The bounty of films this season bears some strange fruit that audiences might love to sample, along with shiny new apples like films from heavy hitters Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, and Steven Soderbergh, the latter two spinning original stories, respectively, in the sci-fi thriller Disclosure and the laid-back, art-world caper The Christophers.

A bumper crop of high-profile original stories, from Zendaya and Robert Pattinson vehicle The Drama, to Jane Schoenbrun’s phantasmagoric horror film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, bodes well for the business, and should help balance the usual abundance of sequels, superheroes, game adaptations, and reboots. Dig in!

MARCH

The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist — Whether you’re embracing AI technology with open arms and boundless curiosity, or maintaining a cautious, keep-your-friends-close-and-your-enemies-closer approach, the more you know about what’s coming, the better, and this documentary from directors Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell should add to your knowledge about “the most powerful technology humanity has ever created.” (3/27)

APRIL

The Drama — Mrs. Tom Holland, or the artist still known as Zendaya, stars as a bride-to-be marching through capital-D Drama and major plot twists to make it to her wedding day with groom Robert Pattinson in this first big-screen pairing of the Millennial superstars, but not their last turn as castmates, as they’ll both also appear this year in Dune: Part 3 and in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which, incidentally, also features Tom Holland. (4/3)

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie — Chris Pratt and Jack Black are back voicing Mario the plumber and his nemesis Bowser, with Charlie Day as bro Luigi and Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, in a sequel to the 2023 animated hit The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The film introduces lovable sidekick Yoshi (Donald Glover) and not-so-lovable villain spawn Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie). Game on, we guess. (4/1)

The Stranger — The hardest-working maverick filmmaker in French cinema, François Ozon (Summer of ’85) delivers his sixth new feature in six years, a queer-themed adaptation, shot in lustrous black-and-white, of Albert Camus’ novella about a French settler in 1930s Algiers whose fateful encounter with an Arab man on a beach shakes up his settled life. (4/10)

Exit 8 — Buzz is building for this Japanese psychological horror film, based on the video game, tracking a young man (Kazunari Ninomiya) who, for the life of him, can’t find his way out of an endlessly looping subway station corridor. Empathetic D.C. Metro riders might re-dub this one Exit Gallery Place. (4/10)

Faces of Death — Somebody thought that now, of all times in U.S. history, would be a great moment to revive the notorious almost-snuff film series, although “revive” is probably not the best term. Dredge up? Exhume? (4/10)

Hamlet — Do audiences want to see Riz Ahmed as Shakespeare’s doomed prince? That is the question, and our answer is “Yes” to this gritty, modern adaptation, directed by Aneil Karia (an Oscar-winner for live-action short The Long Goodbye), written by Michael Lesslie (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songs & Snakes), co-starring Joe Alwyn as Laertes, Saint Maud‘s Morfydd Clark as Ophelia, and set among the nouveau riche elite of London’s South Asian community. (4/10)

The Christophers — A saucy, cerebral caper from Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Ed Solomon (who also wrote Soderbergh’s underrated No Sudden Move), starring Sir Ian McKellen as an elderly but feisty famous artist whose greedy children, played by Baby Reindeer‘s Jessica Gunning and James Corden, secretly hire art restorer Michaela Coel (I May Destroy You) to fraudulently complete a series of their dad’s unfinished paintings to sell off after he dies. (4/17)

Mother Mary — Anne Hathaway, in character as pop diva Mother Mary, has already released the throbbing electro single, “Burial,” signaling the Oscar-winner’s commitment to her role in this psychological thriller from The Green Knight writer-director David Lowery, co-starring Michaela Coel as Mary’s former lover-turned-frenemy, and featuring original music by Charli XCX, Jack Antonoff, and FKA Twigs. (4/17)

Michael — Speaking of pop stars, Mother Mary could only dream of stardom like that of Michael Jackson, portrayed in this hotly anticipated biopic by the King of Pop’s nephew Jaafar (son of brother Jermaine), with Nia Long as Jackson family matriarch Katherine and best-dressed man alive Colman Domingo taking on the difficult role of abusive patriarch Joe. Director Antoine Fuqua and screenwriter John Logan cover MJ’s youth to his early solo career here, with a second film to cover the singer’s controversy-consumed later life seemingly assured but yet to be confirmed by studio Lionsgate. (4/24)

MAY

The Devil Wears Prada 2 — Re-assembling the creative team (director David Frankel and screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna) and main cast of the culture-shifting 2006 comedy The Devil Wears Prada surely didn’t come cheap, so let’s hope this sequel puts that budget to good use, along with the time and talents of Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci in this 20-years-later look at what those fab fashionistas are up to in the age of TikTok. (5/1)

Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour Live in 3D — Billie, in concert, live and in 3D. (5/8)

Blue Film — Filmmaker Elliot Tuttle’s sensual, festival-favorite drama about a fetish camboy (Kieron Moore) who agrees to spend a night IRL with an anonymous client (Reed Birney) promises to titillate as well as probe the needs and desires that bring these two together. (5/8)

The Sheep Detectives — A flock of sheep (Bryan Cranston, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Regina Hall, and Patrick Stewart) find their beloved shepherd (Hugh Jackman) murdered and get down to solving the case, in what looks to be an utterly delightful live-action, Babe-style mystery from Minions: The Rise of Gru director Kyle Balda. (5/8)

