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?

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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Last time, the Pevensie children (Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan) journeyed into Narnia through the infamous wardrobe, and with the help of a lion named Aslan, they fought the White Witch to free the world from eternal winter. Now they are back for part two -- The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. This time around, only a year has passed in our world, while almost 1,300 years have gone by in Narnia. The evil King Miraz is preventing the rightful king, his nephew Prince Caspian, from taking on his sworn duty. So the Prince uses the magic horn to summon the Pevensies to help Narnia once again.

With the movie scheduled to hit theaters on May 16, 2008, we've finally got a trailer to check out, courtesy of Yahoo. It starts off pretty Harry Potter-like with the eerie train station -- just what is it with magic, children, and trains anyway? From there it starts to play out normally -- the kids discover ruins in Narnia and realize that much time has passed since they were last in the fantastical world. Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) shows up, and it looks like the typical historic war scene until the fantasy sets in -- creatures, magic, and one heck of a powerful lion. Watching the trailer, I can't help but think that they must be grateful for the steps made by the Lord of the Rings and Potter films. You can spot styles from both in the trailer, and I wonder what this would look like if it came first. But either way, I imagine this will be another sweet money maker for Walt Disney.

One of the most versatile filmmakers around, Michael Apted is no stranger to picking up franchises that were begun by other people. Most respected is his continued following of up of 14 individuals, who have been presented every seven years in what are collectively known as the _ Up documentaries (49 Up was the most recent). He took that project -- which was not originally intended as a lifelong series -- over from Paul Almond, director of Seven Up!, for which Apted served as a researcher. A few years ago, he took on the 007 franchise for a single shot effort, The World is Not Enough. Now a little bird has told Harry Knowles at Aint it Cool News that Apted will be taking over the Chronicles of Narnia series.

I haven't seen the first of the Narnia movies, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and I wasn't planning on it, but now I'm gaining some interest. Franchises are always more appealing to me when they switch up directors midstream. It worked great for the Harry Potter movies, which completely raised their cred by bringing in Alfonso Cuarón for the third installment, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, following Chris Columbus' welcome departure after the first two. Apted may not be as great a filmmaker as Cuarón -- I lost interest in his fiction filmmaking after the J. Lo vehicle Enough (not to be confused with his James Bond effort) -- but he should bring some freshness to the Narnia movies. If the little bird is correct, he will take on the third movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Trader, which also currently is rumored to have Neil Burger attached. One or the other will replace Andrew Adamson, who, like Columbus, has been the series' director for the first two installments -- he is currently directing the second, Prince Caspian.

Hollywood loves dueling biopics -- Columbus, Capote, Amy Fisher; if there's more than one source to mine from, there's more than one movie to be made. The latest figure to get head-to-head films is Charles Darwin. Though I haven't heard anything more on Chase Palmer's take, titled Evolution's Captain, since I wrote about it last November, it is supposed to be released some time in 2009. If that remains true, it will have some company, because Oscar-winning producer Jeremy Thomas is also planning to deliver a Darwin film the same year (the bicentennial of the naturalist's birth).

Thomas' version will be based on "Annie's Box" (aka "Darwin, His Daughter and Human Evolution"), a bio written by Darwin's descendant Randal Keynes. While Palmer's film should deal more with Darwin's scientific explorations, this one will be centered more on the naturalist's home life, particularly with the death of his daughter Annie, which he blamed on inbreeding (Darwin married his first cousin). The adaptation is being written by John Collee, who I had actually thought would be appropriate for Palmer's film, and will be directed by Jon Amiel. A good guess is that Keynes' son Skandar, who acts in the Narnia films, will get a part as one of Darwin's kids (he had 10).

Other dueling biopics headed your way:

Miles Davis

Marvin Gaye

Chet Baker

Napoleon

Does Speed Racer have what it takes to go against Indiana Jones? I doubt it, but at the moment the cartoon adaptation is scheduled for the same weekend as the next sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Paramount Pictures has gone and narrowed down the previously reported release target and announced that it will open what it is now only referring to as "The Fourth Installment of Indiana Jones" on Thursday, May 22, 2008, which is one day before Warner Bros.' release date for Speed Racer.

Sure, Memorial Day weekend is long enough for multiple new releases, but not usually for two tentpoles. So, obviously, Speed Racer is going to have to move out. Sure, the film is the Wachowski Brothers' official follow-up to The Matrix trilogy (the unofficial was V for Vendetta), but it would take a lot to convince audiences to avoid the first Indy film in nearly 20 years. It will already be hard enough for Speed Racer to attract the audiences away from Iron Man (I'm looking forward to this and I never even read the comic) and the second picture in the Narnia franchise, which will open May 2 and May 16, respectively.

Of course, we're talking about a time that is 15 months away. Anything can happen to any of these movies in that time. But everyone needs to keep in mind that Indiana Jones will rule the summer. Even if it sucks, it will still outperform the rest -- remember the last time George Lucas released a disappointing sequel?

The last flurry of news we got on the Narnia sequel was back in December, when Mark had reported that filming for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian was set to begin in England and New Zealand. The film's start date was just around the corner, and there were still some substantial gaps in the cast. Several cast members have been falling into line recently, however, and Moviehole.net is reporting that at least one more part has been safely filled.

The latest addition to the ever-expanding cast is Peter Dinklage (The Station Agent) as Trumpkin the Dwarf. Dinklage will play a leader in the resistance to King Miraz and supporter of Prince Caspian X as the true king. The cast list on NarniaFans.com also lists Vincent Grass as Doctor Cornelius and Alicia Borrachero as Queen Purnaprsmia. Ben Barnes will play Caspian and William Moseley (Peter), Anna Popplewell (Susan), Skandar Keynes (Edmund) and Georgie Henley (Lucy) will all be returning as the Pevensie clan. (Liam Neeson will also back as the furry Jesus figure Aslan). Although, this will probably be the last we see of Mosely and Popplewell, since their characters are getting a little long in the tooth for Narnia. Shooting was set to begin this month; so if Andrew Adamson wants to keep to his schedule, casting is going to have to be completed sooner rather than later.

Hoping to tap once again into the giant audiences that flocked to their The Chronicles of Narnia, Walden Media has acquired the rights to Peruvian novelist Isabel Allende's Alexander Cold trilogy, a popular series among young adult readers. The first installment, City of the Beasts, is set in the Amazon, where the 15-year-old Cold is spending the summer with his grandma - she just happens to be an "archaeologist...in search of mythical animals." Cold, along with his 12-year-old companion, is kidnapped by "the People of the Mist and enter[s] a mountain to discover the mythical city of El Dorado and the enigmatic Beasts." Good lord - that's quite a summer.

Clearly, Walden has high hopes for this series - the books are best-sellers that the company not accidentally describes as "thrilling fantasy epics...in the grand tradition of The Chronicles of Narnia." Not leaving anything to chance, however, they've gone again to HarperCollins (the publisher of the Narnia series, with which Walden collaborated extensively on promotion) for source material, and have hired Barrie Osborne to produce. Why Barrie Osborne? Well, among his credits is a trilogy you might have heard of - does The Lord of the Rings ring any bells?