From The Avengers to Lincoln, performances to watch in 2012

A teen gladiator enters a reality-TV fight club. Johnny Depp gets in touch with his inner vampire. And superheroes battle aliens from outer space.

That's just part of what Hollywood has in store for 2012. Here's more:

. Dwayne Johnson is usually solid as a Rock, so chances are he'll do just fine in the fantasy re-boot of the Journey to the Center of the Earth - minus Brendan Fraser. This time, the kid-friendly search is for a missing grandfather. Location to be deter-mined on Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, which opens Feb. 10.

. Vancouver's Taylor Kitsch, from TV's Friday Night Lights, will star as Confederate Capt. John Carter in Andrew Stanton's film version of Edgar Rice Burroughs' classic sci-fi trip to Mars. John Carter opens March 9.

. Oscar nominee (for Winter's Bone) Jennifer Lawrence takes on the demanding lead in the highly anticipated movie version of Suzanne Collins' young-adult novel The Hunger Games. Lawrence plays Katniss Ever-deen, a teen gladiator in a post-apocalyptic world in which battles to the death are broadcast live on TV. Let The Hunger Games begin on March 23.

. Sean Hayes (Larry), Chris Diamantopoulos (Moe) and Will Sasso (Curly) are The Three Stooges in this farce by Bobby and Peter Far-relly. Warning: You will be judged, as fans take the Stooges very seriously. The verdict will be announced April 13.

. They've got The Avengers power all right, but we'll have to see if the big screen can handle the super-egos of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and the rest. Attention, extraterrestrial invaders: you've really made the super earthlings mad. We'll find out how angry on May 4.

. Johnny Depp goes deep into gothic-horror territory for his portrayal of the infamous va! mpire Ba rnabas Collins, from the cult TV soap Dark Shadows. If anybody can make fans forget Jonathan Frid's performance on the show, it's the actor who made Captain Jack a household name. Confirmation arrives May 11.

. Fresh from his triumph as the dupe in The Social Network, Andrew Garfield swings into action in The Amazing Spider-Man. Devotees of the comic book, and the first film series, must decide: amazing or not amazing? Garfield does have better Peter Parker hair than Tobey Maguire. We find out July 3.

. Daniel Craig as James Bond, we know. Javier Bardem as the creepy No Country for Old Men hitman Anton Chigurh, we can't forget. So to predict that Bardem's Bond villain might be the most dangerous one yet is saying a lot. We'll see how bad Nov. 9 when the 23rd Bond flick unspools.

. Leonardo DiCaprio is no Robert Redford. But that might be a good thing, since Redford's turn as The Great Gatsby didn't help the 1974 misfire of F. Scott Fitzgerald's story. DiCaprio should bring flair to the role, under the direction of Baz Luhrmann. DiCaprio's Gatsby party begins Dec. 25.

. Daniel Day-Lewis is puttin' on his top hat, tyin' up his black tie, and brushin' off his American accent to play U.S. president Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. Day-Lewis is all about method, so we're betting he's practising law near where Lincoln was born, at the Sinking Spring Farm log cabin in Hardin County, Ky. All the extra effort will likely be worth it when the biopic opens in December.

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