There is something rather reassuring about October. Summer is definitively over, the evenings are drawing in and suddenly spending several hours in front of a screen feels less like a wasted evening and more like a perfectly legitimate plan.

This October there are new films from some of Hollywood’s biggest directors, heavyweight documentaries on everyone from Michael Schumacher and Mike Tyson to Elon Musk, and one of the most anticipated literary adaptations of the year.

There is even an excuse to work your way back through James Bond. Here are the ten things we’ll be watching this October.

Netflix, 2 October

There have been plenty of documentaries about Formula 1 in recent years, but few subjects are quite as compelling as Michael Schumacher. Schumacher ’94 - The Birth of a Legend takes us back to the season when it all really began.

The 105-minute documentary focuses on 1994, when the 25-year-old German won the first of what would eventually become seven Formula 1 World Championships. It was an extraordinary and deeply turbulent year for the sport, and the film uses archive footage alongside new interviews to tell the story of Schumacher’s transformation from promising young driver into global superstar.

Most interestingly, it features contributions from Corinna Schumacher, alongside figures including Bernie Ecclestone, David Coulthard and Flavio Briatore. For anyone interested in the great personalities of Formula 1, rather than simply the machinery, it should be essential viewing.

In cinemas, 2 October

Tom Cruise has spent much of the past two decades jumping out of aeroplanes, hanging from helicopters and generally risking his life for our entertainment. Digger offers something rather different.

Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind Birdman and The Revenant, the film casts Cruise as Digger Rockwell, a larger-than-life oil tycoon whose actions help trigger an ecological catastrophe, and who subsequently sets out to prove that he is the man capable of saving the world from it.

It is an intriguing change of pace for Cruise and a deliberately outrageous one. The supporting cast is similarly formidable, including Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller, John Goodman, Jesse Plemons and Michael Stuhlbarg, while Iñárritu has reunited with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki. Whether its grand satire entirely lands is already dividing critics, but a transformed Cruise playing an egomaniacal billionaire in an Iñárritu film is reason enough to buy a ticket.

Prime Video, from 1 October

Sometimes the best thing to watch isn't new at all.

The James Bond films return to Prime Video in October, which provides an excellent excuse to revisit one of cinema's great franchises. And rather than simply starting with Dr. No and working chronologically through the collection, we'd suggest being a little more selective.

Start with Sean Connery in Goldfinger, move to George Lazenby's unfairly maligned On Her Majesty's Secret Service, take in Roger Moore at his best in The Spy Who Loved Me, Timothy Dalton in The Living Daylights and Pierce Brosnan in GoldenEye, before finishing with Daniel Craig's brilliant debut in Casino Royale.

Martinis optional. Dinner jacket encouraged.

Netflix, 1 October

John Steinbeck's sprawling 1952 novel is hardly obvious material for a seven-part Netflix series, which is precisely what makes this new adaptation so interesting.

Written and co-showrun by Zoe Kazan, East of Eden stars Florence Pugh as Cathy Ames, one of Steinbeck's most fascinating characters, alongside Christopher Abbott as Adam Trask and Mike Faist as his brother Charles. Ciarán Hinds, Tracy Letts and Martha Plimpton complete an impressive cast.

Rather than simply reproducing Steinbeck's story, the adaptation promises to dig more deeply into Cathy and the experiences that shaped her. Pugh also serves as an executive producer, while Lion director Garth Davis directs the opening four episodes.

Family, ambition, jealousy, morality and the darker side of the American dream: this is exactly the sort of sprawling drama autumn evenings were made for.

In cinemas, 9 October

Sixteen years after The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin is returning to Facebook.

Importantly, The Social Reckoning isn't a conventional sequel. Instead, Sorkin describes it as a companion piece to the 2010 film, moving the story forward to the era in which Facebook's enormous cultural and political influence began attracting increasingly serious scrutiny.

Mikey Madison plays Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, while Jeremy Allen White plays Wall Street Journalreporter Jeff Horwitz, who worked on the newspaper's Facebook Files investigation. Perhaps most intriguing of all is Jeremy Strong stepping into the role of Mark Zuckerberg.

