By Sean P. Means
The Salt Lake Tribune
Summer movies are usually a playground for men and boys — as the two main genres, action movies and comedies, are led by male characters and pitched toward male viewers.
This summer, there are signs that Hollywood is slowly starting to level the playing field — by slotting major blockbuster action movies and raunchy comedies where women are front and center.
As always with Hollywood, it’s less an issue of social reform and more about following the money. Consider some statistics:
• The two top-grossing movies of 2016 — “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and “Finding Dory” — featured female protagonists. Six other movies with one or several women in the lead scored at least $100 million in North America: “Zootopia,” “Moana,” “Hidden Figures,” “Ghostbusters,” “Bad Moms” and “Arrival.”
• In 2016, according to one survey, women were the majority of the audience for three of the five top-grossing movies: “Finding Dory,” “The Secret Life of Pets” and “The Jungle Book.”
• Of the nine Best Picture Oscar nominees, two (“Arrival” and “Hidden Figures”) had a woman or women in the lead, and two others (“Fences” and “La La Land”) had female characters co-equal with male characters.
• The numbers are still terrible behind the camera, with only 7 percent of the 250 top-grossing movies in 2016 directed by women, according to a study from San Diego State University.
Among the expected highlights of this movie summer will be three female-centered action blockbusters, three established franchises putting women in leading roles, a trio of female-led raunch comedies and some other surprises. Of course, the summer is also bringing back “Baywatch,” so it’s not as if sexism has been defeated once and for all.
One of the summer’s most-anticipated action movies is “Wonder Woman” (opening June 2), the landmark DC Comics title — and Warner Bros.’ biggest attempt to build a franchise to rival to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
With Patty Jenkins directing, “Wonder Woman” stars Israeli actor Gal Gadot (formerly of the “Fast & Furious” franchise) as the Amazonian warrior princess Diana. Her idyllic life on Paradise Island is interrupted by the arrival of a man from the outside: a military pilot, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine). Diana follows Trevor to see the messy outside world, specifically London during World War I, where she uses her powers to fight against the Germans.
Universal’s attempt to turn its classic monsters into a thematic universe of films kicks off with “The Mummy” (June 9). This modern version, directed by Alex Kurtzman (who co-wrote “Transformers” and “Star Trek”), comes with a gender flip: The title monster is the evil spirit of an ancient princess (played by Sofia Boutella, from “Star Trek Beyond”), and the “damsel” she aims to enslave is played by Tom Cruise.
“Playing a monster was really interesting to me,” Boutella told theater owners at their convention, CinemaCon, in Las Vegas in March. “There’s always a monster in us, whether you choose to use it or not.”
Later this summer, Charlize Theron takes charge in “Atomic Blonde” (July 28), a sexy spy thriller based on a graphic novel. The movie — especially an extended single-shot fight scene that begins in a stairwell and ends in a car — generated plenty of excitement when it premiered at SXSW in Austin in March.
The movie is set in East Berlin, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, with Theron as an undercover MI6 agent investigating another agent’s death and trying to recover a missing list of double agents.
“We tried to turn the spy thriller on its head and make it punk rock,” director David Leitch (“John Wick”) told CinemaCon attendees. He described the setting as “this kind of rogue world where spies have gone completely feral.”
Oscar® winner CHARLIZE THERON explodes into summer in “Atomic Blonde,” a breakneck action-thriller that follows MI6’s most lethal assassin through a ticking time bomb of a city simmering with revolution and double-crossing hives of traitors.
Theron trained in martial arts for the gritty fight scenes. “It had to look real and had to look like my life depended on it,” she said. How real? Theron said she broke a tooth while shooting. “I’m going in for my fourth root canal. Thanks, David.”
Established franchises are returning with women in prominent roles.
Katherine Waterston as Daniels in “Alien: Covenant.” Photo credit: Mark Rogers.
Katherine Waterston (“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”) leads the crew of a colony ship that discovers some familiar creatures in “Alien: Covenant” (May 19).