Is God Is — Based on Aleasha Harris’ Obie Award-winning play, an eccentric, revenge-fueled thriller about two sisters (Kara Young and Mallori Johnson), scarred emotionally and physically, on a mission to track down their Monster of a dad (Sterling K. Brown) at the behest of their dying mom. (5/15)

I Love Boosters — Boots Riley follows up his fantastic debut feature Sorry to Bother You with another star-studded satire, about a Bay Area crew of shoplifters led by Keke Palmer who go to war with cutthroat fashionista Demi Moore. We can’t wait to see who comes out on top. (5/22)

Backrooms — Creator of the Backrooms web series Kane Parsons assembled an intriguing cast (Renate Reinsve, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mark Duplass, Avan Jogia) for this supernatural sci-fi adaptation, directed by Parsons and written by Will Soodik, about a therapist whose patient goes missing through an inter-dimensional portal inside a nondescript basement room. (5/29)

JUNE

Animal Friends — Live-action CGI-animal antics featuring the voices of Ryan Reynolds and Jason Momoa as Pony and Bear, fugitive animals on a cross-country, odd-couple adventure to find their former ranch home, and probably make a lot of jokes about what bears do in the woods. (6/5)

Masters of the Universe — The first attempt at a live-action version of the He-Man vs. Skeletor animated series gave us the 1987 dud starring Dolph Lundgren and Courteney Cox, which transported the sword-wielding hero to suburban California for no good reason. This latest effort, from director Travis Knight and featuring Red, White, & Royal Blue hunk Nicholas Galitzine as He-Man and Jared Leto as bony villain Skeletor, looks no less cheesy, but it could hardly be worse. (6/5)

Scary Movie — Fans online are fired up about the reboot of the horror movie-mocking franchise, but we seem to remember that this series was always spotty, at best. So consider our enthusiasm curbed for this installment, written by Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Craig Wayans, and Rick Alvarez, though we’re definitely glad to see Anna Faris and Regina Hall back as pals Cindy and Brenda, facing off against a whole new slew of spoofed Sinners vamps, Megan clones, and Weapons kids. (6/5)

Disclosure Day — Steven Spielberg is keeping details under wraps for this sci-fi opus, written by frequent collaborator David Koepp (War of the Worlds), and starring Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and Colman Domingo in a story that might be about humans confronting irrefutable proof that we are not alone in the universe. The movie has a prime summer weekend all to itself, so expect one of Spielberg’s biggest box office openings ever. (6/12)

The Death of Robin Hood — Michael Sarnoski (Pig, A Quiet Place: Day One) brings us a dark reimagining of the Robin Hood legend, with Hugh Jackman as the aged and injured archer whose past life of crime and murder comes back to bite him in the ass, probably not literally, but definitely painfully. Bill Skarsgård is along for the ride as comrade Little John, with Jodie Comer portraying a mysterious woman who might be able to save the ailing antihero. (6/19)

Toy Story 5 — Pixar gives Finding Nemo and Wall-E filmmaker Andrew Stanton his first crack at writing and directing a Toy Story feature, with all the playthings you know and love, including cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), and, yes, Woody (Tom Hanks), having to compete for attention with a new wave of computerized and Bluetooth-enabled devices, like Lilypad, a computer tablet voiced by Greta Lee. Can’t they all just get along? (6/19)

Leviticus — Discerning indie distributor Neon presents this Australian horror film starring Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen as teen boys whose conservative Christian community tries to “cure” them of their sexual attraction to each other with a ritual that backfires horribly, unleashing an evil spirit that hunts them, taking the form of the person they most desire — each other. Wicked! (6/19)

Supergirl — Super cousin Kara Zor-el (Milly Alcock) made quite an impression in her new DCU debut in last summer’s Superman — if not on us, then certainly on the folks at Warner Bros. who are betting on this intergalactic adventure, where Supergirl and her dog Krypto run into super-powered bounty hunter Lobo (Jason Momoa), to further DC’s Gods and Monsters initiative, some comic book-y rubric that won’t mean anything to anybody unless this movie kicks ass. (6/26)

JULY

Minions & Monsters — We know there’s an audience ever-eager to laugh at those mischievous Minions, returning in this third Minions prequel, and seventh film overall in the Despicable Me franchise, directed once again by Pierre Coffin, who also provides the little guys’ voices. (7/1)

The Odyssey — The trailer for Christopher Nolan’s suitably epic take on Homer’s tale is already one of the most captivating films of the year, so bring on the rest in all its lush, violent glory, led by Matt Damon as Odysseus making his perilous journey home from the Trojan War, and stacked with the season’s starriest cast: Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, John Leguizamo, and Mia Goth, just to name a few. (7/17)

Spider-Man: Brand New Day — The summer of Zen and Tom swings on with Sony and Marvel’s fourth standalone Spidey film starring Tom Holland as the web-slinger also known as Peter Parker — except, following the events of previous film No Way Home, no one on Earth actually remembers Peter Parker exists, not even his former lady love MJ (Zendaya) or best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon). So Peter might feel especially on his own as he finds himself in typically sticky situations involving the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), the Punisher (Jon Bernthal), and an as-yet-unidentified adversary portrayed by Stranger Things standout Sadie Sink. (7/31)

AUGUST

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma — We’re not sure who’s doing what to whom in this trippy horror flick from Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow), but somehow Hacks‘ Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson figure in a queer director’s obsessive attempt to reboot a classic slasher franchise with the original film’s “final girl.” (8/7)

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