Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2024 i Empire

REPORTS OF A rogue Oompa Loompa rampaging through Birmingham have no doubt reached your ears. Fear not: the creators of Glasgow’s legendarily calamitous Willy’s Chocolate Experience haven’t struck again. Nor was it Hugh Grant, taking Method acting too far and unleashing exploding gobstoppers upon the Midlands. Instead, it was Empire Podcast host Chris Hewitt, kicking off our live tour of the UK alongside regular cohorts Helen O’Hara and James Dyer, while clad in frankly disturbing make-up and leggings. We can only apologise. With tasty treats for everybody (another point of difference from Willy’s Chocolate Experience) courtesy of tour sponsors M&M’S, it made for a glorious March road-trip for Team Empire. The above and a rotating fourth chair also travelled to Norwich, Sheffield, Dublin and Manchester, for five riotous shows. Thanks…

EDITED BY BETH WEBB IN THE SHADOWS of Arrakis lie many secrets. Among them, it seems: the secret to making an absolute boatload of cash. At the time of writing, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two has taken half a billion dollars at the box office, and is thundering towards the $600-million mark like Shai-Hulud chasing down a thumper. Not bad for a nearly-three-hour-long sequel drenched in complex lore, containing vast swathes of subtitled alien dialect, and based on a doorstopping novel that was once considered ‘unadaptable’ (even after David Lynch had a go). With its telepathic foetuses and colour-leached suns, the film is arguably even more out-there than its 2021 predecessor —and yet it’s outperforming it, both critically and commercially. A third instalment now seems inevitable. But beyond that, Dune:…

THE HISTORY Amazingly, the 79-year-old Douglas has hitherto shunned projects set in the distant past. “I’ve never really done a period project,” he ponders. “Though, at the very, very beginning of my career, I did something on television (1972’s American Revolution: The Impossible War). It was one of the reasons I wanted to do this, because I’m in a phase where I’m doing things I never did before.” Perhaps his father Kirk’s famous historical epics made him want to carve out his own niche with more modern stories? “You know, it’s possible. I used to watch him practicising his quick-draws, or working the oars on The Vikings. And there may have been a feeling of, ‘Man, how can I ever do what my father can do? So I’ll go this…

MAYDAY Filming has begun on the new action-adventure from Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, the writer-director duo behind Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves. Bound for Apple TV+, the film — the plot of which is shrouded in secrecy — will star Ryan Reynolds opposite Kenneth Branagh. EDDINGTON Emma Stone, Joaquin Phoenix, Austin Butler and Pedro Pascal will lead the all-star line-up for Ari Aster’s next A24-backed feature. Production on the film, a project once enigmatically described by Aster as a “Western-noir dark ensemble comedy”, is already underway in New Mexico. THE MAN WITH THE BAG Ho-ho-holy moly! Arnold Schwarzenegger and Alan Ritchson are set to flex their comedic muscles in Adam Shankman’s (Hairspray) upcoming festive family caper. Shooting later this year, the film sees Santa turning to…

1 THE WHOLE BAND IS BACK Frontman David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) and bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) are reuniting for their first proper feature film in four decades. (Okay, there was 1992 concert film The Return Of Spinal Tap, but that’s just nitpicking, isn’t it?) 2 AND SO IS MARTY DIBERGI The director of Kramer Vs. Kramer Vs. Godzilla and This Is Spinal Tap, in fact a fictional filmmaker played by Rob Reiner, is on board again, despite the band accusing him of having a fake beard on the DVD commentary. 3 IT’S REVIVING THE MOCKUMENTARY Eugene Levy recently lamented the sub-genre’s passing —here’s a chance for a mock-rock-doc to put it back in vogue. 4 WE’LL CATCH UP ON THEIR HISTORY How many…

JOHN NUGENT IS THINKING ABOUT… AIRBNBING THE ANATOMY OF A FALL HOUSE The French ski lodge featured in Justine Triet’s drama has quietly popped up on AirBnB for €90 a night. It’s a very brave couple who’d take a romantic trip there. Maybe just make sure there are witnesses? And for God’s sake, take a dog. BETH WEBB IS THINKING ABOUT… STRESSED SISTERS I never see nuns having a great time anymore. They’re either pregnant with the devil in The First Omen, pregnant with something equally unpleasant in Immaculate, or slaying demons in Warrior Nun. Give them a mountainside and a rousing musical number already. NICK DE SEMLYEN IS THINKING ABOUT… THE ROCK’S OWNERSHIP RIGHTS No longer am I able to happily dispense the phrase “roody poo”, or…

