In case you missed it, a little film called Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 opened this past weekend and quite a few people went to see it, signaling the official start of the 2017 summer movie season. It’s a time of animated cars with something to prove, apes who don’t mess around, and tales of Arthurian legend (including one featuring robots in disguise)! But while it’s tempting to write off summer as solely the turf of sequels, reboots, and franchise starters, that’s unfair for a couple of reasons: 1) There are smaller, more interesting films mixed in if you look hard enough. 2) Some of those sequels, reboots, and franchise starters can be pretty good. If anything, this summer looks better-than-usual on both fronts, bringing everything from Wonder Woman’s solo debut to the return of Steven Soderbergh to the offbeat-looking Edgar Wright action movie Baby Driver to a promising new start for Spider-Man. So let’s give the summer a look. Here’s what’s coming and when, for your calendar-marking needs.
May 12
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
Director: Guy Ritchie
Stars: Charlie Hunnam, Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, Djimon Hounsou, Jude Law
The Story: The early years of the man who will become King Arthur (Charlie Hunnam) get another retelling, this one reimagining the story as a Hamlet-like struggle put into motion when the evil Vortigern (Jude Law) kills Arthur’s father, leading Arthur to grow up without a clue to his royal lineage.
The Story Behind The Story: This is the first in a planned series of King Arthur films directed by Guy Ritchie, and he’s bringing his signature flash to the story. (Read our review of the film here.) The last time someone attempted that was in 2004, when Antoine Fuqua attempted a reinvention of the Arthur legend filled with a lot of stylistic flourishes but without much thought to the characters or story. That didn’t work out so well, but Ritchie proved a surprisingly smart choice for a pair of Sherlock Holmes films a few years back, so maybe he’ll fare better.
Snatched: Amy Schumer teams up with a long-absent and much-missed Goldie Hawn as a mother and daughter who get kidnapped while on vacation.
The Wall: Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow) returns with an Iraq War movie starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and John Cena as American soldiers matching wits with a sniper.
May 19
Alien: Covenant
Director: Ridley Scott
Stars: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, James Franco
The Story: It’s the future, and what better way to spend it than trying to colonize another planet? At least that’s the plan for the crew of Covenant, a spaceship filled with happy couples and a mission to make a new home on a world far away. The problem: They don’t realize they’re in an Alien movie.
The Story Behind The Story: This gets tricky: Alien: Covenant is a sequel to Prometheus, a kind-of stealth prequel to the Alien films. And Prometheus… well, it looked good. Let’s stay positive. The film doesn’t seem to want to pussyfoot around its relationship to the Alien films; it’s right there in the title. And original Alien director Ridley Scott is back behind the camera, as he was with Prometheus. So for now let’s just hope for the best. (Read our review of the film here.)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul: The fourth (!) film in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series doubles as a soft reboot with no major cast members returning from previous entries. This one, as the subtitle suggests, involves a road trip.
Everything, Everything: Young actors from Jurassic World and the Hunger Games films star in a YA adaptation about the romance between a teenage boy and a girl whose illness keeps her confined to her home.
May 25th
Baywatch
Director: Seth Gordon
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Priyanka Chopra, Alexandra Daddario, Kelly Rohrbach, David Hasselhoff, and Pamela Anderson
The Story: Two rival lifeguards, Mitch (Johnson) and Matt (Efron), put aside their muscular differences to solve a crime involving a dead body. Expect lots of slow-motion.
The Story Behind the Story: With all due respect to the beautifully dumb excess of Transformers: The Last Knight, Baywatch looks like the summer movie. It has very attractive people wearing next to nothing while running on the beach, an easy-to-root-against villain (a drug kingpin played by Chopra), and it’s based on an existing property that you’ve heard of, but only vaguely remember. The only downside to Baywatch’s cotton candy mix of comedy, violence, and nostalgia: It will make you feel bad about your body the next time you’re at the beach.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: Javier Bardem joins Johnny Depp and the returning Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley for more highly CGI’d swashbuckling adventures. Also, ghost sharks. (May 26th)
June 2
Wonder Woman
Director: Patty Jenkins
Stars: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, and Connie Neilsen
The Story: Diana of Themiscyra (Gadot) leaves her island, protected by the Greek gods, to explore the world of man. And also stop Ares from intervening in World War I, since the Greek gods are jerks.
