Jennifer Lawrence is an Oscar winner and a star of major blockbuster films. She’s literally done it all in Hollywood at this point. Considering the physical work that she had to do for movies in the past, we might expect one of those films to be the hardest for her to prepare for. But the actress says it was actually her spy drama Red Sparrow.

In a conversation with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Lawrence was asked about which rile was the hardest to get ready for. While me might expect most to pick a role that required a great deal of physical preparation, like an X-Men movies, or something with the incredible action of The Hunger Games the actress said that it was actually learning the proper accent for Red Sparrow that was hardest. She explained…

Red Sparrow certainly had its share of physical demands as well. The character Jennifer Lawrence played was a spy who was an ex-ballerina, so the movie required plenty of physical work. It also kept her on a strict diet that had Lawrence craving fast food. While she said she was never starving, she clearly suffered a bit since she couldn’t eat whatever she wanted.

And yet, here, she specifically mentions the accent as being the thing that was especially difficult for her. And honestly, we don’t give actors nearly enough credit when it comes to perfecting accents. If Dick Van Dyke’s accent in Mary Poppins has taught us anything, it’s that sometimes you can get it really wrong.

Accents are important, and we probably don’t give actors enough credit for the work they do to get their ride. Actors are often given dialect coaching in order to learn accents, but it’s not always easy. There are cases when actors have ultimately left roles because they couldn’t get the accent right.

This isn't the first time the actress has talked about the accent. Before Red Sparrow was released, she mentioned that the film was the first time she had put on an accent, so it's understandable why the whole process might have been especially difficult.

While I’m certainly no expert on the Russian accent, Jennifer Lawrence seems to have done quite a good job with hers. It may not be perfect, but it certainly wasn’t an issue for the people who helped the movie gross $150 million worldwide.

Red Sparrow could have been the beginning of a franchise, as it was based on a book that had sequels, but years later it does not appear that’s likely. It’s too bad. Lawrence could have reused the accent that was the hardest movie prep she’d ever done.

It's no secret people love to complain. But it takes a special kind of ire to take action and contact The Powers That Be to register an official complaint. So color me surprised that Jennifer Lawrence's Red Sparrow and the Peter Rabbit movie received the most complaints in 2018 -- at least, the most complaints to the British Board of Film Classification.

The BBFC released its list, with Red Sparrow receiving 64 complaints, followed by Peter Rabbit with 50. The complaints were for very different concerns, but I can't help but picture people writing Strongly Worded Letters or perhaps calling an official with a list of grievances.

Red Sparrow got complaints because it was given a "15 classification," which could be considered a U.K. equivalent of PG-13. Viewers felt the movie should've earned an 18 certificate -- basically an R rating -- due to "elements of violence and sexual violence in the film," per Digital Spy.

Apparently the British Board of Film Classification defended the decision by saying the "correct changes" to Red Sparrow scenes were made in post-production to allow a 15 certificate. The BBFC added that, "given the lack of aggravating factors such as strong nudity and eroticisation in these scenes," the 15 rating was allowed.

I do understand some complaints about the Red Sparrow rating in the U.K., considering it got a hard R in the U.S. Still, the Red Sparrow team should just be happy that anyone saw the movie at all, even if they complained about it afterward. The movie only made $46.8 million at the domestic box office, and $104.6 million worldwide. Maybe the wider rating helped it get more international viewers?

The Peter Rabbit complaints you probably heard something about last year. As you might've guessed, the complaints were tied to the food allergy scene. Rabbits throw blackberries at Mr. McGregor, knowing he's allergic. There were complaints by groups like Kids With Food Allergies, and Sony Pictures issued an apology. In addition to allergy-related complaints, some viewers found the behavior to encourage bullying.

The BBFC defended the Peter Rabbit scene, saying it doesn't feature bullying but was instead part of "an ongoing battle between the rabbits and the owner of a vegetable garden."

The BBFC also noted that it didn't receive any complaints about the film right after it was released, saying issues only started coming in "in response to press coverage that started in the U.S." So they're blaming us.

Peter Rabbit found itself involved in a different mini controversy when a theater accidentally played a trailer for a horror movie before a screening. There were complaints about that too.

A few vocal complaints or not, Peter Rabbit made $351 million worldwide -- with more than $236 million from the foreign box office, which would include the U.K. That's off a reported production budget of $50 million, per Box Office Mojo. So it's no wonder Peter Rabbit 2 is in the works.

Considering all the ire against award winners Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody, I half expected to see them on the most complained about list for 2018. Or even maybe Avengers: Infinity War for killing off major characters. You know someone must've written a Strongly Worded Letter about that. But maybe those complaints were mostly Stateside.

I'm curious what movies from 2019 will send people complaining to the BBFC -- or the MPAA or FCC in the U.S. Check out the list of what's coming to screens in 2019 and place your bets.

Summertime is a huge time for moviegoers, with a slew of big budget blockbusters and some cool genre films dominating screens. However, it's not a bad time for home entertainment, either. Sure, sometimes your kids can play outside or play video games during the summer months, but with them at home nearly every hour of the day, you still need releases like Early Man and Peter Rabbit to tide them over. There's some good stuff in May for the grown-ups, and families, too, and you can take a look at the list, below. Don't skim over Black Panther.

If you are looking for all of the good stuff that came out last month, we have you covered; take a look at the full guide for April releases. As usual, Digital dates are the same days as the Blu-ray and DVD releases, unless otherwise noted.

Tuesday, May 1 DVD, Blu-ray And Digital Releases

12 Strong

In The Fade

Peter Rabbit

Winchester

Please Stand By

Tremors: A Cold Day In Hell

Maya The Bee 2: The Honey Games

Nostalgia

All I Wish

Mary and the Witch's Flower

The Insult

Lazer Team 2

The Son of Bigfoot

Once Upon a Time

In Between

Week of May 1 Early Digital Releases

Counterpart (April 30)

The 15:17 To Paris

Game Night (May 4)

Tuesday, May 8 DVD, Blu-ray And Digital Releases

Fifty Shades Freed

Batman Ninja

Netflix's Dear White People: Season 1

Human Flow

Saving Private Ryan Commemorative 20th Anniversary

Ackley Bridge: Series 1

Paradox

Week of May 8 Early Digital Releases

Strike Back (May 7)

Terminal (May 11)

Tuesday, May 15 DVD, Blu-ray And Digital Releases

Black Panther

Die Hard 30th Anniversary (Also in 4K and Best Buy Steelbook)

Rick and Morty: Season 3

Masterpiece Unforgotten: Season 2

The Shannara Chronicles: Season One

Bent

Samson

LEGO DC Super Hero Girls: Super-Villain High

The Monkey King 3

10x10

Forgiven

The Bold Type: Season 1

Submergence

Gladiator (4K UltraHD)

Braveheart (4K UltraHD)

Week of May 15 Early Digital Releases

Early Man

Tuesday, May 22 DVD, Blu-ray And Digital Releases

Red Sparrow

Early Man

Game Night

Wonderstruck

Masterpiece: Little Women

A Fantastic Woman

Swung

Daphne & Velma

The 15:17 to Paris

The Party

Call the Midwife: Season Seven

I Kill Giants

Week of May 22 Early Digital Releases

Annihilation

Death Wish

Thoroughbreds

The Strangers: Prey at Night

Tuesday, May 29 DVD, Blu-ray And Digital Releases

Annihilation

Jackass: Complete Movie and TV Collection

Detectorists: Series 3

I'm Dying Up Here: Season 1

Week of May 29 Early Digital Releases

A Wrinkle In Time

Love, Simon

Peter Pan

The Hurricane Heist

The weekend will come when Black Panther isn't the king of the box office, but this is not that weekend. In its fifth week of release, there was a possibility, however slight, that Disney's Black Panther might finally lose its box office crown to the premiering Tomb Raider starring Alicia Vikander, if only because Black Panther 's weekend totals had dropped enough over the last month. While Lara Croft gave it her best effort, it just wasn't quite enough, and Black Panther remained on top. Check out the complete top 10 below, then we'll break down the numbers.

For the second straight weekend, Black Panther sneaks out another box office win over a challenger that put up a significant, but not sufficient, box office total. Last weekend A Wrinkle in TIme put up a box office number that would have been enough to win this weekend, but still fell short to Black Panther. Panther's box office fell by a third compared to last weekend, but it still ended up with enough win for the fifth straight weekend by adding another $27 million to its total, bringing its domestic total in five weeks to over $600 million.

Black Panther now sits in striking distance of becoming the biggest comic book movie ever. Marvel's The Avengers is currently the domestic box office champ with $623 million, but will less than $20 million now separating it and Panther one has to wonder if next weekend will represent a huge moment for Marvel's newest hero. Everybody was expecting Marvel's big team-up event Avengers: Infinity War to be the one that would set all the box office records, but now it seems that to do that, it's going to have to beat Black Panther less than three months after it set all the records.

Tomb Raider was the major tentpole release this weekend with a big movie based on a popular video game franchise opening in nearly 4,000 theaters. If anybody was going to dethrone Black Panther this weekend it was going to be Tomb Raider, unfortunately, the new film was only able to muster $23 million at the domestic box office. For a movie with a budget in the neighborhood of $100 million, that total is dangerously low, although the international box office did come to Tomb Raider's aid with an additional $102 million, which will likely help keep the movie above water.

A more surprising result was the third-place finish for I Can Only Imagine. The faith-based feature was only released in half as many theaters as most of the rest of the top 10, but it was still able to garner a strong $17 million, putting it ahead of both A Wrinkle in Time, which dropped 50% from its opening weekend to bring in an additional $16 million, and the opening of Love, Simon which did $11.5 million, a strong showing for a small movie. With Simon 's nearly non-existent budget, the romance is already a success.

The other release for the weekend, the hostage drama 7 Days in Entebbe, failed to break the top ten, bringing in only $1.6 million which was only good enough for 13th place. Although, the film opened in less than 1,000 theaters, which is certainly responsible for part of the showing.

Black Panther has another piece of blockbuster competition coming next weekend in the form of Pacific Rim: Uprising. The first film in the franchise brought in nearly $40 million during its opening weekend in 2013, so it's a strong contender to finally end Marvel's streak at the top. Other films set to release on Friday include the Gnomeo and Juliet sequel Sherlock Gnomes, romantic drama Midnight Sun, thriller Unsane, and another film looking to be popular with the faith-based audience Paul, Apostle of Christ. We'll find out next Sunday if Black Panther finally gives up the crown.

No matter what, the Walt Disney Company knew that this was going to be a good weekend. Black Panther is going so strong that it ran right into the studio's next big feature, Ava Duvernay's A Wrinkle In Time, but now it's a situation where both occupy the top spots at the box office. And as though that news wasn't great enough, the Marvel Studios film reached a milestone that few movies in history have reached. Check out the top 10 below, and then we'll dive into the analysis!

As you can see, Black Panther dropped less than 40 percent in its fourth week of release - making more than $40 million in the process - but as impressive as that is, it's really the minor news. The Marvel blockbuster notably also debuted in China this past weekend, and it proved to be a hit there as well. That brings the international total up to $1,078,615,601, meaning that it has now become one of the few movies in history to ever make more than a billion dollars. To date, only 33 movies have done it (including the Ryan Coogler-directed feature), and it is now the fifth MCU story to cross that threshold - the others being The Avengers ($1.518 billion), The Avengers: Age of Ultron ($1.405 billion), Iron Man 3 ($1.215 billion) and Captain America: Civil War ($1.153 billion). It took only 24 days to make that much money, which is actually the exact same pace as both The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War, and it's now tied for 11th all time in that respect.

What's incredibly exciting is that it's a bit hard to predict exactly where Black Panther will ultimately end up on the all-time charts when all is said and done. As noted, Black Panther is currently over-performing in China, and there is a chance that it could wind up being one of the five highest grossing domestic blockbusters in history (a move that would push The Avengers out of place). We'll have to wait and see how the film deals with the competition heading its way in the next few weeks (Pacific Rim: Uprising could be the title that ends the movie's reign at the top), but at this point we find ourselves wondering how The Avengers: Infinity War will compare in terms of success.

The money that Disney is making off of Black Panther will probably let them write off any major losses they may encounter in the rest of 2018 - which is good, because A Wrinkle In Time isn't really a monster hit. The $33.1 million it has earned is a touch short of the estimates that emerged over the last week... though the film will certainly wind up being successful in the long run. The budget was kept modest by blockbuster standards (a reported $103 million), and looking ahead it should be able to stick around for a little while. Furthermore, it's a bright and colorful 3D adventure, which are qualities that could wind up seeing it make a good chunk of change overseas. Audiences aren't exactly flipping for it, giving it a "B" CinemaScore, and reviews have been very mixed, but by the end Disney should be able to call it a success.

As far as new releases go, that's certainly the most positive news we have for this week, as the other three new debuts didn't really take-off. Clearly Strangers 2: Prey At Night was the strongest of the trio, but it still only made half of what the first movie did in its first three days back in 2008, and got hit with a "C" CinemaScore. Your eyes have to zoom down the chart to find Rob Cohen's The Hurricane Heist - which is a $35 million feature that made less than 10 percent back in the opening weekend - but that's still better than Nash Edgerton's Gringo. Despite hitting 2,404 theaters, the comedy didn't even make it on to the Top 10, debuting in 11th place with a $2.6 million take.

Before we wrap up, I do want to take a moment to say goodbye to Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle, which will leave our chart next week. It spent an amazing five non-consecutive weeks at number one after opening in second place, and now that it's available for digital download it's starting to disappear from theaters - dropping from seventh to 10th this week. The domestic run has been epic, and the total will probably cross $400 million before it is totally gone. That's pretty amazing, and we look forward to the sequel.

This Friday we have an eclectic mix of titles arriving in theaters, including Tomb Raider, Love, Simon, I Can Only Imagine, and 7 Days In Entebbe. Be sure to come back next Sunday to see how they shake things up!

For a second there it looked like an iffy proposition, but now it's basically guaranteed. Fans have been wondering for weeks if Ryan Coogler's Black Panther would be able to reach the billion dollar mark, and now it looks like a lock. This weekend the Marvel Studios film brought in another incredible haul, and now finds itself just a little more than $100 million away from getting to a global box office milestone that only 32 other titles have reached. Check out the full Top 10 below, and then we'll dig in!

Yes, those are some real "Holy shit" numbers. In its third weekend, Black Panther managed to only drop an estimated 41 percent, allowing it to cross the $500 million mark domestically. Because of this achievement, the film was also able to leapfrog over six other titles on the domestic charts (Shrek 2, The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Star Wars, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, and Finding Dory) and is now the 10th highest grossing blockbuster ever released in the United States. To help put that in perspective, if the Marvel feature drops another 50 percent next weekend, it will still manage to leap up another two spots, passing 2017's Beauty and the Beast and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story to become number eight on that esteemed list.

