Three is the magic number this summer as the blockbusters dip into the pot a third time. So it's threequels for Pirates, Shrek, Jason Bourne and the Oceans crew. Michael Dwyerhas a week-by-week guide to this season's openings
SUMMERTIME, and the business is booming. Admissions are jumping and Hollywood expects an all-time high. The season's heavy with high-profile franchises, and there's no competition from the Olympics or the World Cup. The only impediment to a bumper season would be a heatwave, but that would be a boon in many countries such as the US where audiences flee humidity for air-conditioned cinemas.
The season kicks off today with the global release of Spider-Man 3, the first of many "threequels" to some of the most profitable productions in history - Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Ocean's Thirteen, Shrek the Third, Rush Hour 3, The Bourne Ultimatum.
Then there are the sequels - Evan Almighty, 28 Weeks Later, Are We Done Yet?, The Fantastic Four 2("bigger, much more expensive" than the first, according to 20th Century Fox), and Hostel Part II, which joins Vacancyand Paradise Lostin that cheaper, much gorier but lucrative cycle of movies featuring tortured tourists and travellers. We'll get the fourth Die Hardmovie, the fifth Harry Potter film, and spin-offs from television ( The Simpsons Movie), toys ( Transformers), books ( Nancy Drew) and Broadway ( Hairspray).
You might well ask if there is anything remotely original on our screens this summer. Thankfully, some distributors will risk counter-programming against the blockbusters with such diverse and critically admired movies as Zodiac, Knocked Up, Hallam Foeand an international line-up that includes more than a dozen new French movies.
Chacun à son goût. Bon appetit.
The schedule
MAY 11
GOODBYE BAFANA Bille August's South African drama spans over 20 years to chart the captivity of Nelson Mandela (Dennis Haysbert) on Robben Island and his relationship with warden Joseph Fiennes.
MY BEST FRIEND/MON MEILLEUR AMI
Patrice Leconte's highly entertaining serious comedy features Daniel Auteuil as an arrogant Paris antiques dealer who realises he has no friends and then has a fateful encounter with a loquacious taxi driver (Dany Boon).
THE NIGHT OF THE SUNFLOWERS/
LA NOCHE DE LOS GIRASOLES Beginning with the discovery of a dead woman in a field of sunflowers, Jorge Sanchez-Cabezudo's Spanish thriller is six overlapping chapters from different points of view.
28 WEEKS LATER Juan Carlos Fresnadillo takes over from Danny Boyle as director for the sequel to 28 Days Later, and Robert Carlyle and Rose Byrne head the new cast. The US army has declared London free of the deadly virus and open for repopulation when a carrier unwittingly infects the city.
MAY 18
BLACK SNAKE MOAN Writer-director Craig Brewer follows his overrated Hustle & Flow with a melodrama starring Samuel L Jackson as a middle-aged blues musician who chains a promiscuous young woman (Christina Ricci) to a radiator and spouts scripture to her. With Justin Timberlake.
CONVERSATIONS WITH OTHER WOMEN First-time director Hans Canosa makes extensive use of split screen as he explores the relationship between a man (Aaron Eckhart) and a woman (Helena Bonham Carter) who meet at a wedding reception.
JOE STRUMMER: THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN Five years after his death at the age of 50, the former lead singer and guitarist with The Clash is the subject of a documentary directed by Julien Temple.
MAGICIANS David Mitchell and Robert Webb, from the Channel 4 comedy Peep Show, play former partners in a celebrated stage magic act, pitted against each other in a tournament with a valuable prize.
ZODIAC Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr and Mark Ruffalo feature in David Fincher's intriguing, factually-based thriller dealing with a notorious serial killer who terrorised San Fransisco in the 1970s, leaving cryptic clues to taunt the police.
MAY 24
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 3: AT WORLD'S END The saga picks up where it left off last summer - on a cliffhanger ending - as Johnny Depp camps it up again as pirate Jack Sparrow. Geoffrey Rush returns from the first film, and joining the regular cast are Chow Yun-Fat and Rolling Stone Keith Richards as Teague Sparrow.
