After the disappointing box office of both Speed Racer and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian last month, it's apparent that May was too busy a month for all its blockbusters to succeed. Last week, Eric D. Snider initiated a discussion about Caspian's release date and many of our readers agreed that it should have been released in December, or any other month, for that matter. Couldn't it have been a success in February or October, too? As part of an initially popular franchise, you'd think it could stand to be released anytime of the year.

Earlier today, I responded to an interview in which two cinema industry honchos argued that big movies should be released 12 months in the year. Or, at least, the summer movie season should begin earlier, in April. Imagine, the first blockbuster of the year being released on Easter weekend. Or, when Easter is in March, April Fool's Day weekend. Unfortunately, the month doesn't have any Monday holidays with which to capitalize on a three-day-weekend release, but a two-day weekend didn't seem to hurt Iron Man's enormous opening.

One commenter on my earlier post noted that moving the summer season up to April will only make that month the busiest release month, just as May is currently. But there's a good chance Hollywood will recognize, after May 2008, the benefits of staying spread out. Plus, Memorial Day weekend will continue to be prime real estate, so tentpoles might be better spread out, as they should be according to their name (imagine going camping and placing all your literal tentpoles in one corner).

What do you think? Should the summer movie season begin earlier? Or is it just fine as is? Or did you think it actually began on April 18 with the release of the fantasy martial arts flick The Forbidden Kingdom?

Officially, the season of summer doesn't begin for another two weeks, but for the movie business, summer 2008 started back on May 2, with the release of Iron Man. Though it seemed like an early enough start, some exhibitors would like it to begin even earlier, like in April. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, John Fithian, who heads the National Association of Theatre Owners (the largest trade group for cinema operators), and Mike Campbell (no relation), who runs Regal Entertainment (the largest cinema chain in the U.S.), discuss the benefits of having tentpole (aka blockbuster) movies released all year long rather than in just the summer and winter holiday seasons and ask that Hollywood at least consider bumping up some major releases to April rather than the busy month of May.

The argument for limiting tentpoles to the summer has always been that it's a time when kids are out from school. But as Fithian points out, most kids are still in school through May, when the biggest blockbusters are released. And movies like Iron Man and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull still made a lot of money anyway. In fact, aside from whatever tentpole is scheduled for July 4th weekend, the movies released in May are often the biggest moneymakers of the year. At least for Hollywood. But according to Fithian, theater owners actually lost a lot of money in May because of how many tentpoles are released so closely together. Campbell adds that overall box office gross would be up significantly if major releases were more evenly spread out. Certainly moviegoers would appreciate having more blockbusters and/or better movies released in months like January and September, as well as other months often considered "dumping grounds" for movies that shouldn't have even been made.

It seems like just yesterday that the Interwebs were buzzing about the casting of Edward Norton as Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk (or as the French would say, Hulk Incroyable!).

In theaters June 13, this new Hulk movie sees Banner trying desperately to "cure" himself of the gamma radiation that unleashes the not-so-jolly green giant within, all the while struggling with his secret identity, dodging the industrial military complex, pining for his true love (Liv Tyler) and confronting a nasty enemy known as The Abomination (Tim Roth).

Who better to play such a multi-faceted Hulk than the versatile Norton, an actor who lives to play complex characters? How did he approach playing the role -- and what was his interpretation of the line "HULK SMASH!"?

You don't have to wonder -- you can ask him yourself. Edward Norton, Liv Tyler and director Louis Leterrier (known for the Transporter movies) have just agreed to huddle for Moviefone's Unscripted series, in which they'll interview each other using your questions.

You know what to do. Ask your question for any one of the three (or all three!) in the comments below, and be sure to include your first name and your city and state; then come back here on June 9 to see if your question got asked. The interview's happening on Monday, June 2 -- so submit by Monday morning, or else you'll make Hulk mad. And you wouldn't want to make him mad, would you?

Just when you thought it was over, we have even more Incredible Hulk clips to show you! Moviefone has unveiled some brand new footage from the flick (watch it above or in HD over on Moviefone); this time, we're at the very beginning of that field sequence when the military folks trap Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) in a glass tube thing. Once he's in there, they shoot some sort of smoke gas stuff in to try to flush him out. Only ... they look a bit surprised with what actually comes out. This clip follows several others that have made their way online in the past few days; for more, check out this post and this post. Additionally, Dark Horizons has a great write-up on a recent Hulk edit bay visit, where they were shown the opening sequence. I know a lot of you are coming down on the special effects, the way the Hulk looks, what have you -- but I'm diggin' what I've seen from this film so far. The all CG superhero is a hard one to pull off, so my fingers are crossed this works out for everyone.

