Hello, friends. A very happy New Year to you all.

Hopefully by now you’ve all done our hamster wheel routine to work off that excess holiday weight and recovered from any New Year, Same Hangover you might have battled to the bitter end.

To start things off right, EW has a new issue out with a 2009 preview and a whole bunch of images to go with it. Some of them we’ve seen, but most are new, so below we’ve included some of the better ones to check out and mark on that shiny new Hannah Montana calendar you got for Christmas!

Keep in brain that this is just a taste of some of the movies coming along from the article at EW. There’s many, many more movies coming this year that will undoubtedly garner some excitement in you and I and when they do come, we’ll count our goosebumps together — but for now, enjoy this small little preview of some movies you’re either already thrilled for, or maybe you didn’t know about yet.

Click the images to see the full versions.

Up — May 29, 2009

The newest offering from Pixar is already delivering incredibly positive feedback based solely on rough cuts and unfinished previews. This of course means that Up will only be another example of Pixar’s inability to fail. The movie follows an old man (Ed Asner) who, after becoming sick of life and where he lives, attaches millions of balloons to his home and floats away to better things and the sweet, sweet sounds of seclusion’s silence. What he didn’t expect was the accidental inclusion of an 8-year-old boy scout who happened to be on his front porch when he took off.

Where the Wild Things Are — October 16, 2009

One of the most buzzed about and highly troubled projects of recent memory, Where the Wild Things Are is the live-action adaptation from Spike Jonze where a boy named Max dreams himself off to a world filled with monstrous creatures. As of this moment, it looks like the trouble this project was going through was merely a speedbump and we’ll finally get to see this movie in October. Sweet God, do I hope it to be true. The image to the right is another new one to the collection of images that have come out so far. All of them are so good, you just need to see it that much more when you stare at them.

Public Enemies — July 1, 2009

Michael Mann brings us what’s sure to be another amazing on-screen duo with Johnny Depp as legendary bank robber John Dillinger and Christian Bale as FBI agent Melvin Purvis, the man out to find and catch Dillinger. What could be a better combo than that combination of talent recreating a gangster/cop chase story set during prohibition?

As it turns out that Depp’s grandfather used to sell moonshine in Kentucky in that time period as well, so his heart and soul went into this performance. It should be something really special. Depp says “I mean, the guy wasn’t completely altruistic, but he went out of his way not to kill anybody. He definitely gave a lot of that money away. I love the guy.”

Mann even went so far as to shoot the movie where the actual events took pace, as well as obtaining clothing of Dillinger’s that Depp wore and fit into perfectly. He explained that, ”…when your hand touches the same doorknob Dillinger’s did, it starts to talk to you.” These are the kinds of things that can really add that extra magic to a movie, if you ask me.

Land of the Lost — June 5, 2009

The questionable project takes the old TV show about a family stuck on an island inhabited by dinosaurs, turns it into a more modern cinematic adventure, and adds some Will Ferrell goodness. Their goal: to take that concept and give it a Jurassic Park realism where “…the dinosaurs are just scary as shit,” says Ferrell. For some reason, I’m interested in this movie. I don’t know what it is, but something about a Will Ferrell movie with dinosaurs running around sounds like too much fun to miss, but I’m more looking to see a trailer first before I get too carried away.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince — July 17, 2009

Fans are still fuming over the abrupt removal of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from its November release and delaying it to July of 2009. The immediate slap in the face of being replaced by Twilight did not help either. But alas, if you’re a fan of Harry Potter, you’ll still be salivating in line (I know I will be) when this does finally come to our doors, so it’s here to preview. This chapter will surely continue with the dark tones the last few movies have offered, but as you see in the trailer, it’s bringing back some of the humor that made the first few so much fun. Does this mean Half-Blood Prince could be the best in the series yet? It’s not an impossibility.

Year One — June 19, 2009

Not too much has been said about this Judd Apatow-produced comedy, likely because it sounds a little odd. Well, its oddity is what lead me to including it here. Year One follows Jack Black and Michael Cera as a couple of Neanderthal-like hunter-gatherers who are banished from their village. This leads them on a journey where they encounter many names and places from the bible. The movie is directed by Harold Ramis and will include stars like David Cross and Paul Rudd as Cain and Abel. This one has a feeling of either being horribly stupid or comedic genius. I’m hoping for the latter, but who knows. Aside from a TV movie and some episodes of The Office, Ramis hasn’t directed a movie since 2005’s The Ice Harvest, so it would be nice to get another Groundhog Day or Caddyshack.

Terminator Salvation — May 22, 2009

If you read our stuff often, then you know all about Terminator Salvation. It went from a potentially PG-13 abomination to quite the ass-slapping good time you’d ever hope and dream it to be. The movie follows John Connor (Christian Bale) in 2018, in the war we’ve heard about in all of the previous movies, fighting off hordes of scary robots like the T-800’s we know so well, to new ones like the gigantic Harvesters. Many folks have their fingers crossed for this one. The time where we all find out for sure how good or bad it is and how safe the property is in the hands of McG is very quickly approaching.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine — May 1, 2009

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is the highly-hyped spinoff movie that tells the story of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and how he came to be one of the more powerful and bad-ass X-Men ever to be. Think of it like an E! True Hollywood Story for superheroes. We’ll see who he was before he became Wolverine, when he was made to be indestructible, as well as his confrontations with people like William Stryker (Danny Huston) and Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber) as well as other superheroes including Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds).

There you have it!

This is shaping up to be quite the explosive year, ladies and gentlemen, let us strap in and enjoy the ride.