Table of contents for October 2023 in Empire

THIS MONTH BROUGHT with it sad news: the death of legendary director William Friedkin. I had the privilege of speaking to Friedkin in 2018, about one of his classics — Sorcerer — and he lived up to his reputation as a whip-smart and sometimes prickly interviewee. In fact, conducting the conversation was a little like driving nitro-glycerine across a rickety bridge in a storm — hold on tight and try not to make a wrong turn. But while the man behind The French Connection and The Exorcist did chastise me for the odd vague question, he was also warm and philosophical. “We’re not all driving a truck across a rope-bridge,” he told me. “But allegorically, we are. We all are, in some way.” Amen, and farewell to a master of…

Somewhere right now, Francis Ford Coppola is brewing his new epic, Megalopolis. But 30 years ago, we joined his Dracula for rehearsals at a Hollywood church, watching the cast do a warm-up exercise involving gibberish noises. “Snyerrrr Byuuuppp!” cried Cary Elwes. “Wnngggg Omollll!” went Richard E. Grant. “Tiny Byatttt!” offered Keanu Reeves. A less enthusiastic Anthony Hopkins just whispered: “Drugs.” Then journalist Chris Heath was invited by Vlad himself, Gary Oldman, to check out his coffin. With a cackle, Oldman grabbed our tape recorder, climbed in, and closed the lid. Later, Heath played back the audio and heard the words Oldman intoned inside: “What… is… it… like? To… be… undead?”…

EDITED BY BETH WEBB NEVER BEFORE HAS AN 11-AND-A-HALF-inch woman loomed so large. This summer, cinemas across the planet have been overrun with brightly costumed crowds heading to Barbie, Greta Gerwig’s gigantic hit comedy about feminism, existentialism and the world’s most famous plastic doll. “I saw it opening night and it was just a sea of pink. It was gorgeous,” says 29-year-old Christina Love, who has seen the film five times and plans to go back a sixth time shortly after speaking to Empire. “It’s fun to get dressed up, especially after three years of Covid, and I loved the femininity of it. I told my friends that after seeing this, I don’t think I ever want to see another movie directed by a man again.” That’s the sort of…

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE HAS stalked Hollywood for some time. But this year, you can’t move in a blockbuster without bumping into an all-seeing, all-knowing AI, hell-bent on infecting the world. There’s ‘The Entity’ in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, ‘The Heart’ in Heart Of Stone, ‘The Handle’ in Operation Fortune, the robot population in The Creator… Are these malicious machines a terrifying vision of our future? Not really, says AI expert Dr Stuart Armstrong, a research fellow at Oxford University’s Future Of Humanity Institute and co-founder of Aligned AI, which aims to ensure that artificial intelligence remains under human control. “All AI movies get it really, really wrong,” Armstrong tells Empire. “The thing is, movies about AIs are actually made by humans, for humans and, generally speaking, about humans.…

IT’S A WORRY that’s been weighing on Francis Lawrence’s mind: “Will people go see a new Hunger Games movie without Katniss?” The director of three out of four of the original Hunger Games movies witnessed the bow-and-arrow-wielding rebel — played with star-making power by Jennifer Lawrence — become the kind of cultural character that people named their babies after. Now the prequel — set 60 years before the original movies — introduces Rachel Zegler’s Lucy Gray Baird, a hero who can be seen as the antithesis of Lawrence’s character. “Katniss was an introvert and a survivor. She was quite quiet and stoic, you could almost say [she was] asexual,” the director tells Empire. “Lucy Gray is the opposite. She wears her sexuality on her sleeve, [and] she really is a…

MATT JOHNSON RAM-RAIDED the film industry. His 2013 debut The Dirties, a funny, terrifying comedy drama about school shootings, featured what would become the Canadian auteur’s signature style — exuberance, electric documentary-style filmmaking, and improvisational dialogue bringing a frisson of unpredictability. Now, Johnson has brought his distinctive voice to Blackberry — the true story of the young, nerdy team of misfits who invented the pioneering phone. How the hell does that make sense? “At first, I took a fairly dim view of this subject,” admits Johnson, detailing how a producer brought the idea to him (the film is loosely adapted from a book). Then, though, he saw a connection between the Blackberry team trying to do something totally new, and his own experiences in indie filmmaking. “I was wrestling with…

PAUL MESCAL GLADIATOR 2 Mescal’s intensive training saw him dumbbell-lifting and jogging in-between performances in A Streetcar Named Desire. Shooting abruptly halted for the SAG-AFTRA strike amid a massive battle scene, meaning that the star is having to keep that fighting energy going until a deal is struck. HUGH JACKMAN DEADPOOL 3 Jackman attributes his Wolverine physique to daily weightlifting and consuming many chickens. “I get the added incentive of taking Ryan Reynolds out every day,” he joked to Empire. Although currently sans Reynolds, his Instagram confirms he’s still committed to his muscle-building mutant regime. TOM CRUISE MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — DEAD RECKONING PART TWO Much of the latest Mission sequel has already been shot, but as the kind of movie star who seems to dive out of moving vehicles hourly,…

“AFTER THE FILM ended, I was a new man!” tweeted someone, who shall remain nameless, about Oppenheimer. “It had such a profound impact on me… I just hope everyone experiences it!” Well, many people could experience that ending right there and then, as this person had accompanied his gushing words with a 45-second video clip he’d recorded of it in the cinema. One can only imagine how overwhelmingly profound that ending must have been for him to whip out his smartphone and press record, mid-profundity. And Lord knows, this is how the film’s director Christopher Nolan wanted Oppenheimer to be experienced. Not projected on 70mm film in IMAX, but via a phone clip on social media. Cinema! The shocking thing, though, is that this behaviour is far from rare. Twitter…

