Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2015 i Empire

ILLUSTRATION: OLLY GIBBS WHAT’S THE GREATEST ENTRANCE IN CINEMA history? There are some strong contenders: Jaws’ ominous bassy tones that precede the great white’s first kill, the winning baccarat hand and expensive cigarette fug which introduces James Bond in Dr. No, or the long close-up shot of the undertaker begging for “justice” from Don Corleone in The Godfather. In a literal sense, it’s a little more straightforward. Darth Vader’s magnificent black-cloaked sweep through a spaceship corridor in A New Hope gets my vote: one part Dracula, two parts the ultimate “the boss is here, look busy” strut. Director George Lucas once said a film is only as strong as the villain is bad, which makes this one just about unbreakable. The definitive man in black is the dark star around…

NO JUDGEMENTS IF YOU DEVELOPED A BIT of a crush on F.R.I.D.A.Y., the OS that runs Iron Man’s suit at the end of Avengers: Age Of Ultron — we can sympathise. F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s voice belongs to Irish actress Kerry Condon, who first made a splash in Rome and this year in Better Call Saul as the daughter of Jonathan Banks’ Mike. F.R.I.D.A.Y. is very Irish. Initially, the brief was to keep her Irish, but not make it distracting. Then it was “a little more Irish”. I was glad. That’s been done, the English accent. Will you appear in Captain America: Civil War? At the end of Avengers it seemed that Tony Stark was retiring. My brother was joking F.R.I.D.A.Y. was too. It would be lovely to do it again. You were…

What’s your favourite word in the English language? It’s not a word. It’s a name. Dalglish. How much is a pint of milk? I’ve no idea. 20p? £5? I don’t know. About 50p. Is it? That’s either side of what I said, then. On a scale of one to ten, how famous are you? On average, probably a four, but if you count all the times people have come up to me and said, “Are you Liam Neeson?” it might be a seven. He gets it the other way round. He’s absolutely sick of it. Who were you in your first school play? I was the scarecrow in The Wizard Of Oz. When I went out on stage, I remember getting a laugh and that was it. I was such…

Everyone’s Going To Die OUT JUNE 26 / CERT. TBC / 83 MINS. DIRECTOR Jones CAST Nora tschirner, rob Knighton Glum gangster and German drop-out form a pensive bond in this deadpan indie. Director duo Jones echo Hal Hartley’s mannered weirdness and the leads are terrific, but the kooky touches (olleh, backwards-talking girl) aggravate. SC The Reunion OUT JULY 10 / CERT. TBC / 88 MINS. DIRECTOR Anna Odell CAST Anna Odell, Anders Berg, robert Fransson, Sandra Andreis Conceptual artist Anna Odell’s aim is awry in her satirical debut. the high-school reunion set-up fizzes with a Festen-like savagery, but ultimately its sapped by a resistible narcissism. DP Touch Of Evil OUT JULY 10 / CERT. 12A / 104 MINS. DIRECTOR Orson Welles CAST Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh Orson…

Dragon Inn OUT JULY 17 / CERT. TBC / 105 MINS. DIRECTOR King Hu CAST Jun Shi, Ling-Feng Shang Kuan, Ying Bai, Feng Hsu A keystone of the wuxia genre, this 1976 .ing dynasty epic may lack plot complexity and period spectacle. But the stand-off in a remote inn is flecked with tension, wit and slick martial artistry. DP Man With A Movie Camera OUT JULY 31 / CERT. U / 67 MINS. DIRECTOR Dziga Vertov CAST Mikhail Kaufman Dziga Vertov’s 1929 silent stunner is a love letter to soviet urban life from dusk ’til dawn, rendered with every cinematic technique in the book. see it before the reboot dude with An iPhone. IF That Sugar Film OUT JUNE 26 / CERT. TBC / 97 MINS. DIRECTOR Damon Gameau CAST…

SNAKE MAN! (SSSSSSS, 1973) In which Dave the lab-technician becomes a crazed were-snake, slithering around like an angry rolling pin. Dave is played by Dirk Benedict, leading to one of horror’s looniest transformations: Face from The A-Team into rubbery King Cobra. Defeated by a mongoose. Ssssssseriously. MANIMAL-MAN! (THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, 1977) Poor Andrew Braddock: pumped with genetic serum by a mad vivisectionist. Michael York’s mutation into non-specific manimal leads to enhanced beast-powers and, eventually, feral rage: understandable given his lumpy Play-Doh face resembles an aborted make-up test from Cats. PLANT MAN! (THE LONESOME DEATH OF JORDY VERRILL, CREEPSHOW, 1982) Stephen King’s acting debut: less a performance, more a dramatic interpretation of the composting process as redneck Jordy is infected by a meteor and mulches from the inside. The…

“This American producer, Judd Bernard, gave the script to me and to Lee, who was in London shooting The Dirty Dozen. I met with Lee and we both agreed how bad it was. But the character intrigued me, and we talked a lot. Lee was in the Pacific War and he was traumatised: he went when he was 17, and he was a sniper and he fought all the way through those islands. Acting for him was a way of recovering his humanity. It was clear to me that we could make this film where this character would represent what he went through. This character, who is apparently shot dead and comes back, and searching for this money, is like Lee searching for his humanity. That is what gave the…

RELEASED: July 30 DIRECTOR: Christopher McQuarrie STARRING: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris STORY: Soon after resolving the events that unfolded in Ghost Protocol, top IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) finds himself up against a deadly terrorist organisation known as The Syndicate. RINGS A BELL… That’s because The Syndicate was the IMF’s prime foe in the TV series, first mentioned in Season 1’s 17th episode — though it was basically the Mafia.…

