Hollywood's 3 Bs for fall: Bond, Bella, Bilbo

Associated Press
This film image released by Warner Bros., shows Ian McKellen as Gandalf in a scene from the fantasy adventure "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey." (AP Photo/Warner Bros., James Fisher)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The B-list rules Hollywood's fall and holiday movie season: Bond, Bella and Bilbo.






Here's a look at other upcoming highlights:


Adam Sandler's in voice-only mode as Dracula in the animated monster mash "Hotel Transylvania." Joaquin Phoenix stars as a World War II vet mesmerized by a cult leader (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in "The Master." For baseball fans, there's "Trouble with the Curve," starring Clint Eastwood as an old-timer on a scouting trip with his daughter (Amy Adams).

Time-travel geeks can watch Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a hit man trying to snuff his older self (Bruce Willis) in "Looper," also featuring Emily Blunt.

Gordon-Levitt underwent three hours of makeup each day to look more like Willis. He repeatedly watched his co-star's movies and studied Willis' dialogue on his iPod.










A couple of animated tales debut for the holidays: "Wreck-It-Ralph," with John C. Reilly providing the voice of a second-banana video game character striking out on his own; and "Rise of the Guardians," an adventure with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and other mythical beings battling an evil spirit.

"Twilight" has been a rarity for male-oriented Hollywood, a blockbuster franchise aimed almost exclusively at women. Bill Condon, director of the final two "Twilight" movies, recalls studio hand-wringing over "Dreamgirls," his musical that became a hit largely because of female crowds.

"People were so concerned about who was going to go see it," Condon said. "It was like, well, what if you can make a movie that 15-year-old boys don't care about and you still have an audience? That turned out to be true. I think it's exciting when not every movie's got to be aimed at just that one demographic."


"The Hobbit" has some action competition for the holidays in Tom Cruise's "Jack Reacher," with Katie Holmes' ex playing a former military cop investigating a sniper case. Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" stars Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio in a pre-Civil War bounty hunter saga.

Among holiday comedies, Billy Crystal and Bette Midler play grandparents at odds with their daughter (Marisa Tomei) in "Parental Guidance"; Seth Rogen goes on a road trip with his domineering mom (Barbra Streisand) in "The Guilt Trip"; and Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann revisit their marital woes as they reprise their "Knocked Up" characters in Judd Apatow's "This Is 40."

Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway team for a big-screen adaptation of the stage musical "Les Miserables," based on Victor Hugo's classic. A scheduling conflict forced Hathaway out of an earlier movie musical, "The Phantom of the Opera." She now counts it a blessing, saying "Les Miserables" more than compensates.

"I don't know if I would have gotten 'Les Mis' if I had done 'Phantom,'" Hathaway said. "So maybe it was just the universe's way of protecting me and getting to play a superior part."

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