The Empire Film Podcast

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.

The Cannes Film Festival is almost over. To celebrate that fact, here's our final Cannes 2013 podcast, which sees a very special guest in the form of newcomer Stevie Wong coming into the Empire fold to talk about the hits (and the misses) of Cannes V.66. Over in London, we review The Hangover Part III, Epic and My Neighbour Totoro, and in the interviews department, Alec Baldwin and James Toback talk about their documentary Seduced And Abandoned and Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn shares a few details about his latest, Only God Forgives, with his leading lady, Kristen Scott Thomas.

The Great Gatsby goes head to head with Fast and Furious 6 in this week's special Cannes-based Empire Podcast, with FF6 narrowly overtaking TGG at The Valley Of The Ashes to win three stars to Jay-G's two. Discover more about the world's biggest film festival by listening to one of the world's top five Damos - that's Damo Wise, by the way - talking about it (at length), then be sure to check out Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire and Joel Edgerton chatting about that Gatsby chap and Pop Pop himself, Jeffrey Tambor, as he ruminates upon the return of Arrested Development. It's all here, and it's all very much downloadable.

In an Empire podcast first, readers posed their Twitter questions, queries and grievances on movie ratings direct to the man who oversees classifications on a daily basis, BBFC executive director David Austin. Why was Gremlins rated 15? Why did What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? go from an 18 to 12? What’s a 12A for, anyway? What happened with A Good Day To Die Hard? We made Austin a cup of tea, showed him to the hot seat and fired your questions at him for 55 fascinating minutes.

Star Trek Into Darkness is out, so it's time to talk Kirk-y. And who better to do so than the writers and producers of the film, namely Bryan Burk, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof? Also in the interviewee's chair is the director of Mud, Jeff Nichols, who explains how he made a movie where Matthew McConaughey keep his top on. Sort of.

The Blade trilogy, the Dark Knight trilogy, Man Of Steel, Godzilla... what's David S. Goyer going to do next? Well, aside from create a TV show called Da Vinci's Demons, appear on this week's Empire Podcast. Joining him is Looper and Brothers Bloom and Brick's Rian Johnson, who was kind enough to drop by just because he was in the area. Elsewhere, the podcast team talk musical gems in the movies and whether Kelsey Grammer has ever actually tossed any eggs. You'll see.

Don Cheadle threatens to vaporise a member of the Empire Podcast team this week, while Steve Coogan does a pitch-perfect Roger Moore impersonation, just because he can. Sample discussion question: who has the best chin in cinema? Sample news story: Zach Braff is on the Kickstarter gravy train. Sample reviews: Iron Man 3, The Look Of Love and Bernie - and in a special teaser insert, a spoiler-free preview of our thoughts on Star Trek Into Darkness.

The star and director of Evil Dead, Jane Levy and Fede Alvarez, stop by the Empire Podcast studio to talk blood, body parts and chainsaws this week, with only two of us fainting during the process. Elsewhere, La Haine director and Amelie star Mathieu Kassovitz drops in in honour of his latest, Rebellion, and the podcast team talk embarrassing interview questions, yearly Star Wars outings and funerals in the movies (for some reason...).

When he was a kid, Aaron Eckhart lived in the UK. When he lived in darkest Surrey, he picked up the acting bug, attempted to become a singer/songwriter and played a bit of rugby. Since then, he's gone onto appear in The Dark Knight, Thank You For Smoking and now Olympus Has Fallen, and in this week's Empire Podcast you can find out all about how it happened. Then there's Radagast The Brown himself, the one and only Sylvester McCoy, who is charm personified as he talks about his days as The Doctor and how tricky it is to act with hedgehogs. In the non-interview potion of the podcast, we discuss rocket deaths - don't ask - as well as Tom Cruise's latest, Oblivion, The Place Beyond The Pines and much, much more.