The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya FROM JULY 13 / CERT. TBC Isao Takahata employs a soft watercolour look for this gently flowing take on a Japanese folk tale. A magical baby grows to become a princess who longs for country life as the courtly world claims her. Like the best Studio Ghibli movies it operates with dream logic but sturdy, relatable emotion. OR Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter FROM JUNE 29 / CERT. 12 Damn, Jerry, this is irregular — a fiction based on fact inspired by a fiction that claimed to be fact. This sad tale follows Rinko Kikuchi’s Fargo-obsessed loner in his search for the movie’s buried briefcase of cash. The hangdog mood gets wearing, but there is real insight on movies’ power over wounded lives. IN Wild…

A WHOLE NEW WORLD We’re bricking it big-time this month, with some of LEGO’s newest and greatest movie-related tie-ins to date. This amazing Jurassic World set, which features the Indominus Rex’s paddock in all its glory, was an adventure 65 million man-hours in the making. We love the exclusive-to-LEGO touches — Dr. Wu with a giant syringe? Shame that wasn’t in the movie. shop.lego.com, £99.99 ANT-MEN With Marvel’s Ant-Man yet to grace cinemas, this final battle set might — might — not give you the spoilers you seek, given that this features both Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas’ characters in Ant-Man mode. But we do love the giant LEGO blocks. shop.lego.com £19.99 ECTO-WINNING Annoyed that Bill Murray won’t show up in any of the new Ghostbusters movies? Simply play with…

ILLUSTRATION INFOMEN Star Wars: The Force Awakens Mývatn, Krafla In northern Iceland you can visit Lake Mývatn and the Krafla volcano, reportedly locations for Episode VII. Both are eerily beautiful, but watch out for the midges the lake is named for. Sightings of Daisy Ridley and John Boyega’s stunt doubles suggest action scenes, and rumour has it Iceland will play the planet Sullust. Sense8 Harpa Music And Concert Hall, Reykjavík The climactic scene in the Wachowskis’ TV sci-fi mindbender takes place on a dock right next to the waterfront Harpa Concert Hall. It involves all eight people from around the world who find themselves mentally linked in the show. But you don’t need a hive mind to visit this extraordinary modern building. Interstellar Vatnajökull National Park Christopher Nolan’s home away…

’71 Sean Harri’, ’oon to terrori’e Tom Crui’e in Mi’’ion: Impo’’ible — Rogue Nation, ’upport’ Jack OsConnell in thi’ ’tripped-down thriller, about a Briti’h ’oldier being hunted by the IRA. Think Mad Max: Fury Road, without the car’. FROM JULY 1 PADDINGTON If yousve got kid’, thi’ i’ a bear nece’’ity: one of the be’t family film’ to come along for many year’. But its’ got plenty for comedy-lover’ of all age’, from marmalade-related ’lap’tick to joke’ about London taxi driver’. FROM JULY 1 THE SKELETON TWINS Bill Hader and Kri’ten Wiig are e’tranged twin’ Maggie and Milo in thi’ under’een dark comedy. The highlight? The duo performing an epic lip-’ync to Star’hips’ Nothings’ Gonna Stop U’ Now. FROM JULY 17 THE BOXTROLLS Theysre troll’ and they wear boxe’. Ye’,…

TOP DOG 1959 / FROM NOW / CERT. PG SHERLOCK Holmes (Peter Cushing) and Dr. Watson (André Morell) are hired to protect Sir Henry Baskerville (Christopher Lee), who has inherited an estate on Dartmoor, from a supposedly ghostly dog which persecutes his family. Having reinvented British horror in 1957 with The Curse Of Frankenstein, Hammer swiftly reteamed house director Terence Fisher with new-minted stars Cushing and Lee in versions of Dracula, The Mummy and Arthur Conan Doyle’s spookiest Holmes yarn. Like other early Hammer horrors, Hound is full-blooded period melodrama, richly produced (this Blu-ray’s transfer shows off Jack Asher’s lush, atmospheric cinematography), gorgeously costumed and incisively acted by a top-flight British cast. Peter Cushing’s brisk, mercurial Holmes and André Morell’s resourceful Watson are energetic men of action, invigorating the roles…

The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner 1962 FROM NOW CERT. 12 Borstal kid enters a cross-country race and charges into all-out class-war. Tony Richardson’s classic is the daddy of the British New Wave, powered by poetic grit (Nottingham looks like Mordor) and a fuming Tom Courtenay, cinema’s definitive Angry Young Man. The defiant, fist-shaking climax will resonate for a lifetime. The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension 1984 FROM JULY 20 CERT. 12 Guaranteed to oscillate your overthrusters, Buckaroo Banzai’s bracing eccentricity radiates from its hero: a neuroscientist/quantum physicist/rock star battling interdimensional aliens. Who are all called John. Sci-fi as freeform jazz, exploding with ideas but grounded by a fabulously deadpan Peter Weller. The Stranger 1946 FROM NOW CERT. PG Orson Welles heightens a hokey Nazi manhunt…

MARK SALISBURY Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation (p. 98) “I was editor for the first Mission: Impossible and put Tom Cruise on the cover. Two decades later it was a pleasure to discover his passion for this series remains as avid as ever.” HELEN O’HARA Fantastic Four (p. 64) “Organising multiple interviews with the Fantastic Four wasn’t easy. Spread across three countries and a theme park, they were wary of spoilers when I finally got hold of them. But their passion for Josh Trank’s approach shone through.” SIMON CROOK Drones (p. 116) “Drones are revolutionising film sets but they’re also scarily adaptable: one of the pilots I met uses them to deliver pizzas. They’re useless for surveillance, though. You can hear them coming a mile off — imagine a hairdryer…

