Thanks to a longtime Collider reader named “Max” who works in the movie industry, I’ve landed something very cool – a breakdown of what movies are shooting in the near future and new synopses for most of the films!

While some of the information – like the cast, the writer and the director - is available via sites like IMDB, there is a lot that’s new. Some of the highlights are when the movie is scheduled to shoot and where it’s being filmed. But I think the best part of the list is the new synopses for the majority of the films. Of course the new Woody Allen movie has no synopsis, but for films like “Prince of Persia,” or the new Dario Argento movie “Giallo,” there are new ones that sound cool.

And just to let you know, “Max” wanted me to remind you that the info on the list is constantly in a state of flux due to the unpredictable nature of the movie industry. Meaning, if a movie is scheduled to start filming in early March, there is a chance production could be pushed back or something could come up that changes things. However, as of this week, the info below is what the production companies are working with.

So if you’re curious what’s being developed, or you just want to read an updated synopsis of an upcoming movie, enjoy the list. And one last thing, this list doesn’t include every movie being shot in the near future, the list are the highlights that “Max” sent in. Needless to say, thank you Max.

20% FICTION

Scheduled Start Date - Early March 2008

Shooting Location - Los Angeles

Producer: Robert De Niro - Bret Saxon - Jeff Bowler - Josh Kesselman - Josh Silver

Writer/Director: Barry Primus

CAST: Val Kilmer

A dramatic comedy about a jaded Hollywood acting coach to the stars who travels from Los Angeles to Rivergrove, a small town where he finds a new kind of happiness teaching the locals a few acting tricks.

25/8

Scheduled Start Date - April 7

Shooting Location - Connecticut

Producer: Marianne Maddalena - Wes Craven - Iya Labunka

Writer/Director: Wes Craven

As legend has it, a notorious serial slayer will return to the sleepy community of Riverdale to finish off the seven children born on the night he purportedly died. But is the slayer really dead, or is he still at large? Or has the mysterious evil personality that once impelled his bloody spree entered the body of an unwary teen, who will now be compelled to do his evil bidding?

AMELIA

Scheduled Start Date - April 2008

Shooting Location - Toronto - Nova Scotia - Hawaii

Producer: Kevin Hyman - Ted Waitt - Lydia Dean Pilcher

Director: Mira Nair

Writer: Ron Bass

CAST: Hillary Swank

Swank will play Earhart in the formative stages of her career. George Putnam, a publisher and publicist, was engaged by society denizen Amy Guest to set up a daring nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. When Guest was talked out of trying to become the first woman to make the trip, she dispatched Putnam to find a female pilot, and to turn the flight into a media event.

AMERICAN CAROL

Scheduled Start Date - Late February 2008

Shooting Location - Los Angeles

Producer: Steve McEveety - John Shepherd

Writer/Director: David Zucker

A comedy that re-imagines Charles Dickens' “A Christmas Carol,” set on the 4th of July.

BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT

Scheduled Start Date - March 3

Shooting Location - Shreveport, Louisiana

Producer: Mark Damon - Ted Hartley - Moshe Diamant - Avi Lerner

Writer/Director: Peter Hyams

CAST: Michael Douglas - Amber Tamblyn - Jesse Metcalfe

A remake of Fritz Lang's 1956 film noir. The story is about a journalist (Metcalfe) looking to take down a corrupt district attorney (Douglas) by setting himself up as a suspect in a murder he didn't commit. His plan backfires when the D.A. uncovers the scheme and gets rid of the evidence the journalist has amassed to prove his innocence, making him look like he did, in fact, commit the murder.

CADILLAC RECORDS

Scheduled Start Date - March 10

Shooting Location - New Jersey - Mississippi - Chicago

Producer: Sofia Sondervan - Andrew Lack

Writer/Director: Darnell Martin

CAST: Adrien Brody – Jeffrey Wright - Columbus Short - Beyoncé Knowles - Emmanuelle Chriqui - Cedric the Entertainer - Tammy Blanchard

About Leonard Chess, the legendary founder of the South Side Chicago blues label Chess Records. The period piece follows the rise and fall of Chess Records, which launched the careers of such R&B greats as Muddy Waters, Etta James and Chuck Berry. Chess, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, scoured the South, checking out the various blues scenes and selling records from the back of his Cadillac.

