o far, movie audiences have been more naughty than nice in rejecting some of the summer's biggest no-brainers, like "Stealth" and "Kingdom of Heaven." If Santa doesn't pull something big out of his sack by Dec. 25, this could be a bleak winter for the busy elves on the West Coast.

Dominating the holiday schedule - at 50 feet high, in every sense of the word - is "King Kong" (Dec. 14), Peter Jackson's pull-out-the-stops, three-hour, $207 million remake of the classic 1933 thriller about a super-colossal simian on the loose in Manhattan. This one, starring Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Naomi Watts as the screaming lady, and Andy Serkis ("Lord of the Rings'] " Gollum) doing the face-modeling for the computer-graphics ape, promises to have all the excitement that the last "Kong" remake (1976, Jessica Lange, remember?) so conspicuously lacked. Anyway, here's hoping.

In the gifts-that-keep-on-giving department, we have "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (Nov. 18), the fourth in the Harry Potter franchise, with Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and assorted other teen witches and wizards again crossing swords with the super-nasty He-Who-Cannot-Be-Named but whom we will (Voldemort - bwaaa-haa-haa). Parents, take note: If this movie is anything like the book, it may be considerably darker than previous Potters.

Giving Harry Potter a run for his broomstick this year is Disney's "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (Dec. 9), the first of what will almost certainly be a franchise based on the much-loved seven-volume series about a magic land beyond the wardrobe where an evil witch (Tilda Swinton) and a chivalrous lion (voice of Liam Neeson) fight for the hearts and souls of four children.

The other big bonbon in the stocking for kiddies is "Zathura" (Friday), the sequel to 1995's "Jumanji," in which yet another mysterious board game lands kids not on Park Place, but in a fantastic realm dominated by the purple planet Zathura.

This season, the oft-eulogized movie musical returns full bore with "The Producers" (Dec. 16, limited), with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick repeating their stage roles in the tuneful Hollywoodization of the hit Broadway redux of the old Mel Brooks movie about an Adolf Hitler musical, and "Rent" (Nov. 23), with Rosario Dawson taking over the Mimi role in the cult Soho-boho update of "La Boheme."

There will not be any music - or Disney animation, for that matter - in "The New World," Terrence Malick's ("Heaven's Gate") lushly epic retelling of the Pocahontas story (Dec. 25, limited).

"Brokeback Mountain" (Dec. 9, limited) might turn out to be groundbreaking cinema - if this E. Annie Proulx story about 1960s gay cowboys played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger finds a wide audience.

While we're on the subject, there's "Transamerica" (Dec. 2, limited) with Felicity Huffman as a transsexual about to take the final step from he to she, and "Breakfast on Pluto" (Nov. 16), Neil Jordan's ("The Crying Game") latest foray into the sexual frontier, about a 1960s transvestite singing sensation.

More ordinary sexuality rears its ugly head in "Mrs. Henderson Presents" (Dec. 9), about a World War II widow (Judi Dench) who opens a burlesque house, and two Christmas releases featuring notorious lady-killers: "The Libertine" starring Johnny Depp as John Wilmot, second earl of Rochester, and "Casanova" starring Heath Ledger as you-know-who (both Dec. 25).

The alternatively abled also have a special parking spot on this year's holiday schedule, with such films as "39 Pounds of Love" (Nov. 23), about an Israeli animation artist; "little man" (Dec. 2, limited), a documentary about a very, very premature baby; and "The Kid & I" (Dec. 2), about a teen with cerebral palsy and action-movie dreams.

"Proud." The late Ossie Davis, in his last screen appearance, pipes aboard this saga of the only World War II naval vessel with an African-American crew. Limited.

"Breakfast on Pluto." Neil Jordan ("The Crying Game") goes on another gender-bender in this true story of an Irish refugee who becomes a 1960s transvestite singing sensation. Limited.

"Rent." Starving young Soho artists Rosario Dawson and Taye Diggs can't afford to pay anything but their dues in this Hollywood version of the cult Broadway musical based on "La Boheme."

"Far Side of the Moon." Robert Le-Page (who stars and directs) copes with a less-than-sanguine relationship with his only blood relative: his brother. Limited.

"The Kid & I." Teen with cerebral palsy has Arnold Schwarzenegger-size Hollywood ambitions about being an action attraction in this Penelope Spheeris film. Limited.

"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." There are more than mothballs in a magical closet that transports four youngsters to a fantasy world.

"The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada." Tommy Lee Jones (who also directed) is the rancher who digs up a lot of buried racial prejudice when he takes a murdered hand home to Mexico for interment. Limited.

"The Family Stone." No, not Sly. The freewheeling New England family of Craig T. Nelson doesn't take kindly to uptight new in-law Sarah Jessica Parker.

"The Producers." Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick and lots of dancing Nazis in this musical remake of the 1968 Mel Brooks farce about crooked Broadway producers conspiring to hatch a sure-fire flop. Limited.

"Fun With Dick and Jane." See Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni run - with this remake of the 1977 George Segal-Jane Fonda comedy about a middle-class couple turning to crime.

"Cheaper by the Dozen 2." Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt match their twelvesome against a rival family's eightsome in this sequel to the 2003 remake.

"The White Countess." Ralph Fiennes is a disillusioned U.S. diplomat in 1930s Shanghai who falls for Russian refugee Natasha Richardson in this James Ivory film. Limited.

"The Ringer." The Farrelly Brothers ("Dumb and Dumber") go tasteless and tastelesser in this comedy about able-bodied athletes crashing the Special Olympics.

"Freedomland." White woman tells a not-so-little white lie in a race-riven North Jersey city in this adaptation of the Richard Price ("Clockers") novel starring Julianne Moore and Samuel L. Jackson. Limited.

"Munich." Geoffrey Rush, Eric Bana and Daniel Craig are torch-bearers for tragedy at the 1972 massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the Olympics in this Steven Spielberg film. Limited.

"Match Point." Tennis instructor Jonathan Rhys-Meyers gets into a racket with femme fatale Scarlett Johansson in this reportedly "Hitchcockian" Woody Allen exercise. Limited.

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