Happy New Year!  While we’re all looking forward to Iron Man, Cloverfield, Jumper, Indiana Jones, Valkyrie, and the rest, I thought it might be cool to take a quick look at some of the lower profile films that will be coming out this year.  Here are ten films that deserve more attention.

10.  Eagle Eye

This is on my radar for the sole reason that Shia LaBeouf is in the lead role.  After his sterling performance in Transformers (see my upcoming review) I’m keen to see what this young talent turns his abilities to next.

9.  2k3

This one’s something of a gamble.  A sci-fi picture from a first time director/writer - Gray Miller - with a relatively young and inexperienced cast.  But the stills that have been released look impressive and the premise sounds suitably intriguing. 

8.  City of Ember

I was attracted to this because it stars Bill Murray - one of my very favourite actors.  The little that is currently known about the plot - which is based on a novel by Jeanne Duprau - is intriguing; "For generations, the people of the City of Ember have flourished in an amazing world of glittering lights. But Ember’s once powerful generator is failing … and the great lamps that illuminate the city are starting to flicker."

7.  Boone’s Lick

The plot here sounds like a sort of reverse Odyssey; a wife decides to go - with the rest of her family - in search of her husband to tell him that she’s leaving him.  On her dangerous journey she encounters a series of trials and hazards.  One of the cool things about this offering is that the screenplay is written by the author of the source material - Larry McMurty - which should ensure artistic integrity.  The icing on the cake is Tom Hanks in the lead role.

6.  Silence

Has Martin Scorsese ever made a bad film?  Not only is his filmography impeccable it is also incredibly diverse.  Silence looks like it will continue that tradition with a film about the adventures of Jesuit priests in seventeenth century Japan.

5.  Adam Resurrected

It’s the acting talent that attracts me here, with Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, and Derek Jacobi heading the cast.  The premise - "In the aftermath of WWII, a former circus entertainer who was spared from the gas chamber becomes the ringleader at an asylum for Holocaust survivors." - should give these three plenty of opportunities to shine.

4.  World War Z

It’s a zombie flick written by J. Michael Straczynski.  I think that’s all I need to say.

3.  Burn After Reading

The Coen brothers have been going from strength to strength lately and I’m always going to be excited about a new film from my favourite comedy directors.  Even better, they have a great cast in George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and John Malkovich.  The premise sounds a little screwy ("A disk containing the memoirs of a CIA agent ends up in the hands of two unscrupulous gym employees who attempt to sell it."), but this does nothing to dent my confidence that the brothers will produce something worthy.

2.  Body of Lies

Well, it’s hard not to be excited by a new Ridley Scott movie, and with William Monahan adapting the novel by David Ignatius, and Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe heading up the cast it’s difficult to see how this can fail.

1.  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The premise sounds intriguing (a man starts ageing backwards), but it’s really the people involved that make this film my number one.  David Fincher is one of my favourite directors and I’m certainly not disappointed to see him teaming up again with Brad Pitt.  Furthermore the screenplay is by Eric Roth (Forrest Gump) and based on a novel by the great F. Scott Fitzgerald.