The Jungle Book – April 15
The first of two competing live action Jungle Book projects, this is the Disney one, and thus it’s a sort-of-live action updating of the animated classic. Jon Favreau (Iron Man,Swingers) is directing, and his voice cast for his CG animals includes Ben Kingsley, Christopher Walken, Idris Elba and Scarlett Johansson. There’s one live action character in the movie, with newcomer Neel Sethi playing Mowgli. Justin Marks has penned the script.
the Huntsman – April 22
The Snow White And The Huntsman sequel, that just happens to drop the Snow White part of the story. As such, there’s no Kristen Stewart this time around. Instead, the story is going to centre on Chris Hemsworth’s Huntsman, with Charlize Theron returning too as the villain. Jessica Chastain, Emily Blunt, Nick Frost, Sheridan Smith and Alexandra Roach are also aboard.
Frank Darabont was once going to direct this one, and he’s likely to keep a screenplay credit. But it’s Cedric Nicolas-Troyan who will be calling the shots now (marking his feature directorial debut). We understand that reports suggesting The Huntsman is a prequel may be incorrect, incidentally, but we won’t find out for certain until April…
Captain America: Civil War – May 6
If Batman v Superman is pivotal to the future of the DC movie universe, then Captain America: Civil War is hardly without significant for the Marvel equivalent. In terms of character introductions alone, here’s where we’re likely to meet Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther, and the new Spider-Man. But crucially, this sets in motion events that lead to Avengers: Infinity War.
Furthermore, the film is no small event in itself. It’s set to pit Chris Evans’ Captain America against Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark for a start, and major ramifications are expected. We’ll stay spoiler-free here, but we looked in more detail about the expected impact of Captain America: Civil War here
Friday The 13th – May 13
It’s become tradition ever since The Conjuring earned many monies to schedule a horror movie in the midst of summer blockbuster season. 2016’s first (but not the last) will be the latest reboot of Friday The 13th.
Little is known of this one so far, outside of the fact that David Bruckner is directing, andHannibal co-producer Nick Antosca is re-writing the screenplay.
Neighbors 2 – May 13
Depending on where you live, the sequel to the Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne and Zac Efron-headlined hit of 2014 will either be called Bad Neighbours 2 (UK) or Neighbors 2 (US). A very profitable hit for Universal the first time around, the sequel will reunite the lead trio, and Nicholas Stoller is back to direct, too.
Angry Birds – May 20
The animated adventures of Angry Birds will form a full movie from Sony next summer. Promisingly, Disney veteran Clay Kaytis (who worked at the studio fromPocahontas through to Frozen) is co-directing, along with Fergal Reilly (who worked on the likes of Osmosis Jones and The Iron Giant as a storyboard artist).
The voice talent here includes Peter Dinklage, Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad and Maya Rudolph. The UK release for this one is currently set at 1st July.
Warcraft – June 10
The curtain-raiser for this summer’s blockbuster season is the eagerly-awaited third film from director Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code). And we’re backing him – no pressure – to make the first ever really good movie based on a video game.
For he’s steering the long in gestation Warcraft project to the big screen, and it looks as if little expense has been spared. The film has been in post-production for some time, and Jones has co-written the script, along with Charles Leavitt. Ben Foster and Paula Patton lead the cast. And whilst the exact story is under wraps, and footage has been in, well, no supply, we suspect this may end up being one of 2015’s must-sees.
As of writing this post, 96% of almost 20,000 voters from rottentomatoes.com have said they want to see Warcraft.