Akiva Goldsman Movies

The next generation of horror emerges as director Neil Jordan collaborates with producer Akiva Goldsman to adapt author Joe Hill's novel about an aging rock star whose macabre obsession leads him down a dangerous supernatural path. Upon taking notice of an eBay auction for a purportedly haunted suit, the curious musician immediately places the top bid. When the suit finally arrives, however, the musician quickly realizes just how dangerous it can be to dabble with forces beyond his comprehension. The son of famed horror fiction specialist Stephen King, Joe Hill began writing under an abbreviated version of his birth name in hopes that the quality of his work -- not the pedigree of his surname -- would set him apart from the pack. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

DC Comics' two-fisted, beer-swillin' bounty hunter, Lobo, makes his trip to feature film-land with this Warner Bros. production, spear-headed by director Guy Ritchie. Don Payne provides the scripting duties on a story that sees the heavy metal antihero making his way to Earth to hunt down three intergalactic outlaws. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Tobey Maguire produces and stars in this big-screen revamp of the Japanese animated robot sensation Robotech with this Warner Bros. Pictures production, written by Raiders of the Lost Ark scribe Lawrence Kasdan and Smallville's team of Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

A group of black mercenaries plan their revenge against the government that set them up for death in the Legendary Pictures/Warner Bros. adaptation of the Vertigo comic. Stomp the Yard's Sylvain White directs from a script by James Vanderbilt (Zodiac). Watchmen's Jeffrey Dean Morgan heads up the cast, which also includes Chris Evans, Zoe Saldana, and Idris Elba, with Jason Patric handling the villainous duties in the film. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Friday Night Lights director Peter Berg writes, directs, and produces this true-life tale of survival set in Afghanistan and involving a Navy Seal whose entire squadron was killed in a Taliban ambush. Marcus Luttrell was a Navy Seal who led a team of soldiers into Afghanistan on a dangerous mission to kill a Taliban leader. One day, while preparing for their mission on the side of a mountain, the team was surprised to encounter an Afghan man, a farmer, and a young boy. Subsequently struggling with the decision whether to kill them and violate the military rules of engagement or to let them go and risk blowing their cover, the team took a vote and found themselves deadlocked at an even split. As the leader of the team, it was up to Luttrell to make the final call. Determining that the three were simple civilians, Luttrell made the call to release them. An hour later, his entire team was wiped out by dozens of heavily armed Taliban. When the smoke cleared, Luttrell was clinging to life -- the sole survivor of the brutal ambush. In the following days Luttrell would use his military experience to stay alive in a hostile landscape and avoid detection by the Taliban. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A hard-drinking lush finds himself thrust into superhero mode in director Peter Berg's unconventional look at the private life of a crime-fighter. Will Smith stars as the embittered do-gooder whose lifestyle is more akin to a rock star than a role model, and who has grown as disillusioned with his once-admiring public as they have of him. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

