MAN OF STEEL
Stars: Henry Cahill, Michael Shannon, Amy Adams The skinny: Director Zack Snyder and producer Christopher Nolan do their best to give Superman his place among the current pantheon of movie superheroes with a reboot that emphasizes the character’s origin story as well as a conflict with a fellow refugee from the planet Krypton, General Zod. (June 14)
THE WOLVERINE
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Famke Janssen, Tao Okamoto The skinny: The prequel X-Men: First Class might have underperformed but the mutant-friendly franchise is not to be counted out if the ever-beefy Jackman can help it. He returns for a second solo outing as the hairy, sharp-clawed hothead, who travels to Japan to battle modern-day samurai warriors. (July 26)
KICK-ASS 2
Stars: Chloe Moretz, Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse The skinny: Moretz’s potty-mouthed Hit Girl is just one of the costumewearing vigilantes eager to crack some fresh skulls in this follow-up to 2010’s ultra-violent superhero satire. (Aug. 16)
Action and sci-fi
AFTER EARTH
Stars: Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Sophie Okonedo The skinny: Though you’d think the world had been destroyed enough lately with Oblivion already in theatres, the father-and-son team of Will and Jaden Smith have their go at it in this dystopic saga about humans battling for control of the Earth they left behind a millennium before. (May 31)
WHITE HOUSE DOWN
Stars: Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal The skinny: Times at the Oval Office have been pretty rough, too. Not content to have taken over the White House and kidnapped the president once already this year in Olympus has Fallen, terrorists make short work of their tasks again. This time, the only man standing in their way looks less like Gerard Butler and more like that hot dude in Magic Mike. (June 28)
THE LONE RANGER
Stars: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer The skinny: One of the summer’s biggest gambles (the budget reportedly reached $250 million), this Disney revamp of the masked cowboy hero and his Native American comrade needs to offer moviegoers more than the admittedly eye-catching sight of Depp as Tonto. (July 3)
PACIFIC RIM
Stars: Idris Elba, Charlie Hunnam, Charlie Day The skinny: Anticipation for Guillermo del Toro’s giant-robots-vs.-alienmonsters battle royale is running especially high in Toronto, where the massive production kept local crews busy during the winter of 2011-12. (July 12)
2 GUNS
Stars: Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg The skinny: In Wahlberg’s re-teaming with Baltasar Kormakur — the Icelandic director of the surprisingly solid Contraband — the Pain & Gain star and Washington play competing undercover agents who discover that they’ve fallen prey to the same C.I.A. scam. (Aug. 2)
ELYSIUM
Stars: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley The skinny: The Vancouver-based director of District 9, Neill Blomkamp returns with an ambitious and, yes, dystopic science-fiction flick about tensions between the inhabitants of a wealthy enclave in Earth’s orbit and the impoverished masses still living on the ruined surface in the year 2154. (Aug. 9)
Lit adaptations, true-life dramas
THE GREAT GATSBY
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan The skinny: Director Baz Luhrmann travels back to the Jazz Age for a lavish 3D version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic story of love, money and the ever-enigmatic Jay Gatsby. (May 10)
THE ICEMAN
Stars: Michael Shannon, Chris Evans, Winona Ryder The skinny: Seen elsewhere this summer in Man of Steel, Shannon brings his signature intensity to the role of Richard Kuklinski, an infamous hitman who racked up dozens of kills for his mob clients while remaining a devoted husband and father. (May 17)
WORLD WAR Z
Stars: Brad Pitt, Matthew Fox The skinny: Production problems and a ballooning budget have made this take on Max Brooks’s hit zombieapocalypse novel one of the summer’s riskiest ventures. Producer and star Brad Pitt has been working hard to reassure moviegoers that all his labours have not been for naught. (June 21)
THE BLING RING
Stars: Emma Watson, Leslie Mann The skinny: Sofia Coppola delves into the true-crime story of a group of Los Angeles teens who stole from the homes of their favourite celebrities. One of the victims of their crimes, Paris Hilton, plays herself, though that might still pose too much of an acting challenge. (June 21)
THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES
Stars: Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Lena Headey The skinny: The first film spinoff of Cassandra Clare’s massively popular fantasy series about half-human/ half-angel warriors is one of the strongest contenders to fill the postTwilight/Harry Potter void at the box office. That would be very good news for the Canadians involved in the production, which was largely shot in Toronto last year. (Aug. 23)
Family films
EPIC
Voices: Colin Farrell, Josh Hutch- erson The skinny: The latest Fox animated effort is the story of a young girl who gets caught up in a battle between good and evil among wee forest creatures. (May 24)
MONSTERS UNIVERSITY
Voices: Billy Crystal, John Goodman The skinny: Mike and Sulley return for a collegiate-themed prequel to one of Pixar’s most enduring hits, Monsters Inc. (June 21)
DESPICABLE ME 2
Voices: Steve Carell, Russell Brand, Al Pacino The skinny: This time, the not-so-evil evil mastermind in the 2010 hit must foil the plans of a genuine villain. But as in the original, those lovable yellow minions are bound to be the main attraction for kids. (July 3)
TURBO
Voices: Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Maya Rudolph The skinny: A snail who’s a slowpoke even by his species’ standards vies for street-racing glory in this 3D ’toon from DreamWorks. (July 17)
THE SMURFS 2
Stars: Neil Patrick Harris, Sofia Vergara The skinny: Though mostly unloved by critics when released two summers ago, the blue critters’ bigscreen effort grossed more than $560 million worldwide. No wonder Gargamel is at it again, this time with a scheme that involves kidnapping Smurfette and capturing the Eiffel Tower. (July 31)
PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS
Stars: Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson The skinny: The second film to be based on the Rick Riordan fantasy books that put a clever and modern spin on ancient mythology, this installment sees our young hero battling a Cyclops and some angry Titans in hopes of finding the Golden Fleece. (Aug. 7)
