Film preview: 'Iron Man,' 'Shrek,' 'Harry Potter' return

LOS ANGELES -- Hollywood may find it tough to match 2009's record box-office revenue. Yet studios have a cast of characters this year to make a run for their money.

Among the gang:

Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in "Alice in Wonderland." Russell Crowe as the noble thief in "Robin Hood." Jennifer Aniston as a wily bail-jumper pursued by her ex-hubby in "The Bounty Hunter." Steve Carell as a world-class idiot in "Dinner for Schmucks." Angelina Jolie as a CIA operative accused of being a Russian spy in "Salt."

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in blue tights and magic wings in "Tooth Fairy." Julia Roberts as a divorced woman trekking the globe in "Eat Pray Love." Liam Neeson as both the new boss of "The A-Team" and as Greek god Zeus in "Clash of the Titans." Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz as a fugitive couple in "Knight and Day."

Of course, these are just some of the newbies. Hollywood's lineup is loaded with returning favorites, including Robert Downey Jr. as the billionaire superhero in "Iron Man 2"; Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner in the vampire-werewolf-human love triangle in "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse"; Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas as mouthpieces for the fairy-tale gang in "Shrek Forever After"; Tom Hanks and Tim Allen reprising their voice roles in "Toy Story 3"; Michael Douglas as greedy guy Gordon Gekko in "Wall Street 2"; Sarah Jessica Parker and her Manhattan gal pals in "Sex and the City 2"; Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro as uneasy in-laws in "Meet the Parents 3"; and Daniel Radcliffe as the teen wizard in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1."

Here's a sampling of a dozen movies competing for your attention in the coming year.

'Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief' (Feb. 12):

After directing the first two "Harry Potter" flicks, Chris Columbus was not sure he wanted to take on another visual-effects extravaganza.

His daughter was a fan of this new kid, Percy Jackson, hero of Rick Riordan's fantasy books about the modern-day machinations of the Greek gods. Columbus also became a fan and was doubly inspired that Percy and his daughter both had to cope with dyslexia.

A teen demigod who is the son of sea god Poseidon, Percy is falsely suspected of stealing uncle Zeus' lighting bolt, sending him on a quest to find the true culprit.

Columbus said he hopes the movie's contemporary trappings -- messenger Hermes' winged flying shoes are a pair of Converse All-Stars -- will stoke young readers' interest in classical mythology.

'The Wolfman' (Feb. 12)

What would Valentine's Day weekend be without a werewolf dispensing hickeys?

Benicio Del Toro is the hairy beast in this update of the horror classic, playing a black sheep son who returns to his ancestral home in England after his brother is killed and mutilated by a mysterious beast. Bitten himself, Del Toro joins up with his brother's fiance (Emily Blunt), who helps him try to lift the curse of the werewolf.

The werewolf effects are done old school: Del Toro inside a heavy, hairy suit rather than being transformed through computer animation, Blunt said.

'The Last Song' (April 2)

Contrary to the title, Miley Cyrus does not sing in her latest movie. It's all part of growing up and easing herself and fans beyond her perky Hannah Montana persona.

"I like all different kinds of movies, but mostly I like darker things," Cyrus said. "I've done a lot and feel like people don't take me seriously because they haven't seen the serious side of me."

"The Last Song" casts Cyrus as a sullen teen who turns down a scholarship to The Juilliard School and wants nothing to do with music, a reaction against her estranged father (Greg Kinnear), a pianist. Forced to spend a summer with him, her character ends up reconnecting with Dad through music, after all. Cyrus learned to play classical piano for the movie.

'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps' (April 23)

Is greed still good for Gordon Gekko?

After creating an archetype of the modern robber baron with 1987's "Wall Street," director Oliver Stone and star Michael Douglas resurrect Gekko in our own messy economic times.

Douglas, who won the best-actor Oscar as Gekko, laid out the man's last couple of decades: A prison term for insider trading, barred from the stock market, writing a book about his experiences as the world heads toward financial meltdown in 2006 and 2007.

Gekko's daughter (Carey Mulligan) happens to be engaged to a young Wall Street guy (Shia LaBeouf), though Douglas would not reveal if that gives Gekko a foothold back into the markets himself.

'Iron Man 2' (May 7)

At the end of his first blockbuster about the guy in the gadget-laden metal suit, Robert Downey Jr.'s billionaire genius, Tony Stark, proclaims to the world, "I am Iron Man."

So much for secret identities.

In the sequel, "We see what the ramifications of that announcement from the first film were," said Jon Favreau, director of the "Iron Man" films. "He already had his hands full just being Tony Stark, but now he's Iron Man as well. What are the effects of that level of fame and expectation?"

This time, Tony faces bad guy Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), who has his own arsenal of high-tech weapons.

Favreau likes having a hero and villain played by actors who have bounced back from tough personal times, Downey with substance abuse and Rourke with self-destructive anger issues.

'Shrek Forever After' (May 21)

Mike Myers' Shrek meets James Stewart's George Bailey in what's billed as the final big-screen movie about the lovable cartoon ogre.

Like George, Shrek sees what the world would be like without him, as sneaky wheeler-dealer Rumpelstiltskin cons the ogre into signing away his existence. Suddenly, Shrek is in an alternate reality where he never met true love Fiona (voiced by Cameron Diaz) or sidekicks Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas).

It's a twisted place where ogres are hunted, Rumpelstiltskin reigns and Shrek's sweet little pal the Gingerbread Man fights Animal Crackers in gladiatorial death matches.

'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time' (May 28)

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer turned a Disney theme-park ride into a billion-dollar movie franchise with his "Pirates of the Caribbean" flicks.

He aims for the same with this video-game adaptation starring Jake Gyllenhaal in his first fantasy-action spectacle.

The sword-and-sorcery saga casts Gyllenhaal as a street urchin adopted into a royal family who discovers a magic dagger of immense power, the weapon coming in handy after he's falsely accused of wrongdoing and goes on the run.

Such fantasy adventures are more valuable than ever in this era of hard times, Gyllenhaal said.

'Toy Story 3' (June 18)

Toys may not grow up, but the kids who play with them do.

Tom Hanks' Woody the cowboy, Tim Allen's Buzz Lightyear and their plaything partners face abandonment issues in the latest chapter of the franchise that launched the computer-animation age for feature films.

The gang's owner, Andy, is heading off to college, leaving the toys in limbo, uncertain what future they have without a child to amuse.

"Toy Story 2" foreshadowed that notion as Woody struggled with the realization that kids eventually would outgrow their toys.

'The Last Airbender' (July 2)

M. Night Shyamalan gathered with his family one day to watch a cartoon show his daughter loved. And his adaptation of the TV series "Avatar: The Last Airbender" was off and running.

Featuring "Slumdog Millionaire" star Dev Patel, the film is set in a world where four nations once lived in harmony, each possessing powers to manipulate one of the elements -- air, water, earth and fire -- balance maintained by an "avatar" who can control all elements.

'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1' (Nov. 19)

The young wizard's next trick: sawing his final adventure in half and presenting it as a two-parter.

When the filmmakers were preparing to adapt the seventh book in J.K. Rowling's fantasy series, producer David Heyman was set against breaking the finale in two. Then everyone realized what an impossible magic act a single movie would prove.

Expected to run about 4 1/2 hours over two films, "Deathly Hallows" sends Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and pals Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) in search of the mystical Horcruxes, which they must destroy to pull the plug on evil Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes).

Fans will not have too long a wait between movies. "Part 2" arrives in July 2011.