Cinema's coming home! Grab the popcorn, dim the lights and settle in for our pick of this summer's sensational new films - and thanks to the lockdown, you'll be able to watch most them in your own living room...

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Film fans have never had it so good. The lockdown has meant fabulous new movies once intended for major release are instead coming directly to our TV screens. 

It started with Trolls World Tour back in April, and with a barrage of blockbusters due for release this summer we’re in for even more of a treat.

As cinemas are unlikely to open properly any time soon, industry sources suggest most will end up on streaming platforms – Ken Branagh’s magical new fantasy thriller Artemis Fowl has just been released on Disney+ and the film version of hit musical Hamilton will follow in July.

So here is my round-up of the 30 sizzling films you absolutely MUST see this summer. 

From comedy to crime, rom-coms to fantasy epics, family favourites and sci-fi spectaculars – there really is something for everyone... 

 I SPY A BLOCKBUSTER! 

With cinemas closed, many of the summer’s hottest films will be heading straight to TV. These are the ones to look out for – and there’s something for everyone...

1.  Artemis Fowl (Out now) 12 ◆

Ferdia with (from far left) Nonso Anozie, Lara McDonnell and Josh Gad. Find out how they made it in our feature on page 12. Disney+

Disney's Artemis Fowl isn’t the 2020 film that has taken longest to get made.

That distinction surely belongs to Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, which finally reached cinemas in January, more than 30 years after Gilliam started work on it.

Even so, it was back in 2001 that plans were first unveiled for a film version of Eoin Colfer’s fantasy stories for children about a 12-year-old criminal mastermind. 

Kenneth Branagh directs, and Ferdia Shaw – whose grandfather was Robert Shaw of Jaws fame – is in the title role (albeit rendered a less villainous character here) while Lara McDonnell and Josh Gad are cast as fairy foes. 

Disney+

2. The King’s Man (16 September) Not yet rated ◆

Ralph Fiennes in the latest in the Kingsman series of spy romps – which began with The Secret Service in 2015

The latest in the Kingsman series of spy romps – which began with The Secret Service in 2015 – this prequel explores the early years of the agency around the time of World War I and promises us Tom Hollander as King George V and Rhys Ifans as Rasputin, along with Ralph Fiennes (left), Gemma Arterton, Charles Dance and Stanley Tucci.

3. Blithe Spirit (4 September) Not yet rated ●

Dan Stevens with Dame Judi Dench, Isla Fisher and Emilia Fox in Blythe Spirit

Noel Coward’s delightful stage comedy was turned into a feature film as long ago as 1945 – David Lean’s version, starring Rex Harrison and Margaret Rutherford, was released less than a week after VE Day and was a welcome tonic for a war-weary nation.

Well, here we are again in need of cheering up, and this sounds like just the job. Not many actresses could fill Rutherford’s shoes but Judi Dench is certainly one of them, playing the medium who inadvertently helps a playboy novelist (Dan Stevens, right, with Dame Judi, Isla Fisher as his second wife and Emilia Fox as a house guest) make contact with his late, unlamented and rather angry first wife.

4. The Beatles: Get Back (4 September) Not yet rated ●

Sir Peter Jackson has taken some of the 55 hours of footage shot for Let It Be, but used it to reflect the fun The Beatles were still having. Pictured, the band playing together 

To mark the 50th anniversary of the end of The Beatles, The Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson has used unseen footage to create an evocative, original film.

As all fans of the Fab Four will be aware, there is already a documentary made during the latter days of the band – Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 film, Let It Be, which in capturing their work on the album of the same name and their final live performance on the roof of their Apple Corps offices, chronicled some of the tensions responsible for their break-up. 

Jackson has plunged into the same treasure trove, taking some of the 55 hours of footage shot for Let It Be, but using it to reflect the fun they were still having.

Of course there was obvious friction between them, but Jackson’s film celebrates their togetherness, not their differences.

The two surviving Beatles are thrilled with the results. ‘The friendship and love between us comes over and reminds me of what a crazily beautiful time we had,’ says Paul McCartney. 