MAY 25
THE FAMILY FRIEND/L'AMICO DEL FAMIGLIA Writer-director Paolo Sorrentino follows The Consequences of Love with the story of an odious 70-year-old loan shark (Giacomo Rizzo) meeting his match in a young woman (Laura Chiatti) whose wedding he is funding in return for sexual favours.
JINDABYNE Based on a Raymond Carver short story (So Much Water So Close to Home), Ray Lawrence's compellin Australian drama addresses the moral dilemmas that ensue after four men find a dead woman in a river and continue their fishing weekend before reporting the discovery. Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney head a fine cast.
JUNE 1
FLYBOYS Tony Bill's aerial action adventure is set in 1916, as young Americans fly with the French forces before the US enters the war. With James Franco, Martin Henderson and Irish actor Keith McErlean.
PARADISE LOST Yet another movie in which a holiday turns into hell for backpackers, this time in the Brazilian jungle. Released in the US as Turistas, it stars Josh Duhamel, Melissa George and Desmond Askew.
WATER In Deepa Metha's Oscar-nominated drama a headstrong young widow (Lisa Ray) rebels against the harsh restrictions of Indian society in the 1930s.
WEDDING DAZE Comedian Michael Ian Black directs a romantic comedy in which a lovelorn young man (Jason Biggs) impulsively proposes to a waitress (Isla Fisher), who, to his surprise, agrees to marry him.
JUNE 8
ARE WE DONE YET? Audiences may be chorusing the title if this sequel is as inane as its predecessor. The central characters are played again by Ice Cube and Nia Long.
OCEAN'S THIRTEEN After a thoroughly disappointing tale of European heists in Ocean's Twelve, the crooks led by Danny Ocean (George Clooney) return to Las Vegas for another major scam. Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin join the regular cast, which includes Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Don Cheadle.
SCOTT WALKER: 30 CENTURY MAN The godlike genius of the reclusive singer-songwriter is celebrated in Stephen Kijak's fascinating documentary, which is packed with archival material - and features a rare, expansive interview with Walker.
JUNE 15
DANS PARIS Writer-director Christopher Honore pays homage to the Nouvelle Vague movement in his engaging picture of two brothers - one irresponsible (Louis Garrel), the other depressed (Romain Druis) - living with their divorced father.
EXILED/FONG JUK Hong Kong action movies virtuoso Johnnie To follows Election and its sequel with a gangster thriller. The setting is Macau in 1998, a year before the Portuguese island colony is due to be handed over to China.
FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER The superheroes return, played again by Chris Evans, Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba and Michael Chiklin. This time they have to deal with intergalactic herald Silver Surfer (Doug Jones) and the return of their nemesis, Dr Doom (Julian McMahon).
TELL NO ONE Young French actor Guillaume Canet's second movie as a director is a murder mystery with a formidable cast featuring Francois Cluzet, Marie-Josee Croze and Kristin Scott Thomas.
TEN CANOES Director Rolf de Heer collaborated closely with an Aboriginal community for his film rooted in ancient myths and triggered by a man's lust for his brother's third and youngest wife.
VACANCY Nimrod Antal, the Hungarian director of Kontroll, makes his US debut with a thriller starring Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale staying at a seedy hotel where guests become the subjects of slasher movies.
JUNE 22
GHOSTS OF CITÉ SOLEIL The Haitian slum of Cité Soleil - named as the most dangerous place on earth by the UN - features in a riveting documentary directed by Asger Leth.
THE HITCHER The remake of the taut, low-budget 1986 thriller inserts a woman (Sophia Bush) into the car (and the plotline), as she and her boyfriend (Zachary Knighton) make the big mistake of giving a lift to a mass murderer (Sean Bean).
LA VIE EN ROSE Marion Cotillard (A Very Long Engagement, A Good Year) plays Edith Piaf from her teens to her untimely death at 47. Olivier Dahan directs.
LUCKY YOU Eric Bana plays a poker player coping with personal problems as he tries to win a tournament in Las Vegas. With Drew Barrymore, Robert Duvall and Robert Downey Jr. Directed by Curtis Hanson.
JUNE 29
THE GOLDEN DOOR Charlotte Gainsbourg stars in Emanuele Crialese's Italian drama set in 1913 and following a Sicilian peasant family on a journey in search of a new life in the US.
