Martin Short, left, and Tim Allen star in "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause," scheduled to open Nov. 3.

By Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

In the preview for "The Departed," Jack Nicholson asks a man sitting at the bar how his mother is. "She's on her way out" is the answer. Nicholson grins slightly, straightens his tie and says, "We all are. Act accordingly."

Perhaps that means not wasting time on movies that are the equivalent of empty calories. As luck and the calendar would have it, we are on the verge of the meatiest movie time of the year: the fall and holiday seasons.

	Kirsten Dunst in "Marie Antoinette." Click photo for larger image.

A new James Bond will be shaking and stirring the megaplexes and some of the most skilled directors in the world -- led by Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood -- will be back, too, with rich ensembles.

As always, dates are subject to change:

SEPT. 15

"The Black Dahlia" -- Brian De Palma directs this fictionalized tale of the 1947 murder of a Hollywood starlet that remains unsolved today. Cast includes Mia Kirshner, Hilary Swank, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart and Josh Hartnett.

"Gridiron Gang" -- A documentary of the same name inspired this feature about a fledgling football program at a juvenile detention camp. The Rock stars.

"The Last Kiss" -- An Italian film of the same name was the inspiration for this comedy-drama about love, infidelity, forgiveness, marriage, friendship and coming to grips with turning 30. Zach Braff heads the cast.

"Trust the Man" -- Writer-director Bart Freundlich and his wife, Julianne Moore, team for the third time with this comedy about love and marriage among modern-day New Yorkers. David Duchovny, Billy Crudup and Maggie Gyllenhaal also star.

"Everyone's Hero" -- Christopher Reeve was the original director of this animated feature, set in Depression-era America, about a 10-year-old who travels across the country to return Babe Ruth's stolen bat before the deciding game of the 1932 World Series.

"House of Sand" -- Fernanda Montenegro, an Oscar nominee for "Central Station," and Fernanda Torres play mother and daughter in this story about three generations of women. From Brazil.

"Drawing Restraint 9" -- Visual artist Matthew Barney and girlfriend Bjork star in an abstract fairy tale set on a Japanese whaling ship.

"Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul" -- Documentary about the musical diversity of Turkey.

SEPT. 22

"All the King's Men" -- A new take on Robert Penn Warren's novel about the rise and fall of a Southern political boss, directed by Steven Zaillian, screenwriter of "Schindler's List." Cast includes Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo, Patricia Clarkson and Anthony Hopkins.

"Jackass: Number Two" -- A photo from this sequel shows Johnny Knoxville in two precarious poses: straddling a snake and wearing a blindfold and red shirt, inches from a charging bull. Supply your own tasteless joke or social commentary now.

"Heading South" -- Charlotte Rampling is among the single, middle-aged tourists who head to Haiti in the late 1970s and enjoy the sexual attention of the locals, only to find themselves caught in the racism, poverty and politics of the place.

"Confetti" -- British comedy following three couples as they duke it out to win a bridal magazine contest for most original wedding of the year.

"Jet Li's Fearless" -- Martial arts master Jet Li tackles the role of kung fu master Huo Yuanjia (1869-1910).

"Feast" -- Horror film about strangers trapped in an isolated tavern, a "Project Greenlight" winner.

SEPT. 23

"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" -- Boston's three-man Devil Music Ensemble, here in September 2005 with "Nosferatu," returns to set the musical tone for the 1920 silent film with John Barrymore. A one-time event at Regent Square Theater, Edgewood.

SEPT. 29

"The Guardian" -- Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher are paired in this story about a famed Coast Guard Rescue swimmer and a cocky rookie who must learn the meaning of heroism and sacrifice.

"Open Season" -- Martin Lawrence speaks for a grizzly bear, leading a cushy life in a garage, who is talked into venturing into the wild. Also with the voices of Kutcher, Gary Sinise and Debra Messing; songs by Paul Westerberg.

"The Science of Sleep" -- Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind") wrote and directed this romantic fantasy set inside the brain of an eccentric young man whose dreams constantly invade his waking life. Gael Garcia Bernal stars.

"School for Scoundrels" -- Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Heder team up in this comedy about a dejected traffic cop who enrolls in a confidence-building class.

"Half Nelson" -- Ryan Gosling is a junior high school teacher who is brilliant, dynamic and in control in his Brooklyn classroom and a drug addict outside.

"Flyboys" -- Young Americans take to the air in the earliest days of World War I; James Franco is among its cast.

OCT. 4

"Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning" -- Jordana Brewster is among the stars of this prequel exploring the origins of the Leatherface character.

