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OCTOBER 4: Michael Bay, who produced the dismal 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, apparently can't be stopped: He's now bringing us the self-explanatory The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. (And that's not all -- look for his Friday the 13th update next year.)
OCTOBER 6: Using the highly acclaimed Hong Kong import Infernal Affairs as source material, Martin Scorsese offers The Departed, a drama about the crossed paths of a cop (Leonardo DiCaprio) posing as a mobster and a mobster (Matt Damon) posing as a cop; Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg also star ... Two competitive workers (Dane Cook and Dax Shepard) at a discount superstore vie for both job recognition and the heart of the new cashier (Jessica Simpson) in the comedy Employee of the Month ... Harry Potter's Robbie Coltrane, LOTR's Andy Serkis, Oscar nominee Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda), Alicia Silverstone and Mickey Rourke are among those comprising the colorful supporting cast of Stormbreaker, an adventure yarn about a teenager (Alex Pettyfer) who becomes a spy kid after his secret agent uncle (Ewan McGregor) mysteriously disappears.
OCTOBER 13: The Grudge 2 finds the sister (Amber Tamblyn) of the character Sarah Michelle Gellar played in the American original (itself based on a Japanese flick) being subjected to the same supernatural occurrences involving spooky little kids ... In Man of the Year, a politically conscious talk show host (played by Robin Williams, but patterned after Jon Stewart) runs for US president as a lark but winds up proving to be formidable competition for the party leaders ... The Marine casts wrestling star John Cena as a soldier who, upon returning from Iraq, sets off after the gang that has kidnapped his wife (Kelly Carlson).
OCTOBER 20: Helming his first film since winning a pair of Oscars for Million Dollar Baby, Clint Eastwood pays tribute to this country with the WWII drama Flags of Our Fathers, about the battle of Iwo Jima and, specifically, the six Americans immortalized for raising the US flag on that Pacific island ... Mary O'Hara's classic novel My Friend Flicka serves as the inspiration for Flicka, a family film about a rebellious teenage girl (White Oleander's Alison Lohman) who bonds with a wild mustang ... Oscar-winning writer-director Sofia Coppola (Lost In Translation) is behind the period epic Marie Antoinette, which paints the French queen (played by Kirsten Dunst) not as a cold ruler snidely suggesting the peasants "eat cake" but as a passionate teenager mishandled and misunderstood by those surrounding her ... The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D adds an extra dimension to Tim Burton's delightful 1993 hit, which employs stop-motion animation to relate the tale of Pumpkin King Jack Skellington's ill-advised plan to kidnap Santa Claus ... Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins) directs Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale in The Prestige, a thriller about the rivalry between two skilled magicians; Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson and David Bowie costar.
OCTOBER 27: Based on fact, Catch a Fire stars Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher) as a South African soccer player who, tired of his nation's record of racism and brutality, morphs into a rebel fighter; Tim Robbins costars as a police officer who becomes involved in the unfolding drama ... Forever hopping genres, director Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential, 8 Mile, In Her Shoes) turns his attention to the world of poker with Lucky You, starring Eric Bana as a poker champ, Robert Duvall as his distant father and Drew Barrymore as a smalltime Vegas singer ... Wow, is it time already for another Saw movie? Saw III finds mass murderer Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) again killing people in the most imaginative (and gruesome) ways possible.
NOVEMBER 3: Fresh from stealing scenes in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Sacha Baron Cohen (Da Ali G Show) essays the leading role in a movie with an even longer title; Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan finds Cohen bringing his reporter character to the big screen for more comedic adventures ... The studio behind the clay-animated Wallace & Gromit films now tinkers with computer imagery in Flushed Away, in which a pet mouse (Hugh Jackman) finds himself in the toilet -- literally -- and eventually in the sewers, where he meets both friend (Kate Winslet) and foe (Ian McKellen) ... The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause finds Tim Allen again donning the red suit, this time in a story that pits Santa against the wicked Jack Frost (Martin Short).
NOVEMBER 10: The Gladiator team of director Ridley Scott and star Russell Crowe reunite for A Good Year, about a self-centered businessman who stops long enough to smell the grapes after he visits the French winery left to him by his recently deceased uncle (Albert Finney) ... An IRS auditor (Will Ferrell) learns that his actions are somehow being controlled by an unsuspecting author (Emma Thompson) in the seriocomic yarn Stranger Than Fiction.