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS STATH TO GO BACK IN THE WATER ★★★ OUT NOW / CERT 12A / 116 MINUTES DIRECTOR Ben Wheatley CAST Jason Statham, Wu Jing, Sophia Cai, Page Kennedy, Cliff Curtis PLOT When the natural barrier that separates prehistoric sea beasts from the rest of the ocean is breached, it releases multiple Megs, and more. HERE ARE FOUR words you don’t expect at the end of a giant-prehistoric-shark blockbuster: “A Ben Wheatley Film”. And yet Meg 2: The Trench (no definite article this time) is exactly that — the Down Terrace and Happy New Year, Colin Burstead director making a splash in studio-land. It shouldn’t come as a complete surprise — he’s long been a genre-head (the all-out horror of Kill List, the deconstructed action…

TV ★★★★ OUT NOW (NETFLIX) / EPISODES VIEWED 8 OF 8 SHOWRUNNER Alice Oseman CAST Joe Locke, Kit Connor, William Gao, Yasmin Finney An effervescent soundtrack, bright pops of colour and loveable characters all return for Heartstopper’s sophomore season, giving us a run of episodes that’s somehow better than the first. By letting teenagers explore parts of themselves without being made to feel different, Season 2 provides audiences a blueprint for what a truly inclusive, loving world can look like. Brilliant performances by Kit Connor and Joe Locke are harmonised by a cast of kids sure to become stars; and with today’s culture so wrought by stories of queer trauma, Heartstopper continues to emphasise the importance of showcasing joy, giving us another slice of smile-’til-it-hurts happiness — wrapped in a…

FILM THE MÉNAGE-À-TROIS THAT EARNS QUATRE STARS ★★★★ OUT 1 SEPTEMBER / CERT 18 / 92 MINS DIRECTOR Ira Sachs CAST Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Erwan Kepoa Falé, Olivier Rabourdin PLOT A filmmaker (Rogowski) cheats on his husband (Whishaw) with a woman (Exarchopoulos) — drifting between both. DIRECTOR IRA SACHS’ latest film is a queasily compelling character drama about a man blowing up his marriage in the pursuit of newness, feeling “burdened” by being known. Co-written by Sachs with longtime collaborator Mauricio Zacharias, Passages opens with director Tomas (Franz Rogowski) on the set of his new film — also called Passages. Immediately, there’s a telling display of Tomas’ obsessive need for control without compromise: offering detail-orientated notes that quickly become demeaning. In his previous roles — especially in…

FILM ★★★★ OUT NOW / CERT U / 92 MINS DIRECTOR Jeremy Purcell VOICE CAST Chris O’Dowd, Amy Huberman, Eva Whittaker, Geraldine Cole With its gorgeous picture-book animation, relaxing narration from an Attenborough-esque Chris O’Dowd, and wry sense of humour, Puffin Rock — the children’s animated series that grown-ups secretly love too — finally gets the big-screen treatment. Jeremy Purcell’s utterly charming, unexpectedly timely, and oh-so-gently-delivered film expands the show’s storytelling scope to teach bigger lessons about climate change and the refugee experience — without losing the lightness of touch that defines Puffin Rock. That such heartening messages can all be folded into a 92-minute biodiverse visual fantasia, as accessible to toddlers as it is meaningful for parents, is hugely admirable. JK…

FILM THIS POTENTIAL FRANCHISE WILL SELF-DESTRUCT IN FIVE SECONDS ★★ OUT NOW (NETFLIX) / CERT 12 / 125 MINS DIRECTOR Tom Harper CAST Gal Gadot, Jamie Dornan, Alia Bhatt, Sophie Okonedo, Matthias Schweighöfer, Archie Madekwe, Jing Lusi PLOT Super-spy Rachel Stone (Gadot) is tasked by a secretive organisation with preventing the world’s most powerful piece of technology from falling into the wrong hands. IT’S NO SECRET that Netflix’s globe-trotting new spy thriller Heart Of Stone is a full-throated attempt to kick-start a new action franchise. The production company behind it, Skydance, is responsible for every Mission: Impossible entry since 2011’s Ghost Protocol, and the film’s marketing suggests that the film’s mission, should you choose to accept it, is to create a female Ethan Hunt/James Bond. And while it’s refreshing to…

TV AMAZON’S OTHER BIG-BUDGET ADAPTATION OF AN EPIC FANTASY BOOK SERIES ★★★★ OUT 1 SEPTEMBER (PRIME VIDEO) EPISODES VIEWED 4 OF 8 SHOWRUNNER Rafe Judkins CAST Rosamund Pike, Josha Stradowski, Daniel Henney, Zoë Robins, Madeleine Madden, Marcus Rutherford, Dónal Finn PLOT Rand al’Thor (Stradowski) faces his destiny as the Dragon Reborn, while the Aes Sedai Moiraine (Pike) must help him. ADAPTING A BELOVED series of fantasy books is no easy matter. Too faithful, and you bore even the fans; too loose and you lose your core audience. That’s a particularly live concern going into the second season of this adaptation of Robert Jordan’s sprawling epic, as small changes last time — some of them pandemic mandated; some chosen — snowball into major deviations from the novels. The good news is…

FIRST OFF: Let’s go back to the start. Writer-director Michael Sarnoski, who gave us exquisite Nicolas Cage griefsploitation classic Pig, jumps into prequel territory with A Quiet Place: Day One (8 March)… Fede Álvarez, who spewed up Don’t Breathe and 2013’s gruesome Evil Dead, continues the Alien saga with a new standalone film staring Cailee Spaeny (16 August)… Robert Eggers’ take on Nosferatu, starring Bill Skarsgård as the bloodsucker, alongside Nicholas Hoult and Lily-Rose Depp, will finally plague the multiplexes (TBC)... and Jeremy Irvine stars in Return To Silent Hill, which has original director Christophe Gans revisiting that rather unhealthy town (TBC). Ti West’s slasher trilogy concludes with MaXXXine, as Mia Goth returns as X’s massacre survivor, now searching for stardom in 1980s LA (TBC)… Night Swim, starring Wyatt Russell…

