Movie Season Gets Dramatic With Blockbusters, Oscar Contenders

He predicts further shuffling. "I'm hearing that some films may be getting back into the season because there are so few movies in play."

Broadway to Oscar?

Among the prestige films with high Oscar hopes are two adaptations of popular Broadway plays: Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman as a dueling nun and priest in the drama Doubt, and Michael Sheen and Frank Langella as a dueling reporter and ex-president in Frost/Nixon.

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Intimate films such as The Wrestler, with Mickey Rourke as a struggling brawler, and Slumdog Millionaire, about a poor Indian kid competing in the regional version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, are shaping up to be strong competitors.

Several star-powered studio vehicles also are lining up for the gold, including Seven Pounds, with Will Smith as a mysterious man trying to give away everything for a chance at redemption; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, with Brad Pitt as a man who ages backward; and Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino, about a racist retiree who grapples with his prejudice in a gang-infested neighborhood.

Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio reunite for the first time since Titanic in Revolutionary Road.

A Time to Experiment

Jeff Bock, box-office tracker for Exhibitor Relations, says this is the time of year when stars try more unusual roles.

"If you're Will Smith," he says, "this is when you do a film that pushes you as an artist or is closer to your heart."

Or closer to your homeland. Three Aussies — Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, and filmmaker Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!) — have teamed up for Australia.

"It looks like a throwback to enjoyable moviemaking and escapism," Bock says of the epic-sized romance. "Maybe this is Baz's Titanic."