tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

There are probably more than 100 historical movies in various stages of production, and we're only talking about movies to be released this year and the next. The exact figure is probably much higher. Anyway, why do we love watching period movies? Aside from seeing famous figures come to life, we also learn important lessons from the past. Of course, some historical dramas attempt to portray events and people as accurately as possible, while others are very much fictionalized.

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Some highly anticipated period flicks such as Bright Star, Coco Before Chanel and Inglourious Basterds have been shown already, so what other movies will be shown next?

Here's our first batch of 10 most-anticipated historical flicks, right after the jump!
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# 10 - Pirate Radio - (Release date: November 13, 2009)

Timeline: The 1960s in England
Director: Richard Curtis
Stars: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Nick Frost, Tom Sturridge
The Plot: A 1960's comedy about an illegal radio station run by a band of rogue DJs on a ship in the middle of Britain's North Sea. By defying the tastes and laws of the ruling government, the disc jockeys hooked their listeners on pop music and its attendant ideas of love and free will.

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Although the film's producers said the movie is pure fantasy and not a depiction of true events or of any actual radio station, many believed that it is loosely based on Radio Caroline. Radio Caroline is the name of several broadcasting ventures situated in several countries and from ships in territorial or international waters. Its name originated with fashion and society magazine editor Beatrix Miller as early as December 1961, but the first attempt to use the name for radio broadcasting began in 1964. While some of the people involved with this first usage have associated themselves with other ventures of the same name, the original commercial era is financially and legally unrelated to events that followed 1967.

During an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937 in a Purdue funded Lockheed L-10 Electra, Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. Fascination with her life, career and disappearance continues to this day.

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# 5 - Clash of the Titans - (Release date: March 26, 2010)

Timeline: 200-300 BC (?)
Director: Louis Leterrier
Stars: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes
The Plot: In a loose adaptation from Greek mythology, Perseus (Worthington) who was born of a god but raised as a man, sets off on an epic mission to combat Hades (Fiennes) before he can seize power from Zeus (Neeson) and unleash hell on earth.

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You may also read tMF's spotlight on Sam Worthington, with some additional discussion on Clash of the Titans.

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# 4 - Sherlock Holmes - (Release date: December 25, 2009)

Timeline: 1890s in England
Director: Guy Ritchie
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams
The Plot: Detective Sherlock Holmes (Downey Jr.) and his stalwart partner Watson (Law) engage in a battle of wits and brawn with a nemesis whose plot is a threat to all of England.

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Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who first appeared in publication in 1887. He is the creation of British author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Conan Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short stories that feature Holmes. The first story, A Study in Scarlet, appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887 and Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1890, respectively. The character grew tremendously in popularity with the beginning of the first series of short stories in The Strand Magazine in 1891; further series of short stories and two serialised novels appeared until 1927. The stories cover a period from around 1875 up to 1907, with a final case in 1914. Conan Doyle said that the character of Holmes was inspired by Dr. Joseph Bell, for whom Doyle had worked as a clerk at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Like Holmes, Bell was noted for drawing large conclusions from the smallest observations.

ShockTillYouDrop has posted the plot synopsis of The Wolfman:

The author of Shutter Island is Dennis Lehane, the acclaimed author who has written several award-winning novels, including A Drink Before the War and the New York Times bestseller Mystic River, which was later made into an Academy Award-winning film. Another novel, Gone, Baby, Gone, was also adapted into an Academy Award-nominated film.

The following description appears on the book: In 1954, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his partner, Chuck Aule, are sent to Shutter Island to find a mass murderer who has escaped from Ashecliffe Hospital, a fortress-like federal institution for the criminally insane. As an intense hurricane bears relentlessly down on the island, the marshals are forced to piece together clues to a shocking puzzle hidden within Shutter Island, taking them on a dark, twisted journey, where paranoia assumes an air of cool rationality and the line between sanity and madness disappears...

This movie is the latest collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio.

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# 1 - Invictus - (Release date: December 11, 2009)

Timeline: 1995 in South Africa
Director: Clint Eastwood
Stars: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon
The Plot: A look at life of Nelson Mandela (Freeman) after the fall of apartheid in South Africa during his first term as president when campaigned to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup event as an opportunity.

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What's on your mind? Among the list of 10 movies above, which are your favorites? Any particular film you look forward to the most? Why is that? Let us know what you think!

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