Summer Muscle

Don't blame us--Hollywood decided long ago that summer is testosterone time. And we don't greenlight the movies, we just write about them. So with apologies to Halle Berry ("Catwoman"), Nicole Kidman ("The Stepford Wives") and the enchanting Anne Hathaway ("The Princess Diaries 2"), what follows are five insightful pages of beefcake. Plus Will Ferrell. Hollywood knows that most women won't object to the man show, given that the season's filled with so many big names. Cruise. Hanks. Heder. Wait, Heder? Yes, Jon Heder, a Brigham Young student who stars in the Sundance hit "Napoleon Dynamite"--our pick to be the season's sleeper. Heder might be unknown, but the kid ain't scared. "Oh, yeah," he says. "I'm gonna take 'em all down!"

Tobey Maguire SPIDER-MAN 2

As glamorous as it may sound, life as a superhero is more like the worst job you've never had: long hours, lousy pay and a really hostile work environment. It's all getting to be a bit much for college freshman Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man. On top of protecting the innocent from the forces of evil, Parker is working two (other) jobs just to cover the rent and struggling in his classes and caring for his widowed aunt and pining for the girl he loves (Kirsten Dunst). In "Spider-Man 2," the sequel to 2002's $403 million smash hit, our hero is "pretty stressed out," says Tobey Maguire, the man who plays him. "He's growing weary of his lifestyle. He's dying to live a normal life." But standing in his way is Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), a steel-tentacled new villain who, like Spidey, is the beneficiary of science gone awry. Maguire promises that part two, also directed by Sam Raimi, will blow away the original--and that Doc Ock is a chief reason why. "The Green Goblin [the first film's antagonist] was a green guy on a glider." Maguire laughs. "Which is, you know, that's cool. Doc Ock is just a better cinematic villain. And I love him from the comics. He was always the coolest bad guy." May the best freak of nature win. June 30

Brad Pitt TROY

Yes, he looks really hot in leather. Question is, does it matter? Brad Pitt's stardom has proved oddly capricious. His face may sell magazines, but his box-office record has been spotty. (You can decide for yourself about his acting.) Other than "Ocean's Eleven," which was an ensemble movie, Pitt hasn't made a movie that grossed more than $100 million since "Seven," and that was nine years ago. True, the material he chooses (e.g., "Fight Club") isn't always meant to be commercial. But what's even more problematic is that his largest fan base is female, and most of his movies are targeted to men. That makes "Troy" a major risk. Warner Bros. has a reported $200 million riding on Pitt's appeal, but this adaptation of the Iliad is rated R, which limits the massive teen audience. The movie will fail without a strong female turnout. Will women go? Pitt is said to flash his Achilles' rear, and that's got to be worth at least $100 million. May 14

Jon Heder NAPOLEON DYNAMITE

"I feel like a million bucks!" says newcomer Jon Heder about going up against Hollywood's A list. Of course, most of Heder's competitors feel like 25 million bucks. Per movie. "Seriously," the Oregon native says, "I'm like the tiny little cafe surrounded by skyscrapers." But what Heder may lack in size, his movie, written and directed by 25-year-old Mormon Jared Hess, more than makes up for in originality and oddball charm. As Napoleon, Heder, who got a perm for the role, plays perhaps the most gargantuan nerd of all time. He's the big-hearted, big-haired half-wit we all remember from high school, and his mannerisms are destined to be mimed by cult fans for years to come. Heder still can't believe his good fortune. "I had this meeting with a guy from the William Morris Agency--awesome, right?!--and he kept telling me he could do the best Napoleon imitation," he says. "It was pretty good." Apparently not good enough. Heder signed with CAA. June 11

Tom Cruise COLLATERAL

Silver-haired and lethal, Tom Cruise ditches the hero roles to play an assassin, named Vincent, who's not the least bit conflicted about his work. In this thriller, Vincent kidnaps a cabby (Jamie Foxx) and makes him chauffeur him to his murders. Cold, sure, but is Cruise really playing an out-and-out villain? "Well, it certainly is antisocial behavior," he says, laughing. "Have you ever seen someone who's doing something so self-destructive, and yet they just know what they're doing is correct? That's Vincent." The pairing of director Michael Mann with Cruise is perfectly symbiotic. Mann's last two films, "Ali" and "The Insider," were adored by critics and earned Oscar noms for Will Smith and Russell Crowe. But they each cost a fortune to make and hemorrhaged at the box office. Cruise's films rain cash, but haven't always gotten the Academy gushing. No one's saying their motives were that calculated, but if it works, "Collateral" could pay off handsomely for both. We predict it will. "I've never been accused of going halfway on anything," Cruise says. "Commitment is not a problem for me, you know?" Aug. 6

