The Most Anticipated Movies of 2011

Here's a list of the most anticipated flicks of 2011

[Source: Yahoo! Movies]

Thor (May 6)

This year we'll see comic books, fairy tales, current bestsellers and classic novels come to life on the big screen. You'll have to wait until 2012 for theA-list superheroes like Spider-Man, Batman and even Superman to return to yourlocal megaplex. In the meantime, there's "Thor." Unlike those others,this superhero is not a millionaire with a dark side or a high school kid withunusual insect bites. No. Thor is a god! This movie gives fans a chance to seethe mighty warrior (played by Australian actor Chris Hemsworth) in his ownflick. You'll see him next fighting along side Iron Man and the Hulk in thehotly anticipated "Avengers" movie, which also comes out in 2012.

Pirates of the Caribbean:On Stranger Tides (May 20) -- Jack Sparrow is back, which isn't surprisingconsidering the huge piles of booty raked in by the last three flicks. Thistime Sparrow teams up with his old nemesis Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) andhis old flame Angelica (Penelope Cruz) to track down the Fountain of Youth.Blocking their path is Blackbeard (Ian McShane) and a host of supernaturalbaddies that includes zombies and mermaids.

The Hangover, Part II (May 26) -- If there's one place onthe planet that can top Vegas in terms of sin, it's the red-light districts of Thailand. Andthat's where Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) head for Stu's(Ed Helms) bachelor party. It's safe to assume that the party goes horriblywrong. The production landed itself in the news last year with word of twohigh-profile cameos. Bill Clinton appears briefly, perhaps the onlyex-president out there appropriate for a "Hangover" movie. MelGibson, after a lot of screaming and yelling, will not be in the flick.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (July 1) --"Transformers 2" might have made over $400 million domestically, butjust about everyone from hardcore fans to producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura tostar Shia LaBeouf admits that the movie just wasn't that good.Michael Bay has promised that this flick will bebetter and reportedly will have cooler action and less "dorkycomedy." Also absent from this go-around is Megan Fox, replaced by Victoria's Secret modelRosie Huntington-Whiteley.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (July 15) --It's taken just about ten years for everyone's favorite boy wizard to have hisfinal face-off with He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. While the previous Potter movie,the first half of J.K. Rowling's tome, started with some high-flying action(literally) only to level into a long stretch of angst, exile and self-doubt,this movie looks like it's going to be one long breathless chase to thatwizarding Gotterdammerung, the battle of Hogwarts.

Cowboys & Aliens (July 29) -- Han Solo and James Bondstar in a Western about aliens. Do you really need to know more? It's averitable tiramisu of Fanboy awesomeness. Jon Favreau of "Iron Man"fame directs.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 1 (November 18)-- After the wild success of "Eclipse," Twi-hards everywhere are waitingwith bated breath to see how Stephenie Meyer's final book in the Twilightseries is going to be adapted. Thematically, "Breaking Dawn" ismarked with less moony-eyed longing than the previous books and with moreshocks, including a graphic, not to mention icky, child-birthing scene. How canthis movie possibly be faithful to the text and keep a tween-friendly rating ofPG-13? The producers are remaining tight-lipped about the whole thing, but theydid bring in Oscar-winning filmmaker Bill Condon to direct. We'll see if the"Dreamgirls" director can find a way to satisfy both fans and theMPAA.

The Muppets (November 23) -- Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and the rest of the gang is finally getting a reboot after a twelve yearabsence from the silver screen. The same guys responsible for "ForgettingSarah Marshall" -- Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller -- wrote thescreenplay, so expect the same silly comic sensibility as "Marshall" -- thoughpresumably with a lot less nudity. There are few public details about "TheMuppets" although Amy Adams, Zach Galifianakis, Paul Rudd and RickyGervais along with Segel do reportedly star.

Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol (December 16) -- TomCruise reprises his role as the seemingly indestructible IMF agent, Ethan Hunt.Not much is known about the plot aside from a couple of pictures with Cruisedangling from the tallest building in the world -- Burj Khalifa in Dubai. If that seemsincredible, it's just as well. The movie's director, Brad Bird, previouslydirected "The Incredibles." Jeremy Renner, Ving Rhames, JoshHolloway, and Simon Pegg also star.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (December 21) -- StiegLarsson's book might just be one of the most compulsively readable books outthere; it's a relentlessly riveting murder mystery that turns the popular viewof Sweden from a nice quiet country that makes great furniture to a hotbed offamily jealousy, investigative journalism and hidden crimes. It also featuresone of the most memorable literary characters in memory -- the punk-rock hackersavant Lisbeth Salander. It's not surprising then that film producers snatchedup the movie rights faster than you can say lutefisk. A well-crafted Europeanversion of the movie came out in '09, but now it's Hollywood's turn, featuring director DavidFincher, fresh off his soon-to-be-Oscar-winning flick "The SocialNetwork" and starring Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer and Rooney Mara asSalander.

The Green Hornet (January 14)

Starring: Seth Rogen, Cameron Diaz, Christoph Waltz and Jay Chou

Paul (March 11)

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost go on a road trip to attend San Diego Comic-Con and end up meeting a wise-cracking, booze-drinking illegal alien, as in the extra-terrestrial variety.

Sucker Punch (March 25)