6.  The One And Only Ivan (14 August) Not yet rated ■

How’s this for a cast: Angelina Jolie, Helen Mirren, Danny DeVito, Sam Rockwell and Bryan Cranston? The first four lend their voices only in this Disney adaptation of the bestselling children’s novel of the same name. 

It’s about a multi-talented silverback gorilla (Rockwell) who has no idea how he came to be living in a cage in a suburban shopping mall. 

The English director of this part animated, part live-action film is Thea Sharrock, who helmed the hit 2016 weepie Me Before You.

7. A Rainy Day In New York (Out now) 12 ◆

Veteran writer-director Woody Allen continues to crank out films undeterred either by age (he’s 84) or the fact that his reputation has been holed below the waterline by (unproven) sexual abuse allegations. 

Some actors refuse to work with him, and he launched a $68m (£54m) lawsuit against Amazon for backing out of a deal to distribute this romantic comedy, in which Timothee Chalamet and Elle Fanning play a wealthy, entitled young couple swanking round Manhattan.

Jude Law co-stars, but this make-believe romance will have to be amazing to help the film rise above the real-life drama that surrounded it. 

Rent on Sky, Virgin Media and BT.

8. Tenet (17 July) Not yet rated ◆

The actual story of Tenet has been shrouded in secrecy but we know, or think we know, that it’s a sci-fi thriller about a super-spy (played by John David Washington, Denzel’s lad, above) trying to prevent World War III. Director Christopher Nolan wants the film to be shown in cinemas

British director Christopher Nolan wants his summer blockbuster to be seen first on big screens – the bigger the better – so it could yet be that if cinemas aren’t open, Tenet’s release will be postponed. 

The actual story has been shrouded in secrecy but we know, or think we know, that it’s a sci-fi thriller about a super-spy (played by John David Washington, Denzel’s lad) trying to prevent World War III. 

An impressive supporting cast includes two knights of the realm, Michael Caine and Kenneth Branagh, as well as Robert Pattinson, Aaron Taylor- Johnson and Elizabeth Debicki.

9. Resistance (This Friday) 15 ◆ 

As a child I was once taken to see the famous French mime artist Marcel Marceau, and to my shame as an adult, I was bored. 

Maybe I’d have sat up a bit more if I’d known more about his exploits as a fighter for the French Resistance, risking his neck to save hundreds of Jewish orphans from the Holocaust.

Marcel rarely spoke about this episode, but this film, with Jesse Eisenberg in the lead role, tells the remarkable story.

Buy on Virgin Media and BT, rent on Sky from 26 June.    

10. Hamilton (3 July) PG ●

The film Hamilton is a live recording of the stage show, edited together from three performances in 2016 featuring the original Broadway cast, including creator Lin-Manuel Miranda (right, centre) in the lead role as Alexander Hamilton

If you’ve never got round to seeing the hit musical on stage, here’s your chance to see whether all the crazy hype is warranted. 

I have friends who adored it and appear to know every lyric of every song, and friends who shrugged all the way home. 

So I’m looking forward to making my own mind up. The film is actually a live recording of the stage show, edited together from three performances in 2016 featuring the original Broadway cast, including creator Lin-Manuel Miranda in the lead role as Alexander Hamilton, one of America’s 18th-century Founding Fathers.

Disney+

11. Eurovision Song Contest:  The Story Of Fire Saga (26 June) Not yet rated ●  

Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams (pictured) play Lars and Sigrit in Netflix spoof Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga. Piers Brosnan plays Lars' father 

In the absence of the real thing this year, here is the best possible substitute: a spoof starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams as Lars and Sigrit, the duo singing Iceland’s entry. 

There’s a trailer online with the pair belting out another tune, Volcano Man, so you can judge their artistic merit for yourself, but it seems to me that their songs, including their Eurovision offering Double Trouble, are a lot less silly than some bona fide entries down the years. 

The competition has long been a parody of itself, so we’ll see how director David Dobkin makes it even dafter.

Promisingly, Pierce Brosnan plays Lars’ father Erick Erickssong, ‘Iceland’s handsomest man’, and Graham Norton has a cameo playing himself.

