NOW Magazine Online Edition

After that Tuscany flick, Diane Lane shows signs of becoming the new romantic comedy "it" girl - a less perky, more knowing Meg Ryan, without the lip work. She could solidify her rep in Must Love Dogs , about a 40-something who's given up on relationships until her friends and family get her into online dating. Once in cyberland, she meets John Cusack , who's ideal except for the fact that he loves dogs and she's forced to pretend that she does, too. The cast is rounded out by Christopher Plummer , Stockard Channing and rom-com regulars Elizabeth Perkins and Dermot Mulroney . Opens July 29.

Poignant Parrots

I hope The Wild Parrots Of Telegraph Hill finds an audience amidst all the noisy summer blockbusters. This absorbing documentary profiles eccentric former musician and drifter Mark Bittner , who's spent years feeding and taking care of a flock of wild red-and-green parrots outside his rent-free cottage in San Francisco's Telegraph Hill. Director Judy Irving filmed the philosophical, sensitive Bittner and the quirky birds - many of whom we come to know and recognize - over five years. The payoff is incredibly moving and insightful - not only into animal life but into human life, too. Opens July 15.

Virgin merry

This could go down as Steve Carell 's big year. The former Daily Show correspondent starred as the bumbling boss in the American version of The Office, played a small but noticeable role in Woody Allen's Melinda And Melinda and campily channelled Paul Lynde in Bewitched. Next year he plays the title role in the film remake of the TV show Get Smart. But for now, there's The 40 Year-Old Virgin , in which he plays... you get the picture. The always watchable Catherine Keener checks in as the single mom who might take his cherry. Carell shows every sign of becoming the next Steve Martin (whose own Pink Panther movie, by the way, has just been jettisoned from August to next February - not a good sign). August, date tba.

It's Show time

Cassandra Nicolaou follows up her hilarious short film Interviews With My Next Girlfriend with Show Me , her feature debut, a psychological thriller about a woman ( Michelle Nolden ) who gets carjacked by a couple of street-youth siblings ( Katharine Isabelle and Kett Turton ) on the way to the cottage. A hit at the recent Inside Out fest, the film mixes sex, suspense and secrets, all captured in that symbolic national battleground, the northern wilderness. Opens August 5.

Real jokers

Paul Provenza 's documentary The Aristocrats has a nifty hook. One hundred comics tell the same filthy joke - around since the days of vaudeville - in their own inimitable way. The list of comics is a who's who of jokesters, both old-school ( Phyllis Diller , Don Rickles , George Carlin , Robin Williams ) and relatively new ( Lewis Black , Jason Alexander , Chris Rock , Jon Stewart ). One of the highlights is apparently Matt Stone and Trey Parker 's (South Park) animated version of the joke. Now, aren't you curious about that joke? The punchlines arrive August 12.

You're so off The Island

What's summer without a Michael Bay -directed movie? For years, he's pumped out noisy popcorn films like Armageddon and Pearl Harbor. Compared to those actioners, The Island looks positively highbrow. Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson play two well-coiffed citizens in the not-so-distant future who discover they're human clones being harvested for spare parts. Think Coma meets Logan's Run. The good guys include Steve Buscemi and Michael Clarke Duncan ; the baddies include Djimon Hounsou and Sean Bean . Indie fave Johansson could use a big Hollywood film on her resume; her form-fitting white outfit's already earning style raves. Opens July 22.

Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning land on screens in War Of The Worlds, June 29.

Let the War begin

No one knows how to make a big, classy, gotta-see-it summer movie like Steven Spielberg , who practically invented the genre. War Of The Worlds , adapted from H. G. Wells 's sci-fi classic, is set in present-day New York, with Tom Cruise playing a dad trying to escape unspeakable death with kids Justin Chatwin and Dakota Fanning . The last time Spielberg and Cruise cozied up with a sci-fi script was 2002's superb Minority Report, based on an Isaac Asimov story. This one looks just as good, full of suspense, chases and many-legged creatures. The trailers are terrific, especially the shot of a terrified Fanning looking back through the car window as something - aliens? adolescence? - comes chasing after her. Opens June 29.