OCT. 6

"The Departed" -- If the movie lives up to the promise of the preview, we're in for a treat. Martin Scorsese directs this crime drama starring Jack Nicholson as a gangland chief in South Boston, Leonardo DiCaprio as an undercover cop in the mob and Matt Damon as a criminal who has infiltrated the police department.

"Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker" -- Anthony Horowitz's teenage spy, Alex Rider (Alex Pettyfer), comes to the big screen. Ewan McGregor plays his uncle and Mickey Rourke is a sinister billionaire.

"The U.S. vs. John Lennon" -- A look at Lennon's transformation from musician to anti-war activist to iconic inspiration for peace that also reveals why and how the U.S. government tried to silence him.

"Employee of the Month" -- Jessica Simpson returns to the big screen as a new cashier at a high-volume, bulk-discount retailer with a reputation of only dating "Employee of the Month" winners.

OCT. 13

"Infamous" -- For the second year in a row, fall will bring a Truman Capote movie, this time starring Toby Jones as the diminutive writer, Sandra Bullock as Nelle Harper Lee, Daniel Craig as Perry Smith and Jeff Daniels as lawman Alvin Dewey.

"Man of the Year" -- Robin Williams is a talk-show host, known for skewering politicians, who ignites a grass-roots movement to put him on the ballot for U.S. president.

"The Grudge 2" -- Judging from the preview, Sarah Michelle Gellar (star of the first movie, a blockbuster) is killed off, leaving Amber Tamblyn to battle the supernatural curse.

"The Marine" -- WWE champ John Cena makes his movie debut as a Marine who returns home from Iraq and springs into action when his wife is kidnapped.

"Al Franken: God Spoke" -- The makers of "The War Room" turn their cameras on Franken and in the course of two years track him from his feud with Bill O'Reilly to his campaign against President Bush in 2004.

OCT. 20

"Flags of Our Fathers" -- An iconic photo, a couple of Oscar winners (director Clint Eastwood, writer Paul Haggis) and a best-selling book provide the backbone of this film about the five Marines and Navy corpsman who raised the American flag at Iwo Jima. Ensemble includes Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford, Adam Beach and Paul Walker.

"Marie Antoinette" -- Sofia Coppola wrote and directed this adaptation of Antonia Fraser's book about the teen queen, played by Kirsten Dunst, with Jason Schwartzman cast as her fiance, then husband, Louis XVI.

"The Prestige" -- Director Christopher Nolan reunites with Christian Bale and Michael Caine and welcomes Hugh Jackman in this story of an intense rivalry between magicians in turn-of-the-century London.

"Flicka" -- Alison Lohman and Tim McGraw play daughter and father in this contemporary adaptation of Mary O'Hara's novel, "My Friend Flicka." She dreams of working on her father's Wyoming ranch and he wants her to go to college.

"Lunacy" -- Animator and surrealist Jan Svankmajer serves up a movie message with a stew of severed animal tongues, loose eyeballs and errant brains.

"Starter for Ten" -- A romantic comedy, set in the mid-1980s, about a working-class young man and aspiring quiz-show contestant who plans to win over a woman with his knowledge skills.

"Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in Disney Digital 3D" -- Title says it all.

OCT. 27

"Running With Scissors" -- Joseph Cross stars in this movie based on the memoirs of Augusten Burroughs. Alec Baldwin is his alcoholic father and Annette Bening is his bipolar mother, an unpublished poet with delusions of becoming famous.

"Saw III" -- If it's Halloween it must be time for another sick installment of "Saw." But Donnie Wahlberg, who helped to make the second movie barely tolerable, is gone. This time, Jigsaw has disappeared and Shawnee Smith is his new apprentice.

"Catch a Fire" -- Derek Luke stars in the real-life story of Patrick Chamusso, an oil-refinery employee and soccer player who is apolitical until he and his wife are brutalized by government-sanctioned terror squads. Shot in Johannesburg, Capetown and Mozambique.

ALSO IN OCTOBER

"The Last King of Scotland" -- A Scottish doctor (James McAvoy) on a Ugandan medical mission becomes irreversibly entangled with Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) who chooses him as his personal physician and confidant.

"Little Children" -- Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson and Jennifer Connelly star in an adaptation of the Tom Perrotta novel about people whose lives intersect in surprising and potentially dangerous ways.

"Keeping Mum" -- Maggie Smith is a housekeeper who gives new meaning to the term cleaning house in this movie about an absent-minded vicar (Rowan Atkinson) of a rural parish and his family travails.

"Shortbus" -- Sexually adventurous film about New Yorkers who meet at an underground salon called Shortbus. From John Cameron Mitchell ("Hedwig and the Angry Inch").

"D.O.A.: Dead or Alive" -- Video-game adaptation with an ensemble that includes Jaime Pressly and Eric Roberts, along with Aussie pop star Holly Valance.

