Highlights of Hollywood's fall, holiday schedule

The Associated Press, Monday, August 31, 2009, 2:50am (PDT)

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Highlights of the fall film slate (release dates are subject to change, and some films will play in limited release):

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September:

THE AGE OF STUPID: An archivist (Pete Postlethwaite) in 2055 looks back on the world's global-warming catastrophe in this documentary-style cautionary tale.

ALL ABOUT STEVE: Sandra Bullock stalks the man she considers her true love in a romance co-starring Thomas Haden Church and Bradley Cooper.

BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT: A reporter frames himself for murder to get the goods on a prosecutor (Michael Douglas) running for governor.

BLIND DATE: Stanley Tucci directs and stars with Patricia Clarkson as a couple coping with tragedy by renewing their courtship.

THE BOYS ARE BACK: Clive Owen plays a widower who adopts a rowdy and permissive parenting style for his two sons.

BRIEF INTERVIEWS WITH HIDEOUS MEN: John Krasinski directs and co-stars in the tale of a graduate student researching relationships amid her own broken personal life.

BRIGHT STAR: Jane Campion dramatizes the doomed romance of poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and his passionate neighbor (Abbie Cornish).

THE BURNING PLAIN: Charlize Theron plays a restaurant manager whose promiscuity stems from a dark past. With Kim Basinger.

CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY: Michael Moore's latest documentary takes on corporations and speculators that have made love of money a way of life.

CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS: A town copes with too much of a good thing in the animated take on the children's book where food falls from the sky.

COCO BEFORE CHANEL: Audrey Tautou stars in a film biography set in the early years of fashion designer Coco Chanel.

CRUDE: Documentary director Joe Berlinger traces a prolonged court battle over oil pollution in the Amazon rainforest.

EXTRACT: A bizarre workplace accident scuttles early retirement plans for a factory owner (Jason Bateman) in Mike Judge's comedy.

FAME: The 1980s hit is updated with a new take on life at a high school for performing arts. With Kelsey Grammer and Debbie Allen.

GAMER: Interactive gaming evolves into mind-control in which human prisoners are forced into deadly combat. With Gerard Butler.

I HOPE THEY SERVE BEER IN HELL: The adaptation of Tucker Max's best-seller about his carousing and womanizing centers on a bachelor road trip gone bad.

THE INFORMANT!: Matt Damon stars in Steven Soderbergh's darkly comic portrait of a deceptive executive who blew the whistle on corruption at Archer Daniels Midland.

JENNIFER'S BODY: Megan Fox lets her inner demon loose as a high school queen bee feeding on classmates after she's possessed by evil.

LOVE HAPPENS: A florist (Jennifer Aniston) and a self-help author (Aaron Eckhart) make reluctant stabs at romance.

9: Elijah Wood and Jennifer Connelly lead the voice cast in an animated sci-fi adventure set in a post-apocalyptic future.

THE OTHER MAN: Liam Neeson, Laura Linney and Antonio Banderas star in a love triangle about a man who sets out to track down his wife's lover.

PANDORUM: Dennis Quaid stars in a horror tale about amnesiac astronauts who awaken on a space station filled with dark secrets.

SORORITY ROW: Five college women are stalked by a killer after they cause the death of a sorority sister.

SURROGATES: Federal agents (Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell) pursue a killer in a world where people can live vicariously through robot replicas.

TYLER PERRY'S I CAN DO BAD ALL BY MYSELF: Filmmaker Perry's latest features Taraji P. Henson as a boozy singer forced to raise her delinquent niece and nephews.

WHITEOUT: The only U.S. marshal in Antarctica (Kate Beckinsale) races to solve a murder before the long winter strands her there with the killer.

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October:

AMELIA: Hilary Swank plays legendary aviator Amelia Earhart in Mira Nair's biopic. With Richard Gere and Ewan McGregor.

ASTRO BOY: A robot boy (voiced by Freddie Highmore) learns lessons in humanity in an animated adaptation of the Japanese TV series.

CIRQUE DU FREAK: THE VAMPIRE'S ASSISTANT: A teen's encounter with a vampire (John C. Reilly) lands him in a traveling freak show. With Salma Hayek.

COUPLES RETREAT: Four couples cope with relationship issues in this ensemble comedy featuring Vince Vaughn, Kristin Davis, Jon Favreau and Kristen Bell.

THE DAMNED UNITED: Doom awaits the splashy new coach (Michael Sheehan) of England's champion soccer team as he tries to fill his predecessor's big shoes.

AN EDUCATION: A British schoolgirl (Carey Mulligan) jeopardizes her Oxford dreams when she takes up with an older man (Peter Sarsgaard).

FREE STYLE: A young man (Corbin Bleu) gives it his all to make the Grand National motocross racing team.

GENTLEMEN BRONCOS: A young writer's story is plagiarized by a fantasy novelist in this comedy from "Napoleon Dynamite" director Jared Hess.

GOOD HAIR: Chris Rock's documentary takes a humorous look at the culture, cash and competition that goes into black hairstyles.

THE INVENTION OF LYING: Ricky Gervais stars in a comic fantasy about a man who discovers the value of fibbing in a world where everyone tells the truth.

LAW ABIDING CITIZEN: An imprisoned man orchestrates bloody revenge for the murders of his wife and child. With Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler.

MICHAEL JACKSON: THIS IS IT: Rehearsal footage as the singer prepared for his London comeback shows form the backbone of this concert-that-never-w as film.

MORE THAN A GAME: Future NBA star LeBron James and four high school teammates take to the court in this sports documentary.

MOTHERHOOD: Uma Thurman juggles the stresses and strains of parenthood in a comedy co-starring Minnie Driver.

NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU: Natalie Portman, Mira Nair, Brett Ratner and other directors contribute odes to the city in this collection of short films.

THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE: Robin Wright Penn stars as a woman adjusting to life in her older husband's retirement community. With Alan Arkin and Keanu Reeves.

SAW VI: Deceased killer Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) continues to wreak bloody havoc from beyond the grave.

A SERIOUS MAN: The Coen brothers tell the story of a college professor straining to do right amid personal and professional adversity.

THE STEPFATHER: A young man suspects his mom's new man may be hiding nasty secrets.

TOY STORY, TOY STORY 2: Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are back as the voices of Woody and Buzz in a 3-D double-feature of the animated favorites.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: A boy journeys to a land of wondrous creatures in Spike Jonze's adaptation of Maurice Sendak's beloved picture book.

WHIP IT: Drew Barrymore directs and co-stars with Ellen Page as a small-town beauty queen turned roller-derby mama.

(UNTITLED): Sibling rivalry erupts in this tale of a music composer and his artist brother. With Adam Goldberg and Marley Shelton.

YOUTH IN REVOLT: A teen (Michael Cera) goes to extremes in pursuit of his dream girl in a quest to lose his virginity.

ZOMBIELAND: Woody Harrelson and Abigail Breslin are among a band of survivors battling the undead in this zombie comedy.

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November:

THE BLIND SIDE: A true-life drama chronicles Michael Oher's journey from homeless teen to No. 1 pick in this year's NFL draft. With Sandra Bullock.

THE BOX: A mysterious box holds the promise of fortune for a couple (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) — and misfortune for a stranger.

BROKEN EMBRACES: Penelope Cruz and director Pedro Almodovar reunite for a drama about a blind screenwriter recalling how he lost the love of his life.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL: Jim Carrey does Scrooge and his three Christmas ghosts in Robert Zemeckis' motion-capture adaptation of the Dickens classic.

FANTASTIC MR. FOX: Wes Anderson's fox-vs.-farmers animated tale features the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep and Bill Murray.

THE FOURTH KIND: A therapist (Milla Jovovich) records patient sessions that present compelling evidence of alien abduction.

THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS: George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey star in a comic tale of "psychic warfare" by the U.S. military.

THE MESSENGER: Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton and Ben Foster star in a drama about officers who deliver the terrible news that loved ones have died in battle.

NINE: The musical adaptation of Fellini's "8 1/2," about a filmmaker and his many women, stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman and Penelope Cruz.

NINJA ASSASSIN: A renegade hit man (pop singer Rain) teams with a European cop (Naomie Harris) against an Asian assassin syndicate.

OLD DOGS: Robin Williams and John Travolta are pals and business partners forced to raise young twins.

PIRATE RADIO: Philip Seymour Hoffman and Bill Nighy lead a crew of rogue DJs blasting rebel rock to 1960s Britain.

PLANET 51: An astronaut lands on a world where tiny aliens live in 1950s picket-fence bliss. The animated comedy features the voice of Dwayne Johnson.

PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE: An illiterate pregnant teen with a horrid home life takes fierce charge of her life in this Sundance top prize winner.

THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG: Disney's first hand-drawn animated feature in five years updates the "Frog Prince" fairy tale to the Louisiana bayou.

2012: Mark your calendars for doomsday in Roland Emmerich's latest end-of-the-world saga. With John Cusack.

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON: Kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson return in the schoolgirl-vampire romance, this time with werewolves on the prowl.

WOMEN IN TROUBLE: An ensemble comedy traces a crazy day for 10 women, including a porn star, a masseuse and a flight attendant. With Carla Gugino and Josh Brolin.

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December:

ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE SQUEAKQUEL: A battle of the bands pits Alvin and the gang against a threesome of female chipmunks.

ARMORED: A heist goes awry when armored-car employees rip off their own company. With Matt Dillon and Laurence Fishburne.

AVATAR: James Cameron's 3-D sci-fi epic centers on humans placed inside alien skins to survive on a distant world. With Sam Worthington and Sigourney Weaver.

BROTHERS: A Marine (Tobey Maguire) comes home to his wife (Natalie Portman) to find his sibling (Jake Gyllenhaal) has displaced him. Jim Sheridan directs.

EVERYBODY'S FINE: Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore and Kate Beckinsale star in the tale of a widower on a road trip to check on his grown children.

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE MORGANS?: Witness protection throws a new curve into a couple's failing marriage. With Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant.

INVICTUS: Morgan Freeman stars as Nelson Mandela in Clint Eastwood's saga of an underdog season for the South African rugby team. With Matt Damon.

IT'S COMPLICATED: Meryl Streep's pursued by two very different suitors (Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin) in Nancy Meyer's latest romance.

THE LOVELY BONES: Peter Jackson directs the story of a slain girl watching over her family from heaven. With Rachel Weisz and Mark Wahlberg.

A PROPHET: An illiterate Arab youth becomes a player in drug and smuggling circles at a French prison in this Cannes prize winner.

THE ROAD: Viggo Mortensen stars as a father traveling with his young son across a post-cataclysm America in this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel.

SHERLOCK HOLMES: Robert Downey Jr. is the illustrious detective as he races to uncover a plot that threatens all of Britain. Jude Law co-stars as sidekick Watson.

UP IN THE AIR: George Clooney's a corporate-downsizing journeyman whose frequent-flyer lifestyle is endangered. Jason Reitman ("Juno") directs.

THE WHITE RIBBON: Director Michael Haneke's Cannes prize winner spins a sober tale of collective guilt in a German town besieged by dark deeds as World War I approaches.