Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2016 i Empire

IT’S TRULY AN EPIC BATTLE, BUT HONESTLY NOT ONE we thought we’d see on screen. As a kid you may have imagined it, tucked under the covers waiting for sleep to come. As an adult, you may have fought about the hypothetical outcome with friends, pint in hand. My own version of the latter went a little bit like this: “Everyone thinks Superman will crush Batman, but he is the most messed-up, dangerous superhero ever. Those toys!” “But they won’t work against Superman. And anyway, he’s got actual powers so would just melt Batman with his eyes.” “No way, he’s too good and he’d just totally cripple him with Kryptonite.” The argument that never reached a resolution. Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice could take us closer to that resolution…

Kevin Spacey and Dana Brunetti have been appointed heads of the renascent Relativity Media. Good luck swimming with sharks, Kev! Emma Stone is in talks to play a young Cruella de Vil in a live-action 101 Dalmatians prequel. 1 Dalmatian, anyone? Guillermo del Toro and James Cameron will shrink themselves down to direct and produce the remake of Fantastic Voyage. Christopher Nolan will tackle Dunkirk, one of the pivotal events of World War II, for his next movie, due 2017. Should be epic.…

THE END CREDITS of Eli Roth’s blood-spattered cannibal movie, The Green Inferno, which is finally getting a UK release almost 18 months after it debuted at the Edinburgh Film Festival, include a list of the Italian cannibal movies that influenced him. Here exclusively for Empire, Roth expands on those films, and his love for a subgenre that boasts “amazing works of cinema, the kind of psychotic gonzo filmmaking that you only hear stories about in Werner Herzog documentaries.” Man From Deep River YEAR: 1972. DIRECTOR: UMBERTO LENZI “Lenzi accidentally started the cannibal subgenre with this classic “re-imagining” of A Man Called Horse. Okay, they pretty much just ripped it off, but in the film there was a scene of cannibalism that was so shocking the producers came to Lenzi and…

COSTUME Any period film, like Alan Rickman’s movie A Little Chaos. It’s incredible looking, although if you have to use the restroom, that’s half an hour gone. They should provide a valet. A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Michael Hoffman. I was playing Puck, and my tights kept ripping in the worst place. They were nylons, and [I had] some leafy things strapped onto a belt that went around my chest. MOMENT The Lovely Bones was really hard to do, so to be nominated (for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2010) was great. My parents were able to be a part of it. But the hard part was my first wife [Kate Tucci] passed away [afterwards]. All that positive stuff that happened, I wasn’t able to share with her. AUDITION…

As one door closes, another… also closes. This year’s Jameson Empire Done In 60 Seconds, the contest that challenges you to remake any film you like in just one minute, is no longer taking entries. But you can still help us to select the winners. The top 20 entries from the UK are now available to watch online — go on, check them out, and then cast your votes for your favourites. The directors of the five most popular videos will be invited to this year’s Jameson Empire Awards, where they will rub shoulders with the film world’s A-listers, before one of them will nab the ultimate prize. WATCH THIS YEAR’S FINEST ENTRIES AT JAMESONEMPIRE DISS.COM.…

They said it wouldn’t last much beyond 198 or 199 episodes, but the award-winning Empire Podcast is about to prove all the doubters wrong in spectacular style. Yes, our 200th episode is coming up faster than an X-wing piloted by Poe Dameron, and to celebrate we’re going to record it LIVE on February 24 at the Prince Charles Cinema, London. There will be terrible jokes. There will be incredible spot prizes. There will be amazing celebrity guests. And there will be the Empire Podcast team — Chris Hewitt, Helen O’Hara, Phil de Semlyen and more — podding their little hearts out for your entertainment. Tickets cost just £10, and are available through princecharlescinema.com. And that, as we say on the pod, is a recommendation. Hope to see you there. And…

UNMISSABLE EXCELLENT GOOD POOR TRAGIC Spotlight OUT JANUARY 29 / CERT. 15 / 129 MINS. DIRECTOR Thomas McCarthy CAST Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, Brian d’Arcy James, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci PLOT The Boston Globe’s in-depth investigation team, known as Spotlight, are looking for a focus for their next project. At the suggestion of new editor Marty Baron (Schreiber) they embark on an investigation into the Catholic Church’s child abuse scandals and reveal the horrifying scope of the cover-up. THE WORD “ensemble” is often abused to refer to any film with more than one big-name star. Usually, there’s still a lead, some glory-hound who demands attention. Spotlight, however, is the real thing, a supremely talented cast who subsume ego to tell a story of a group achievement.…

