25 of Fall's Most Anticipated Movies: 'Ender's Game,' 'Catching Fire,' 'The Wolf of Wall Street' and More
Action and horror star in September, awards hopefuls like "Gravity" and "Captain Phillips" start unspooling in October, and November sees the latest installments of the "Hunger Games" and "Thor" franchises.
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Photo by: Universal Pictures'Riddick'
Opens: Sept. 6
Vin Diesel returns in the R-rated third installment of the sci-fi series. In the David Twohy-directed movie, the antihero has to fight mercenaries and hostile aliens after being left for dead on a desolate planet. Universal will distribute the film, which also stars Katee Sackhoff and Karl Urban.
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Photo by: Film District'Insidious: Chapter 2'
Opens: Sept. 13
The haunted Lambert family is back, seeking to uncover the mysterious childhood secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world. Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne and Ty Simpkins reprise their roles in the James Wan-directed sequel to FilmDistrict's 2011 hit, which grossed more than $97 million worldwide from a $1.5 million budget.
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Photo by: Warner Bros.'Prisoners'
Opens: Sept. 20
Hugh Jackman stars as a desperate father who takes matters into his own hands after his daughter and her friend go missing in the Alcon/Warner Bros. release. Jake Gyllenhaal co-stars as the detective searching for the girls.
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Photo by: Universal Pictures'Rush'
Opens: Sept. 20 (limited); Sept. 27 (wide)
The Ron Howard-directed film focuses on the real-life 1970s Formula One racing rivalry between playboy James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and his methodical opponent Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl). The Universal movie, which also features Olivia Wilde, depicts Lauda's 1976 near-fatal crash and decision to race Hunt just weeks later.
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Photo by: Sony Pictures Animation'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2'
Opens: Sept. 27
In this sequel to the 2009 Sony Pictures Animation movie, Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader) discovers that his food-storm-causing machine is still operational and creating menacing food-animal hybrids, meaning Flint and his friends must fight to save the world again. The movie's star-studded voice cast includes Neil Patrick Harris, Anna Faris and Andy Samberg.
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Photo by: Relativity Media'Don Jon'
Opens: Sept. 27
Joseph Gordon-Levitt wrote, directed and stars in this movie about a porn-obsessed Jersey guy also devoted to his family, friends and church. Scarlett Johansson co-stars as a woman Gordon-Levitt's character meets while out clubbing one night, forcing him to try to overcome his porn addiction to have a real relationship. Tony Danza and Julianne Moore round out the cast. Relativity acquired the movie for $4 million at this year's Sundance Film Festival.
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Photo by: Warner Bros.'Gravity'
Opens: Oct. 4
Alfonso Cuaron's long-gestating space drama stars George Clooney and Sandra Bullock as a medical engineer and an astronaut fighting to survive after an accident leaves them adrift in space. The Warner Bros. film opens the Venice Film Festival before debuting stateside in October.
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'Runner Runner'
Opens: Oct. 4
Justin Timberlake stars as Richie, a Princeton grad student who believes he's been swindled by an online poker game, leading him to travel to Costa Rica to confront Ben Affleck's offshore gambling tycoon, Ivan Block. While in Costa Rica, Richie is seduced by Block's promise of immense wealth before he learns the truth and has to outmaneuver multiple forces closing in on him.
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Photo by: Columbia Pictures'Captain Phillips'
Opens: Oct. 11
Tom Hanks stars as the titular Captain Phillips in the Paul Greengrass-directed film that dramatizes the 2009 hijacking of an American cargo ship by Somali pirates. Sony Pictures will distribute the movie, which is set to open the New York Film Festival.
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Photo by: Frank Connor/Dreamworks'The Fifth Estate'
Opens: Oct. 18
The DreamWorks thriller tells the story of the creation of WikiLeaks, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange, and explores what happens when the site gets access to the biggest trove of confidential intelligence documents in U.S. history.
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Photo by: Fox Searchlight'12 Years a Slave'
Opens: Oct. 18
The Fox Searchlight film tells the true story of a free black man from upstate New York, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who's sold into slavery and has to fight for his freedom. The Steve McQueen-directed movie also stars Michael Fassbender as a malevolent slave owner and Brad Pitt as a Canadian abolitionist.
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Photo by: Lionsgate'All Is Lost'
Opens: Oct. 18
Robert Redford stars as a resourceful sailor alone at sea who has to confront his own mortality after a collision with a shipping container in director J.C. Chandor's Margin Call follow-up. Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions will release the movie, which was produced by Zachary Quinto's Before the Door Pictures and Teddy Schwarzman's Black Bear Pictures, among other companies.
