Summer 2007 movies dish out second (and third) helpings

In the movie business, summer is the ultimate time to open up a hit sequel movie. The highly anticipated seconds, thirds, or even fifths of 2007 are on their way – with a few new ones thrown in to keep the mix interesting.
The official start of summer is listed as June 21, but the battle of the box-office begins on May 4 with the opening of �Spider-Man 3.
The new sequels of 2007 are also making their May mark. �28 Weeks Later,� the sequel to the 2002 post-apocalyptic science fiction film, �28 Days Later,� opens May 11.
The thirds installments are the most anticipated May moneymakers. Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow returns from beyond the grave to battle it out once again in Disney’s �Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End� on May 25. Also, Mike Myers will be voicing over for Dreamworks’s �Shrek the Third� on May 18.


By Diana Geleskie,
Contributor
In the movie business, summer is the ultimate time to open up a hit sequel movie. The highly anticipated seconds, thirds, or even fifths of 2007 are on their way – with a few new ones thrown in to keep the mix interesting.
The official start of summer is listed as June 21, but the battle of the box-office begins on May 4 with the opening of �Spider-Man 3.
The new sequels of 2007 are also making their May mark. �28 Weeks Later,� the sequel to the 2002 post-apocalyptic science fiction film, �28 Days Later,� opens May 11.
The thirds installments are the most anticipated May moneymakers. Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow returns from beyond the grave to battle it out once again in Disney’s �Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End� on May 25. Also, Mike Myers will be voicing over for Dreamworks’s �Shrek the Third� on May 18.
The new movies of interest for summer �07 may end up being the summer sequels of summer �08 or �09, but for now Pixar’s �Ratatouille� (June 27), Dreamworks’s �Transformers� (July 4), and Fox’s �The Simpsons Movie� (July 27) are standing alone.
The comic book action movie �The Fantastic Four� premiered in July of 2005 and now the sequel film, �Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer� is making its summer debut.
Several sequels premiering this summer have taken their time making it to the screen. May 23, 2003 saw the opening of Tom Shadyac’s �Bruce Almighty� starring Jim Carrey. This summer a new comedian is stepping up to the plate in the sequel, �Evan Almighty.� The �40 Year Old Virgin� star Steve Carrell will be playing Evan Baxter, a modern-day Noah enlisted by God to build an ark in Universal Picture’s June 22 release.
December 10, 2004 was the premiere date of Warner Brothers’s �Ocean’s Twelve,� to the 2001 picture, �Ocean’s Eleven.� On June 8, �Ocean’s Thirteen� is hitting theaters, this time adding Al Pacino to the mix.
Long-time fans of the hit Harry Potter novels by British author J.K. Rowling have two summer hits to anticipate. The seventh, final book of the Harry Potter series, �Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows,� will be available at every bookseller across the nation on July 21, a mere eight days after the release of the fifth movie installment, �Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.�
This Harry Potter movie, like its four predecessors, keeps actors Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson as the central characters, though the director has once again changed hands, this time in the care of �Punch� director David Yates.
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