THE BOX OFFICE TOP
director Cate Shortland concentrates on events directly after Captain America: Civil War. Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) finds herself distanced from the rest of the Avengers and haunted by her past.
She returns to her training ground, The Red Room run by Dreykov (Ray Winstone), and reunites with surrogate father Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian (David Harbour) and fellow black widows Melina Vostakoff (Rachel Weisz) and Yelena Belova Florence Pugh). They agree to fight alongside Natasha to defeat dark forces that intend to bring her down.
NO TIME TO DIE (15) Released:
DANIEL CRAIG’S fifth and final mission as James Bond is set five years after the events of Spectre.
No Time To Die begins with Bond (Craig) retired from active duty, trying to salve emotional wounds with the help of his psychiatrist lover, Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux).
Good friend Felix Leitner (Jeffrey Wright) ushers 007 back into the fold, reuniting the spy with M (Ralph Fiennes), Q (Ben Whishaw), Eve Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and a feisty new 00 agent, Nomi (Lashana Lynch). They face a sadistic adversary, Safin (Rami Malek), who knows how to burrow beneath Bond’s skin and exploit his most deeply rooted fears.
SOUL (TBC) Released:
THE computer animation wizards at Pixar prepare to dazzle audiences with another high-concept comedy.
Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx) is a middle school music teacher in New York City, who fervently believes that “music is life”. He auditions to play piano at a popular jazz club as part of a quartet led by Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett).
On his way home, Joe tumbles down an open manhole and his soul becomes separated from his body.
Joe refuses to travel into the light of The Great Beyond and is transplanted to The Great Before, where fledgling souls develop personalities and quirks before they are sent to Earth to embark on their greatest adventure: living.
Joe joins forces with soul 22 (Tina Fey) to find a path back to his faltering body and reunite with the people he loves.
FREE GUY (TBC) Released:
DIRECTOR Shawn Levy’s high-octane comedy sees Ryan Reynolds as a bank teller, who discovers that he is part of a carefully controlled world and rebels against his makers.
Guy (Reynolds) works at Free City Bank, which is regularly targeted by gun-toting criminals. During each hold up, Guy trades banter with security guard Buddy (Lil Rey Howery), unaware that he is a bit-part player in an open world video game created by Antoine (Taika Waititi) and a team of programmers.
When Guy learns the truth, thanks to code written by
Milly (Jodie Comer), he takes control of his destiny by battling armed players to restore peace.
DUNE (TBC)
FRENCH-CANADIAN director Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Blade Runner 2049) will be hoping for a warmer response to his visually arresting opus than David Lynch received when he adapted Frank Herbert’s novel Dune in 1984.
Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) is offered an assignment to mine a precious mineral known as “the spice” on the desert planet of Arrakis. Leto is aware that he is almost certainly walking into a trap laid by his sworn enemy, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard), but he accepts regardless.
The Duke travels to his new home, which is protected by giant sandworms, accompanied by his concubine Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), son Paul (Timothee Chalamet) and members of the household including protectors Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin) and Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa).
Battle lines are drawn between clans and blood seeps into the sand.