CHERI

Scheduled Start Date - April 7

Shooting Location - France - London

Producer: Thom Mount - Tracey Seaward - Bill Kenwright

Writer: Christopher Hampton

Director: Stephen Frears

CAST: Michelle Pfeiffer

Set in 1920s Paris, where the young son of a wealthy courtesan is educated in the ways of love by a middle-aged friend of the man's mother. When he is forced to give up the six-year relationship after marrying someone else, the young man can't forget her and retreats into a fantasy world.

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER

Scheduled Start Date - Summer 2008

Shooting Location - Prague - New Zealand

Producer: Cary Granat - Mark Johnson - Andrew Adamson

Director: Michael Apted

Based on C.S. Lewis’ novel, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.” In the enchanted land of Narnia, Edmund and Lucy join King Caspian on a sworn mission to find the seven lost Lords of Narnia. So begins a perilous new quest that takes them to the farthest edge of the Eastern world on board the mighty Dawn Treader. Sailing uncharted seas, the old friends must survive a terrible storm, encounters with sea serpents, dragons, and invisible enemies to reach lands where magicians weave mysterious spells and nightmares come true. They need every

ounce of courage and the help of the great lion Aslan to triumph in their most hazardous adventure of all.

ELOISE IN PARIS

Scheduled Start Date - Mid June 2008

Shooting Location - London - Paris - New York

Producer: Thomas D. Adelman - Patrick Meehan - Ron Rotholz

Director: Charles Shyer

Writer: Hallie Meyers-Shyer - Larry Spencer - Charles Shyer

CAST: Uma Thurman

Based on the children's book "Eloise in Paris" by Kay Thompson. Eloise is an irrepressible six-year-old who lives with her British nanny, her dog Weenie, and her turtle Skipperdee in New York City's Plaza Hotel. Eloise makes a nuisance of herself -- riding elevators, dragging sticks along the walls as she roller-skates down the corridors, and "helping" the staff prepare rooms for official functions. If you are going to Paris France you have to turn into French and absolutely go wild. Obviously this is what Eloise does when her mysterious mother beckons. Richard Avedon must

take her passport photos in New York. In Paris Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent must design her clothing. And zut, Eloise and Nahnee must linger at the same Parisienne café as Lena Horne.

GIALLO

Scheduled Start Date - March 17

Shooting Location - Torino, Italy

Producer: Rafael Primorac - Richard Rionda Del Castro - Oscar Generale - Claudio Argento

Director: Dario Argento

Writer: Sean Keller - Jim Agnew

CAST: Ray Liotta - Asia Argento - Vincent Gallo - Elsa Pataky

Yellow (Gallo) chooses his victims based on their beauty, because he himself is not beautiful. Scorned and rejected in the orphanage where he was raised as a child, he now hunts beautiful women to torture and to kill. He keeps them alive, mentally and physically abusing them, until he grows bored. Then, he kills them and discards their body. He’s efficient, and always has his next victim ready to torture. And he’s clever, only going after tourists, women who won’t find an advocate in the police department. His latest victim is an Asian exchange student. After her, he has Celine, a gorgeous fashion model. Linda (Asia Argento) is a smart, attractive flight attendant, in town to spend time with Celine, her sister. When Celine doesn’t arrive for their planned meeting, she gets worried. The local police don’t want to be bothered with her, so they send her to the basement to deal with Inspector Enzo Lavia (Ray Liotta), an eccentric detective who doesn’t fit in with the department. The details of the case remind him of a strange killer he’s been hunting.

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL: SENIOR YEAR

Scheduled Start Date - April 21

Shooting Location - Salt Lake City

Producer: Bill Borden - Barry Rosenbush

Writer: Peter Barsocchini

Director: Kenny Ortega

CAST: Zac Efron - Vanessa Hudgens - Ashley Tisdale - Lucas Grabeel - Corbin Bleu - Monique Coleman

Based on the television movie "High School Musical" that originally aired on The Disney Channel. The continuing adventures will revolve around seniors Troy (Efron) and Gabriella (Hudgens) facing the prospect of being separated from one another as they head off in different directions to college. Joined by the rest of the Wildcats, they stage an elaborate spring musical reflecting their experiences, hopes and fears about their future.