EARTH’S LAST HOPE: A WHO’S WHO JEFF GOLDBLUM Returns as David Levinson, now “in charge of Earth’s space defence”. JESSIE USHER He’s Dylan Dubrow, stepson of Hiller. He pointed a toy gun at the spaceship in the first movie. BILL PULLMAN Thomas Whitmore, whose July 4 speech inspired Earth’s troops. Sela Ward is the new President. LIAM HEMSWORTH Will play newcomer Jake, “who was orphaned in the first war”. MAIKA MONROE The It Follows star plays Patricia Whitmore, daughter of the former President... VIVICA A. FOX She’s Hiller’s former fiancée, Jasmine. If she’s involved, does this mean Hiller has, erm, passed on?…

CHARISMA Want to charm like Mike? Join a high-end charisma course like Olivia Fox Cabane’s, which can cost $100k for six months. In the UK, Matthew Hussey charges £500 for a two-day weekend seminar. DANCING “Having a background in dance is good,” admits Anthony, but adds encouragingly that “it’s not really about dance: it’s about being extremely sexy! To actually dance like Mike you’d have to train professionally for many years.” PHYSIQUE You obviously don’t get in that sort of shape just by a bit of gyrating. As of 2013, a lot of Chippendales were favouring the Insanity Workout, which costs £100 for a 60-day DVD course. Costumes Most strippers overwhelmingly do solo events, so you need to provide your own costume. Cops are among the most popular strippers, along…

Clint Eastwood to direct a Sully movie? Not the Pixar monster, but the pilot who landed a plane on the Hudson River in 2009. Eddie Redmayne will star in Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them as a newt. Sorry, Newt Scamander. Kurt Russell was ol’ Jack Burton. Now The Rock wants to be the new ol’ Jack Burton in a remake of Big Trouble In Little China. Nikolaj Arcel is the latest person to try to adapt Stephen King’s Western-cum-fantasy-cum-sci-fi epic The Dark Tower. Good luck!…

JAKE GYLLENHAAL CAREER GRAPH (US DOMESTIC BOX OFFICE ONLY) THE TOP 10 PIXAR MOVIES GLOBAL GROSS 1 TOY STORY 3 $1,063.2 MILLION 2 FINDING NEMO $936.7 MILLION 3 MONSTERS UNIVERSITY $743.6 MILLION 4 UP $731.3 MILLION 5 RATATOUILLE $623.7 MILLION 6 MONSTERS, INC. $562.8 MILLION 7 CARS 2 $559.9 MILLION 8 BRAVE $539.0 MILLION 9 WALL• E $521.3 MILLION 10 TOY STORY 2 $485.0 MILLION MOVIE INFLATION IN 1985, MONTY BREWSTER HAD TO SPEND $30 MILLION IN 30 DAYS TO UNLOCK AN EVEN GREATER FORTUNE. TODAY, HE WOULD HAVE TO SPEND... $65,966,263.94…

What is it? The Tomm Moore movie that beat The Lego Movie to an Oscar nom. Booooooo! Oi, stop that. It was worthy of its nomination; the second for Moore, following The Secret Of Kells in 2010. What’s it about? It’s a Gaelic yarn about a young man called Ben, and his sister, Saoirse, who’s a selkie. Like on Instagram? No, that’s a selfie . Saoirse turns into a seal in the ocean. Basically, she must return to the water, avoiding an evil squadron of owls. Sounds like Studio Ghibli. The hand-drawn style and wonder do recall the likes of Ponyo. Also The Snowman and animation legend Richard Williams. Everything is awesome? You better believe it. SONG OF THE SEA IS OUT ON JULY 10 AND IS REVIEWED ON PAGE…

JULY 1 May the odds of securing a ticket for The Hunger Games: The Exhibition, from today in New York, be ever in your favour. thehungergames exhibition.com JULY 2 Don loafers (no socks) and a horrible jacket to wish Sonny Crockett happy birthday. According to Michael Mann’s movie, he was born in 1970. JULY 3 He said “I’ll be back” — yes, Channing Tatum is back in Magic Mike XXL. And Big Arnie returns in Terminator Genisys. Did he ever say he’d be back? JULY 4 On Independence Day, salute the greatest of Americans — Marty McFly — by enjoying Back To The Future Live at the Royal Albert Hall, where Alan Silvestri’s score will be played by a full orchestra.royalalberthall.com JULY 5 Post-Fourth Of July carnage, Brody, Hooper and…

La Grande Bouffe OUT JULY 3 / CERT. 18 / 125 MINS. DIRECTOR Marco Ferreri CAST Marcello Mastroianni, Philippe Noiret The original gross-out movie has lost none of its power to provoke. But what is so striking now about this superb satire is how prescient Ferreri was in lampooning a society careering towards calamity because of its addiction to self-gratification. PP The Wonders OUT JULY 17 / CERT. 15 / 111 MINS. DIRECTOR Alice rohrwacher CAST Maria Alexandra Lungu, Sam Louwyck This rough-hewn slice of rural Italian family life features a terrific Lungu as a young girl holding her family together. But it doesn’t grip as it might. Look out for Monica Bellucci as the host of a Countryfile-on-crack TV show. DP The Burning OUT NOW / CERT. 15 /…

CPI SYNDICATION The sudden sound of china smashing on concrete causes Jake Gyllenhaal to pause, mid-sentence. “So many things break in Cannes,” he muses. “I’ve really seen a lot of things break. Have you? There must be an influx of energy: too many people in one space. It’s hard to keep everything in your hands.” Gyllenhaal is here at the 68th Cannes Film Festival as part of a jury, led by Joel and Ethan Coen, that will give seven awards to 19 films. It’s a tough task but Gyllenhaal, 34, isn’t sweating, dressed down in shades, a T-shirt and jeans. After all, this is a man who lost 20 lb to play ambulance-chasing hack Lou Bloom in last year’s Nightcrawler and immediately gained 35 lb for the role Empire is…

