JJ Abrams
Über-geek writer/producer/director, surging forward with immaculately re-tooled Star Trek.
Paul Thomas Anderson
New Hollywood’s flame-bearer, his generation’s best filmmaker after Magnolia and There Will Be Blood.
Jennifer Aniston and Kristin Hahn
Echo Films pairing, with “first look” at Universal Pictures, pursuing “relatable” fare.
Judd Apatow
King of sweetly saucy bromantic comedy, maturing wine-like with Funny People.
Avi Arad
Marvel’s main motivator was formerly CEO and chairman of the comic hothouse, later chairman, founder and CEO at Marvel Studios. He now rules Avi Arad Productions, producing Marvel properties and more.
Hits have included Spider-Man, X-Men, Hulk and Iron Man while his upcoming production empire boasts sequels/spin-offs Thor, Captain America, and teen-novel adaptations Fablehaven and Maximum Ride.
Darren Aronofsky
Maverick auteur, currently seducing stars for Black Swan after his actor-friendly The Wrestler.
Christian Bale
Saturnine, method-honed, shape-shifting A-lister, looks good in rubber, rugged physicality. Dodgy throat.
Drew Barrymore and Nancy Juvonen
Star and producer turned Flower Films industry players, slate ranging from Donnie Darko to Whip It.
Michael Bay
Overlord of box-office-smashing bombast, unleashing FX armageddon every other summer.
Mattias Bergström, Martin Alen and Magnus Dahlman
Net-sharp and marketing-savvy triumvirate behind Voddler, which is supposedly ‘Spotify for movies’.
Next: Bigelow, Boyle, Bruckheimer [page-break]
Jeff Bezos
Amazon founder and CEO, an internet pioneer with a finger in suborbital spaceflight programmes.
Kathryn Bigelow
Smart, sharp-shooting stylist and action queen, resurgent with 2009’s The Hurt Locker.
Danny Boyle
Brit-indie auteur whose post-28 Days Later… form led to Slumdog Millionaire.
Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson
Bond dynasty offspring turned 007 miracle reboot engineers, each OBE-armed.
Jerry Bruckheimer
High-concept production titan whose populist touch helped launch Pirates’ fleet.
Simon Calver
CEO of LoveFilm, one-stop online home-ents shop, thriving despite postal strikes.
James Cameron
Resurgent king of ‘game-changing’ event movies, just unleashed a certain 3D epic...
Michael Cera
Minimalist alt-pin-up and the standard-bearer for romantically awkward (but cool) souls.
George Clooney
Old-school smouldering leading man with added activist’s conscience. Mr Fox, indeed.
Diablo Cody
Stripper turned sassy punk-rebel Juno scribe, currently producing Sweet Valley High.
Joel and Ethan Coen
Deadpan arthouse-crossover duo, on top form once again with A Serious Man.
Next: Coppola, Craig, Cruise [page-break]
Sofia Coppola
Woozy indie hipster behind Lost In Translation. Superlative stylist heading to Somewhere.
Daniel Craig
Character actor and rugged man-totty who carved respect for brusque, bad-ass nu-Bond.
Tom Cruise
High-concept Hollywood’s can-do king as star and producer, media-bruised but unbeaten.
Jeremy Dale
Microsoft’s main marketing man, formerly behind the groundbreaking and hugely popular Orange Wednesdays campaign.
Matt Damon
Preppy every dude turned action tough as Jason Bourne, soon occupying Green Zone.
Daniel Day-Lewis
Choosy and oft-awesome method titan, enticingly cast in Martin Scorsese’s forthcoming Silence.
Guillermo Del Toro
Leading fantasy filmmaker of his age, currently in New Zealand making The Hobbit(s).
Johnny Depp
Dapper boho dude, cheque-cashing über-star and winning oddball. Hollywood’s biggest? Might just be...
Fae Desmond
Executive director of San Diego Comic-Con, international geek hub gossip-starter.
Cameron Diaz
Model turned surprisingly versatile, game lead. Green days ahead, with more Shrek and Green Hornet.
Next: Downey Jr, Eastwood, Efron [page-break]
Lorenzo di Bonaventura
Transformers super-producer now scouting for post-Potter franchise heat with The Alchemyst: Secrets Of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Former pin-up star turned prime Scorsese protégé, soon to be visiting Shutter Island.
Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams
The Twitter co-founders’ no-nonsense status-sharing programme is a real-time one-to-the-world microblogging hub. Dorsey was a software engineer, Stone a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and writer before they teamed with Evan Williams to create the on-the-run communications service. Opinion splits over content but Twitter’s what users make it. Silicon Valley’s new kings aren’t twits.
Robert Downey Jr and Susan Downey
Star-producer power spouses and recent collaborators on rebooted Sherlock Holmes.
Clint Eastwood
Hollywood’s oldest box-office anti-hero, charismatic at 79 and a crack classicist filmmaker.
Zac Efron
Pretty face (and feet) of High School Musical, grew up in Me And Orson Welles.
Ari Emanuel
CEO at the William Morris Endeavour talent agency, with Scorsese and Matt Damon on call.
Jon Favreau
One-time Swingers hipster turned star-writer-director, currently knocking Iron Man 2 into shape.
Will Ferrell
SNL graduate and critic-proof frat packer. Sliding, but Anchorman 2’s blowing in…
David Fincher
Prince of darkness – stylistic and substantial, fashioning a Facebook film alongside Kevin Spacey.
Next: Gervais, Gibson, Greengrass [page-break]
Megan Fox
“World’s hottest...” so-and-so, survived Transformers to soon play Jonah Hex’s cowgirl.
Thierry Frémaux
The king of Cannes, credited with boosting the festival’s global remit and profile.
Ricky Gervais
Close-to-the-bone comic vivisectionist of acute embarrassment, romantic mortification and human foible.
Mel Gibson
Hollywood’s last macho man is an old-school ‘primitivist’ director and debate-starter – think Passion Of The Christ. Two forthcoming films tap his star appeal, Edge Of Darkness being a thriller in his lucrative ‘angry family man’ mode and Beaver providing a comic re-team with Maverick co-star Jodie Foster. George Miller’s Mad Max reboot may ignite nostalgia for young Mel.
Paul Greengrass
Brit TV émigré turned muscular, intelligent action-drama auteur, occupying Green Zone.
Brad Grey
TV/film producer and CEO of Paramount, hits include The Sopranos and The Departed.
Tom Hanks
Respected, trusted star as everyman, back on voice duties for Toy Story 3.
Sandra Hebron
Artistic Director of BFI Film Festivals, valiantly keeping the LFF for the public.
Chris Hemsworth
Kirk senior in Trek, ready to roar in Red Dawn and Thor.
Alan Horn
Warner President and COO, nurturing Batman and Harry Potter franchises.
Next: Jackman, Jackson, Jobs [page-break]
Ron Howard and Brian Grazer
Imagine Entertainment founders, upcoming slate including Ridley Scott’s new take on Robin Hood.
Robert ‘Bob’ Iger
Conciliatory Disney President and CEO, who oversaw the acquisitions of Pixar and Marvel.
Hugh Jackman
All-man Wolverine hunk and all-singing, all-dancing charmer in his role as 2009’s Oscar host.
Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh
Rings power spouses, looking Oscar-wards with The Lovely Bones.
Steve Jobs
Softly spoken tech visionary and business icon behind Pixar, Apple, iTunes and iPhone.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
Or Brangelina, star-producer-parent power couple and Hollywood’s hottest humanitarians.
Spike Jonze
Maverick MTV scamp turned arch auteur, hanging with the Wild Things.
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Producer and DreamWorks Animation CEO, now a keen champion of 3D filmmaking.
Charlie Kaufman
Scriptwriting’s first auteur, a surrealist-romantic philosopher who recently turned director with Synecdoche, New York.
Richard Kelly
Donnie Darko boy wonder, opening The Box and prepping a 3D sci-fi.
Next: LaBeouf, Lasseter, Lucas [page-break]
Harry Knowles
Self-styled “headgeek” on gossip site Ain’t It Cool News and fantasy-fest programmer.
Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci
Kings of smartly character-driven blockbuster scriptwriting, anointed for nailing the tone on Star Trek.
Shia LaBeouf
Disney graduate and bankable everyguy action dude, rapidly maturing for Wall Street 2.
John Lasseter
Pioneering Pixar pilot and animation saviour, with Toy Story 3 due to hit in a big way very soon.
Richard Lovett
President of Creative Artists Agency, talent home for Spielberg, Pitt, Clooney et al…
George Lucas
Jedi forefather and Indy’s co-parent, now re-re-re-visiting Star Wars’ universe in animated fashion for telly.
Ron Meyer
The long-distance runner, President and COO of Universal since ’95, with Green Zone forthcoming.
