Sleepers, Superheroes and Meryl Streep Too

Snow White and the Huntsman

Charlize Theron is the wicked queen and Kristen Stewart the virgin princess; the huntsman charged with killing Snow White is Chris Hemsworth, a.k.a. Thor of The Avengers. How about seven other Marvel-comics characters playing the dwarfs? The Incredible Hulk as Grumpy? (6/1)

Prometheus

Yeah, but what happened before the monster got on the spaceship? Prometheus seems less a prequel to the 1979 Alien than a predecessor, involving a star map that may help locate the origins of humankind. Ridley Scott returns to the helm with a stellar cast: Noomi Rapace as a proto-Ripley, Charlize Theron as a corporate type with a secret agenda and Michael Fassbender as an android striving to be human. (6/8)

Dark Horse

In Todd Solondz’s kinda-comedy, 35-year-old Abe (Jordan Gelber) is a seriously–and hilariously–arrested adolescent, a pain to his parents (Mia Farrow and Christopher Walken) and a possible mate for depressive Miranda (Selma Blair). Existing both in the real world of suburban New York and the dream world of Abe’s longings, Dark Horse is Solondz’s most endearing film, his gentlest triumph. (6/8)

Lola Versus

Who would be dumb enough to dump a girl who looks like Greta Gerwig? Ditched days before her wedding, Gerwig’s Lola seeks help from a best friend (co-writer Zoe Lister-Jones) who recommends new boyfriends–lots of them–as the cure. (6/8)

Rock of Ages

Tom Cruise goes full ’80s rock star: cockiness, bare chest, feathers. Of course he does his own vocals. With Alec Baldwin as a club owner and Catherine Zeta-Jones representing the Moral Majority. (6/15)

Your Sister’s Sister

Here’s a movie with so much indie cred, it could sweep the Gotham Film Awards sight unseen. Lynn Shelton, who directed the mumblecore comedy Humpday, is behind the camera; in front is Mark Duplass, who starred in Humpday and, with his brother Jay, directed Baghead, Cyrus and Jeff, Who Lives at Home. Duplass, Emily Blunt and Rachel Getting Married’s Rosemarie DeWitt are the tangled trio in this observational drama. (6/15)

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Seth Grahame-Smith’s mashup novel (he also wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) is American history as horror fantasy: young Lincoln pursues the creatures who killed his mother. Timur Bekmanbetov, who directed the zippy-bloody Wanted, brings the book to the screen. (6/22)

Brave

Pixar’s first female-centered feature is a tale of a princess-archer on a quest to save her kingdom. After the disappointment of last summer’s Cars 2, John Lasseter’s gang must be hoping that the reception to Brave will be “Brava!” (6/22)

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

Doesn’t the sadness in Steve Carell’s smile seem to anticipate his own private doomsday? In this comedy, the rest of the world gets that end-of-days feeling as an asteroid hurtles toward Earth. Keira Knightley is Carell’s last-chance love in the directorial debut of Lorene Scafaria, who wrote the sweet teen comedy Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. (6/22)

To Rome with Love

Woody Allen’s latest stop on his Euro-tour–from Britain (Match Point) to Spain (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) to France (Midnight in Paris)–lands him in the Eternal City for a tribute to the Italian movies he loved in his youth. The cast includes Roberto Benigni, Penlope Cruz, Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig–and Allen himself in his first screen role in six years. (6/22)

Beasts of the Southern Wild

“The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right,” says 6-year-old Hushpuppy (Quvenzhan Wallis). “If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted.” Benh Zeitlin’s debut feature, set among poor blacks in rural Louisiana, brought the rapture on Sundance viewers, stoking comparisons with the films of Terrence Malick and earning raves for its elfin star. Fingers crossed, the movie busts out. (6/27)

G.I. Joe: Retaliation

Dwayne Johnson and Channing Tatum bench-press villains together. (6/29)

The Amazing Spider-Man

He seemed pretty swell the last few times we saw him not so long ago, but Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is getting another makeover. He’s younger, still in high school, has a different love interest (Emma Stone) and a whole new batch of enemies, including Rhys Ifans as the Lizard. Next up: Spidey in middle school. (7/3)

Savages

Oliver Stone’s action thriller, based on Don Winslow’s 2010 novel, is front-loaded for box-office success with sex, drugs, guns and the prettiest cast of the summer: Blake Lively, Aaron Johnson, Taylor Kitsch and Salma Hayek. (7/6)

Ted

Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane tries the big screen with this tale of a grown man (Mark Wahlberg) and his best friend, an adorable, sailor-tongued teddy bear. The plot may seem dubious, but the trailer instantly went viral. (7/13)

The Dark Knight Rises

Bale meets Bane. In the third episode of Christopher Nolan’s Batman reboot, the Dark Knight (Christian Bale) confronts DC Comics’ primo villain. Art-house tough guy Tom Hardy plays Bane; Anne Hathaway is Selina Kyle, a.k.a. Catwoman. The real battle is at the box office, where The Dark Knight Rises will try to beat The Avengers’ $207 million opening-weekend gross. (7/20)

Ruby Sparks

In Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ first movie since Little Miss Sunshine, a disheveled novelist (Paul Dano) comes up with a protagonist, Ruby, who is quirky, fun and suddenly living in his house. Zoe Kazan, who plays Ruby, also wrote the screenplay. (7/25)

The Bourne Legacy

Jeremy Renner isn’t exactly replacing Matt Damon’s Bourne in this reboot: he’s just playing another poor, screwed-up victim of a government program to engineer really hot lethal agents. Intense secrecy surrounds the plot, but we do know that Rachel Weisz co-stars. (8/3)

Total Recall

Showing up in a remake of an Arnold Schwarzenegger science-fiction film is not what we’d expect these days from Colin Farrell, who has spent recent years doing top-notch supporting work in smaller movies (In Bruges, Crazy Heart). Directed by Len Wiseman and co-starring Kate Beckinsale in her element: tight clothes, tough talk and advanced weaponry. (8/3)

Celeste and Jesse Forever

Celeste (Rashida Jones) and Jesse (Andy Samberg) try to stay friends after splitting up, despite new love interests and persistent sexual chemistry. There’s a bond behind the scenes too: Jones co-wrote the screenplay specifically for her buddy Samberg. (8/3)

Hope Springs

No explosions! No threat to humanity! And no superheroes, unless you count Meryl Streep. She reteams with The Devil Wears Prada director David Frankel for a comedy about mild-mannered Kay (Streep) and buttoned-up Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones), who try to recharge their 30-year marriage via couples counseling with therapist Steve Carell. (8/10)

The Campaign

A Republican challenger (Zach Galifianakis) vies for a North Carolina congressional seat after a sex scandal mars the chances of the incumbent Democrat (Will Ferrell). The improv brilliance of the two leads and the echoes of political scandals past (Sanford, Weiner, Edwards …) bode well, as do the ingenious trailers. (8/10)