I LOVE YOU MAN

Producer: Donald De Line - Ivan Reitman - Tom Pollock - Jeffrey Clifford

Writer/ Director: John Hamburg

CAST: Paul Rudd - Jason Segel

Centers on a man about to get married who actively seeks out a male friend to be his best man for the wedding.

JENNIFER'S BODY

Scheduled Start Date - March 17

Shooting Location - Vancouver

Producer: Jason Reitman - Mason Novick - Dan Dubiecki - Brad Van Arragon

Director: Karyn Kusama

Writer: Diablo Cody

CAST: Megan Fox - Amanda Seyfried

The story of a cheerleader who is possessed by a demon and starts feeding off the boys in a Minnesota farming town. Her "plain Jane" best friend must kill her, then escape from a correctional facility to go after the Satan-worshiping rock band responsible for the transformation.

THE LAND OF THE LOST

Scheduled Start Date - March 3

Shooting Location - Los Angeles

Producer: Sid Krofft - Marty Krofft - Jimmy Miller - Julie Wixson-Darmody

Director: Brad Silberling

Writer: Chris Henchy - Dennis McNicholas

CAST: Will Ferrell - Danny McBride - Anna Friel

Based on the 70s' NBC television series. Eccentric (and remarkably unlucky) paleontologist Dr. Rick Marshall validates his discredited theory of time travel by heading back into an alternate universe inhabited by dinosaurs, monkey people and reptilian Sleestaks.

MOON

Scheduled Start Date - January 2008

Shooting Location - United Kingdom

Director: Duncan Jones

CAST: Sam Rockwell

About a man stranded on the moon for three years.

OPEN ROAD

Scheduled Start Date - February 2008

Shooting Location - Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Writer/Director: Michael Meredith

CAST: Jeff Bridges - Justin Timberlake - Mary Steenburgen

The father-son dramedy, centers on the adult son of a baseball legend who, together with his girlfriend, embarks on a road trip with his estranged father.

PATRIOTS

Scheduled Start Date - Early April 2008

Shooting Location - New Orleans

Producer: Raymond Brothers - Scott Glassgold - Michael Beugg

Writer: Robert Eisele

Director: Tim Story

CAST: Forest Whitaker

Whitaker would play Al Collins, basketball coach for John Ehret High in Marrero, La., who led his Patriots to the state championship a year after Katrina ravaged the school and displaced many of its students. Collins' team consisted of 10 players who attended five different schools before the disaster.

PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME

Scheduled Start Date – July 2008

Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer - John August - Mike Stenson - Chad Oman

Director: Mike Newell

Writer: Jeffrey Nachmanoff

Passing through India en route to Azad, King Sharaman and his son, the Prince of Persia, defeat the powerful Maharajah of India with the promise of honor and glory. After looting the city and capturing a giant hourglass full of sand, a mysterious dagger, and the Maharajah's daughter Farah along with other treasures, they continue to Azad. A dying Vizier, who had betrayed the Maharajah and aided King Sharaman in return for a share of the spoils, demands to have the dagger, as he was promised his choice of the Maharajah's treasures. But Sharaman refuses to take the

dagger from his son, who captured it first. So the Vizier, who wishes to harness the power of the sands in the hourglass for himself, making him an immortal god and giving him control over time itself, tricks the Prince into opening the hourglass. When the Prince uses the dagger to unleash the Sands of Time from the hourglass, the Sands destroy the kingdom and turn all living beings into hideous sand creatures. Only the Prince, the Vizier, and Princess Farah, the kidnapped daughter of the Maharajah, remain unchanged due to their possessions; the Prince's dagger, the

Vizier's staff, and Farah's medallion.