Kaya Scodelario (“The Maze Runner”) matches wits with Johnny Depp’s Capt. Jack Sparrow in “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” (May 26). Her character, Carina Smyth, is easily the strongest female character in the franchise’s history — an astronomer who uses her brains to find a treasure sought by a ghostly sea captain (Javier Bardem) and an obsessed young sailor (Brenton Thwaites).
“Transformers: The Last Knight” (June 23), the fifth installment in the toy-based action series, puts newcomer Isabela Moner in a pivotal role. And, because Moner was 14 at the time of filming, she’s the first female in a “Transformers” movie that director Michael Bay hasn’t put in a push-up bra. (British actor Laura Haddock, alas, does not dodge that fate.)
Director Luc Besson — famous for such female-led action movies as “La Femme Nikita” and “Lucy” — gives Cara Delevingne’s Laureline equal footing with Dane DeHaan’s title character in the sci-fi adventure “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” (July 21).
Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne star in EuropaCorp’s “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.”
Photo credit: Vikram Gounassegarin
“Valerian” is based on a long-beloved French comic book, one that many believe inspired the look of “Star Wars.” It’s a title Besson has been obsessed with since he was 10.
“Laureline was the first girl superhero,” he said. “I was in love.”
Director Sofia Coppola was born the year the 1971 psychological thriller “The Beguiled” was released. But the story, of a Union soldier (Clint Eastwood) trapped in a Confederate girls’ boarding school, stuck with her.
“The movie stayed in my mind,” Coppola said at CinemaCon. “I thought, ‘I would love to tell the story from the women’s point of view.’ ”
Coppola’s version of “The Beguiled” (June 23) casts Colin Farrell as the Union soldier and Nicole Kidman as the school’s headmistress, with Elle Fanning and Kirsten Dunst also in the cast.
Meanwhile, inspired by the success of “Bad Moms,” studios are serving up more raunchy comedies with a female perspective. In “Snatched” (May 12), Goldie Hawn and Amy Schumer play a mother and daughter who are kidnapped while on a South American vacation.
Blair (Zoë Kravitz), Alice (Jillian Bell), Jess (Scarlett Johansson), Frankie (Illana Grazer) and Pippa (Kate McKinnon) in Columbia Pictures’ “Rough Night.”
A bride-to-be (Scarlett Johansson) and her college friends (Zoë Kravitz, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell and “Broad City’s” Ilana Glazer) gather for a bachelorette party that takes some dark turns in “Rough Night” (June 16).
Regina Hall, Tiffany Hadish, Jada Pinkett Smith and Queen Latifah in “Girls Trip.”
And four friends (Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, Regina Hall and Tiffany Haddish) gather for debauchery and bonding in New Orleans in “Girls Trip” (July 21).
As Latifah told CinemaCon: “Women really do let loose and have a good time, and often a lot more raucous than you believe.” Maybe Hollywood is finally getting the message.
movies@sltrib.com
Twitter: @moviecricket
FIRST LOOK
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, VOL. 2
May 5 • Marvel kicks off the summer action by bringing its most off-the-wall group of heroes back in “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.” The team — pilot Peter “Star-Lord” Quill (Chris Pratt), warrior Gamora (Zoe Saldana), muscleman Drax (Dave Bautista), smart-alecky sentient raccoon Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), regenerated plant Baby Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) and cagey bounty hunter Yondu (Michael Rooker) — are joined this time by one of their enemies, Nebula (Karen Gillan). There also are a few surprises, though the trailers have already revealed that Peter’s alien father appears in the form of Kurt Russell. Writer-director James Gunn also returns, meaning there should be plenty of action, large doses of snarky humor and the requisite mixtape of classic songs. There also will be a trail of breadcrumbs to link the Guardians to next year’s epic “Avengers: Infinity War.”
KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD
May 12 • The story of King Arthur has been put to screen a few times — “Excalibur,” “The Sword in the Stone” and “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” to name three — but star Charlie Hunnam thinks this one will surprise. “Hopefully, it’s a little different from the King Arthur you expect,” Hunnam said at CinemaCon in March. The twist here is that Hunnam’s Arthur has grown up on the streets, in hiding from the ruthless king Vortigern (Jude Law), before he learns his destiny. “He doesn’t even know he’s the boy king,” Hunnam said. “In fact, when he finds out, he doesn’t want it.” The action movie is directed by Guy Ritchie, whose past work has revived “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” and put Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock Holmes’ deerstalker. Ritchie, Hunnam said, “had a burning desire to tell this story. I was fairly certain [when I took the role] he’d have something fresh and unique.”
THE WALL
May 12 • Yes, John Cena is one of the stars of “The Wall,” but the massive wrestler-turned-action star is not playing the title role. “This is so different for me — this my putting my ass on the line,” Cena told reporters at CinemaCon in March. He and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (“Nocturnal Animals”) play American GIs in Iraq, pinned down by an enemy sniper, with only a half-collapsed wall between the shooter and Taylor-Johnson’s character. Cena’s character spends much of this psychological drama, directed by Doug Liman (“The Bourne Identity,” “Edge of Tomorrow”), between the two, on his belly with a bullet in his gut. “I’m the one who messes up and causes the whole movie to happen in the first place,” Cena said. Filming the intense drama, he added, “was two weeks of hell, but it was supposed to be that, because it shows up on screen.”
CARS 3
June 16 • Pixar’s “Cars 3” starts out on a more serious note than the spy-spoof silliness of “Cars 2,” which underperformed at the box office compared with the original. In the new chapter, veteran race car Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) gets into a serious accident, forcing him to re-examine whether he should stay in the racing game. He also has to face the fact that he’s an older model, and a new generation of cars — led by the high-tech Jackson Storm (voiced by Armie Hammer) — are angling for their turn on the track. Lightning’s comeback will take a little help from his Radiator Springs friends, some inspiration from the dearly departed “Doc” Hudson and the advice of an eager race technician (voiced by comedian Cristela Alonzo). Pixar honcho John Lasseter, who directed the first two “Cars” films, has handed the keys to rookie Brian Fee, who worked as a storyboard artist on “Cars” and “Cars 2,” as well as Pixar’s “Ratatouille” and “Wall-E.” Can Fee put the “Cars” franchise back in the winner’s circle? Time will tell.
Baby Driver
June 28 • Music and car chases play well together in “Baby Driver,” an action drama that has been generating buzz since its premiere at SXSW in Austin in March. Ansel Elgort (“The Fault in Our Stars”) plays Baby, a getaway driver who times his driving to music — to block out the tinnitus he’s suffered since a childhood car crash that killed his parents. Writer-director Edgar Wright (“Shaun of the Dead,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”) worked 35 soundtrack cuts into the script and choreographed the chase scenes around them. “I wanted to make these car chases as visceral and as real as possible,” Wright told theater owners at CinemaCon in March. He even got Interstate 85 in Atlanta closed down on a Sunday, “which the state of Georgia tells us was a big deal. Several people were late for church that morning. … I now know what it’s like to go backwards at 70 miles an hour.”
DESPICABLE ME 3
June 30 • Steve Carell didn’t get too method when he first came up with the voice for Gru, the supervillain whose heart was melted by a trio of orphans in the first “Despicable Me.” “I tried some voices on my kids,” Carell told theater owners at CinemaCon in March. “It’s the one that made them laugh the most, so I used that.” For the third installment of the Minion-spawning series, Gru meets a blast from his past: his twin brother, Dru, also voiced by Carell. Gru, Carell said, is pretty cynical, “so I thought his brother should be the opposite of that. He’s very earnest, very giddy.” Gru, who with his wife, Lucy (voiced by Kristen Wiig), is fired from his spy-agency job, considers returning to villainy — when he encounters ’80s-obsessed supervillain Balthazar Bratt (voiced by “South Park” co-creator Trey Parker). Again, Carell said, his family has kept him from overthinking the voice work. “When your kids have to hear these voices for eight years, they can’t be too obnoxious or your kids are going to hate you.”
SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING
July 7 • While Marvel’s X-Men remain caught in the tenacious grip of 20th Century Fox, and therefore separated from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sony has made accommodations with Disney to bring another comics hero into the MCU. “It’s very surreal to be talking about the first ‘Spider-Man’ movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,” producer Kevin Feige, the Marvel/Disney executive who is puppetmaster for the MCU franchise, told CinemaCon in March. In “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” Queens teen Peter Parker (Tom Holland) tries to adjust to life as a web-slinging superhero, seeking mentorship from the man inside the Iron Man suit, billionaire Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.). But balancing heroics with high school isn’t easy, particularly when a new villain — Michael Keaton’s Vulture — steps into the picture. “Cop Car” director Jon Watts steps into the big-budget franchise, but Feige said Holland is the MVP. “Tom Holland is Peter Parker,” Feige said. “He stole ‘Civil War’ right out from under the other Avengers.”
WAR FOR PLANET OF THE APES
JULY 14 • “War for the Planet of the Apes” marks round three in the struggle between humans and the other primates for supremacy of a post-apocalyptic Earth. On the apes side is Caesar (performed by Andy Serkis), the super-intelligent chimp whose exploits are legendary even on the human side. Leading Team People is The Colonel (Woody Harrelson), whose tactics grow increasingly ruthless and drive Caesar to equally harsh extremes. Matt Reeves, who directed “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” is back for this installment, which boasts more advanced computer graphics and motion-capture effects. It also features a mystery character, a blond human girl (Amiah Miller) riding with the apes — and whose name (once revealed) will make fans of the original “Planet of the Apes” movies smile with recognition.
DUNKIRK
July 21 • For director Christopher Nolan, there’s something special about the story of Dunkirk, the battle in 1940 that saw the British and Allied forces having to evacuate in retreat against a German onslaught. “The story of Dunkirk is one British people grow up with. It’s in our DNA, practically,” Nolan told theater owners at CinemaCon in March. Nolan, the man behind “Inception” and the “Dark Knight” trilogy, summons an impressive cast that includes Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh, James D’Arcy, Jack Lowden and — in his acting debut — heartthrob singer Harry Styles. Early footage shows that Nolan is employing an epic sweep to the story, but also up-close-and-personal intimacy of some of the characters’ stories. The result may be one of the few blockbusters to be in the conversation at awards season.
THE BIG SICK
July TBD • “It’s the best Pakistani-comic-meets-girl-in-a-coma comedy of the year,” comedian Kumail Nanjiani boasted at CinemaCon in March, touting “The Big Sick,” which was a hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Nanjiani and his wife, Emily V. Gordon, wrote the screenplay for this comedy, directed by Michael Showalter (“Hello, My Name Is Doris”) and based on their own early courtship — when Gordon (played by Zoe Kazan) developed a mysterious illness and was put in a medically induced coma, while Nanjiani, whose relationship with her had barely begun, spent time in the hospital waiting room getting to know her parents (Ray Romano and Holly Hunter), who weren’t exactly thrilled about their daughter dating a brown-skinned person. “The experience of normal people going through an extraordinary situation, we knew that juxtaposition could be funny,” Nanjiani said. The movie was the subject of a heated bidding war at Sundance, which Amazon Studios won with a $12 million deal. “We literally get everything else from Amazon. Why not a distribution deal?” Nanjiani joked. The movie’s Sundance premiere came at a particularly tense time: the day Donald Trump was inaugurated. Gordon noted the tension: “A lot of scenes that [usually] played as pure comedy played as more a cathartic outburst.”
Release dates are tentative.
April 28
‘The Circle’ • An eager young tech worker (Emma Watson) gets a job with a prominent online company, founded by an enigmatic CEO (Tom Hanks), but she begins to suspect a conspiracy to end privacy as we know it, in this thriller based on Dave Eggers’ novel.
‘Graduation’ • A doctor goes to extremes when his 18-year-old daughter is attacked on the eve of her final exams in this crime drama from Romania.