SOMETIMES — AND BY sometimes I mean often, and by often I mean alarmingly often — I will sit down to watch the famous, furious monologue from Ridley Scott’s Gladiator. “My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius,” it begins — and so, too, do my goosebumps — “Commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius.” Russell Crowe’s gladiator stares into the eyes of Joaquin Phoenix’s trembling emperor Commodus as he continues: “Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.” Just typing this out makes me want to jump up onto the table in this café I’m writing in, throw a chair across the room…

FILM BE GAY, DO CRIME, WITH KRISTEN STEWART ★★★★ OUT 19 APRIL / CERT 15 / 104 MINS DIRECTOR Rose Glass CAST Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Jena Malone, Ed Harris, Dave Franco, Anna Baryshnikov PLOT Gym manager Lou (Stewart) falls fast and hard for bodybuilder Jackie (O’Brian). But violent forces threaten to tear them apart. BLOOD, SWEAT, VOMIT and saliva —this film is all about the body, what lurks within it and what physical extremes we’ll push ourselves to for lust, love and freedom. The presence of all these fluids will come as no surprise to those who saw writer and director Rose Glass’ debut, Saint Maud, which memorably features its protagonist impaling her own feet with nails. Love Lies Bleeding, a title borrowed from a type of blood-red flower,…

A SATURDAY-MORNING CARTOON RETURNS (TO WEDNESDAYS) ★★★★ OUT NOW (DISNEY+) / EPISODES VIEWED 3 OF 10 SHOWRUNNER Beau DeMayo CAST (VOICES) Cal Dodd, Lenore Zann, George Buza, Catherine Disher, Chris Potter, Alison Sealy-Smith, Adrian Hough, Ross Marquand PLOT Still reeling from the loss of Professor X (Marquand), the X-Men find themselves facing all-new challenges. WITH ITS ELECTRIFYING synth intro, endlessly quotable catchphrases and eye-popping aesthetic, X-Men: The Animated Series was peak ’90s Saturday-morning TV. And yet the show, which originally ran between 1992 and 1997, still somehow always felt way ahead of its time. Almost three decades later, then, the arrival of X-Men ’97 makes perfect sense. Serving as neither remake nor reboot but rather a direct continuation of the original series, this isn’t simply the nostalgic ’toon you know…

FILM THIS YEAR’S HOTTEST COLOSSUS-COLLAB JUST DROPPED ★★★ OUT NOW / CERT 12A / 115 MINS DIRECTOR Adam Wingard CAST Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns, Fala Chen PLOT A dangerous threat emerges in the Hollow Earth. To defeat it, titan Kong will need to team up with his best frenemy: Godzilla. IT’S BEEN 78 years since Godzilla made his first on-screen appearance, and his stock is as high as ever: Godzilla Minus One deservedly won an Oscar for its incredible visual effects back in March; while TV spin-off Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters proved that it is possible to have compelling human characters amid all the clashes of titans. The MonsterVerse, which began with Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla in 2014, has gradually become less sombre and…

THE WOOKIEE JEDI WAS GREETED WITH THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE. Clad in a yellow tabard draped across his massive furry frame, lightsaber clipped to his utility belt, the Chewbacca-alike Force-user strode onto the main stage at Star Wars Celebration 2023 to a cacophony of cheers. This particular fuzzball goes by the name of Kelnacca —and his task that day wasn’t to fight the dark side: it was to escort his creator, The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland, as she presented her bold new Star Wars vision to the assembled throng. If you’re wondering what exactly compels a Wookiee —typically less inclined to lend a hand than rip one clean off —to find harmony through the Force, you’re not alone. “Wookiees are fierce creatures living in their own habitat. How does one become a…

"I'M JUMPING SHIP, MAN." It’s a bold statement from Glen Powell. “I’m getting out of the business completely,” he says to Richard Linklater, his friend and collaborator, as the pair talk to Empire over Zoom. The teasing continues. “I think we did it,” continues Powell. “We did what we needed to do.” He’s joking, but this is testament to the film that Powell and Linklater have just made. The actor is speaking to Empire from his home in Los Angeles, giving us a virtual tour of his front room. Boxes and framed pictures sit on the floor behind him, as the actor is preparing to up sticks and move back to his native Texas. And next month, Hit Man hits cinemas, also marking a new chapter for Powell. This would…

