The Empire Film Podcast

For their 101st podcast proper, the team celebrate by interviewing The Grand Budapest Hotel's Wes Anderson and The Stag's Andrew Scott, not forgetting to take the mick out of John Travolta's Oscar flub and make several off-colour jokes about Iggy Pop. It's what you do on special occasions like this.

Jennifer Lawrence fell over, presenters flubbed their lines and talented folk were played off by the orchestra for talking too much - it can only be the Oscars. In this special Empire Podcast, four sleep-deprived film journalists talk about the glitzy bash held in Hollywood's Dolby Theatre last night, where our sources tell us an award ceremony of some sort was being held. Find out more by clicking play now...

To celebrate its centenary, the Empire Podcast was recorded LIVE in front of an audience of lucky, lucky fans in Leicester Square's very own Prince Charles Cinema. Surprise guests included Ride Along's Ice Cube, who finally decided who'd win in a fight between George Clooney and David O. Russell, and We're The Millers' Will Poulter, who tried to explain how awkward it is to spend days at a time kissing Jennifer Aniston and Emma Roberts.

It's another heck of an Empire Podcast this week, with A New York Winter's Tale's Akiva Goldsman and Full Metal Jacket's Matthew Modine in the interviewee's chair, and Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac on the reviewing chopping block - steady now - joined by Stranger By The Lake and Only Lovers Left Alive. Look forward to Marvel characters getting their equivalents from the world of music - David Bowie for Tony Stark! - and a bit of post-match analysis for the BAFTAs. Also, you may want to prepare yourself for a little bit of rapping from the de Semlyen boys, as Dragnet comes up, and you know what happens when Dragnet comes up. (Hint: it's rapping).

With so many films out this Valentine's Day - The Lego Movie, Her, Cuban Fury, The Monuments Men - it's a bumper-sized Empire Podcast this week, featuring interviews with Bob Balaban and Nick Frost, as well as in-depth discussions on movie love songs, Taylor Lautner's BBC 3 absolution and, um, Wario.

On this week's podcast, Matthew McConaughey talks about his Oscar-nominated turn in Dallas Buyers Club, Spike Jonze explains Her and Gary Oldman discusses hanging out with Bowie and working for sandwiches...

On this week's Empire Podcast, Peter Berg desperately tries to avoid giving away any spoilers about his latest, Lone Survivor, while documentary director Alex Gibney is more than happy to talk about Lance Armstrong, what with his new film being called The Armstrong Lie and all.

The fourth Jack Ryan, Chris Pine, drops by the Empire Podcast booth to talk about Leeds nightclubs, hating computer games and singing 'Agony' in the upcoming Into The Woods. The first (and probably only) Llewyn Davis, Oscar Isaac, also drops by the Empire Podcast booth, instead talking about "cat agitators", "ass agitators" and having sex with robots.

With Chris Hemsworth announcing the Oscar nominations on behalf of the Academy yesterday, this week's Empire Podcast is chock-full of awards-based chit-chat. So if you want to be in the know about who's (probably) going to win, listen no further. Elsewhere, the team talks to James Purefoy about Noel Edmunds, Mr. Blobby and Season 2 of The Following, while Juliette Lewis talks the time to talk August: Osage County and, um, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

After a couple of weeks away for Christmas, the Empire Podcast is back. Featuring 12 Years A Slave's director (Steve McQueen) and star (Chiwetel Ejiofor), there's also - surprise, surprise - a review of said film, as well as conversations about Sam Rockwell, Ron Swanson and Gerald Butler as Bodhi in the Point Break remake.

2013 was the year that was, and this is the Empire Podcast Review Of The Year (that is). So for a slightly anarchic meander around the past 12 months of moviedom - and some spoilers that you'd expect with that - then press play on this here podcast.

