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While the irreverent indie comedy The Foot Fist Way didn't enjoy quite the success its proponents Will Ferrell and Adam McKay hoped, it did manage to net its director, the North Carolina-bred Hill, a studio deal. Hill's Hollywood debut, Observe & Report, starring Seth Rogen as a delusional mall cop on the trail of an elusive streaker, opens in April.
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A few months ago Zachary Quinto's name might have occupied this spot, but after seeing footage of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot, we're more impressed with Pine's muscular turn as Captain James T. Kirk than Quinto's off-putting impersonation of Spock.
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3DUpping the ante in the ongoing competition for your entertainment dollars, Hollywood has more than a dozen 3D flicks on tap for '09, led by Cameron's Avatar, Dreamworks' Monsters vs. Aliens, and Robert Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol. Likely outgrossing them all, however, will be Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience. And rightfully so -- those boys are talented.
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You might have heard of perky, plucky Roberts already were it not for the underwhelming box-office performance of 2007's tween-oriented Nancy Drew. Undaunted, she returns in 2009 with a more potent arsenal of films: the ensemble comedy Hotel for Dogs, the Sundance drama The Winning Season, and the fish-out-of-water comedy Wild Child.
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Admired more for his abs than his acting ability, Tatum has had difficulty earning respect from anyone outside the Tiger Beat set since first emerging as a piece of dancing eye candy in 2006's Step Up. With roles in major '09 releases G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra, Public Enemies, and Fighting, he may soon be recognized as more than just a poor man's Matthew McConaughey.
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Ronan garnered an Oscar nomination at the ripe old age of 13 for playing a tattletale with a vivid imagination in 2007's period drama Atonement. Her upcoming role as a murder-victim-turned-vengeful-ghost in Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lovely Bones could propel her to Dakota Fanning-esque heights.
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Anime/MangaThe epic demise of Speed Racer couldn't diminish Hollywood's appetite for Japanese imports. Movies based on manga/anime titles slated for release in '09 include Dragonball, Astro Boy, and Ninja Assassin, all of which stand to fare better at the box office than the Wachowskis' much-maligned CGI acid trip.
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Writer-director Johnson successfully mixed old-school noir with teen angst in 2005's Brick. His follow-up, the heist comedy Brothers Bloom, looks like an equally unwieldy combination of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and The Royal Tenenbaums. And yet it somehow works -- just watch the trailer.
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Replacing Amelie's Audrey Tautou in the role of Tom Hanks' attractive, foreign-accented female sidekick in the Da Vinci Code follow-up Angels & Demons, Israeli-born Zurer (Munich) holds a distinct advantage over her predecessor in that she won't have to compete with Hanks' hairstyle for attention.
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If Zack Snyder's troubled adaptation of Watchmen ever does get released, Morgan's turn as the sadistic, jingoistic Comedian, the most polarizing member of Alan Moore's famously dysfunctional cast of retired superheroes, is sure to have audiences talking.
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Honorable Mentions: Sam Worthington, Ginnifer Goodwin, Bollywood, Alex Proyas, Restraint, Malin Akerman, Rhona Mitra, and Patrick Wilson
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