This week, the Heave staff was asked:

What pop culture item (book, film, album, etc.) are you most looking forward to between now and the end of 2012?

Chris Osterndorf

The obvious choice for me is Django Unchained. However, what I have the most hope for is the return of Community. Chevy Chase’s periodic meltdowns aside, I still have faith that the show can retain the ridiculously high standard it set last season, in what will presumably be its final year.

Amy Dittmeier

I’m a Bond fan from birth, so I have to say Skyfall. Daniel Craig fixing his cufflinks while kicking ass is my jam.

Shelby Shaw

I’m stoked for Joe Wright’s screen adaptation of Anna Karenina, nicely broken down by the film’s distributors, Focus Features (ie, Moonrise Kingdom, Shaun of the Dead, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Brokeback Mountain), here. Before wind of the Keira Knightley-starring film, I had read the book a couple years ago, completely falling for its strangely-contemporary psychology of relationship turmoil. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Tolstoy’s classic (Anna being only one, of course) before you hit the theatres – and don’t be scared off by the hundreds of hundreds of pages. It flies. And you’ll look classy reading it on the train, unless you’re reading it after the film release. Then you’ll just look like you’re behind).

Andrew Neel

The final Twilight movie, if only because it means that soon I’ll never have to hear about Twilight again.

Marissa Morales

Definitely Django Unchained. I love Tarantino, and I’m totally intrigued to see Leonardo DiCaprio play a psychotic slave owner. Maybe this will be his Oscar year? Yeah right, but seriously, I can’t even put into words how excited I am for this film. The only issue might be me grumbling to myself, “Stupid Jamie Foxx, shoulda been Idris Elba.” BECAUSE IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN.

William Jones

WWE ’13. I was not a fan of WWE ’12. I wasn’t keen on the control changes, and the story mode was one of the worst in franchise history, with varying difficulties and objectives that made it less about having and experiencing matches and more about trying to meet ridiculous criteria to get to a cutscene. Lame.

But WWE has Chicago favorite CM Punk on the cover of the latest iteration and a marketing campaign that seems all about his ascension in WWE. That alone would be enough, but WWE and THQ have also announced an “Attitude Era” mode, which allows gamers to play through some of the key moments of the Attitude Era. There’s a good chance when the game actually comes out, there will be plenty that still bothers me about it. I can’t imagine it is going to be that different than last year’s installment. Still, what WWE is putting out there has definitely got my attention, and the hype is enough to make me (almost) forget about those things until the game releases.

Seetha Sankaranarayan

I suppose this is kind of a non-answer, but A) I’m really looking forward to finishing a stack of books on communication theory and watching all the movies I’ve recorded from BET, and B) I always welcome the opportunity to discover musical and visual artists, literature, films, ideas and innovative thinkers that I might have missed in the past 12 months through the “best of” lists that just about every publication releases around this time of year. It’s fun to stack up my own choices against the industry standard and determine how culturally savvy I am in the media’s eyes.

Meghan Bongartz

The Hobbit. I would be beyond pumped about it regardless, but this is doubly the case because I can wear a dress with a map of Middle Earth printed on it when I see it. Because I have one of those.

Michael Alexander

November 9, IMAX, Skyfall! The movie is sure to have lots of explosions, primo automobiles, fancy suits and Bond’s occasional rendezvous with a beautiful dame. I can get behind that.

Dominick Mayer

Is “the entire awards season” an acceptable response? Compared to the past few years, the number of films I want to see before year’s end is ridiculous. Of those films, and because everyone else has already mentioned how awesome James Bond and Quentin Tarantino are, I’m also very curious about Les Miserables. I adore it as a stage production, which has led to lots of inner conflict about it finally making it to the screen courtesy of Tom Hooper, he of The King’s Speech, one of the dullest Oscar winners in years. If Hooper botches it, I riot. If he nails it, come to Chicago’s AMC River East 21 somewhere in the vicinity of Christmas so you can watch a grown man cry.