IT’S BEEN A FEW YEARS SINCE MAN OF STEEL, but Lois Lane hasn’t slowed down. She’ll still stop at nothing to land the story. “She may have some tunnel vision, but she’s got a job, moral standards,” insists Amy Adams. “Though when we met her before she would do anything to get the story — now Clark has instilled some faith in humanity in her.” This morning on set, Adams has had her head tilted to the sky as her boyfriend descends to Earth in his more grandiose guise. “I think I start most scenes like that,” she laughs. “Her relationship with Clark is the closest thing she has to anything faith-based, you know? Although moving in [with Clark] brings issues.” However, her priority is definitely the latest scoop. It…

HÄXAN (1922) This Swedish silent-era reconstruction of the witch-hunt era burns with hellish imagery: Boschian Sabbaths, a squadron of broomsticks, potions brewed from “pigeon’s heart and cat-shit”. It’s the grand-witch of occult movies, banned for years, hugely influential and still delightfully horrible. SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937) Legendary animator Joe Grant based the Evil Queen’s doppel-hagger on two sources: fairy-tale illustrator Arthur Rackham and Murnau’s Nosferatu (it’s all in the fingers). The design is so iconic she’s entered the consciousness as the childhood-scarring hag. THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) Think “witch” and bets are you’re already picturing a pointy hat and spinach-green skin. Despite the musicals and origin stories, Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch Of The West remains undiluted as Oz’s evil essence, a performance so alarming that most…

DVD BLU-RAY iTUNES SKY STORE SKY MOVIES NETFLIX AMAZON Macbeth FROM NOW / CERT. 15 THANE’S WORLD FROM ORSON Welles to Toshirô Mifune to, presumably, that version in which Baldrick’s uncle played ‘Second Codpiece’, every generation has a Macbeth to reflect its times. Michael Fassbender’s Thane is perfect for ours: the kind of PTSD-scarred warrior Help For Heroes was created for. The modern resonance is hard to miss in Justin Kurzel’s fierce, dreamlike and eerily beautiful take on Shakespeare. A grieving father, broken-down soldier and sufferer of mental trauma, this Macbeth is a monster to whom we can all relate. Cannily, the opening sidelines the play’s three prophetic cauldronbotherers to show Macbeth and Marion Cotillard’s Lady Macbeth standing over their child’s funeral pyre. This isn’t just a Clan Of Cards-style…

Sherlock: The Abominable Bride FROM NOW / CERT. 15 The first half of this 90-minute Christmas special is a rollicking ride, setting Victorian versions of Holmes and Watson on the trail of a wedding-veiled ghoul. Then it all goes a bit Inception, upending the cute conceit with a big tricksy twist. The result is ambitious but uneven. NDS Luther: Series 4 FROM NOW / CERT. 15 Idris Elba’s tweedy copper is back, this time dealing with a cannibal, an east London gangster and a psychic. The elements are all there (maverick tactics, LOTS OF SHOUTING!) and Elba’s on fine form, but this two-parter isn’t Luther at its best, with the absence of Ruth Wilson’s sociopath Alice Morgan painfully felt. JD Girls: Season 4 FROM NOW / CERT. 18 If you’re…

The Otto Preminger Film Noir Collection This Blu-ray set features neurotic tough guys in battered hats, glamorously imperilled dames, hard-boiled dialogue and seductive black-and-white cityscapes. Fallen Angel has Dana Andrews as a con man who turns detective; Whirlpool offers José Ferrer as an evil hypnotist ensnaring klepto Gene Tierney in a murder plot; Where The Sidewalk Ends brings back Andrews as a thug cop getting deep in trouble when he roughs up a suspect who dies on him. An Englishman’s Castle In the mood for another Nazis-won-the-war miniseries with the word “castle” in the title? Look no further than An Englishman’s Castle (1978), a three-part BBC drama set in an alternative world where a TV writer is politely pressured to play down anti-German sentiments in a popular soap opera. Scenarist…

