George Clooney is going to have a very merry Christmas, and a happy Thanksgiving. It will be an end-of-the-year blow-out for the “silver fox”, releasing three major films in the coming fall/winter months. The man already has Grant Heslov’s screwball comedy The Men Who Stare At Goats, which he both stars in and produces, out this past weekend. (Goats Semi-Pro film Ever After full movie exceeded expectation at the box office, debuting with $12.7 million, topping The Informant!, where he last played producer).

This Friday, Clooney’s highly-anticipated Fantastic Mr. Fox, director Wes Anderson’s first animated feature, hits theaters as well. And a few weeks later in December, he’ll finish it off with Jason Reitman’s hugely-awaited Up In The Air.

This may just be me, but I expect Fox and Air to at least be nominated for some kind of Oscar come February. This spur of great movies isn’t so unlike Clooney. If you’ll think back a few years to the fall 2005/winter 2006 Oscar season, there came a bunch of Academy Award contenders all starring, you guessed it, George Clooney.

The historic-drama Good Night, and Good Luck, in which news anchor Edward R. Murrow (played by David Strathairn) attempted to remove Senator Joseph McCarthy from office, gave Clooney two more Oscar nods: one for Best Achievement in Directing and another shared with Grant Heslov for Best Original Screenplay. Clooney won his first Best Actor in a Supporting Role Oscar for playing Bob Barnes in Syriana, the thriller about people involved in the oil business. In one of my favorite films of 2006 The Good German, I was sad to see Clooney’s wonderful performance as Jake Geismer ignored. Still, the film’s composer Thomas Newman took Oscar home for Best Original Score.

Some people flat out dislike George Clooney, which I can respect. Although you can’t deny the fact that he makes some pretty damn good films. I’ve always loved Clooney’s work, and look forward to the future spectacles he’ll star in, produce or hopefully even direct. Being a freak for Where the Wild Things Are, I’ll be a part of the audience for Fantastic Mr. Fox this weekend, and one of the many who will take up seats in December for Reitman’s Up In The Air.

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