Ron Howard's breathtaking historical maritime adventure In the Heart of the Sea is leaving landlubber and seadog audiences alike reeling from the realism of its true-life account of survival in the briny. It's Howard's second collaboration with star Chris Hemsworth after the adrenaline-fuelled Rush. So what can we expect next from the Apollo 13 director and Thor star?
Chris Hemsworth
The Huntsman: Winter's War
An action-packed prequel to Snow White and the Hunstman, in which Chris Hemsworth gets top billing and reprises his role as Eric the hunky huntsman.
This one ups the ante by delivering two evil sibling queens for the price of one: Ravenna (Charlize Theron) and the icy Freya (Emily Blunt). Eric and Sara (Jessica Chastain) are two of Freya's top warriors until they fall in love and find themselves banished in punishment. This one hits Cineworld cinemas on 22nd April 2016. Check out the first trailer.
Ghostbusters
Paul Feig's gender-inverted Ghostbusters promises to be one of the funniest films of the summer. While the spook-disposal quartet are all women this time (see the image below), their receptionist is male. That's where Chris Hemsworth comes in, showing off the comedy chops he previously displayed in Vacation and wearing a pair of unflattering specs as the menial Kevin. The spooky fun commences on 16th July 2016.
Thor: Ragnarok
Hemsworth wields the hammer to play mighty Thor for a fourth time. Not much is known about this one, which is due to start filming in June for a 2017 release. Tom Hiddleston's wonderfully scheming Loki is expected to return and Mark Ruffalo has revealed that his Hulk will be putting in an appearance, but plot details remain firmly under wraps.
Avengers: Infinity War
Hemsworth's Thor and the Hulk will also be joined by the rest of the gang for this next Avengers adventure. The two parts are due to be shot back-to-back sometime during 2016. Sibling Captain America directors Anthony and Joe Russo are behind the camera. But we've got a long wait ahead of us. The instalments are due to hit cinemas in May 2018 and May 2019.
Doc Savage
Now this is an intriguing one. Last year, director Shane Black met Chris Hemsworth to discuss playing the lead in this new screen makeover of the little-known near-superhuman pulp fiction adventurer of the 1930s and 1940s (pictured below). Not much has been heard about the project since then, but it's a great role and the thought of talented Hemsworth taking the lead in two very different superhero franchises is certainly an intriguing one.
Ron Howard
Inferno
Ron Howard follows up The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons with his third adaptation of a Dan Brown bestseller. Tom Hanks returns as symbologist Robert Langdon, who's now challenged by trickiest riddle he's ever faced. This feast of head-scratching puzzlement and edge-of-seat thrills will be with us on 14th October 2016.
Untitled Beatles Documentary
Ever since he was nine years old, Ron Howard has been obsessed with the Fab Four. For the last few years, he's been beavering away on what is only the second documentary in his distinguished career, which aims to offer a definitive account of the band's touring years from 1960-66.
The key attraction for Beatles fans is Howard's use of cutting-edge technology to repair and enhance ropy original concert footage to create a fully immersive experience that will whisk audiences back to the early 1960s. There's no release date set for this one yet.
The Graveyard Book
Little is known about this putative adaptation of Neil Gaiman's dark fantasy novel, although Ron Howard has been rather tentatively attached to direct it for more than a year now. It's the richly imaginative, award-winning story of a toddler who crawls into a graveyard after his parents are murdered. He's then adopted and raised by the resident ghosts.
Well, that's what Hemsworth and Howard have got coming up. And if you've not yet been to see their latest, click here to book your tickets for In the Heart of the Sea. And don't forget to tweet your responses to the whale epic @Cineworld.