Story Behind The Story: Batman V Superman and Suicide Squad made piles of cash, but didn’t wow critics. The question fans are wondering about is whether the first major mainstream movie featuring a superheroine will continue that trend, or manage to be good in theaters as well as on balance sheets.
Captain Underpants: The beloved kids’ book series about a grown man running around with no clothes gets an animated feature.
June 9
The Mummy
Director: Alex Kurtzman
Stars: Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance, and Russell Crowe
The Story: After being buried alive 2000 years ago, an ancient Egyptian princess (Boutella) is awakened when her tomb is discovered by American soldiers. Chaos ensues.
The Story Behind the Story: The Mummy is to the Universal Monsters Cinematic Universe as Iron Man is to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s the first in a proposed long line of interconnected films, including future installments with Johnny Depp as The Invisible Man and Javier Bardem as Frankenstein’s monster. That’s what Universal is hoping for, at least. If The Mummy bombs, then all bets are off the table. Fortunately for the studio, things look promising so far. Casting Cruise as the lead is a good start (Universal saved so much money on stuntmen!) and Johnson is a natural fit as his wise-cracking right-hand man, while Boutella is a rising action movie star thanks to her physical roles in Kingsman: The Secret Service and Star Trek Beyond. Best-case scenario: Scorpion who? Worst-case: #BringBackTheScorpionKing.
It Comes at Night: Writer/director Trey Edward Shults follows up his microbudgeted breakthrough Krisha with a post-apocalyptic horror film starring Joel Edgerton, Christopher Abbott, and Riley Keough.
June 16
Cars 3
Director: Brian Fee
Stars: Owen Wilson, Cristela Alonzo, Armie Hammer, Larry The Cable Guy
The Story: Famed race car and Radiator Springs resident Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) is on the top of the world… but doesn’t stay there long in a sequel that sees him attempting a comeback after a horrible crash.
The Story Behind The Story: For a good, long stretch Pixar was the studio that could do no wrong, producing classic after classic. Even their sequels were great. Then came Cars 2, a pleasant-enough but deeply inessential follow-up to a 2006 hit. Since then, Pixar’s been a little less reliable, producing one bona fide classic, 2015’s Inside Out, but mostly releasing a mix of pretty good efforts and so-so sequels and prequels. Will Cars 3 reverse the trend? It seems unlikely, but then again, it also seems like Pixar’s going for something other than a typical sequel here. It’s probably best to take a wait-and-see approach.
Rough Night: Frequent Broad City writer and director Lucia Aniello makes her feature debut with the story of some college friends (Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, and Zoë Kravitz) whose bachelorette party reunion takes a dark turn.
All Eyez on Me: The long-gestating biopic on legendary rapper Tupac Shakur finally hits theaters.
The Book Of Henry: Colin Trevorrow last directed Jurassic World and will soon direct Star Wars: Episode IX, but in between he’s releasing this smaller project about a gifted kid (Room star Jacob Tremblay) who teams up with his mom (Naomi Watts) to rescue a neighbor from an abusive stepdad (Dean Norris).
June 21
Transformers: The Last Knight
Director: Michael Bay
Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Isabela Moner
The Story: Sometimes everyday objects and vehicles are actually robots in disguise. And sometimes their backstory has some ties to Arthurian legend. Or something. It’s a Transformers movie.
The Story Behind The Story: The fifth big-screen, live-action Transformers movie will be director Michael Bay’s last. But have no fear: The Transformers aren’t going anywhere. Bay has promised there are many more films in the works, even if others will be directing them. Sleep easy.
The Bad Batch: Ana Lily Amirpour follows up her indie horror sensation A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night with a futuristic story of cannibals starring Suki Waterhouse, Keanu Reeves and Jason Momoa. (June 23)
The Beguiled: Sofia Coppola’s latest finds her adapting a Thomas P. Cullinan Southern Gothic novel in which a Union soldier (Colin Farrell) finds himself nursed back to health behind enemy lines at an all-female boarding school led by a headmistress played by Nicole Kidman. Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning co-star. The novel was filmed once before with Don Siegel directing a cast led by Clint Eastwood and Geraldine Page. Topping it might be tough, but this looks promising. (June 23)
The Big Sick: Drawing from their own lives, Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon scripted this Michael Showalter-directed film about a woman (Zoe Kazan) who falls into a coma forcing her boyfriend (Nanjiani) to deal with both his disapproving family and hers — and the issues underlying their relationship. (July 23)
June 28
Baby Driver
Director: Edgar Wright
Stars: Ansel Elgort,Jamie Foxx, Lilly James, and Kevin Spacey
The Story: Baby (Elgort) is a getaway driver talked into “one last job” by a kingpin (Spacey). This naturally goes off the rails and leaves Baby trying to find a way out.
