Trek to shine in 2009

By Robbie Collin

IT'S time for my annual, frothy-mouthed round-up of the most exciting films on the horizon.

And, unless we get a Zombie Strippers sequel, these are the 16 most likely contenders to do the business at the box office in the next year.

Check out all the trailers below.

STAR TREK (ETA: 8 May)

LOST and Cloverfield director JJ Abrams retools the classic sci-fi series as a swashbuckling adventure.

Zachary Quinto, who plays Sylar in Heroes on TV, stars as Spock, Simon Pegg is Scotty and Eric Bana is the evil Romulan captain they do battle with. Looks very special.

TOM Cruise returns as leading man in this historical drama about a German plot to assassinate Hitler. Release has been delayed for ages, but the buzz from previews is that this is pretty decent.

GRAN TORINO (ETA: 20 Feb)

CLINT Eastwood has somehow found the time to knock out two films over the last year, and this looks even better than Changeling. It's about a grumpy Korean War vet (Eastwood himself) struggling to get along with his Asian neighbour. Classic 70s sports cars AND simmering racial resentment? Yes please!

WATCHMEN (ETA: 6 March)

ZACK '300' Snyder adapts the cult superhero fable for the big screen. I've seen about 30 minutes of this already, and it's impressive, if hugely ambitious.

Could be a megabucks folly, could be the best blockbuster of the year.

MARLEY & ME (ETA: 13 March)

JENNIFER Aniston's never looked better - and yes, we're specifically talking about that GQ cover - so her long-awaited return to romcoms could be a belter, specifically cos Owen Wilson is also involved. Warning: also contains a cute puppy.

ANGELS & DEMONS (ETA: 15 May)

KEENLY-awaited sequel to 2006's The Da Vinci Code sees Tom Hanks return as Robert Langdon to crack a terror plot against the Vatican. Ewan McGregor co-stars.

BRUNO (ETA: 29 May)

EVEN more keenly-awaited sequel to 2006's smash hit comedy Borat.

Sacha Baron Cohen winds up Americans by pretending to be a gay Austrian. Is nice!

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (ETA: June)

HOLD yer emailing horses, that's how it's supposed to be spelled. Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino team up for a gory WWII epic about a Jewish team of Nazi hunters. Prediction: Gore-a-licious.

TERMINATOR: SALVATION (ETA: 5 June)

METALLIC, emotionless face, robotic voice . . . and, hey, that was just Arnie.

Now the killer robo-franchise is back, with the excellent Christian Bale as an adult John Connor who battles the Terminator army.

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN (ETA: 26 June)

SHIA LaBeouf and Megan Fox reunite with Optimus Prime and chums for more implausible robotic mayhem.

As the only film critic on the planet who loved the original, I'm pretty damn excited by this.

PUBLIC ENEMIES (ETA: 3 July)

THIS take on the true story of 1930s gangster John Dillinger wouldn't be worthy of a mention here, were it not for the involvement of three people-Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Michael Mann. This. Cannot. Fail.

2012 (ETA: 10 July)

FROM the director of Independence Day comes a new movie about the end of the world. This time it's something to do with a giant flood. Details are scarce but if there's one trailer on this list worth watching on our website, it's this. There's something very eerie about the massive scale of it.

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE (ETA: 17 July)

BEING brutally honest, the Potter films have been a bit hit and miss-but the hyper-moody new trailer, backed by a thumping orchestral version of the theme tune, looks very promising. Inevitably, this will be 2009's biggest film.

FAME (ETA: 25 September)

UPDATE of the classic 80s legwarmers and taxi-dancing extravaganza, just in time to soak up a new generation of High School Musical fans. So desperate to be next year's Mamma Mia!, it's unreal.

SHERLOCK HOLMES (ETA: 20 November)

AGAINST all expectations, Rocknrolla was great, so my hopes are high for Guy Ritchie's take on the pipe-smoking, wacky hat-wearing Victorian detective. And Robert Downey Jr as the titular 'tec can only be a good thing.

AVATAR (ETA: 18 December)

TWELVE long years after Titanic, director James Cameron returns to feature films with a shadowy, mega-budget 3D sci-fi project that COULD make cr*p plastic glasses the norm for blockbuster entertainment. Not much known at this stage but with Cameron in charge it's bound to be epic.

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