A Walk In The Woods FROM FEBRUARY 8 / CERT. 15 Robert Redford is travel writer Bill Bryson, Nick Nolte his human-wreck buddy Stephen Katz. As they backpack down the Appalachian Trail getting into mishaps, the film proves to be two John Candy movies (Planes, Trains And Automobiles; The Great Outdoors) smashed together. It’s profoundly formulaic and perfunctorily directed, but the stars give it charm. NDS Love & Mercy FROM NOW / CERT. 12 Bill Pohlad’s biopic of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson bypasses genre byelaws to paint a moving picture of two very different halves of the same man. Paul Dano is mesmerising as the younger Wilson, slowly succumbing to drugs and insanity, while John Cusack, as the older Brian trying to hold it all together, is more fragile…

PREDESTINATION A little-seen but darn good sci-fi thriller from 2014, in which a time-traveller from 1992 goes to 1970 to try to stop a bombing in 1975. It’s less complicated than we just made it sound, and features an ace turn from Ethan Hawke. FROM FEBRUARY 5 THE LIMEY Steven Soderbergh’s tale of a British ex-con (Terence Stamp) investigating his daughter’s death in LA. Riffing on Point Blank and Get Carter, it’s a sun-baked noir that also stars a spectacularly slimy Peter Fonda. FROM FEBRUARY 3 MAD MAX: FURY ROAD George Miller’s 2015 reboot has already attained classic status. On repeat viewings it’s just as mesmerising, and the score by Tom Holkenborg (also composing for Batman V Superman) just as smashing. FROM FEBRUARY 26 ENCHANTED Starring an utterly charming Amy…

Mr. Majestyk 1974 FROM NOW CERT. 18 Mobster versus melon-farmer. Namechecked by True Romance’s Drexl, Mr. Majestyk features motherfuggin’ Charlie Bronson on prime, surly form, relishing the snap of Elmore Leonard’s dialogue as a fruit-growing, Mafia-busting vigilante. No-nonsense, pump-action pulp, plus vrooming car chases and the best watermelon massacre in cinema history. A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum 1966 FROM FEBRUARY 22 CERT. PG “Something for everyone!” sings Zero Mostel over the credits of this Broadway adaptation. That may be overstating the appeal of Roman musical farces. Stephen Sondheim’s earworm tunes are timeless, but Richard Lester’s hyper-jaunty direction hasn’t dated well. Notable for a 70 year-old Buster Keaton (he speaks!) in his deadpan final screen outing. Koyaanisqatsi 1982 FROM FEBRUARY 15 CERT. PG If Voyager 1…

The Art Of Star Wars: The Force Awakens AUTHOR PHIL SZOSTAK / OUT NOW ALTERNATIVE REALITIES IF YOU’VE EVER wondered what the first lightsaber looked like (spoiler: it’s primarily sticks and twine), then this compendium from Lucasfilm image archivist Phil Szostak deserves a place on your coffee table. Taking a chronological stroll through the archives, Szostak’s book charts The Force Awakens’ visuals, from early sketches to finalised designs. This isn’t just another bunch of TIE Fighter watercolours (although it has a few); what’s fascinating here are the depictions of what might have been. Rey (then called Kira) hanging out of an X-Wing cockpit, carving up the hull of a Star Destroyer with her lightsaber; a Resistance superweapon called the Warhammer; a tattooed Twi’lek Sith with dual ’sabers. The book delves…

Training Montages 1 Hearts On Fire John Cafferty Rocky IV 2 Stand On Your Own Joe Torono No Retreat, No Surrender 3 You’re The Best Joe Esposito The Karate Kid 4 Never Moving Pictures Footloose 5 Number One Chaz Jankel Real Genius 6 Hungry Eyes Eric Carmen Dirty Dancing 7 Prologue/Anvil Of Crom Basil Poledouris Conan The Barbarian 8 Life’s Incredible Again Michael Giacchino The Incredibles 9 One Last Hope Danny DeVito Hercules 10 Meet Me Half Way Kenny Loggins Over The Top 11 Chariots Of Fire Vangelis Chariots Of Fire 12 Gonna Fly Now Bill Conti Rocky III TO LISTEN TO THE ABOVE, SEARCH ‘EMPIRE MAGAZINE’ ON SPOTIFY.…

IS IT TRUE THAT THE REVENANT BEAR IS TO STAR AS PADDINGTON’S LONG-LOST FATHER IN PADDINGTON 2: RABID PAPA? CHRIS MURPHY (@MURPHYSBORDOM) PROTOCOL ACTUALLY It might just be me but don’t you think C-3PO would fit perfectly into the lead role of a Richard Curtis film? PADDY EARLE, VIA EMAIL Imagine watching the galaxy’s fussiest droid in The Falcon That Rocked. Odds of finishing it without throwing your TV out of the window: appoximately 3,720 to one. FORCE FANCIER Until recently, I’d never seen Star Wars. With my husband excited about The Force Awakens, he sat me down to watch the first six, and I’ve gone from virgin to megafan! Artoo is my favourite, FYI. KIM WILLIS, VIA EMAIL Glad you’ve joined the light side, Kim. HEX EDUCATION Thank you…

