Battle of the Oscar hopefuls begins

Traditionally the first eight to ten weeks of any year are notable for the flood of Oscar-worthy, Oscar-nominated and, eventually, Oscar-winning movies at our cinemas.

The coming year is no different with the likes of Lincoln, The Sessions, Zero Dark Thirty and Les Misérables all vying for our attention (or, if you happen to be an Academy member, your vote) and your cash.

Thus 2013 begins strongly with Les Misérables, director Tom (The King’s Speech) Hooper’s big-budget film adaptation of the blockbuster musical.

Hugh Jackman is Jean Valjean and Russell Crowe his nemesis Javert in a film that tops the list of predictions for Oscar glory. Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried co-star as Fantine and Cosette. (Out Jan 11).

Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, with Daniel Day-Lewis portraying the doomed US president, is said by many to be the principal rival to Les Misérables.

A star-studded historical epic it also stars Sally Field, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Hal Holbrook, David Strathairn, James Spader, John Hawkes and Tommy Lee Jones, who is strongly tipped for an Oscar nod as best supporting actor as Thaddeus Stevens. (Out Jan 25).

John Hawkes, the breakthrough male lead in 2010’s Winter’s Bone, is 
rapidly emerging as one of 
the great actors of his generation.

He takes the lead in Ben Lewin’s The Sessions, a provocative real-life story about sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen Greene (played by Helen Hunt) who agrees to help a thirtysomething paralysed polio sufferer in an iron lung (Hawkes as Mark O’Brien) lose his virginity. (Out Jan 18).

Always a quality performer, Anthony Hopkins adds to his gallery of famous faces – Richard Nixon, Pablo Picasso, Adolf Hitler – by playing the Master of Suspense in Hitchcock.

The film, co-starring Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson (as Janet Leigh) and Jessica Biel (as Vera Miles), tells the story behind the making of Psycho.

In this anti-biopic – it’s a love story between Hitch and his wife, Alma (played by Mirren) – Hopkins is barely recognisable under layers of prosthetics.

A quick word for the avalanche of remakes, sequels and comeback vehicles that pepper the release schedule. Comic-book fans should mark their diaries for Kick-Ass 2 on July 19.

That perennial gimmick, 3D, makes an appearance again with the likes of Wreck-It Ralph, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, Despicable Me 2, The Croods, Jack the Giant Slayer and Star Trek Into Darkness.

The exciting news for fans of a certain generation – the ones who are still waiting for their hover-boards as promised by Michael J Fox – ’80s action king Arnold Schwarzenegger, no longer California’s ‘Governator’, returns to his old stamping ground in both The Last Stand (veteran sheriff takes on ruthless drug lord) and The Tomb (security expert is framed and incarcerated in his own escape-proof prison).

The former represents Arnie’s bona fide comeback, the latter his full-on teaming with one-time rival Sylvester Stallone.

Sequels or reboots include the return of John McClane in A Good Day to Die Hard (Feb 14), Robert Downey Jr in Iron Man 3 (April 26), The Hangover Part III (May 24 – should be subtitled ‘Flogging a Dead Horse’) and Man of Steel (June 14), a re-branding of Superman by Zack Snyder that seeks to eclipse 2006’s lacklustre Superman Returns.

This one goes back to basics with Henry Cavill as the titular superhero and a top-line ensemble that includes Russell Crowe as Jor-El, Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent and, best of all, the superb Michael Shannon as Kryptonian über-villain General Zod.

Star Trek Into Darkness boasts Benedict Cumberbatch – rumoured to be playing Khan – alongside Chris Pine and the rest of the returning crew in a sci-fi saga that goes from strength to strength. It’s released on May 17.

Fans of epic fiction may make a beeline for the latest attempt at putting the lavish world of The Great Gatsby on film.

This one – from Baz Luhrmann – stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan and the Bollywood giant that is Amitabh Bachchan as Meyer Wolfsheim.

Luhrmann’s reinterpretation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s book has not been received kindly, nor has his casting. Critics claim he has pillaged the novel for elements that best suit his style – but audiences might want to wait and see it before making their judgements.

Good Vibrations is the story of Terri Hooley, the record shop proprietor who, in Troubles-era Belfast, happened upon a group called The Undertones and took them under his wing.

A modest Irish tale with a real-life eccentric at its core, Good Vibrations is one of the feelgood films of the year with a terrific central performance by Richard Dormer as Terri. Huddersfield actress Jodie Whittaker co-stars as his long-suffering wife.

Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle returns with Trance (Mar 27) in which auctioneer James McAvoy gets embroiled in a plot to recover a lost painting, and Elijah Wood scalps his way through a female cast in a remake of the notorious video nasty Maniac (Mar 15). With Boyle coming off the back of his triumphant direction of the Olympics opening ceremony (plus a pretty good few years in the movies) and with McAvoy almost constantly at the top of his game this should be a seriously impressive team coming together.

The Wachowskis’ latest Cloud Atlas (Feb 22) is a $100m series of interlocking vignettes featuring a 
dizzying line-up of 
megastars – Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon – in multiple roles.

Part sci-fi extravaganza, part Victorian adventure, it is destined to divide audiences, but what do you expect from the man behind The Matrix?

The biggest film of the year? How about World War Z (June 21), the apocalyptic zombie epic starring Brad Pitt? A massive adaptation of Max Brooks’s fragmentary book it is claimed to take zombie movies to an entirely new level.

Johnny Depp is Tonto to Armie Hammer’s Kemosabe in The Lone Ranger (Aug 9), Katniss Everdene returns in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Nov 22), written by Yorkshire’s own Simon Beaufoy, and on December 13 we are treated to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Let’s hope it has more zip than the first instalment…

See you at the movies.