Hollywood pins summer hopes on 100 new films
2006-04-23

Category Box Offices People Night Shyamalan Jack Black Wolfgang Petersen Oliver Stone Jamie Foxx Hugh Jackman Philip Seymour Hoffman Johnny Depp Colin Farrell Halle Berry Adam Sandler Vince Vaughn Keanu Reeves Tom Hanks Sandra Bullock Jennifer Aniston Tom Cruise Movie Over the Hedge Miami Vice Poseidon Lady in the Water The Da Vinci Code Revenge of the Sith Kingdom of Heaven The Curse of the Black Pearl The Sixth Sense

The "Star Wars" Force may not be with Hollywood this summer but Tom Cruise is, and that may be a good thing.

With big studios still reeling from last summer's poor box office performance, Hollywood has to shake off perceptions that it is serving up the same old fare.

Enter Cruise as U.S. secret agent Ethan Hunt who is again tasked with saving humanity from evil-doers in "Mission: Impossible III," which opens on May 5, kicking off four months of more than 100 action adventures, comedies, dramas and family films including "Poseidon," "The Da Vinci Code," "Cars" and "X-Men: The Last Stand."

Last summer fizzled after a poor box office start from Crusades adventure "Kingdom of Heaven," and not even strong ticket sales for "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" could stop the downward trend.

The summer 2005 box office of $3.6 billion was the lowest since 2001. Summer can make up as much as 40 percent of annual movie ticket sales.

While "Sith" earned over $380 million at domestic box offices, it fed a general feeling that Hollywood was serving up the same tired stories, and audiences found other ways to spend their leisure dollars -- playing video games, surfing the Web and waiting for cheaper DVD releases.

"Everybody is concerned, but it looks like maybe the tide is turning," said "Poseidon" director Wolfgang Petersen. "We have been killing ourselves to get something really exciting out there, and 'Poseidon,' is so unbelievably scary."

SPLASHES AND CRASHES

The sea adventure about a capsized luxury liner, based on the 1972 hit "The Poseidon Adventure," opens on May 12. The premise for the new film is the same, but Petersen promises more realistic action. "It is a study of people under the extreme stress of a disaster ... and reflects, in a way, today's fears."

But first there is "M:I:III." The movie features explosions, car crashes, gun battles and Cruise dashing around the globe. But not only must his character save the world, the villainous Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) has kidnapped his wife, making his quest personal.

The newest "X-Men" movie, with Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry reprising their roles as comic book heroes, also features newcomers like red-hot Ellen Page ("Hard Candy") knocking the lights out of the bad guys. It opens on May 26.

Auto-racing film "The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift" hits the street on June 16, followed two weeks later by "Superman Returns" in which the Man of Steel comes soaring back with Brandon Routh donning the crime fighter's cape.

Cop thriller "Miami Vice," starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx, hits screens on July 28, and director Oliver Stone brings out "World Trade Center" on August 9. One of this summer's most buzzed-about suspense flicks, "Snakes on a Plane" also hopes to scare up sizable late summer audiences when it opens on August 18.

Beyond the action, Hollywood is also relying on mystery, romance and comedy to sell tickets starting with "The Da Vinci Code" on May 19. Based on the mega-selling novel, it tells of a scholar (Tom Hanks) who unravels the mystery of a long-lost treasure hidden away by the Roman Catholic Church.

ROMANCE AND COMEDY

Director M. Night Shyamalan ("The Sixth Sense") brings fans "Lady in the Water," about a man who discovers a nymph-like woman living under his swimming pool. It opens on July 21,

Among romances, Jennifer Aniston and real-life beau Vince Vaughn hook-up for "The Break-Up" on June 2, and "Speed" veterans Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves reunite in "The Lake House" on June 16.

Comedies are led by "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" (July 7) with Johnny Depp back in trouble as pirate Captain Jack Sparrow -- Depp's imaginative cross between rocker Keith Richards and cartoon skunk Pepe Le Pew.

Comic actor Jack Black brings audiences a Mexican wrestler with moves of magic in "Nacho Libre" on June 16 and Adam Sandler stars in "Click" on June 23.

The Disney/Pixar computer-animated "Cars," about a rookie race car on a road trip, and DreamWorks Animation's "Over the Hedge," about country animals with a wry view of suburban dwellers, are expected to be big hits.

"Hedge" lands in theaters on May 19, and "Cars" on June 9.

Reuters/VNU