August premieres on Sky Cinema

When Earth is under threat from otherworldly dangers, there’s only one person to call, and he comes with blue spikes and a wit that’s nearly as quick as he is. Yep, Sonic is back on Sky Cinema in Sonic The Hedgehog 3 and this time he’s facing not one but two mad scientists. There’s more epic conflict in the animated prequel The Lord Of The Rings: War Of The Rohirrim, while the hostilities are on a more personal level in Nicolas Cage’s The Surfer and Peter Dinklage’s The Thicket.

Gripping drama September 5 is based on real events, and you’ll be sobbing at Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore’s fraught friendship in The Room Next Door. Fortunately there’s comedy to cheer you up after that… Once again, Sky Cinema brings you a huge range of premieres to keep you entertained this month, whatever you’re in the mood for. And if you’ve been too busy over the past few months to keep up with all the new premieres on Sky Cinema, scroll down to see our round-up of all the latest titles available in On Demand.

Don’t have Sky Cinema? You can find out about our Sky Cinema package and upgrade here.

Don’t forget, you can watch hundreds of Sky Cinema titles on up to five devices with the awesome Virgin TV Go app at no extra cost to Sky Cinema subscribers. It’s the perfect way to take a bit of movie magic with you. Find out more about the Virgin TV Go app here.

Read on to find out what’s new on Sky Cinema this coming month.

Available from Friday 1 August in Sky Cinema on demand. Cert 15

Action man Frank Grillo is one of the most prolific actors working today, starring in an astonishing 26 films released between 2021 and 2024. In Long Gone Heroes he’s a jaded special forces soldier dragged into a dangerous mission to save his niece, who’s being held hostage in South America, although the plot isn’t really the point: watch it to see Grillo and his crack team taking out bad guys in tense, superbly directed action scenes. Andy García (Book Club: The Next Chapter) and Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games) co-star.

Available from Saturday 2 August in Sky Cinema on demand. Cert 15

A new twist on the “round up a gang of misfits and outsiders for a dangerous mission” plot, this chilly neo-Western stars Peter Dinklage (Dexter: Resurrection) as Jones, a bounty hunter recruited by Jack (Levon Hawke, son of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman) to find his sister, who has been abducted. Jones gathers an unlikely team as he searches for a ruthless killer named Cutthroat Bill (Juliette Lewis, Yellowjackets), and their quest leads them inexorably to the hazardous area known as the Thicket. Bleakly compelling.

Available from Sunday 3 August in Sky Cinema on demand. Cert 12

After a close friendship in their early adulthood, Ingrid (Julianne Moore, Still Alice) and Martha (Tilda Swinton, We Need To Talk About Kevin) were separated for years, but they reconnect in later life in trying circumstances. Martha has a difficult request for Ingrid that will put their rekindled relationship to the most severe test, but they soon find that the intimacy between them grows – until secrets threaten to derail their plans. This unusual drama is the first English-language movie from celebrated Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, packed with the writer/director’s trademark lush colours, evocative music and emotional honesty.

Available from Thursday 7 August in Sky Cinema on demand. Cert 15

A team of American sports broadcasters are working on the 1972 Olympic Games when, overnight, a hostage crisis erupts and the event goes from sport to news. What starts as a power struggle among the journalists to claim responsibility for the story quickly turns to an ethical challenge, as the team starts to question whether they’re playing into the aggressors’ hands – and if they should be reporting on this at all. A thoughtful and absorbing drama with an unsettling moral quandary at its heart, starring Peter Sarsgaard (The Lost Daughter) and John Magaro (Past Lives).

Available from Friday 8 August in Sky Cinema on demand. Cert PG

Life is good for Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz), Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba) in Green Hills, Montana – until a new threat arises: a powerful and extremely grumpy hedgehog named Shadow (Keanu Reeves) who is out for revenge on humankind. He’s strong enough to overpower our intrepid trio and when he allies with mad doctors Gerald and Ivo Robotnik (Jim Carrey in a dual role), Sonic and pals know they’ll have their work cut out if they’re going to save the day again… Expect super-speed action, breathless set-pieces and groanworthy quips galore.

Available from Saturday 9 August in Sky Cinema on demand. Cert 15

When a group of tourists book themselves on a light aircraft trip over the Everglades, they’re not thinking about what might go wrong. Two problems: they don’t know they’re in a monster movie, and they don’t know about the toxin-addled alligators lurking in the vast wetlands. The plan duly crashes and the toothy attacks begin – so can Kyle (Athena Strates) and her zoological knowledge get the survivors out of trouble? An entertaining chomp-romp that’s not for the gore-averse, and might put you off that holiday in Florida.