Netflix

12. The King Of Staten Island (Out now) 15 ◆

Judd Apatow is Hollywood’s king of comedy, with the Anchorman films on his long list of credits as director, producer or writer. 

He does all three jobs on The King Of Staten Island, about a young man trying to move on after the death of his firefighter father. 

It doesn’t sound like a barrel of laughs, but Apatow usually finds a way.

Rent on Sky, Virgin Media and BT  

13. Dream Horse (4 September) PG ●

There are echoes of Billy Elliot and The Full Monty in this unlikely, feel-good true story of the small syndicate in a Welsh former mining village who clubbed together to breed a racehorse. 

Raised on an allotment, the aptly named Dream Alliance went on to win the Welsh Grand National. 

Toni Collette and Damian Lewis star, while the director is Euros Lyn, whose thoroughbred set of credits include Broadchurch, Last Tango In Halifax and Doctor Who.

14. Da 5 Bloods (Out now) Not yet rated ◆

Spike Lee’s new film sees five black veterans return to Vietnam to honour a fallen comrade (Chadwick Boseman, above) – and to find a stash of gold bars at the site of a long-ago plane crash

While Muhammad Ali famously refused the Vietnam draft, declaring, ‘I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong’, plenty of African-Americans did fight in the conflict. 

Spike Lee’s new film sees five black veterans return to Vietnam to honour a fallen comrade (Chadwick Boseman) – and to find a stash of gold bars at the site of a long-ago plane crash.

Although it shines a spotlight on the way African-American soldiers were treated on their return from Vietnam, this isn’t a solemn film – it’s a politically charged comedy with a glorious soundtrack lifted from Marvin Gaye’s album What’s Going On. 

WONDER WOMEN! 

A live-action Mulan, an immortal Charlize Theron and the return of Gal Gadot's warrior goddess - it's superheroine season with a tribe of feisty females set to explode onto the screen this summer 

15. How To Build A Girl (3 July) Not yet rated ◆ 

Actress Beanie Feldstein takes the lead in Caitlin Moran's semi-autobiographical novel

Just a glance at the cast list will make you want to watch this (or just possibly, run a mile). 

Lily Allen plays Elizabeth Taylor, with Alexei Sayle as Karl Marx and Gemma Arterton as Maria von Trapp. Emma Thompson and Chris O’Dowd also feature in this lively adaptation of journalist Caitlin Moran’s semi-autobiographical novel about a girl growing up in Wolverhampton. 

In the lead role, Californian actress Beanie Feldstein nails the Black Country vowels, and the whole thing chugs along merrily, directed by Coky Giedroyc (whose sister Mel plays Charlotte Bronte, with Sue Perkins as Emily).

16. Summerland (24 July) 12A ◆

I hope she won’t mind me saying, but Gemma Arterton suits wartime. She has a particular English rose look that matches the period, which is one reason why she was so good in 2016’s hugely enjoyable Their Finest (even though her character was Welsh).

In Summerland she plays a reclusive writer, Alice (above), forced to take in a young London evacuee called Frank. 

According to writer-director Jessica Swale, making her debut feature with a top-notch cast also including Tom Courtenay, Penelope Wilton and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, the film ‘is about finding light after darkness, and as such, has never felt more timely’.  

17. Mulan (24 July) 12A ◆

Chinese-American actress Liu Yifei plays Mulan (pictured). Over the past decade, the Disney production line has been thrumming with live-action/CGI remakes of its own animations

Over the past decade, the Disney production line has been thrumming with live-action/CGI remakes of its own animations, from The Jungle Book to The Lion King, Dumbo to Aladdin. 

For all their ingenuity, not many have matched the charm of the originals. On the other hand, they’ve raked in the moolah: four of them have crossed the magical $1 billion (£800 million) mark at the global box-office. 

Unsurprisingly, there are many more in the works, starting with this summer’s big release Mulan, a remake of the 1998 hit about a heroic Chinese princess.