NOT THAT YOU’D know it to look at him, necessarily, but Zack Snyder recently turned 58. The celebrations were “quiet, but good”, he tells Empire when we speak to him a couple of days later in early March. “Quiet” might come as something of a surprise to anyone who’s tracked the director’s career. Snyder kicked things off by chronicling the world crashing to its doom with that sensational opening sequence of Dawn Of The Dead in 2004, and the Baron Of Bombast has not let up since, marshalling mayhem aplenty in the likes of 300, Watchmen, and his entries in the DCEU (Man Of Steel, Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, and Justice League, with his four-hour cut finally released after a lengthy delay). Most recently, he unveiled his Netfli-xbacked…

NOBODY REALLY WANTED an Ocean’s 11 remake. The original 1960 film, about a group of World War II veterans who plan a New Year’s Eve heist on five Las Vegas casinos, was better remembered for its cast than its quality, its chief reason for existing mainly so that the ‘Rat Pack’ —entertainers Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop —could hang out, gamble and get drunk. Watched with today’s eyes, it’s a rather cheesy, dated, best-forgotten crime comedy. “The truth is,” George Clooney later said, “most people never saw the original Ocean’s 11. They just think they have. Because those guys were the coolest.” Somehow, its legacy and memory endured. For one thing, the 1960 film transformed Las Vegas’ reputation and status, playing a significant…

Chris: So, Leonardo DiCaprio. Why are we talking about him? I think it’s because he has proved himself, over the last 30 years or so, to be one of the best and most versatile actors on the planet. I don’t always love his movies, especially the ones that seem to last for weeks, but he is often electric on screen. Helen: He’s an astonishing actor. He’s quite picky. He works a lot with the absolute best auteurs, and therefore his hit-rate is astonishing. He was able to turn his teen heartthrob status into an A-list career, and part of that is very good taste. Mike: He’s quite diverse, too. In the ’90s it was easy to dismiss him as maybe just a pretty face, but what I’ve loved about him,…

JOEL EDGERTON: “I worked with Mads Mikkelsen on King Arthur in 2003. And it started my obsession with Mads. I think he’s a living, breathing master, and one of the most versatile actors in the history of cinema. There’s a [2003] movie called The Green Butchers, made in Denmark, and he plays a butcher who’s selling a particular kind of meat. There’s this empathetic scene in the middle of the film where Mads explains what his childhood was like. Its tone is hilarious, yet by the end you’re like, ‘I’m okay with you killing more people.’” INT. BUTCHER’S SHOP — DAY Svend (Mikkelsen) is counting coins when his business partner Bjarne (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) walks in. Bjarne, smoking, is upset as Svend has been selling human flesh, passing it off…

BEN TRAVIS SPOKE TO LESLYE HEADLAND FOR OUR COVER STORY “Ever since seeing her unveil The Acolyte footage at Star Wars Celebration a year ago, I’ve wanted to talk Star Wars nerdery with Leslye Headland. And she didn’t disappoint — so clear in her own vision, and steeped in decades of deep love for the world George Lucas created.” PHOTOGRAPHER DYLAN COULTER SHOT DAISY RIDLEY IN TEXAS “This was my second time working with Daisy, and just like the first, it was a fantastic and energising experience. She brought so much to the shoot — all the more impressive knowing that less than two days before she was in Australia, a time zone 16 hours ahead of ours!” CHRIS HEWITT DRESSED AS AN OOMPA LOOMPA FOR THE EMPIRE PODCAST LIVE…

MAYA HAWKE HAS anxious moments just like everyone else does. If you sit beside her on a plane, for example, you will hear ‘The Voice’. “This is the voice I do when I’m nervous,” Hawke tells Empire, adopting a higher-pitched, sped-up version of her natural tone. “When I get embarrassed about having a worry that I know is irrational I talk like this, and I’ll go, ‘Do you think our plane is going to crash? Because I'm just feeling worried that it’s going to crash since I heard that podcast about how the Boeing planes are crashing these days and this is a Boeing plane!’ I make fun of myself.” It was this voice that she used in the audition for Pixar sequel Inside Out 2, in which she plays…