HOSTEL PART II Expect more gore in what sounds less like a sequel than a remake with a change of gender. This time the US students blithely wandering into a torture chamber in Slovakia are women - played by Lauren German, Heather Matarazzo and Bijou Phillips. Eli Roth directs again.
PARIS, JE T'AIME A compilation of 18 short films set in the French capital and commissioned from an eclectic collection of directors, among them Alexander Payne, Gus Van Sant, Gerard Depardieu, Tom Tykwer, Walter Salles, Wes Craven, and Joel and Ethan Coen.
SHREK THE THIRD Shrek (Mike Myers) and his friends find a successor (Justin Timberlake) to the ailing king, while Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) tackles a coup d'etat plotted by Prince Charming (Rupert Everett). The voice cast also includes Eddie Murphy, Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews and John Cleese.
JULY 4
DIE HARD 4.0 Bruce Willis dons his dirty white vest for the first time in 12 years to reprise his role as the remarkably resourceful detective, John McClane, this time tangling with terrorists intent on shutting down the US computer infrastructure.
JULY 6
FLANDERS/FLANDRES French writer-director Bruno Dumont took the runner-up award, Le Grand Prix du Jury, at Cannes last year for his provocative picture of an inarticulate young farmer (Samuel Boidin) going to war in an unnamed Middle East country.
THE FLYING SCOTSMAN Jonny Lee Miller plays amateur Ayrshire cyclist Graham Obree who set a new world record in 1993 - on a bicycle he assembled from scrap metal and parts of a washing machine. Irish author Declan Hughes is one of the screenwriters. Douglas Mackinnon directs.
THE UGLY DUCKLING AND ME The new animated feature from Galway-based Magma Films is an adaptation of the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, scripted by Irish writer Mark Hodkinson. The voice cast includes Morgan Jones, David Tylack, Barbara Brennan and Michelle Read.
JULY 12
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX Playing Luna Lovegood, 15-year-old Irish actress Evanna Lynch joins cast regulars led by Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson for the fifth movie in the entertaining series. David Yates directs.
JULY 13
MOLIÈRE Romain Duris plays the 17th-century playwright and actor in a movie that imagines a scenario for his mysterious disappearance early in his career. Directed by Laurent Tirard.
JULY 20
FIREHOUSE DOG A pampered pooch, Hollywood's top canine star, gets lost and is adopted by the staff at a rundown fire station where he befriends a 12-year-old boy (Josh Hutcherson) and his dad (Bruce Greenwood).
HAIRSPRAY The movie of the hit Broadway musical of the delightful 1988 John Waters movie features John Travolta - in drag and fat suit - in Divine's original role as Edna Turnblad, whose plump teen daughter (Nicole Blonsky) lands a place on a TV dance contest. With James Mardsen, Michelle Pfieffer, Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah and Allison Janney. Directed by Adam Shankman.
PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES/COEURS The indefatigable Alain Resnais, who turns 85 next month, directs this transposition of an Alan Ayckbourn play to Paris where six characters are looking for love. With Lambert Wilson, Laura Morante and Sabine Azema.
JULY 27
SHERRYBABY Maggie Gyllenhaal impressively immerses herself in the role of a volatile ex-convict desperately trying to reconnect with her young daughter and to stay off drugs. Laurie Collyer directs.
THE SIMPSONS MOVIE After 18 years on the air, the animated TV comedy finally comes to the big screen, as Homer has to save the world, no less, from a catastrophe of his own creation. Series creator Matt Groening leads the team of screenwriters, with David Silverman (who co-directed Monsters, Inc) at the helm.
TRANSFORMERS Having tasted commercial failure with The Island, director Michael Bay is aiming for a comeback with the lavish live-action movie based on the robot toys introduced in the 1980s.The cast includes Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Megan Fox, Tyrese Gibson and Jon Voight.
AUGUST 3
EVAN ALMIGHTY The sequel to Bruce Almighty, which starred Jim Carrey, shifts the spotlight on to the character of rival newscaster Evan Baxter (Steve Carell), who has been elected to congress when God (Morgan Freeman) commands him to build an ark.
