An iconic monster is resuscitated, and the industry is wondering: How will this measured approach to horror filmmaking translate with modern audiences? It's been a guessing game for Universal, who took it off the spring 09 calendar at the end of 2008, then moved it to VDay 2010 toward the end of summer 2009 -- the holiday is typically kind to horror films, however and I feel like Benicio Del Toro will be the pop-culture talk of the season. Mostly I hope that the picture will rekindle the movie-going public's affection for Emily Blunt (ditto Agent Smith, who plays the role of Det. Aberline, which was not a part of the 1941 original).

New Line Cinema, working for Warner Bros. here, looks to repeat their He's Just Not That Into You success by hauling that movie's formula across country. The project lost Katherine Heigl in transport but replaced her with every other top actress who was not in the aforementioned movie. Can we hope for a little edge and unexpected plot turns here? Maybe a "hard PG-13"?

Harry Potter is going out of business, and Hollywood still hasn't found his successor. The Lightning Thief is book one in Rick Riordan's series of five proper novels to date; can Philsopher's Stone director Chris Columbus put this franchise into motion? The young adult in all of us could use a new hero, and Columbus's career needs a renaissance as well.

I wonder how much longer it will take for Bollywood film to permanently lodge itself in American box office's top 10. Khan is poised to be the next big crossover hit what with the long-awaited reunion of performers Shahrukh Khan and Kajol, the Indian and American arms of Twentieth Century Fox ponying up for production and distribution costs, and a thematic range that focuses less on post-9/11 fears and more on relationships between individuals, between a man and his State, and between a man and his chosen country.