‘Growing Up Smith’ • An Indian family moves to an American small town in 1979, but when the 10-year-old son falls in love with the girl next door, his parents react harshly in this comedy-drama.
‘How to Be a Latin Lover’ • Mexican comedian Eugenio Derbez makes his crossover move as an aging lothario who loses his sugar mama and must start over by moving in with his sister (Salma Hayek).
May 5
‘The Dinner’ • Two brothers (Richard Gere, Steve Coogan) and their wives (Laura Linney, Rebecca Hall) meet at a restaurant for a meal and some life-altering conversation in this drama.
‘Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2’ • Marvel’s spacegoing oddballs are back for another stab at saving the universe. (See below.)
‘A Quiet Passion’ • Cynthia Nixon plays poet Emily Dickinson in writer-director Terence Davies’ biographical drama.
May 12
‘Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent’ • The tumultuous life of one of the nation’s first “celebrity chefs” is chronicled in this documentary, which boasts Anthony Bourdain as an executive producer and talking head.
‘King Arthur: Legend of the Sword’ • Director Guy Ritchie promises a muscular telling of the Camelot legend, with Charlie Hunnam in the title role. (See below.)
‘Snatched’ • Goldie Hawn and Amy Schumer play mother and daughter, whose South America vacation ends with them being kidnapped, in this R-rated comedy.
‘3 Generations’ • Elle Fanning stars as Ray, whose decision to transition from female to male forces her mother (Naomi Watts) to track down Ray’s biological father. Susan Sarandon co-stars as Ray’s grandmother.
‘The Wall’ • American GIs (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, John Cena) are pinned down by an Iraqi sniper in director Doug Liman’s psychological thriller. (See below.)
May 19
‘Alien: Covenant’ • A colony ship finds a seemingly idyllic planet, and then the colonists find some familiar eggs, in Ridley Scott’s new chapter of the science-fiction/horror series. Katherine Waterston, Danny McBride and Billy Crudup join franchise fixtures Noomi Rapace, Guy Pearce and Michael Fassbender.
‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul’ • Seven years after the first movie based on Jeff Kinney’s YA series, the Heffleys are recast — as seventh-grader Greg (Jason Drucker) and siblings join their parents (Alicia Silverstone and Tom Everett Scott) on a family road trip.
‘Everything, Everything’ • A girl (Amandla Stenberg) confined to her house by an immune disorder and the boy next door (Nick Robinson) fall in love in this romantic drama based on Nicola Yoon’s novel.
‘The Lovers’ • A middle-aged couple (Debra Winger, Tracy Letts), both having affairs, are surprised to find themselves falling back in love with each other in writer-director Azazel Jacobs’ comedy.
‘Norman’ • Richard Gere stars as a low-level fixer whose line of double-talk gets him connections, and into trouble, in this drama by writer-director Joseph Cedar (“Footnote”).
‘Obit’ • Vanessa Gould’s documentary profiles the The New York Times’ obituary writers, who distill noteworthy people’s lives into a few hundred words.
May 26
‘Baywatch’ • The ’80s jiggle-vision TV show, centered on good-looking lifeguards, is transformed into a raunchy comedy starring Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Alexandra Daddario, Kelly Rohrbach and Priyanka Chopra.
‘Chuck’ • Liev Schreiber stars as boxer Chuck Wepner, “The Bayonne Bleeder,” whose up-and-down career is said to have inspired the character of Rocky Balboa.
‘My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea’ • High-school journalists uncover a conspiracy in this send-up of disaster epics, rendered in a kaleidoscope of animated styles with a voice cast that includes Jason Schwartzman, Reggie Watts, Maya Rudolph, Lena Dunham and Susan Sarandon.
‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’ • Johnny Depp sails again as Capt. Jack Sparrow, this time teaming with an obsessed young sailor (Brenton Thwaites) and a sharp astronomer (Kaya Scodelario) when he’s pursued by a vengeful — and, by the way, dead — sea captain (Javier Bardem).