Edwards refers to it as a “dun-dun-DUN!” moment: that hoary old sci-fi cliché when a seemingly human character is revealed to have been — wait for it — an android all along! “I wanted to take that off the table,” he says of The Creator’s robotic population. “In this film, it’s visually very clear who is AI and who isn’t. Even with the more humanoid ones.” In the world of The Creator, robots come in all shapes and sizes. “I wanted something like that classic ‘from-ape-to-man’ silhouette,’” Edwards tells us. “So, you can see the evolution of the robots, from early, boxy, Sony Walkman-like ones, all the way up to the more visually sophisticated ones with human faces, which are called ‘simulants’. But they’re all as intelligent as each other,…

While some of The Creator’s tech may seem less futuristic today than a few years ago, it’s safe to say that the movie’s impossibly cool airships are still very much the stuff of fantasy. Most prominent among them is ‘Nomad’, a vast, bird-shaped complex that hangs ominously in orbit above the Earth. “The name is based on NORAD, the American air-defence system,” Edwards explains. “But this ship can go around the whole world. America is using it to try and wipe out AI across the globe.” For its design, the director returned to his tried-and-tested world-building technique of something-having-sex-with-something-else. “Nomad is probably the result of an eagle having sex with some fangs,” says Edwards. “It’s this Eye Of Sauron-like presence, watching everyone at all times.” Coming a close second in…

1 SISU (4 SEPTEMBER, DVD/BR/DIGITAL) For decades, Indiana Jones held the monopoly on Nazi-bashing heroes. Now, enter Aatami — Jorma Tommila’s leave-no-Nazis-intact hero in Jalmari Helander’s ferocious actioner. In 90 minutes — and about as many words – he goes unfathomably HAM on an SS platoon, in ways to make you cheer, wince, and “chince” (both simultaneously). 2 FOLLOWING (11 SEPTEMBER, BR) Following is to Christopher Nolan what Duel is to Steven Spielberg — an early, theoretically embryonic work from a future master that truly stands up to his later films. Jeremy Theobald is a struggling writer who follows strangers around London in a Soho-set tale of obsession, shot in moody monochrome. 3 DUEL (18 SEPTEMBER, 4K) And speaking of Duel... Spielberg’s killer debut feature contains much of the DNA…

“THERE’S NO GROUP of people taken less seriously than young girls,” says Kelly Fremon Craig, taking society to task. Both of her films so far, 2016’s coming-of-age drama The Edge Of Seventeen, and now Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, adapted from Judy Blume’s classic 1970 novel, right that wrong. “I do approach it with a real earnestness,” the director says of her subject matter, particularly regarding this film (as a kid, she adored the book). “Because at that age, the stakes genuinely felt that high. When I put myself back there, I can feel how sincerely scared and insecure I am about whether I’m fitting in, or if I’m good enough.” She took her lead from Judy Blume, who certainly took young girls seriously. The book, a fictional…

“I NEED TO take a walk and get some air,” laughs Alex Winter. He’s actually been walking for the last half hour, but only in a metaphorical sense. And for the 58-year-old Winter, who’s stepped away from acting (bar the odd cameo and Bill & Ted movie) to focus on directing, including new documentary The YouTube Effect, that’s meant an emphasis on pictures from his youth. “It was a little bit of This Is Your Life,” he adds. “But you selected great photos. I enjoyed it.” BACK IN THE BOOTH BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC (2020) “This was the very first shot of the very first day of the film. And even though we had rehearsed, and had been studying and training and working together for a while, there’s…

FUQUA: “An obvious favourite is, ‘Take a look at the bad guy,’ in Scarface, with Al Pacino in the restaurant. That’s a heightened moment. I’m sure a lot of that was Al in that moment, just being at that ugly place inside himself. I just connected to it.” INT. RESTAURANT — NIGHT Drug lord Tony Montana (Al Pacino), his disaffected wife Elvira (Michelle Pfeiffer) and his right-hand man Manny (Steven Bauer) are eating at a fancy restaurant. Tony has been drinking heavily and launches into a rant, revealing that Elvira is unable to have the baby they’ve been trying for. Furious, she hits back. Elvira: What do you do? You deal drugs and you kill people. Oh, that’s wonderful, Tony. Real contribution to human history. Tony: Go ahead. Tell everybody.…

JAMES DYER TALKED DUNE WITH DENIS VILLENEUVE “Villeneuve isn’t just the director of Dune: Part Two — he’s a worm-riding Dune nerd of the highest order. So, as an unrepentant Dunesplainer myself, the chance to sit down with a kindred spirit and geek out over Frank Herbert’s lore for hours on end was pure, unrefined, Spice-in-your-veins joy.” BETH WEBB SPOKE TO HOW TO HAVE SEX STAR MIA McKENNA-BRUCE “There’s nothing quite like speaking with someone after seeing them in a weighty, buzzy performance for the first time, and knowing that they’re going to go on to huge things. That was certainly the case when I met Mia. Plus we will be forever bonded over a shared love of Kate Winslet.” ELLEN E JONES MODERATED A KEN LOACH REUNION “I…

I was reading your interview with the amazing Charlie Brooker [‘Future Shocks’, issue #41] and the pertinent question asked of Charlie was: “What happens when we die?” It got me thinking, “What have I done in my life? What would be my legacy?” Then I remembered it would be that time I had my letter published in Empire magazine. PAUL BRADLEY, BIRMINGHAM Paul, when you eventually make it to the pearly gates, please show Saint Peter this page — officially the greatest accomplishment of your life. That, and the free Picturehouse membership we’re giving you. Empire’s star letter wins a Picturehouse Membership, valid for one year at all Picturehouse Cinemas across the UK, including the flagship Picturehouse Central in London’s West End. The Membership comes pre-loaded with five free tickets,…

DUMBPENDABLES DUMB MONEY / THE EXPEND4BLES IN CINEMAS SEPTEMBER 22 Some might uncharitably argue that the Expendables franchise is dumb enough. It is, after all, a series that once cast Jean-Claude Van Damme as a villain named Vilain. But we say no — it could be a lot dumber, by pairing the action-stuffed saga’s fourth instalment with Paul Dano’s new comedy. You’ll come out dazed, day-dreaming about Dano joining Stallone’s squad. THE OAKERCIST THE OLD OAK / THE EXORCIST IN CINEMAS SEPTEMBER 29 Ken Loach: socially conscious filmmaker who wants people to challenge the status quo. Pazuzu: ancient Mesopotamian demon who wants people’s heads to rotate unpleasantly. It’s a combo so mad, it might just work. Our advice is to brave the re-release of the terrifying horror classic first, then…

