UNIVERSAL PICTURES Upcoming Films

Universal Pictures has some pretty big things in store for all of you movie lovers this year, and we have the scoop on their upcoming films. So check it out and enjoy!

DREAM HOUSE (SEPT 30th, 2011)

Genre: Suspense thriller
Cast: Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts, Rachel Weisz,Marton Csokas, Elias Koteas, Jane Alexander
Directed by: Jim Sheridan
Written by: David Loucka
Executive Producers: Rick Nicita, Mike Drake
Produced by: James G. Robinson, David Robinson, Daniel Bobker,Ehren Kruger

Some say that all houses have memories. For one man, his home is the place he would kill to forget. Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts and Rachel Weisz star in Dream House, a suspense thriller about a family that unknowingly moves into a home where grisly murders were committed…only to find themselves the killer’s next target.

Successful publisher Will Atenton (Craig) quit a high power job in Manhattan to relocate his wife, Libby (Weisz), and two girls to a quaint New England town. But as they settle into their new life, they discover their perfect home was the murder scene of a mother and her children. And the entire city believes it was at the hands of the husband who survived.

When Will investigates, he’s not sure if he’s starting to see ghosts or if the tragic story is just hitting too close to home. His only clues come from Ann Paterson(Watts), a mysterious neighbor who knew those who were shot. And as Will and Annpiece together the haunting puzzle, they must find out who murdered the family in Will’s dream house before he returns to kill again. www.dreamhousemovie.net

WANDERLUST (OCT 7th, 2011)

Genre: Comedy
Cast: Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston, Justin Theroux,Malin Akerman, Kathryn Hahn, Lauren Ambrose,Ken Marino, Joe Lo Truglio, Kerri Kenney-Silver and Alan Alda
Directed by: David Wain
Written by: Ken Marino & David Wain
Executive Producer: Richard Vane
Produced by: Judd Apatow, Ken Marino, Paul Rudd, David Wain

Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston star in Wanderlust, a comedy from director David Wain (Role Models) and producer Judd Apatow (Knocked Up) about a couple who leaves the pressures of the big city and joins a freewheeling community where the only rule is to be yourself.

George (Rudd) and Linda (Aniston) are an overextended, stressed out Manhattan couple. After George is downsized out of his job, they find themselves with only one option: to move in with George’s awful brother in Atlanta.

On the way there, George and Linda stumble upon Elysium, an idyllic community populated by colorful characters who embrace a different way of looking at things.Money? It can’t buy happiness. Careers? Who needs them? Clothes? Only if you want them.

Is Elysium the fresh start George and Linda need? Or will the change of perspective cause more problems than it solves?

THE THING (OCT 14th, 2011)

Genre: Thriller
Cast: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ulrich Thomsen, Eric Christian Olsen, Trond Espen Seim
Directed by: Matthijs van Heijningen
Written by: Eric Heisserer
Based On The Story “WHO GOES THERE” by: John W. Campbell Jr.
Executive Producers: J. Miles Dale, David Foster
Produced by: Marc Abraham, Eric Newman

Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival when an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists. The shape-shifting creature, accidentally unleashed at this marooned colony, has the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being. It can look just like you or me, but inside, it remains inhuman. In the thriller The Thing, paranoia spreads like an epidemic among a group of researchers as they’re infected, one by one, by a mystery from another planet.

Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has traveled to the desolate region for the expedition of her lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up.

When a simple experiment frees the alien from its frozen prison, Kate must join the crew’s pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time.And in this vast, intense land, a parasite that can mimic anything it touches will pithuman against human as it tries to survive and flourish.

The Thing serves as a prelude to John Carpenter’s classic 1982 film of thesame name. Directed by Matthijs van Heijningen, the thriller is produced byStrike Entertainment’s Marc Abraham and Eric Newman (Dawn of the Dead).www.thethingmovie.net

JOHNNY ENGLISH REBORN (OCT 28th, 2011)

Genre: Comedy spy-thriller
Cast: Rowan Atkinson, Gillian Anderson, Dominic West, Rosamund Pike, Daniel Kaluuya and Richard Schiff
Directed by: Oliver Parker
Story by: William Davies
Screenplay by: Hamish McColl
Executive Producers: Rowan Atkinson, William Davies, Debra Hayward, Liza Chasin
Produced by: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Chris Clark

Rowan Atkinson returns to the role of the improbable secret agent who doesn’t know fear or danger in the comedy spy-thriller Johnny English Reborn.  In his latest adventure, the most unlikely intelligence officer in Her Majesty’s Secret Service must stop a group of international assassins before they eliminate a world leader and cause global chaos.

In the years since MI-7’s top spy vanished off the grid, he has been honing his unique skills in a remote region of Asia.  But when his agency superiors learn of an attempt against the Chinese premier’s life, they must hunt down the highly unorthodox agent.  Now that the world needs him once again, Johnny English is back in action.

With one shot at redemption, he must employ the latest in hi-tech gadgets to unravel a web of conspiracy that runs throughout the KGB, CIA and even MI-7.  With mere days until a heads of state conference, one man must use every trick in his playbook to protect us all.  For Johnny English, disaster may be an option, but failure never is. www.johnny-english.com

TOWER HEIST (NOV 4th, 2011)

Genre: Comedy Caper
Cast: Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Casey Affleck, Alan Alda,Matthew Broderick, Judd Hirsch, Téa Leoni,Michael Peña, Gabourey Sidibe
Directed by: Brett Ratner
Story by: Adam Cooper, Bill Collage & Ted Griffin
Screenplay by: Ted Griffin & Jeff Nathanson
Executive Producer: Bill Carraro, Karen Kehela Sherwood
Produced by: Brian Grazer, Eddie Murphy, Kim Roth

Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy lead an all-star cast in Tower Heist, a comedy caper about working stiffs who seek revenge on the Wall Street swindler who stiffed them.After the workers at a luxury Central Park condominium discover the penthouse billionaire has stolen their retirement, they plot the ultimate revenge: a heist to reclaim what he took from them.

Queens native Josh Kovacs (Stiller) has managed one of the most luxurious and well-secured residences in New York City for more than a decade. Under his watchful eye, nothing goes undetected. In the swankiest unit atop Josh’s building, Wall Street titan Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda) is under house arrest after being caught stealing two billion from his investors. The hardest hit among those he defrauded? The tower staffers whose pensions he was entrusted to manage.

With only days before Arthur gets away with the perfect crime, Josh’s crew turns to petty crook Slide (Murphy) to plan the nearly impossible…to steal what they are sureis hidden in Arthur’s guarded condo. Though amateurs, these rookie thieves know the building better than anyone. Turns out they’ve been casing the place for years,they just didn’t know it.