If you didn't reason it out already from the information above, it's also worth pointing out that this weekend's performance now makes Black Panther the second biggest domestic for Marvel Studios, with Joss Whedon's The Avengers still sitting pretty at the top of that particular list with its $623.4 million total. The Ryan Coogler-directed blockbuster still sits a bit lower on the worldwide chart, but will shortly join the esteemed group of Marvel Cinematic Universe titles that have previously reached the billion dollar mark - including The Avengers, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Iron Man 3, and Captain America: Civil War. Of course, this isn't all some mystifying, accidental phenomenon. The movie is fantastic; critics absolutely loved it (it's the highest rated superhero title ever on Rotten Tomatoes); it has an "A+" CinemaScore; and already it has become a pop culture staple. Films so brilliant come around very rarely, but we're in the middle of seeing one leaving a permanent mark on Hollywood.

While putting up its amazing third weekend numbers, Black Panther had some interesting new competition, and neither of them totally crapped the bed. Taking the Number Two spot away from Game Night (which actually had a solid second week) is Francis Lawrence's Red Sparrow - another "Color Animal" feature that performed modestly. The film is carrying a pretty hefty budget (a reported $69 million before marketing), and critics were very divided, but it seems the appeal of Jennifer Lawrence and her reunion with the Hunger Games franchise director did put some butts in seats. It was never going to beat Black Panther, but it will be curious to see if it can ultimately justify its expenses. It only got a "B" CinemaScore, which means it probably won't have much in the way of legs via buzz, and the March calendar has a collection of notable upcoming titles.

Eli Roth's Death Wish remake was made for half of what Red Sparrow cost, but that's pretty much the only reason why its numbers in its opening weekend look decent. The film got smashed by critics - many pointing to the tone deafness of its release in the current political climate - but already its made back about 43 percent of its budget. That said, it's likely to fade a whole lot faster Red Sparrow, as it has "Front Loaded" written all over it. Audiences that really wanted to see this one probably went over the last three days, and most of those with lingering interest will probably wait out the time until its home video release.

As mentioned earlier, Hollywood has a diverse slate of films arriving this month, and next week we are getting a strange sample platter. Strangers: Prey At Night is going for screams; Gringo is going for laughs; The Hurricane Heist is going for thrills; Thoroughbreds is going for wry smiles, and A Wrinkle In Time is going for wonder. That's a group of releases that should significantly shake up the Top 10, so come back next week to see how it all plays out!

Warning: SPOILERS for Red Sparrow are in play. If you haven't seen the film yet, bookmark this article and come back once you're current.

As any good espionage thriller tends to do, Red Sparrow engages in quite a few twists and turns throughout its narrative. In particular, the film's third act totally hinges on revelations and actions spurred on by the knowledge they contain, leading to a good portion of the film's finale winding through a spy's labyrinth of betrayal and success. Which is why it seems like a good idea for us to run through the major building blocks of Red Sparrow's shocking finale in order to help show the big picture of what happened, what it means, and why those moments were so surprising to start. So we'll give one last warning before going forward: once you've cleared the next paragraph, you are deep in spoiler country -- so jump out while you can.

Red Sparrow's Central Mystery

CIA agent Nate Nash has an informant in the Russian government, whom we see him botch a meeting with in the beginning of Red Sparrow. After this compromising position, the Russians are curious as to the identity of their mole. It is then decided by Ivan Egorova to send his niece, and recent Sparrow School graduate, Dominika in to seduce and extract that information from Nate. Throughout the film, the key mystery at the heart is "Who is MARBLE?" -- the codenamed operative working with Nate to pass state secrets. Sure enough, in the third act, Dominika obtains this information from MARBLE himself, as he reveals his identity during her recovery from an attack sanctioned by her uncle and his superiors.

The True Identity of MARBLE

The man who reveals himself to be MARBLE is Jeremy Irons' General Vladimir Korchnoi, one of the figures who we previously though was working against Dominika's efforts throughout Red Sparrow. Korchnoi explains to Dominika that his efforts with the U.S. government are spurred on by a personal vendetta, as his terminally ill wife wasn't allowed treatment by an American doctor, leading to her ultimate demise. With his progressively crumbling allegiance fully shattered, Korchnoi aligned himself with the Americans, and ultimately suggests that Dominika reveal his secret to her uncle so that she can take his place as the new source of high ranking intelligence for the CIA. Soon after that, Dominika makes her play to give MARBLE up to her Russian superiors, although she puts a unique twist on her findings.

The Handoff

As Red Sparrow's central mystery draws to a close, Dominika reports to the Russian Ambassador in Budapest that she knows MARBLE's identity. However, she will only report this knowledge to Colonel Zyuganov, the third member of the Russian trio handling Dominika. This knowledge then leads to a handoff between the CIA and Russian intelligence, to be set at an airfield in Budapest. It is there where it's revealed that Dominika framed her uncle Ivan as MARBLE, rather than give up Korchnoi as the real mole.

We then see a flashback showing Dominika's previous actions of collecting a whiskey glass from Nate's apartment and opening a bank account in Vienna are now presented as they truly were: actions that helped plant evidence of her uncle's would-be treachery as revenge for forcing her into Sparrow School in the first place. As they meet during the handoff, her uncle claims she's just about killed him, to which Dominika smiles and replies, "Didn't I do well, Uncle?" Ivan proceeds to make his way to the CIA's custody and is shot dead by a sniper stationed in the grass, while Dominika is rapidly whisked away to the helicopter waiting for her.

Dominika's Fate

After her retrieval from Budapest, Dominika returns home to Moscow, and we see her spending time with her sick mother. Of course, this safety comes from the fact that Dominika has now received a promotion and quite a bit of fanfare from the SVR for her efforts in outing her uncle as the supposed mole. We see her celebrated at a sort of press conference, with Korchnoi and the matron of the Sparrow School looking on with pride. Still, the final moments of Red Sparrow do indicate that the relationship between Dominika and Nate isn't completely dead, as she receives a phone call playing a familiar tune: the music she and Nate listened to on their first meeting. She looks out the window expectantly and smiles, leading us all to think that this story is only getting started. With two more books in the series, we couldn't be more right.

If you've been waiting for a spy thriller to make big news at the box office again, you're in luck with this weekend's Red Sparrow. The Jennifer Lawrence / Joel Edgerton starring espionage flick is going to try and give Black Panther a run for its money, and audiences might be willing to give it a shot. But of course, when you've got a new movie trying to make headlines, there's going to be a lot of discussion around it.

Which is totally our cue to welcome you to another weekend's round of Rate and Discuss -- the place where you, the audience, give us your honest feedback on the big ticket contenders of the week. It certainly looks like an interesting road ahead for Red Sparrow, as critical reaction seems to be a slightly mixed bag. Though the consensus seems to follow closely to what our official review had to say about the film, which was the following:

Of course, you might have some differing thoughts regarding Red Sparrow's quality, and we want to hear from what you thought about the film! With that in mind, we'd like you to consider the following discussion questions as you give us your opinion in the Comments below:

Questions out of the way, it's time rate Red Sparrow on the traditional scale of 0 to 5, with 0 being dead in the water and 5 being a triumph of cinema. Log your rating in the poll below, and don't forget to share your comments on why you feel the film should be rated accordingly!

This poll is no longer available.

Before we leave, we'd like to suggest some further reading for you to consider before completing your evaluation of Red Sparrow. In particular, there's some interesting tidbits about how Jennifer Lawrence decided to do her first nude scene for the film, as well as her particular fast food cravings during the film's production. Though if you're one of those people who's kind of over the phenomenon known as J. Law, she has a special message for you as well. Last, but not least, what discussion about Red Sparrow would be complete without addressing the Black Widow in the room, as director Francis Lawrence (no relation) recently gave his feelings on how he sees the comparison between his film and the Marvel character played by Scarlett Johansson.

That's enough homework for this week. Go out there, see Black Widow... er, Red Sparrow, and come back ready to chat! We'll see you back here at CinemaBlend for another Rate and Discuss next Friday, when we'll be discussing A Wrinkle In Time.

Jennifer Lawrence has had a big year at the movies, but not every single one of those movies has done well with fans and critics. (We're looking at you mother!) During a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to promote her new movie Red Sparrow, she got pretty vociferous about the haters of her movies, telling them they have been "uninvited" to her new flick, which officially opens this weekend. Here's her candid comment.

This is pretty bold even for Jennifer Lawrence's standards, as the actress has been known for her funny personality, as well as speaking her mind. Granted, Stephen Colbert plied Lawrence with rum before she started talking about Red Sparrow. And we're not talking like a sip or even a shot. Despite not liking it, she sucked it down as if she were Captain Jack Sparrow, then exuberantly told her haters not to show for the new movie.

Granted, it's a movie with nudity that she also poured her heart and soul into. The actress has been open over the past couple of weeks that Red Sparrow was a real challenge, and not only because she had to learn to do some ballet. (She also told Stephen Colbert, "Lol to me being a ballerina," if you need an indication of how that went.) She is also nude in the movie, which was a big deal for the actress, especially after nude photos of her were leaked along with other celebrities back in 2014.

Jennifer Lawrence has previously said that the nude photos incident was difficult to get through, and at first she didn't even want to sign on for Red Sparrow. She changed her mind, though, after thinking about the "difference between consent and not." Now, she's brazenly telling haters if they don't like her, or nudity, or lady spies they shouldn't go see the movie, at all. If you'd like to catch the rest of her open exchange with Colbert, you can do so, below.

Everyone else into R-rated spy romps can catch the trailer for the flick, or wait until the new flick officially hits theaters this weekend.

It's no secret that filming TV and movies can be a grueling process. For action heavy films, this also includes a ton of physical training, as well as a diet and exercise regimen to ensure they look their best on the silver screen. Unfortunately, the dieting can sometimes get even more extreme, as stars all but starve themselves in preparation for nude scenes. Apparently Academy Award winning actress Jennifer Lawrence is not one of those people, as she recently revealed that she didn't care to fast while filming Red Sparrow, despite appearing in nude scenes and physically demanding action sequences. In fact, she constantly craved one specific fast food joint.

While Jennifer Lawrence was sure to nourish her body while filming Red Sparrow, it looks like the upcoming spy thriller wasn't exactly Jack in the Box friendly. Lawrence was sure to be strict with nutrition while playing the role of Dominika Egorov, which means it was nothing but grilled chicken breasts for the 27-year-old actress.

Jennifer Lawrence's comments to ET are sure to be refreshing for both audiences and industry professionals, who are used to seeing stars basically go hungry while filming projects with action and/or nudity. Since becoming one of Hollywood's most acclaimed modern actors, Lawrence has put her foot down regarding what she will and will not do while filming. For instance, she took umbrage with the amount of time it takes to get on Mystique's makeup in the X-Men franchise, resulting in the character not being blue for the majority of X-Men: Apocalypse.

The actresses' body has unfortunately been a conversation surrounding Jennifer Lawrence in the past few years. When she booked the role of Katniss in the Hunger Games franchise, book purists criticized Lawrence's weight. As Katniss and the denizens of District 12 are practically starving, critics believed that the actress was simply too healthy. She'd eventually prove herself when playing the role for four massively successful movies.

Most recently, Jennifer Lawrence was criticized for the dress she wore to Red Sparrow's recent press events across the pond. On a cold London day, Lawrence was photographed wearing a low cut dress, while her male co-stars were bundled in layers and coats. She eventually clapped back at the haters, revealing how she was happy to withstand the cold in order to wear such a stunning garment. Lawrence plays by no one's rules but her own, and she's not stopping anytime soon.

You can catch Jennifer Lawrence in Red Sparrow premiering March 2, 2018. In the meantime, check out our 2018 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

Jennifer Lawrence's new movie Red Sparrow is hitting theaters this weekend. We've seen trailers for the flick already, but what Lawrence has been most open about in relation to the movie is the fact that she gets nude in the film. It wasn't a decision that was easy to make, however. The actress recently revealed that she felt shattered after nude photos of herself were leaked during that major hack a few short years ago, a hack that affected numerous actresses in Hollywood. She told 60 Minutes that she didn't really like doing movies about sex, especially after the 2014 hack and it took some reframing to get her on board with Red Sparrow. She said:

Per Jennifer Lawrence, her ideas about skipping out on doing movies with sex and nudity in them were keeping her from signing on for a movie with a script that she really liked, and a film that she really wanted to do. The actress told 60 Minutes that her feelings regarding the hacking in 2014 "didn't vaporize" after she decided she could do nudity on the big screen, but that she could own when and how she chose to use her own body as an actress. She has previously spoken out about how the hack itself was "unbelievably violating" and it's clear the aftermath of the hack bled at least somewhat into her personal life and career.

Host Bill Whitaker did follow up his line of questioning with a comment and question about how others might take Jennifer Lawrence's choice to go nude in Red Sparrow. He asked the actress if she was concerned about how others would see her nudity on film, to which she responded:

Red Sparrow is an R-rated spy film. It's not geared to a younger audience as some of Jennifer Lawrence's other movies have been. And in a lot of ways, the movie is a brutal look at a prima ballerina who gets injured, who then gets inducted into a tough way of life as a spy, and who yes, is nude on the big screen.

Red Sparrow will officially hit theaters on March 2. As Jennifer Lawerence herself noted, if boobs aren't your cup of tea, you can check out what else is heading to theaters in March with our full movie premiere schedule.

If you need an indication of how much the movie industry has changed in the past couple of years, take a look at the movies coming to theaters this March. This is a line-up that used to be reserved for a May or June release slate, but now thanks to films like Zootopia and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, March is a fertile proving ground for would-be blockbusters and untested properties. If you thought February was interesting, wait until you see the big movies coming to theaters this March.

Ready Player One

Seeing Steven Spielberg return to the world of blockbuster thrills with Ready Player One is like watching your favorite musical act come back onto the stage for an encore. Part of his usual 1-2 punch of awards contender / blockbuster spectacle, the Ernest Cline adaptation follows up The Post and promises to be an eye-popping blend of futuristic action and nostalgic heart. The fact that all of this is happening under the watchful eye of the man that helped inspire it is just another 1-Up to this film's credit.

Release date: March 29

Death Wish

As with any remake, the question of whether Death Wish should have been revived in this more modern era is a question that has definitely been raised more than a couple times. But discounting that query, if you were going to remake the classic tale of a father turned vigilante taking down crime one perp at a time, this is how you do it. Bruce Willis, Joe Carnahan, and Eli Roth are the trio that you'd not only expect, but trust to deliver a pulpy bash to the face such as this, so at the very least, this is an idea that has the right team behind it.

