2010 - The year in prospect

I'm not going to do a post about summarising 2009, nor am I going to write about my New Years resolutions (basically because I don't make them. I figure that change happens ALL the time not just at an arbitrary point at the end of the year. I've given up caffeine, meat and alcohol over the years without waiting until Jan 1st and I'm not going to start now)

But what I did want to do is have a look over the upcoming year and see what there is in store for everyone.

Let's start with a topic close to my heart: Movies

2010 promises to be a bumper year for movies. As well as the movies I worked on over last summer ("Clash Of The Titans", "Robin Hood", "The Special Relationship") 2010 should also see the release of John Cusack's "Shanghai" which I worked on well over 18 months ago and which has been sitting in limbo for a while.

We also get the next Harry Potter movie "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows - Part One" along with such well received movies as "Shutter Island", "Inception", "Wolfman"  and er - Jack Black in "Gullivers Travels". 2010 should also see the release of "The Book of Eli" with Denzel Washington, "Iron Man 2", "Shrek - The Final Chapter", and Oscar potential "A Single Man" starring my close personal friend Colin Firth. (OK, OK He's not a close personal friend, but I've done two movies with him and I've chatted with his parents. That's good enough for me . . . .)

Sportswise, 2010 is also promising to be a good year. As well as the 2010 soccer World Cup in South Africa we also have the Vancouver Winter Olympics (and Paralympics) and The Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor in Wales (The first time it has ever been held there). This years Open Championship golf tournament will be played at St Andrews and the US Open golf will be played at Pebble Beach (although I wonder whether Tiger Wood will be at either of those). For the first time in history the NFL Pro-Bowl will be played before the Superbowl and at the same venue. No clue at the moment who the combatants will be in that battle, but if the Indianapolis Colts are involved it could make the pro-bowl interesting as they have six starters scheduled to play in it. Injuries could be a problem.

Worlwide there are a number of interesting irregular events taking place in 2010. This year marks the return of the 41st Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany - an event which occurs only once every 10 years and has been going since 1630. The most sacred of all Hindu pilgrimages, the Maha Kumbha Mela, held every 12 years, is also on the calendar from January to April at Haridwar, Uttar Pradesh. Also Ghent Floralies, held once every five years, will bring the Flemish medieval city out in bloom during April 17-25. The solar eclipse on July 11 is remarkable because there are very few accessible observation points from which the total eclipse is visible. These include the remote Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island.

So overall 2010 has a lot to offer us as we move forward. There are signs that the global economic recession is starting to level off and that the green shoots of recovery may indeed by visible underneath the blanket of snow, slush and bad weather a large proportion of the planet has had recently.

Let us enjoy what we can of the year and hopefully we will all be here in twelve months to look back over it.