Everyone’s favourite fantasy figure Angelina Jolie may be wasted in this week’s The Good Shepherd, and may have been seen in the tabloids more often than on screen in the last couple of years, but that’s hopefully set to change.

She’s next up doing full-on “proper” acting in A Mighty Heart, following the efforts of the wife of murdered Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl to find out precisely how her husband ended up being beheaded on camera by Islamist fanatics back in 2002. then she’s on voice duties as the voice of the mother of the monster Grendel in the much-anticipated adaptation of the Dark Age poem Beowulf, starring Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins and a host of other top-notch actors, with more voice duties following in the animated comedy Kung-Fu Panda, alongside Jack Black, Jackie Chan, Dustin Hoffman and Lucy Liu, before switching back to drama for the Ayn Rand adaptation Atlas Shrugged, possibly alongside her real-world lover and father of her ultra-famous baby, Brad Pitt.

Kidman continues to pick interesting and promising projects, with this week’s fun animated musical Happy Feet yet another impressive entry to her eclectic CV. Despite her 40th approaching looming (on 20th June 2007), she’s busier than ever, bucking the trend of Hollywood actresses finding themselves out of work as their forties come near.

Next year will see three interesting projects for the Aussie beauty. The Invasion, starring alongside new Bond Daniel Craig, will see her play a psychatrist who uncovers an alien invasion - and the key, lying in her critically ill son. Then will come the highly promising - but as yet untitled - new film from Noah Baumbach, the writer/director responsible for brilliantly quirky outings The Squid and the Whale and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. Little is yet known other than that it is a comedy drama revolving around a weekend family reunion, and will star Kidman alongside the likes of Jack Black, Jennifer Jason Leigh and John Turturro.

Kidman will also be re-teaming with directos she’s had some success with before. First up is Headhunters, from a script from Birthday Girl writer/director Jez Butterworth, following a group of women from New Jersey who head to Monte Carlo to land rich husbands. Then - and almost certain to have more potential - will come the latest project from Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann, Australia. Set during World War II, Kidman will play an Australian heiress who sets out on a cattle-drive roughneck rancher Hugh Jackman, only to get embroiled in a Japanese invasion.

Most likely to buy a few more fancy designer dresses, however, is bound to be the His Dark Materials triology, the first instalment of which, Northern Lights (or The Golden Compass if you’re in America), should be out around Christmas 2007. Adapted from the bestselling (and really rather good) Philip Pullman novels, Kidman will play the scheming Miss Coulter in all three movies, again alongside Daniel Craig as the dashing Lord Asriel.

UK release date: 8th December

Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet headline this romantic comedy for the festive season. Watching it is like unwrapping an attractively packed gift only to discover it’s socks again.

Writer/director Nancy Meyers should have observed the advice of her previous film, Something’s Gotta Give, and let a few scenes go. She spends far too much time lingering on humdrum episodes such as Diaz and Winslet emailing each other to arrange a house swap for the holidays. They’re both fleeing the fallout of broken relationships, but inevitably hopping across the pond leads both of them to unexpected romance.

Diaz and Jude Law make a fairly engaging couple, although sadly the early stages of their relationship are clumsily knitted together, while Winslet and Jack Black remain an awkward pairing throughout. But the film’s funny moments are as thinly scattered as the English snow, which mysteriously keeps appearing and disappearing throughout the movie.

Radio Times rating:

**

UK cinema certificate 12A
Running time 135mins

Review by Stella Papamichael

Like his The Holiday co-stars Kate Winslet and Jude Law, Jack Black’s also had a fair few films out recently, so his latest news can be found here.

The veteran star may well have been taking smaller roles in recent years, as in this week’s supporting turn in Stranger Than Fiction, but looks all set to return to the leading parts which should be his by right - he’s even talked about his desire to do sequels to his early hits The Graduate and Tootsie - though to what extent he was joking remains somewhat unclear, as he’s also recently said that he’d like to be the next James Bond…

Next up is Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, based on the novel by Patrick Süskind. Set in 18th century France, the film follows a young man with an extraordinary sense of smell who, having apprenticed himself to Hoffman’s master perfume-maker, embarks on a killing-spree in pursuit of the ultimate scent. It is set for release on Boxing Day.