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Photo by: Twentieth Century Fox'The Counselor'
Opens: Oct. 25
In the Ridley Scott-directed thriller, Michael Fassbender stars as a lawyer who becomes involved in drug trafficking. Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz and Javier Bardem also star. 20th Century Fox will release the pic, which is said to be dedicated to Scott's late brother, Tony Scott.
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'Dallas Buyers Club'
Opens: Nov. 1
Matthew McConaughey reportedly lost nearly 50 pounds to play Texas electrician Ron Woodroof, who smuggled antiviral drugs into the U.S. after being diagnosed with HIV in 1986. Jennifer Garner and Jared Leto co-star in the Focus Features film, which was recently moved up from its original December release date. -
Photo by: Richard Foreman Jr., SMPSP/Summit Entertainment'Ender's Game'
Opens: Nov. 1
Summit's talked-about adaptation has garnered buzz not only for its star-studded cast, which includes Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, Hailee Steinfeld and Abigail Breslin, but for the bizarre, sometimes offensive remarks made by the book's author, Orson Scott Card. The film is set in a futuristic world where children are enlisted in a battle school and trained for war against a malevolent alien race.
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Photo by: Disney/Marvel'Thor: The Dark World'
Opens: Nov. 8
Chris Hemsworth returns as Thor, the larger-than-life, hammer-wielding alien who wins the heart of Natalie Portman in the Marvel sequel Thor: The Dark World. In the next installment, picking up one year after the events of The Avengers, Thor must save the Nine Realms from an old and menacing enemy, while Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba, Zachary Levi, Kat Dennings, Anthony Hopkins, Tadanobu Asano, Rene Russo, Christopher Eccleston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ray Stevenson and Jaimie Alexander all co-star.
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'The Book Thief'
Opens: Nov. 15
Based on the novel by Markus Zusak, the Nazi Germany-set The Book Thief follows Liesel (Sophie Nelisse) as she develops a relationship with her foster parents, played by Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson. 20th Century Fox will release the Brian Percival-directed pic, which has been widely identified as a possible awards contender.
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'The Wolf of Wall Street'
Opens: Nov. 15
Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese join forces for a fifth time with Paramount's The Wolf of Wall Street. Based on Jordan Belfort's memoir of the same name, DiCaprio plays a young New York stockbroker who refuses to cooperate in a large fraud case involving Wall Street corruption. Jonah Hill, Jean Dujardin, Rob Reiner, Kyle Chandler and Matthew McConaughey also star.
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'Delivery Man'
Opens: Nov. 22
Vince Vaughn stars in Delivery Man, Disney's American adaptation of Ken Scott's 2011 French-Canadian film, Starbuck. Scott also directs the new version, in which Vaughn learns that he has fathered over 533 children as a sperm donor.
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Photo by: Paramount Pictures'Nebraska'
Opens: Nov. 22
Alexander Payne's Palme d'Or-nominated Nebraska stars Bruce Dern and Will Forte as a father-son duo who journey from Montana to Nebraska to claim a purported sweepstakes windfall. For his role, Dern earned the best actor award at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
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Photo by: Lionsgate'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire'
Opens: Nov. 22
Jennifer Lawrence returns as Katniss in the second installment of Lionsgate's beloved Hunger Games franchise, based on the best-selling YA novels by Suzanne Collins. Catching Fire picks up where its predecessor left off, with Katniss adjusting to life as a victor. But before long, she and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) are thrust back into the arena to compete against fellow Hunger Games victors for the dreaded Quarter Quell. The sequel sees Francis Lawrence taking over directing duties from Gary Ross.
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Photo by: FilmDistrict'Oldboy'
Opens: Nov. 27
Ten years after South Korea's Oldboy debuted, Spike Lee's remake starring Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen and Sharlto Copley arrives stateside via FilmDistrict. The thriller follows Brolin as a former ad exec suddenly released from 20 years of solitary confinement as he seeks answers surrounding his imprisonment.
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Photo by: The Weinstein Company'Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom'
Opens: Nov. 29
Based on the 1994 book Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom stars Idris Elba as anti-apartheid South African politician Nelson Mandela. Skyfall's Naomie Harris plays Winnie Mandela. The film will debut at the Toronto Film Festival in September, with a proper theatrical release to follow.
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