This summer's most anticipated movie releases | The Excerpt

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On Sunday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Summer movies can be an exhilarating escape. Whether you go for action-adventure, captivating thrillers, or the return of a few favorites in the world of animation, the summer of 2024 promises not to disappoint. And, as a bonus, catching a movie in theaters is a sure-fire way to beat the heat in what’s expected to be a long hot summer. Who are the biggest stars headed back to the big screen? USA TODAY entertainment reporter Ralphie Aversa joins The Excerpt to give us the scoop on this summer’s movie lineup.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Dana Taylor:

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Hello and welcome to The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Sunday, June 9th, 2024. Summer movies can be an exhilarating escape whether you go for action, adventure, captivating thrillers, or the return of a few favorites in the world of animation, the summer of 2024 promises not to disappoint. And as a bonus, catching a movie in theaters is a surefire way to beat the heat in what's expected to be a long, hot summer. Who are the biggest stars? Headed back to the big screen here to give us the scoop on this summer's movie lineup. We're joined by USA TODAY entertainment reporter Ralphie Aversa. Thanks for joining us, Ralphie.

Ralphie Aversa:

Dana, always a pleasure.

Dana Taylor:

Let's start with what could end up being the summer's biggest movie, Deadpool and Wolverine, other than the release date July 26th and that it has two huge stars, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. Has anything been leaked about this one?

Ralphie Aversa:

We know a little bit about the plot. We know that Deadpool and Wolverine, they team up reluctantly to join forces and battle a common enemy. That's pretty much all we know that enemy is threatening their world, so that's all we know as far as that. I'll give you a little bit of inside baseball here too. The other thing that we know about this movie is that it's going to have an unconventional press junket. What do I mean by that? So typically with a movie junket, you'll have the stars of the movie and they'll do interviews mostly either in New York and/or Los Angeles.

Of course now in this day and age, they'll do some virtually as well. There'll be some type of red carpet premiere, maybe premieres plural, depending on how big the movie is. Then they'll do a one-off, like big feature, like a cover story or something like that. And that's it. I can tell you, and we don't have things confirmed yet. Even if we did, I wouldn't be able to spill the beans quite yet, but we're working right now with the movie PR to do something pretty cool for USA Today with both, one Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. So stay tuned for that. But again, I think everything you're going to see that they do for this film, it's not going to be your typical reporter sitting down with Star A and Star B. It's going to be a little different.

Dana Taylor:

Another big popcorn movie coming out. This one produced by Steven Spielberg is a long awaited sequel to the 1996 blockbuster movie Twister called Twisters. It stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, and Anthony Ramos. Are we going to see any of the original cast, maybe the return of the flying cow?

Ralphie Aversa:

I hope the cow got recasting. I really do. For the cow's sake, I'm sure it was a tough time last year for the cow during the SAG strike. I really want to see that cow back. I'm not sure about the cow. And to seriously answer your question, there's been a lot of conversation around Helen Hunt the star from Twister. Apparently she wanted to make this sequel a while ago. She was shot down by the studio. Now, of course, it's since been greenlit. Will she be involved? At the moment, we haven't heard a thing about her even making a small cameo.

So I mean, if she did, they have at least thus far kept it under wraps and have done a good job of doing so. But otherwise, it's a whole new cast and a whole new soundtrack as well. I was a big fan of the original Twister soundtrack, in part because I'm originally from the Buffalo New York area and the Goo Goo Dolls contributed it to it. We've already heard one song from that soundtrack, an awesome track from Luke Holmes. So we have that to look forward to also, in addition to the movie out this summer.

Dana Taylor:

Then in August, Cate Blanchett Stars in an action adventure movie alongside Kevin Hart and Ariana Greenblatt. It's called Borderlands. It's based off of a video game of the same name. For those of us who haven't played the game, Ralphie, what's this one about?

Ralphie Aversa:

Okay, so it's like a first person multiplayer shooter game. They're called loot games where you pick up different powers and things of that nature, maybe a steal and maybe you pick them up. So the case, and so obviously as you mentioned, a number of big stars involved in this. Look, Hollywood is a very copycat business. A lot of businesses are that way. Certainly in Hollywood, we saw success with HBO, and they did that adaptation of the Last Of Us, which was a PlayStation game, Pedro Pascal. And that performed very, very well for them. And so no surprise that we're seeing this IP reimagined for the silver screen.

Dana Taylor:

There are two highly anticipated sequels on the way for kids. Let's start with Inside Out 2, the original movie featured characters personifying joy, sadness, fear, disgust, and anger. What new emotions are being thrown into the mix?

Ralphie Aversa:

Well, now that we're getting into our teenage years, Dana, we're going to have those and anxiety. So it'll be interesting to see how they tackle that emotion and adapt it and explain it to a younger audience. But a lot of the emotions you already mentioned will also be featured in the new film.

Dana Taylor:

And then just in time for the 4th of July holiday, the Minions return in Despicable Me 4. Is the fourth installment of this franchise expected to be a hit with families?