TARZAN TURNS 104 this year, and he’s never looked better. The ‘dad at the beach holding it in’ look favoured by Johnny Weissmuller has gone, and Alexander Skarsgård has brought his washboard abs to The Legend Of Tarzan. “They’re really making the most of Alex’s body,” laughs his Jane, Margot Robbie. “Jane ends up in tatters too, but not quite to the extent of Tarzan.” Cinema has given Edgar Rice Burroughs’ creation short shrift recently, as you’ll know if you’re one of the few who saw 2014’s mo-capped Tarzan (starring Kellan Lutz), or the fewer still who saw Casper Van Dien out-acted by his own loincloth in 1998’s Tarzan And The Lost City. But director David Yates’ lavish blockbuster hopes to show that there’s more to the Lord Of The…

King Jack OUT FEBRUARY 26 / CERT. TBC / 81 MINS. DIRECTOR Felix Thompson CAST Charlie Plummer, Cory Nichols, Christian Madsen, Danny Flaherty Proving that a familiar story can still surprise if well told, Felix Thompson’s debut brings an assured sense of place and perspective to the rite-of-passage format, as a 15 year-old loner (Plummer) learns how to cope with brothers, bullies and girls over one fraught weekend. DP Rams OUT FEBRUARY 5 / CERT. 15 / 93 MINS. DIRECTOR Grímur Hákonarson CAST Sigurður Sigurjónsson, Theodór Júlíusson, Charlotte Bøving Having barely spoken for 40 years, two brothers (Sigurjónsson, Júlíusson) must cooperate when a disease decimates their flock of sheep in a desolate Icelandic valley. Switching from deadpan humour to poignant drama, this is a masterclass in combining character and landscape.…

THERE WAS A TIME WHEN IT FELT LIKE IT WAS ALL ANYONE TALKED ABOUT IN HOLLYWOOD: who would star as Wonder Woman, the superhero bound for the big screen just as soon as Warner Bros. could get its screenplay in order? Sandra Bullock was a cert back in 1999. In 2001, it was Beyoncé; no, wait, it was Angelina Jolie, Catherine Zeta-Jones or Megan Fox; no, no, it was definitely Rachel Bilson. Lucy Lawless claimed she once turned the part down in favour of Xena, the own-brand version. Enter Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy. In 2005, he was the perfect choice to bring a glint of irony to the super-heroine with her lasso of truth and bullet-deflecting bracelets. Sensibly, he said he wouldn’t cast until he had written a script.…

“Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog...” I had to include the first line of the book. I suspect I’m one of the only people ever to create a LEGO dog barbecue. I got a lot of requests to recreate the scene of Laing sunbathing nude. I had to finish it in Photoshop — LEGO has never made a minifigure with a naked bottom half. I took 1,188 photos for Brick High-Rise, and whittled them down to 166. Scattering urine-coloured studs into the pool remains one of my favourite memories. Of the 180 hours that it took me to complete photography, I estimate that I spent around ten hours washing fake blood off LEGO. In order to create the scenes of the high-rise descending into chaos, I…

You can’t really lose when your novel is adapted for cinema. If the subsequent film is a success, you can ( justifiably) claim that the source material was a major factor in this. Failure, conversely, allows you to distance yourself from the movie, offering the hint that those bad filmmakers fucked it all up. It’s unwise to do the latter overtly; film is a collaborative art form and if you’ve loudmouthed about your misgivings concerning the final offering, the chances are people won’t be lining up around the block to work with you on future enterprises. Thrusting a novelist — perhaps the ultimate individualist — into a collective artistic endeavour seems a recipe for tension and discord. When such enmity occurs, it often stems from a misunderstanding of the process…

