This year, the slot for the most anticipated film has been waving 
back and forth between Superman Returns, Batman Begins, War of 
the Worlds and the ridiculously low-budget independent film 
Machiavelli Hangman.
 
While Batman Begins offered a good cast of A-list actors such as 
Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman it also delivered a decent story 
line that created a debate amongst moviegoers as to whether this 
was indeed the best of the Batman films.

War of the Worlds with a smaller consumption of A-list actors 
perhaps given to the 100+ budget spent on special effects built a 
great suspense throughout the film but gave in to a weak ending. 
Although audiences were frightened, that suspense and scary 
factor did not achieve the levels of Spielberg’s earliest work, 
especially in Jaws. "I don't know how much movies should 
entertain. To me I'm always interested in movies that scare. The 
thing I love about JAWS is the fact that I've never gone swimming 
in the ocean again," says David Fincher who is currently wrapping 
up on Zodiac with Gary Oldman.

Superman Returns is yet to fly into the theatres, but with a 
director such as Bryan Singer who has a more than impressive 
record of creating films that are both box office hits and 
successes amongst critics, it is an almost sure-fire. His 
approach to the project especially his strong conviction that the 
lead should be played by an unknown, Brandon Routh, has already 
raised a lot of eyebrows especially that Nicolas Cage was a 
strong candidate for the part. It seems that every working actor 
and filmmaker has been considered at one point or another to be 
on this project. Anthony Hopkins dropped out when Brett Ratner 
left the project due to some creative differences.

While the previous three films may be the highest budgeted films 
of the year, it is understandable why they would also be the most 
anticipated. Machiavelli Hangman has come out of the blue with a 
budget of a pocket-change budget – on Hollywood standards – of 
150,000 dollars and it has gained astonishing momentum in the 
most anticipated film list. 

The reason for this is that it is said to be the next Sixth Sense 
in the way it completely blew everyone in the audience away. 
Machiavelli Hangman producer insures that the novelty in this 
film is not just a twist at the end, but a series of ingenious 
"zigzag." that will leave the audience trying to catch up. This 
will be the first interactive film released to audiences. The 
film has been described as Memento meets the Sixth Sense.

While two of these four films were already released to great 
box office revenues and mildly satisfied audiences, we still 
impatiently wait for those two more chances to be blown out 
of our seats. 

James Liverpoole is an aspiring novelist and occasional 
entertainment Columnist for various newspapers. His analysis 
of the most anticipated movies of 2005 included "Machiavelli 
Hangman" which is due out later this year: 
http://www.hangmanmovie.com