SPREAD

Scheduled Start Date - February 25

Shooting Location - Los Angeles

Producer: Jason Goldberg - Peter Morgan - Aaron Kaufman

Writer: Jason Dean Hall

Director: David Mackenzie

CAST: Ashton Kutcher - Jennifer Jason Leigh

A world-class seducer, handsome, directionless Jason has made a career of exploiting women -- particularly rich women like the beautiful Samantha, who serve his purposes very nicely. When his women are out of town, Jason tools around in their luxury cars and lures other young women to their mansions, pretending that the "spread" belongs to him. But Jason isn't getting any younger, and his manipulative wiles are wearing thin. When Jason falls in love with a female counterpart, Heather, who has made a habit out of manipulating men, he gets a shocking taste of his own medicine, and realizes his game-playing ways have led him into a tragic emotional dead end.

THE SURROGATES

Scheduled Start Date - Late April 2008

Shooting Location - Boston

Producer: David Hoberman - Todd Lieberman - Max Handelman - Elizabeth Banks

Director: Jonathan Mostow

CAST: Bruce Willis

Based on the graphic novel "The Surrogates" written by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele. Story is set in the near future, where humans live in isolation and interact vicariously through surrogate robots who are better-looking versions of themselves. Willis plays a cop who, through his surrogate, investigates the murders of others’ surrogates. The cop is forced to venture from his own home for the first time in years and unravels a conspiracy.

THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1, 2, 3

Scheduled Start Date - March 3

Shooting Location - New York

Producer: Todd Black - Jason Blumenthal - Steve Tisch

Writer: David Koepp

Director: Tony Scott

CAST: Denzel Washington - John Travolta

Remake of the 1974 film "The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3" directed by Joseph Sargent. The latest incarnation takes place in contemporary New York and is set in motion when four hijackers take over a subway train and hold the passengers for ransom. They threaten to shoot one hostage each minute until a ransom is fully paid.

TERMINATOR SALVATION: THE FUTURE BEGINS

Scheduled Start Date - May 5

Shooting Location - New Mexico

Director: McG

Writer: John Brancato - Michael Ferris

CAST: Christian Bale - Josh Brolin

The fourth installment in the "The Terminator" franchise. The film is set in the future, in a full-scale war between Skynet and humankind. John Connor, now in his 30s and soon to be wife Kate Brewster realize they must create a resistance organization with Earth's remaining survivors against the army of robots slowly being built up by Skynet. As they are building this resistance, one survivor happens to be a traitor in disguise, and has a secret that nobody would ever come to suspect.

THIS SIDE OF THE TRUTH

Scheduled Start Date - April 14

Shooting Location - Boston

Producer: Lynda Obst - Oly Obst - Asif Satchu - Mordecai Wiczyk

Writer/Director: Matthew Robinson - Ricky Gervais

CAST: Ricky Gervais - Jennifer Garner - Rob Lowe - Louis C.K. - Jonah Hill

The comedy takes place in a world where everybody tells the truth. Gervais plays a storyteller whose job is to ramble on about the 1300s. Faced with losing his job because his terrain is a boring period in history once he gets beyond the Black Death, he invents lying as a way to save himself. Lowe will play his arch nemesis. Hill will play Mark's humorous neighbor who also suffers from depression, while Louis C.K. will play Mark's loser best friend.

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

Scheduled Start Date - Late March 2008

Shooting Location - Los Angeles

Producer: Walter Parkes - Laurie MacDonald

Writer: Aaron Sorkin

Director: Steven Spielberg

CAST: Sacha Baron Cohen - Philip Seymour Hoffman - Jeff Daniels - Colin Hanks - Will Smith

Based on the 2007 documentary "Chicago 10," by Brett Morgen. At the 1968 Democratic Convention, protesters, denied permits for demonstrations, repeatedly clashed with the Chicago Police Department, who waged a week-long terror campaign that resulted in riots witnessed live by a television audience of over 50 million. The events had a polarizing effect on the country. Needing to find a scapegoat for the riots, the Government held eight of the most vocal activists accountable for the violence and brought them to trial a year later. The defendants represented a broad cross-section of the anti-war movement, from counter-culture icons Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin to renowned pacifist David Dellinger.

