Oscar-Worthy Films Here At Last
The fall film season kicks off Friday with the release of Nurse Betty. Between now and the Thanksgiving weekend, more than 60 major films will hit theaters nationwide. CBS News Early Show Contributor Laurie Hibberd has a preview of the best, the brightest, or, in a few cases, the most promoted films coming out.
Fall films are generally more serious, "the Merchant Ivory kind," explained Hibberd, compared to the "popcorn" movies of summer. In the fall, there's less competition from the blockbusters which are released in the summer.
Also, films with Oscar hopes are often released later in the year to be fresh in voters' minds. So far this year, the only movies generally considered Oscar worthy are Gladiator and Erin Brockovich.
- Oscar winners Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt team up with last year's nominee Haley Joel Osment in Pay It Forward - a positive tale of human kindness.
- Another Oscar-winning pair, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck, look to rekindle their off-screen romance in the love story Bounce.
- Will Smith is a heavenly caddy trying to help Matt Damon in the golf drama The Legend of Bagger Vance, directed by Robert Redford and co-starring Charlize Theron.
- The Sixth Sense writer and director M. Night Shyamalan reteams with Bruce Willis in November for the supernatural thriller Unbreakable, which co-stars Samuel L. Jackson.
- Lars von Trier, who directed Emily Watson to her first Oscar nomination, hopes to do the same for pop star Bjork in Dancer in The Dark."
- Denzel Washington took a huge pay cut to star in Remember the Titans," a true story about football and racism in the early '70s.
- And Miramax teams hot young stars, Mark Wahlberg and Joaqin Pheonix in The Yards, a thriller about murder, corruption and family loyalty.
- Law enforcement beauties Charlie's Angels come into the new millennium with Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu in what's sure to be a box office bull's-eye.
- John Travolta teams with Friends star Lisa Kudrow in Nora Ephron's dark comedy Lucky Numbers, loosely based on a real life lottery scam.
- Box office god Adam Sandler plays the son of the devil trying to get out of the family business in Little Nicky.
- In Bedazzled, it's Elizabeth Hurley who plays the devil, granting Brendan Fraiser seven wishes in exchange for his soul.
- Artisan hopes to strike gold again with Book of Shadows, the first of two planned Blair Witch sequels.
- And finally, Ron Howard tries to put Whoville on the Hollywood map as Jim Carrey stars in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, a live-action version of the Dr. Seuss classic.
The film Hibberd is most looking forward to is Remember the Titans because of its "excellent buzz" (although it might be a "little schmaltzy.")
She's bracing herself for Charlie's Angels, in case it's "worse than the TV show."