NIA DACOSTA’S EYES lit up when she was given an initial outline for The Marvels. She realised she wasn’t simply dealing with three superheroes whose powers become entangled and cause them to switch places with each other every time they use them, thanks to a Kree Accuser with a special bracelet and Cosmi-Rod to grind. DaCosta could see that Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel), her best friend’s now-adult daughter Monica Rambeau (newly christened Photon, played by Teyonah Parris) and her young superfan Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel, played by Iman Vellani) were like siblings. Siblings who need to work out the kinks in their relationship while, you know, also preventing the destabilisation of the universe. “I thought it would be cool to map an estranged family history and sister story…

IN THE WORLD of Hercule Poirot, death is unavoidable. Agatha Christie’s moustachioed master detective, played in recent outings by Kenneth Branagh (who also directs), has solved grisly murder-mysteries on a famous train and a perilous river. But what about the undead? The team behind the investigator’s scariest adventure to date tell Empire how they horrified Hercule. PLAY WITH THE MIND OF A MASTERMIND The first trick was to dive into the psychological side of horror. “It’s about your deepest fears,” says cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos of the story, which sees a séance in a Venice chapel turn into a murder scene. “If you can touch on that without the grotesque and the gore, and be more about what lurks in the human psyche and soul, I think there’s a really interesting…

WHEN THE QUESTION arises in film circles, “What is the greatest car chase of all time?”, many films get mentioned, but two in particular rise to the very top. One is 1968’s Bullitt, and the other is 1971’s The French Connection. The latter sequence was partly conceived by the late, and dearly departed, William Friedkin in an attempt to equal the former. Many would say it surpassed it with its vivid intensity. Either way, it’s fair to say that any director tasked with shooting a car chase in the last half-century has to think about these two sequences and the foolhardy exercise of “topping them”. I had the great fortune to meet ‘Billy’ in his later years. He was so kind to me and more than generous with his amazing…

AS THE HOME of Oscar-winning animation titans Aardman, the city of Bristol has long been associated with pioneering cinematic techniques. And next year will see the region further cement its reputation for big-screen innovation by unveiling the Instrumented Auditorium — a movie theatre capable of reading an audience’s very thoughts. “It’s the first of its kind,” says Bristol University’s Professor Iain Gilchrist, who is spearheading the 36-seater venue. During test screenings, audience-members will be fitted with sensors to record their heart-rate and brain activity. “We’ll also measure skin conductance — which tells us if someone is excited or aroused — using the same methods as a lie-detector,” Gilchirst explains. If this conjures nightmarish images of Malcolm McDowell with his eyelids clamped open, fear not. “It’s not Clockwork Orange-y,” he laughs.…

WHEN JOANNA HOGG first locked eyes with Tilda Swinton in their primary-school classroom, it marked the start of a long and eventually creative partnership. They just didn’t know it yet. “I don’t think we named it at the time,” Hogg tells Empire about their collaboration. “But we were both interested in creating something out of what we were experiencing.” The two remained close in the years that followed, finally working together on 2019’s The Souvenir and its sequel. They now deliver their most tender project yet, The Eternal Daughter, an eerie ghost story about a mother and daughter’s stay in an empty hotel that holds painful memories. As a spiritual sequel to the Souvenir films, Swinton portrays older versions of the films’ lead characters Julie and Rosalind, who, to add…

PLENTY OF HORSEPOWER, BUT NOT MUCH UNDER THE BONNET ★★ OUT NOW / CERT 12A / 134 MINS DIRECTOR Neill Blomkamp CAST Archie Madekwe, Djimon Hounsou, Orlando Bloom, David Harbour, Geri Halliwell PLOT The true story of gamer Jann Mardenborough (Madekwe), whose dreams of becoming a real race-car driver slowly become reality. “THIS ENTIRE THING is a marketing extravaganza!” hails Orlando Bloom, part way through Gran Turismo. It’s rare that a movie says the quiet part out loud. For while this one makes admirable gestures towards the noble intentions of reach-for-your-dreams sports-movie feel-goodery, it’s very hard to shake the feeling that this is simply a highly elaborate corporate branding exercise, the smell of the ink from rubber-stamping approval never far away. Gran Turismo wasn’t one of those video-games that ever…

TV HE’S NOT THE MESSIAH, HE’S A VERY NAUGHTY BOY ★★★ OUT NOW (NETFLIX) / EPISODES VIEWED 3 OF 6 SHOWRUNNERS Everardo Gout, Leopoldo Gout CAST Bobby Luhnow, Dianna Agron, Lilith Amelie Siordia Mejia, Juanito Anguamea, Jorge Javier Arballo, Alberto Pérez-Jácome, Tenoch Huerta PLOT After Jodie (Luhnow) survives an accident, he and his friends scam locals into witnessing fake miracles — but soon, they become real. THE CHOSEN ONE is the latest screen adaptation of the work of comic-book writer Mark Millar — who you’ll know as the mind behind movies like Wanted, Kick-Ass and Kingsman , plus multiple Marvel and DC Comics runs. Based on his and Peter Gross’ American Jesus series, this eschews Millar’s superheroic leanings, instead focusing on a 12-year-old boy called Jodie, who, on the cusp…

FILM GREED IS GOOD — IF IT INVOLVES CAT MEMES ★★★★ OUT 22 SEPTEMBER / CERT TBC / 104 MINS DIRECTOR Craig Gillespie CAST Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Vincent D’Onofrio, America Ferrera, Nick Offerman, Anthony Ramos, Sebastian Stan PLOT The wild true story of a YouTuber (Dano) who defied Wall Street by turning the failing retailer GameStop into a stock-market sensation. THE GENERAL RULE with films about the economy is that you have to make them entertaining. Spreadsheet formulas and taxable municipal bonds do not a compelling movie make. The Big Short, Adam McKay’s rollicking dispatch from the ruins of the 2008 financial crash, was the (sub)prime example of this approach, transforming dull-as-dishwater concepts into a pacy comic thriller that even those of us with overdrafts could understand. Dumb Money…

