Are you not all that excited about The Road, the post-apocalyptic movie based on Cormac McCarthy's novel coming out this fall? Feel like a disheveled Viggo Mortensen struggling his way across a desiccated America is just too depressing? Well, think really hard about who you would rather have guide you through the apocalypse-- a reassuring-yet-tough presence who maybe, just maybe, can make things OK again.

You're thinking of Denzel Washington, right? You'd better be, since he'll be a star of what seems like the zillionth movie about the apocalypse, Book of Eli. Variety says Washington will star as a lone hero who struggles to cross America and bring knowledge to society "that could be the key to its redemption."

Allen and Albert Hughes are directing, their first movie since From Hell way back in 2001. There's a masters thesis in film studies somewhere about movies about the apocalypse, and what they reflect about modern culture, but it might be too soon to write this chapter. Let's just assume that if Viggo Mortensen in The Road is taken as a representation of what we in 2008 secretly feel about our future, Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli is bound to represent what we'd like to be-- full of hope, and ready to save the world. Bet you can't guess which movie will make more money!