Seven of the defendants were represented by Leonard Weinglass and famed liberal attorney William Kunstler, who went head-to-head with prosecution attorney Thomas Foran. The eighth defendant, Bobby Seale, co-chair of the Black Panther Party, insisted on defending himself and was bound, gagged and handcuffed to his chair by Judge Julius Hoffman. From the start, the trial was a circus with the eight defendants on a collision course with the governmental authority.

THE UGLY TRUTH

Scheduled Start Date - April 15

Shooting Location - Los Angeles

Producer: Tom Rosenberg - Gary Lucchesi - Steve Reuther

Writer: Karen McCullah Lutz - Kirsten Smith

Director: Robert Luketic

CAST: Katherine Heigl - Gerard Butler

Story centers on a romantically challenged morning show producer Abby Richter who is reluctantly embroiled in a series of outrageous tests by her chauvinistic correspondent to prove his theories on relationships and help her find love. His clever ploys, however, lead to an unexpected result.

UNTITLED SAM MENDES PROJECT (aka THIS MUST BE THE PLACE)

Scheduled Start Date - March 31

Shooting Location - Connecticut

Producer: Ed Saxon - Marc Turtletaub - Peter Saraf

Writer: Dave Eggers - Vendela Vida

Director: Sam Mendes

It follows Verona and Burt’s journey around the U.S. as they search for somewhere to put down roots and raise the baby they are expecting. Picking up some wisdom and warnings from their adventures, they find to their surprise that sometimes you have what you need right in your own (long neglected) backyard.

UNTITLED SUPERNATURAL THRILLER (aka BORN)

Scheduled Start Date - March 3

Shooting Location - Chicago

Producer: Michael Bay - Andrew Form - Brad Fuller - Jessika Borsiczky-Goyer

Writer/Director: David S. Goyer

CAST: Gary Oldman - Odette Yustman - Cam Gigandet

The psychological thriller follows an 18-year-old who is haunted by a Dybbuk - the soul of a dead person barred from heaven - in the form of a young boy who perished in Auschwitz.

THE VICIOUS KIND

Scheduled Start Date - March 1

Shooting Location - Norfolk, Connecticut

Producer: Tim Harms - Neil LaBute

Writer/Director: Lee Toland Krieger

CAST: Adam Scott - Brittany Snow

Snow will play a woman targeted by the obsessed older brother of her boyfriend after he brings her home for Thanksgiving. Scott will play Caleb, the obsessive older brother.

WASP 2008 (WOODY ALLEN SPRING PROJECT)

Producer: Letty Aronson - Stephen Tenenbaum

Writer/ Director: Woody Allen

CAST: Larry David - Evan Rachel Wood

WELCOME TO THE RILEYS

Scheduled Start Date - Late April 2008

Shooting Location - New Orleans

Producer: Ridley Scott - Tony Scott - Michael Costigan - Stephen Margolis - Guy Collins - Steven Zaillian

Director: Jake Scott

CAST: James Gandolfini - Kristen Stewart

Story concerns a man and a woman who have been driven apart by grief after losing their daughter and are brought back together when they meet a troubled young woman.

WHEN IN ROME

Scheduled Start Date - March 31

Shooting Location - New York - Rome, Italy

Producer: Benny Medina - Jeff Pollack - Gary Foster - Andrew Panay - Rikki Bestall

Writer/Director: Mark Steven Johnson

CAST: Kristen Bell

Bell will play a successful real estate agent in New York who can't find a lasting relationship. When her younger sister impulsively marries in Rome, she flies out for the wedding and, after picking up coins from a reputed "fountain of love," finds an overabundance of suitors waiting for her back home.

THE WOLFMAN

Scheduled Start Date - March 17

Shooting Location - London - Castle Combe - Lacock

Producer: Scott Stuber - Mary Parent - Andy Davis - Nigel Gostelow

Director: Joe Johnston

CAST: Benicio Del Toro - Anthony Hopkins - Emily Blunt

Remake of the 1941 film "The Wolf Man" directed by George Waggner. The film will be set in Victorian England. Del Toro will play a man who returns from America to his ancestral homeland, gets bitten by a werewolf and begins a hairy moonlight existence.