Scrooge rings in the holiday movie season

By David Germain

Hollywood loves money. So does Ebenezer Scrooge. So what better way to launch the holiday season than putting the old money-grubber at the head of the line to separate movie-goers from their cash? The latest version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” features Jim Carrey as Scrooge. Coming on Ebenezer’s coattails will be vampire romance (“The Twilight Saga: New Moon”), end-of-the-world stories (”2012,” “The Road”), epic science fiction (“Avatar”) and a new incarnation of the world’s greatest detective (“Sherlock Holmes”).

Presented in 3-D, Disney’s “A Christmas Carol” is the latest from Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis (“Forrest Gump”), who presents Dickens’ London with the same performance-capture technology he used on “The Polar Express” and “Beowulf.”

Carrey and co-stars Gary Oldman, Robin Wright Penn, Colin Firth and Bob Hoskins worked on a bare soundstage, their bodies covered with sensors so digital cameras could record their performances in 360 degrees. Sets, costumes and other details were filled in later by computer animation.

The process allowed actors to take on multiple roles, with Carrey playing Scrooge and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come who teach him the meaning of the season.

Zemeckis said previous adaptations never captured the full impact of Dickens’ surreal images. As he made “Beowulf,” Zemeckis realized he now had the tools to bring “A Christmas Carol” to the screen the way he imagined it on the page.

“It was the idea of being able to actually recreate London and not have any limitations whatsoever,” he said. “Then the idea that Jim could play Scrooge in all the different ages, and the ghosts, they could be his alter-ego, and he could play those.”

Hey ‘Holmes’

With “Sherlock Holmes,” Robert Downey Jr. and director Guy Ritchie also recreate old London while reinventing Arthur Conan Doyle’s brainy, monkish detective as an action hero, verbal quipster and even a bit of a lover.

Downey’s Holmes fights with fists, clubs, pistols and hammers, trades odd-couple banter with best buddy and roommate Watson (Jude Law) and shares romantic moments with the only woman (Rachel McAdams) who ever got the better of him.

It was a nice change of pace for Downey after he leaped to the box-office A-list with last year’s comic-book blockbuster “Iron Man.”

“It was such a radical departure,” Downey said. “A period piece. A very, very established kind of iconic image comes to mind when you think of Sherlock Holmes. Whereas Iron Man was a relatively unknown quote-unquote second tier superhero ... until last year.”

New ‘Twilight’

Another series that jumped to blockbuster status last year was Hollywood’s take on author Stephenie Meyer’s love story between a sensitive schoolgirl (Kristen Stewart) and her immortal vampire boy toy (Robert Pattinson).

The second installment, “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” is a lesson in teen heartache as Pattinson’s Edward dumps Stewart’s Bella, realizing the danger he represents to his human girlfriend.

The brooding Bella finds solace with a school chum (Taylor Lautner) and his werewolf gang and eventually winds up pulling Edward out of a jam.

“Edward breaks up with Bella for her own protection, but Bella believes it’s because he doesn’t love her any more and she goes into a terrible depression,” “New Moon” director Chris Weitz said. “In the end, there’s kind of a lovely turnaround whereby Bella has to go and save Edward, having been saved by him throughout their past.”

Epic ‘Avatar’

Also in the fantasy realm, James Cameron is back with his first fictional film since 1997’s “Titanic” swamped Hollywood to become king of the Oscars and the biggest modern blockbuster. “Avatar” also marks Cameron’s return to his science-fiction roots and a reunion with “Aliens” star Sigourney Weaver, who joins Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana among the cast of the filmmaker’s 3-D epic about humans taking on the form of extraterrestrials as they explore a distant world.

“What we have on the screen right now is 150 percent of what I imagined. The other 50 percent is the part I could not have imagined without having the actors there, without working with a team of artists who come up with all these amazing, outlandish designs,” Cameron said.

Hollywood has dozens of other films, big and small, coming before year’s end. Here’s the lowdown on some highlights:

Husbands, Wives, lovers

• “Nine” — A feature based on the Broadway adaptation of Federico Fellini’s foreign-language classic “8 1⁄2.”

• “Did You Hear About the Morgans?” — A Manhattan couple in a rocky marriage find new twists in their relationship after they see a murder and are hustled into witness protection.

• “It’s Complicated” — A messy love triangle develops among a bakery and restaurant owner, her ex-hubby and an architect.

Foxes, frogs, rodents

• “Fantastic Mr. Fox” — Wes Anderson returns with the animated tale of a wily fox waging war with human farmers.

• “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” — The followup to the family hit about critter crooners Alvin, Simon and Theodore has the threesome finding their hearts and singing talents tested in a battle of the bands.

• “The Princess and the Frog” — Animation goes old-school with this update of “The Frog Prince” fairy tale.

The end of the world

• “2012” — The Mayan calendar predicts an end of days in 2012 and director Roland Emmerich makes good on that prophecy with his latest doomsday story.

• “The Road” — Author Cormac McCarthy’s vision of doom comes to the screen as a father on a desperate road trip across the wreckage of America seeks some hope of a future for his young son.䁀