Rian Johnson is one of my favorite up and coming filmmakers.

Having established his name with the smart indie teenage noir Brick, then delivering on his promise with the incredibly smart and enjoyable thief romp The Brothers Bloom, Johnson is a name I look forward to.

So, a few years ago, when he posted to the web an image of these notebooks in progress (Johnson writes out his scripts originally by hand), the name Looper became something I needed to watch out for across all the movie blogs.

The details started to leak.  It’s a time travel movie. Something about hit men. Joseph Gordon Levitt, the man who starred in Brick, and whose excellent choice in roles has pretty much insured that I would see anything he agrees to, would be back as lead.  But he’d be playing a young Bruce Willis? What the hell was this Looper thing going to be all about?

Then there was EXTREMELY positive word from very early test screenings late last year.  And last night, before The Cabin in the Woods, the trailer rolled out before me.  I actually cherish the fact that I got to see this trailer on the big screen first, as it broke my brain and got me VERY excited for the film.  It’s on the web now, and seriously, I implore you to watch it.

Sure, I have some amazing movies to look forward to this year - The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Brave, The Hobbit. But in those movies, I sort of know what to expect.  Super heroics. Pixar greatness. A return to Middle Earth.  But here is something where I don’t know what to expect…THIS is what I look forward to in the movies. The anticipation of something new. The hopes for something great. And when the lights go down, not knowing where I will land when the lights come back up.

Sure - Bruce Willis has been hit or miss lately. And yes, this is the first time Rian Johnson has directed action. But I have a VERY good feeling about this movie.

Looper hits theaters on September 28th, 2012.