The Story Behind The Story: Three years after he wrapped up his Cornetto Trilogy with the science fiction send-up The World’s End, Wright returns with a unique take on the classic ‘70s subgenre of the zen getaway driver, riffing on classics like Vanishing Point and The Driver. Wright tends to mash up genres; The World’s End was classic British SF, with its seething paranoia and pastoral setting, mixed with bittersweet reunion movies like The Big Chill. So his take on Baby’s perils will likely be a much wilder ride than it looks.
June 30
The House
Director: Andrew J. Cohen
Stars: Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Ryan Simpkins, Jason Mantzoukas, Nick Kroll, Allison Tolman, Michaela Watkins, Cedric Yarbrough, and Jeremy Renner
The Story: A husband-and-wife couple, played by Ferrell and Poehler, open an underground casino in their basement to pay for their daughter’s college tuition.
The Story Behind the Story: It’s tough for comedies to break through in the crowded summer schedule, but we’re betting on The House. The goofy premise is just an excuse for Ferrell and Poehler to show why they’re two of the funniest people alive, while the supporting cast, including Mantzoukas and Kroll, isn’t far behind. After the doom and gloom of a bunch of robots beating the robo-crap out of each other, we could all use a laugh.
Amityville: The Awakening: Blumhouse Productions hopes to continue its 2017 hot streak (Split, Get Out, The Belko Experiment) with yet another visit to Amityville, this time with Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Despicable Me 3: Despicable Me 3 has something for kids (MINIONS) and something for adults (Trey Parker, in his first movie ever without South Park co-creator, Matt Stone). It’s going to make all the money.
July 5
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Director: Jon Watts
Stars: Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Michael Keaton
The Story: Peter Parker (Holland), introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Captain America: Civil War, gets his own MCU solo movie as he tries to convince Iron Man he’s a hero and not just a kid in a suit even as he fights the Vulture (Keaton), an embittered working man with a grudge against Stark.
The Story Behind The Story: After the Amazing Spider-Man movies starring Andrew Garfield underwhelmed, it’s off to a new Peter and sticking to the classic high school setting. Sony is betting heavily that Iron Man’s billion dollar touch will rub off on Spidey, especially as this will be the third reboot of the franchise since 2002’s Spider-Man.
July 14
War for the Planet of the Apes
Director: Matt Reeves
Stars: Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn
The Story: Remember that whole intelligent apes vs. humans situation we saw in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes? Well, it looks like it’s taken a turn for the worse.
The Story Behind The Story: Like its predecessors, War for the Planet of the Apes appears to be starting over with an all-new bunch of human antagonists standing in opposition to chief intelligent ape Caesar (Serkis) while drawing on one of the later entries in the original Planet of the Apes series (in this case, 1973’s little-loved Battle for the Planet of the Apes). Woody Harrelson co-stars as a colonel hellbent on making this planet ape-free.
Lady Macbeth: This well-received shocker features adultery and other, bloodier crimes in the Victorian countryside.
July 21
Dunkirk
Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Kenneth Branaugh, and Harry Styles
The Story: The evacuation of Dunkirk, a massive rescue operation that saved thousands of British troops from superior German forces in WWII, finally gets the epic movie it deserves.
The Story Behind The Story: Nolan, probably Hollywood’s most effective filmmaker of epics at the moment, shifts away from science fiction and superheroes to tackle one of the finest moments in World War II. There’s no doubt the movie will be popular, so the questions around it will likely revolve around whether Nolan will finally get his Oscar, and whether One Direction’s Harry Styles will stand out in a crowded field of established actors
Girls Trip: Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Regina Hall offer up a raunchy comedy about four friends heading to the Essence Music Festival.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: Luc Besson returns to both science fiction and the director’s chair after 2014’s surprise hit Lucy to adapt a beloved French comic to the screen in what looks like it could amount to an unofficial followup to The Fifth Element.