THE DEATH OF “SUPERMAN LIVES”: WHAT HAPPENED? In 1998, producer Jon Peters was rebooting Superman. Tim Burton was directing. Nicolas Cage was Kal-El. Kevin Smith had written a script: Superman Lives. Then, three weeks before the shoot start date, Warner Bros. canned it. It entered into geek lore as a strange lost project. Years later, Jon Schnepp, director of Cartoon Network’s Metalocalypse, turned his fascination with Superman Lives into a documentary, which he made alongside producer Holly Payne. Funded mostly via Kickstarter, it’s a compelling, revelatory exploration of one of modern cinema’s biggest coulda-beens. Empire met with Schnepp and Payne to re-live their two-and-a-half-year journey in speeding bullet points… IT HAD TO BE THIS SUPERMAN MOVIE Tim Burton’s attempt isn’t the only unmade Superman. There was J.J. Abrams’ Flyby, Wolfgang…

“I was the biggest Eddie Murphy fan you can imagine. When I was a kid, my parents got a VCR and passed down their Betamax to us. And we literally only had four movies: Lethal Weapon, Staying Alive, A Soldier’s Story and Eddie Murphy: Delirious. “Then, when Beverly Hills Cop came out, me and my friend Fred Barton saw it three times on opening day. We just wouldn’t leave. ‘Oh yeah, let’s do it again.’ Doing a movie twice was normal. Doing it three times was, ‘Whoa! We like Eddie.’ We did Trading Places twice, we did 48 Hrs. twice, but Beverly Hills Cop we did three times. “Axel was a killer character: this punky, motormouthed cop running rings around everybody. I bought it on VHS, of course, and then…

7.30am Wake up. How can I possibly be expected to handle school on a day like this? Fake illness. BUELLER TRIVIA: “Guy takes a day off from school” was John Hughes’ pitch for the movie, which he wrote in 36 hours due to a writers’ strike. THE TAO OF FERRIS: “The key to faking out the parents is the clammy hands. It’s a good non-specific symptom. I’m a big believer in it.” 8.30am Still carless. Call best bud Cameron to come pick me up. BUELLER TRIVIA: Alan Ruck was 29 when he played Cameron Fry, to Broderick’s 23. THE TAO OF FERRIS: “Pardon my French, but Cameron is so tight that if you stuck a lump of coal up his ass, in two weeks you would have a diamond.” 10.00am…

What was your first encounter with Loki? It was probably Loki’s card in the Marvel Super Villains Top Trumps deck. He was dressed in his green and gold get-up and he looked like he was starting a party. What was the key to ‘finding’ the character? I had to find his smile, his innate love of anarchy and chaos. I had to make his pain real. Great villains are born from tragic circumstances. They become dangerous when their vulnerability hardens into vengeance. What moment is key to understanding Loki? The scene people always want to talk about is when Loki gets Hulk-smashed at the end of Avengers. The sequence encapsulated Loki’s hubris and humiliation, and it was hilarious. But the cornerstone of his psychology for me was the scene between…

The Stunt Man (1980) Cameron (Steve Railsback) suggests to mad director Eli Cross (Peter O’Toole) that the daredevil World War I pilot hero of the film they’re making would celebrate a victory by doing a Charleston on the wing of his biplane in mid-air. Cross then makes him do it. The real wing-walker in the film is John Kazian, who did similar stuff in The Great Waldo Pepper. Commando (1985) Matrix (Arnold Schwarzenegger) clings to a wheel as a Western Airlines DC-10 takes off (at over 70mph), then lets go mid-air and falls safely into a swamp. Because it was almost impossible to substitute a stunt double for Arnie, he did most of this sequence himself. A mock-up wheel was used for close-ups, but most of this is filmed straight.…

“In the UK, there’s no such thing as a licence to fly a drone. But to film with one, you need to be qualified by the Civil Aviation Authority, who issue a Permission For Aerial Work (PFAW).” “A few companies offer qualification. EuroUSC issue a BNUC certificate similar to a pilot’s licence. The course is two-part: ground school (air law and theory) then a flight exam using GPS. Takes six hours, costs around £1,200.” “Kids are actually better at flying drones. If you’re good at video games, even better. Drone piloting is all hand-eye coordination. You’re constantly correcting as it flies.” “The day courses are about safety management. The British Model Flying Association do an exam. You fly manually, no GPS, so it’s tougher. Their ‘A’ Certificate is the minimum.…

The Casual Vacancy FROM NOW / CERT. 15 A cleverly streamlined adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s non-magical bestseller, this tells the story of an everyday sort of tragedy, where one good man’s death causes profound change for an entire village. An excellent cast, in particular newcomer Abigail Lawrie, tell a socially conscious story of greed and alienation that is depressingly believable. HOH Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell FROM JUNE 29 / CERT. 15 Susanna Clarke’s fusion of Austen and Rowling, adapted by the BBC and director Todd Haynes over seven gripping episodes. The deeper we get into its labyrinth of conflicted magicians, conniving faeries and period-piece-gone-mad atmosphere, the more you fall prey to its spell. IN Thunderbirds Are Go: Volume 1 FROM NOW / CERT. U The notion of a Thunderbirds…