18. Wonder Woman 1984 (14 August) 12A ◆

This sequel to the 2017 hit, with Gal Gadot (pictured) again playing the warrior goddess was pushed back from its original December 2019 cinema release for fear that it would be zapped at the box office by Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker

This sequel to the 2017 hit, with Gal Gadot again playing the warrior goddess, was pushed back from its original December 2019 cinema release for fear (not a trait Wonder Woman ever exhibits) that it would be zapped at the box office by Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker. 

In light of the pandemic, maybe the folk at the DC Extended Universe wish they’d stuck with their original plan. 

Whatever, director Patty Jenkins is back in charge, and the cast again includes Chris Pine and Robin Wright, but this time we have the lip-smacking prospect of Kristen Wiig playing Wonder Woman’s new nemesis, Cheetah. 

19. A Quiet Place II (4 September) 15 ◆

Noah Jupe, Millicent Simmonds and Emily Blunt in A Quiet Place Part II. Emily Blunt reprises her role as Evelyn Abbott and the writer-director is once again her husband John Krasinski

The first film was one of the best sci-fi chillers of recent years, a proper white-knuckle cinematic ride. 

So expectations are high for the sequel. Emily Blunt reprises her role as Evelyn Abbott (right), and the writer-director is once again her husband John Krasinski. 

He co-starred in the first film, but without wanting to risk spoilers for those who haven’t seen it, here he appears in flashback as terrifying aliens with preternatural hearing continue their assault on our beleaguered planet.  

20. The Old Guard (10 July) Not yet rated ◆

Charlize Theron (pictured) might not look it, but she’s thousands of years old in The Old Guard, a superhero film not from the Marvel or DC stables but based on a series of graphic novels

Charlize Theron might not look it, but she’s thousands of years old in The Old Guard, a superhero film not from the Marvel or DC stables but based on a series of graphic novels.

Charlize plays Andromache of Scythia, an alpha female from the ancient world reborn over and over again and known these days as plain Andy. 

She leads a team of fellow immortals in the fight against evil, but after so many battles the 21st century is starting to wear her down.

Netflix 

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21. The French Dispatch (Coming soon) Not yet rated ◆

Elisabeth Moss, Owen Wilson, Tilda Swinton, Fisher Stevens and Griffin Dunne in The French Dispatch

Writer-director Wes Anderson has said that his new movie is not easy to explain, but let’s try: evidently inspired by Wes’s devotion to The New Yorker magazine, it brings to life three separate stories told in an American journal based in a fictional French city in the decades after the Second World War, one of which is on the 1968 student riots. 

A sensational cast includes Benicio del Toro, Tilda Swinton, Timothée Chalamet, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Christoph Waltz, Owen Wilson, Elisabeth Moss, Henry Winkler, Fisher Stevens and Griffin Dunne. 

22. Marry Me (Coming soon) Not yet rated ●

Jennifer Lopez in Marry Me. She stars as a pop star, jilted by her fiancé moments before a show, who picks a random guy in the audience – a maths teacher played by Owen Wilson – to marry instead

The notion of a famous person falling in love with an ordinary citizen has fuelled cinematic romances down the years, from the various incarnations of A Star Is Born, to Notting Hill, to the preposterous liaison in Love Actually between a prime minister and his staffer Martine McCutcheon. 

But Marry Me at least gives the familiar premise a twist. It stars Jennifer Lopez as a pop star, jilted by her fiancé moments before a show, who picks a random guy in the audience – a maths teacher played by Owen Wilson – to marry instead. 

Of course, it’s not maths but chemistry that counts here. J-Lo and Wilson are both likeable performers and if there’s the right kind of spark between them, Marry Me sounds like fun.

23. Dads (This Friday) PG ●

‘Daddy, my Daddy.’ If you’re a father, and Jenny Agutter’s line in The Railway Children (1970) doesn’t bring tears to your eyes, you surely have a heart of stone. 

This moving documentary about fathers is directed and presented by actress Bryce Dallas Howard, who interviews her own dad, illustrious director Ron Howard. 

It was his father, Rance, also an actor, whose parenting standards Howard has always striven to match. 

Forgive the plug, but as the author of a book about the different stages of fatherhood called The Good, The Dad And The Ugly, this is a subject close to my own throbbing heart.