Release date: March 2

Red Sparrow

This month, a trio of literary adaptations will be arriving in theaters that take on stories of familiar content, but with slightly different lenses. In the case of Red Sparrow, we'll be seeing Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton engaging in a game of espionage and sexual intrigue, with Lawrence's Russian operative being the main focus of the film's plot. Advanced word is already promising some hard R thrills, and a terrific performance from J. Law, which is all the more exciting after the work she'd done last year with mother! Just be sure that the kids are at home for this one.

Release date: March 2

A Wrinkle In Time

If you can't get a babysitter for Red Sparrow, then you may want to consider two other films that will be out this month that cater towards a younger demographic. One such film is Ava DuVernay's A Wrinkle In Time, which brings the 1962 children's sci-fi novel to life, and with one of the most diverse casts ever committed to film. Newcomer Storm Reid will become a warrior, as her protagonist Meg will quest through dimensions of time and space to save her father (Chris Pine), who was lost to an experiment gone wrong.

Release date: March 9

Love, Simon

If your kids are too old for A Wrinkle In Time, but aren't quite old enough for Red Sparrow, then Love, Simon is probably the best bet at the movies this month. Taking the teen rom-com genre and turning it into a heartfelt story of a young man dealing with his sexuality, and trying to survive high school, Love, Simon could be a sleeper hit. Between its socially vital subject matter, and the built-in audience from its source material, we just might see Simon embraced with a tidal wave of love by the movie-going community.

Release date: March 16

Tomb Raider

Books aren't the only adaptations landing big screen real estate in March, as Tomb Raider is moving towards its second act of cinematic glory, as well. Based on the 2013 reboot of Lara Croft's adventures, this new variant looks to have a more hard nosed version of our heroine yet. Not to mention, any movie that thinks of pitting Alicia Vikander against a villain like Walton Goggins' Mattias Vogel definitely has our vote.

Release date: March 16

Pacific Rim Uprising

Every time someone mentions the fact that Pacific Rim Uprising is heading our way, it just reminds us of the days when people told us this movie was never going to happen. Now, we're mere weeks away from seeing John Boyega's Jake Pentecost team up with the best pilots in the next generation of Jaeger warfare, after clandestine forces have opened the rift between our world and that of the Kaijus. So if there's a franchise you really believe in, now's a good time to hold out hope for its success, because this is a flat out dream come true.

Release date: March 23

Unsane

Steven Soderbergh was supposed to be retired by now, and yet with last year's Logan Lucky, the man has proven that his previous decision wasn't made because he ran out of stories to tell. And he certainly hasn't run out of gimmicks to tell his stories with, as his psychological thriller Unsane was shot completely on an iPhone. Considering the film's lead character, played by Claire Foy of The Crown fame, is dealing with some mindbending issues throughout the film's narrative, that fact undoubtedly helps turn up the tension in an already fraught narrative. If you keep making 'em Steven, we'll keep watching 'em.

Release date: March 23

Isle of Dogs

It's been a dog's age since Wes Anderson treated us to a motion picture from his own hand. Actually, it's been more like 32 dog years between The Grand Budapest Hotel's debut and that of Isle of Dogs - the director's return to stop-motion animation. Caught up in a wave of paranoia involving a futuristic dog flu, young hero Atari will venture to the titular location to find his dog, who was exiled in a legislative panic to curb the spread of the disease. An all star cast that includes Greta Gerwig, Bryan Cranston, and a bunch of members from the Wes Anderson Repertory Company, Isle of Dogs looks to be another welcomed treat for the good dog in all of us.

Release date: March 23

Acrimony

You can't say that Tyler Perry is a slouch, as the man is constantly plugging away at his craft. Acrimony is definitely a credit to that statement, as it only took the film's star Taraji P. Henson four days to film all of her scenes in the film. Watching the trailer for said film, you can see how impressive that is, as she looks to be all over this project, and with her trademark intensity to boot. It looks like Henson's most harrowing film, and in turn it also seems to be Perry's most volatile thriller, so we kind of have to see it now.

Release date: March 30

Only two movies are hitting the big screen this week, but both looked like they are packed with action. The question is both of them is whether or not the stories will hold up. Let's take a look at Red Sparrow and Death Wish.

Just remember, I'm not reviewing these movies, but rather predicting where they'll end up on the Tomatometer. Let's take a look at This Rotten Week has to offer.

It's quite a career shift to go from being a prima ballerina to a super spy the next. But that's what Jennifer Lawrence seems to pull off in Red Sparrow, as she executes a mid-life work-life pivot and starts kicking ass for the Russian government. Based on the novel by the same name, Red Sparrow follows Lawrence's character as she works to uncover a plot in the Russian government and identify a mysterious mole (or in other words: the exact arc of every spy movie ever).

Director Francis Lawrence has worked with Jennifer Lawrence (no relation) in the past on The Hunger Games sequels, specifically Catching Fire (89%) along with Mockingjay I and 2 (66% and 70% respectively). He's also helmed Water for Elephants (60%) and I Am Legend (69%). His movies almost all fall into that "completely watchable without being amazing" category, and that seems to be where Red Sparrow will land as well. It looks compelling, and Jennifer Lawrence can carry a movie on her own, but has a great supporting cast including Joel Edgerton and Jeremy Irons. Critics already have this at 64% on the Tomatometer through 46 reviews. It's tough to imagine it climbing much over the course of the week.

Speaking of movies with characters pivoting careers, in Death Wish (based on the 1974 Charles Bronson movie), Bruce Willis goes from mild-mannered doctor to full out Punisher-like vigilante cleaning up the riff-raff of Chicago with movie-style street justice. It looks like your standard shoot'em up, though I'm wondering with the current political atmosphere how well it will be received. It looks entertaining, but this could be just the wrong time for it to come out.

Director Eli Roth gets a little away from his usual horror roots (The Green Inferno - 35%, Hostel - 61%), and more into the action genre with this one. His movies typically have some subtle critiques on the state of our world, and this might be the case with Death Wish. There's a chance it goes completely over the top as some kind of commentary, but if not, I could see critics panning it based on the tone.

Overall it was a good week for the Rotten Watch, with two of the three films falling very close to the predictions. Annihilation (Predicted: 88% Actual: 87%) was nearly right on the money, and could end up a direct hit in the next couple of days with just one or two more reviews. Critics loved it from just about every angle. They found it visually stunning and compelling with a fantastic story about humanity writ large. Oh, and it also had a creepy element without going over the top for scares. This lands as one of the best-reviewed wide releases of the year so far.

I was also very close with Every Day (Predicted: 47% Actual: 50%), suspecting that critics would find it so vanilla that it couldn't fall too far on the scale. But it also guessed it wouldn't wow anyone either. That appears very much the case with the Tomatometer landing directly in the middle. Most reviews (good or bad) had a very meh feel to them. No one loved it; no one hated it.

And finally, I had a big miss with Game Night \(Predicted:43% Actual: 81%). Traditionally these kinds of whacky-premise, ever-escalating comedies fail to win critics over because they get way more ridiculous over the course of the film. Often times that kind of one-upping has severely diminishing returns. But Game Night looks like the rare exception, with critics appreciating the laughs and story. More often than not I'll be right with these predictions, but this one proved me wrong.

Next time around we've got a big one with Gringo, Hurricane Heist, Strangers: Prey at Night and A Wrinkle in Time. It's gonna be a Rotten Week!

It's safe to say that Jennifer Lawrence is doing pretty well for herself these days. At 27, the Academy Award-winning actress is one of the most well-known people on the planet, and she only continues to grow her profile. But Jennifer Lawrence didn't make her name through her education. As the Red Sparrow star discussed in a recent interview, she dropped out of school at a fairly early age, believing that she was better off teaching herself.

The topic came up during Jennifer Lawrence's recent sit-down interview with 60 Minutes to promote her newest (and fairly polarizing) film. She admits that she struggled through school throughout her young life, and she claims that she "never felt very smart." She later confessed that the decision didn't come easily for the 14-year-old Jennifer Lawrence. But Lawrence felt it was what she needed to do, because being an actor was what felt right. Sure enough, that's exactly what she did. Lawrence later admitted that she doesn't hold any regrets about this lofty decision she made early in her life.

Of course, we cannot condone that anyone considers dropping out of school to get into acting (particularly anyone in grade school reading this article -- because we don't want to get into any trouble here). After all, we're afraid not everyone can be as famous and lucky as Jennifer Lawrence. But it's safe to say that this decision ultimately paid off handsomely for Lawerence, particularly in the long run. The young, continuously rising Hunger Games actress is easily among the most acclaimed and well-known celebrities of our time, and she isn't using that acclaim and recognition lightly.

Jennifer Lawrence will next be seen in the aforementioned Red Sparrow, which comes out next weekend. She'll also be seen in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which is scheduled to come out on November 2nd. But after that, she'll get into some political activism. Lawrence announced last week that she'll take a break from acting, at least for a year. Instead, she'll focus on working with the organization Represent.Us, which dedicates its time to try to get young people engaged politically, in a continuous effort to "fix our democracy." After all, Lawrence is never someone who is afraid to speak her mind, particularly this week when people needlessly attacked her fashion choices during a London premiere event for Red Sparrow.

Even though she doesn't have the strongest education, Jennifer Lawrence is living large and in charge. Sometimes, school just isn't for everyone. But don't tell anyone that we said that... Remember, we're not trying to get in trouble here. Don't come to us saying you dropped out because Jennifer Lawrence did it. The last thing we need right now is a bunch of angry letter from irate parents. Remember, stay in school. Unless you're the next JLaw.

If there's one thing that can be said about Red Sparrow, it certainly has impeccable timing. In an era when the United States has serious questions about the intentions of Russia, we get a modern-day spy movie that is clearly designed to remind one of the espionage movies of the Cold War. So much so that one sequence has state secrets being transferred via 3.5" floppy disks. That is a thing that happens.

Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) is a ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet who loses the ability to dance following a tragic accident on stage. Since her apartment and her sick mother's health care are provided by the state-run ballet, she needs to find a new source of income and so she turns to her uncle (Matthias Schoenaerts), a member of Russia's intelligence community. He sends her to "Sparrow School," a place where young Russians learn how to seduce and manipulate targets in order to obtain valuable information for the state. For Dominka's first assignment, she must get close to CIA agent Nate Nash (Joel Egerton) and learn the identity of his informant inside the Russian government. Pretense falls away quickly, however, as Nash quickly realizes who Dominika is, but believes she can be turned into an asset for the CIA. As the relationship grows, a romance appears to bloom.

What follows is a fairly standard espionage thriller, but one dripping with atmosphere. The Russians want their Sparrow to get information from the Americans. The Americans want her working for them, and all she wants is to make sure her sick mother is safe. There are double crosses, hidden agendas, and you never really know what you're supposed to believe and what you're not.

While this works for the spy portion of the movie, it is inexorably intertwined with the romance portion of the movie, and the romance ends up falling flat. Both Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton are playing trained spies, so you'd expect one or both to at least put up a pretense of trying to not get involved in that way. It happens so quickly, and with so little chemistry, that a savvy spy movie fan might assume that one of them must be playing the other. You keep waiting for the twist... but it never really comes.

Jennifer Lawrence performs admirably in her lead role. Her accent isn't even all that bad after awhile. Lawrence shows a vulnerability beneath her tough exterior when she needs to which makes her character feel real. Still, it would have been nice to get a bit deeper into her character. Dominika Egorova seems unusually suited to being a Sparrow as she takes to it nearly instantly, but we never really learn why that is. The movie is ultimately about Lawrence's character breaking free of the control of others, but we never learn where the inner strength required to do so comes from. With as much time as we spend with her we never really get to understand who she is.

This could possibly have been done if the film had spent a bit more time in Sparrow School, which is by far the most interesting portion of the film. Charlotte Rampling is in and out of Red Sparrow all too quickly as the matron of the institution who trains her Sparrows in the art of seduction. She's the only one in the movie who gives the impression she's enjoying herself.

However, for Red Sparrow to spend more time anywhere, it would have only become longer, and at nearly two and a half hours, the movie is already long enough. The movie is paced reasonably well, so that's not so much the issue. What is the issue is that the film's violence is so visceral that the film's extended runtime makes you hope for the end just to see it stop. Red Sparrow contains multiple torture and rape sequences that are not for the faint of heart.

In the end, everything comes together in a conclusion that nearly everybody will predict some of, and some will predict all of, which is not to say it's unsatisfying. Red Sparrow isn't nearly as smart as it thinks it is, but it's maybe just smart enough to keep an audience entertained.

Jennifer Lawrence has successfully transitioned between adult and young adult movie roles over the past few years. Her latest movie, Red Sparrow, is decidedly adult. It's Rated R and even required Lawrence to film a nude scene. We've heard in the past about how weird nude scenes can be to film on the set of movies, but it seems as if Jennifer Lawrence was a different sort of case. In fact, the actress recently revealed that she got to the point where she felt fine while working in the buff on Red Sparrow. More specifically, she said:

Mostly, Jennifer Lawrence seems to be goofing around while talking about her experience on the set of Red Sparrow, but it's nice to see her have some levity about having to be naked in front of a room full of people who were watching her every action, especially considering the scene in question is one with pretty serious subject material. The actress told ET it was only one of several challenges that came with filming Red Sparrow. Other challenges included learning to do a new accent in the movie--she does a Russian accent in the film, her first non-American accent on the big screen. In addition, she says learning how to pretend to be a ballerina was rather difficult, and she only really got some of the basics down. While she did admit that she was nervous before filming the sex scene, it seems to also have just been one of the challenges of the job.

In Red Sparrow, Jennifer Lawrence plays a former Prima ballerina who has to deal with an injury that changes her life and forces her to look into another career. Luckily, she's a good fit for Sparrow school, which teaches her how to become a spy. Lawrence stars in the movie opposite Joel Edgerton. It hits theaters on March 2. Early reactions have already started to trickle out for the flick, including descriptions of the nude scene, which certainly sounds more brutal than sexy.

Jennifer Lawrence has diversified the types of roles she takes for years, switching between artsy fare like mother! and popular fare like The Hunger Games. This year, in addition to the R-rated Red Sparrow, you can also catch Jennifer Lawrence in the decidedly PG-13 X-Men: Dark Phoenix later in 2018.

Jennifer Lawrence isn't going let anyone criticize her fashion choices. After she wore a revealing dress for an event highlighting her new film, Red Sparrow, in London, the Academy Award-winning actress received more than a fair share of flack for her style choice. Mostly because it was so low cut and London was extremely cold at the time. Hitting social media today to discuss the matter, Lawrence has clapped back something fierce. The actress considered herself "extremely offended" by the "ridiculous" commentary for her outfit.

Her response, delivered to her official Facebook account, is a rare rant from the acclaimed, world-beloved actress. While Jennifer Lawrence isn't known to hit the web to talk about these matters, something about this particular controversy struck the actress the wrong way. She went as far as to call the whole incident "sexist" and believes the outpour of negative comments delivered to her attire is not the way we should conduct ourselves as feminists today. Moreover, she believes that talking about something as frivolous as what someone is wearing in the cold is distracting us from the bigger issues.

These comments come shortly after Jennifer Lawrence announced she is taking a break from acting for a year. She's reportedly going to take that year off to focus on working with the organization Represent.Us, which hopes to get young people engaged politically. It's her attempt to try to "fix our democracy." Before she possibly steps back momentarily from acting, Lawrence will appear in two upcoming movies this year. The first is the aforementioned Red Sparrow, which comes out on March 2nd. She is also reprising her role as Mystique in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which hits theaters on November 2nd.

Jennifer Lawrence also recently appeared in the controversial mother!, which unjustly earned the actress a Razzie nomination. Say what you will about Lawrence, but she didn't deserve that nomination for her committed performance. Also, be sure not to talk about her dress. You know what will happen.

Jennifer Lawrence is one of the biggest stars and most acclaimed actresses working today. Ever since she announced her arrival in 2010's Winter's Bone, the actress has been a major part of the Hollywood landscape. But the days of her being ever-present on cinema screens seems to be coming to an end, at least for a little while. Jennifer Lawrence has announced she is taking a year off from acting to try and use her celebrity to do some good. The actress will be working to help reform our political process by getting people engaged, as she explained:

Jennifer Lawrence has never been shy about espousing her political beliefs in the past and now it looks like she will be using her celebrity to take action and make a difference. As the actress told ET, the organization she will be working with, Represent.Us is a non-partisan non-proft organization that aims to stop corruption. The mission of the organization is to bring together people of all political stripes to engage in the process and help pass anti-corruption laws to outlaw bribery and end secret money to fix the election process. Jennifer Lawrence is a member of the non-profit's Creative Council along with other industry names like Rachel McAdams, Kerry Washington and J.J. Abrams.

Part of what people love about Jennifer Lawrence is her candor. Whether it be her self-awareness, honesty or willingness to speak her mind, the actress has often been a refreshing contrast from the canned and carefully crafted images many public figures display. So naturally, using her celebrity to get people engaged politically should come as no surprise to fans of the actress. While many often tell Hollywood celebrities or sports figures to stick to their occupation and stay out of politics, these people are in a unique position to use their fame to fight for things they believe in. In theory being against corruption should be something everyone can agree upon and hopefully the actress can make a difference in this aim.

A year off could also be restorative for the actress, who has been a constant presence in Hollywood for some time. Since Winter's Bone she has vacillated between huge blockbuster franchises like X-Men and The Hunger Games and more prestige fare like Silver Linings Playbook, which earned her her first Oscar and launched her career into the stratosphere. It will be interesting to see if any other actresses break through in the next year and what Jennifer Lawrence will do after she makes her inevitable return.

But fret not J.Law fans, the actress still has some movies in the can to entertain you in 2018. You can next see Jennifer Lawrence playing an entirely different, far more dangerous political game in Francis Lawrence's Red Sparrow, in theaters on March 2nd. Then she returns to the X-Men franchise as Mystique in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, in theaters on November 2nd.

From playing Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games film series to mother in Darren Aronofsky's movie of the same, Jennifer Lawrence has played many different roles since her acting career. Her next movie, Red Sparrow, sees her portraying a Russian spy named Dominika Egorova, who has been trained to use seduction to complete her objectives. What made Red Sparrow more challenging that some of her other roles, though, was having to pull off a convincing Russian accent. In fact, this movie marked Lawrence's first time using a foreign accent at all. The actress said:

It's hard enough being the lead in a movie, TV show or play, but to have to use a foreign accent while playing the character, and a convincing one at that, can be extremely difficult. American actors have especially had trouble with playing Russian characters, so even though Jennifer Lawrence is one of Hollywood's most talented actresses right now, it sounds like it was still a difficult endeavor. We'll have to wait until Red Sparrow hits theaters in a few weeks to see how the full performance turned out, but as she said later in her interview with ET Online, she doesn't want to go to into detail about how she handled the Russian accent until everyone can watch the Francis Lawrence-directed movie. She continued:

Jennifer Lawrence wasn't the only performer in Red Sparrow who had to speak differently. Her co-star, Joel Edgerton, plays CIA agent Nathaniel Nash, requiring him to set aside his Australian accent for the project. Unlike Lawrence, though, Edgerton already had experience playing Americans, such as in The Great Gatsby and Black Mass, so it was familiar territory for him. Going back to Lawrence, another challenge that she had to deal with on Red Sparrow was learning ballet, as Dominika Egorova is a ballerina before she's recruited to be a spy. Granted, you won't see Lawrence performing Swan Lake or anything like that, but going through four months of training was a good character study. Between the Russian accent and the ballet training, as well as having to appear nude for a particular scene, it certainly sounds like Red Sparrow will go down as one of Lawrence's more eventful productions.

Red Sparrow will be released in theaters on march 2, but early reactions to the movie have already poured in. If you're interested in learning what other movies are coming out this year (like X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which will see Jennifer Lawrence playing Mystique for the fourth time), head over to our 2018 release schedule.

Since rising to fame at the start of the decade with movies like Winter's Bone, X-Men: First Class and The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence has become one of Hollywood's most popular stars. Her latest movie is Red Sparrow (adapted from the Jason Matthews-penned book of the same name), which follows a Russian spy who is sent to target a CIA agent for her first mission, but ends up falling for him and considers becoming a double agent. Red Sparrow is still two weeks away from being released to the masses, but early reactions have already come in on social media, and it looks like the movie could be another win for the actress' resume, though it's not for the squeamish.

Starting off, CinemaBlend's own Eric Eisenberg praised Red Sparrow for its action and brutality, speculating that this might be the first in a series of movies.

Next, The Tracking Board's Jeff Sneider praised Jennifer Lawrence for her performance in Red Sparrow and noted that the movie is just the kind of fare that adults will appreciate.

Erik Davis from Fandango also commended Jennifer Lawrence for her work on Red Sparrow, though he did note that the movie is a little longer and doesn't pack as much action as something like the Charlize Theron-led Atomic Blonde.

Indiewire's Kate Erbland said in her reaction that Red Sparrow is an intense movie, and certainly not something that the kiddies should see.

One of Red Sparrow's detractors was Nigel M. Smith from People, who felt this wasn't anywhere near an empowering action movie for women like Atomic Blonde was last year.

Finally, although Indiewire's David Ehrlich appreciated Red Sparrow, he suspects that the public won't enjoy it as much as he did, to put it lightly.

Overall, it sounds like Red Sparrow is a decent action movie that's worth checking out during the spring cinematic season. However, as more reactions and reviews come in, and given the movie's subject matter, it's possible the reception might become more mixed, making it comparable to Jennifer Lawrence's last movie, the extremely polarizing mother! from director Darren Aronofsky.

Red Sparrow will be released in theaters on March 2. If you're interested in finding out what other movies are coming later in the year (like X-Men: Dark Phoenix, where Jennifer Lawrence will reprise Mystique), head over to our 2018 release schedule.

A while back, we had heard that director Francis Lawrence was aiming for a hard R rating for his upcoming thriller Red Sparrow. Well, ask and you shall receive. The spy movie, starring Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence, is getting an R rating, and a hard R at that. The film has earned this distinction for strong violence, torture, sexual content, language and some graphic nudity. Yup, that will just about do it. There aren't too many boxes that this film isn't checking in the R rating department, and as promised, Francis Lawrence and his team didn't chicken out or get cold feet. They're poised to deliver a brutal, sultry and thrilling spy film.

The R rating was confirmed in the latest trailer for the film that aired during last night's Super Bowl, and fits perfectly with the story this film is selling. An R rating by itself is not indicative of quality, but it does show what kind of story the filmmakers are aiming to tell and what tools they have at their disposal to do so. Some films benefit from being creatively restricted by a PG-13 rating, while others need the room to flourish that an R rating provides. You can get away with plenty of violence in a PG-13 film, but torture and especially sexual content and nudity are safe bets to earn an R rating. In Red Sparrow, Jennifer Lawrence's Dominika Egorova becomes a master of spycraft, and part of that involves seduction and manipulation. This R rating will allow this film to dive deeply into the sexually explicit elements of the story and be the sexy spy movie it can be.

Comparisons have been made between Red Sparrow and the character Black Widow from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While there are no doubt similarities (both characters are Russian and ballerinas), the R rating is just another indicator of how different Red Sparrow will be from the eventual Black Widow movie. This will not be about gadgets, big action set pieces or connecting to a shared universe; this will be more of a down-and-dirty spy film that doesn't pull punches, as well as shows graphic violence and torture. That is part of what could set Red Sparrow apart from many of the more well-known spy films out there.

In this day and age, spy films often fit the mold of traditional blockbusters, and while that can deliver some truly exciting cinematic experiences, these films skew closer to action movies than thrillers. Mission: Impossible, the James Bond films and even the Bourne franchise feel more like the former rather than the latter. While these movies are all a blast, they have a certain mass-market appeal that precludes the sort of slow burn tension punctuated by moments of intense violence that I am expecting from Red Sparrow. This is not a qualitative judgement of one being better or worse, but it is sometimes fun to see something a little different that makes you squirm in your seat, and hopefully the R-rated Red Sparrow provides that.

Red Sparrow is directed by Francis Lawrence and stars Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Jeremy Irons and Charlotte Rampling. Red Sparrow hits theaters on March 2. Check out our guide to see all of 2018's exciting, female-fronted films.

Jennifer Lawrence is unquestionably one of the biggest -- if not the biggest -- actresses in Hollywood, so it's only fitting that the ad for her latest film play during what will likely end up being the biggest television event of the year. We are now less than a month away from the release of Francis Lawrence's Red Sparrow, and now we have a brand new look at the film courtesy of the Super Bowl. Feast your eyes on Jennifer Lawrence as a cool Russian spy in the new TV spot for Red Sparrow. Enjoy!

At only 30 seconds (because Super Bowl ads are like crazy expensive), the Red Sparrow TV spot doesn't have much time to show itself off. The commercial focuses much more on the basic plot of the film and letting audiences know the Jennifer Lawrence is a woman who was essentially forced to be an elite Russian spy after witnessing something that she shouldn't have. After crossing paths with Joel Edgeton's CIA agent, Lawrence's mission goes sideways and he urges her to escape her spymasters, which obviously wouldn't be easy. There's not much tease of any of the action like previous trailers, but that's just more to look forward to later. Also, we can confirm that, yes, Jennifer Lawrence is out of Joel Edgerton's league.

Based on the first book in author Jason Matthews' series of novels, Red Sparrow centers on Dominika Egorova, a Russian ballerina who is recruited to attend the Sparrow School - an academy where young women are trained as spies. For her first assignment, she is told to target and seduce a CIA agent (Joel Edgerton) in the hopes of extracting information, but the mission goes sideways when she begins to develop real feelings for him.

This writer is still a bit on the fence about Red Sparrow, which he has accidentally typed as Black Sparrow three times because of all the Black Widow similarities. It seems interesting and it's nice to see Jennifer Lawrence branching out in a mature R-rated, action-heavy role, but there hasn't really been a strong hook outside of the premise. That may just be more a result of a lackluster marketing campaign, so we'll see how it all comes together in when the movie releases in theaters.

Red Sparrow is directed by Francis Lawrence who reteams with his Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence for the new spy thriller. The movie is expected to release in theaters on March 2, 2018, so we don't have to wait too much longer from now. There are plenty of other movies coming out in theaters this year and you can keep track of each of them with our 2018 movie release guide. For more movie news, make sure to keep it right here at CinemaBlend and we'll keep you updated with new information as soon as it becomes available.

In The Avengers: Age of Ultron, audiences were treated to a flashback showing the origins of Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) in the Russian Black Widow program. Now, it looks like director Francis Lawrence is going to tap a similar creative well for his upcoming espionage thriller, Red Sparrow. In fact, Lawrence understands the comparisons to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's femme fatale super spy, but he also implores audiences to realize that this is a very different type of movie because it's based on the Red Sparrow book, and not Marvel Comics. The Hunger Games and I Am Legend director explained:

If you have kept up with Red Sparrow's development at all, then there is a good chance that you have already heard about these comparisons. In the same way that people joked that last year's Life was a secret prequel to this year's Venom movie, others also noted that Red Sparrow could easily be a secret Black Widow origin movie -- which was always unlikely, given the fact that an entirely different studio made Red Sparrow. The comparisons seem to make sense to Francis Lawrence, but he's not leaning into them because he didn't look at Black Widow as a source of inspiration.

Despite some of the inherent similarities shared between Red Sparrow and Black Widow, Francis Lawrence made sure to note the differences between them in his conversation with Screen Rant. Perhaps most notably, while Natasha Romanoff often spends much of the Avengers movies and Captain America movies doing high-flying acrobatics and using cool gadgets, Red Sparrow will lean far more heavily on a grounded sensibility in which Jennifer Lawrence's Dominika Egorova will need to use her body and her mind to escape danger. Both are female, Russian assassins, but the stories do not cross-pollinate beyond that core idea and share much in terms of tone or style. As much as fans want to classify them as similar ideas, Francis Lawrence asserts that Sparrow is a wholly unique story that sticks to a more realistic and authentic sensibility.

This distinction is probably best for everyone, as the fact that differences between Red Sparrow and the MCU's most-experienced female hero already exist will go a long way towards helping Marvel within the next few years. If you haven't already heard, it was recently announced that a Black Widow movie started development at Marvel Studios. With Red Sparrow already in the cultural zeitgeist, a spinoff film centering on the exploits of Ms. Romanoff will likely once again draw comparisons, so it's up to Lawrence's film to prove how different they truly are.

Jennifer Lawrence's gritty Russian killer will make her silver screen debut when Red Sparrow premieres in theaters on March 2. As for Black Widow, Scarlett Johansson's super spy will make her next appearance in the MCU when Avengers: Infinity War premieres on May 4.

Going to the movie theater is often a fun experience, but nowadays it's also an expensive one. Between buying the tickets, potentially paying extra to see it in 3D and/or IMAX and also potentially getting concessions, you're guaranteed to be dropping quite a few dollars. So any opportunity to decrease the hit to your wallet is always welcome, and fortunately, if you're interested in seeing some of 20th Century Fox's biggest releases later this year, you'll have the opportunity to obtain cheaper movie tickets thanks to a T-Mobile deal.

T-Mobile has partnered with Fox to offer $4 movie tickets for five of the studio's blockbusters in 2018: Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Red Sparrow, Deadpool 2, Alita: Battle Angel and X-Men: Dark Phoenix. This exclusive deal will also see T-Mobile running promotions for those same movies. The reduced ticket prices are part of T-Mobile's Tuesdays loyalty-rewards program, and its customers will also be able to enter sweepstakes to win trips to movie premieres and other VIP experiences, as well as see exclusive content. However, in order to obtain your $4 ticket, you'll need to follow specific rules. In the case of Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Variety reports that T-Mobil customers have until 4:59 a.m. EST on Wednesday, January 24 to claim their ticket for the movie, and then it needs to be redeemed through Atom Tickets by January 28. This will be the same process for the other four movies.

According to T-Mobile, the phone carrier's movie deals have been the most popular of its T-Mobile Tuesdays promotions, with 61% of customers redeeming a movie deal in 2017. Granted, the selection is small, but if you're already on a T-Mobile plan or intend to switch over, as well as use Atom Tickets, having discounted tickets available for any kind of movie is a nice bonus. This is the second time in recent years that T-Mobile has partnered with Fox to provide discounted movie tickets, previously offering a special deal on War for the Planet of the Apes. T-Mobile has also previously partnered Warner Bros, Paramount, Lionsgate and Universal on specific movies, so clearly the company knows that a good way to stay on their customers' good side is by making it easier for them to visit the theater every now and then.

Whether you take advantage of T-Mobile's $4 ticket deal or decide to obtain your ticket through other means, you can see Maze Runner: The Death Cure in theaters starting January 26, followed by Red Sparrow on March 2, Deadpool 2 on May 18, Alita: Battle Angel on July 20 and X-Men: Dark Phoenix on November 2. You can also browser through our 2018 premiere guide to see what other movies will be released this year.

You may not have noticed it, but the final results of the 2017 domestic box office were historic. For the first time since 1958, the top three films in a given year all featured female protagonists: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Beauty and the Beast, and Wonder Woman. While there is still a lot of work to be done in Hollywood where progress is concerned, it's definitely a good start -- but more importantly, has us excited to watch the female-fronted features of this upcoming year.

The good news is that 2018 is totally stacked with fantastic-looking films that primarily center on female characters. They are set to come out all throughout the year, but below and across the next few pages we've highlighted some of the biggest titles for which you can get excited.

Proud Mary -- January 12

Taraji P. Henson has done the assassin thing before, previously starring in the ensemble feature Smokin Aces, but that was long before her popularity exploded thanks to her part on the television series Empire. Proud Mary finds her working with London Has Fallen director Babak Najafi, playing out a story that sees our protagonist deal with the fallout of a hit gone wrong and sudden custody of a young boy.

Fifty Shades Freed -- February 9

Dakota Johnson is back in the finale of the Fifty Shades series, which has been a part of the big screen world going back to 2015's Fifty Shades of Grey. In the trilogy capper, Fifty Shades Freed, director James Foley plays out the conclusion of the story between Anastasia Steele (Johnson) and Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan). Will they, or won't they end up together? We'll find out in February.

Annihilation -- February 23

Ex Machina made for a stunning directorial debut for filmmaker Alex Garland back in 2014, but his primary lead there was Domhnall Gleeson. This time around he's working with Natalie Portman, who stars as a biologist who joins an expedition into a mysterious environmental disaster zone. Fitting into the larger theme of this feature, Annihilation is a movie overflowing with incredibly talented actresses, including not only Portman but also Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, and Tessa Thompson.

Red Sparrow -- March 2

Francis Lawrence's Red Sparrow has been jokingly referred to as the Black Widow movie that Marvel Studios has yet to make - and it's actually not a terrible comparison. Based on the novel by Jason Matthews, the film stars Jennifer Lawrence as a highly-trained Russian spy who has been assigned the task of seducing a CIA officer (Joel Edgerton), but during her mission she starts to fall for her target and begins questioning her own loyalties.

A Wrinkle In Time -- March 9

Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time has been inspiring the imaginations of young readers ever since it was first published back in 1962, and after years of false starts in development Ava Duvernay is bringing it to life for Disney. Newcomer Storm Reid stars in the adaptation as Meg Murry, a young girl who goes on a cosmic adventure with her genius brother (Deric McCabe) and classmate (Levi Miller) searching for her scientist father. This is another film featuring an amazing ensemble of actresses, including Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Tomb Raider -- March 16

Lara Croft is an iconic heroine in the video game world, and for the first time since 2003's Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life she's coming back to the big screen. A film not in continuity with the Angelina Jolie titles, the Tomb Raider reboot stars Alicia Vikander as Croft, and has her on her first adventure trying to complete the unfinished work of her deceased archaeologist father (Dominic West).

The New Mutants -- April 13

As the title suggests, Josh Boone's The New Mutants is a group film -- one set within the X-Men universe -- but it will have a female character as its central protagonist. The movie is based on the famed Demon Bear story from Marvel Comics, primarily constructed by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz, and as such will have Danielle Moonstar (Blu Hunt) as its central figure. Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, and Alice Braga also star along with Charlie Heaton, and Henry Zaga.

Overboard -- April 20

The original Overboard from 1987 was a more male-centric affair, with Kurt Russell's character primarily driving the plot, but directors Bob Fisher and Rob Greenberg are doing a gender swap with their remake. Now Anna Faris is playing the mistreated employee who finds an opportunity to get back at her boss (Eugenio Derbez) when an accident causing to fall over the edge of his yacht leaves him with amnesia.

Ocean's 8 -- June 8

With the exception of Julia Roberts' character, the main ensemble driving Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's trilogy was a boys club. Now the franchise is coming back, however, and it's all women in the driver's seat. Sandra Bullock is front and center as Debbie Ocean, Danny's sister, in Ocean's 8, but joining her in the star-studded blockbuster is Cate Blanchett, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Mindy Kaling, Awkwafina, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Dakota Fanning, Olivia Munn and Katie Holmes.

The Incredibles 2 -- June 15

After 14 years of waiting, audiences will finally get to see Pixar's The Incredibles back up on the silver screen in 2018. The twist, however, is that while the first movie was mostly about Bob Parr a.k.a. Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson), the adventure in The Incredibles 2 will be more about Helen Parr a.k.a. Elastigirl (Helen Hunt) -- leaving her husband at home to take care of Jack-Jack.

Ant-Man & The Wasp -- July 6

Unlike most of the other titles on this list, Peyton Reed's Ant-Man & The Wasp is a two-hander (as the name implies), but given that it's the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie with a female character in the title, we're counting it. We first met Evangeline Lilly's Hope Van Dyne in 2015's Ant-Man, but while she spent most of that movie trying to convince her father, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) to let her suit up, only in the sequel will finally see her do it as the eponymous Wasp.

Alita: Battle Angel -- July 20

James Cameron spent years and years developing a vision for a big screen adaptation of the manga Alita: Battle Angel, and that vision he helped come to life as a producer and screenwriter will be in theaters this summer. Rosa Salazar stars as Alita, an artificial young woman who is rebooted by a scientist (Christoph Waltz) with no memory of her past life. This mystery sends her on a journey of self-discovery, but in the process she learns that what she wants to know and her quest to get the information could change the world.

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! -- July 20

Raking in $144 million domestically (making it the sixth biggest musical of all time in the U.S.) and making a total of $609.8 million worldwide, Mamma Mia! was a smash hit back in 2008... and now that a decade has passed it's time for the sequel. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again will once again star Amanda Seyfried as Sophie, pregnant and learning about her mother's past, but surrounds her with Meryl Streep, Lily James, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Cher, Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan, Dominic Cooper, Stellan Skarsgard, and Andy Garcia.

Nasty Women -- August 10

It may surprise you to learn that Overboard isn't the only gender-swapping remake set for release in summer 2018. Chris Addison's Nasty Women has a different title, but it's actually a remake of the Steve Martin-Michael Caine classic Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. In this one, Rebel Wilson and Anne Hathaway play the Martin/Caine roles, respectively, competing con artists who agree to a winner-take-all bet where the loser will leave town forever.

The Happytime Murders -- August 17

The Happytime Murders is a film that has been in development for a long time with a number of different leads - including Cameron Diaz and Katherine Heigl. After nearly 10 years, however, the film is finally on its way to theaters, and will feature Melissa McCarthy in the lead human role. A production of the Jim Henson Company, it's a Who Framed Roger Rabbit-esque feature where human detectives try to solve a puppet murder in a world where puppets and humans co-exist.

Crazy Rich Asians -- August 17

Actress Constance Wu has become a popular television star thanks to her role on the hit ABC series Fresh Off The Boat, but in 2018 she'll be bringing her talents to the big screen in Jon M. Chu's Crazy Rich Asians. Based on the novel of the same name, Wu will star as Rachel Chu, an economics professor who suddenly finds herself thrust into the world of wealth and excess when she goes to the wedding of her boyfriend's best friend in Singapore.

Halloween -- October 19

Laurie Strode is arguably the queen of the Scream Queens in horror, and this October will see Jamie Lee Curtis return to the role for the first time since 1998's Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. Blumhouse Productions is producing the new Halloween, which has been co-written by Danny McBride and David Gordon Green, but not much has been revealed about it at this point -- beyond the fact that it will once again see Laurie facing off against her psychotic older brother, Michael Myers.

The Girl In The Spider's Web -- October 19

In 2018, actress Claire Foy will be following in the footsteps of Noomi Rapace and Rooney Mara, starring as goth hacker Lisbeth Salander in the upcoming The Girl In The Spider's Web. Based on the book of the same name by David Lagercrantz, who continued the Millennium series following the death of author Stieg Larsson, the story will see Lisbeth and reporter Mikael Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason) once again team up; this time the duo facing off against a criminal organization that calls itself The Spider Society.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix -- November 2

The X-Men franchise has tried to adapt the legendary Dark Phoenix Saga before, but it didn't really work -- and part of the reason is because it still tried to make Wolverine the protagonist. This time around it looks like director Simon Kinberg will be righting those sins of the past, and will let X-Men: Dark Phoenix really belong to Sophie Turner's Jean Grey. Obviously the other major characters will have important roles to play as well, including James McAvoy's Professor X, Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique, Tye Sherdan's Cyclops, and Alexandra Shipp's Storm, but there is no other character who should be dominating the spotlight in this story.

Bumblebee -- December 21

The Transformers franchise, under the development of director Michael Bay, was always driven by its male characters, but that will be one of many big things changing for the franchise with the introduction of Travis Knight's Bumblebee to the canon. Rather than featuring another Shia LaBeouf or Mark Wahlberg, this movie's main human character will be played by Oscar nominee Hailee Steinfeld, who will be driving around the titular character as a yellow VW Bug for a late 1980s adventure.

Mary Poppins Returns -- December 25

It was only a few years ago that Disney refreshed the world's memory about the delightful Mary Poppins with their biopic Saving Mr. Banks, and now we'll actually get to see a true blue sequel to the original. Picking up years after the original, Mary Poppins Returns finds Jane (Emily Mortimer) and Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw) all grown up and finding themselves visited by the magical nanny who changed their lives as children: Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt). The outstanding cast also includes Julie Walters, Dick Van Dyke, Meryl Streep, Angela Lansbury, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, and should be a wonderful Christmas treat.

We don't know for sure if we'll ever get the Black Widow solo movie that a lot of people want and the character truly deserves. But even if we don't, Red Sparrow looks like it might scratch that itch. The film stars Jennifer Lawrence as a ballerina who is turned into a human weapon and femme fatale by Russian intelligence. (Seriously, what is it about being a ballerina that gets you all the best spy gigs?) The newest trailer for the film teases a brutal and intense spy thriller, so take a look.

The first trailer for Red Sparrow focused more on tone and didn't provide many plot details, but this new preview is much meatier. We see Jennifer Lawrence's character forced into becoming a 'sparrow' and shedding who she was to turn into a master of deception. It looks like the main conflict will arise when she encounters a CIA agent played by Joel Edgerton. I will be curious to see how the film approaches the trope of the spy falling for a foreign agent. This has been done many times before, but with the talent involved in this film, I have confidence that they will bring something new to it. Jennifer Lawrence looks like she will be giving a very physical and nuanced performance here. Her character, Dominika Egorova, is cold, emotionless and calculating throughout much of the trailer, so it should be fun to watch her and see if she's tricking the audience too. This trailer gives this film a real nail-biter feel, and something tells me that we won't know whose side Dominika is truly on until the final credits roll.

Female-led action films are all the rage these days, with Taraji P. Henson throwing down for Proud Mary this month. But Red Sparrow is more of a thriller and does a lot to differentiate itself from another female-led spy film like Atomic Blonde. That film was very much sold on Charlize Theron kicking the crap out of people and looking awesome doing it. Red Sparrow is quite different. This trailer is selling itself on the spycraft and the intrigue. Instead of being dominated by action, Red Sparrow focuses on manipulation and covert affairs, punctuated by moments of intense and brutal violence.

The tension in this trailer and hopefully the film will make the violence all that more intense and jarring when it comes. The violence won't be shortchanged either. Red Sparrow has been planned for an R rating from the beginning. With all the sex and murder that comes with the spy job description, it will probably need it. Other than the X-Men franchise, we haven't seen Jennifer Lawrence kicking ass on screen since her time as Katniss Everdeen. It will be good to have the talented actress back in what appears to be a psychologically intense spy movie.

Red Sparrow is based on a book by Jason Matthews. The film stars Jennifer Lawrence and reunites her with her Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Mockingjay director Francis Lawrence. Red Sparrow arrives in theaters on March 2. Check out our guide to see the rest of the biggest releases hitting theaters this year.

It certainly had its fair share of duds, but 2017 was a pretty impressive year, and 2018 looks to be potentially even more exciting. There are franchise starters, highly-anticipated sequels, and new works coming from some of the best filmmakers currently working in the industry. The entire year's schedule is filled with titles that make the heart of the average cinephile beat a little faster.

Out of the multitudes of films heading to your local theaters, however, there are some blue chip prospects on which you definitely need to be keeping an eye. There are many you've probably already marked down on your personal calendar, but some of these titans might not be on your radar, as they're coming out in the later half of the year. With that in mind, please enjoy the following rundown of the 25 films you'll definitely want to catch in the next year. And if you want the full blast of what's coming, check out our full 2018 release schedule.

Fifty Shades Freed - February 9

The Fifty Shades series has been sweeping its fans off of their feet for some time now, so the news that this February's installment in the series is going to be the big finale might dismay some movie fans. But it looks like Anastasia and Christian's happy ending is going to get a bit more complicated and dangerous than either of them could have guessed, as Fifty Shades Darker set up a common enemy for the happy couple. It might be the end, but it looks like the series will finish out with a bang.

Black Panther - February 16

After Captain America: Civil War, there were two new heroes folks were dying to see more of on the big screen: Peter Parker a.k.a. Spider-Man and King T'Challa a.k.a. Black Panther. With Parker's adventures already coming to theaters in this past summer's Spider-Man: Homecoming, it's now time for the new ruler of Wakanda to take the throne at the box office. Director Ryan Coogler is bringing mysticism, royal intrigue, and hot action and music beats to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and each new look at this flick looks better than the last.

Red Sparrow - March 2

While Fifty Shades of Grey's trilogy may be wrapping up at the box office, a new three part epic of sexy danger is heading to theaters just in time to fill the void. In Red Sparrow, Jennifer Lawrence plays a foreign operative who's trained to kill, but also to seduce. Her target is Joel Edgerton, a CIA operative whom she's tasked with subverting with her particular set of skills. But, of course, she has second thoughts as she starts falling for him, and if the two subsequent novels have anything to say about it, things between the two won't be easily settled by the end of this film.

A Wrinkle In Time - March 9

It's kind of amazing that Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time hasn't already become a major motion picture trilogy already, considering the books have held such sway with sci-fi fans for decades. Thankfully, director Ava Duvernay has taken up the task, and has the first installment heading to theaters early in 2018. With a cast that includes newcomer Storm Reid playing adventurous lead Meg Murry, and an all-star supporting line-up that includes Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling, Resse Witherspoon, and Chris Pine, there's a lot of firepower behind this film. Don't be surprised if A Wrinkle In Time becomes a sleeper hit in its March release date.

Tomb Raider - March 16

Making a video game movie is similar to trying to hunt for ancient treasure: it's dangerous, a lot of people are out to see you fail, and each obstacle is more perilous than the last. But Alicia Vikander's Tomb Raider reboot looks like it takes after its video game equivalent, as it too dumps a lot of the ridiculous nature of the previous incarnation, and amps up the brave action in its place. Plus, how can you say no to Walton Goggins as a charismatic villain?

Pacific Rim: Uprising - March 23

The industry said it would never happen: that Pacific Rim would fall into the same bin as Hellboy and never be resurrected for one more ride. Well, the doubters have some humble pie to eat now, as not only does Pacific Rim: Uprising exist, it looks like it's poised to kick more Kaiju ass than its predecessor. With John Boyega, Cailee Spaeny, and Scott Eastwood all on board as a new trio of Jaeger jockeys, and some new and exciting abilities that some Kaiju have adapted since their last appearance, the apocalypse looks like it's far from cancelled.

Ready Player One - March 30

There exists a phenomenon known as the "Spielberg Double Play": a place in time in which legendary director Steven Spielberg cracks the bat twice in the span of a year, and delivers a prestige picture and a blockbuster at the same time. We've seen it before, and after The Post has excited critics and awards guilds all over this past month, Ready Player One will thrill audiences on a massive scale only four months later. Ernest Cline's pop culture-fueled novel is the sort of thing the director excels at bringing to the screen, and with what's been shown so far, it looks like we're all in for a hell of a ride.

The New Mutants - April 13

Take the essence and rules of the X-Men universe, but sculpt it as a John Hughes-infused horror film. That's what Josh Boone's The New Mutants is aiming to do, as the latest spin-off from the X-Men franchise looks very experimental as a comic book movie. With the help of Stranger Things' Charlie Heaton, Game Of Thrones' Maisie Williams, and Split's Anya-Taylor Joy, this horrific tale of mutation and rebellion has a lot going for it... though you may need to watch this one with the lights on.

Avengers: Infinity War - May 4

Have you heard about Avengers: Infinity War, the indie sensation set to light the world on fire next May? Chances are you probably haven't, so we'll just give a quick rundown. Almost every hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is taking on Thanos, an intergalactic warlord that wants all six Infinity Stones to himself. Should he get them, the universe is done for, but we'll have Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Pepper Potts, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor, and The Hulk helping protect the universe. And helping them out is Doctor Strange, Black Panther, War Machine, and a ton of other characters. So yeah... that sounds like something exciting people would watch, right?

Solo: A Star Wars Story - May 25

The Star Wars empire is chugging along quite well, with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story helping open a new avenue of action besides the episodic adventures in that galaxy far, far away. But the franchise enters uncharted waters when Solo: A Star Wars Story centers its entire story around a major character we all know and love: roguish smuggler Han Solo. It might sound intimidating, but Star Wars is certainly having a good run right now.

Deadpool 2 - June 1

Great power, no responsibility, and tons of snark - that's what the still-untitled Deadpool 2 promises the world. And considering how big of a hit the first film was, the pressure is on for David Leitch's X-Men spin-off. This sequel is flipping the bird to expectations, and going for another round of balls to the walls weirdness, with all of the swear words and explosions you could ever want. This is probably a good time to remind the world that yes, Deadpool 2 isn't exactly something you'd take your kids to.

The Incredibles 2 - June 15

After 13 years of waiting, fans of The Incredibles will finally see the next chapter in the adventures of the Parr family! Not much is known about Brad Bird's return to Pixar, except the following: it takes place right after the finale of The Incredibles, with Helen taking the front seat for the action, and Bob staying home to help take care of Jack Jack - who's developing powers of his own. Excited isn't even the word to describe how anticipated The Incredibles 2 is, but it's a good start.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - June 22

Take The Lost World: Jurassic Park, mix in some of the better parts of Jurassic Park III, and set it after the events of Jurassic World. That's basically the insult free recipe for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, as it looks to be taking bits and pieces of the sequels and incorporating them into a new, thrilling adventure. With Owen, Clare, and a team of operatives trying to save the dinosaurs of the failed theme park from an active volcano waiting to blow, the danger couldn't be greater. Let's just hope everyone's favorite raptor, Blue, hasn't gone too feral in the three years since Jurassic World.

Ant-Man and The Wasp - July 6

Despite some set-backs that threatened the first film, Ant-Man turned out to be quite a thrilling ride when it crossed the finish line. Now it's time for a fresh start for director Peyton Reed and all involved in the adventures of Scott Lang. Enter Ant-Man and The Wasp, a sequel that not only sees Evangeline Lily's Wasp team up with Paul Rudd's Ant-Man for the first time, but also sees the original Wasp returning to the fold as well. Michelle Pfeiffer is set to play the OG Wasp, and the idea of seeing her with Michael Douglas's Hank Pym is just as compelling as any of the Marvel action we'll expect to see in this follow-up.

Mission: Impossible 6 - July 27

The Mission: Impossible franchise is a beautiful beast, simply because it seems to get better as it goes on. However, Mission: Impossible 6 is interesting for a really important reason: it's the first time a writer/director has returned to make a second installment. Christopher McQuarrie is back at the helm continuing what he started with Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, with Tom Cruise and Rebecca Ferguson teaming up with Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg as they continue hunting down The Syndicate. If you ever wanted to know how to keep a franchise fresh after six films, the answer is apparently to make history and add a mustached Henry Cavill to the mix.

The Predator - August 3

Shane Black, albeit as an actor, helped originate the Predator franchise under tight, but successful, circumstances back in the '80s. While the brand has been active here and there over the past couple of decades, it's safe to say nothing has hit as powerfully as that original film, with the Predator facing off against a special ops team in the jungle. Now Black is back to take The Predator to suburbia as a writer/director, with a new team of badasses ready to show that ugly mother who's boss. We could go on, but the fact that Black has written and directed a new Predator movie is pretty much all you need to know to get hyped about this one.

Venom - October 5

The new Venom movie is looking to expand Sony's Spider-Man brand by using one of the most infamous baddies in the series' canon and give him his own film. With Tom Hardy playing Eddie Brock this time out, and an R-rating possibly given to the film, this is a far cry from when Topher Grace played the character in Spider-Man 3. With the success of Deadpool and Logan as precedent, an R-rated Venom could mean fantastic news for both Sony and the fans lining up to see some Hardy infused carnage (pun definitely intended).

X-Men: Dark Phoenix - November 2

Bringing the X-Men: First Class saga into the 1990's, X-Men: Dark Phoenix will see another change in director as producer/franchise stalwart Simon Kinberg is taking the helm this time out. It will also see the return to the big screen of one of the most beloved storylines in X-Men history: the Dark Phoenix saga. With Jessica Chastain playing the villain to this new piece, it cannot be understated that this film will be punching in a new weight class, as Chastain's gravitas only amps up the excitement this film brought by its mere existence. Also, Chastain vs. James McAvoy vs. Michael Fassbender? How do you pass up that title match?

Mulan - November 2

Disney's been doing some impressive work with its live-action remakes of animated classics, and their new version of Mulan looks to be no exception. While the musical nature of this new film is still in question, director Niki Caro and star Liu Yifei are on-board to bring the action of the animated modern classic to life. In a post-Beauty and The Beast world, this film only looks more and more exciting for true Disney fans.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - November 16

At the end of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Gellert Grindelwald basically promised he'd break out of custody only to commit further unspeakable acts. Well, the wizarding world is about to get a little more dangerous, as Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is fulfilling that promise, with the titular baddie making his way into the world again. This time around, magizoologist Newt Scamander will have some old friends and relations around to help out. In particular, we'll see his brother Theseus, and his mentor Albus Dumbledore, grace the screen to lend a hand.

Ralph Breaks The Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 - November 21

Upon its initial release, Wreck-it Ralph was a pleasant surprise that took the world of video games at the local arcade and gave it the Roger Rabbit treatment. So what should a film like that do for an impressive, stakes raising encore? It's time to take to the internet! With Ralph Breaks The Internet: Wreck-it Ralph 2 springing the giant heel turned hero and his pint-sized accomplice, Vanelope Von Schweetz, into the world wide web, there's a lot of trouble and heroism the two can get involved with. And seeing as every Disney Princess will be involved, that just makes this next chapter all the more amazing to behold.

Mortal Engines - December 14

When Peter Jackson lends his name to a production, that usually means that film will get a healthy bump in attention. So, naturally, we are keeping a close eye on Mortal Engines - an adaptation of Phillip Reeves' YA novel of the same name that Jackson is producing. An adventure that takes place when roving cities are dominating a post-apocalyptic landscape, this is another literary series that's looking to fill the void left by franchises such as Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games. To be completely honest, telling a story where giant moving cities can "eat" other cities is a pretty good start.

Aquaman - December 21

Everyone's been craving an Aquaman stand-alone adventure ever since Jason Momoa first made a cameo appearance in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Now that Justice League has introduced the audience to even more of his rebellious personality, folks are more keen to see the would-be Atlantean king. Not only does director James Wan share that enthusiasm for the character, but he has the power to deliver the DC Extended Universe its next break-out hit, putting Arthur Curry on the same pedestal that Diana of Thymescira a.k.a. Wonder Woman currently stands on.

Bumblebee - December 21

Five films, and countless Transformers later, Bumblebee is the first film in Paramount's Transformers Cinematic Universe that branches the story out into spin-off territory. With a 1980's setting and a female protagonist in Hailee Steinfeld's Charlie, the most loyal Transformer of them all will get into all sorts of trouble in a pre-Sam Witwicky era adventure. Depending on how well this film hits, we might see any number of the 13 other outlined stories the studio has in store for us. For now though, the fate of the Transformers franchise rests with Bumblebee.

Mary Poppins Returns - December 25

With all of the talk about returning franchises and source material being mined for more accurate film content, no other title on this list matches up to the hype that Mary Poppins Returns has been generating. With Emily Blunt taking over the role of the titular nanny 53 years after Julie Andrews made her famous, this new adventure sees the Banks children grown and with families of their own, but once again in need of Mary Poppins' help. Sequels like this can be frightening, especially with several decades of fandom to please, but something about Mary Poppins Returns feels amazingly right.

Jennifer Lawrence has one big movie hitting screens this weekend but they're not waiting to start showing off what she has coming up next. The first trailer for Red Sparrow is here. Lawrence's next film, after mother!, puts her in the position of a former ballet dancer, turned Russian spy, who uses her beauty to seduce the opposite side. Check out the first trailer below.

The trailer itself doesn't give us a great deal of information about what Red Sparrow is actually about. Jennifer Lawrence is front and center as we get a voice over explaining to us what "sparrows" are. They're elite Russian spies that are trained to get what they want through whatever means necessary, which from what the trailer shows us, covers everything from sex to murder. We do also get a brief glimpse of Lawrence's co-star in the trailer, as we see Joel Edgerton notice Lawrence as she walks around a pool in a revealing swimsuit, which we can guess is probably exactly what she wanted to happen.

Red Sparrow is based on a novel by Jason Matthews and follows Lawrence's character, who is named Dominika Egorova. She's a former ballerina who enters the "sparrow school" after injury forces her out of performing. One of her assignments is to get close to a CIA agent, played by Joel Edgerton, however, the relationship that forms between the two apparently becomes real, which leads to obvious problems for Egorova.

There's more than a little Jason Bourne in the trailer for Red Sparrow. We see Jennifer Lawrence involved in some brief moments of combat that show that, while the film is more thriller than action movie, there's still ample opportunity to see Lawrence kick some ass. Fitting, considering that Red Sparrow is directed by Francis Lawrence, who also directed the actress in most of her Hunger Games movies.

The novel Red Sparrow won a couple of awards and the author is apparently working on a sequel, so if the film version does well we can guess that the movie might become a small franchise. The film rights were sold before the book was published, which, while that's a somewhat common practice, shows that there's a strong feeling the material will do well on screen. While it's difficult to tell from this trailer, with a cast like Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Jeremy Irons, and others, they certainly have the right people involved to make a great movie.

If you're already looking forward to seeing Red Sparrow, you'll, unfortunately, have to wait a bit, as the movie isn't scheduled for release until March. If you simply really need a Jennifer Lawrence fix, you can check her out in mother! which hits theaters this weekend.

Movies have been looking to previously created material for films for about as long as there have been movies. While more recent media like video games have become popular options for adaptation in recent years, the number one places movies will always look is novels.

A lot of people like looking at source material before going in to see a film. It allows you to understand what's going on before you sit down, and it means that you can see where a movie has taken liberties and made changes to the source. If you're looking for something new to read, here are several books you can read before the movies are released.

It

Written By: Stephen King - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: September 8, 2017

Stephen King is no stranger to the film adaptation. However, his magnum opus It has only ever been brought to the small screen. While King's most recent big screen adaptation The Dark Tower, has many scratching their heads, It looks to be bringing all the chills of the novel to the screen. This movie will actually only tell half the story, of the main characters as children, with a sequel planned that will follow up with what happens when they all grow up. The new Pennywise looks truly terrifying, and that's a very good sign.

American Assassin

Written by: Vince Flynn - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: September 15, 2017

American Assassin is the first film adaptation of a series of spy thrillers by author Vince Flynn. They focus on a character named Mitch Rapp who, following the death of his girlfriend in a terrorist attack, joins the CIA and is trained to become a professional assassin. Dylan O'Brien will play Rapp in the film adaptation, which Michael Keaton takes on the role of the man who will teach Rapp to become the titular American Assassin. Expect to see this become a franchise if the first film does well.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Written by: Philip K. Dick - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: October 16, 2017

Blade Runner 2049 isn't technically based on this Philip K. Dick novel, and even the original Blade Runner took significant liberties with the source material. Still, if you want to know where the entire idea of replicants came from, you'll want to check out Dick's original story. To be fair, there may very well be elements from the book that weren't used in the original film which could end up being part of the sequel, so there's value in checking it out.

The Mountain Between Us

Written By: Charles Martin - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: October 6, 2017

The Mountain Between Us is a story that's equal parts disaster and romance. It focuses on two characters, a man, who will be played by Idris Elba in the film, and a woman, who will be portrayed by Kate Winslet. The pair are strangers who find that both their flights home have been canceled, but since both really have a need to get someplace quick, one of them charters a plane and offers a seat to the other. Unfortunately, that plane will crash in the wilderness, leaving the pair stranded. Since the book is described as a romance, we're assuming the tense situation draws the pair closer together.

Same Kind Of Different As Me

Written by: Ron Hall and Denver Moore, with Lynn Vincent - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: October 20, 2017

In addition to being based on a book, Same Kind of Different as Me is also based on a true story. The book tells the story of a Louisiana sharecropper, Denver Moore, who, following years of hardship, meets Ron and Deborah Hall. While they come from very different places, they have a profound impact on each other's lives. The film adaptation will see Greg Kinnear as Ron Hall and Rene Zellweger as Deborah, Djimon Hounsou plays Denver Moore. If you're looking for an emotional, uplifting tearjerker, this is likely to be a good one for you.

Thank You For Your Service

Written By: David Finkel - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: October 27, 2017

Thank You for Your Service is a nonfiction book that follows the post war life of several soldiers who try to adjust to life at home after being at war. Jason Hall, who wrote the screenplay for American Sniper, wrote the script and will also be taking the director's chair. The book takes a real look at the difficulty dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder which means this one will likely be a fairly heavy affair. Miles Teller and Haley Bennett star among others.

Murder On The Orient Express

Written By: Agatha Christie - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: November 10, 2017

Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot is one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time, but it's been quite a while since we've seen him on the big screen. Luckily Kenneth Branagh is here, with an absolutely epic mustache, to fix that. The story sees a murder take place on the famous train, leading to a limited number of suspects. The cast of Murder on the Orient Express is the definition of all-star, and we can't wait to check it out. Even if you read this one so you know who done it, it promises to still be a fun movie experience.

Molly's Game

Written By: Molly Bloom - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: November 22, 2017

Molly's Game is a true story about a woman who ran Hollywood's most exclusive underground poker game. Molly Brown is clearly a remarkable person, and a remarkable cast and crew are coming together to tell the story. Molly's Game will be the directorial debut of Aaron Sorkin, based on a screenplay he wrote. Jessica Chastain will play the lead, with Idris Elba and Kevin Costner also along for the ride. Seeing a cast like that read Sorkin's signature dialogue, just the way he wants it read, should be worth giving this one a look.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Written By: Chris Van Allsburg - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: December 20, 2017

Yes, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a sequel, but ultimately, it's still based on the original children's book that spawned the first film. The sequel looks to have very little in common with the book, as it will set its story inside a video game rather than a board game, but the world itself appears to be the same that Robin Williams entered in the original movie, so checking out the book will still be useful in seeing at least where the story's ideas came from.

Fifty Shades Freed

Written By: E.L James - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: February 9, 2018

As much as it may seem to be the case, not every movie is targeted toward 15-year-old boys. Some of them are targeted to their mothers. If you're already all in after the first two Fifty Shades movies, then clearly you're set for the end of the trilogy. Christian and Anastasia may have a fairly poor BDSM relationship, but that hasn't stopped the films from being smashing successes. We expect nothing less from the third film, which, once again, is being released around Valentine's Day because somebody has an odd sense of humor.

The Maze Runner: The Death Cure

Written By: James Dasher - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: February 9, 2018

It's taken much longer for the third film in the Maze Runner series to make it to theaters than was originally intended. A tragic accident on the set left Dylan O'Brien injured and unable to continue filming the first time around. Now that production has restarted, we expect to see this third entry in the franchise before too long. Hopefully, it won't suffer the same fate as the Divergent films. It would seem the trend of YA dystopia books informing movies may be coming to an end for a while. This could be the swan song.

Peter Rabbit

Written By: Beatrix Potter - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: February 9, 2018

Peter Rabbit is a classic children's story by Beatrix Potter about a bunny who disobeys his mother and sneaks into a local farm to eat vegetables, something we're guessing more mothers wish their kids would do. He's chased out by the owner, Mr. McGregor, losing his clothes in the process. We're guessing the film version will be expanding on the brief story. The film version is set to be a combination of live action and animation, with human actors as the human characters, while the animals will be animated.

Red Sparrow

Written By: Jason Matthews - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: March 2, 2018

Red Sparrow is the story of a Russian agent who is trained in the art of seducing western agents in order to obtain information. However, in this case, the agent actually falls in love with her target. Jennifer Lawrence will play the Russian while Joel Edgerton is set to star as her CIA target. Francis Lawrence will follow up his time directing Lawrence in another set of literary adaptations, The Hunger Games, in what is going to be a much more mature story.

A Wrinkle in Time

Written By: Madeleine L'Engle -READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: March 9, 2018

One of the most anticipated film adaptations in 2018 is likely A Wrinkle in Time. The book is an award winner that nearly every school age child has read since it was released in the 1960s. The story follows three young children who go in search of a missing scientist, the father of two of them. The story is fantastic in every sense of the word and the first trailer for the film shows that Disney is really working to make the movie equally stunning. As with many of these books, there's more where this came from if the first movie is a hit.

Robin Hood

Written By: Various Authors - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: March 22, 2018

The stories of Robin Hood are so old that there's no single author credited with the creation of the character. The stories predate novels, but many books have been written about the heroic outlaw. Perhaps read several of them in order to get an idea of the different ways the character has been interpreted over time. The new movie with Taron Edgerton (Kingsman: The Golden Circle) is set to be an origin story, which would seem to imply it's not taking any particular version of the story as canon and instead, starting its own.

Ready Player One

Written By: Ernest Cline - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: March 30, 2018

For a certain group of people who grew up in the 1980s, there's no upcoming adaptation as exciting as Ready Player One. Equal parts virtual reality video game story and 80s pop culture nostalgia trip, Ready Player One is like The Da Vinci Code for Star Wars geeks. With Steven Spielberg in the director's chair, hopes are high, and the first trailer has lived up to most expectations. Fans have been waiting for this one for a long time and the wait is nearly over.

Meg

Written By: Steve Alten - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: August 10, 2018

The movie credited as the first ever summer blockbuster was a film based on a book about a rampaging sea creature. But Jaws has nothing on Meg. Meg is short for Megalodon, as the movie is about a prehistoric sea creature. That may sound ridiculous, and it is, but the inclusion of Jason Statham makes Meg sound like it's going to be just the sort of insanity we're looking for in the later summer of 2018. We can't wait.

The Girl in the Spider's Web

Written By: David Langercrantz - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: October 19, 2018

David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a successful enough film, but the plans to turn the entire Millennium trilogy into films never got off the ground. Rather than reboot the series entirely, the rather odd decision has been made to jump ahead and adapt The Girl in the Spider's Web, the first book written by David Lagercrantz following the death of original author Steig Larsson. The main characters are being recast, though the film is apparently supposed to be a sequel to the previous endeavor. Figure that out.

Jungle Book

Written By: Rudyard Kipling - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: October 19, 2018

Wait, didn't we already get this one? Following Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book for Disney, Andy Serkis is directing his own version of the project for Warner Bros. While the Disney version used CGI to bring the animal characters to life, this version will use motion capture, making Serkis the perfect person to direct the story, as well as play the role of Baloo. The Disney version was a massive success, making this follow up have a lot to live up to.

Dr. Seuss' The Grinch

Written By: Dr. Seuss - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: November 9, 2018

Dr. Seuss' classic story about an angry creature who hates Christmas has been adapted twice before. Once as an animated TV special, and then again as a live action feature. Now, the two ideas will be combined into the first animated feature film. While those of us that remember the Jim Carrey version might wish that they'd just stop making this one, the fact that Benedict Cumberbatch will be providing the voice of the title character is enough to make us curious at the very least.

Mortal Engines

Written By: Philip Reeve - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: December 14, 2018

Mortal Engines is a book which is a little bit post-apocalypse and a little bit steampunk. A major geologic event on earth has ravaged the planet and caused humanity to regress technologically. In response, cities have been outfitted with wheels and engines so that they may consume other cities in order to gain resources. The book is being adapted by Peter Jackson and the rest of the team behind The Lord of the Rings movies, so we can bet that this one will be a serious undertaking. Hopefully this one will redeem the mess that The Hobbit films were.

Mary Poppins Returns

Written By: P.L. Travers - READ THE BOOK

Movie Release Date: December 25, 2018

One of the most exciting literary adaptations currently on the schedule is the return of Mary Poppins to the silver screen thanks to the incomparable Emily Blunt. We know that the new film will see Jane and Michael Darling grown up and with kids of their own and while we have no idea exactly what the story will be, Lin-Manuel Miranda has said that the writers looked to the existing Mary Poppins stories for inspiration into the new film, so we do expect to see some elements from the books enter this otherwise original story.

Looking at Jennifer Lawrence's filmography, the actress has acted in a wide variety of projects since the start of the decade, from blockbuster fare like The Hunger Games and X-Men movies to quieter stories like Silver Linings Playbook and Joy. She'll be staying on that path for the near future, as this fall, Lawrence will appear in the Darren Aronofsky-helmed psychological horror film mother!, and she'll follow that up early next year with the spy flick Red Sparrow. Regarding the latter, director Francis Lawrence has made sure that Red Sparrow won't fall into PG-13 territory, as he specifically envisioned the movie to be rated R. When asked about Red Sparrow's potential rating, he said:

CinemaBlend's own Conner Schwerdtfeger was in attendance at 20th Century Fox's London presentation of some of their upcoming movies, and during the Red Sparrow section, Francis Lawrence assured everyone that Red Sparrow will be aiming for an R rating from the MPAA. It's how he wanted to tackle this since reading the Red Sparrow book, and fortunately for him, the studio was game for that approach. So rest assured, folks who've read the novel and Jennifer Lawrence fans in general, it sounds like this movie won't be for the squeamish. Violence, cursing, suggestive material, you name it. This will be a movie targeted directly at adults that younger viewers will have to wait to watch...assuming they just don't get ahold of it when it arrives on home media.

Like the original book written by Jason Matthews, the Red Sparrow movie will revolve around a modern day Russian spy named Dominika Egorova who was trained to become a "Sparrow," i.e. a seductress who can obtain valuable information from the enemy. After being sent to work her magic on a CIA agent, she instead falls for him and considers becoming a double agent for the U.S. Besides Jennifer Lawrence, the main cast includes Joel Edgerton, Jeremy Irons, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ciaran Hinds, Mary-Louise Parker and Joely Richardson. This will be director Francis Lawrence's fourth time working with Lawrence, having previously directed her in the Hunger Games entries Catching Fire, Mockingjay --- Part 1 and Mockingjay ---Part 2.

Red Sparrow hits theaters on March 2, 2018, and it's currently the only movie scheduled for that opening weekend. While we wait for its release, check out our 2017 movie schedule to find out what's coming out the rest of this year, which includes Lawrence's other movie, mother!, coming out on October 13.

With The Girl On The Train being released into theaters this weekend, and with Jack Reacher: Never Go Back and Inferno to come, libraries are probably having a hard time keeping those books on the shelves. The big reason is that folks want to be able to say whether the book or the movie was better, as well as to find out whether they'll want to see the movie in the first place. Considering how many book to film adaptations there are out there, that's a lot of reading if you don't do it right.

Thankfully, we've got a handy rundown of the most important book to film adaptations that are coming in the next couple of years. In addition to our quick summaries for the book/movie combos you're about to research, we're also including links to both our Preview pages for each film, as well as an Amazon link to purchase these books for your own perusal. Bibliophiles rejoice, as we're about to conjure up that new book smell and run through a laundry list of books you should get your hands on between now and 2018.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

Written by Ben Fountain, 2012 - Read the Book!

Movie Release Date: 11/11/16 - Get more info here.

Ang Lee's follow-up to his previous literary adaptations, Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk follows the story of the titular war vet, and his reflections on everything surrounding an act of heroism that has sent him home on a "victory tour" celebrating his platoon's actions. While the trailer is selling a wistful film that's heavy with emotion, Ben Fountain's original novel contains more of a satirical and darkly comedic edge mixed in with a heavy punch.

Stories Of Your Life And Others (Arrival)

Written by Ted Chiang, 2002 - Read the Book!

Movie Release Date: 11/11/16 - Get more info here.

While Stories Of Your Life And Others is a short story collection, Story Of Your Life is the party of the Ted Chaing book you should pay extra attention to. This is the basis for Denis Villeneuve's Arrival, a film about an extraterrestrial species coming to Earth, and as such, this should be an easy read to knock off of the list. That being said, don't be surprised if you find yourself reading through some of the other titles included in Chiang's work.

A Monster Calls

Written by Patrick Ness, from an original idea by Siobhan Dowd, 2011 - Read the Book!

Movie Release Date: 12/23/16 - Get more info here.

A Monster Calls was created from a concept by children's author Siobhan Dowd, who sadly passed away after a fight with breast cancer - a battle that undoubtedly inspired the book's story of a young boy coming to terms with his mother's diagnosis. A novel with rich illustrations, A Monster Calls is a good warm-up for your tear ducts, as it will prepare you for the journey ahead in director J.A. Bayona's adaptation of the same name.

Live By Night

Written by Dennis Lehane, 2012 - Read the Book!

Movie Release Date: 12/25/16 (limited) / 01/13/17 (Wide) - Get more info here.

Things are going to get a bit tricky here. Dennis Lehane's Live By Night is actually the middle installment of a series of books that the author has centered around the fictitious Coughlan family. The Given Day is the book you'll want to start with for a complete picture, as Ben Affleck's character in the Live By Night movie, Joe, is introduced as a child in this installment, with his more mature countenance going on to lead the stories of Live By Night and World Gone By. But if you just want to get the barebones framework for the film, and work your way through the rest in your own time, Lehane's Live By Night is the tome to go with.

Fifty Shades Darker

Written by E.L. James, 2012 - Read the Book!

Movie Release Date: 02/10/17 - Get more info here.

Fifty Shades of Grey took the world by storm when it was published a few years ago, while also inspiring an equally successful film adaptation. But with the medium of film limiting the extent of the raw sexual content that James' steamy series has been known for, some moments are eventually going to be lost in translation. Needless to say, if you want your romance unfiltered, you're going to have to pick up a copy of the book version of Fifty Shades Darker and take it for a spin before you get ready to check out the big screen version set to be released in early 2017.

The Dark Tower Series

Written by Stephen King, 1982 - 2012 - Read the Book!

Movie Release Date: 02/17/17 - Get more info here.

There are two Stephen King films on this list - and both are going to be tricky for readers interested in catching up with the source material before the new film. They both have some quirks to how they're being adapted. In the case of The Dark Tower, it's been heavily implied that the film series will be a follow up to the original seven book series that King wrote. On top of this information, there's an eighth book, The Wind Through The Keyhole, that takes place between fourth and fifth books in that original series. So it's hard to nail down one specific book to read in preparation for the movie, but seeing as The Gunslinger is the first, and shortest, entry in the series, we'll say you should start there. That being said, if you're have time and you're up for the task, maybe just read the whole series.

It

Written by Stephen King, 1986 - Read the Book!

Movie Release Date: 09/08/17 - Get more info here.

And now we arrive at the second major Stephen King adaptation in the works. It, King's opus of childhood innocence gone by and the scourge of an evil clown terrorizing the adults he terrorized 30 years prior, is set to arrive in theaters early in Fall 2017. An earlier plan for the adaptation was to split the story into two movies, the first focusing on childhood versions of our protagonists, and the second film would detail the adult's battle with Pennywise the Clown's evil forces. However, plans for the adaptation have changed hands over its development, and it may only be one film now. The book is a 1,168 page epic, so block out a lot of time for this dark tale, but it's worth it.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Blade Runner 2049)

Written by Philip K. Dick, 1968 - Read the Book!

Movie Release Date: 10/06/17 - Get more info here.

If you're familiar with Ridley Scott's brilliant 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner, you're more than likely set for the release ofBlade Runner 2049, the sequel that will be coming out in 2017. However, if you want to dig a little deeper into the literary origins of Philip K. Dick's tale of synthetic organisms that are "more human than human," it's best go to back to the story where it all started: Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep. This is especially because we have no clue where this new film will take us in terms of the world of Replicants.

Red Sparrow

Written by Jason Matthews, 2013 - Read the Book!

Movie Release Date: 11/10/17 - Get more info here.

This is one of the entries that most people may not be as familiar with, as the Red Sparrow Trilogy has been operating under the radar of Hollywood since 2013. The Red Sparrow novel was released in that same year, but it took until recently for the film industry to start building a plan to adapt the story of a Russian double agent and a CIA case officer she's assigned to seduce and compromise. This first in a trio of books could be the next big thing in adult literary adaptations, as Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton have been cast as the first film's leads - so that's who you've got to look forward to steaming up the big screen next November.

Let It Snow

Written by John Green, Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle, 2008 - Read the Book!

Movie Release Date: 11/22/17 - Get more info here.

One town, under a huge snowstorm. A whole bunch of teenagers, trapped by said snowstorm. Three unique author's voices telling three different stories that interconnect into one big bunch of YA romantic comedy. That, in essence, is Let It Snow, which basically sounds like a teenaged version of Love, Actually, minus the sad gifting of a Joni Mitchell CD. All at once heartwarming and hysterical, John Green's name will be the big marquee grabber (having previously written both Paper Towns and The Fault In Our Stars), but Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle's stories are heavy hitters themselves, helping to create one big overall story of snowbound romance.

Murder On The Orient Express

Written by Agatha Christie, 1934 - Read the Book!

Movie Release Date: 11/22/17 - Get more info here.

One of the most legendary murder mysteries of all time, Murder on the Orient Express is one of Agatha Christie's entries into the canon of her most famous detective character, Hercule Poirot. As a passenger on board the Orient Express, Poirot will have to work his way through his fellow passengers and find out which one is behind the murder of an American businessman also on board the train. Also, as an added bonus, this is the second oldest entry on the list, so make it a point to read this one before watching what may be a modernized adaptation, set to be directed by Kenneth Branagh and feature an amazing cast that includes Daisy Ridley, Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Judi Dench, and Michael Pena.

The Maze Runner: The Death Cure

Written by James Dashner, 2011 Read the Book!

Movie Release Date: 01/12/18 - Get more info here.

Chances are that if you're going to see The Maze Runner: The Death Cure, you're probably already a fan of the series. Keeping this in mind, it's also very likely you've read the other two books, as it hasn't been long since the film versions of The Maze Runner and The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials hit theaters. So if you haven't read the last book, and want to do so before the finale of the post-apocalyptic YA trilogy is released in theaters, you should probably bone up on the final chapter while you still have time.

Fifty Shades Freed

Written by E.L. James, 2012 - Read the Book!

Movie Release Date: 02/09/18 - Get more info here.

You're this far into the dark and dangerous adventures of Christian and Anastasia after both Fifty Shades of Grey and Fifty Shades Darker. How you could get this far and not be curious as to how it all ends is a mystery to us. Every journey must come to an end, and if you leave yourself hanging after the second installment in this series then you may be a masochist... which means you should be reading Fifty Shades Freed anyway, as it's practically a fait accompli. Read about what happens to the two featured lovers on the page, and then go see the adventure play out on the big screen in early 2018.

Meg

Written by Steve Alten, 1997 - Read the Book!

Movie Release Date: 03/02/17 - Get more info here.

You're not reading enough books about gigantic prehistoric sea creatures. There's no use denying it - as even the most die hard of you book lovers have probably skipped most of the creature features on the sci-fi shelf. But if the immense megalodon featured at the center of Meg is a tough enough beast to give Jason Statham and his team a run for their money, then surely it is worth some time on a lazy weekend, no? It sounds like a freaky story about a seriously deadly shark, and if you're excited for the blockbuster adaptation, there's no better way to get ready than by reading the book.

Ready Player One

Written by Ernest Cline, 2011 - Read the Book!

Movie Release Date: 03/30/18 - Get more info here.

Ready Player One has to be one of the most hotly anticipated adaptations of a beloved piece of modern literature. With the treasure hunting sci-fi novel coming off as part Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and part The Matrix, there's bound to be some intricacies in the hunt that will get lost in adaptation, which is being directed by none other than the legendary Steven Spielberg. On that subject, reading the book will also be the only place to see the story with all of its Spielberg references in tact - as the filmmaker is removing them from his version of the story as not to distract the audience.

The Jungle Book

Written by Rudyard Kipling, 1894 - Read the Book!

Movie Release Date: 10/19/18 - Get more info here.

Yes, there was already an adaptation of The Jungle Book that was released into theaters this past spring courtesy of director Jon Favreau, but we're not confused. Warner Bros' The Jungle Book is heading to theaters in 2018, with the film representing a darker-toned adaptation of Rudyard Kiplings book, set to be the directorial debut of performance capture genius Andy Serkis. Between the original literary source and the new Disney adaptation, you'll have plenty to get you ready for the latest take on Mowgli's great adventures.

Red Sparrow is a spy thriller about agents from opposite sides who fall for each other. The female half of the pair has already been taken by Jennifer Lawrence. Now, we have an actor in talks to work alongside her. Lawrence will play a Russian agent tasked with seducing a member of the CIA, which a new report claims may be played by Joel Edgerton.

Red Sparrow is based on a novel of the same name and follows a Russian woman who is trained as a seductress in order to get information from a new to the field CIA agent, that had been tasked with collecting Russian intelligence. However, the two begin an actual relationship, which makes things very dangerous for the both of them. Eventually, the CIA agent is actually able to turn the "sparrow" into a double agent herself. While the film sounds like a cold war spy thriller, it will actually be set in the modern day.

Variety reports that Joel Edgerton is in "early talks" to take the male lead of Red Sparrow, so it's difficult to say how much of a sure thing this is. Jennifer Lawrence has been attached to the project for months, but as the film already has a November 2017 release date, the studio is likely looking to get moving fairly soon.

Joel Edgerton has built a successful and varied career over the years. While he's been acting since the mid-1990's, he likely came to the attention of most filmgoers as the young Owen Lars in the Star Wars prequels. Since then, he's gone on to roles in films like Zero Dark Thirty and Black Mass. He played Ramses for Ridley Scott in Exodus: Gods and Kings, and Tom Buchanan in Baz Luhrman's The Great Gatsby. His next film will be as the man who, along with his wife, challenged state laws against racially integrated marriages in Loving.

Red Sparrow will also bring Jennifer Lawrence back together with her Hunger Games director Frances Lawrence. Originally Darren Aronofsky was looking at directing the film back when the novel was released, but that never came to fruition.

With a pair of strong leads, Red Sparrow is looking like a substantial film. The only issue the film may have is its screenplay. Originally, the screenplay had been written by Eric Warren Singer, the writer of another previous Jennifer Lawrence film American Hustle. However, that script is now seeing a rewritten by Justin Haythe, the man responsible for the Dwayne Johnson vehicle Snitch and Jonny Depp's The Lone Ranger.

What do you think of the pairing of Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton? Let us know if you think these two will make strong leads for Red Sparrow.

With his biblical epic Noah now in postproduction, celebrated director Darren Aronofsky is readying for a follow-up, but the 20th Century Fox spy thriller Red Sparrow has been dropped from his dance card.

THR reports that after months of negotiations on the in-development thriller, Aronofsky has walked away from the table. He's now looking elsewhere for his next project. Despite this setback, Fox is still enthusiastic about Red Sparrow. The next step for the studio, which is teaming with Chernin Entertainment and Film Rites for this production, is to find a screenwriter to pen the script.

Based on the novel by Jason Matthews, Red Sparrow will center on a reluctant spy named Dominika Egorova. A former ballerina whose career ambitions were smashed with a fateful injury, she is now a "sparrow," an intelligence officer working for President Vladimir Putin. Trained in the arts of espionage and seduction, Egorova is assigned to uncover the identity of the Russian agency's mole. In her investigation, she meets Nathaniel Nash, a young--and presumably handsome--CIA officer who is believed to be the mole's handler. An undeniable passion sparks between the two spies as the battle from Russia, to Finland, Greece, Italy, and the United States in this whirlwind thriller.

Aronofsky was first mentioned in connection with Red Sparrow last summer, at the time it seemed possible he might contribute to the script as he has for past directorial efforts like Noah, Pi, Requiem For a Dream, and The Fountain. But this latest report suggests no draft is officially in the works just yet. Perhaps Red Sparrow producer Steve Zaillian might consider penning the pic? Aside from producing credits on crime dramas like American Gangster and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, he's also got noteworthy screenwriting credentials, including penning the adapted screenplays for Schindler's List, Clear and Present Danger, Moneyball, and American version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. He seems a good fit for the material, doesn’t he?

Fox bought the rights to Matthews' Red Sparrow for seven-figures, so they clearly feel this is a bankable property. The importance of getting this project right might be slowing things down in a way that doesn't appeal to Aronofsky, forcing him to walk away. But THR notes this might just be for now. Once a script is in place, it's possible Fox will once more approach Aronofsky. After all, trusting in his artistic vision earned them $329 million worldwide and a major Oscar win for their last dance with him, Black Swan. It's good to know that even after he bailed on The Wolverine, Fox is still eager to continue their collaboration with this rightly heralded helmer.

While we wait for all this Black Sparrow business to shake out, at least we have Noah to look forward to. Check out its trailer below.

Noah opens March 28th.

When it comes to Darren Aronofsky, the auteur behind Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler and Black Swan, it’s impossible to tell what he will come up with next… though it’s safe to assume it will be mind-blowing. With his ambitious biblical drama Noah recently wrapped, reports are popping up about what project Aronofsky is eying next.

Deadline claims that the celebrated writer-director is considering putting together a biopic about first president of the United States, George Washington. But that production is likely far down the road, as Aronofsky is currently in early negotiations to develop an adaptation of Jason Matthews’ spy novel Red Sparrow for 20th Century Fox. Should he sign on, Aronofsky would definitely direct, and—considering he’s contributed to the screenplays of four out of six of his feature films—would likely have a hand in drafting its script.

The novel was only published last June, but with a sexy female spy at its center, it’s easy to understand what attracted Fox to the property, snatching it up in a seven-figure deal after a heated bidding war. The “Red Sparrow” that the book is named for is one Dominika Egorova, a strong-willed, gorgeous Russian ballerina turned spy who works within President Vladimir Putin’s contemporary Russia with its suffocating bureaucracy. After a serious injury ends her dancing career, Egorova’s uncle pushes her into training as a Sparrow, a seductress spy. Her first assignment is to get close to an ambitious American CIA agent named Nate Nash and uncover the mole he’s pumping for Russian intelligence. Before long the two begin a complicated romance that leads to passionate nights, double lives, and a fragile alliance.

Matthews explains below a key difference between Russian and American brands of espionage below, implying how they inspire his novel:

Admittedly, I haven’t yet read Red Sparrow, but it sounds like it could be a stirring spy story, playing on Cold War themes and capitalizing on the U.S.’s growing concerns over Russia’s politics. With Black Swan still so fresh in my mind, it’s easy to imagine how Aronofsky could eagerly dive into the themes of forbidden desire, dark secrets, and the tenuous nature of trust. I’m already casting Natalie Portman in my head, which is definitely putting the cart before the horse. Still, I’ll dream that this will happen, because sometimes that apparently works.

Before Aronofsky goes from Black Swan to Red Sparrow he’ll reveal Noah, a star-stacked biblical epic that gives a gritty, live-action interpretation of the story of Noah and his ark. Russell Crowe plays the title character; his co-stars include Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Jennifer Connelly, Douglas Booth, Kevin Durand, Ray Winstone, and Anthony Hopkins. Noah will sail into theaters on March 28th, 2014.