May, to be determined
‘The Wedding Plan’ • In this comedy, an Orthodox Jewish woman (Noa Kooler) is determined to carry on with her wedding, convinced that God will bring her a husband when her fiancé bows out at the last minute.
June 2
‘The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography’ • Errol Morris directs this documentary look at Elsa Dorfman, who captured pictures of notable people with her large-scale Polaroid Land camera.
‘Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie’ • An animated adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s kids’ books about two pranksters (voiced by Kevin Hart and Thomas Middleditch) who inadvertently hypnotize their principal (voiced by Ed Helms) into thinking he’s a superhero.
‘Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary’ • Denzel Washington provides the voice of jazz legend John Coltrane in John Scheinfeld’s documentary about the musician’s life and influence.
‘Dean’ • Comedian Demetri Martin wrote, directed and stars in this comedy-drama as an illustrator who navigates cross-country romance while dealing with his father (Kevin Kline) after the death of his mother.
‘The Exception’ • A drama set on the brink of World War II, as a German soldier (Jai Courtney) investigates whether the Dutch resistance has planted a spy in Kaiser Wilhelm’s house in Holland — when he falls for a Jewish woman (Lily James).
‘Love, Kennedy’ • Utah filmmaker T.C. Christensen’s new inspirational drama centers on a girl (Tatum Chiniquy) who dies from a rare disease at 16 — but whose story continues to touch her parents (Jasen Wade, Heather Beers) and others around them.
‘Wakefield’ • Bryan Cranston stars as a man who has a nervous breakdown, leaves his wife (Jennifer Garner) and moves into his attic in this drama by writer-director Robin Swicord.
‘Wonder Woman’ • DC Comics’ legendary Amazon (Gal Gadot) returns to the big screen, leaving Paradise Island to follow American pilot Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) to help the Allied forces during World War I.
June 9
‘I, Daniel Blake’ • British director Ken Loach’s drama centers on a carpenter (Dave Johns) who gets the runaround by the cruel bureaucracy of the British welfare system.
‘It Comes at Night’ • Director Trey Edward Shults’ follow-up to his breakout “Krisha” is a tense thriller about a family hiding from an unnamed terror in a forest cabin — and what happens when another family arrives seeking shelter. Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ejogo and Riley Keough star.
‘Megan Leavey’ • Kate Mara plays the title role in this true-life story of a Marine corporal whose bond with her combat dog saved many lives in Iraq. The movie is the feature debut of documentary director Gabriela Cowperthwaite (“Blackfish”).
‘The Mummy’ • Tom Cruise stars in this modern update of the Universal monster classic as an adventurer who unearths an ancient tomb — and releases the evil princess (Sofia Boutella) who seeks to conquer him and the world.
June 16
‘All Eyez on Me’ • Benny Boom directs this biographical drama tracing the rise and untimely murder of rapper Tupac Shakur (Demetrius Shipp Jr.).
‘The Book of Henry’ • A single mom (Naomi Watts) learns that her genius 11-year-old son (“Midnight Special’s” Jaeden Lieberher) is investigating the nasty doings of their next-door neighbor (Dean Norris) in this thriller by “Jurassic World” director Colin Trevorrow.
‘Cars 3’ • Pixar’s four-wheeled characters are back, as racer Lightning McQueen contemplates whether his racing days are over. (See below.)
‘Monterey Pop’ • D.A. Pennebaker’s landmark 1968 documentary — capturing such performers as The Mamas and The Papas, Canned Heat, Simon & Garfunkel, Hugh Masekela, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Eric Burdon and The Animals, The Who, Country Joe and the Fish, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix and Ravi Shankar — is back in a restored print.
‘Paris Can Wait’ • Eleanor Coppola — ex-wife of Francis, mother of Sofia — makes her feature debut as writer and director at 81 with a romantic comedy starring Diane Lane as the neglected wife of a Hollywood producer (Alec Baldwin) who takes an unexpected and diversion-filled car trip from Cannes to Paris.