The Incredible Hulk debuts in theaters on June 13.

Update: MSN has also debuted a pretty cool clip as well.

Iron Man opens this week, and thus the summer movie season has officially arrived. I love a good summer movie as much a the next guy, but this morning I found myself looking back at some of the little films that cropped up during the summer; some of them managed to get a "summer" feel on a much lower budget and without all the advertisement and hype. My absolute favorite summer art house movie has to be Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run (1999). I saw it three times that summer, and each time I clutched my seat, my heart pounding. I was amazed at how brilliantly Tywker had mapped out his three possible storylines and how lovely the small, quiet interludes were. I loved Franka Potente, and I loved his throbbing score, which practically entered into your bloodstream and pumped up your adrenaline by hand. Every color, movement and cut was designed for maximum effect (I've always been puzzled how Tykwer's movies since have seemed so long and sluggish.)

Also that same summer, John Sayles delivered his baffling adventure/suspense film Limbo, which had several people trapped on an island awaiting rescue and stalked by bad guys. The ending had everybody in an uproar and caused the film to die a quick death. The summer before that one, Darren Aronofsky's debut feature Pi gave me a good dose of sci-fi thrills, as well as a few head-scratching puzzles (which were actually real). 2000 was a particularly bad summer, but John Waters' Cecil B. DeMented provided a mischievous little oasis in the middle of it all. In that film, renegade filmmakers kidnap a Hollywood starlet and force her to be in their indie production; each team member has a tattoo of a maverick filmmaker's name. (I've often wondered which filmmaker's name I would pick for a tattoo? Maybe David Cronenberg...)

In a little over a week from now, Iron Man crashes into theaters -- signaling the official start of the summer movie season. I know we say this every year, but come September, we could be looking back at one of the greatest summer movie seasons in history -- with popular franchises like Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Batman, Hellboy and The Chronicles of Narnia returning to the big screen. We're eagerly anticipating the arrival of new superheroes like Iron Man and Hancock, there's another adorable Pixar movie, an equally-as-adorable stoner flick from Judd Apatow and the revival of a very funny '60s television show on the big screen. What's not to love?

So in the spirit of sharing our love (or lust, depending on the lighting) for all things movie-related, we at Cinematical present our 10 most anticipated films of summer 2008. Our writers got together, looked things over, and, after sending the information through a magical robot (who talks like a black Robert Downey Jr.!), here's what we came up with. Click on any of the 10 photos below to get started ... and feel free to enjoy all the goodies we have on the other end. (Just leave the bag of Twizzlers for me, please).

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What is it with Agent Spalko and pointing? We've already seen pictures of her brandishing her sword at Indy, at Mutt and now here comes a new picture of her pointing her finger directly in Indy's face, or else just past his line of sight towards something off in the distance -- to be fair, I think it's the latter. That's just one of three new pictures from the forthcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull that have popped up in an Italian magazine, L'espresso. Another of the pics is intriguing because it seems to show us Indy with a giant sword tucked into his trousers -- has he vanquished Spalko and taken her pointy stick by this point in the film? Will Indy have a sword battle in this film? Boy, I hope not. Also, we get our first look at the much talked-about 'quicksand' scene, although it's too much of a close up to give any real detail. We see Indy coming face to face with a snake just as he's seemingly about to sink into the sand. I think I get the idea here -- he'll have to grab onto the snake in order to get out of the sand, so it's a bad choice either way.

I can't imagine I'll be up early enough tomorrow to catch the premiere of the trailer on Good Morning America, but on the subject of 'Indy and publicity',' producer Kathleen Kennedy recently made the rather eyebrow-raising statement that the film would hit theaters in May without the accompaniment of a press junket -- what's that all about? I know The Beard is prickly when it comes to interviews, but as Jeff Wells pointed out, how hard could it possibly be to get Karen Allen and Shia LaBeouf to free up some time to actually do some press for their movie? I'm thinking Kennedy was probably speaking without thinking, since Paramount probably wouldn't stand for such a thing.