DISNEY’S PLANES
Voices: Dane Cook, Stacy Keach The skinny: Early footage of this spinoff of the Cars franchise impressed the Disney brass so much that they bumped it up from a directto-DVD release to a full-fledged theatrical rollout. (Aug. 9)
Horror flicks
THE PURGE
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey The skinny: After having a surprise hit with Sinister, Hawke is emerging as a regular fixture in horror movies (it must be those cheekbones). This time, he plays a wealthy man who must protect his family on the one night of the year when Americans can commit any crime they please. (June 7)
THE CONJURING
Stars: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson The skinny: Scary-movie specialist James Wan reteams with his Insidious star Patrick Wilson and recent Bates Motel resident Vera Farmiga for a thriller about husband-and-wife ghost hunters who tangle with a seriously evil spirit. (July 19)
YOU’RE NEXT
Stars: Sharni Vinson, A.J. Bowen The skinny: A hit with fans at Midnight Madness at TIFF in 2011, this cunning home-invasion shocker finally resurfaces. (Aug. 23)
Comedies
THE INTERNSHIP
Stars: Vince Vaughan, Owen Wilson
The skinny: The Wedding Crashers twosome play salesmen who try to turn around their stalled careers by becoming interns at Google, much to the bemusement of their millennial cohorts. (June 7)
THIS IS THE END
Stars: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill The skinny: Judd Apatow’s gang of goofballs play themselves (though not really) in this comedy about what happens when a party at Franco’s house coincides with Armageddon. Spoiler alert: Michael Cera dies horribly. (June 12)
THE HEAT
Stars: Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy The skinny: Hot off a hit with Identity Thief, McCarthy tries to go two-fortwo with this buddy comedy about mismatched cops directed by Bridesmaids maker Paul Feig. (June 28)
BLUE JASMINE
Stars: Alec Baldwin, Cate Blanchett The skinny: The first movie that Woody Allen has made in America since 2009’s Whatever Works, this story about the life of a New York housewife is said to be more of a dramatic effort for its ever-prolific director. Even so, the presence of both Louis C.K. and Andrew Dice Clay in the supporting cast suggests that it can’t be possibly as depressing as Interiors. (Aug. 2)
Sequels and prequels
STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS
Stars: Chris Pine, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zachary Quinto The skinny: The crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise must defend Earth and Starfleet from a new threat. Given that director J.J. Abrams is now responsible for the Star Wars saga too, it surely can’t be long before Kirk and Spock team up with the Ewoks. (May 17)
THE HANGOVER PART III
Stars: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis The skinny: Having partied too hard in Vegas and Bangkok, the men of the Wolf Pack clearly have nowhere else to go but Tijuana. Can they possible survive this self-proclaimed “epic conclusion”? (May 24)
FAST & FURIOUS 6
Stars: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson The skinny: Few can explain how the street-racing hit The Fast and the Furious spawned five sequels. Locations for the latest include the U.K., where Dom and Brian will no doubt be confused by having to drive on the wrong side of the road. (May 24)
GROWN UPS 2
Stars: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock The skinny: The middle-aged pals in Sandler’s 2010 hit share a new round of hijinks. Taylor Lautner appears as a smalltown bully but Twi-hards need not worry: he’s still kind enough to take his shirt off. (July 12)
RED 2
Stars: Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary Louise Parker The skinny: Undaunted by the tepid reception for his fifth Die Hard outing, Bruce Willis tries his luck with a follow-up to the 2010 action-comedy about aged assassins who seem about as unlikely to ever retire as the actors who play them. (July 19)
300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE
Stars: Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Lena Headey The skinny: Though busy with his Superman movie Man of Steel, 300 director Zack Snyder still served as co-writer and producer for this companion work to the ultraviolent swords-and-sandals saga that launched him into Hollywood’s big leagues. (Aug. 2)
Indies and fest faves
I DECLARE WAR
Stars: Siam Yu, Gage Munroe The skinny: An exhilarating, kidcentric action flick about a game of war that looks anything but make believe, this Canadian indie won the coveted audience award at Austin’s Fantastic Fest. (May 10)
BEFORE MIDNIGHT
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy The skinny: The lovers who strolled and talked their way through Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are at it again for another story about the gap between our ideals about romance and life’s harsher realities. (June 7)
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Stars: Amy Acker, Nathan Fillion, Alexis Denisof The skinny: Fanboy king Joss Whedon indulges his love for the Bard with the help of actors familiar from his many TV shows, including Firefly’s Fillion. (June 14)
FRANCES HA
Stars: Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Adam Driver The skinny: Noah Baumbach’s latest has been widely acclaimed as the director’s breeziest movie to date, which is quite a change of pace for the creator of such caustic downers as Greenberg. (June 21)
I’M SO EXCITED
Stars: Javier Camara, Pepa Charro The skinny: Forgoing the more reserved style of arthouse faves like Volver, Pedro Almodovar gets in touch with his younger, wilder self with this comedy about the chaos that erupts on a plane that’s about to crash. (July 5)
THE CANYONS
Stars: Lindsay Lohan, James Deen, Gus Van Sant The skinny: The curiosity value couldn’t be higher for Lohan’s riskiest big-screen venture, an erotically charged neo-noir that sees the ofttroubled actress share the screen with male porn-star James Deen. Funded largely via Kickstarter, the black-and-white film was directed by Paul Schrader and written by Bret Easton Ellis. (Aug. 16)
THE WORLD’S END
Stars: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Rosamund Pike The skinny: The team behind the much-loved Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz get ready to hoist more than a few pints in this sci-fi comedy about a pub crawl that may impact the fate of the planet. (Aug. 23)