‘Rough Night’ • When one of their number (Scarlett Johansson) is about to be married, a group of college friends (Zoë Kravitz, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell and Ilana Glazer) meet in Miami for a bachelorette party that takes some dark turns in this comedy.
June 23
‘The Bad Batch’ • Filmmaker Ana Lily Amirpour follows up her Iranian vampire movie “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” with this movie, called “a dystopian love story in a Texas wasteland and set in a community of cannibals.” The cast includes Suki Waterhouse, Jason Momoa, Diego Luna, Jim Carrey, Giovanni Ribisi and Keanu Reeves.
‘The Beguiled’ • Sofia Coppola directs this psychological thriller, based on a Thomas Cullinan novel (the same source as the 1971 Clint Eastwood vehicle of the same name), about a Union soldier (Colin Farrell) who comes upon a Southern girls’ boarding school and its female population (including Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning).
‘47 Meters Down’ • Sisters (Mandy Moore, Claire Holt) are trapped in a shark cage at the bottom of the ocean, with sharks circling and oxygen running low, in this thriller.
‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ • Humans and Transformers are at war in Michael Bay’s fifth chapter of the toy-based franchise, as inventor Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) travels to England to hear the story of the Transformers’ ancient roots from a creaky historian (Anthony Hopkins).
June 28
‘Baby Driver’ • Ansel Elgort stars as an ace getaway driver who times his driving to music in director Edgar Wright’s chase-filled action movie. (See below.)
June 30
‘Amityville: The Awakening’ • It’s back to the old haunted house in this horror sequel, with a single mom (Jennifer Morrison) moving in with her three kids, unaware of the place’s history.
‘Despicable Me 3’ • Reformed villain Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) is fired from his spy agency, and reconsiders a career as a bad guy, in this installment of the animated franchise. (See below.)
‘The House’ • In this R-rated comedy, Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler play a suburban couple who blow their daughter’s college fund and start an illegal casino to raise money.
June, to be determined
‘Beatriz at Dinner’ • A Mexican immigrant (Salma Hayek) and a billionaire (John Lithgow) meet at a dinner party in this comedy of manners by director Miguel Arteta (“The Good Girl”) and writer Mike White (“School of Rock”).
‘My Cousin Rachel’ • An Englishman (Sam Claflin) thinks his mysterious cousin (Rachel Weisz) killed his guardian, but his revenge is complicated when he starts falling under her spell, in filmmaker Roger Michell’s adaptation of the Daphne Du Maurier novel.
July 7
‘The Journey’ • A fictionalized account of how two bitter enemies — Sinn Fein politician Martin McGuinness (Colm Meaney) and Democratic Unionist party leader Ian Paisley (Timothy Spall) — came together to broker peace in Northern Ireland.
‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ • Peter Parker (Tom Holland) grapples with being a high-school superhero, with some advice from Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), in this new chapter in the Marvel character’s story. (See below.)
July 14
‘War for the Planet of the Apes’ • It’s Caesar (performed by Andy Serkis) and his simian followers against The Colonel (Woody Harrelson) and his human troops in this third installment of the series. (See below.)
‘Wish Upon’ • A teen (Joey King) finds a box with magic powers and deadly consequences in this horror thriller.
July 21
‘Dunkirk’ • Director Christopher Nolan (“Inception”) enlists a big cast — including Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh and Harry Styles — to tell the epic story of the British military’s retreat and evacuation from France in 1940. (See below.)
‘Girls Trip’ • Four friends (Queen Latifah, Regina King, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tiffany Haddish) go on a wild weekend in New Orleans in this raunchy comedy.
‘Maudie’ • Sally Hawkins plays Maud Lewis, an arthritic Nova Scotia housekeeper who became a beloved artist. Ethan Hawke plays her gruff husband in this biographical drama.
‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets’ • Luc Besson (“The Fifth Element”) directs this science-fiction adventure, based on the French comic book, about secret agents (Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne) battling a dark force that threatens a wondrous metropolis.