THOUGH IT features Nicholas Hoult surviving the collapse of society in the desert, Jake Paltrow’s Bad Land: Road To Fury (previously known as Young Ones) isn’t a Mad Maxish action picture, but a more thoughtful science-fiction film with fine work from Hoult, Michael Shannon, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Elle Fanning and a twisted storyline which involves murder by robo-donkey and an unusual revenge. There’s a certain Neill Blomkamp influence in the mix of high-tech and junkyard, which is also evident in this month’s mock-doc sci-fi film, Jabbar Raisani’s Mankind’s Last Stand (formerly Outpost 37), which follows a platoon of heroic Earth grunts manning a defensive position between Pakistan and Afghanistan against alien invaders (“the heavies”) and restless locals. A straight-up gung-ho war movie, this plays like the Fox News answer to…

Blackhat FROM NOW / CERT. 15 Michael Mann’s latest loner antihero is Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth), a cybercrook freed to track down a nefarious coder. Heat with hacking, it climaxes with the two going at each other with knives. Shame, as Mann makes the tech compelling enough to have not bothered with action-movie bunkum. NDS Chappie FROM JUNE 29 / CERT. 15 Neill Blomkamp’s third film, in which Sharlto Copley plays a sentient police robot, is a strange semi-retread of District 9 without the charm. But Blomkamp is not afraid of tackling big ideas or cyberpunk action in the same breath — his misfires offer more than most other directors’ successes. WT I Am Big Bird FROM NOW / CERT. 12 This Kickstarted success is a sweet documentary on Carroll Spinney,…

A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence FROM JULY 13 / CERT. 12 Roy Andersson’s series of mordant sketches linked by travelling practical-joke salesmen doesn’t entirely grip, but it is by turns funny, shocking and sublime. From a tender wartime sing-song to the horrific slaughter of slaves, all human life is here. Oh, and forget the pigeon — the electrocuted monkey will linger longest. IF Force Majeure FROM JUNE 29 / CERT. 15 The role of the modern patriarch is given a slow, Swedish skewering in this exquisitely uncomfortable dark comedy from writer/director Ruben Östlund. While on a skiing trip, a father’s response to a near-disaster causes his family’s world to crumble with agonising awkwardness. Meticulously directed and loaded with atmosphere, this is terrific, brutal stuff. NA The…

Forty Guns 1957 / FROM NOW / CERT. PG Sam Fuller’s Western sees Barbara Stanwyck’s whipcracking cattlewoman butt first heads, then kissers, with Barry Sullivan’s lawman in one of her last major roles. Fuller dubbed it “stuffed full of phalluses”, and you don’t need to be Freud to spot the sexual subtext, but look out too for its stunning monochrome vistas. PDS Biloxi Blues 1988 / FROM NOW . CERT. 15 The exact mid-point between Full Metal Jacket and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, in which World War II army cadet Matthew Broderick gets barked at by Christopher Walken’s wacko drill sergeant. Based on writer Neil Simon’s own boot-camp experiences in Mississippi, it’s amiable, inessential stuff, notable for its excess of push-ups. NDS Mona Lisa 1986 / FROM JULY 6 /…

FREAKS AND GEEK AUTHOR JUDD APATOW / OUT NOW COMEDIANS ARE funny people, as Judd Apatow should know. He grew up desperate to be a stand-up, giving seven hard years to the circuit, before concluding he wasn’t anywhere near as funny as his funny friends and was better placed to write for and direct funny people (including prickly study of stand-ups Funny People). When not directing comedians, he interviews them about being funny. “Looking back, I was an angry kid who didn’t feel like the world made sense,” Apatow acknowledges in his introduction. “I looked to comedy... and the insights of comedians.” This book, the proceeds of which go to charity, is a valuable collection of 38 Apatowian interviews going as far back as 1983. Apatow began his enquiries at…

The Art Of Inside Out FOREWORD AMY POEHLER / OUT NOW Given that the filmmakers had to create a literal emotional journey, set inside a young girl’s head, this collection of concept art is more conceptual than most. Hence you get an array of wonderful, frequently weird images — colourful mood-blobs, abstract patterns, the heroine transported into her own mind — showing how Pixar arrived at the final result. Don’t expect much in the way of words, though, besides short pieces from Amy Poehler and Pete Docter. NDS Quentin Tarantino FAQ AUTHOR DALE SHERMAN / OUT NOW Is there room on your shelf for another book about Tarantino? Put it this way, if you knew his first movie job was gofer on a Dolph Lundgren workout vid, but didn’t know…

1 Shifting Gears Lalo Schifrin Bullitt 2 Desert Chase John Williams Raiders Of The Lost Ark 3 Sabotage Beastie Boys Star Trek 4 Storm Is Coming Junkie XL Mad Max: Fury Road 5 Neutron Dance The Pointer Sisters Beverly Hills Cop 6 The Race Yello Nuns On The Run 7 Italia A Mano Armata Franco Micalizzi Death Proof 8 Bim Bam Smash John Powell The Bourne Supremacy 9 Freedom Of Expression J. B. Pickers Vanishing Point 10 Into The Red Hans Zimmer Rush 11 Ride Of The Valkyries Richard Wagner The Blues Brothers 12 Genevieve Larry Adler Genevieve TO LISTEN TO THE ABOVE, SEARCH ‘EMPIRE MAGAZINES ON SPOTIFY, OR VISIT OUR YOUTUBE ACCOUNT.…

LEGEND OF GRIMROCK iPAD A cla’’ic grid-ba’ed dungeon romp in the mould of s80’ cla’’ic Dungeon Ma’ter, thi’ PC game ha’ ’ucce’’fully weathered the tran’ition to iPad. Spellca’ting work’ well with a touch interface and there are countle’’ hour’ of puzzle-filled exploration to be had. MARVEL FUTURE FIGHT iOS, ANDROID Thi’ brawler feature’ everyone from Iron Man to MODOK, letting you bounce between a team of three a’ you play. With ’pecial attack’ to be earned and an extended ro’ter to unlock, thi’ i’ one of Marvels’ be’t mobile offering’ yet.…