IT’S GETTING CATTY out there. As Hollywood continues to sequelise and rehash, some filmmakers are ditching diplomacy in favour of airing their grievances. “Eric Draven’s having a bad hair day,” Alex Proyas, director of 1994’s The Crow, wrote on Facebook as photos hit of Rupert Sanders’ upcoming remake, starring a mulleted Bill Skarsgård. “Next reboot thanks.” In the comments he went on. “I guess he’s supposed to be a bad mofo with all those tats and skulls on his jacket,” Proyas miaowed, following that with a crying-laughing emoji, the true refuge of the damned. And this after True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto spent a portion of February reposting negative Instagram comments about Issa López’s recent season, platforming people criticising the writing and calling Night Country a “hot mess”. Why? Proyas…

Chris Hewitt (Executive Editor): I like all the Ghostbusters movies, but the only one I love is the original, and I feel that they haven’t gotten close to recapturing the magic of that film yet. Alex Godfrey (Features Editor): I really liked Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The new crew were fantastic, Carrie Coon and Mckenna Grace especially. I thought that this sequel would be a sequel to Afterlife, but it feels just as much like a sequel to the first two films as well. Chris: Weirdly, the thing that is holding this iteration of this franchise back is the original Ghostbusters. I think if they cut those guys loose and focus on this compelling, likeable cadre of main characters that Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman created, they would have a really solid…

ELI ROTH WORKS by the adage that if you don’t ask, you don’t get. When it came to casting Borderlands, his “sci-fi spaghetti Western” adaptation of the hit loot-’em-up video-game franchise, he wanted an awards-calibre cast. And, somehow, he got it. “Cate Blanchett is the greatest and any movie I make, she’s the first person I’m going to go to,” says Roth, which makes sense — who wouldn’t want Blanchett playing the lead in anything at all? — but doesn’t explain how he persuaded her to say yes to taking on a gun-toting outlaw with lollipopcoloured hair. Borderlands is a goofy game series about a swarm of odd criminals descending on a ravaged planet, Pandora, to raid it for treasure. In the movie, Blanchett plays Lilith, a criminal who’s strong-armed…

HOW DOES SOMEONE who’s grown up surrounded by scary films purge themselves of fear? They make scary films themselves. Such has been the case with Ishana Night Shyamalan, who, as her surname suggests, has been exposed to the genre since her childhood. “I remember he showed us Poltergeist very, very early on, and that was absolutely terrifying,” laughs the 23-year-old Shyamalan while recalling movie nights with her father, M. Night. When they weren’t glued to the screen, her sister would pull her hair over her face, pretend to be the girl from The Ring, and chase her around the house. Shyamalan’s progression into this kind of filmmaking feels inevitable — she worked as second-unit director on Old and Knock At The Cabin and helmed six episodes of Servant, the show…

REALLY? A MOVIE ABOUT THE SIMS? WHAT WILL THAT EVEN BE? Sure, it sounds odd. But in a post-LEGO, post-Barbie world, there’s real potential here —especially with Margot Robbie producing, and Loki’s Kate Herron directing. Since The Sims is a life simulator —where players guide Sims into work, relationships, parenthood and more —you could easily make a social satire, or just go completely wild. Stay tuned to see which actors will get those glowing green diamonds above their heads. GREEN DIAMONDS? Yep. Every Sim has a floating crystal —technically called a ‘Plumbob’ — indicating their mood and needs that appears when you’ve clicked on them in the game. If it turns yellow, they need help. If it turns red, they need a total lifestyle overhaul. HMM. THIS HARDLY SOUNDS LIKE…

THEY’RE THROWING EVERYTHING THEY’VE GOT AT IT By the time the final episode airs, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith will have created 55 totally different half-hour stories in 55 totally different settings with 55 totally different casts. Having decided to close No. 9 for good, the creators took the opportunity to deploy ideas they’ve been thinking about for decades. Take the episode ‘Boo To A Goose’, which features Shearsmith and Siobhan Finneran as an oddball couple. “We finally included this thing that’s been hanging over us for about 20 years,” explains Shearsmith, “which was this couple we once saw on the Tube. They sat down in their anoraks and proceeded to get out an apple each and eat them at the same time. It’s something that’s tickled us for years.”…

WATCH FIRST Alex Garland has cited 1985’s Come And See, the seminal World War II-era film from Soviet director Elem Klimov, as an important example of the kind of anti-war film he was seeking to make. HUH! WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? IN ALEX GARLAND’S HANDS, QUITE A LOT ★★★★ OUT 12 APRIL / CERT TBC / 109 MINS DIRECTOR Alex Garland CAST Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Nick Offerman PLOT The United States is ravaged by civil war. As the conflict reaches its climax, a group of journalists make the treacherous journey from New York to Washington DC. IN 2014, THREE years after civil war broke out in Syria, the charity Save The Children released ‘If London Were Syria’: a brutally effective, 93-second commercial that…