In this week's super-sized bumper edition, the Empire Podcast team talk good Christmas movies, bad Christmas movies and movies that aren't really Christmas movies but you still watch at Christmas. Then there are four directors - count 'em! - in the interviewee's chair, namely Anchorman 2's Judd Apatow and Adam McKay, All Is Lost's J.C. Chandor and American Hustle's David O. Russell.

If you want to hear Richard Armitage swear in Dwarfish (and turn his head around 360 degrees), this is the podcast to listen to. Also here to talk The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug was Luke Evans, who was charm personified as he lulled several members of the team into starting a fan club. And as if that weren't enough, the sonorous Matt Berry dropped by in honour of his fantastic sitcom, Toast Of London, and just say words in a beautiful way.

The Boy Who Lived is The Boy Who Talked About American Football On The Empire Podcast this week, while Alexander Payne doesn't mention sport of any kind, instead sticking to his latest, Nebraska. Elsewhere, movie AIs get the once over, and the team wonders about Wonder Woman in the Batman Vs. Superman project.

Two of the best talkers in the business, Colin Farrell and Joe Eszterhas, feature in the Empire Podcast this week. The former dropped by to talk Saving Mr. Banks, bad hair bleaching and Anthony Hopkins' anecdotes, while the latter took the time to talk Showgirls, Basic Instinct and much much more.

Shaun Of The Dead came out in 2004. Hot Fuzz came out in 2007. The World's End came out 2013. Now... it's all over. With The World's End out on Blu-ray and DVD, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright enjoyed a weekend of Q&As and signing sessions, but somehow still found the time to talk to the Empire Podcast for 75 minutes for the definitive Cornetto Trilogy discussion.

Though you can read her wise words here and watch her talk "super snoods" here, Jennifer Lawrence isn't on this week's Empire Podcast, but her good friend and favourite music video director, Francis Lawrence (who just so happened to have helmed The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), is, joined as he is by Stanley Tucci and Elizabeth Banks.

The living legend that is George A. Romero was in London recently for the BFI's Gothic season, and inbetween giving talks and introducing special screenings of his films, GAR - as nobody calls him - popped into the Empire Podcast booth talk to us about zombies, Knightriders and the projects that almost came to be...

Forest Whitaker is the Oscar-winning actor who's played pool sharks, samurai warriors and dictators in his time, but this week you can see him as a butler in The White House in, um, The Butler. Allen Leech, meanwhile, is the star of Downton Abbey who's not scaring you witless in In Fear, also out today.

It's Alfonso Cuarón appreciation week on the Empire Podcast, and what makes this so perfect is that Alfonso Cuarón is on this week's Empire Podcast. It's all in honour of Gravity - out now - and, of course, Hermione's right hook to Draco's face in The Prisoner Of Azkaban. Then there's Jude Law, in the podbooth for Dom Hemingway - out next week - who talks about Breaking Bad, Sherlock Holmes 3 and "cock socks".

It's a great weekend to be a cinemagoer in the UK. Two five-star films and a certain Thor: The Dark World are showing at your local multiplex - with any luck, anyway - and this is just the podcast to celebrate that fact. Look forward to trailer tantrums, London falling down and spaceships crashing to earth (in a manner of speaking, anyway).

There's a killer triple-bill of interviewees on this week's Empire Podcast, with Harrison Ford, Stephen Merchant and Shane Meadows all stopping by, one for Ender's Game, one for Hello Ladies and the other for Made Of Stone's DVD release (we'll let you work out which matches up with which). Elsewhere, the team talk witches, almost perfect film endings and what Sir Ben Kingsley is keeping under his hat...

Three directors drop by the Empire Podcast booth this week, one for Captain Phillips (Paul Greengrass), another for Prince Avalance (David Gordon Green) and the last for The Curse Of Chucky (Don Mancini). Elsewhere, the team use the words "Tactical Chunder" when talking about Pacific Rim 2, and somehow Enough Said involves Stan Lee hiding under someone's bed.