John Boorman is the legendary British film director behind Point Blank, Deliverance, Zardoz, Excalibur, The Emerald Forest, Hope and Glory, The General, The Tailor of Panama and many more. As he has been recently awarded a BFI fellowship - which is currenly showing a selection of his films in a special John Boorman season - we asked him into the podcast studio for an in-depth interview, and here, ladies and gentlemen, is the fascinating result.

Rufus Sewell refers to himself as "that twat on a horse" in his interview on this week's Empire Podcast, whereas Harmony Korine does no such thing, instead talking about James Franco phallating a gun in honour of his latest, Spring Breakers. Elsewhere, a very important discussion is blown wide open: which film director has the best voice? Also, we say goodbye to the one and only Roger Ebert...

The long Easter weekend may have finally arrived, but that's not going to stop us from unleashing a new Empire Podcast on your generic MP3 devices, no sir/madam. Boasting interviews from Danny Boyle (Trance), Jonathan Pryce (G.I. Joe: Retaliation) and David Holmes (Good Vibrations) as well as reviews of Trance, G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Good Vibrations, it's chock-full of cinematic goodness, as well as an in-depth discussion of Star Trek's tribbles. Of course.

Danny Boyle is the man behind Trainspotting, Sunshine, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire, The 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony and now Trance, a twisty-turny hypno-thriller that sees James McAvoy's art auctioneer taking part in a heist with professional criminal Franck (Vincent Cassel) - only he forgets where he put the loot, which is where Rosario Dawson's hypnotist comes in to try and salvage a solution from the back of his noggin. Here, then is an extended interview with the great man, touching on everything from Alien Resurrection to where in the world A Life Less Ordinary was a massive smash...

In this week's Empire Podcast, Ryan Reynolds talks about the proposed Justice League movie (as well as that infamous Deadpool spin-off script of his), and Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman tell the world the current state(s) of play for Bridesmaids 2 and the upcoming Arrested Development series on Netflix. Then there are reviews for this week's releases - including The Croods, Identity Thief and Jack The Giant Slayer - as well as your questions answered and more than a few news stories...

Harry Potter, Star Wars, Leprechaun, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Life's Too Short... Warwick Davis has appeared in many, many things, but nothing quite like his very own Empire Podcast special. Celebrating the 25th anniversary of his starring role alongside Val Kilmer in Willow, there's plenty on incantations, morphing and magical acorns, as well as some top baking tips, just because.

The Empire Podcast celebrates its first birthday in this very special (and extra silly) 52nd episode. Joining the usual gang of film-loving misfits are The Last Exorcism Part II's Eli Roth and Welcome To The Punch duo Eran Creevy and Mark Strong (yep, him again), making this an interview-packed spectacular. So get your downloading fingers at the ready and join us for bad jokes, movie birthday chat and reviews of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, The Paperboy, Red Dawn and more...

This week's episode boasts three special guests, namely Tim Roth, Sam Raimi and Zach Braff. Mr. Roth was here to talk Broken, lunchbox movies and working with Bette Davis, whereas Messrs. Raimi and Braff rocked up to the Empire Podcast studio to tell us all about that Oz chap everyone's banging on about. Elsewhere, the team tackle such tricky quandaries as how you solve a problem like Fassavoy - it'll make sense in context, promise - and which books should be adapted into films as soon as possible.

In a week where his '70s-influenced thriller hits cinemas, the one and only Mark Wahlberg comes to the Empire Podcast studio to talk Broken City, Ted 2 and what to expect from his role in Transformers 4. Elsewhere, a whole heap of movies get reviewed - including Broken City, Stoker and Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters - and the director of Song For Marion, Paul Andrew Williams, gets quizzed about Terence Stamp's fitness regime.

The 2013 Academy Awards happened - and in the middle of the night on a premium channel, to boot. To help you make sense of what happened on Sunday night, three of Empire's Oscars reporting team stayed up through the night to record this special round-up edition of the show, just for you. So with this in mind, expect a distinct lack of coherence... even more so than normal.