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 (Gollum from "Lord of the Rings") 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" (opened 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" (opened Nov. 11), 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" (opened Wednesday), 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" (opened 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" (opened Wednesday), 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.

All release dates are subject to change. And, remember, not all films will open in the local market. True movie buffs may need to check out-of-town listings.

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

• 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.

." 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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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