Future Films

August 1 Brendan Fraser is back with another Mummy film -- this time without Rachel Weisz, whose delirious performance listed the first film above the ordinary and the second film above the less-than-ordinary. As a reverse replacement, we get the amazing but stone-faced Jet Li. At least John Hannah is back, breaking up the bother-sister double act; but the main focus this time, even more than before, is massive-scale special effects. The director is Rob Cohen (xXx, Dragonherart) and the writers are Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, who created Smallville.

August 15 It's a new Star Wars film, but the stakes are lower this time because this installment is animated (reducing expectations for the grandeur of the spacescapes and starships). The Clone Wars, in fact is really a feature-length preview of the upcoming television series of the same name; and its canonicity will appeal to fans frustrated by the details skated over in the prequels. The actors include inimitable Star Wars veterans (Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Lee), top voice actors like Tom Kane (Yoda) and James Arnold Taylor (Obi-Wan), and relative newcomers like Matt Lanter (Heroes) as Anakin.

August 22 Jason Statham and Joan Allen (!) star in this loose remake of the 1975 midnight classic Death Race 2000, in which racers mowed down bystanders for points on the way to the finish line. Here, Allen plays a warden forcing prisoners to engage in automotive bloodsport against each other, with the prize a get out of jail free pass. But seriously -- Joan Allen?! They really aren't writing any good roles for great actresses after all, are they?

August 29 So here's the high concept: In the near future, Toorop (Vin Diesel) is a mercenary escorting a woman from Eastern Europe to New York. Gradually he finds out that his charge is carrying a genetically engineered organism that is supposed to become the next Messiah -- which he has to protect from all sorts of people trying to get their hands on it. Also in the cast of this French-finance, Czech-filmed effort are Michelle Yeoh, Charlotte Rampling, and Gérard Depardieu -- surely three names seldom in the same cast list; Lambert Wilson was added at the last minute after production was practically ended (late and over budget, reportedly). Directed by Mathieu Kassovitz (Resident Evil) and based on the novel by Maurice G. Dantec.