TOHTAL IDIOTS I saw it in your Want! section, ordered one, and imagine my dismay when I received my Major Toht candle but with the face of Ronald Lacey, not Ronald Fraser! TERRY ADLAM Son of a bitch… Thanks also to Ian Church for pointing out this error. Bear in mind that we’re making this up as we go. Never forget, Tomorrowland viewers: Hugh Laurie was in the Spice Girls movie Spice World, where he played Poirot. Never. Forget. @ROSSDRUMMOND IS THIS THE PREQUEL TO INTERSTELLAR? JAMES SPOKES, FACEBOOK Prepare for The Martian: Interstellarer. Also “Bring him home”? Leave him there! Me: *picks up @empiremagazine* Me: *turns over* Me: *sees Crimson Peak* Me: *squeals* Mom: I guess you want it then? @NICOLAANGIER, TWITTER TWITTER TREND Brilliant edition this month of…

SARAH DUNN EVEN WITHOUT the surname, it’s obvious: the steely squint and right-angled jaw give it away. Scott Eastwood is Clint’s son, alright. And he’s finally learned to accept that, having started out as an actor with his mother’s name, Scott Reeves. “I wanted to go under the radar,” he says, “but that didn’t really matter. My dad’s not in the audition room. You’ve got to go in the room and audition and win the part. Doesn’t matter if you’re Reeves or Eastwood or Joe Jackoff.” Well, Joe Jackoff would probably struggle, but Hollywood has certainly started taking notice of Eastwood Jr., who looks like the Marlboro Man as reimagined by Abercrombie & Fitch. He’s currently impressing in The Longest Ride as a sensitive bull rider “with the biggest balls…

Box Office COLIN FARRELL VENN DIAGRAM AWARDS 1 x Golden Globe (Best Actor, Comedy Or Musical, In Bruges, 2009) 1 x Empire Award nomination (Best Actor, Minority Report, 2002) 1 x MTV Movie Award (Best Trans-Atlantic Breakthrough Performer, 2003) EMPIRE SPOILER ALERT! THE MANY DEATHS OF COLIN FARRELL Intermission Shot! By a cameraman Ordinary Decent Criminal Shot! By Stephen Dillane Minority Report Shot! By Max von Sydow Alexander Dies! From Heartbreak/Typhus/Poisoning In Bruges Shot! By Ralph Fiennes Pride And Glory Beaten To Death! By a mob Cassandra’s Dream Drowned! By his own hand London Boulevard Stabbed! By Jamie Blackley Horrible Bosses Shot! By Kevin Spacey Fright Night Staked! Through The Heart by Anton Yelchin Saving Mr. Banks Killed! By Tuberculosis NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH COLIN FARRELL who appeared in…

1 REVEALED! Andy Serkis’ The Force Awakens character is Supreme Leader Snoke, the ruler of The First Order. Is he the film’s main villain? Well, there’s no Snoke without fire... 2 CAST! Gareth Edwards is assembling an ace cast for his Death Star heist flick, Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One, with Diego Luna joining Felicity Jones and Ben Mendelsohn. 3 CONFIRMED! Get your Star Wars books ready for October 10, which will be this year’s Star Wars Reads Day. Our personal favourite: 50 Shades Of Gamorrean. 4 RUMOURED! It’s going to be bloody hard to check, but Simon Pegg has claimed Daniel Craig will appear incognito as a stormtrooper in Episode VII. Or Episode 007, as it should be known.…

EMPIRE IS TUCKED away in a grubby old shop overlooking Bridgeton Cross in Glasgow’s East End. The wood-fronted building has been transformed into a traditional barber’s shop with a timeless quality emanating through the haze of dust motes kicked up by Robert Carlyle’s constant shuttling back and forth between two chairs — one for a barber, one for a director. For The Legend Of Barney Thomson marks the brilliant actor’s transition to directing. “I’ve always been interested in directing but I didn’t fancy being in the middle of it as well,” Carlyle tells us. “But then I thought, ‘I know this part like the back of my hand,’ and if anybody knew how to put it together, it is probably me.” Carlyle had been asked many times across the years…

EXPERIENCE 1994 Groundhog Day Fred, a huge Wrestlemania fan I saw Bill Murray in a bathroom 20 years later. I said, “Pardon me, Mr. Murray, I don’t know if you remember me…” And he goes, “Yeah, you were in Groundhog Day.” We had the most amazing evening eating cheese and drinking wine, talking about Chicago and improv. It was cool. 2001 Vanilla Sky Aaron, a security guard I would watch the sessions between Kurt Russell and Tom Cruise, and I found that fascinating. It was a real pleasure being a fly on the wall. 2002 8 Mile Greg Buehl, the abusive boyfriend of Eminem’s mother I WAS WALKING DOWN THE STREET WITH MY FAMILY AND SOME GUY CAME BY ON A BICYCLE AND HOLLERED, “OH SHIT, 8 MILE! YOU FUCKED…

• • GETTY I.AGES 1 Which film did you use footage from in Targets? A Roger Corman production called The Terror, which had been directed by Francis Coppola and any number of people. It was not their greatest hour. CORRECT 2 In What’s Up, Doc?, what’s the name of the shop Ryan O’Neal and Barbra Streisand crash into while in the Chinese dragon? It was a costume shop, that’s all I remember. That was a four-week shoot for 12 minutes. INCORRECT The correct answer is Shangra-La Costume Rentals. 3 Quentin Tarantino cameos in She’s Funny That Way. Which director’s triple bill does he say he’s on his way to? It’s Sonny something... an Asian filmmaker. (On hearing answer) I’m completely ignorant on Asian martial arts movies. INCORRECT The answer is…

