Hollywood's heavy batsman, Harry Potter, has been sidelined for fall, with the sixth adventure about the son wizard transported from its original November release into next summer's schedule.
Good thing the season has a deep bench, with Harry's backup players including James Bond, a heartthrob vampire, those carefree kids from "High School Musical," the yammering menagerie animals from "Madagascar" and a party boy sour president.
A peep at five of fall's must-see flicks:
- "Quantum of Solace": James Bond picks up where he left off in "Casino Royale," in a revengeful mood over the demise of his great love and taking arms against a big guy trying to corner the market place on water. "It literally takes place 20 transactions after `Casino Royale' ends," says Daniel Craig, wHO returns for his second gig as Bond. "We pick the story up obviously with James Bond out for revenge, on a personal vendetta. It then gets more complicated than that."
- "Twilight": Based on the first installment in Stephenie Meyer's best-selling series, this vampire romance centers on a teen (Kristen Stewart) in a love affair with a dazzling bloodsucker (Robert Pattinson) with a just-say-no policy on feeding off humans. "He doesn't want to be a teras, he doesn't want to kill hoi polloi," says director Catherine Hardwicke. "He loves her, but if he gets likewise passionate, he will want her blood. He will want to kill her."
- "High School Musical 3: Senior Year": The Disney Channel sensation comes to the big-screen, reuniting basketball athlete Troy (Zac Efron) and brainiac Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens), along with stage rivals Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) and Ryan (Lucas Grabeel). "The set decoration is insane and beautiful. To think, in the first flick, we only had a ladder," Tisdale says. "Everything's bigger, from details like the closet, because of how large the screen is, and the musical numbers ar so much bigger."
- "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa": Voice stars Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith and David Schwimmer reunite for the farther adventures of zoo animals getting back to nature. The sequel sets up a weird romance between Schwimmer's camelopard and Pinkett Smith's river horse. "He has this crush on her and finally confesses," Schwimmer says. "He believes he's only got a short time to live and that he's come downward with this disease, so he's kind of convinced he's got to arrive up the nerve to tell her how he feels earlier he dies."
- "W.": Oliver Stone has done presidents ahead, No. 37 with "Nixon," No. 35 (or at least the aftermath of his assassination) with "JFK." But with George W. Bush (Josh Brolin), he's having a go at a electric current commander in chief. "We're telling it while he's still in office, which has never been through," says Elizabeth Banks, world Health Organization plays Laura Bush. "The Bush family is a political dynasty. In America, it's the closest thing we have to a political dynasty."
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