Due in July 2007, Hoffman will take the title role in the entertainingly-named Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium. As the 243-year-old owner of the world’s most wonderful toy store hands over his business to his nervous manager, played by Natalie Portman, there may well be a fair few Charlie and the Chocolate Factory parallels. But, directed as it is by the writer of the distinctly unusual Stranger Than Fiction, there’s bound to be more to it than that…

Then, in 2008, Hoffman will try his hand at animated comedy, providing voice duties on two big-budget, all-star cast extravaganzas featuring - as seems to be the rule with CGI films these days - a bunch of oddball talking animals. First will come Kung-Fu Panda, alongside Angelina Jolie, Jack Black, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu and Ian McShane, and then The Tale of Despereaux, from Corpse Bride co-director Mike Johnson, alongside Robbie Coltrane, Kevin Kline, Christopher Lloyd, William H Macy, Tracey Ullman, Sigourney Weaver and Justin Long.

Hardly much that could land him another Oscar for the shelf, but still - not bad.

UK release date: 24th November

Jack Black’s twin careers as actor and rock musician merge in this fantastical tale of his band’s humble beginnings and the search for the demonic guitar pick that will turn them into rock gods. He’s joined in the quest by fellow Tenacious D band member Kyle Gass, and ropes in cameos from real-life rock gods Meat Loaf (as his dad), Ronnie James Dio (as his heavy metal muse) and Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters (as Satan!).

If those names mean nothing to you, then this is probably a movie to miss. But if they do, or if you’re a Jack Black fan, then this may well float your boat. It’s an over-the-top and endearingly self-indulgent slice of Spinal Tap-style self-mythologising that sadly, after a wildly funny start, rather runs out of comic steam.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 94mins

Review by David Aldridge

The tubby star of this week’s Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny has gone from second-fiddle sidekick in 2000’s High Fidelity to global superstardom in less than half a decade, so little wonder he’s making the most of it, with a whole slew of projects in the offing. Next up he’ll be seen (perhaps somewhat implausibly) as Kate Winslet’s love interest in romantic comedy The Holiday, due out on 8th December in the UK, with loads more due in the next few years.

Potentially promising is the as-yet untitled project from Noah Baumbach, writer of the superb The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and writer/director of Oscar-nominated The Squid and the Whale, which will follow a family reunion over the course of a weekend. With Baumbach in charge, it’s impossible to predict what the outcome might be.

Then will come the much-anticipated Be Kind Rewind from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry, with Black desperately trying to re-make movies from Back to the Future to The Lion King for a friend’s video store after accidentally wiping his entire stock. And talking of talking animals flicks, Black will aslo voice the lead character in the upcoming Dreamworks flick Kung Fu Panda, alongside the vocal talents of the likes of Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu, Ian McShane and Jackie Chan. He is also attached to Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright’s Them, and adaptation of the non-fiction book by journalist Jon Ronson, exploring the wacky (and sometimes downright worrying) world of conspiracy theorists. With Wright and Black on board, it’s unlikely this is going to be a straight piece of reportage, however…

Meanwhile, his semi-spoof band Tenacious D seems to be continuing with its tours and occasional gigs - so keep an eye out, and you could catch a sight of Black in the flesh…

Due out on 3rd November, All the King’s Men star Kate Winslet’s performance in Little Children has been earning her fresh Oscar buzz - perhaps it will be fifth time lucky, after nominations for 1995’s Sense and Sensibility, 1997’s Titanic, 2002’s Iris and last year’s The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Playing a married mother who ends up exploring the highs and lows of infidelity, reports from the film festival circuit suggest this is one of her most powerful performances, even if the actress herself has since complained about the graphic nature of the sex scenes, telling reporters “I must remember not to do this ever again”.

She will later crop up doing voice work on the Aardman rat-based animation Flushed Away - out on 1st December - and the animated Shakespeare adaptation Gnomeo and Juliet (due 2008), as well as in the flesh alongside Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Rufus Sewell and Jack Black in The Holiday, due on 8th December this year.