MICHAEL BADALUCCO Caspar’s Driver (Miller’s Crossing), George ‘Baby Face’ Nelson (O Brother, Where Art Thou?), Frank (The Man Who Wasn’t There) JEFF BRIDGES Jeffrey ‘The Dude’ Lebowski (The Big Lebowski), Rooster Cogburn (True Grit) JOSH BROLIN Llewelyn Moss (No Country For Old Men), Tom Chaney (True Grit), Eddie Mannix (Hail, Caesar!) GEORGE CLOONEY Ulysses Everett McGill (O Brother, Where Art Thou?), Miles Massey (Intolerable Cruelty), Harry Pfarrer (Burn After Reading), Baird Whitlock (Hail, Caesar!) JON POLITO Johnny Caspar (Miller’s Crossing), Lou Breeze (Barton Fink), Mr. Bumstead (The Hudsucker Proxy), Da Fino (The Big Lebowski), Creighton Tolliver (The Man Who Wasn’t There) PETER STORMARE Gaear Grimsrud (Fargo), Uli Kunkel (The Big Lebowski) TILDA SWINTON Katie Cox (Burn After Reading), Hedda Hopper (Hail, Caesar!) BILLY BOB THORNTON Ed Crane (The Man Who…

The Walk FROM NOW / CERT. PG An exercise in vertiginous 3D spectacle on release, offering dizzying views from the Twin Towers tightrope walk of French daredevil Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon Levitt), The Walk is less impressive on the smaller screen, where its ploddingness as a procedural and the dislikability of its lead character are all too obvious. DJ Love FROM NOW / CERT. 18 Arthouse provocateur Gaspar Noé aims to shock once again with an all-holes-bared account of sexuality in a relationship between Murphy (Karl Glusman) and, well, every woman on screen. But while he illustrates the central role of sex in our love affairs, he fails to make his characters interesting beyond their bedroom antics. HOH The Program FROM FEBRUARY 8 / CERT. 15 Stephen Frears’ drama about…

02.13 Mission To Mars The film begins with the crew of the Hermes already on Mars, conducting a research trip. Screenwriter Drew Goddard originally had another beginning in mind. “In the original script, and actually what we shot, was to start with Mark Watney ( Matt Damon ) waking up. The accident was in the middle of the movie,” he says. “But then when we cut two versions, I saw [the final version] and I said to Ridley, ‘I was fully prepared to hate the change, but the movie needs to rocket into it.’ We didn’t need the mystery.” 03.34 The Storm The book’s author, Andy Weir, aimed for scientific accuracy as much as possible, but happily admitted that the storm that strands Watney couldn’t happen on Mars, due to…

ILLUSTRATION : PETER STRAIN Natural Disasters CALAMITY AS COMFORT-viewing. There’s something wrongly reassuring about disaster movies. Be it whirring tornado or burping volcano, the unwreckable formula rarely changes: vast casts, multiple storylines, countdown structure, heroic escapes, blubbery sacrifices and, in a peculiar genre quirk, dogs getting rescued. First up, one of the daddies of doomsday cinema: When Worlds Collide . Rudolph Maté’s epic is a beta-test for disasters to come, rumbling with Old Testament awe and a literally Earth-shattering scenario. A rogue star’s gatecrashed the solar system and snookerballing straight for us. The solution is space-age Noah: build a half-pipe on a mountain-side and launch a terraforming rocket to its orbiting planet, Zyra. Offering human relief from the scientific gobbledegookery is Richard Derr, who appears to be impersonating Danny Kaye…

Ashes & Diamonds 1958 / FROM NOW / CERT. 12 Shimmering in black-and-white, Andrezj Wajda’s brilliant thriller observes the political fall-out in Poland after the Nazis have fled. Tasked with killing a communist lackey, Zbigniew Cybulski — the epitome of post-war freedom-fighter chic, fortified in rock-star shades — would rightly win global acclaim and torment proof-readers for evermore. IN Wild Orchid 1989 / FROM FEBRUARY 8 / CERT. 18 In 9½ Weeks, Mickey Rourke ate a small picnic off Kim Basinger’s bod. This reunion with director Zalman King is a less effective erotic thriller, playing out like Fifty Shades Of Neon as Rourke’s businessman seduces ingénue Carré Otis in Brazil. There’s more sax than sex, Otis is wooden and it makes Rio look like Swindon. NDS Hiroshima Mon Amour 1959…

