By Peter T. Chattaway

The ‘heaven help us’ edition

It must be something in the air. Some of the biggest films coming out during the first few months of the new year will apparently revolve around ancient Greek gods, post-apocalyptic settings, fantastic creatures and other subjects that touch on biblical and supernatural themes. But don’t worry, we will also see our share of more down-to-earth thrillers, war movies, romances and historical dramas.

Here are some noteworthy films on the horizon. As always, release dates are subject to change.

The Book of Eli (January 15) stars Denzel Washington – another actor who has talked about his faith – as a man who roams a post-apocalyptic wilderness, protecting a sacred book that could hold the key to saving humanity. Like Legion, the film will feature its fair share of R-rated violence. Mila Kunis and Gary Oldman co-star.

The Lovely Bones (January 15). Peter Jackson’s first movie since King Kong is this adaptation of the Alice Sebold novel about a teenage girl (Atonement’s Saoirse Ronan) who watches from heaven after she has been raped and murdered by a serial killer (Stanley Tucci). Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz play the girl’s parents.

Creation (January 22) stars real-life couple Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as evolutionary scientist Charles Darwin and his devoutly Christian wife Emma, and it is based on a book about Charles’ crisis of faith written by the Darwins’ great-great-grandson Randal Keynes. (Trivia note: Keynes’ son Skandar plays Edmund in the Narnia movies.) The film was released to British theatres a few months ago, and the Christian website Damaris.org has created some useful resources for discussing it.

Legion (January 22) also stars Bettany, this time as the archangel Michael, in an end-of-the-world thriller that takes enormous liberties with what we might call a biblical view of the end times. (Among other things, Michael fights off other angels with a machine gun to protect a waitress who may be pregnant with the messiah.) The movie may be a theological mess, but a few of the actors – including Dennis Quaid and Doug Jones – have talked openly about their Christian faith in the past, so presumably they saw something worthwhile in the storyline here.

Dear John (February 5) is the latest romance based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook, A Walk to Remember). This one stars Channing Tatum as John Tyree, a soldier who falls in love with an idealistic college student (Amanda Seyfried) while he’s home on leave. Complications ensue when he re-enlists after 9/11.

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The Wolfman (February 10) stars Benicio Del Toro as an American who returns to his family’s ancestral home in England and gets bitten by a werewolf, with predictable results. Anthony Hopkins – a veteran of horror-movie remakes thanks to Bram Stoker’s Dracula – plays Del Toro’s father, while Emily Blunt plays the love interest.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (February 12) is based on the first book in Rick Riordan’s fantasy series, about a modern-day teenager who learns that his father is the Greek god Poseidon – and is then sent to a camp for children whose parents are former residents of Mount Olympus. The film is directed by Chris Columbus, who also directed the first two Harry Potter movies.

Shutter Island (February 19) marks the fourth collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio, following their work on Gangs of New York, The Aviator and the Oscar-winning The Departed. This time, they are adapting a novel by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River) about a couple of U.S. marshals who are stranded on an island with dozens of inmates from the local hospital for the criminally insane.

Alice in Wonderland (March 5) puts a typically surreal, Tim Burton-ish spin on Lewis Carroll’s famous children's story. Mia Wasikowska stars as Alice, while Burton regulars Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Christopher Lee will play the Mad Hatter, the Red Queen and the Jabberwock, respectively.

Green Zone (March 12) isn’t a Jason Bourne movie, but the trailers sure make it look like one. The film reunites Matt Damon with Paul Greengrass, who directed Damon in The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum – but instead of a spy with amnesia, Damon will now play a ‘rogue’ American soldier who looks for evidence of weapons of mass destruction shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Clash of the Titans (March 26) will feature many of the same Greek gods as Percy Jackson, but played by different actors. The film itself is a remake of a 1980s Ray Harryhausen movie that, in turn, was inspired by the ancient Greek myth of Perseus (Avatar's Sam Worthington) and his vanquishing of Medusa, the snake-haired monster who turns people to stone whenever they simply look at her.

Options - Winter 2010