GAMES THE D&D RPG ROLLS A NATURAL 20 ★★★★★ PC / PS5 / OUT NOW IT’S SAFE TO say Dungeons & Dragons is having a moment. Between the recent film Honour Among Thieves, providing the backdrop for Netflix’s pop-culture behemoth Stranger Things, and some outrageously successful YouTube shows, rolling d20s has arguably never been so popular — and Baldur’s Gate III continues that upwards trend. In a story set in the wider D&D continuity, you’ll start by escaping from the squid-headed Mindflayers, albeit infected with a parasite that threatens to eventually turn you into one of them. Searching for a cure, you’re soon drawn into a labyrinthine epic against a trio of menacing antagonists — necromancer General Thorm, scheming politician Lord Gortash, and psychotic shapeshifter Orin the Red (J.K. Simmons,…

STRAYS ★★★ “Dogs have long deserved their own gross-out comedy. Sure enough, Strays rises to the challenge, boasting a genre’s worth of poop, wee, vomit, erections, pubes and inanimate-object-sex.” JOHN NUGENT RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE ★★★ “It is entirely predictable from moment to moment and frequently laughable in its portrayal of international relations and politics, but it’s also funnier than it needed to be, and often charming.” HELEN O’HARA HIDDEN STRIKE ★★ “Some of the fight choreography is impressive, but overall, this is a hackneyed, limp affair. It comes to something when the financier idents at the start are more imaginative and engaging than the film that follows.” IAN FREER APOCALYPSE CLOWN ★★ “Despite some winningly demented performances, especially from David Earl and Natalie Palamides, this circus-dystopia is only…

BEFORE DUNE, THERE WAS... DUNE. In March 1983, cameras began rolling on an ambitious epic: David Lynch, burgeoning master of the surreal, was taking on Frank Herbert’s sprawling tale, with a bountiful $40 million budget, a crew of 900, some 20,000 extras and 70 elaborate sets on eight sound stages in Mexico’s Estudios Churubusco. There were problems, though, from the start, ranging from frequent electricity dropouts to rampant sickness (“You do not meet anybody here who isn’t ill, about to get ill, or just over being ill,” actor Francesca Annis told The New York Times on the set.) More significantly, as things progressed, the movie running over budget and out of time, its director was at odds with producers Raffaella and Dino De Laurentiis and the studio. The end result…

OUT 25 OCT Singularly claustrophobic and shit-your-pants terrifying, the 2014 video game Five Nights At Freddy’s immediately cemented itself as one of the most unnerving entertainment experiences in recent memory. Focusing on a haunted family-restaurant’s night-guard, glued to his station as a quartet of deceptively cuddly animatronics race to murder him, it’s an immersive hellscape that taps into that innate fear of helplessness. The cinematic potential was abundantly clear. With Blumhouse’s film adaptation imminent, director Emma Tammi talks to Empire about bringing Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria to life. Don’t pet the animals... THE INSPIRATIONS While the Five Nights At Freddy’s franchise has been pumping out sequels since the start, the process of adapting it for cinema hasn’t been so simple. The game’s creator, Scott Cawthon, was on board to write the…

In this cosy nook, in the basement bar of a central London cinema, we’ve somehow managed to squeeze decades of Ken Loach’s career around one small table. Given this is one of Britain’s most prolific and revered directors, that’s no mean feat. But here they are; the stars of films spanning 1969 to the present day, ready and eager to heap praise on a man many credit with their careers — much to Loach’s own evident discomfort. “There might be the sound of a door and Ken slinking out at some point,” jokes Dave Turner, the lead in Loach’s latest — and final — feature, The Old Oak. “He hates this.” Across from Turner, Loach is chatting with Eva Birthistle, star of his 2004 Glasgow-set inter-racial romance, Ae Fond Kiss…

After that initial light-bulb moment in the Iowan countryside, Edwards embarked on the same process he has used for all his films: the compilation of a visual ‘ideas Bible’ from which to draw inspiration. “The first thing I do is start collecting imagery,” he says. “Movie stills, travel photography — it all goes into a folder, and that becomes the thing I go back to whenever I get stuck.” In The Creator’s not-too-distant future, advancements in AI have split Planet Earth into two distinct territories: New Asia — aborderless melting pot in the east, where robots are generally regarded as equals to humans — and the West, led by America, which is intent on crushing robo-evolution at all costs. Straddling that divide is the eponymous ‘Creator’ — the human responsible…

Despite its time-honoured sci-fi themes of artificial intelligence and nuclear war, at its heart The Creator is, Edwards says, “a reluctant father film.” Joshua’s central mission, to capture a ‘superweapon’ which turns out to be a super-cute child, may sound similar to the shenanigans of a certain Beskar-armoured Star Wars badass. But a series much older than The Mandalorian inspired the plotline. “I’ve always loved the Lone Wolf And Cub films,” says Edwards, of the 1970s Japanese samurai movies about a wandering assassin and his young son. “I actually tried to put that dynamic in Monsters — the first draft was about a soldier taking an orphan home to his extended family. I got steered in a different direction on that one, but it always stuck with me. I thought,…

ARI ASTER’S FILMS have never been for everyone. The supernatural decapitations of the writer-director’s family psychodrama Hereditary, or the Scandinavian shroom-tripping of his fucked-up folk horror Midsommar, were hardly built for mainstream popularity. Even then, his third film — the baffling, bold, bewilderingly bonkers Beau Is Afraid — seemed to arrive smothered in the cinematic proverbial Marmite: a film that viewers either bemusedly loved or violently hated. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, in a typically transformative performance as the titular Beau, the film takes us on a three-hour Oedipal odyssey, where Beau must overcome increasingly insane obstacles — from a mysterious couple who keep him under house arrest, to a serial killer named ‘Birthday Boy Stab Man’ — while he attempts to It is a stubbornly unconventional and deliberately obtuse surreal nightmare…