Available from Thursday 14 August in Sky Cinema on demand. Cert 18

Every serial murderer, real or fictional, has a signature and Heart Eyes’s killer is no different: every year on Valentine’s Day, he slaughters a loved-up couple while dressed as an emoji. But the romance-hating miscreant gets it all wrong when he targets Ally (Olivia Holt, Totally Killer) and Jay (Mason Harding, 2022’s Scream) because they’ve only just met and, as romcom-cute as it was, they’re not ready to die for their potential love. It’s time to fight back and end Heart Eyes’s reign of terror. Writers Christopher Landon and Michael Kennedy scripted the excellent 2020 comedy horror Freaky and this strikes a similar balance, with plenty of scares and laughs to keep viewers entertained.

Available from Friday 15 August in Sky Cinema on demand. Cert 15

Fifty years on from its TV debut, US sketch show Saturday Night Live is as big as it’s ever been, with its best bits clipped up and sent around the world weekly. This eye-opening comedy drama is based on the story of how the chaotic but determined group of young writers and actors got the first episode to air in 1975, focusing on the minutes immediately before those famous words “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!” were spoken for the first time. Gabriel LaBelle (The Fablemans) plays producer Lorne Michaels – still overseeing the show to this day – alongside an all-star cast; it’s directed and co-written by Jason Reitman, whose father Ivan collaborated with many of SNL’s most successful stars.

Available in August in Sky Cinema on demand. Cert 12

Almost two centuries before the events of the Lord Of The Rings movie trilogy, the kingdom of Rohan came under threat from a ruthless lord named Wulf. The King, Helm Hammerhand and his daughter Héra were forced to make a desperate last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg – the fortress that would come to be known as Helm’s Deep. Miranda Otto, in character as Éowyn, the warrior whose decisive actions led to Sauron’s defeat in The Return Of The King, narrates this imaginative and beautifully animated story of heroism, with Brian Cox (Succession) as the embattled ruler.

Available in August in Sky Cinema on demand. Cert 15

The surfer in question is played by Nicolas Cage, and he just wants to take his son (Finn Little, Yellowstone) to the beach where he spent his formative years so they can get on with some wave-based bonding. But the locals have other ideas: they’ve decreed the sands are for residents only. Don’t live here, don’t surf here. The internal conflict between humiliation and defiance suits Cage’s brand of outsize emotions perfectly, and his on-edge performance makes for an uneasy, nerve-shredding psychological thriller as the summer heat rises. And rises.

• William Tell

• Strange Darling

• I Don’t Understand You

• Wicked

• Sew Torn

• Running On Empty

• Juror #2

• Sacramento

• Buffalo Kids

• Kraven The Hunter

• Rumours

• The Sloth Lane

• A Nice Indian Boy

• Venom: The Last Dance

• Your Monster

• Exhibiting Forgiveness

• Anora

• Luckiest Man In America

• Home Delivery

• Joker: Folie À Deux

• Piece By Piece

• Salem’s Lot

• Gladiator II

• Sharp Corner

• Empire Waist

• Cleaner

• Omni Loop

• The Damned

• Speak No Evil

• Mob Cops

• Rebellious

• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

• Bookworm

• Poison

• The Wild Robot

• A Different Man

• Escape From The 21st Century

• Old Guy

• The Front Room

• Despicable Me 4

• Cuckoo

• My Penguin Friend

• Transformers One

• Greedy People

• Touch

• Smile 2

• Twisters

• The Parenting

• Trap

• Between The Temples

• A Mistake

• Maxxxine

• Black Dog

• Harold And The Purple Crayon

• Blood For Dust

• The Good Half

• Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1

• AfrAId

• Skincare

• It Ends With Us

• The Wasp

• Noah’s Ark

• Sneaks

• Babes

• I’ll Be Right There

• I Saw The TV Glow

• Chuck Chuck Baby

• The Bikeriders

• Turn Me On

• Fox & Hare Save The Forest

• The Garfield Movie

• The Line

• A Place Called Silence

• Rob Peace

• The Watched

• Thelma

• Fight Or Flight

If you subscribe to Sky Cinema on Virgin TV, you can watch on the go with Virgin TV Go. And with loads of sport and Box Sets to try out, too, you’ll always be entertained wherever you are!

The app is available to all Virgin TV customers at no extra cost and is compatible with Android, iOS, Windows 10 and PC/Mac. Get downloading (from the links below) and you’ll be one step closer to watching what you want, when you want. 

Download the Virgin TV Go app from the Apple app store

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Don’t have Sky Cinema? You can find out about our Sky Cinema package and upgrade here.