From The Jim Henson Archives novel box set AUTHORS ANTHONY MINGHELLA, A. C. H. SMITH / OUT NOW Most tie-in novelisations are inessential. but this set, with hardcover adaptations of three Jim henson classics, is both visually lavish and a fascinating read. the words were overseen by the muppet man himself (as proven by copious notes within); you also get never-before-seen photos, concept art and doodles. a must-buy for any hensonhead. NDS Elstree Studios: A Celebration Of Film And Television AUTHOR MORRIS BRIGHT / OUT NOW A comprehensive account of one of london’s oldest studios, this has some fascinating pictures but starchy text. the leaden prose makes it almost impossible to read, and folding landmark eras like alfred hitchcock’s tenure and the Star Wars shoots into the same narrative as…

Photo: Alan Mushen Tyneside Cinema is Newcastle’s beautiful and super cosy art deco cinema. Opened by Dixon Scott (Great Uncle of Ridley Scott) in 1937, it’s the last surviving Newsreel theatre still operating as a cinema full-time in the UK and screens the latest cinema releases alongside a programme of unique digital art, regular guided tours and original newsreels. Plus they do some damn fine food and drink in their Bar Café too. www.tynesidecinema.co.uk 10 Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 6QG Tel: 0191 227 5500 Email: box.office@tynesidecinema.co.uk The Luxe Cinema is as passionate about the presentation of film as the movies themselves. Our auditorium is filled with armchairs and sofas for the ultimate in movie-going comfort. Screening the latest blockbusters alongside cinema classic and international film, we ensure that…

Can you play a musical instrument? I can kind of play the guitar. I just went to Nashville and I bought a pink ukulele. I’ve just posed for pictures with it so far. I was in this incredible guitar shop and my friends, who are really musical and who were actually touring with a musical, were buying guitars, so I felt left out and bought a ukulele. I am going to learn. How much is a pint of milk? I think it’s 89p. Or 72p. It’s less than a pound. There’s a little corner shop right outside where I live, which is immensely convenient, because you never have to go anywhere. My boyfriend usually gets the milk because he makes the tea. I don’t know if that’s an excuse. On…

The Walking Dead gift shop in Senoia, Georgia, is thronged. The Blue Knights motorcycle club, all leather waistcoats, muscular shoulders and five o’clock shadows, has recently rolled into the small town and made a beeline for the store, situated a short zombie stagger up the hill from the Alexandria set where Season 6 is currently shooting. All things Daryl Dixon, The Walking Dead’s embodiment of this particular demographic, are flying off the shelves, while groups of bandana-wearing gentlemen crowd around one of Daryl’s motorbikes, taking selfies. On everything from model crossbows to mousemats, Norman Reedus’ narrowed eyes glare out above the legend, “Everyone makes fun of the redneck. Until the zombie apocalypse.” It’s a statement which also speaks of the show’s hard-headed individualism, which has come to reflect back the…

“I KNEW WE WOULD BE FINDING A DIFFERENT angle on Alfred,” says Jeremy Irons, who wants to make it clear he very much enjoyed both the Michael Caine and Michael Gough versions of Bruce Wayne’s famous sidekick, equal parts butler, coach and Sancho Panza. “So I thought of him as my own.” Well-spoken, wise, notably English, and the steadying force in Batman’s complex life: at first sight you wonder exactly what this different angle could be. In keeping with the MO established by those two refined vets, Irons’ Alfred Pennyworth is as much surrogate parent as manservant to both the billionaire and his vigilante alter ego. “Alfred has lived longer than Bruce, and so perhaps has a clearer perspective on life,” muses the 67 year-old actor. “As well as having…

“I was always more of a Batman person. He was more mysterious to me than Superman. Superman’s kinda (heroic voice), “Here I am!” and Batman’s more (covers upper face with his hand and growls), “I don’t want to talk to anybody,” so you’re left wondering, ‘What’s that guy like?’ But I’m waiting for that movie! It’s gonna be a fun movie!” Bryan Cranston “Batman. I like things darker.” Jason Statham “I did like Batman from the old television series. (Sings) ‘Baaaatman! Dada-dada-dadadada…’ Adam West was the honorary mayor of the Palisades one July Fourth and he waved to me from his car as the parade went by. I waved back, of course.” Anthony Hopkins “They’re the same character. They’re both nerds.” Ian McKellen “Man, that’s like Pacquiao versus Mayweather. Superman’s…