SAM HARGRAVE’S EXTRACTION 2 continues the story of Chris Hemsworth’s one-man army, Tyler Rake, an extraction specialist for whom no job is too ridiculously difficult. Filled with incredible action sequences, it’s a bruiser that further establishes Rake as a new action icon. Here, former stuntman Hargrave talks us through the best bits. SLOW BURN In an unusual, algorithm-defying move, Extraction 2 doesn’t begin with the astonishing 21-minute sequence, presented as a single shot, in which Tyler Rake enters a Georgian jail, springs the wife and children of a feared druglord, and then makes a skin-of-his-teeth getaway. Hargrave makes the audience wait a tantalising 25 minutes for that, during which time we get to watch Rake recover slowly from the injuries sustained last time around, and montage his way back to…

THERE HAVE BEEN plenty of iconic red dresses in movie history — Cameron Diaz in The Mask, the distracting simulation in The Matrix and, erm, Kelly LeBrock’s woman in red from The Woman In Red are just three examples that spring to mind — but the eponymous garment of Dionne Edwards’ Pretty Red Dress deserves a place in the pantheon. “Red encompasses so many things, like death and transformation,” says Edwards. “It was the working title for a while, and then it just stuck.” The story of a man (Natey Jones) who, fresh out of prison, buys a crimson garment for his aspiring-actor girlfriend (Alexandra Burke), only to start wearing it as a means of expressing his true self, it’s one of the year’s best British films so far. Here,…

1Who’smissing from this sequence? De Palma, Woo, Abrams, Bird, ______, McQuarrie, McQuarrie 2 “Sir,Hunt is the living manifestation of destiny” — that’s a line from which Mission movie? 3 Whatis the name of the poor unsuspecting CIA systems analyst whose computer is targeted by Ethan in Mission: Impossible? 4 Whichopera is being performed during the Vienna Opera House sequence in Rogue Nation? 5 Whatdoes Ethan yell upon seemingly winning the day in Ghost Protocol? 6 MichelleMonaghan plays Ethan’s fiancée, Julia, in Mission: Impossible III. Which before-they-were-famous actor plays her brother? 7 Whichtwo directors dropped out of directing Mission: Impossible III? 8 Whichrap-rock band contributed a version of the Mission: Impossible theme tune to Mission: Impossible 2? 9 Whoplayed the IMF Secretary in Ghost Protocol? 10 Sean Harris’ Solomon Lane is…

The K-pop sequence in Joy Ride. Absolutely insane but oh-so-good! @KATIESMITHWONG Oppenheimer’s Trinity Test. Tense and terrifying. @BILLYWH46834879 Easily the train set-piece in Dead Reckoning Part 1. @SAMJOSMARSH John Wick falling downstairs. @BOBBY_CHAPZ One of the Kens giving their hobby horse CPR during the epic beach-off in Barbie. @DEVILPUDDING “I don’t know where we’re going, but it sure as hell ain’t 1939!” @THEMOVIEBOZO WATCH OUT FOR THE NEXT QUESTION VIA OUR TWITTER ACCOUNT: @EMPIREMAGAZINE…

NICK DE SEMLYEN IS THINKING ABOUT… A SLY-BARBIE SEQUEL When I sat down for two very pink, very entertaining hours of Barbie, I did not expect a subplot inspired by Stallone’s 1980s’ penchant for fur coats. And yet it happened. Now Greta Gerwig has joked about his involvement in a sequel. It must happen: this Ken is going the distance. BETH WEBB IS THINKING ABOUT… EVIL NICKNAMES Lady Gaga asked to be referred to as ‘Lee’ on the set of Joker: Folie à Deux, which was presumably a nod to Harley Quinn. You would hope that in a similar style, Colin Farrell answered to ‘Pot’ (instead of Oswald ‘The Penguin’ Cobblepot) and Arnie — aka Mr Freeze — simply ‘Eze’. SOPHIE BUTCHER IS THINKING ABOUT… CREEPY HANDS Since watching Danny…

MATTEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE THERE WILL BE MORE DOLLS Following the billion-dollar Barbie is a film starring her mini spiritual sister, Polly Pocket. It was recently announced that a script from Girls writer-director Lena Dunham had been completed for the project, which will star Lily Collins. Meanwhile a movie about ultra-athletic action figure Big Jim — launched to compete with Hasbro’s G.I. Joe — from Borat co-director Dan Mazer was announced in 2022. IT’S GOING TO GET EMOTIONAL Daniel Kaluuya and A24 are behind a surrealistic spin on Barney The Dinosaur, with a script from Beef creator Lee Sung Jin. Despite being about a large, purple prehistoric creature, the story will focus on the subject of millennial angst. As Kaluuya describes it: “Barney taught us, ‘I love you, you love me.…

IT’S BEEN A whirlwind few months for indie Australian horror Talk To Me. Since its release, the film — about teenagers contacting the spirit world through the use of an embalmed hand — has earned glowing reviews from the likes of Stephen King, Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg, while becoming one of A24’s highest-grossing horror films. Here, the film’s YouTubers-turned-directors, twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, reflect on their spooky sleeper hit — and where they go next. THE PRESENT The reception to the film has been “insane”, says Danny Philippou. “It’s been so overwhelming.” Different audiences reacted in different ways; he reports that Montreal had the rowdiest response. “They laughed at the most extreme parts. It was like, ‘Oh my God, they have a really dark sense of humour!’”…

THE TRAINING Tia Nomore had never acted in the past, and was a new mother herself when she was discovered by the Earth Mama team and cast as pregnant recovering addict Gia. Helpfully, the Bay Area rapper was also training to be a doula (birth companion) in a local programme specifically designed for Black mothers, and brought her experience of front-line maternity care directly to the role. “They got me through my pregnancy, and I’ve been in doula circles with a lot of Black moms,” she explains. “We’re struggling out here — not in the same way as [Gia] per se, but there are a lot of systematic disparities.” THE READING Director Savanah Leaf equipped her new star with a lot of materials to read ahead of the shoot. There…

