Most Promising Movies 2010 (updated)

Love and Other Drugs — pharmaceutical love story dir. Ed Zwick, w. Anne Hathaway, Jake Gyllenhaal. "I would be stunned if Anne Hathaway does not receive a nomination for this" one exec tells the LAT

Anton Corbijn's The American (Sept), about an assassin (George Clooney) in a Southern Italian village preparing for a final assignment. "Local Hero with high-powered rifles and silencers"

Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan — Natalie Portman as a ballet dancer who may or may not imagining her nemesis, Mila Kunis. With Winona Ryder and Vincent Cassel

Peter Weir's The Way Back — escape from a Siberian labor camp with Ed Harris and Colin Farrell

The Kids Are Alright — same sex marriage drama with Annette Bening, Mark Ruffalo

James L Brooks — How Do You Know? with Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Jack Nicholson

Oliver Stone's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (September) — Douglas, Mulligan, La Boeuf, delayed until after Cannes

George Hickenlooper's Casino Jack with Kevin Spacey as Jack Abromoff

Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life with Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain (below) — "Malick fans are going to be extremely happy."

Doug Liman's Fair Game (TBA), with Sean Penn and Naomi Watts as Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame

David Fincher's The Social Network (Oct), "the Facebook movie," from a script by Aaron Sorkin. A lovely pairing: Plays-Well-With-Others meets the Misanthrope.

Sofia Coppola's Somewhere (TBA), with Stephen Dorff as a bad boy actor holed up at the Chateau Marmont, and Elle Fanning as his 11-year-old daughter.

Clint Eastwood's Hereafter (Dec) from a script by Peter Morgan, starring Matt Damon and Cecile de France as characters "touched by death."

Knight And Day (July), Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in Charade territory directed by James Mangold (Copland, 3:10 to Yuma).

Philip Noyce's Salt (July) starring Angelina Jolie in a role initially intended for Tom Cruise as a CIA officer accused of being a Russian sleeper spy.

David Gordon Green's Your Highness (Oct) with James Franco, Natalie Portman and Zooey Deschanel. Trippy fantasy from the maker of Pineapple Express.

Christopher Nolan's Inception (July) — thriller "set within the architecture of the mind” the mind in question belonging to Leonardo Di Caprio. Sounds highly dubious.

Departed writer Bill Monahan's London Boulevard (June): a reclusive actress (Kiera Knightley) entertains recently-released convict Colin Farrell.

I Love You Philip Morris — Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor in gay comic romance

The Greatest — weepie with Carey Mulligan, Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon

David O Russell's The Fighter Starring Mark Wahlberg as Boston boxer Mickey Ward

Alexander Payne's The Descendents starring George Clooney as a lawyer on the road with his two daughters after the death of their mother

Katheryn Bigelow's Triple Frontier, a South American organised-crime thriller written by Hurt Locker's Mark Boal

The Coens remake of True Grit starring Jeff Bridges and Josh Brolin

Julian Schnabel's Miral about the Palestine/Irael conflict

Get Low — wry Western with Bill Murray and Robert Duvall

Nicole Holofcener's Please Give with Rebecca Hall, Amanda Peet

Betty Anne Waters — with Sam Rockwell and Hillary Swank

Derek Cianfrance's Blue Valentine starring Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling as a couple fighting to save their marriage

Directors to watch: Zwick, Weir, Corbijn, Aronofksy, Malick, Fincher
Actors to watch: Harris, Clooney, Douglas, Duvall, Pitt, Spacey
Actresses to watch: Hathaway, Bening, Williams, Chastain, Mulligan