While not appearing in the gossip sections of the tabloids over the latest rumours about his relationship with rising starlet Sienna Miller, All the King’s Men’s Law has been a busy boy, having taken most of last year off. First up is The English Patient and The Talented Mr Ripley director Anthony Minghella’s Breaking and Entering where, alongside Juliet Binoche, Ray Winstone, Martin Freeman and his King’s Men co-star Sean Penn’s wife Robin Wright Penn, Law will play a landscape architect to starts to reassess his life after a run-in with a young burglar.

Next up will be The Holiday, where Law’s King’s Men co-star Kate Winslett plays an unluck-in-love woman who does a house-swap with an equally unfortunate woman, played by Cameron Diaz, in an attempt to turn her life around. Law plays one of the bits of male eye-candy, alongside Rufus Sewell and, somewhat implausibly, scruffy tubster Jack Black.

After a small role in cult Chinese director Wong Kar-Wai’s American road trip movie My Blueberry Nights, hopefully due out in the UK sometime late next year, Law’s most promising – and at the same time most worrying – upcoming project is Sleuth. Starring alongside Michael Caine – who seems to have forgiven Law for destroying his classic character Alfie in the abysmal 2004 remake – this is yet another remake of a British classic, the 1972 flick of the same name in which the younger Caine entered a battle of wits with Laurence Olivier over a marital infidelity. We can but hope that yet more cinematic memories aren’t soiled in the process…

Still much-loved for his turns in the Lethal Weapons films, playing Barnyard’s Miles the Mule must have been a nice break for Danny glover, who’srarely away from the front of the camera these days. He’s already completed one other movie, while two others are in post-production, three more are currently filming, and yet another two are in pre-production. Quite how many see the light of day, however, we can but wait and see…

Most promising, from advance buzz at least, is likely Dream Girls, due out in the UK at the start of February 2007, where Glover will appear alongside Afro-American Hollywood bigwigs Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy and pop princess Beyonce Knowles, set around a ficitional 1960s black female three-piece singing group based heavily on Diana Ross and the Supremes. The stage version has been running since 1981 - and it’s just possible that Dream Girls could immitate Chicago’s successful transition to the big screen.

Glover has also got a role in the next film from Michel “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” Gondry, the Jack Black-starring Be Kind Rewind, following the travails of two movie store clerks who accidentally wipe their entire stock, and so have to recreate famous flicks for their most loyal customer. It could be genius, it could be nonsense. hard to say this early.

He will also crop up in the Marky Mark Wahlberg-starring actioner Shooter for King Arthur director Antoine Fuqua (due May 2007 in the UK), with Glover playing the lengthily-named Colonel Isaac Fitzsimmons Johnson. That is almost certain to be mindless nonsense, but could nonetheless make a packet from those of us who like our action flicks big and mindless…

Despite now being comfortably into his fifties and having broken pretty much every bone in his body at some point or another, Hong Kong’s biggest star continues to churn out action flick after action flick, and still insists on doing all his own stunts. He has already completed work on two more Hong Kong movies since this week’s New Police Story wrapped, and is currently filming two more - this time English language - flicks.

The first of the Cantonese films was period-piece The Myth (yet to be scheduled for release in the UK), an unusual choice for Chan as he normally prefers present-day locations for his kung-fu antics, then Rob-B-Hood, again for New Police Story director Benny Chan, with Chan on more familiar action/comedy ground as a thief forced to cope with looking after a baby. It too has yet to be scheduled for a UK release.

Of his English-language movies in the works, the third installment of his popular Rush Hour series, due next summer, will doubtless be more of the same silly banter as he does all the fighting as he and the wisecracking Chris Tucker get mixed up with a bunch of Chinese Triads in - of all places - Paris. Giving himself a bit of a break, Chan is also voicing “Master Monkey” in the promising-sounding Kung Fu Panda, alongside Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu, Ian McShane and Angelina Jolie, due July 2008.