Additionally, after the jump check out another, more revealing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull cover for the upcoming Dark Horse comic due out this May. This will be part of a two-issue comic book adaptation, and the second issue reveals a bit more ... skull on its cover.

Can such a large project as the Superman sequel unravel in a single day? Certainly seems that way, doesn't it? First there was the Anne Thompson blog post which made the rounds earlier in the day (see our post on it here), in which she speculated -- and it seems a given that she wouldn't make such a speculation unless she had some info to back it up -- that Bryan Singer was likely to throw off the long-in-doubt sequel to the mediocre-performing Superman Returns in favor of concentrating on his other upcoming projects. I personally don't see the logic in this, since Valkyrie is already in the can and the Harvey Milk film will be a small thing that need not trample on a huge payday like the Supes sequel. However, Thompson also made a sideways reference to what may be the real issue -- Warner Bros.' increasingly obvious intention of using the upcoming Justice League of America as a way of rebooting said underperfoming Superman film by tossing Brandon Routh.

Now comes Latino Review, exploding a story that they claim to have been sitting on "for weeks and weeks" out of deference to sources at DC Comics. "Kelvin knew about Brandon not being the new Superman for weeks and weeks now, but made a promise to the DC people that he wouldn't break the story. Variety has now confirmed what we've secretly known for a while and Brandon Routh will be replaced in the stand-alone sequel by whomever is cast as Superman in the upcoming Justice League of America movie." Funny, since Variety doesn't say that at all -- this is clearly LR's attempt at a 'whoops, I thought it was safe to leak that info since Variety reported.' Anyway, if LR's source is legit the move on Warner and DC's part does make sense -- Routh didn't connect with audiences, for whatever reason, and in the age of instant reboots there are no second chances.

Warner Bros. really needs to get on the ball. That new trailer for The Dark Knight, which arrived yesterday attached to prints of I Am Legend and which we told you about earlier, has now leaked all over the place in a fourth-rate bootleg. I guess that's how the studio wants people to see it -- from the vantage point of a camcorder hidden in a guy's jacket. Come on, Warners, what are you thinking? Anyway, I have to say I'm not terribly impressed by this trailer. First of all, there's no great Joker moment like we would expect -- he appears to just be a typical knife-wielding thug with a bit of flair. Also, there are no show-stopping lines to report. I remember enjoying Michael Caine's speech from an earlier teaser trailer, about how Batman's aggressive actions 'pushed the mob into the arms of a man they didn't fully understand' but that's absent from this full-length trailer. In fact, it's mostly full of action beats.

I wasn't over-the-moon about Batman Begins and I don't really expect to be about The Dark Knight, either. Christopher Nolan is a fantastic director, but dialogue isn't his best-foot forward and The Joker is a character who demands a great writer. By the time I actually heard him say "Why so Serious?" in this trailer -- the line we've already seen all over the marketing a hundred times, I started to get a sinking feeling that that's the best we're going to get. But who knows, maybe I'm wrong, and they'll probably get my $11 bucks to find out, which is all that really matters, right?

Update -- Check here on Sunday, where we've been told the trailer will appear.

At the press junket for Atonement in Manhattan on Tuesday, one brave soul piped up during the roundtables to ask Keira Knightley if she was or was not interested in returning for a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film. You may remember that the third one ended on that rather ambiguous note, but then sort of doubled-back with a pretty definitive, boxed-into-a-corner end-credit teaser. Knightley seemed to be ready for this question and had a very definitive answer. She quickly responded, with a tone of sadness and seriousness in her voice, "I can't imagine doing another one. That was an amazing experience, really was, totally extraordinary, but I think three for me is probably enough." This was probably to be expected. The Pirates series is subject to the same industry realities as the X-Men series -- the more money those movies make, the bigger the paychecks the cast members are going to demand for future installments. I think you can almost certainly say goodbye to Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner.

Regarding her other projects, Knightley reported that she has completed her work on The Duchess, as well as The Edge of Love, opposite Sienna Miller and Cillian Murphy. As far as future work, she had nothing to report on that front. Another interesting note: although Knightley showed up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for today's junket along with her co-star James McAvoy, director Joe Wright was a no-show despite being in Manhattan as recently as last night. Joe, are you sick of us press people already?