When does the summer begin? Hollywood, sharing some ancient Druidical energy, always gets a few of its big beasts out of the cage before May is done. This year it was Thunderbolts* and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. But we are plumping for the cinematic space laid out between the Cannes and Venice film festivals: June, July, August. Sorry to say, sequels and reboots still dominate the blockbuster economy. The only big-budget live-action event film not based on existing intellectual property here is Brad Pitt’s Grand Prix drama F1. Oh well. There are still smaller gems to seek out.
Ballerina
The John Wick films helped transform action cinema over the past decade. This first spin-off features Ana de Armas as, yes, a ballerina who is training to be an assassin. Len “Underworld” Wiseman directs. The cast also includes Gabriel Byrne and Anjelica Huston. Opens June 6th
Dangerous Animals
One of the most surprising inclusions in the otherwise austere Directors’ Fortnight strand at the recent Cannes Festival was Sean Byrne’s shocker about a surfer trying to avoid being fed to sharks by a serial killer. The Australian director is hitherto best known for the 2015 horror The Devil’s Candy. Opens June 6th
How to Train Your Dragon
DreamWorks’ take on Cressida Cowell’s adored children’s books was one of the most charming family animations of the past 15 years. Two solid sequels followed, but now, the laws of contemporary cinema being what they are, the time has come for a live-action remake. Trailers suggest they are not moving far from the original. Opens June 13th
Elio
Battle commences. A week after the Dragon flick, Pixar makes its latest play for the family dollar with an animation about a space-mad kid who is beamed into an alien world. The recent Oscar winner Zoë Saldaña is among the voices. Domee Shi, creator of the studio’s delightful Turning Red, codirects. Opens June 20th
28 Years Later
It is not really 28 years since the first sequel to Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, but George W Bush was still US president when Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s decent 28 Weeks Later emerged. Boyle is back for zombie fun with Ralph Fiennes and Jodie Comer. A fourth film is due early next year. Opens June 20th
F1
A lot is riding on this motor-racing flick from Top Gun: Maverick’s Joseph Kosinski. Brad Pitt stars alongside Damson Idris and our own Kerry Condon. The veteran Jerry Bruckheimer and the top driver Lewis Hamilton are among the producers. Kosinski denied the budget was as high as a reported $300 million, but it ain’t cheap. Opens June 25th
M3gan 2.0
The first killer-doll movie was a hoot. So we have a right to expect yucks from a movie that hangs around the creation of a deadlier rival to M3gan called Amelia. What? Why not Am3lia? Gerard Johnstone, Kiwi director of the original, is back behind the megaphone. Opens June 27th
Jurassic World: Rebirth
The Jurassic World trilogy wasn’t much cop, but it made a staggering amount of money. Express no surprise that the series continues with a return to the research facility where the experiment began. Gareth Edwards, who made the attractive The Creator, directs. Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali star. Opens July 2nd
The Shrouds
David Cronenberg’s latest, about a company that markets live relays of decaying corpses in the grave, finally gets a deserved release after premiering at Cannes in 2024. Shows its origins as a TV series, but the atmosphere is grimly compelling. Opens July 4th
Hot Milk
Adaptation of Deborah Levy’s popular novel about a mother and daughter’s journey to Spain at a time of economic uncertainty. Rebecca Lenkiewicz, writer of fine films such as Ida and Disobedience, makes her directorial feature debut. Emma Mackey, Fiona Shaw and Vicky Krieps star. Opens July 4th
Superman
Lordy, this again! One David Corenswet follows Christopher Reeve, Brandon Routh and Henry Cavill in the latest effort to make sense of a now-ancient superhero. The sometimes snarky James Gunn has already annoyed the nerdisphere with a trailer featuring Krypto the Superdog. Opens July 11th
Four Letters of Love
