array of new and familiar superheroes. The idiosyncratic Wachowski brothers are at the helm of Speed Racer (May), which has Into the Wild’s Emile Hirsch in the title role as he sets out to win a death-defying rally which once took his brother’s life; Christina Ricci is the love interest and Lost's Matthew Fox is the slick rival racer.

In Iron Man (May), Robert Downey Jr. is  Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist and genius inventor who is kidnapped and forced to build a devastating weapon; after he escapes he vows to protect the world as Iron Man. Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges are along for the ride and Jon Favreau directs.

Transporter director Louis Leterrier takes the reins of  The Incredible Hulk (June), which sees Edward Norton as Dr Bruce Banner, still searching for a cure to the condition which turns him into a green monster, this time facing a new foe: The Abomination.

Wanted (June) tells of the transformation of a 25-year-old nobody (Atonement’s James McAvoy) into a superhuman enforcer of justice, with a little help from Angelina Jolie’s deadly sexy Fox and Morgan Freeman as the enigmatic leader of a secret society called The Fraternity.

Batman (Christian Bale) and loyal partner Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) plus firebrand DA Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) tangle with The Joker (Heath Ledger) in The Dark Knight (July), directed by Christopher Nolan

Also in July, Guillermo del Toro returns with the second chapter in the big screen adaptation of the Dark Horse comic book hero, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, which sees a mythical world starting a rebellion against humanity in order to rule the Earth; and X-Files creator Chris Carter makes his feature directing debut with The X-Files 2, starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny.

Among the animated offerings, Horton Hears a Who! (March) has Jim Carrey voicing Horton the Elephant, who hears a cry for help coming from a speck of dust, which turns out to be home to the Whos, who live in the city of Whoville. Kung Fu Panda (June) is the saga of Po the panda, who learns martial arts after he realizes his home in ancient China is threatened by enemies of the Valley of Peace. Pixar’s WALL*E (September) follows one robot's comic adventures as he chases his dream across the galaxy, from Finding Nemo director-writer Andrew Stanton. DreamWorks Animation’s Madagascar 2: The Crate Escape (December) features the vocal talents of Ben Stiller, Andy Richter, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Sacha Baron Cohen.

In the laughs department, Steve Carell will try to put unhappy memories of Evan Almighty behind him as the reincarnation of Don Adams in Get Smart (June), with Anne Hathaway as Agent 99, Dwayne Johnson as Agent 23 and Alan Arkin as the Chief.

Will Smith gets back to his comedic roots in Hancock (July) as a sardonic superhero who is none too popular until he saves the life of a PR guy Ray (Jason Bateman), although Ray’s wife, Mary (Charlize Theron), insists he’s a lost cause. 

Mike Meyers plays the title role in The Love Guru (July), who aims to break into the self-help business by helping a romantically and professionally troubled  star hockey player whose wife left him for a rival athlete (Justin Timberlake, of all people).

Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black are a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie who are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying in Tropic Thunder (July).

Superbad co-writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg combine again for Pineapple Express (August), with Rogen as a  stoner and James Franco as his dealer, who are forced on the run  after the pothead witnesses a murder by a crooked cop (Rosie Perez) and the city's most dangerous drug lord (Gary Cole).

Rogen also co-wrote Drillbit Taylor (March), starring Owen Wilson as a former soldier of fortune who’s hired by two teenagers to protect them from the school bully. From the producers of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up comes Forgetting Sarah Marshall (August), a wry look at one guy’s quest to grow up and get over the heartbreak of being dumped – if only he can start forgetting Sarah.

Eddie Murphy foregoes the fat suits to play a financial executive whose career is on the skids until he steps into his daughter's imaginary world in Nowhereland (September).

A couple of movies boast inspired titles that beg the question: What the? Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (August) follows the cross-country adventures of the pot-smoking duo as they try to outrun authorities who suspect them of being terrorists when they try to sneak a bong on board a flight to Amsterdam.

Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging (September) from Bend it Like Beckham director/co-writer Gurinder Chadha, looks at a 14-year-old girl who keeps a diary about the ups and downs of being a teenager, including what she learns about kissing.

Among other assorted titles coming our way:

Valkyrie (July) will see Tom Cruise try to recapture his faded box-office glory as the aristocratic German officer who led the heroic attempt to bring down the Nazi regime and end the war by planting a bomb in Hitler's bunker. Bryan Singer directs.

The International (October) follows Interpol agent Clive Owen and Manhattan Assistant D.A. Naomi Watts as they seek to bring to justice one of the world's most corrupt banks, which is financing terror and war.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (December), a remake of the classic 1951 sci-fi action film by Robert Wise, stars Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, an alien who arrives on Earth accompanied by a large humanoid robot named Gort, with a warning to world leaders: their continued aggression will lead to annihilation.

Bedtime Stories (December) has bachelor architect Adam Sandler unexpectedly revitalizing his career and finding romance when the bedtime stories he tells his nieces and nephews start coming true.

Brad Pitt and director David Fincher team again for the adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's story The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, about a man who ages backward (December).

Also worth watching out for: The Other Boleyn Girl (March), the story of beautiful sisters Anne (Natalie Portman) and Mary Boleyn (Scarlett Johansson) who compete for the love of  handsome King Henry VIII (Eric Bana); Leatherheads (April), a romantic comedy starring George Clooney and Renée Zellweger;  Sex and the City: The Movie (June); the big-screen version of Mamma Mia (July) starring Meryl Streep;and The Tale of Despereaux (December), animated tale of a brave and virtuous mouse who is too big for his small world.

All told, an exciting and thrilling year at the movies. On paper, anyway.