Tony Gilroy is an Oscar-nominated screenwriter, the pen wielder behind the Bourne movies and his own directorial work, such as Michael Clayton (which got him his Oscar nod), Duplicity and, most recently, Bourne Legacy. In town for a special BFI screenwriters' speech, we asked Gilroy to drop round the Empire Podcast booth afterwards to talk about how he battles writers' block and brings his ideas to the big screen. Look forward to details on the future of the Bourne franchise, his take on the current state of play in Hollywood, and why movies like Michael Clayton wouldn't get made today.

A triple-bill of interviews for you this week, from Agent Carter herself, Hayley Atwell, to your latest Romeo, Douglas Booth. In the middle is the director of The Raid - and, as you'd expect, The Raid 2 - Gareth Evans, who was in town to talk about his contribution to V/H/S/2.

It's an Atonement reunion on this week's Empire Podcast, with James McAvoy here for Filth and Saoirse Ronan dropping by in honour of How I Live Now. Look forward to the former talking about his "hairy mutant you-know-whats" and the latter explaining how to swing a lightsaber. Elsewhere, the Podcast Team tackle TV finales, tie-in theme park rides and the return of Narnia...

Dexter Fletcher is on fine form during this week's Empire Podcast, talking about his latest, Sunshine On Leith, as well as Doom, The Long Good Friday and his Nando's Black Card. Matthew Fox, meanwhile, is on hand to talk about his time on Party Of Five, his love of Batman, and why he decided to shoot Emperor with Tommy Lee Jones (and not appear in a rom-com, say).

What movie unexpectedly made you cry? Which film quotes do you use on a regular basis without even realise you're quoting anything? How much did Grand Theft Auto V earn in its first day on sale again? The Empire Podcast team answer all these questions and more, also finding the time to interview Luke Treadaway and Matthew Lewis for their British indie, The Rise, and Cillian Murphy, in honour of his BBC series Peaky Blinders.

Two A-list directors on the Empire Podcast this week, namely Rush's Ron Howard and White House Down's Roland Emmerich, and four Empire journalists, namely... well, you'll find out soon enough. Elsewhere, the team review both aforementioned films (as well as Insidious Chapter 2) and discuss Disney songs, film directors' best adverts and Jurassic World.

Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl share stories from their days on soap sets during their interview on this week's Empire Podcast, also touching on runaway killer tyres, Mario Kart and Scalextric in honour of Rush, out next week. Elsewhere, Ain't Them Bodies Saints director David Lowery reveals his neverending love of Star Wars, Malick and moustaches, and the team discuss the 50 Shades Of Grey casting news, Tranformers 4's Dinobots - whatever they are - and the best composers that ever composers.

You may know him as Community's Dean Pelton, but in real life he's Jim Rash, the man who co-wrote The Descendants with Nat Faxon and won an Oscar in the process. The award-winning pair were in the Empire Podcast booth this week to talk about their directorial debut, The Way, Way Back, but also managed to talk about the final episode of Friends - no, really - and how it feels to dress up as Lady Gaga. Elsewhere, super-indie melon-twister extraordinaire Shane Carruth, who previously brought us time-travelling brain-melter Primer, came in to explain (or not explain) his latest puzzler, Upstream Colour. Top tip: the film has something to do with pigs (though it's not abundantly clear what that something is).

It's a hard-to-spell-and-hard-to-say American actors double-bill this week with both We're The Millers' Jason Sudeikis and Lovelace's Amanda Seyfried joining Team Empire for chats about moustaches, dry heaving as a workout regime, stuffed animals and corpses (amongst other things). Find out what Amanda Seyfried's favourite cloud is! Win Seasons 1-5A of Breaking Bad on Blu-ray thanks to Squarespace.com! Listen to Jason Sudeikis singing TLC's Waterfalls! Hear our thoughts on the Ben Affleck Batman casting news! Potentially libellous nonsense! It's all here, and it's all free, you lucky people.