TV CSI: 1860s WASHINGTON DC ★★★★ OUT NOW (APPLE TV+) / EPISODES VIEWED 7 OF 7 SHOWRUNNER Monica Beletsky CAST Tobias Menzies, Anthony Boyle, Lovie Simone, Hamish Linklater PLOT After Abraham Lincoln (Linklater) is assassinated by actor John Wilkes Booth (Boyle), Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (Menzies) hunts down the killer. ON 14 APRIL 1865, actor John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathiser, shot President Abraham Lincoln in the head during a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC. The event is reconstructed in compelling detail in the first episode of Apple TV+’s Manhunt, but it’s to the credit of showrunner Monica Beletsky (The Leftovers, Fargo) that the rest of the show doesn’t feel anticlimactic. For Beletsky and directors Carl Franklin, John Dahl and Eva Sørhaug not…

FILM MEET DEV PATEL: ACTION HERO ★★★★ OUT NOW / CERT 18 / 121 MINS DIRECTOR Dev Patel CAST Dev Patel, Pitobash, Sharlto Copley, Vipin Sharma, Sikander Kher PLOT In the Indian city of Yatana, a rookie fighter (Patel) with a monkey mask and not much else sets out to avenge an old wrong. “YOU LIKE JOHN Wick?” The question is asked of Dev Patel’s still-green hero Kid by a pushy arms-dealer a little way into Monkey Man. (The dealer has one of Wick’s signature handguns, the TTI Combat Master, in his catalogue.) It’s a meta moment that nods to one of writer-director-star Patel’s many action-movie influences; when the pulsing trailer for the film dropped, complete with crunchy gunplay and ouchy stabbings, comparisons to the Keanu Reeves franchise flew like…

FILM IT’S JAKE GYLLENHAAL’S WAY — OR THE HIGHWAY ★★★★ OUT NOW (PRIME VIDEO) / CERT TBC / 114 MINS DIRECTOR Doug Liman CAST Jake Gyllenhaal, Daniela Melchior, Billy Magnussen, Lukas Gage, Conor McGregor, Jessica Williams PLOT Ex-UFC fighter Dalton (Gyllenhaal) is hired as head bouncer at the roughest of all bars in a corner of the Florida Keys. IT’S FAIR TO say the release of this remake of the much-loved but thoroughly ludicrous 1989 Patrick Swayze action vehicle has taken a controversial turn. Director Doug Liman is not happy the movie is going straight to Prime Video without opening in cinemas first, and has not been shy in telling the world of his frustration, while star Jake Gyllenhaal says it was always meant for streaming. Whatever, the finished film…

DAMSEL ★★ “There’s nothing wrong with going hammy, but the delivery is as lifeless as the dragon’s victims. Damsel wants us to take it seriously, but the message and fairy-tale trappings are too simplistic for that.” DAVID OPIE IMMACULATE ★★★ “Sydney Sweeney almost single-handedly lifts it out of the hokey-religious-fright-film category. The face of horror in 2024 is Sweeney’s blood-smeared to-camera stare accompanied by a truly soul-scraping scream.” KIM NEWMAN RENEGADE NELL ★★★★ “A refreshingly unique take on the period romp, Renegade Nell is an ambitious show, weaving elements of intriguing politicking, thrilling highway action, and hints of folklore and fairy-tale magic.”  NICOLA AUSTIN FAST CHARLIE ★★ “Brosnan’s character, Charlie Swift, is a Brosno-nonsense kind of guy, and Brosnan is the brightest spot here. But it doesn’t quite hang together,…

ZENDAYA THROWS UP HER HANDS. “I cannot really tell you what this is,” she says. “I couldn’t say it’s just a comedy. I couldn’t say it’s just a drama. I couldn’t say it’s just a sports movie.” She sits back in her chair, defeated. “I have trouble explaining it to people.” She’s talking about Challengers, for which she is both star and producer. And she’s not the only person struggling to sum it up. Even its writer, Justin Kuritzkes, leans on the words of others in an effort to nail it down: “I’ve heard it called an ‘erotic tennis thriller’, which I like.” The only person who can describe it with certainty is its director, Luca Guadagnino, who calls it “a comedy of manners”. And far be it for us…