THE MURDER-MYSTERY genre has evolved to the point where a single detective solving a grisly crime is simply old news. Take the case of Bodies — a time-hopping police procedural in which one mysterious corpse crops up in not one but four different decades, with four detectives set upon cracking the case. Based on the ambitious 2015 graphic novel by Si Spencer, the eight-episode series comes courtesy of creator Paul Tomalin. Speaking with Empire, he breaks down this unfortunate body’s four temporal pit-stops. 1890 The earliest of the timelines is set in the foggy backstreets of Victorian London, when Jack The Ripper was running rampant. Tomalin, an enthusiastic researcher, read numerous books on the era for the show, some recommended by executive producer Will Gould, who worked on Jack-centric crime…

A SHOW THAT has been as much about breaking the mould as it has about bodily fluids, Netflix’s comedy-drama Sex Education climaxes with its fourth and final season this autumn. The show — which follows Asa Butterfield’s sex therapist Otis and his teen friends — has raised important issues while launching the buzzy careers of many of its young stars, including future Doctor Who lead Ncuti Gatwa. Creator Laurie Nunn tells Empire about how her high-school show gave her an education of her own. EMBRACE THE EMBARRASSING When broaching topics from chlamydia to sex injuries, Nunn learned to find meaning in even the show’s funnier scenes. “The protest in Season 3, where they all wear the penis outfits, was quite a challenge,” Nunn tells Empire, referring to a storyline in…

FILM ★★★ OUT 1 SEPTEMBER / CERT 15 / 135 MINS DIRECTOR Alejandro Monteverde CAST Jim Caviezel, Mira Sorvino, Bill Camp, Cristal Aparicio Sound Of Freedom, the first independent movie since the pandemic to make over $100 million at the US box office, did not reach that milestone without controversy. Based (somewhat loosely) on real-life efforts by former Homeland Security agent Tim Ballard to rescue children from sex traffickers in Colombia, the film has been embraced by QAnon conspiracy theorists. Strip away that noise, however, and you’re left with a suspenseful, if conventional, thriller about a man willing to do anything to reunite a family. Jim Caviezel plays Ballard with steely intensity as he tracks down missing girl Rocío (Cristal Paricio), while Bill Camp turns in an enjoyable performance as…

FILM YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBOURHOOD SPIDER-HORROR ★★★ OUT 1 SEPTEMBER / CERT 15 / 88 MINS DIRECTOR Samuel Bodin CAST Woody Norman, Lizzy Caplan, Antony Starr, Cleopatra Coleman PLOT Sweet kid Peter (Norman) is hearing weird noises in his bedroom. When he tells his loopy parents (Caplan, Starr) about them, it only makes things worse. “ARE THEY FUCKING with us?” That’s a question asked by a soon-to-be-mincemeat character in the final act of Cobweb — and it’s one that audience-members, too, might be asking for much of the runtime. Because in its first half, this lonely-kid-uncovers-family-secrets horror deals in so many familiar clichés that it’s hard to get a read on it. Is this level of spot-the-trope familiarity a sign of playful knowingness, or merely a lazy pile-up of horror basics?…

TV ★★★ OUT NOW (PRIME VIDEO) / EPISODES VIEWED 5 OF 6 SHOWRUNNERS Neil Gaiman, Douglas Mackinnon CAST Michael Sheen, David Tennant, Jon Hamm, Miranda Richardson You know how it is with apocalypses: you avert one only for another to loom in a minute. Angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and demon Crowley (David Tennant) are back on Earth minding their own business when the archangel Gabriel (Jon Hamm) warns of another coming disaster. This second season is arch to the point of being twee, and sometimes clunky in its storytelling. But any time that Sheen and Tennant are on screen together, that ceases to be much of a concern. The same bickering, odd-couple energy that powers their sitcom Staged makes them a delight here, as two foes who may share more…

FILM DESTINED TO SEND HOUSE PRICES IN THE AREA PLUMMETING ★★ OUT NOW / CERT 12A / 123 MINS DIRECTOR Justin Simien CAST LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Dan Levy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jared Leto PLOT Single mother Gabbie (Dawson) enlists paranormal tour guide Ben (Stanfield) to rid her newly bought mansion of ghosts. IN 2003, DISNEY proved it could make a hit movie based on one of its theme-park rides with the first Pirates Of The Caribbean. That was followed by an Eddie Murphy vehicle (remember them?) based on another Disneyland attraction, The Haunted Mansion, which scared up reasonable business but didn’t become a franchise. Twenty years on, ignoring the warning bells sounded by big-ticket items like Tomorrowland and Jungle Cruise, Disney greenlit this…

ON THE PLANET ARRAKIS — or the deserts standing in for it, at least — three men were searching. Hunting. For the perfect type of sand. Arrakis, home to the Spice, is felt in every breath of Frank Herbert’s original Dune novel. An inhospitable, barren world, home to humongous worms and winds that can cut metal, its unique character forms the heart of the entire story. Which is why, for Dune: Part Two, director Denis Villeneuve, cinematographer Greig Fraser and production designer Patrice Vermette spent an inordinate amount of time trekking through the desert and staring at tiny yellow grains. “For my mise-en-scène, I’ll want a particular shaped dune. But Greig Fraser, on the other hand, will need that same shape to be in a specific light,” Villeneuve explains. “So…

OUT 13 OCT Having just directed three Halloween films, it’s fair to say David Gordon Green has some understanding of how the human psyche responds to fear. And now, as he speaks to Empire, he is sitting in his editing suite, putting the final touches to The Exorcist: Believer, a sequel to William Friedkin’s original. As Gordon Green’s characters pit themselves against a wily, primally evil satanic force, the director calibrates the balance between believable normality and supernatural horror: that sweet spot which made that 1973 classic the catalyst for a generation’s nightmares. It is difficult to imagine what the horror-cinema landscape might look like today were it not for the influence of The Exorcist. Friedkin’s adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s best-selling novel followed a preteen girl, Regan MacNeil (Linda…