UNMISSABLE EXCELLENT GOOD POOR TRAGIC Inside Out OUT JULY 24 / CERT. TBC / 102 MINS. DIRECTORS Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen CAST (VOICES) Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling PLOT THE EMOTIONS OF 11 YEAR-OLD RILEY GO INTO OVERDRIVE WHEN HER FAMILY MOVES FROM MINNESOTA TO SAN FRANCISCO. PIXAR IS THE owner of cinema’s most famous brain trust, a group of wildly different personalities who come together to shape adolescent (and grown-up) hearts and minds through the power of storytelling. It is perhaps surprising, then, that they have taken so long to make Inside Out, a film about a literal brain trust, this one controlling the heart and mind of a kid on the brink of adolescence. What Pete Docter, the driving force behind Monsters,…

51 Degrees North OUT JUNE 26 / CERT. TBC / 88 MINS. DIRECTOR Grigorij richters CAST Moritz von Zeddelmann Ambitious and innovative, this is a well-meaning look at the perils of asteroids. The science is cogently presented and the scenes of panic well choreographed. But the plot, following a vlogger chronicling the end to save his family, fails to compel. DP Still The Water OUT JULY 3 / CERT. TBC / 121 MINS. DIRECTOR Naomi Kawase CAST Nijirô Murakami, Jun Yoshinaga Intriguing ideas and beautiful images abound in this tale of first love, parental legacy and the natural and spiritual realms. But early scenes of shocking violence give way to a blend of twee philosophising and gauche symbolism. DP Fabergé: A Life Of Its Own OUT JUNE 29 / CERT.…

100 Edna Mode APPEARANCE: The Incredibles (2004) CREATOR: Brad Bird PERFORMER: Brad Bird DEFINING MOMENT: “No capes!” — Mode’s more than eccentric personality hides a distinctly practical approach to superhero fashion. 099 Randle McMurphy APPEARANCE: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) CREATORS: Ken Kesey, Bo Goldman PERFORMER: Jack Nicholson DEFINING MOMENT: When Nurse Ratched bans the World Series, McMurphy improvises a commentary. 098 Optimus Prime APPEARANCES: The Transformers series (2007-2014) CREATORS: Denny O’Neil, Jim Shooter, Bob Budiansky PERFORMER: Peter Cullen (voice) DEFINING MOMENT: Riding high on a mecha dinosaur in Age Of Extinction. 097 Norman Bates APPEARANCES: The Psycho films (1960-1990), Psycho remake (1998) CREATOR: Robert Bloch PERFORMERS: Anthony Perkins, Henry Thomas, Vince Vaughn DEFINING MOMENT: With a superimposed skull, he says, “I wouldn’t hurt a fly.” 096 The…

1 WALTER WHITE From life-weary teacher to meth-cooking kingpin. it’s the big arc that wowed us in Breaking Bad, and it rightly made Bryan Cranston a star. 2 TYRION LANNISTER The character described as “monstrous” is the moral centre of Game of thrones. Daenerys has dragons; Jon snow his Valyrian steel; tyrion his wit, impeccably delivered by Peter Dinklage. 3 HOMER SIMPSON He wasn’t the first overweight family man to appear in animation, and he certainly wasn’t the last. But he’s the BEST, dagnabbit! 4 THE DOCTOR Fifty-two years, 12 incarnations, unending appeal… Sydney Newman’s adventurer in space and time has even made his own recasting an inventive part of the mythology. 5 TONY SOPRANO The new Jersey crime titan is a man of many facets. From his first scene…

1 RON BURGUNDY Tonight’s top story: Will Ferrell’s walking ego with a ’tache still makes your sides hurt. and he plays the meanest jazz flute on the West Coast. 2 JEFF ‘THE DUDE’ LEBOWSKI The Coens’ bowling fan tangled in a kidnapping may be based on pulp sleuths, but if he found the Maltese Falcon he’d probably try to smoke it. 3 FRANK DREBIN Leslie nielsen redefined daftness with his snow-haired buffoon, at his funniest in naked Gun 1 and 2. His aliases include nick ‘the Slasher’ McGuirk and Tony De’Wonderful. 4 DEREK ZOOLANDER The silliest thing ever to prance down a catwalk, Derek is three per cent body fat, one per cent brain activity, 100 per cent hilarious. He’ll be back in a sequel; can he surpass Blue Steel?…

“There is one line in the script that said he was ‘terminally relaxed’ and that was the most important piece of information I had,” explains Mary Zophres, costume designer for The Big Lebowski, the person responsible for the iconic look of The Dude. “Just his whole way of being was very much that way.” Having read the Coens’ script, broken down the looks (there are numerous changes, but five principal styles), she frequented the thrift stores of Venice Beach (The Dude’s neighbourhood) seeking the embodiment of relaxed. “We came to this idea that every pair of pants that he wears has an elastic waist, there is no constraint…” 1 Bathrobe Dude “There were just some robes in the fitting room. We were looking at his shape and everything was loose,…

Empire is on the phone with model/actress/human being Cara Delevingne, who is pacing the streets of New York, her famous brows furrowed, one suspects, and working up a head of steam comparable to those often seen bellowing from that city’s subterranean heating system. “I don’t like being put in a box,” the 22-year-old continues Veruca Saltily. “I’m not a boxy person. I don’t belong in a box. I belong on top of the box.” The vexed subject which has incurred her boxy wrath is that loaded epithet “model slash actress”, so often attached to those who travel in hope rather than expectation in this business we call show. The same cannot be said of Delevingne. She has been modelling since the age of ten and is now the face of…