Stephanie Meyer
The vampire queen, post-Anne Rice. Connecticut’s superstar scribe of emo-bloodsucker splash Twilight consolidated her standing with the record-busting success of movie sequel New Moon, tearing into franchise terrain soon to be vacated by Harry Potter. Andrew Niccol’s adaptation of her sci-fi novel The Host should spread her web further.
Col Needham
Co-founder and general manager of online industry first-call movie-pedia IMDb.
Christopher Nolan
Brit who re-began Batman, now making Inception and frustratingly dodging all those Bat 3 queries.
Next: Page, Pattinson, Pine [page-break]
Jonathan Nolan
Dark Knight super-scribe penning sci-fi Interstellar for Spielberg. Batman 3, please?
Ellen Page
Breakthrough Canadian, effortlessly graduating from Juno’s indie scene to Inception hugeness.
Amy Pascal
Sony Pictures Entertainment’s populist co-chairman, with successes including Superbad and Spider-Man.
Robert Pattinson
Emo-goth pin-up and va-va-vamp with a heart-spearing quiff.
Alexander Payne
Director of much-adored dysfunctional character coms (About Schmidt, Sideways) and sometime writer/producer.
Chris Pine
The LA-born son of acting stock brought requisite firm-jawed, rebel-hunk appeal to James T Kirk in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek reboot, adding wit and charm to boot. His stated influence being Harrison Ford, rumours that he’ll boldly tackle Ford’s old role of Jack Ryan fit like a sci-fi pyjama top over pin-up-grade abs.
Natalie Portman
The Star Wars prequels’ brainy indie-mainstream crossover star, soon to be seen nursing Thor.
Sam Raimi
Schlock godhead in prime pulp form to spin Spidey 4 a blockbusting web.
Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson
Super-hot Hollywood alternacouple, imminently set to turn superheroic as Green Lantern/Black Widow respectively.
Seth Rogen
Team Apatow’s curvy comedy king, gearing up for The Green Hornet.
Next: Sandler, Scorcese, Scott [page-break]
Tom Rothman and Jim Gianopulos
Fox’s controversial tag-team co-chairmen, rallying for James Cameron’s Avatar to re-boost popularity.
JK Rowling
Fairy-tale success story whose wizardry made children read again.
Adam Sandler
Über-bankable ‘dork star’ of colourful, goofball critic-proof comedy and sometime producer.
Peter Sciretta
Founder and Editor-in-Chief at well respected breaking-news mega-blog /Film.
Martin Scorsese
‘America’s Greatest Living Filmmaker’, finally Oscar-blessed and readying Shutter Island.
Tony and Ridley Scott
Former ad men turned cine-stylists and A-Team production brothers. Alien prequel looming.
Joel Silver
Crowd-pleasing slam-bang action producer, currently nurturing Ninja Assassin and Sherlock Holmes.
Bryan Singer
Geek-loved X-Men auteur, vacillating post Valkyrie but attached to modern-day fairy tale Jack The Giant Killer.
Will Smith
The former Fresh Prince is part every guy, part career racehorse and one of few big names still able to “open a film”. He carried I Am Legend alone, and Hancock and Hitch proved critic-resistant.
Collapses of Spielberg’s OldBoy remake and McG’s mooted 20,000 Leagues needn’t worry him: rumoured sequels to ID4, Hancock and I, Robot will always secure brand Will’s standing.
Steven Soderbergh
Multi-purpose indie-mainstream crossover auteur, heating up lady-actioner Knockout.
Next: Washington, Weinstein, Winslet [page-break]
Steven Spielberg
Hollywood’s populist conscience and head beard.
Ben Stiller
Frat pack favourite, once again targeting home base with Little Fockers.
Quentin Tarantino
Motor-mouthed po-mo trash-hound and junk genie, making genres his own since 1992.
Bonnie Timmermann
Crack casting director of Heat who scored early with Scarlett Johansson.
Denzel Washington
Top leading man as ethical heavweight, packing action muscle to boot in his movies.
Harvey Weinstein
Producer and controversial studio heavyweight, still fronting for Team Tarantino.
Joss Whedon
Bedevilled Buffy godhead, mourning Dollhouse but producing 3D horror Cabin In The Woods.
Kate Winslet
This generation’s Meryl Streep, an Oscar-grade star with undeniable populist punch. Relatable.
Edgar Wright, Nick frost and Simon Pegg
Three kings of po-mo prankster comedy, reuniting for The World’s End.