Rooting for Roos

Let's bounce right by Don Roos 's last pic, the dreadful Ben Affleck/Gwyneth Paltrow comedy called, well, Bounce. Instead, we'll remember his terrific 1998 indie film called The Opposite Of Sex, which proved that Lisa Kudrow had better dramatic chops than all of her Friends combined. Kudrow is back in Happy Endings , playing an abortion counsellor who gets caught up in a plot involving blackmail, young film students and massage parlours. Here's hoping the title, er, comes true. Opens in July, date tba.

Steve Martin stars in The Pink Panther remake, August 5.

Comic commitment

A lot of comedies are competing for your laughs this summer: Steve Martin in The Pink Panther (August 5); Steve Carell in The 40-Year-Old Virgin (August 19); and Billy Bob Thornton in Bad News Bears (July 22). And don't forget Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (August 12). Just make sure you RSVP to The Wedding Crashers . Buddies Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson play the titular dudes who pick up girls from the singles table until they crash the wrong nuptials and meet Canada's own sweetheart, Rachel McAdams (also in the Wes Craven summer thriller Red-Eye ). Expect lots of tacky bridesmaid dresses, embarrassing speeches and the gross-out bar to be lowered a bit more. Here's toasting the closest thing to a cinematic sure thing. Opens July 15.

Wayne state

Christopher Nolan directed Memento and Insomnia, so how bad can Batman Begins be? That's our hope, anyway, as Christian Bale packs on the 60 pounds he lost for The Machinist plus some muscle and a latex suit to play the young, questing Bruce Wayne in this caped-crusader prequel. The cast includes 28 Days' Cillian Murphy , The Last Samurai's Ken Watanabe and Oscar winners Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman . The token woman is Tom Cruise's current plus-one, Katie Holmes . Bad news: the last Batman movie, Batman & Robin, tanked. Good news: comic book fans have already caught glimpses of the script online, and they're not pissed off. Opens June 15.

Wild at heart

If audiences don't flock to every big studio release, The Wild Parrots Of Telegraph Hill could take off. It's a quirky, G-rated documentary about philosophical San Fran musician and drifter Mark Bittner , who bonds with some pretty mouthy (beaky?) fine-feathered creatures. Some parrots have escaped captivity, others were abandoned by their owners. Already a hit in selected cities south of the border, this doc takes wing July 15.

Dark drippings

Baby boomers' kids are now grown up and hungry for popcorn. How else to explain the studios' insane churning out of horror films? Agents are clamouring to get their biggest actors into fright flicks. Hence, Jennifer Connelly in Dark Water . The Oscar winner plays a separated mom with a five-year-old who moves into a creepy Manhattan apartment that's full of dripping, leaking water. Are the pipes bad or is it all in her head? The solid supporting cast for this remake of the 2002 Japanese box-office smash includes John C. Reilly as a real estate agent and Tim Roth as a lawyer. This marks a major break for director Walter Salles , who's moving into the big leagues after arthouse hits Central Station and The Motorcycle Diaries. Opens July 8.

Do the Hustle

If all goes according to plan, this time next year you'll know Terrence Howard 's name. Smaller roles in pics like Ray, Crash and Dead Presidents have made his leading-man-handsome mug familiar, especially those clear, unmistakable eyes and that mischievous grin. His turn as a Southern pimp who aims for rapper stardom in Hustle & Flow is generating big buzz, especially after the flick's debut at Sundance netted producer John Singleton a three-picture, $16-million contract. Opens in July, date tba.

Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell get Bewitched, June 24.

Kidding Kidman

The last time Nicole Kidman played a witch was in a terrible movie called Practical Magic, and the last time she tried comedy was in a big flop called The Stepford Wives. Let's hope there's better comic alchemy in Bewitched , based on the sitcom about a suburban homemaker with a twitchy nose. Nora Ephron directs a cast that includes Will Ferrell as husband Darrin and Shirley MacLaine as Endora. Opens June 24.