Good Kill Air Force pilot (Ethan Hawke) transfers from flying planes to controlling drones, quickly starting to question the ethics of administering death from above. The title is the phrase drone operators utter upon the completion of a successful kill. Fast & Furious 7 Mercenary Jakande (Djimon Hounsou) uses a Predator drone armed with guided missiles to hunt our heroes in Los Angeles. This Predator is taken out not by Arnie but by Dwayne Johnson, who drives an ambulance off a bridge and into its face. Poltergeist With his sister abducted by evil forces, teen Griffin (Kyle Catlett) suggests sending his camera drone toy into the portal to the beyond. It provides some impressively high-resolution imagery of snarling cadavers, before getting twatted by a ghoul. Tomorrowland Drones are flying but…

ILLUSTRATION NOMA BAR NEW RELEASE JFK Anatomy of a murder: Chris Hewitt revisits Oliver Stone’s masterful dissection of the death of a President. Jupiter Ascending WACHOWSKIS DESCENDING FROM NOW / CERT. 12 BY GOD, THEY TRY, the Wachowskis. They really try. There are ideas enough in their heads to power years of sci-fi movies and you could never fairly accuse them of failure to commit. They consider every little detail of their worlds, and yet, so often, their giant imaginations are stomped by their even greater earnestness. You’ll struggle to find a genuinely funny moment in a Wachowski movie, certainly not an intentional one. While they can wrap their minds around all sorts of quantum whathaveyous, Lana and Andy seem befuddled by humour. Theirs are worlds where everything is gravely…

SHIVERING CAST and crew are huddled on a Richmond roadside, discussing the quality of the pastries on offer around the corner, as a Transit van repeatedly speeds 15 feet to wallop a crash test dummy in a wig. It could be a particularly dramatic episode of EastEnders. It’s not. This is a crucial scene from what could be one of 2015’s big TV events. Made by Channel 4 and AMC, Humans, a remake of the Swedish series Real Humans, ponders the mysteries of AI in a uniquely creepy way. “This is a really key moment,” explains Gemma Chan, whose character Anita has just been pummelled by the van. “I save a boy’s life — it’s my superhero moment, and it has big repercussions for the family I work for.” Anita,…

INGRID MORTIMER (OLD WOMAN IN PYJAMAS) “I actually graduated from where we were shooting, the University of michigan, a number of years ago. It was a homecoming of sorts. It didn’t bother me at all, being in a nightgown for the role. When I auditioned, I was just asked to look like an old woman walking slowly down a hallway. And I didn’t have any trouble doing that! “I wanted to scare the dickens out of maika, so I used a thought that brought back fear and anger to me. When my husband and I were crossing the Saginaw Bay in Northern michigan, a storm came, and the waves were 12 to 14 feet high. my body froze. I was as frightened as I’d ever been in my life. on…

Still Alice FROM JUNE 29 / CERT. 12 Julianne Moore deservedly hit the Oscarlode at the fourth time of asking with this harrowing story of a high-achiever brought low by the ravages of Alzheimer’s. Co-director Richard Glatzer tragically died shortly after her triumph, from complications related to motor neurone disease. His moving, sensitive film is a fitting legacy. PDS The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel FROM NOW / CERT. PG Despite the title, this warm-hearted sequel shows no sign of diminishing returns. As we rejoin the retirees in Jaipur, they are facing romantic and health complications, while Sonny (Dev Patel) dreams of expanding his business. The plot is as well-worn as the cast, but it’s so likable that it’s hard to resist. HOH ILLUSTRATIONS: THE RED DRESS (ZO.BIE HAND), PETER…

One-Man Armies GUNS. MUSCLE CARS. ENDLESS henchmen. Righteous slaughter. And the stupidest names outside of sci-fi. In a cold, cruel 2015, the one-man-army movie offers a simple justice the real world seems to have forgotten. Honestly, this Netflix marathon should be offered on the NHS, as cinematic rage therapy. The one-man army is, fundamentally, a subgenre of the revenge movie, which makes Jack Reacher unusual: Tom Cruise’s lone wolf is so unreconstructed, he doesn’t let petty details like motivation or backstory get in the way of his eye-gouging alpha binge. The movie uncoils a surprisingly smart sniper conspiracy, but all it really wants to be is an ’80s throwback: in another era, this would be Dolph’s or Arnie’s gig. Cruise makes it his own. Sequel, please. It soon becomes apparent…

TOP SECRETS MORE VOLUMES OFFERING INSIGHTS GLEANED BY (AND FROM) HOLLYWOOD’S FINEST I Found This Funny (ed. Judd Apatow) Apatow’s 2010 anthology of things that make him chuckle. Be warned: some of it is very dark. Conversations With Wilder (Cameron Crowe) Where else will you find Billy Wilder’s thoughts on Rain Man and the Austro-Hungarian monarchy? Who The Hell’s In It (Peter Bogdanovich) The director recalls stars he met (Karloff), asked for an autograph (Brando) or saw across a room (Monroe).…

PAC-MAN 1980 An icon is born in the form of a pill-and-fruit-chomping yellow blob, navigating a maze while pursued by ghosts. MS. PAC-MAN 1981 A dash of lipstick and fetching red ribbon reinvents the formula for the fairer sex. Not a massive evolution but still a hit. PAC-ATTACK 1993 Pac-Man returns in a Tetris-like game featuring fairies as well as ghosts. Frantic ‘versus bouts’ were a high point. PAC ’N ROLL 2005 Rolling Marble Madness-style, a young Pac-Man first learns the art of ghost-fighting from a Pac-Master (yes, really). PAC-MAN AND THE GHOSTLY ADVENTURES 2013 Fully 3D Pac-Man must save Pacopolis from Betrayus, king of the netherworld.…