July 28
‘Atomic Blonde’ • Charlize Theron kicks butt as an undercover MI6 agent in East Berlin, searching for a list of double agents, in this high-energy action movie based on a graphic novel.
‘The Emoji Movie’ • The lives of those little cellphone pictures are explored in this animated tale.
‘An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power’ • Former Vice President Al Gore hits the road, brokering deals at the Paris climate talks and meeting people on the front lines of renewable energy, in this follow-up to his 2006 documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”
July, to be determined
‘The Big Sick’ • Comic Kumail Nanjiani and his wife, Emily V. Gordon, wrote this fictionalized account of their early romance — when she (played by Zoe Kazan) came down with a mysterious illness and he (playing himself) met her parents (Holly Hunter, Ray Romano). (See below.)
‘A Ghost Story’ • A widow (Rooney Mara) encounters the ghost of her husband (Casey Affleck) in this atmospheric drama by director David Lowery (who worked with Mara and Affleck in “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”).
‘Lady Macbeth’ • Not a Shakespearean tragedy, but the dark drama about a 19th-century bride (Florence Pugh) sold into a loveless marriage to a middle-aged man.
‘Patti Cake$’ • One of the hits of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, filmmaker Geremy Jasper’s exuberant story tells of a New Jersey teen (Danielle Macdonald) pursuing her dreams of being a rap star.
‘13 Minutes’ • German director Oliver Hirschbiegel, who chronicled Hitler’s final days in “Downfall,” tells this intense story of an ordinary German (Christian Friedel) who plotted in 1939 to kill Der Führer with a bomb.
Aug. 4
‘The Dark Tower’ • Stephen King’s beloved epic gets the movie treatment as the world-weary Gunslinger (Idris Elba) faces the evil of the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey), with the fate of the world on the line.
‘Detroit’ • Director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal, who collaborated on “The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” go back to Detroit 1967, when a police raid led to one of the nation’s biggest citizen uprisings.
‘Ingrid Goes West’ • Aubrey Plaza stars in this dark comedy as an unstable woman who becomes obsessed with the Instagrammed life of a California trend-setter (Elizabeth Olsen).
Aug. 11
‘Annabelle: Creation’ • The creepy origins of the demon-possessed doll are explored in this horror thriller.
Aug. 18
‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard’ • Quips fly as fast as bullets in this action comedy about a down-on-his-luck security expert (Ryan Reynolds) tasked by his Interpol officer ex-girlfriend (Elodie Yung) to deliver an assassin (Samuel L. Jackson) to The Hague to testify against a dictator (Gary Oldman).
‘Logan Lucky’ • Director Steven Soderbergh ends his “retirement” for this comedy about brothers (Adam Driver, Channing Tatum) who aim to pull off a heist during a NASCAR race.
‘The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature’ • Surly the squirrel (voiced by Will Arnett) and his pals return in this animated story, trying to save their park from the mayor (voiced by Bobby Moynihan) and his development plans.
Aug. 25
‘Villa Capri’ • Ron Shelton (“Bull Durham”) wrote and directed this action comedy about an ex-FBI agent (Tommy Lee Jones) and a former Mafia lawyer (Morgan Freeman) putting aside their feud to avoid a mob hit.
Aug. 30
‘Leap!’ • An orphan (voiced by Elle Fanning) goes to Paris to pursue her dream of being a ballerina in this animated tale.
August, to be determined
‘Brigsby Bear’ • A young man (“Saturday Night Live’s” Kyle Mooney, who co-wrote) learns his favorite childhood TV show was made only for him, so he becomes determined to bring the show back to life, in this offbeat comedy that was filmed in Utah and debuted at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.
‘Step’ • Amanda Lipitz’s documentary, a hit at Sundance this year, follows the ups and downs of the girls of a step team at an inner-city Baltimore high school.
‘Wind River’ • A game-department hunter (Jeremy Hunter) aids a rookie FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) to investigate a murder on an Indian reservation in a filmed-in-Utah crime drama that marks the directing debut of “Hell or High Water” screenwriter Taylor Sheridan.