FOR DAISYR IDLEY, THE THRILL COMES FIRST AND THE FEAR COMES LATER . While wading in the middle of the Black Sea for Joachim Rønning ’s rousing 1920s-set biopic Young Woman And The Sea, in which she stars as Trudy Ederle, the first woman to swim across the English Channel, Ridley’s aversion to open-water swimming confronted her fully. “You know when you go in the sea?” she asks. “I never go beyond where I can see my feet. The whole thing was such an exploration of things I don’t really like.” Her voice sing-songs: “The lies we tell for the jobs we do!” Of course, the London-born actor is well-acquainted with treacherous waters. At the age of 21, Ridley was plucked from anonymity to lead the Star Wars sequel trilogy…

THE NAME MAY be English and, more often than not, the accent is too. The CV is also littered with American and British films. But make no mistake —Eva Green is as French as they come. (It’s pronounced Ey-va, for one thing.) “Sometimes I wish my name was ‘Dupont’ or something more French, so people saw how much work I put into the English,” she tells Empire, on the phone from Normandy. However, her career is currently bookended by French movies. The most recent is Martin Bourboulon’s The Three Musketeers: Milady, in which, as one of the title characters, she constantly outsmarts and outswashbuckles the other title characters. The first is The Dreamers, the Bernardo Bertolucci-directed drama that was Green’s debut film in 2003, and which launched her onto the…

WILL GLUCK’S GLOSSY romcom Anyone But You is the kind of success story that, it seemed, had long gone the way of the dodo. Atrue sleeper hit, it debuted just before Christmas with a dismal opening weekend of just $6 million, but then, despite some less-than-generous reviews, connected with audiences and kept going. And going. And going. At the time of writing, it has grossed just over $212 million worldwide. “Every time I see a movie theatre [it’s playing at], I sneak in at the end to see it,” says Gluck, who must therefore have contributed a few bucks to the fund. “And it’s really a movie that you can’t walk out of without a smile on your face and a skip in your step.” Is that the reason why…

LETTER OF THE MONTH THE PRODIGAL SON RETURNS I’m a lapsed subscriber returning to the magazine after a podcast-only couple of years and it was a joy to return to issue #424. Not only is it a comfort to see familiar favourites like Pint Of Milk (a refreshingly thoughtful entry from Steve- O), but I’ve loved fitting the writing to the podcast voice: a Liverpool FC joke crowbarred into an Equalizer retrospective? Got to be Chris Hewitt. Thoughtfully written story of Mae West versus Hollywood? Surely Helen O’Hara. Keep up the good work! PAUL THOMSON, BRISTOL Welcome back, Paul. Always glad to shepherd a lost lamb back into Empire’s paddock. To sweeten the deal, have a Picturehouse membership on us. Empire’s star letter wins a Picturehouse Membership, valid for one…

Alex Godfrey (Features Editor): The original film was iconic because the character, Eric Draven, was cool and a big old goth, and it stood out from the other superhero films that were happening at the time. Dare I say it —what happened to Brandon Lee (the lead actor was fatally wounded by a prop gun while filming) gave The Crow legendary status. Beth Webb (News Editor): I remember that there was a coven of girls in my A-Level Film Studies class that worshipped that film. It has such a die-hard following. Alex: I think that there needed to be a lot of time before this story was approached again. Graham Jones (Deputy Art Director): The 1994 one is a beautiful-looking film. It has a heavily Gothic feel to it. And…

PRIME VIDEO’S NEW post-apocalyptic sci-fi series Fallout, adapted from the seminal video-game franchise, sees among its various species a population of former humans, warped by radiation from a devastating nuclear war. They are known as ‘ghouls’, and Walton Goggins plays ‘The Ghoul’: a gnarly, noseless, wisecracking cowboy who has managed to remain highly functional and more human-like in nature while others of his kind have become feral. “I’ve been given the opportunity to play morally ambiguous characters for a long time,” the actor, who’s left his murky mark on shows like Justified and The Shield, tells Empire cheerfully. “I can be funny to some people and maybe engender some pathos for horrible people. That’s what I like to think. Or maybe it’s because Sam Rockwell was unavailable.” The Ghoul —once…

