2. Under The Skin
Release date: March 14th Based on the debut novel of The Crimson Petal and the White's Michel Faber, Under the Skin sees Scarlett Johansson (making her second appearance on this list) as Laura, an alien sent to the Scottish highlands to seduce and prey on hitchhikers who can be turned into meat for her kind. The book has elements of horror and thriller narratives, but is often a darkly comic satire on modern big business and intensive farming and a reflection on identity and sexuality. It was nominated for the Whitbread Award and received almost universal acclaim, but is understandably a difficult prospect to adapt onto film. Sexy Beast director Jonathan Glazer is the one to take up the challenge, his first big screen directing job in ten years. His last film was Birth, a divisive sort-of romance between Nicole Kidman and a ten year old who claims to be her reincarnated husband. Under the Skin looks likely to have a similar uncomfortably off-kilter quality and is likely once more not to be a film for everyone. The trailer pitches the film as part-Species, part-The Man Who Fell to Earth, and suggests that it is not a film with a great deal of narrative thrust or pace. It does, however, look to have an impressive sense of the wild, wide, open landscape of the Scottish highlands and a strong atmosphere and feel of isolation and strangeness. Last year Under the Skin screened at the Venice Film Festival to some very positive reviews. And some rather less positive ones. The Guardian called it: "far and away the best picture in the competition," while The Independent dismissed it as: "laughably bad." You probably already have a sense which side of that debate you'd fall on just by reading this entry.