NANCY DREW Emma Roberts (daughter of Eric and niece of Julia) plays the teen detective who, on a visit to Los Angeles with her father (Tate Donovan), uncovers clues to a murder mystery involving a movie star. Andrew Fleming directs.
*PRICELESS/HORS DE PRIX Amélie star Audrey Tautou plays a gold-digger in Pierre Salvadori's French comedy, with Gad Elmaleh as the young man she mistakes for a millionaire and then drops when she discovers he's a waiter.
*SERAPHIM FALLS Set in the aftermath of the American Civil War, David Von Ancken's handsomely photographed western takes the form of an extended chase involving two men who fought on opposite sides in the war, with Pierce Brosnan as the prey and Liam Neeson his dogged pursuer.
AUGUST 10
* THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY/LE SCAPHANDRE ET LE PAPILLON US artist-turned-filmmaker Julian Schnabel, who made Basquiat and Before Night Falls, directs the movie based on the autobiography of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby (played by Mathieu Amalric) who in 1995, at the age of 43, suffered a stroke that paralysed his entire body, apart from his left eye - which he blinked to dictate the contents of his book.
RUSH HOUR 3 Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker return as the mismatched cops for an action comedy set in Paris where they inadvertently get involved with a Triad gang. The truly eclectic supporting cast includes Vinnie Jones, Max von Sydow and Roman Polanski.
SURF'S UP Presumably working from the theory that cute penguins assure box office success (as Happy Feet and March of the Penguins proved), this animated feature follows the progress of a teen penguin from Shiverpool, Antarctica as he competes in a surfing contest. Shia LaBeouf, Jon Heder, Jeff Bridges, James Woods and Zooey Deschanel head the voice cast.
*TRANSYLVANIA The new film from Exils director Tony Gatlif stars Asia Argento as a Frenchwoman travelling to Romania in search of the musician who has left her pregnant.
AUGUST 17
ARCTIC TALE This documentary illustrates the harsh realities of living in the Arctic through the experiences of a walrus and her calf and a polar bear and her cubs.
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
In Matt Damon's third outing as the amnesiac agent, Jason Bourne is lured out of hiding by a journalist (Paddy Considine) who is following his story. With David Strathairn, Joan Allen, Julia Stiles and Chris Cooper. It bodes well that Paul Greengrass, who directed The Bourne Supremacy and United 93, is back at the helm.
HOT ROD An amateur stuntman (Andy Samberg) plans to clear 15 buses to fund a heart operation for his abusive stepfather (Ian McShane). With Sissy Spacek.
LICENCE TO WED This comedy stars Robin Williams as a cleric putting an engaged couple (Mandy Moore and John Krasinski) through a gruelling pre-marriage course.
* THE SINGER/QUAND J'ÉTAIS CHANTEUR Gerard Depardieu does all his own singing as an ageing, divorced dance hall performer who falls for an estate agent (Cecile de France) less than half his age.
AUGUST 24
1408 The title of this Stephen King adaptation refers to the number of a New York hotel room with a chequered history. John Cusack plays an author who specialises in debunking supernatural phenomena and checks into the room despite the warnings of the hotel manager (Samuel L Jackson). Directed by Mikael Hafstrom.
* GARDENS IN AUTUMN/JARDINS EN AUTOMNE The new film from Paris-based Georgian director Otar Iosseliani features Severin Blanchet as a French government minister who resigns after a scandal and settles into a new laid-back existence. In the most overt example of the movie's offbeat humour, veteran Michel Piccoli dons drag to play his dowdy mother.
KNOCKED UP
AUGUST 31
HALLAM FOE Jamie Bell plays the eponymous disturbed teen besotted with an Edinburgh hotel manager (Sylvia Myles) who closely resembles his recently deceased mother. David Mackenzie, who made Young Adam and Asylum, directs.
LADY CHATTERLEY Pascal Ferran's new treatment of the formerly controversial DH Lawrence novel collected five prizes at this year's French cinema awards, the Cesars, including best picture and best actress for Marina Hinds in the title role. With Hippolyte Girardot as her paralysed husband and Jean-Louis Coulloc'h as the gamekeeper who provides her with sexual relief.
Release dates are subject to change.
* indicates that the release date is to be confirmed