THERE’S A GNARLY bunch of brutes in The Bikeriders. On the surface, at least: Jeff Nichols’ drama, inspired by photojournalist Danny Lyon’s 1968 book documenting motorbike gang the Outlaws, gets to know the men behind the leather jackets. Using Lyon’s photos as a springboard to unpack American masculinity, Nichols fictionalises the world, presenting a gang called the Vandals, with a formidable cast bringing them to life. He gives us the down-and-dirty lowdown. BENNY (AUSTIN BUTLER) A smouldering livewire, Benny is a dangerous, enigmatic mystery. “In the book he seems a bit like a myth,” says Nichols. “And that was the line of thinking when I started to build that character. He’s a stand-in for this unattainable, probably unrealistic human being.” And the director found the perfect embodiment in the form…

FILM DAISY RIDLEY DIES HARD ★★★ OUT 19 APRIL / CERT TBC / 91 MINS DIRECTOR Rachel Lambert CAST Daisy Ridley, Dave Merheje, Parvesh Cheena, Marcia DeBonis PLOT Fran (Ridley) lives a closed-off, buttoned-up life. But when Robert (Merheje) starts work in her drab office, she tentatively tries to connect. IT CAN BE difficult, when making a film about a depressed, disconnected character, not to make a depressing film that is hard to connect with. Happily, Rachel Lambert’s indie centres around a really effective Daisy Ridley performance, hinting at just enough inner light to keep you watching even when things get a bit gloomy. Ridley plays Fran, an office worker in a coastal Oregon town who takes pride in her faculty with spreadsheets. She keeps herself at a remove from…

FILM IS THIS A BETTER GHOSTBUSTERS 2 THAN THE LAST GHOSTBUSTERS 2? ★★ OUT 22 MARCH / CERT 12A / 115 MINS DIRECTOR Gil Kenan CAST Mckenna Grace, Dan Aykroyd, Paul Rudd, Ernie Hudson, Carrie Coon, Bill Murray PLOT After an ancient icy monster is unearthed, the Spenglers and the original Ghostbusters team up to thwart its dastardly deep-freeze plans. GHOSTBUSTERS ISN’T IN the afterlife just yet, but it might be in purgatory. Has there ever been a franchise with as much of an identity crisis? We’ve had 1984’s comedy-horror and its follow-up; years later a zany gender-flipping reboot that had its charms but floundered; and then, pretending that one never happened, came 2021’s Afterlife, a surprisingly moving sequel to the originals that introduced a likeable new breed of ’busters.…

FILM GIVES A NEW MEANING TO THE PHRASE ‘STUNT CASTING’ ★★★★ OUT 2 MAY / CERT 12A / 126 MINS DIRECTOR David Leitch CAST Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham, Winston Duke, Stephanie Hsu PLOT Stuntman Colt Seavers (Gosling) comes out of retirement when the star of a film — directed by his ex-girlfriend Jody (Blunt) — goes missing. HOW DO WE live in a time where the Academy still hasn’t recognised Hollywood’s stunt community with an Oscar category? When films such as John Wick: Chapter 4 or Mad Max: Fury Road have pushed the boundaries of stunt excellence, it seems mystifying. Thankfully, David Leitch’s romcom/action blockbuster The Fall Guy —based on the 1980s TV series starring Lee Majors —is an apt reminder for its necessary inclusion. And…

GAMES A CLASSIC SURVIVAL GAME GETS A STARRY UPDATE ★★★ PC, PS5, XBOX SERIES X/S YOU CREEP THROUGH the grounds of a decrepit manor. Two pinpricks of light flicker in a dark, open sewer. You expect something —or some thing —to leap out. It never comes, but still might. You’re more distressed than ever. Such moments of tension are scattered throughout Alone In The Dark, creating a perpetual sense of unease. Unfortunately, it never quite manages to cross the threshold into true terror, but there’s still plenty for genre fans to enjoy in this latest attempt to revive the classic horror series. Despite returning to the 1920s Louisiana setting and protagonists of the original 1992 game —private detective Edward Carnby and his client, Emily Hartwood, now with added star power…

FILM MUSICAL BIOPICS, SADLY, ARE A LOSING GAME ★★ OUT 12 APRIL / CERT TBC / 122 MINS DIRECTOR Sam Taylor-Johnson CAST Marisa Abela, Jack O’Connell, Eddie Marsan, Lesley Manville PLOT Amy Winehouse (Abela) rises to fame as a jazz singer/pop star, while falling in love with Blake Fielder-Civil (O’Connell). But away from the spotlight, she struggles with addictions. THE GREATEST SIN a biopic can commit is playing footage of the real person over the credits to show how accurate the acting was. You’ll find none of this in Black To Black: most of us lived through Amy Winehouse’s rise, fame and decline, so even the most casual observer can play the footage in their own mind. An incredibly bold and admirable move, then, for relative newcomer Marisa Abela (BBC…

