Trailerpalooza: Young Adult, Tower Heist, My Week With Marilyn, Happy Feet Two, The Raven, Arthur Christmas, The Adventures of Tintin, War Horse

Welcome to the Thanksgiving edition of Trailerpalooza. This week is stuffed like a turkey with new trailers that include another Juno reunion between its director and writer, a bunch of guys trying to rob their boss, Marilyn Monroe in England, the return of the dancing/singing penguins, the stories of Edgar Allen Poe inspire a serial killer, we get to meet Santa's son and two Steven Spielberg flicks. So, stop what you're doing and let's get started.

First off is Young Adult, Jason Reitman's latest feature. He reunites again with writer Diablo Cody, but don't expect to be anything like Juno, their last collaboration. It's more dark like Jennifer's Body (which Reitman produced, didn't direct). You know, without the whole demonic stuff going on. The comedy-drama stars Charlize Theron as an alcoholic writer of teen literature who comes back to her hometown and decides to take back her high-school sweetheart (Patrick Wilson), even though he's happily married to someone else and has a child. It's sad that Paramount hasn't been giving it to any film festival, especially Toronto (where all three of Reitman's films have premiered), but maybe this is just their way of getting people pumped up. Who knows? The film hits select theatres December 9th and expands nationwide December 16th. After watching that trailer, you can go to /Film to watch an exclusive alternate version of the trailer, which replaces the shopping scene for a scene with a much raunchier joke.

Next up is a new trailer for Tower Heist, which follows a hard-working staff who plan to rob the penthouse residence of a wealthy Wall Street businessman. This new trailer has more hijinks than the last. The film received some controversy this week when Universal announced that three weeks after its theatrical debut, the film will hit Video-on-Demand for a huge rental price of $59.99. The controversy began when the Cinemark movie chain threatened to not show the film in any of its theatres if the studio really goes through with the VOD experiment. I have to admit that doing this three weeks after its release could probably do a little damage to its box office run, but it'll still be a popular movie. Hopefully we get another funny performance from Eddie Murphy. The film hits theatres November 4th.

The next film is My Week With Marilyn. Based on two books by Colin Clark, the film focuses on the week Marilyn Monroe spent being escorted around Britain by Clark, who was an assistant on the British set of the 1957 film The Prince and the Showgirl, starring Monroe and Sir Lawrence Olivier. What makes this film so interesting for me is that Michelle Williams is playing Monroe. Williams, of course, is a talented actress and so far, at least from what I can say about the trailer, I think she's pretty fine. We'll see if it's even better when the whole thing comes out. Also starring Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Redmayne, Emma Watson and Judi Dench, the film hits theatres in limited release November 4th.

Next up is the new trailer for Happy Feet Two. This sequel to the 2006 hit has Mumble (Elijah Wood) trying to teach his son to dance, but he encounters a penguin that can fly. To make matters worse, the penguin population is covered by ice and all the penguin nations and allies must team up together to find an escape. The trailer doesn't really get that story across well, which makes me a bit worried that this sequel will lose all the fun the first film had. It is nice to see at least some of the original voice cast back, including Wood and Robin Williams. It's also filled with a lot more new people, like Sofia Vergara, John Goodman, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. Oh, and expect lots of singing and dancing. The film hits theatres November 18th.

Next up is The Raven, which is not based on Edgar Allen Poe's poem of the same name. Instead it follows the famous author trying to solve a series of murders based on his stories. John Cusack plays Poe, and it also stars Alice Eve, Luke Evans, Kevin McNally and M. Emmet Walsh. The way this trailer is making the film comes across is kinda cheesy and maybe that's why I'm not amused. James McTeigue is the director, but it doesn't look as stylish as his last two films, V for Vendetta and Ninja Assassin. The film hits theatres March 9th, 2012.

From there we go to Arthur Christmas, an animated Christmas comedy brought from Aardman Animations and Sony Pictures Animation. Set on the North Pole, the film follows Arthur, the nice but clumsy son of Santa Claus. When a present for a little girl is missed, Arthur must go on a mission with his grandfather and an elf to deliver it before Christmas morning. Seeing as we don't have a lot of Christmas movies being made these days, this one doesn't look like a bad one to see. Featuring the voices of James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton, the film comes out on November 23rd.

Now, it's time to end things off with not one, but two of Steven Spielberg's latest films. The first is The Adventures of Tintin, Spielberg's first performance capture 3D film. Based on Herge's series of comic books, the film shows Tintin as he sets to find the treasure of his ancestor Sir Francis Haddoque (Andy Serkis), with the help of a prison escapee and Detectives Thomson and Thomson (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost). This film looks amazing. As I mentioned before, Spielberg is one of my all-time favourite directors and since he's teaming up with Peter Jackson on this, that makes it even more exciting. Two new international trailers were released this week and I have them both right now. The film hits theatres in most of Europe October 26th and in North America December 23rd.

The second is War Horse, which comes out two days after Tintin's North American release. A new trailer for the adventure drama was released this week and it shows more of the story that the first trailer didn't exactly get across. The film, based on Michael Morpurgo's novel of the same name which later got turned into a Tony Award-winning play, is set during World War I and tells the story of Albert Narracott and his beloved horse, Joey. When Joey gets sold to the cavalry and is shipped to France, Albert, who isn't old enough to enlist in the army, goes on a dangerous mission to get him back. The film is already getting awards buzz, with some people even predicting the film could be in the Best Picture Oscar race. Why not? The film looks great and this new trailer still keeps that sweeping score composed by longtime Spielberg collaborator John Williams. I can expect a Best Score nomination from him. Now, I don't know if I should be in these "which Spielberg movie should I see" situations, because I want to see both. War Horse hits theatres Christmas Day.