Tom Hanks THE TERMINAL

He's the most consistently bankable star on the planet--his movies have grossed $5 billion worldwide--and he's never been an action hero or a sex symbol. He's never even made a sequel. OK, yes, there was "Toy Story 2," but the point is that Tom Hanks is not generally a summer-movie kinda guy. "The Terminal," directed by Steven Spielberg, isn't a summer kinda movie, either. Hanks plays a Balkan man who arrives at New York's JFK airport and learns that there's been a coup in his country. His passport is invalid. He can't go home, and he can't enter the United States. Trapped for nine months, he discovers America from the wrong side of the immigration desk. "I couldn't believe nobody had thought of this before," Hanks says. "If you've ever been in a foreign country, and you can't figure out how anything works, it's scary." The film marks the first time Hanks plays a character who's not American, which is amazing. Um, isn't it? "I guess so," he says, laughing. "It's true. I've never played Ho Chi Minh." Right. That's next summer. June 18

Daniel Radcliffe HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN

Being the most famous boy in the world could go to a 14-year-old's head. The first two "Harry Potter" movies raked in $1.8 billion worldwide, so what's truly magical is that Daniel Radcliffe isn't a monster. Not even close. "Being famous is kind of-" he starts to say, but then stops. "I never like to think of myself as famous, because you start to think in a different way and then you become really weird." See? And he hasn't even met J. Lo. As for the movie, this time it's directed by Alfonso Cuaron ("Y Tu Mama Tambien"), so expect a more stylized ride. Gary Oldman joins the cast as the sinister convict Sirius Black, who's pursuing Harry, along with some soul-sucking Dementors who turn the air arctic whenever they show up--a Cuaron touch that isn't in the book, and made for a particularly wicked game of Quidditch. "It just looks brilliant!" Radcliffe says. "It's this really big action sequence, and all the raindrops turn to ice and start to cut Harry's face. When we were shooting they were chucking water over me before each take." Pause. "They did heat it, I'm glad to say, which I'd like to think means they like me." June 4

Matt Damon THE BOURNE SUPREMACY

"All these sequels just seem so cynically made," says Matt Damon. "There's a formula. You spend 20 percent more on your budget and you have five big action set pieces. It's a whole 'one, two, three, hike!' kind of moviemaking. I can't do that." This is his first sequel, by the way--reprising the role of amnesiac spy Jason Bourne. Before "The Bourne Identity," Damon says, "I hadn't gotten any movies offered to me for 18 months. I went to London and did a play and thought, 'Well, I had a good run'." Then "The Bourne Identity" opened at $27 million, and by Monday "I had 30 movie offers," he says. And they wonder why actors are bitter. Damon wasn't obligated to do the sequel, but thought the new script and indie director Paul Greengrass ("Bloody Sunday") were worth a shot. He's even gotten over his sequel squeamishness. He's now shooting "Ocean's Twelve," the follow-up to, uh, "Ocean's Eleven." "Yeah, I'm a whore," he says. Hardly. But his price has gone up. July 23

Clive Owen KING ARTHUR

From producer Jerry Bruckheimer, this update of a legend promises to strip away all the magic and sword-in-the-stone gimmickry in order to tell the true story of what really happened, which was... what, exactly? "It's 500 A.D.," explains Clive Owen. "Britain is in chaos. And there's this half Roman, half Briton who may be the one to galvanize his country. It's a journey of someone who becomes a man of his people." For the actor, it was a journey of someone who had a really sore butt. "I'd say 60 percent of the film is on horseback," says Owen, 39, best known for the gambling noir "Croupier." (Keira Knightley costars as Guinevere.) "When we were learning to ride, the stunt guys would always say, 'Now, don't worry, you'll never be asked to go any faster than this.' And, of course, we were. But now I've got the bug. By the end of the shoot, I was pretty fearless." But he also walked funny. July 7

Jake Gyllenhaal THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW

If you have a teenage daughter (or are one), he's already on your radar: he's that totally cute guy who was in the cult hit "Donnie Darko," and he's dating Kirsten Dunst! But this $125 million global-warming disaster movie, from the director of the aliens-attack disaster movie "Independence Day," could make Jake Gyllenhaal crushworthy to the rest of the country, as well as Hollywood's newest leading man. That's not why he did it, though. Honest. "I really wanted it to mean something," he says. As the world is being drowned by tidal waves, the father of Gyllenhaal's character, played by Dennis Quaid, sets out to save his estranged son. "Neglect in a family is very similar to the neglect we, as humanity, have for the environment," Gyllenhaal says. Noted. But he still gets all wet and tousled in the movie, so the real disaster he'll endure is an attack of 12-year-old girls. "Well," he says with a laugh, "I only wish I were 12 again so I could actually have fun with that." May 28

Will Ferrell ANCHORMAN

Turns out a couple of big hits can really help a fella. "Old School" and the $173 million Christmas gift "Elf" have bounced longtime second banana Will Ferrell into the comic ranks of Mike Myers and Jim Carrey. Suddenly this little flick, about a sexist San Diego anchorman who gets a reality check when a female journalist (Christina Applegate) guns for his job, has become a potential blockbuster.

