The Empire Film Podcast

This week's episode of the Empire Podcast is an Easter bonanza, folks, that sees Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, and James Dyer (with new honorific firmly in place, at least for now) discuss the best resurrections in movies, wax lyrical about Richard Kind in The Producers, and cast their learned eyes over a glut of movie trailers, including the new one for Supergirl, and review Fuze, The Drama, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice. Speaking of Fuze, Chris has a lovely chat with that film's star and director, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and David Mackenzie, about their heist thriller, accents, working on a building site, and more. Pop this pod in the fridge, smash it from a great height, and feast on the shards of film-related fun. Enjoy!

This week's episode of The Interviews, the spin-off show that rounds up our chats with film folk, is a belter. First, Chris Hewitt chats accents and auditions and more with Theo James, star of The Fuze [1:36 - 17:51 approx], and then Jamie Graham is joined for some trash talk by The Pope Of Trash himself, John Waters, just in time for the launch of a new season at the BFI Southbank called Trash! The Wildest Films You've Ever Seen. [19:02 - 32:45] Finally, we have an extended excerpt from our Ready Or Not: Here I Come spoiler special interview [34:18 - 52:52 approx] with that film's directors, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, which features strong, unbleeped language from the off, as well as a deep dive into that movie's twists and turns. So be advised! And also, of course, enjoy.

This week's Empire Podcast sees us clamber into the Magic Faraway Tree to talk with the writer and director, respectively, of the brand new Enid Blyton adaptation, Simon Farnaby and Ben Gregor, who tell Alex Godfrey all about how they branched out. Ahem. Either side of that, Chris Hewitt hosts Helen O'Hara, James Dyer, and Kobi Omenaka to discuss their favourite movie trees and competence porn; run their eye over the week's movie news, including the revelation that Stephen Colbert is co-writing a new Lord Of The Rings movie; and review Splitsville, They Will Kill You, and The Magic Faraway Tree. Enjoy!

This month's episode of The Shameless Plug sees Chris Hewitt sit down once again with Empire editor Nick de Semlyen for a deep dive into the latest issue of Empire magazine. Our dynamic duo talk about the origins of the first ever cover shoot with Star Wars characters, as we celebrate The Mandalorian & Grogu, plus many more stories about the brand new issue, which is on sale right now in all good, evil and virtual newsagents. But as if that weren't enough, at long last Chris and Nick answer listener/reader questions about the magazine and how it's put together. It's a cracker, this one — enjoy!

Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes? Because St. Patrick's Day was earlier this week, and to celebrate the man who drove all the snakes out of Ireland ("you alright in the back there, lads?") this week's Empire Podcast sees Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, James Dyer, and Beth Webb discuss some of their favourite snake moments in films. Or fillums. Then, our intrepid quartet get their parseltongues into the week's deluge of movie news, including the Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Dune Part 3 trailers, and they look back at the Oscars as well. Reviews-wise, Phil Lord & Chris Miller's Project Hail Mary, Radio Silence's Ready Or Not: Here I Come, Ugo Bienvenu's Arco, and Gus Van Sant's Dead Man's Wire are given the once-over, while the wonderful Lord and Miller are this week's guests, sitting down for a lovely natter about puppets, space, and much more with Chris. [55:48 - 1:10:19 approx] Oh, and James edges closer to a new nickname. Enjoy!

The Interviews is back, folks, with a cracking hat-trick of cinematic conversations, as Chris Hewitt talks to Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come director duo, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and their star, Samara Weaving, about coming back with a sequel after six years away; Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, directors of Marianne Faithfull docu-drama Broken English, about shining a spotlight on one of the most fascinating figures to emerge from the 1960s music scene; and there's an excerpt from Chris' spoiler special interview with Hoppers director, Daniel Chong, and producer, Nicole Paradis Grindle. From slugging to beavering, it's all here. Enjoy.

This week's Empire Podcast is the second of the year to fall on a Friday the 13th (November will complete the hat-trick), and so the podteam — Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, James Dyer, and Ben Travis — discuss the life and work of one Jason Voorhees, and head off in a rather unexpected direction. Speaking of unexpected directions, they also pop off to space to discuss their favourite movie astronauts (SPOILERS for some space films, including Gravity), run their collective eye over the week's movie news, including the new Disclosure Day trailer, Quentin Tarantino's newly-announced play, and Arnie's perhaps premature announcement of King Conan. They also review War Machine (again, with a SPOILER WARNING attached), Reminders Of Him, and How To Make A Killing. And guest-wise, Chris sits down with the great Tim Roth, star of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, from 44:40 - 1:01:50 to talk about improvising the movie's opening line, not watching his own movies, and his love of Would I Lie To You? Which is, in fact, true. Enjoy!

This week's Empire Podcast sees Chris Hewitt sit down with The Bride! herself, Jessie Buckley, and her writer/director, Maggie Gyllenhaal, for a lovely chat about their wildly ambitious new movie, The Bride!, which daringly reframes the story of the Bride Of Frankenstein. [22:21 - 40:21 approx] Either side of that, Chris is joined in the podbooth by Helen O'Hara, James Dyer, and Alex Godfrey to cast their eye over the week's movie news, including the latest developments in the Warner Bros takeover, and news of a Ghosts movie; review The Bride!, Pixar's Hoppers, and Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man; and discuss the movie mums they wish they'd been raised by. Oh, and Chris tries and fails to do a Birmingham accent. We can only apologise to the whole of the Midlands. Enjoy.

This week's episode of The Interviews brings you another sensational hat-trick of goodies, as Chris Hewitt gets frank, and Frank, with The Bride! star, the wonderful Christian Bale; has an absolute hoot and a holler with Hoppers lead voices, Piper Curda and Bobby Moynihan; and celebrates the shiny disc release of Edgar Wright's The Running Man by bringing you an excerpt from our spoiler special interview with the great man. Enjoy!

This week's Empire Podcast sees Chris Hewitt sit down in a London hotel room with Amanda Seyfried and Mona Fastvold, star and director respectively of the audacious new musical biopic, The Testament Of Ann Lee. It's a conversation that takes in everything from wearing T-shirts with your face on it to the trick of choreographing incredibly complex dance numbers, and is a ton of fun. That starts around 42:18 and finishes around 1:02:50. Elsewhere, Chris is joined in the podbooth by Helen O'Hara, James Dyer and, for the first time on the regular pod, Evolution Of Horror host Mike Muncer, as they discuss movie news including the BAFTAs and the latest Toy Story 5 trailer, answer questions on what movie-related thing they'd give up for Lent, the movie juries they'd like to be on (or not), and run their critical eye over Scream 7, The Testament Of Ann Lee, Sirat, and The Bluff. Oh, and Chris finally gets round to explaining how, and why, he nearly stepped on Florence Pugh's dress. Enjoy.