NOV. 3

"The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause" -- Merry Frostmas? That's what Jack Frost (Martin Short) wants as he covets the job held by the jolly man in the red suit and white beard. Tim Allen returns as Santa, for the third time since 1994.

"Flushed Away" -- Computer-animated movie about a pampered pet mouse (voice of Hugh Jackman) who is accidentally flushed into the bustling world below the streets of London.

"Borat" -- Sacha Baron Cohen ("Da Ali G Show") takes his outrageous Kazakhstani reporter character Borat to the big screen.

"Renaissance" -- Paris in the year 2054 provides the backdrop for this film, which uses live-action motion capture, animated in 3-D and rendered in high contrast black and white to mimic a graphic novel come to life. A cop (Daniel Craig) is on the trail of a scientist whose company exports eternal youth and beauty.

NOV. 10

"A Good Year" -- Russell Crowe is a London-based investment expert who moves to Provence to sell a small vineyard he inherited from his uncle. He encounters a California woman who also lays claim to the property, in this adaptation of Peter Mayle's novel.

"Babel" -- A tragic incident involving an American couple in Morocco sparks a chain of events for four families throughout the world in this ensemble film with Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael Garcia Bernal.

"Stranger Than Fiction" -- Fiction and reality collide in this comedy starring Emma Thompson as a novelist struggling to complete her latest book, once she kills off her main character, Harold Crick. But, inexplicably, Harold (Will Ferrell) is alive and aware of her words in this comedy.

"The Queen" -- Helen Mirren stars as Queen Elizabeth II in this portrait of the royal family immediately after the death of Princess Diana.

"Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus" -- Nicole Kidman plays the influential photographer in a film inspired by Patricia Bosworth's biography of Arbus.

NOV. 17

"Casino Royale" -- It's back to the future for Bond, James Bond, with Daniel Craig as 007 and Mads Mikkelsen as the villain in this adaptation of Ian Fleming's first Bond book. Judi Dench, Eva Green and Jeffrey Wright also star.

"For Your Consideration" -- Writer-director Christopher Guest spoofs actors and Oscar fever, with the help of stars Catherine O'Hara, Harry Shearer, Parker Posey and many of his regular players in this comedy co-written by Eugene Levy.

"Happy Feet" -- Animated comedy adventure about a penguin (Elijah Wood) who cannot sing, which means he may not be able to attract a mate, but he can tap dance. Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman talk, Savion Glover tap dances.

"The Return" -- Sarah Michelle Gellar plays a tough Midwesterner trying to learn the truth about her increasingly terrifying supernatural visions.

"Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny" -- A look at how the Jack Black-Kyle Gass band became the self-proclaimed greatest on earth.

"Slow Burn" -- Ray Liotta is a big-city district attorney who has hours to figure out the truth about a homicide involving one of his assistants, who is claiming self defense.

NOV. 22

"Deja Vu" -- An FBI agent travels back in time to save a woman from being murdered and falls in love with her in the process. Denzel Washington and Paula Patton star.

"Deck the Halls" -- Talk about your odd couple. Danny DeVito moves into Matthew Broderick's neighborhood and creates havoc with plans to create a holiday light display so big, it's visible from outer space.

"The Fountain" -- Hugh Jackman plays a 16th-century conquistador, a modern-day scientist and a 26th-century astronaut, struggling through time and space to save the woman he loves. Rachel Weisz and Ellen Burstyn co-star.

"The Hoax" -- Richard Gere plays Clifford Irving, who was sentenced to federal prison for defrauding McGraw-Hill Inc. of $750,000 by selling them a faked autobiography of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes.

"Let's Go to Prison" -- Nothin' says Thanksgiving entertainment like a comedy set in prison about showering with thugs, drinking toilet wine and sharpening shivs. Bob Odenkirk ("Mr. Show") directs and Dax Shepard, Will Arnett and Chi McBride star.

NOV. 23

"Bobby" -- Writer-director Emilio Estevez uses a mix of 22 fictional characters to tell the story of the 1968 night when Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed at the Ambassador Hotel.

NOV. 24

"Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles" -- Zhang Yimou film about a father who attempts to reconcile with his estranged son, dying of cancer, and finds himself tracking down a folk opera in rural China.

"American Hardcore" -- Inspired by the Steven Blush book, this documentary examines punk rock in America from 1980 to 1986 and how it shaped rock music and culture.

ALSO IN NOVEMBER

"Fast Food Nation" -- Eric Schlosser's book has been turned into a dramatic feature starring Greg Kinnear as a marketing executive at a fast-food chain who embarks on a tour of feedlots, slaughterhouses and strip malls as word surfaces that the burger meat is contaminated.