Ferrell and director Adam McKay had been trying to get it made for years, "but it just sat there on the five-yard line," Ferrell says. "Everyone we showed it to at first was like, 'How is that funny? Do 13-year-olds think news is funny?' But it's just a backdrop for us to look like idiots." Still, DreamWorks didn't greenlight the movie until "Old School" grossed $75 million. "All of a sudden they were like, 'We always liked this project!' " They should have. "Anchorman" plays to Ferrell's particular skill of making clueless dorks seem not only likable but somehow cool. Ferrell actually considered a career in journalism once, so it's not as if he thinks the profession is full of losers. He doesn't even think his ham anchorman, Ron Burgundy, is a fool. "He's a terrible journalist, but he reads the news really well," he says, laughing. "He has a hidden brilliance." July 9

Denzel Washington THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE

Millions of people have seen the 1962 thriller "The Manchurian Candidate." But if you believe Denzel Washington, who stars in the update in Frank Sinatra's old role, he's not one of them. "I knew the broad strokes--brainwashing or whatever," he says. "But I didn't want to bring any preconceived notions about how it should be done." In the original, the mind-controlled assassin Raymond Shaw was the stepson of a presidential aspirant; this time, Shaw (Liev Schreiber, with Meryl Streep filling Angela Lansbury's shoes as his maniacal mama) is the candidate himself. The new movie, directed by Jonathan Demme, could strike chords in an election year. Not that its star cares. "I can't say I've taken a job because I thought, 'Wow, this'll be timely'," Washington says. "But if it gets people to see the movie, good." Maybe he'll even see it this time. We will. July 30

Hugh Jackman VAN HELSING

Being the first summer movie has become a good-luck charm. Think "Spider-Man," the "X-Men" sequel, the "Mummy" franchise. So pairing "X-Men" star Hugh Jackman with "Mummy" director Stephen Sommers in a massive May spectacle about a vampire killer who takes on Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein's monster seems like a sure bet. Jackman has already built a solid fan base, but if "Van Helsing" scores, it could propel him up the Hollywood power charts. Early test screenings generated angry Internet reviews from horror fans, and industry gossip places the budget at $200 million. Still, horror fans hated "The Mummy," too, and that didn't matter much in the long run. As for the budget, Universal insists the movie cost only about $150 million. "If the ship goes down, I go down with it, to some degree," says Jackman. "It's a lot easier to admit my nerves now because I'm cured. I've seen the movie and I really love it." Here's hoping he's not alone. May 7

Joaquin Phoenix THE VILLAGE

Director M. Night Shyamalan is famously secretive about the plots of his films, and that suits his new favorite actor Joaquin Phoenix just fine. "To be honest, I hate talking about movies and what they're about," he says. "So it's great working with Night, because I can use him as the perfect excuse not to say anything." Fair enough. Here's what we do know about the film, which also stars Oscar darlings Adrien Brody, William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver: a tiny village in 19th-century rural Pennsylvania brokers an uneasy truce with mysterious creatures living in the woods nearby. But then the truce ends. Cue terror and death. Phoenix, 29, who costarred in Shyamalan's 2002 hit "Signs," is happier talking about his character, Lucius Hunt, but that doesn't mean he's more successful. "Lucius is really, um, oh geez, I'm gonna f--- everything up, aren't I? OK, let's see. Simply put, he's pure. I liked him because he's very, very quiet. And I wanted to do a movie where I didn't have much dialogue." July 30

Will Smith I, ROBOT

It's not funny. In this sci-fi thriller set in 2035, Will Smith plays Del Spooner, a technophobe detective sent to investigate a murder. Kicker is, the accused killer isn't a man but a robot programmed to serve and protect. "This is very different from the things I've done," Smith says. "Del Spooner is not the guy from 'Men in Black'." "MIB 2" earned $440 million worldwide, but Smith's dramatic films haven't fared as well. Twentieth Century Fox is betting $105 million that his luck will change. "It's always a little scary to go out on a limb," Smith says. "But the movie blends genres better than anything I've seen, and it moves around very... fluidically." He laughs. "It has a certain fluidescence to it." If the movie hits, so will his career. July 16

Shawn and Marlon Wayans WHITE CHICKS

Some people think it's mean to make fun of spoiled, filthy-rich, lily-white, fashion-obsessed hotel heiresses. There are names for such people, and those names are Paris and Nicky Hilton. Fortunately, the rest of us are free to mock them. But no one has taken the joke as far as the Wayans brothers Shawn and Marlon have. In "White Chicks," directed by big brother Keenen Ivory, the two play detectives assigned with foiling the planned kidnapping of a pair of spoiled, filthy-rich, lily-white heiresses named the Wilton sisters. (Total coincidence.) The cops go undercover--as the Wilton sisters. So how did the Wayanses crack the white-chick way? "We watched "Legally Blonde.' And the Paris Hilton video, of course," says Shawn. "We went out to clubs for months and just got drunk with white girls. We studied their cadences, and they taught us how to dance off beat." June 23