District 9's Sharlto Copley and Neill Blomkamp reunite for another sci-fi action film in the form of Elysium, only this time there are fewer prawns and far more Matt Damons - that is to say, just one. Joining us for a relaxed chat about everything from Neill's aborted Halo movie to Hot Toys Joker figurines (as well as the movie itself, of course), the actor-director pair are on top form, so you won't want to miss out on this one.

As well as chatting with the comedy hero that is John Cleese, this bumper-sized edition boasts a lot more to look forward to. Get ready to hear the team talk comedy sketches that deserve a chance on the big screen, the further casting announcements from the Expendables 3 camp, Twitter users to follow, Elysium, Kick-Ass 2 - which explains our interview with the director, Jeff Wadlow - not forgetting 2 Guns, Planes itself and the greatest character introductions in cinema's history. Also: random trivia - and lots of it.

Now busier than central Norwich on market day, Armando Iannucci is the man who brought us On The Hour, The Day Today, The Thick Of It, In The Loop, Time Trumpet, Veep and now Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, but despite his hectic schedule, he still found time to drop by the Empire Podcast booth for a natter about Hitler, sneaking into US government buildings and perfecting the Alan whine. Elsewhere, the silver-tongued Anthony Stewart Head is grilled by our own Buffy buffs about his latest, Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters, touching on everything from 'squirrel pants' to putting ice cubes in your mouth before you kiss someone. On top of all that, there's a whole load of very important movie news this week - Inbetweeners 2! Expendables 3! Things that aren't sequels! - for you to catch up on, as well as a look forward to Toronto and Venice, plus our review of the critically-contentious blockbuster The Lone Ranger.

Mitch Hurwitz is the worryingly funny writer-cum-director-cum-showrunner behind Arrested Development, the cult classic sitcom that enjoyed just two and a half seasons between 2003-2006, only to come back from the dead this year thanks to Netflix and its legions of fans. In this very special Empire Podcast, the comedy genius behind Pop Pop, Franklin The Puppet, the banana stand and much more talks all about Season 4, as well as what we can expect from the Arrested Development movie...

Alan Partridge finally arrives on the ruddy bloody big screen next Wednesday, so this week's Empire Podcast features an extensive interview with the man behind the cardigan, Steve Coogan, where he reveals the origins of both Lynn and Michael, as well as what to expect from (the beginning of) the sequel...

The delightful black-and-white Noah Baumbach movie Frances Ha goes head-to-head with James Mangold's summer blockbuster The Wolverine this weekend, and so the two directors duke it for supremacy in his week's Empire Podcast. Mangold does have one clear advantage, though: Hugh Jackman's in his corner. Gulp.

It's been one hell of a Comic-Con this year, with Avengers 2 getting a subtitle, the whole of the X-Men: Days Of Future Past crew turning up and some intriguing idea about Superman teaming up with Batman in a film getting the green light from Warners HQ. There to cover it all was Team Empire, and here is the podcast special to prove it, complete with interviews with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 director Marc Webb and the one and only Agent Carter, Hayley Atwell.

The World's End is out this weekend, which probably explains why Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright were kind enough to drop in the podcast booth to talk all about it, on top of pitching a new movie set in Twickenham (in all makes sense in context). Also out this weekend is serial killer thriller The Frozen Ground, which starts John Cusack and Nic Cage, with the latter also stopping by to talk about everything from Daffy Duck to Mike Myers, not forgetting Expendables 3, mimes and hitting snakes with sticks (in self-defence, of course). Then there are the news, views and reviews you'd expect from the Empire Podcast team, including everything you could possibly want to know about Sharknado. Enough said, indeed.

