Backstory: Steven Soderbergh directs Benicio Del Toro (both Oscar winners for "Traffic") as Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
Stars: Benicio Del Toro, Javier Bardem, Benjamin Bratt, Ryan Gosling
Release date: December (limited), January 2007 (wide)
Distributor: Focus Features

 

"The Prestige"
Backstory: Director Christopher Nolan ("Memento," "Batman Begins") reveals the story of two rival magicians in turn-of-the-century London who resort to murder to discover each other's trade secrets.
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale
Release date: Oct. 20
Distributor: Disney/Touchstone Pictures

"Stranger Than Fiction"
Backstory: Marc Foster ("Finding Neverland") directs this tale of an IRS auditor () who hears the voice of a mysterious narrator in his head that can articulate his most intimate feelings, what he'll do next and even how he'll die.
Stars: Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson
Release date: Nov. 10
Distributor: Sony.

"The Painted Veil"
Backstory: Director John Curran ("We Don't Live Here Anymore") and writer Ron Nyswaner ("Philadelphia") adapt W. Somerset Maugham's novel about a British scientist who drags his adulterous wife off with him to a remote area of China infested with cholera. When he dies, she discovers new insights about life and independence.
Stars: Edward Norton, Naomi Watts
Release date: Late December, wide release January 2007
Distributor: Warner Independent Pictures

"World Trade Center"
Backstory: Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone ("Platoon," "Born on the Fourth of July") tackles the true story of two police officers who try to rescue people from the burning World Trade Center, but get trapped when the towers collapse.
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Michael Pena, Maria Bello, Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Release date: August 11
Distributor: Paramount