Sorkin writes and directs, and the subject matter, technology, money, media and the extraordinary power accumulated by Silicon Valley, makes this one of October's most timely releases.

Selected cinemas, 9 October; Apple TV, 16 October

On 29 May 1953, Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. More than seven decades later, their story receives the big-screen treatment.

But, as the title suggests, director Jennifer Peedom puts Tenzing at the centre of proceedings. Genden Phuntsok plays the legendary Nepalese-Indian mountaineer, while Tom Hiddleston takes on the role of Hillary and Willem Dafoe plays expedition leader Colonel John Hunt. Caitríona Balfe also stars.

What makes the premise particularly interesting is its attempt to look beyond the familiar story of Everest as a mountain to be conquered, exploring Tenzing's own relationship with Chomolungma, the mountain he regarded as sacred, alongside the class and cultural tensions within the British expedition.

Few stories better capture that peculiarly intoxicating combination of adventure, ambition, endurance and obsession.

Netflix, 13 October

There are few sporting lives more extraordinary, or more complicated, than that of Mike Tyson.

Netflix's new four-part documentary attempts to cover all of it: the chaotic Brooklyn childhood, becoming the youngest heavyweight champion in history at just 20, the years as undisputed champion, extraordinary fame and wealth, his conviction and imprisonment for rape, financial problems, substance abuse, controversial moments inside the ring and his later reinvention.

Crucially, Tyson himself participates extensively. Directed by Floyd Russ, the series also speaks to those who have known and worked with him over the decades.

This is not simply a documentary about boxing. It is the story of fame arriving at almost unimaginable speed, what that can do to a person, and a sporting figure attempting to reckon with both the achievements and the deeply troubling chapters of his past.

BFI London Film Festival, October

At almost four hours long, Alex Gibney's Musk isn't a casual watch. But given its subject, perhaps anything shorter would have felt inadequate.

The Oscar-winning documentarian behind Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and Taxi to the Dark Side turns his attention to Elon Musk, charting his rise through Silicon Valley, Tesla, SpaceX and X, and examining the extraordinary level of corporate, technological and political influence he has accumulated.

Musk declined to participate and has publicly attacked the project, while Gibney has described his film as an attempt to interrogate the mythology surrounding its subject. The result premiered at Venice and runs for 225 minutes.

For UK audiences, it is screening as part of the BFI London Film Festival in October, including at the Prince Charles Cinema on 10 October. Whatever conclusions viewers draw from it, the scale of Musk's influence makes Gibney's examination one of the month's most significant documentaries.

Netflix, 27 October

Three years after Matthew Perry's death, Netflix is looking beyond Chandler Bing to tell the story of the man who played him.

Directed by Emmy winner Mary Robertson, The One About Matthew Perry is a three-part documentary built around interviews with the actor's family, friends and collaborators, including previously unheard testimony from his sister Mia Perry Bowick. The production has also been given access to private family photographs and videos.

Naturally, Friends and the extraordinary fame it brought Perry form a major part of the story. But so too does his long struggle with addiction, his repeated attempts to get sober and his later determination to use his experiences to help others struggling with the same problems.

The title may reference the famously formulaic names of Friends episodes, but the subject promises to be considerably more personal: an attempt to remember Perry as a whole person rather than simply the character that made him famous.

Netflix, 7 October

And finally, Ben Affleck is getting back behind the camera. Animals sees Affleck both direct and star in a crime thriller about a political candidate whose son is kidnapped, forcing him into the Los Angeles underworld as he attempts to get him back.

Affleck has assembled the sort of cast that makes this worth paying attention to before you've even seen a trailer: Kerry Washington, Gillian Anderson and Steven Yeun are among those joining him.

But the main attraction is Affleck the director. From Gone Baby Gone and The Town to the Oscar-winning Argo and Air, he has quietly built an impressive body of work behind the camera, particularly when dealing with crime, power and morally compromised men. Animals appears to bring him firmly back onto that territory, which makes it a very promising way to round out October's viewing list.