There's one hell of a monster mash in this week's Empire Podcast, with Pixar's Monsters University going head to head with Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim. Will Sulley smash a jaeger in its robo-noggin, or shall Mike and co. be left trembling before the mighty power of Del Toro's metal mountain men? Only time will tell. Elsewhere in the podcast, you can expect our usual mix of general film chit chat - what's your favourite visual gag in films, by the way? - and movie news and reviews. Listen out for an imdb page's worth of Pixar trivia, as well as an exclusive titbit of Indy info...

If you've ever wanted to hear magic tricks on a podcast - come on, you know you want to - then look no further, as Now You See Me's Isla Fisher and Jesse Eisenberg are more than happy to oblige in this week's Empire Podcast. As well as dove impersonations and expert card shuffling, there's A Field In England's Reece Shearsmith on crashing the Empire Awards, pretending to take magic mushrooms and delivering that line in Spaced. Which line, you wonder? Best get listening then...

Two of the nicest guys in show business, Steve Carell and Seth Rogen, dropped into the Empire Podcast studio this week, the former to talk about Despicable Me 2, the latter in honour of his latest, This Is The End. Along the way, Carell enjoys using his Gru voice for no particular reason, and Rogen explains how he battled with Edgar Wright and his team over apocalytic movie titles. Elsewhere, the fine art of watching films in foreign climes is dicussed, and the concept of 'tracking' in cinema is actually explained. Also, the team realises that someone needs to make a movie called 'Hobocop', and sharpish.

Neil Gaiman is the award-winning author (and graphic novelist) who's brought us The Sandman, American Gods and The Graveyard Book, as well as Stardust and Coraline, which film fans may recognise from the movies they inspired. And as Mr. Gaiman has a new book out - The Ocean At The End Of The Lane - we took the time to speak to him at length about his career, his good pal Hayao Miyazaki and the Gaiman movies that might have been...

The one and only acting man mountain that is Jason Statham drops by the Empire Podcast studio this week, as does the man who has scared millions to tears after writing the World War Z - the book, not the film - Max Brooks. As if hearing from those two fascinating fellows wasn't enough, there's also our tribute to the late great James Gandolfini, as well as a discussion of the upcoming Fifty Shades Of Grey adaptation and which tagline is the very best ever written.

Joss Whedon is director of the Serenity, Avengers and now... a black and white Shakespeare adaptation that he shot in just 12 days with a group of friends and a very small film crew. In this very special podcast, you can hear him (and the stars of the film, Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker) talk about the project, as well as details on Avengers 2, Quicksilver and, as they say, much, much more...

We don't need to tell you a new Superman movie's out this weekend - after all, the theme's been stuck in your head for months now - but here we go anyway: Man Of Steel is out out out now now now, and we've got an interview with Zod's right-hand woman (Faora, played by Antje Traue) to prove it. We've also got Zack Snyder and David S. Goyer, but that's for next Monday's spoiler special...

Matt Smith will be Doctor Who no longer. Karen Gillan will play a baddie in Guardians Of The Galaxy. The world stands in awe of the astonishing twist in Game Of Thrones. Oh, and Michael Shannon drops by to talk about The Iceman, Man Of Steel and QPR/Chelsea derbies, joining Homeland's Damian Lewis in the interviewee's chair this week. It's all going on in this week's Empire Podcast, and no mistake.

Gillian Anderson has been appearing on our TV screens rather a lot of late, turning up in NBC's Hannibal and another serial killer series, The Fall, over in the UK. In the Empire Podcast studio to talk about both those shows - as well as a little phenomenon some like to call "The X-Files" - Anderson is frank, funny and slightly forgetful as she talks about her pub quiz adventures with Simon Pegg, an upcoming project known as 'The Curse Of The Buxom Strumpet' and what X-memorabilia she stole back in the day...

It's a difficult-to-spell interviewee double bill this week, with M. Night Shyamalan and Saoirse Ronan both in the podcast studio, the former to talk After Earth (out next week) and the latter to talk Byzantium (out this week). Elsewhere, the team sound the NEW ISSUE horn and discuss the thorny issue of spoilers.