Pierce Brosnan, Gabriel Byrne and Helena Bonham Carter are the senior stars in an adaptation of the Irish writer Niall Williams‘s sweepingly romantic novel. Rising (or possibly risen) actors Fionn O’Shea and Ann Skelly provide Gen Z interest. “Squarely aimed at hopeless romantics,” Screen International tells us. Opens July 18th
Harvest
The antidote, perhaps, to Superman, Athina Rachel Tsangari’s challenging drama goes among the mud and cruelty of the English Middle Ages. Caleb Landry Jones and Harry Melling star in a film that divided audiences at the 2024 Venice film festival. Opens July 18th
I Know What You Did Last Summer
The odd habit of naming sequels after the opening episode continues. Apparently, the new film has a fresh array of teenagers seeking advice, after covering up an automobile accident, from survivors of the original 1997 horror. Yes, Jennifer Love Hewitt is back. More power to her. Opens July 18th
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Interesting one, this. There have been three outings for the venerable Marvel superheroes on screen this century. None clicked with audiences. The latest attempt to break the curse stars Pedro Pescal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Could be huge. Could be a disaster. Opens July 25th
The Bad Guys 2
Hang on, what was that again? Oh, yes. That 2022 animation that cast a variation of the Rat Pack with anthropomorphic wolves, snakes and sharks (but not rats, oddly). It seems as if the gang have been called back into action to do “one last job”. If you say so. Opens July 25th
Bring Her Back
Danny and Michael Philippou, Australian online pranksters who go by the collective name of RackaRacka, had a deserved hit with the ghostly horror Talk to Me in 2023. They return with a film that casts Sally Hawkins as another dabbler in occult rituals. Opens August 1st
The Naked Gun
No less a figure than Liam Neeson replaces Leslie Nielsen in a reboot of the classic comedy about a bumbling detective. The trailer divided fans, but anyone who saw Neeson in Ricky Gervais’s Extras knows he can do deadpan comedy. Opens August 8th
Weapons
Zach Cregger, director of the horror hit Barbarian, moves into the big leagues with a shocker about the mysterious vanishing of all but one child from the same class. Cregger has claimed Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia as an influence. Josh Brolin and Julia Garner star in a film of which much is expected. Opens August 8th
Freakier Friday
Long-awaited sequel to the 2003 remake of the 1976 Disney flick about a mother and daughter swapping bodies. Will this still work with a 37-year-old Lindsay Lohan and a 65-year-old Jamie Lee Curtis? It will surely be fun to see them try. Opens August 8th
Materialists
Celine Song’s follow-up to the Oscar-nominated Past Lives has been shuffled around the schedule with worrying randomness. It looks as if Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pescal are starring in a traditional Manhattan sitcom. Nothing at all wrong with that. Opens August 15th
The Life of Chuck
There was puzzlement when Mike Flanagan’s unheralded adaptation of a Stephen King story beat the likes of Anora to the People’s Choice Award at Toronto last year – a sure sign of Oscar potential – but the sentimental philosophical yarn has all the makings of a crowd-pleaser. Tom Hiddleston stars. Opens August 22nd
Sorry, Baby
Arriving after raves at Sundance and Cannes, Eva Victor’s tonally precise, serious comedy follows a university lecturer as she attempts to process a sexual assault. Victor somehow finds humour in unshakeable trauma. The director stars opposite Naomi Ackie, Lucas Hedges and John Carroll Lynch. Opens August 22nd
Eddington
Ari Aster follows up Beau Is Afraid with a film that, if possible, has already proven even more divisive than that provocation. Premiering at Cannes, the new movie stars Joaquin Phoenix as a New Mexico sheriff who gives in to paranoia and conspiracy theories during the Covid lockdowns. Funny and infuriating. Opens August 22nd
Caught Stealing
Welcome back, Darren Aronofsky. The latest from the director of Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan casts Austin Butler as a former baseball player who gets dragged into criminal mischief during the 1990s. A starry cast also features Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith and Carol Kane. Opens August 29th