"Deliver Us From Evil" -- A former CBS News producer persuaded a remorseless, defrocked priest named Oliver O'Grady to participate in the making of her documentary about his decades of sexual abuse in Northern California.

"Tideland" -- Terry Gilliam directs this adaptation of Mitch Cullin's novel about a girl who escapes from the harsh reality of her childhood into her active imagination. Jeff Bridges and Jodelle Ferland star.

DEC. 1

"The Nativity Story" -- Keisha Castle-Hughes, an Oscar nominee for "Whale Rider," stars as Mary in this retelling of the story of the birth of Jesus. The cast also includes Oscar Isaac and Shoreh Aghdashloo.

"Bug" -- Psychological thriller directed by William Friedkin, starring Ashley Judd as a lonely, fearful waitress and based on the Tracy Letts off-Broadway play of the same name.

DEC. 8

"The Holiday" -- In a plot that seems lifted from reality TV, two women from opposite sides of the globe meet on the Internet and swap houses for the Christmas holiday. From chick flick writer-director Nancy Meyers ("Something's Gotta Give," "What Women Want").

"Apocalypto" -- And the star of "What Women Want," Mel Gibson, directs this story set during the end times of the Mayan civilization. No matter what, its box office will be seen as a referendum on Gibson, now on probation for DUI.

"Unaccompanied Minors" -- When a blizzard shuts down an airport, five "unaccompanied minors" run wild inside and outside, trying to outwit officials played by Lewis Black and Wilmer Valderrama.

DEC. 15

"The Pursuit of Happyness" -- If the film is half as moving as the "20/20" report on Chris Gardner, this could be a holiday sensation. Will Smith, starring alongside his son Jaden, plays the real-life homeless dad who became a millionaire stockbroker.

"Eragon" -- Adaptation of the Christopher Paolini novel about a farm boy becomes the last of the Dragon Riders in a fantasy adventure.

"Blood Diamond" -- Chaos and civil war in 1990s Sierra Leone set the stage for the search for a rare pink diamond in this drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou and Jennifer Connelly.

"The Painted Veil" -- Naomi Watts, Edward Norton and Liev Schrieber star in this story, based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham, about a British couple who find love amid a cholera epidemic in 1925 China.

DEC. 20

"Charlotte's Web" -- Julia Roberts and Dakota Fanning lead the ensemble in this adaptation of the best-selling children's book by E.B. White.

DEC. 22

"We Are Marshall" -- Matthew McConaughey plays a young coach determined to rebuild Marshall University's football program after a devastating plane crash killed 75 people in this movie inspired by real events.

"Night at the Museum" -- Milan Trenc's book for young readers is turned into a movie starring Ben Stiller as a security guard at a museum of natural history where the dinosaur skeletons and exhibits come to frightening life during his graveyard shift.

"The Good Shepherd" -- Robert De Niro directs and stars alongside Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie in this espionage drama about a Yale student who goes from the Skull and Bones to the precursor to the CIA during World War II.

DEC. 25

"Children of Men" -- Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine star in a thriller set in London in a time, one generation from now, when the world has fallen into anarchy on the heels of an infertility defect in the population.

"Black Christmas" -- A sorority house is terrorized by a killer who makes frightening phone calls before murdering the sisters during Christmas break.

DEC. 29

"Pan's Labryinth" -- A fascist regime in 1944 Spain provides the backdrop for this story of a dreamy girl living with her mother and adoptive father, a military officer charged with ridding the area of rebels.

ALSO IN DECEMBER

"Dreamgirls" -- Jennifer Hudson is already generating Oscar buzz for this adaptation of the Broadway musical that also stars Academy Award-winner Jamie Foxx, Beyonce Knowles, Danny Glover, Eddie Murphy and Anika Noni Rose.

TBA

"Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing" -- Documentary tracking the female recording artists as they pay the price, literally and figuratively, for an anti-Bush comment.

"Breaking & Entering" -- Anthony Minghella wrote and directed this story about theft, criminal and emotional, starring Jude Law as a landscape architect whose state-of-the-art offices in a seedy part of town are repeatedly burglarized.

"Venus" -- Peter O'Toole and Leslie Phillips play veteran actors whose comfortable routine is interrupted and illuminated by the arrival of a grand-niece.

"The History Boys" -- Alan Bennett's Tony Award-winning play -- about politics, history, class and growing up -- makes the leap to screen.

"Candy" -- The title of the source novel ("Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction") meant the narrator's girlfriend and heroin. Heath Ledger, an Oscar nominee for "Brokeback Mountain," stars with Abbie Cornish and Geoffrey Rush.