Apple TV

24. 7500 (This Friday) Not yet rated ◆

This is a nail-biter starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as co-pilot of a hijacked jet (pictured, who must negotiate with terrorists at 30,000ft

Not to be confused with the 2014 horror film Flight 7500, this is a nail-biter starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as co-pilot of a hijacked jet, who must negotiate with terrorists at 30,000ft. 

Paul Dano was cast but a clash of schedules meant he was replaced by Joseph, perhaps due to his excellent performance in 2015’s The Walk. 

That was about the French tightrope-walker who traversed between the Twin Towers in 1974 – so he’s good with heights.

Amazon Prime

25. Capone (Coming soon) Not yet rated ◆

Tom Hardy as Al Capone (pictured). But this is not Al Capone in his merciless Prohibition-era pomp, it is an increasingly befuddled Capone living under house arrest in late-40s Florida

Tom Hardy has already played both Kray twins. Now he crosses the pond to play the most notorious American gangster, but this is not Al Capone in his merciless Prohibition-era pomp, it is an increasingly befuddled Capone living under house arrest in late-40s Florida. 

He has just been released from prison on compassionate grounds because he will soon die, assailed by dementia and syphilis, and he is tormented by his past. 

The film is already available digitally in the US, where it has had decidedly mixed reviews, with some critics accusing Hardy of riotous over-acting. We’ll see.

26. The Trial Of The Chicago 7 (25 September) Not yet rated ◆

Like 2020, 1968 was a year of riots and demonstrations in the US, especially after the killing of Martin Luther King. 

Two months later Robert F Kennedy was assassinated, and the Democratic Party convention in Chicago was hit by protests against racial injustice and the Vietnam War. 

Seven men were prosecuted for that and this film tells their story. Three Brits take leading roles: Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen and Mark Rylance.

27. Stage Mother (31 July) Not yet rated ◆

Maybelline (Jacki Weaver) plays the deeply conservative director of a Texas church choir who has not spoken to her son Rickey for a decade after he moved West and came out as gay. 

But then word reaches her that he has died. Tearfully, she travels to San Francisco for the funeral, and there finds that he has left her his drag club, Pandora’s Box. 

Will Maybelline end up falling in with his friends, embracing the gay scene and using her musical nous to improve the show? You bet your pink dollar. 

28. The New Mutants (28 August) Not yet rated ◆

A spin-off from Marvel’s X-Men series, this one introduces us to some welcome new young mutants (above) and we’re promised ‘a young adult vibe’

A spin-off from Marvel’s X-Men series, this one introduces us to some welcome new young mutants and we’re promised ‘a young adult vibe’. 

Youthful British talent looms large – the film stars Game Of Thrones’ Maisie Williams and Stranger Things’ Charlie Heaton, along with Peaky Blinders actress Anya Taylor-Joy. But it has been ready and waiting for ages. 

It was originally meant to be released in April 2018, then delayed to avoid clashing with Deadpool 2, then again to avoid X-Men: Dark Phoenix. After all that, Covid-19 pushed it back yet again.  

29. Enola Holmes (Coming soon) 12 ◆

Enola Holmes is Sherlock’s teenage sister, as created by author Nancy Springer. A top British cast is led by Millie Bobby Brown, known for Stranger Things, as Enola. 

Henry Cavill is Sherlock, with Sam Claflin as Mycroft and Helena Bonham Carter playing their mother in this film written by Jack Thorne and directed by Killing Eve’s Harry Bradbeer.

Netflix

30. Bill and Ted Face The Music (21 August) Not yet rated ●

The third film in the Bill And Ted sci-fi comedy series has been a long time coming – the others came out in 1989 and 1991. 

Nevertheless, this reunites Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves (above) in the title roles, with the late George Carlin ‘doing a Carrie Fisher’. 

Just as she was reincarnated for Star Wars by stitching together old clips and outtakes, so George, who died in 2008, appears again as Rufus, time-travelling from the future. 

We first met Bill and Ted as dim-witted high school students. Now they’re dim-witted middle-aged men, who are given a musical task to save all of humanity.