Ralphie Aversa:

Oh, I think so. Just looking at the trailer, it's so funny. I mean, I have a son who's about to turn one, and I can't wait when he gets old enough where we could A, give him a little more screen time and then B, he can get into these types of films. The trailer looks absolutely fantastic. Of course, we see the introduction of the Mega Minions, not to be confused with something you and I would like to win, the Mega Millions. But yeah, it looks really, really good. I think it'll do well in theaters.

Dana Taylor:

So coming out in early July, we have another big movie release, this one coming to Netflix, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. What can we expect there? And do you think that the massive success that we saw with Top Gun: Maverick is going to usher in an era of 1980s nostalgia movies?

Ralphie Aversa:

... Part of that question first, as I mentioned Hollywood, definitely a copycat business. The success of Top Gun: Maverick, has that led to other sequels that maybe wouldn't have been greenlit as quickly or greenlit period? Of course, I think so. That's definitely the case. And when you talk about 80s pop culture, the 80s of course were a very interesting time in the country, but you think about hip-hop and then hip-hop becoming mainstream. You think about rock, you think about hair bands, you think about Chucks, you think about some of these movies as well, whether it's Top Gun or Footloose, which is celebrated its 40th anniversary.

So Beverly Hills Cop, that's gone into a couple decades because I believe the second one came out in... Or the third one I believe came out in the 90s. And so now we have this fourth one that I am so thrilled about. I loved those movies growing up, and I'm very, very excited about this. I want to believe in my heart of Hearts, Dana, that Eddie Murphy would not have signed on to do this just for a paycheck. I want to believe that he really thinks this will be just as good as its predecessors. We see a number of familiar faces in this, including Eddie. We see some new faces too, including Kevin Bacon. He's got a new role in this also. So I know I'm very much looking forward to Beverly Hills Cop 4, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.

Dana Taylor:

Kevin Costner's two-part Western, Horizon: An American Saga chapters one and two. We'll bookend this summer. We'll have to wait until the end of June to see the first chapter and then August for chapter two, the early reviews have been lukewarm. What are you hearing there?

Ralphie Aversa:

Yeah, see, here's the thing, because you start talking about Rotten Tomatoes scores, and it's tough when there's only... Let's just say less than 10 reviews right now. I don't know what the exact number is at the moment, but the early reports, there was I think six or seven reviews, and the reviews weren't favorable. And so then obviously you're not going to have a great score. So I want to give Kevin the benefit of the doubt here. Let's see what happens once more reviews come in. But yes, the early ones aren't great. I will say the other thing I don't think works well in Kevin's favor here is the fact that the movie is so long, this first part.

It's over three hours. It's tough, especially in this day and age. I know we do see some movies including Oscar nominated movies getting longer and longer, but that doesn't always necessarily mean they are better. So we'll have to wait and see. As for Mr. Costner though, this is another interesting trend. He self-funded this film. There's going to be four parts, and he's sunk in, all in about $100 million of his own money, including mortgaging a ranch where I believe this was filmed. So a lot on the line for Kevin, he's all in, he clearly believes in this project. We'll see if it resonates with an audience.

Dana Taylor:

And then if spine-tingling tales are your thing, there's a prequel to A Quiet Place on the way. It's called A Quiet Place: Day one. John Krasinski directed the first two films in the franchise, but he handed over the reins for this one. What else can you share with us about the new A Quiet Place?

Ralphie Aversa:

This one not written by John, as you said, it was written by Michael Sarnoski. Michael though did develop the story with John, so he's connected to it still. He didn't just say like, "I'm done with this, whatever." He did work with Michael on the story, and then Michael obviously wrote it and directed. Also stars Lupita Nyong'o. I'm not a big horror movie guy. I'm not a big scary movie guy. I'm going to be... Spooky season isn't my season. But I do think that there are a lot of people looking forward to this prequel.

Dana Taylor:

M. Night Shyamalan has a thriller called Trap with Josh Hartnett on the way. Is this going to make people not want to go to concerts?

Ralphie Aversa:

Look, if you can stomach M. Night's movies, I think you're able to live your life the way... If you're constantly watching his movies, you clearly have a tolerance for things that are churning and things that would make you hesitant to live your everyday life otherwise. So to answer your question, no, I don't think that's going to be the case. But yeah, another one that is highly anticipated for a number of reasons.

Dana Taylor:

And then finally, Ralphie, summer typically gives Way to the run-up to the awards season. What big names, big titles should we be watching out for this fall?

Ralphie Aversa:

All right, we'll give you two. Joker: Folie a Deux, Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn. Lot of conversation about this. I believe we saw our first trailer at CinemaCon earlier this year. So that one, of course, we'll get some consideration. And then of course, Wicked with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. There has been so much conversation around this film. Of course, some of it has to do with what happened offset while they were filming in Ariana Grande's personal life. But all of that aside, a lot of people looking forward to this. It's going to be a two-parter. We're getting the first part in November. And I would say with both of those, we will see if any of those stars or anybody else involved in those two films are walking the red carpet in Hollywood come March for the Oscars in 2025.

Dana Taylor:

All right. Thanks for being on The Excerpt, Ralphie.

Ralphie Aversa:

Thanks so much, Dana.

Dana Taylor:

Thanks to our senior producer Shannon Rae Green for production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to [email protected]. Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.