An ordinary man with an extraordinary gift must save the planet from evil in this action-packed fantasy. Unknown to most people, the world is crowded with spirits both good and evil who walk among us in human guise. One of the few who can see these spirits is John Constantine (Keanu Reeves), but the responsibility of his vision is more than he can stand, and he tries to kill himself. Saved from death, Constantine must now atone for his actions by acting as a guardian in the middle ground between Paradise and Hell. Constantine also makes the acquaintance of Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz), a police detective who becomes aware of his unusual gift while looking into the death of her sister; he leads her into the unknown world of the spirits and soon circumstances demand that they join forces in a desperate bid to save humanity from evil. Constantine also features Tilda Swinton, Peter Stormare, and Gavin Rossdale, the latter best known as the lead singer of the rock group Bush. Michelle Monaghan (Made of Honor) was originally in the film (cast as a half-breed demon) but director Francis Lawrence cut her scenes. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Although mako sharks are among the fastest and deadliest predators in the ocean, they're not as smart as humans -- at least, they weren't. However, Dr. Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows) has been using mako sharks as her test subjects for research on the regeneration of human brain tissues. McAlester has altered the DNA of several sharks, raising them close to the level of human intelligence; the sharks have also become faster and stronger in the process. While these DNA experiments have yielded fascinating results, they're also of questionable ethics and legality, earning her the distrust of several members of her crew, including shark authority Carter Blake (Thomas Jane and cook "Preacher" Dudley (LL Cool J). The financial backers of these experiments have also expressed skepticism, so when McAlester is ready to perform some major tests, financier Russell Franklin (Samuel L. Jackson) arrives for the occasion. McAlester and her team are delicately extracting brain tissue from one of the altered makos when the animal regains consciousness - and becomes very angry. The shark not only attacks the researchers but also damages the floating lab, leaving the crew aboard a literally sinking ship, with the makos eager to go a few rounds - in an arena that favors sharks. Deep Blue Sea was directed by Renny Harlin, and filmed in Mexico at Fox Studios Baja in the underwater filming facilities created for James Cameron's Titanic. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This by-the-numbers psychodrama about a child psychologist trying to discern the truth behind a pair of murders stars Richard Dreyfuss as Dr. Jake Rainer, a child psychologist living in an upscale community. Rainer retired when a patient committed suicide, but the local sheriff (J.T. Walsh) calls him to the scene of a double murder. In a lavish home, Rainer meets Tim Warden (Ben Faulkner) and his sister Sylvie (Liv Tyler, in her feature film debut), whose parents have been brutally slain. Sylvie hid in a closet and didn't see the killer, but Tim, who is autistic and cannot communicate, witnessed the crime. Rainer starts the complicated process of reaching Tim through gentle psychological techniques based on his theory that autistics think in sequences, while a colleague (John Lithgow) simply wants to drug the child into revealing the killer's identity. The real-life son of child psychologists who worked with autistic children, Silent Fall screenwriter Akiva Goldsman had better success with his first film, an adaptation of The Client (1994), a drama with a similar plot and themes. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Adapted from acclaimed author Richard Matheson's influential novelette of the same name, Constantine director Francis Lawrence's I Am Legend follows the last man on Earth as he struggles to survive while fending off the infected survivors of a devastating vampiric plague. A brilliant scientist who raced to discover a cure for the man-made virus as humanity came crumbling down all around him, Robert Neville (Will Smith) was inexplicably immune to the highly contagious superbug. Now the entire population of New York City -- and perhaps the world -- has been transformed into carnivorous bloodsuckers that fear the light and live solely to spread their contagion to any remaining living creature that crosses their path. It's been three years since civilization came to an end, and the loneliness has taken a devastating toll on Neville. By day he scours the city for food and supplies while sending out desperate radio messages in hopes that someone might respond, and by night he attempts to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus by experimenting with his own blood. But time is running out for Neville as the legions of infected watch his every move from the safety of the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. They, too, long to learn the secret that lurks in Neville's blood, though they will have to take caution while attempting to procure it because Neville will sooner die attempting to slay every last one of them than willingly giving up a single drop. Previously adapted for the screen in the 1964 Vincent Price frightener The Last Man on Earth and the 1971 Charlton Heston action film The Omega Man, Matheson's novelette also served as the inspiration for George A. Romero's groundbreaking zombie classic Night of the Living Dead. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Dan Brown's controversial best-selling novel about a powerful secret that's been kept under wraps for thousands of years comes to the screen in this suspense thriller from director Ron Howard. The stately silence of Paris' Louvre museum is broken when one of the gallery's leading curators is found dead on the grounds, with strange symbols carved into his body and left around the spot where he died. Hoping to learn the significance of the symbols, police bring in Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), a gifted cryptographer who is also the victim's granddaughter. Needing help, Sophie calls on Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), a leading symbologist from the United States. As Sophie and Robert dig deeper into the case, they discover the victim's involvement in the Priory of Sion, a secret society whose members have been privy to forbidden knowledge dating back to the birth of Christianity. In their search, Sophie and Robert happen upon evidence that could lead to the final resting place of the Holy Grail, while members of the priory and an underground Catholic society known as Opus Dei give chase, determined to prevent them from sharing their greatest secrets with the world. Also starring Ian McKellen, Jean Reno, and Alfred Molina, The Da Vinci Code was shot on location in France and the United Kingdom; the Louvre allowed the producers to film at the famous museum, but scenes taking place at Westminster Abbey had to filmed elsewhere when church officials declined permission. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The true story of an athlete who achieved his greatest success against the most daunting odds of his life is brought to the screen in this historical drama. In the 1920s, James Braddock (Russell Crowe) from Bergen, NJ, was a promising contender in professional boxing; he had strength, spirit, and tenacity, but the combination of a serious hand injury and a 1929 defeat in a bout with light heavyweight champ Tommy Loughran sent his career into a serious tailspin. As Braddock's career in the ring dried up, the Great Depression put a stake through the heart of America's economy, and Braddock found himself working at the New York docks for pitiful wages as he tried to support his wife, Mae (Renée Zellweger), and three children. Desperate for money, Braddock turned to his former trainer and manager Joe Gould (Paul Giamatti), who was unexpectedly able to scare up a bout for him, battling John Griffin at Madison Square Garden. While conventional wisdom had it that Braddock was too old, out of shape, and out of practice to have any chance of winning, he defeated Griffin, and continued beating his opponents with a powerful left hook that had been intensified by years of punishing dock work. In a nation desperate for good news, Braddock's surprising comeback became a tonic to struggling workers and unemployed people, and all eyes were on Braddock when in 1935 he took on powerful heavyweight champion Max Baer (Craig Bierko) in what was both literally and figuratively the fight of his life. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide