The heat is on in Hollywood. After two lacklustre months at the box offices, director Ridley Scott of ?Gladiator? fame unleashes crusader film ?Kingdom of Heaven? this week, starting the summer season that Hollywood hopes will rescue it from its ticket sales doldrums. The summer season routinely accounts for as much as 40 percent of the roughly $ 9.5 billion in annual US and Canadian ticket sales. Domestic box office totals are down about 6 percent so far this year at $ 1.17 billion, and last weekend?s top 12 films were off 10 percent from last year, according to box office tracker Exhibitory Relations Inc.

This year Hollywood plans its usual mix of big-budget adventures highlighted by ?Star Wars: Episode III ? Revenge of the Sith?, Steven Spielberg?s ?War of the Worlds? starring Tom Cruise and comic flick ?Fantastic Four?. There will be family films like computer animated ?Madagascar? and comedy ?Herbie: Fully Loaded,? remakes of television classics such as ?Bewitched? and rebirths of film icons in ?The Longest Yard? and ?Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?. ?Summer movies are always the much-anticipated, big ones of the year, so yeah there is very much the concern of pressure,? director Scott told Reuters.

?Kingdom of Heaven? could provide a rousing start with its battle-filled tale of a 12th century crusader, played by ?Lord of the Rings? star Orlando Bloom, who is torn by questions of faith, honour, family, love and belief in God. The movie has created a fuss for its mostly sympathetic portrayal of one Muslim leader and for its characterisation of some ? but not all ? Christians as killers, but Scott reckons he treated every ethnic and religious group fairly. ?When you see the film, you see balance,? he said.

Online ticket seller

The summer?s sure-fire blockbuster is expected to be the final instalment of the six-film ?Star Wars? in which the saga of Skywalkers, Darth Vader and Jedi Knights gets wrapped up. At online ticket seller fandango.com, advance sales for ?Star Wars: Episode III ? Revenge of the Sith? have already sold-out some showings and chief executive Art Levitt said the pent-up demand is as strong as fandango.com has ever seen. ?Clearly if this keeps up, it is going to make the box office numbers it is supposed to make,? Levitt said. Offsetting the two early May juggernauts are comedies ?Kicking & Screaming,? starring Will Ferrell as a soccer coach, and ?Monster-in-Law? with Jane Fonda and Jennifer Lopez.

Late in the month, DreamWorks, the studio behind the hit ?Shrek? movies, brings out animated ?Madagascar? in which Ben Stiller and Chris Rock voice two animals, a lion and donkey, who escape from New York?s Central Park Zoo and wind up on the far-away island. ?We never worked in the same room together, but after a while I?d hear his character and I really felt like we had a connection,? said Stiller of his long-time friend Rock. ?You react to (what is said), and sometimes you try to top it,? added Rock.

June begins with Oscar winners Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger teaming up for ?Cinderella Man?, about Depression-era boxer Jim Braddock. In ?The Honeymooners?, which is based on the old Jackie Gleason television show of the same name, Cedric the Entertainer takes Gleason?s role as bus driver Ralph Kramden.

Hollywood?s hottest couple ? at least in gossip pages ? Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, hit the screen in romantic comedy ?Mr. and Mrs. Smith? as assassins who rediscover their love after being hired to kill each other. ?Batman Begins? resurrects the ?Batman? films with Christian Bale playing the caped crusader in an exploration of the origins of his alter ego, Bruce Wayne.

Box offices

June ends with alien destruction in ?War of the Worlds,? and with a little twinkle of cosmic magic in ?Bewitched,? based on the 1960s TV show of the same name about a good witch who in this movie is portrayed by Nicole Kidman. Major movies for July include ?Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?, starring Johnny Depp, ghost story ?Dark Water? with Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly, and a remake of a classic 1970s film, ?Bad News Bears?, headlined by Billy Bob Thornton.

But big-budget Hollywood flicks aren?t the only films that set summer box offices afire. Each season one or two independent movies reach the mainstream. Last year it was ?Napoleon Dynamite? and in 2002 ?My Big Fat Greek Wedding.? Indie distributors have high hopes for family documentary ?Mad Hot Ballroom? about New York school kids in a dance contest, Sundance festival favourites ?Rize?, ?Happy Endings,? and ?Hustle & Flow? and documentary ?Murderball,? about quadriplegic men playing a form of rugby in their wheelchairs.

<B>Bob TOURTELLOTTE</B>