“All of my first nightmares were about witches...” It’s the week before Hallowe’en, and Empire is in the company of Robert Eggers, whose directorial debut, The Witch, is one of the most unnerving, distinctive American horrors since the century’s turn. He is determined, it seems, to make his earliest nightmares our newest ones. Set in colonial New England circa 1630, The Witch follows a Puritan family into self-imposed exile on the edge of an imposing forest. When their newborn mysteriously vanishes from the farm, suspicions turn towards teenage daughter Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy). Is witchcraft at work? Or is something else feeding the family’s paranoia? It’s been hailed as The Crucible meets The Shining, but even that doesn’t do the film justice. The Witch is founded on modern-horror tropes — log…

DASHIELL HAMMETT American heavyweight of hardboiled fiction. INFLUENCE: Hammett’s work bestrides the Coens like a colossus. The title Blood Simple comes from Hammett’s Red Harvest. Miller’s Crossing ‘borrows’ liberally from Red Harvest and The Glass Key. ADVISE & CONSENT (1962) Otto Preminger’s starry (Henry Fonda, Peter Lawford) neo-noir, which charts the fall-out of a controversial Presidential nomination. INFLUENCE: Burn After Reading plays comic variations on its political shenanigans. The Coens also made their own Super 8 version as kids. PRESTON STURGES The first writer-turned-director, a master at cynical screwball comedy. INFLUENCE: Raising Arizona and The Hudsucker Proxy revel in the silly names, satire and pratfalls of Sturges. O Brother, Where Art Thou? is the title of the film adaptation of a fictional book in Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels . HELL IN…

7 Faces Of Dr. Lao “The first idea I came up with was to remake 7 Faces Of Dr. Lao,” reminisces Lemorande. Adapted from Charles G. Finney’s 1935 novel (The Circus Of Dr. Lao), the 1964 George Pal-directed film starred Tony Randall as a mysterious Chinese man who brings his travelling circus to a small town in the American southwest; Randall played seven mythical characters (including Merlin, The Abominable Snowman, Pan and Medusa) who would entertain the locals while teaching valuable lessons. Lemorande had a hunch it would suit Jackson’s unique screen presence. “Michael loved transformations,” he says. “It started with Thriller. He loved werewolf transformations, he knew about Transformers before anybody I knew, he used to go and buy Japanese toys. Dr. Lao was right up Michael’s alley, he…

Pan FROM FEBRUARY 8 / CERT. TBC The struggles of youngsters have loomed large in Joe Wright’s work, so it was probably only a matter of time before he shipped them to a slave mine to drone out Nirvana songs to a hammy villain. The director’s first major misstep, Pan extracts neither the charm of the original yarn nor much magic from Neverland’s kaleidoscopic hues. PDS Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials FROM NOW / CERT. 12 Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and his fellow Gladers bust out of the prison-slash-lab they are held in, only to face the ‘Scorch’, where death, desert and PG-unfriendly zombies await. O’Brien is incredibly game, but the film’s patchy tone and underdeveloped characters make you long to return to the maze. ET Bill FROM FEBRUARY 15 /…

“DON’T YOU WORRY ABOUT ME. IF THERE’S ONE THING I’M GOOD AT IT’S STOPPING CROCODILES.”LAKE PLACID VS ANACONDA LONG-SERVING dungeoneers will appreciate the deft shuffle-work of A. B. Stone’s Lake Placid Vs Anaconda, which entwines aspects of eight previous critter franchises. The evil company from Anacondas: The Hunt For The Blood Orchid visits Lake Placid in order to crossbreed giant crocodiles and snakes to develop an immortality serum. Naturally, the killer reptiles get loose to snack on the bikini-clad girls nearby. Croc-hunters Yancy Butler and Robert Englund stick around from Lake Placid sequels, Stephen Billington replaces The Hoff (who made Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! instead, the fool!) as a snake-tracking merc, and newcomer Corin Nemec is a game warden at odds with the crocaconda experiments. It’s obviously not over…

LAST HORIZON iOS/ANDROID This rotate-and-thrust space game conjures echoes of arcade classic Asteroids as you try to colonise a galaxy full of potential hazards, collecting resources and struggling with the two most deadly foes of all: gravity and inertia. It’s precision fun, but beware: if you die once, that’s your lot — the future of your civilisation abruptly curtailed by one dud landing. WARHAMMER 40,000: FREEBLADE iOS/ANDROID Another day, another 40k title. This entertaining on-rails shooter is custom-built to take advantage of the 3D Touch on the iPhone 6S but works just as well without. Players stomp around as a 50-foot Imperial Knight, bashing up everything in sight and indulging in trigger-happy fun as long as your patience lasts. The array of in-app purchases are easily ignored.…