Who doesn't love discovering new talent? Introducing emerging stars will be a staple of NextMovie, so we're psyched to find the fall movie calendar chock-full of them.
Some of the folks highlighted in the following list are respected actors in foreign countries, others are better known as TV actors or singers, but none of them have had that breakout role in a movie that makes them a true-blue Hollywood star… until now.
Here are nine fresh faces – make that eight fresh faces and one grizzled vet finally getting a "star vehicle" (you are the man, Danny Trejo) – to keep an eye on this fall.
Violante Placido, 'The American'
This 34-year-old belladonna is an Italian dish best served hot. Not only has the daughter of actor/director Michele Placido and actress Simonetta Stefanelli been a feast for the eyes in Italian cinema and TV since the early '90s, she's a songstress to boot (known as Viola, her first album, "Don't Be Shy" was released in 2007). Moviegoers on this side of the pond get their first real taste of Placido in "The American," in which she plays the sultry object of George Clooney's affection as his assassin character hides out in Italy.
Danny Trejo, 'Machete'
Can someone be a breakout star at age 66? Tattooed tough guy Danny Trejo has been a longtime supporting player – kicking butt alongside some of Hollywood's biggest stars in movies like "Heat," "From Dusk Till Dawn," "Con Air" and this summer's "Predators" – and (finally!) graduates to leading-man status with "Machete." As the titular hero in Robert Rodriguez's outrageously fun feature-length take on what started as a faux trailer in "Grindhouse," Trejo could become for the infant "Mexploitation" genre what Richard Roundtree's Shaft was for Blaxploitation.
Rebecca Hall, 'The Town'
Before making an impression in "Frost/Nixon" and "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," the latter of which earned her a Golden Globe nomination, this 28-year-old was an accomplished British theater performer. Now Hall is ready to steal hearts in "The Town" a heist flick starring Ben Affleck (who also directs) as one of four bank robbers hotly pursued by police in Charlestown, Mass. Complicating matters is the fact that Affleck's career criminal has fallen for Hall's Claire, a bank manager who may be the only witness who can identify the outlaws. And really, who can blame him?
Andrew Garfield, 'Never Let Me Go' and 'The Social Network'
Garfield has dual citizenship in the U.S. and U.K. to go with his dual fall roles that could make him a household name even before he spins his first web as the new Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Sony's 2012 franchise reboot. You might have caught him in "Boy A," "The Other Boleyn Girl" or "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," but you'll definitely remember him in the dystopian sci-fi drama "Never Let Me Go" and David Fincher's Facebook-origins drama "The Social Network" starring Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake. If Garfield isn't on your friends list already, add him before he gets too popular.
Logan Marshall-Green, 'Devil'
A trained theater actor from Rhode Island, Marshall-Green paid his dues on "Law & Order," "The O.C." and "24" before landing big-screen parts in movies like "The Great Raid" and "Across the Universe." Next he plays one of five hapless souls trapped in an elevator in the thriller "Devil," in which the quintet begin to suspect that one of them is Satan. We don't know yet if the 33-year-old actor is the Lord of Darkness or not, but he won't have to sell his soul to the devil for fame if the movie connects with an audience eager for scary fun before Halloween.
Odette Yustman, 'You Again'
The 25-year-old beauty Yustman made her film debut as a Spanish-speaking student in 1990's "Kindergarten Cop" and re-emerged 18 years later as the gal a small group of survivors tries to rescue amidst a gigantic alien monster invasion in "Cloverfield." Starring in the supernatural stinker "The Unborn" is something that should be exorcised from our memory, but Yustman is set to have the last laugh in the comedy "You Again," which finds her in good company opposite Kristen Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver and Betty White.
Keir Gilchrist, 'It's Kind of a Funny Story'
This 17-year-old London native-turned-Toronto resident is best known for his role as the son of a woman (Toni Collette) with multiple personality disorder on Showtime's hit series "The United States of Tara." Gilchrist has appeared on the big screen in "Dead Silence" and "The Rocker," but his leading role as teenage boy who checks himself into a mental health clinic after a bout of depression in "It's Kind of a Funny Story" should translate into career Prozac.
Cecile de France, 'Hereafter'
A Belgian best known on these shores as the woman trying to elude a psychopathic killer in the acclaimed French horror flick "High Tension," de France's first big role in an American film comes via Clint Eastwood's "Hereafter." In the supernatural drama also starring Matt Damon – and told through three parallel stories about how death affects people -- Cecile is Marie, a French TV journalist who just barely survives a tsunami. Here's wagering she has what it takes to survive the cutthroat world of Hollywood, too.
Christina Aguilera, 'Burlesque'
Heard of her? "Xtina" is already a Grammy-winning singer who's sold millions of records with hits like "Beautiful," "Genie in a Bottle" and "Ain't No Other Man," but she only has to ask Madonna about how difficult it is to translate success on the Billboard charts into box-office glory. We think Aguilera has a shot with her first leading role in the glitzy musical "Burlesque" opposite singer-cum-Oscar winner Cher. Aguilera plays a small-town girl who finds a makeshift family and love in a Los Angeles neo-burlesque club. Awww.