July 28
Atomic Blonde
Director: David Leitch
Stars: Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman, Sofia Boutella, and Toby Jones
The Story: Lorraine Broughton (Theron) is a British spy dispatched to Germany before the collapse of the Berlin Wall to, well, see below.
The Story Behind the Story: Having seen Atomic Blonde during its premiere at SXSW, there are three things you should know about the movie: 1) the plot makes absolutely no sense; you’ll have a lot more fun if you only focus on the fight scenes (directed by John Wick’s Leitch) and not try to follow what’s the double- and triple-crosses, 2) the hyper-stylized fight scenes are incredible (so is the ‘80s-set soundtrack), and 3) following Mad Max: Fury Road, The Fate of the Furious, and now Atomic Blonde, it’s clear Charlize Theron should be in every action movie.
The Emoji Movie: Thinking face, shrug lady, poop, poop, ghost.
An Inconvenient Sequel: Eleven years after certain people in political power learned nothing from Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, he’ll try to break through to them again with a sequel.
August 4
The Dark Tower
Director: Nikolaj Arcel
Stars: Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey
The Story: Roland (Elba), the last gunslinger in an alternate reality, must assemble a group to help him reach the titular Dark Tower and save all of existence, all the while fighting vicious sorcerer Walter Padick (McConaughey) attempting to stop him.
The Story Behind The Story: Stephen King’s fantasy story has spent years in development hell before the logjam suddenly broke and a movie fans never thought they’d see got a release date. The main question is how they’ll grapple with both the story itself, which sprawls across seven novels, and how it ties to King’s other books, which have some unusual connections to the Dark Tower saga: Padick, for example, is also Randall Flagg from The Stand.
Detroit: Kathryn Bigelow returns with a tense drama focusing on Detroit’s 12th Street Riots as a bunch of partygoers find themselves under siege by the police with only a security guard (John Boyega) to help them.
Wind River: An FBI agent and a game tracker have to team up to solve a murder on a Native American reservation. It’s also an Avengers reunion, as Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen share a screen again, with the Punisher himself, Jon Bernthal, there for good measure.
August 11
Annabelle: Creation
Director: David F. Sandberg
Stars: Talitha Bateman, Stephanie Sigman, Anthony LaPaglia, and Miranda Otto
The Story: Annabelle: Creation is a prequel to Annabelle, which itself was a prequel to The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2. Got it? All you really need to know is: creepy doll.
The Story Behind the Story: The track record for prequels to prequels to originals to sequels — again, got it? — is spotty (or nonexistent?) at best, especially when you toss in the words “origin story.” But Annabelle: Creation has one big thing working for it: David F. Sandberg, who directed 2016’s tense and taut Lights Out. Cheap scares can be elevated to genuinely terrifying with the right person behind the camera (look at Ouija: Origin of Evil, which, thanks to Mike Flanagan, was much better than it had any right to be). Sill, Sandberg has his work cut out for him.
August 18
Logan Lucky
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Stars: Adam Driver, Channing Tatum, Riley Keough, Daniel Craig, Seth MacFarlane, Katie Holmes, Hilary Swank, Katherine Waterston, and Sebastian Stan
The Story: Two brothers (Tatum and Driver) a sister (Keough), and an imprisoned expert at opening up vaults named Joe Bang (Craig), attempt to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway before the Coca-Cola 600. It’s a hillbilly heist!
The Story Behind the Story: Remember when Soderbergh supposedly retired? Since then, he’s directed every episode of Cinemax’s pristine The Knick, produced Starz’s The Girlfriend Experience, and played multiple key parts in the production of Magic Mike XXL. With this film he’ll return to the feature film director’s chair for the first time since Behind the Candelabra. Between the cast, the heist plot (think the Ocean’s trilogy, but with daisy dukes), and the Soderbergh, Logan Lucky looks like it could be a late-summer treat.
The Hitman’s Bodyguard: In this mismatched action-comedy, Ryan Reynolds is a bodyguard, Samuel L. Jackson is a hitman, and they team up to stop a Eastern European dictator played by Gary Oldman.
Polaroid: A cursed vintage camera gives its owners more than hipster bragging rights and quickly developed pictures. (August 25th)
Cadaver: Information is also slim on this late-summer release starring a cast member of Pretty Little Liars‘ Shay Mitchell. Based on the title, we’re going to assume it’s a light romantic comedy with maybe some dancing? (August 25th)
