As the newly revamped franchise catchphrase goes: “one-two-Freddy’s-remake-is-coming-for-you”. It’s anyone’s guess how music vid director Samuel Bayer’s reworking of Wes Craven’s 1984 horror classic will pan out, but it’s certainly been buoyed by good casting: Jackie Earle Haley, who played Roschach in Watchmen, will don Freddy Krueger’s iconic scissor hands gloves and red and green jumper to torment a new gen of teenagers in their sleep.

In yesterday’s Crikey newsletter I wrote about 20 of the biggest movies in store for audiences in 2010. To read it you have to be a Crikey subscriber, which includes access to all back issues. Click here to register for a free three week trial.

To tide you over, below is a extract in which I discuss five of next year’s “event” movies, including Ridley Scott’s version of Robin Hood (pictured left).

Robin Hood (May)
Russell Crowe gets down in da Hood for his fifth collaboration with long-time epic-maker Ridley Scott in a role that will forever link him to the likes of Errol Flynn, Kevin Costner and um, Cary Elwes. In Robin Hood Crowe will rob from the rich and give to the poor, a welcome change from belching out rock lyrics and throwing telephones at hotel receptionists. Cate Blanchett will co-star as Maid Marian. No word yet on whether Scott will attempt to replicate the searing artistic success of “arrow cam” — the best thing about Costner’s 1991 hit Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

The Book of Eli (February)
In another addition to the increasingly crowded but visually desolate post-apocalyptic genre (ala I Am Legend, Terminator: Salvation, The Road etc) a surly fuzzy-faced Denzil Washington in ass-kicking mode will wander across a ravaged US landscape, fighting to protect a book that holds the secrets to saving mankind. His character has been walking for “31 years”, even since “the war tore a hole in the sky”, so one hopes he has a decent pair of sneakers or some carefully fitted orthotics. The Book of Eli doesn’t look like much chop — in fact it looks about as lame as Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel — but at least it’s an original idea, original only in the sense that it’s not a sequel, an adaptation or a remake. Yes, slim are the pickings.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (TBA)
Adapted from the famous Mickey Mouse/dancing broomsticks segment in Disney’s 1940 animated feature Fantasia, which was inspired by Goethe’s 1797 poem, National Treasure director Jon Turteltaub and hot shot producer Jerry Bruckheimer update the story of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice to modern-day Manhattan and cast puppy dog impersonator Nicholas Cage as master sorcerer Balthazar Blake. Early word suggests Cage will again attempt to balance the weight of his performance in the space between his eyebrows.

Prince of Persia (May)
Since making a name for himself in 2001’s brooding indie mind melt Donnie Darko, star Jake Gyllenhaal has kept away from junky action blockbusters, notwithstanding disaster auteur Roland Emmerich’s The Day After Tomorrow (2004). That looks set to change in the loudest and dumbest ways imaginable with The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which early footage (suggests isn’t exactly aspiring to defy the common wisdom that all video game adaptations are inherently sh-thouse. In a role that appears to have been written specifically for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Gyllenhaal will play a buff long-haired ragamuffin who teams with a princess to stop Ben Kingsley from destroying the world with a sandstorm.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (TBA)
As the newly revamped franchise catchphrase goes: “one-two-Freddy’s-remake-is-coming-for-you”. It’s anyone’s guess how music vid director Samuel Bayer’s reworking of Wes Craven’s 1984 horror classic will pan out, but it’s certainly been buoyed by good casting: Jackie Earle Haley, who played Roschach in Watchmen, will don Freddy Krueger’s iconic scissor hands gloves and red and green jumper to torment a new gen of teenagers in their sleep.