IT'S ABOUT TIME Of course it is. Isn’t it always, with Doctor Who? But it’s been nearly three years since Russell T Davies agreed to run the show again, and two years since Ncuti Gatwa was unveiled as the new Doctor at the BAFTAs. Yet, until now, we’ve only seen an admittedly glorious regeneration scene, and a Christmas special. So, finally… it’s time. Time for the 15th Doctor’s first full, eight-part series to arrive. Time for Gatwa’s entirely new take on the character to really shine. Time for this most physical, energetic of Doctors to let rip. And time for Davies’ extraordinary vision to get the budget it deserves. Let the battle for streaming-era hearts and minds commence. Davies, who in-between Who stints has brought us A Very English Scandal,…

HAVE YOU EVER TAKEN DRUGS? It’s not a question actors expect to hear in an audition. More often than not, you might hear something like, “Can you do an American accent?” or, “Are you willing to appear nude on camera?” But this most unlikely line of inquiry was exactly the ice-breaker Welsh filmmaker Justin Kerrigan used while auditioning for his 1999 rave comedy-drama Human Traffic. “That was the first question!” recalls Danny Dyer, who would go on to win the role of Moff. At that point, Dyer had never appeared in a film, his future as Queen Vic landlord and Cockney national treasure not yet assured. For the then 21-year-old, it was a calculated risk. “I suppose it’s usually a no-no —when you walk into an audition, you don’t talk…

ADAM SANDLER IN a Netflix movie as an astronaut who buddies up with a giant, talking alien spider? It sounds like one of those high-concept comedies that Sandler built his reputation on. But Johan Renck’s strange, beautiful, and deeply odd Spaceman finds Sandler in serious mode, reflecting on his life, love, and the secrets of the universe. Here, Renck —who most recently directed the 2019 mini-series Chernobyl —talks us through the key beats of his movie. THE OPENING SHOT Spaceman opens with Sandler’s spacesuit-clad Jakub, who spends much of the movie in his ship, en route to Jupiter, on strangely Earthly terrain, searching for someone in a body of water. We don’t find out who that person is until the film’s final moments, but the juxtaposition immediately demands your attention.…

WHEN I READ Carlos Clarens’ Horror Movies in 1971, I decided to be a horror-film completist. Horror Movies has what was then essential in film books —a tantalising and extensive filmography. Like many young fans, I put ticks next to the (few) films I’d seen and aspired to tick every title. It became a mission to see every horror film ever made. Of course, even in 1971, an alarming number of films were lost —forget Lon Chaney as a sawtooth vampire in London After Midnight; what about F.W. Murnau’s Jekyll and Hyde movie Der Januskopf? —and a lot of the titles Clarens listed hadn’t been released in the UK and weren’t likely to be scheduled on our three TV channels. American ‘movies on TV’ paperback guides made us envy lucky…

IF ED ZWICK ever wants a reminder of what life in Hollywood is like, he doesn’t have to look far. In his LA office, just a few feet from his desk, is the Oscar Zwick received as producer of Shakespeare In Love, when it won Best Picture at the 1999 Oscars. It’s a wonderful thing, but it also represents a missed opportunity, and the knowledge that in Hollywood, you have to roll with the punches. Because for the longest time, Zwick was that film’s director. He had developed it with Tom Stoppard as the screenwriter. He had cast Julia Roberts as the woman with whom Shakespeare would be in love. “I was working with the best British character actors,” he tells Empire. “I had studied Shakespeare at university, and it’s…

EDDIE MARSAN’S CAREER has been about the long game. Always funny and frank, the 55-year-old Londoner has carved out a reputation as one of the most versatile character actors in the business, something he displays this month with turns in Back To Black, the final series of Inside No. 9, and Franklin. The last of which sees him play John Adams, a role he came very close to playing in 2008. There’s that long game again. THE ADAMS FAMILY FRANKLIN (2024) “I was doing The Illusionist with Paul Giamatti, and they offered me the part of John Adams [former US President] in an HBO mini-series. I did a screen-test in Virginia, I signed a contract, and came back to London and did loads of tests with actresses to play Abigail…