Touchstone Pictures served up a diverse slate of motion pictures in 2003, ranging from comedy to western to action-adventure, and enjoyed one of its best years ever. Touchstone Pictures started the year off with the Al Pacino/Colin Farrell suspense thriller, The Recruit, and the Jackie Chan/Owen Wilson action comedy, Shanghai Knights. Together, these moderately budgeted films grossed more than $110 million domestically.

Bringing Down the House, released in March, was one of 2003’s biggest hits and became Steve Martin’s most successful movie yet, seeing him paired with the versatile Queen Latifah. This moderately budgeted odd couple comedy grossed more than $130 million domestically.

Director/actor Kevin Costner brought new excitement to the western genre with the August release of Open Range. This saga of the Old West won critical acclaim and showcased the talents of Costner’s co-stars Robert Duvall and Annette Bening.

Touchstone Pictures’ fall schedule included the charming romantic comedy Under the Tuscan Sun, which found Diane Lane as a San Francisco divorcee whose life takes an unexpected turn when she purchases an Italian villa on a whim.

Calendar Girls, released in December, starred Helen Mirren and Julie Walters as resourceful mature women who raise money and eyebrows when they bare all for charity.

In March 2004, the adventure Hidalgo races to the big screen to deliver epic entertainment. Viggo Mortensen (The Lord of the Rings) stars as legendary distance rider Frank T. Hopkins, whose pride, honor and survival are on the line when he competes against the world’s greatest horseback riders in the death-defying 3,000-mile Ocean of Fire race across the Arabian Desert.

The Touchstone Pictures schedule continues with the spring release of Ladykillers from acclaimed filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen. Tom Hanks stars as an eccentric southern professor who assembles a band of less-than-competent thieves to rob a Mississippi riverboat casino. When the gang rents a room from unsuspecting, straight-laced, church-going little old Mrs. Munson, they get more than they bargained for, along with a strong reminder that crime doesn’t pay.

In April, The Alamo, from director John Lee Hancock and starring Billy Bob Thornton, Dennis Quaid and Jason Patric, blends history, myth and legend, as it tells the story of the famed 1836 battle and recounts the heroic deeds of Davy Crockett, James Bowie and Col. William Travis for a new generation of moviegoers.

Bernie Mac steps up to the plate this May in the comedy, Mr. 3000. He plays a retired baseball star whose record of 3000 career base hits is in jeopardy when three of those hits are disqualified. Reluctantly getting back into uniform to defend his title, he rediscovers his love of the game and, in the process, falls for a sports reporter played by Angela Bassett.

On the heels of the critically acclaimed hit Holes, the partnership between Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media continues with Around the World in 80 Days. Set for release this June, this inventive take on the Jules Verne classic stars Jackie Chan and Steve Coogan, as well as a star-studded cast of celebrity cameos.

Director M. Night Shyamalan, the creator of hit Touchstone films The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs, returns with his latest thriller, The Village, which is due for a summer 2004 release. Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, Sigourney Weaver and William Hurt star in this tale about a close-knit community that discovers a mythical race of creatures living in the nearby woods.

In September, Touchstone offers Raising Helen, a poignant new comedy from director Garry Marshall, starring Kate Hudson as a career-minded party girl who finds herself plunged into motherhood when three children come to live with her.

The 2004 Touchstone Pictures slate continues with the October release of Ladder 49, an action-drama starring Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta as Baltimore firemen who risk their lives when faced with the worst blaze of their careers.

The industry’s top producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, serves up two entertaining motion pictures in 2004. This July’s epic tale, King Arthur, is a spectacular story of chivalry, bravery and one man’s destiny. Bruckheimer’s fresh look at the origins of this legendary hero provides a thrilling, edge-of-the-seat adventure in which action and historical grandeur come together. In National Treasure due this November, Nicolas Cage plays a patriotic treasure hunter who discovers a 228-year-old map hidden on the back of the Declaration of Independence. Joining with two friends, he tries to locate the legendary treasure before it falls into the wrong hands.

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