2006 movies: Faster than a speeding bullet

SAFE BETS:

“World Trade Center,” (August), “Flight 93” (April 28): Have we reached that point where the shock of Sept. 11, 2001, has worn off sufficiently where we want to see the events reprised on the big screen?

The curiosity factor — and two very different approaches — bode well for the first theatrical dramatizations about the terrorist attacks.

Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center” stars Nicolas Cage and Michael Pena in the real-life story of Port Authority policemen trapped in the rubble of the twin towers.

“Flight 93,” directed by Paul Greengrass (“Bloody Sunday,” “The Bourne Supremacy”) uses a casts of unknowns as passengers who fought back against terrorists on the plane that crashed Sept. 11 in rural Pennsylvania.

“Miami Vice” (July 28): Michael Mann oversaw the TV cop show that helped define hip ’80s style and music. Now he’s got Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell as his smooth new undercover cops as they take on Miami drug runners.

“Underworld Evolution” (Jan. 20): Kate Beckinsale’s back as the vampire in black, whose war with rival werewolves grows more complicated when she learns she has been betrayed by her bloodsucking kin.

“The Shaggy Dog” (March 10), “The Santa Clause 3” (Nov. 3): Tim Allen’s back in the Disney fold, resurrecting the studio’s franchise as a district attorney mutated into a bushy canine and reprising his Kris Kringle role as Santa fights Jack Frost (Martin Short) for dominion over Christmas.

“Flushed Away” (Nov. 3): The makers of “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” spin a computer-animated tale featuring the voices of Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet and Ian McKellen in the story of a pampered rat washed down the drain from his cushy digs into the sewers.

“Charlotte’s Web” (Dec. 20): The live-action adaptation of E.B. White’s classic children’s tale features Dakota Fanning and the voices of Julia Roberts, John Cleese, Oprah Winfrey, Robert Redford, Cedric the Entertainer and Steve Buscemi.

SOUNDS PROMISING:

“Apocalypto” (summer): Mel Gibson scored the first blockbuster done in ancient languages with “The Passion of the Christ.” Now he tells a historical epic in the Mayan tongue of Yucateco, set before the 16th century Spanish conquest of Central America. Gibson says the film will be light on dialogue and heavy on imagery and action. Lethal arrow?

“The Pink Panther” (Feb. 10): If there’s an actor alive who maybe, possibly could resurrect Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau without bumbling his way to oblivion, it has to be Steve Martin. Martin stars as the idiot savant French detective in a crime caper co-starring the actor’s old pal Kevin Kline as Clouseau’s long-suffering boss, along with Beyonce Knowles and Jean Reno.

“Lady in the Water” (July 21): M. Night Shyamalan (“The Sixth Sense,” “Signs”) spins another strange one, about a building super (Paul Giamatti) who discovers a water nymph (Bryce Dallas Howard) living in the tunnels beneath the apartment complex’s swimming pool.

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