OUT 29 SEPT Do you want to play a game? According to Saw X director Kevin Greutert, many do. “A lot of people will write to me and say, ‘Please, please put me in a Saw trap,’” he says. It takes all sorts. Greutert knows his way around a trap. They’re a key feature of one of the most successful horror franchises, well, ever. Saw has now been running for 19 years and pulled in over $1 billion globally, and a big part of the appeal is undeniably the curiously calm, low-key psychopath at the series’ heart, civil engineer John Kramer — aka the Jigsaw Killer. Played with flair by Tobin Bell, Kramer’s wholesome-sounding mission is to get people to truly value life — often accomplished by placing them in…

It was deep in the cornfields of Iowa that the idea took hold. Gareth Edwards had just finished work on his last movie — 2016’s Star Wars standalone Rogue One — and the British filmmaker was driving across the US with his girlfriend, ostensibly for some downtime. “You can’t help thinking, though, ‘I wonder what I’ll do next?’” Edwards recalls. “As we drove through these beautiful, tall grass fields, I saw this strange facility with a Japanese logo on it. I suddenly thought, ‘What if there were robots in there? What if they’d never left that factory and they came out into this field — what would they make of the world?’” Seven years later, the seed of that casual road-trip musing has blossomed into The Creator, a thriller about…

When I started writing The Creator, the idea of AI potentially surpassing the human race felt very far-off,” Edwards laughs. “Now, the joke is that I’ve set this movie in 2070, when it could have been set in 2023.” Yes, as eerie coincidence would have it, Edwards is launching his new film about a world panicking over the rise of AI into... a world panicking over the rise of AI. “Some of the first things we shot in Thailand were crowds protesting artificial intelligence,” he recalls. “It felt absurd at the time — ‘No-one would ever do this.’ And now I drive past the [Hollywood movie] studios every day to see people doing exactly that.” Clearly, we are some way off from the super-developed, Los-Angeles-nuking AI seen in The Creator.…

THE RED DRESS BORIS KARLOFF WAS AFRAID. The newly minted horror star — thanks to his leading role as the instantly iconic Monster in James Whale’s groundbreaking horror Frankenstein (1931) — was on the MGM set of 1932’s The Mask Of Fu Manchu, and director Charles Brabin wanted to electrocute him. Karloff — in heavy make-up as the villainous “devil doctor” — was assured by everyone, including Kenneth Strickfaden, inventor of the electrocution gag, and creator of the sparking “mad scientist” lab equipment, that it was safe. The actor, though, strapped to a table as Frankenstein’s Monster while Strickfaden’s sparks flew, was unconvinced. So, determined to prove his stunt’s safety, Strickfaden played the scene himself. As Karloff feared, something went terribly wrong. Strickfaden was blasted across the set, dropping unconscious…

“THERE IS AN old proverb that says: ‘Don’t try to do two things at once and expect to do justice to both,’” announces the opening titles of Buster Keaton’s 1924 feature Sherlock Jr.. “This is the story of the boy who tried it.” This is also the story of the boy who tried to do several things at once — and transformed cinema as a result. Joseph Frank ‘Buster’ Keaton — desert-dry deadpan silent comedian, fearless stuntman, innovative film craftsman, possessor of a historically great face, wearer of many excellent pork-pie hats — packs an astonishing amount of elements into Sherlock Jr.’s thrifty 44-minute runtime. Ostensibly a screwball love-triangle comedy, Keaton also finds room for a sly melodrama spoof, a breathless motorcycle chase, at least two insane costume changes, a…

Chris: What is our first memory of Harrison Ford? Helen: There is no first memory. There has always been Harrison Ford. I don’t know a time when there wasn’t Harrison Ford. Chris: He raised me more than my dad. Nick: He’s like the Force. Everything flows through him. He was my first childhood hero. Ian: I do remember a world before Harrison Ford. I saw Star Wars when it came out in the UK in early 1978. And Harrison Ford quickly became my favourite actor. So much so that I took a picture of him to Giovanni’s Hairdressers and had my hair cut exactly like his. He was my favourite actor then, and he still is my favourite actor. Chris: Why has he endured? Why are we still talking about…

THIS MONTH WILLARD HUYCK & GLORIA KATZ THE PRODUCER-WRITER-director-fil-mdoctor team of Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz specialised in shoring up George Lucas’ wild ideas. They wrestled the American Graffiti (1973) script into shape and wrote Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom (1984). Reportedly, Huyck solved a second-act problem of The Empire Strikes Back (1980) by suggesting Lucas revisit the backstory of Darth Vader killing Luke’s father. In return for this, he produced their Howard The Duck (1986) — which was a) the first big-budget Marvel movie, and b) a costly flop, which mixes the terrible (unconvincing duck suit) and the awesome (Jeffrey Jones possessed by a Dark Overlord of the Universe). The Huyck-Katz script Radioland Murders (1994), directed by Mel Smith, was another item in Lucasfilm’s red column —…

MOST SPECIAL-THANKS credits in movies are restricted to a handful of people (and, occasionally, companies) who helped illuminate the path for the filmmakers along the way. That’s not the case with Juel Taylor’s cracking sci-fi-tinged comedy-thriller They Cloned Tyrone, which lists a veritable army of people. “I’ve just been really grateful to a lot of people,” laughs Taylor. “It takes a village, you know? But I was like, ‘How many times do I get to make a movie?’ You might not ever make another one, so you want to make sure, at least the first time around, you thank everybody.” Among the people thanked are family members of Taylor, his co-writer Tony Rettenmaier, and even their editor, Saira Haider. There’s a company on there — Atown Grillz — who made…

Calling Jurassic Park fans (and who isn’t?)! Spielberg’s blockbuster — scored by the legendary John Williams, of course — is 30 years old, and in celebration, the film will be shown on the big screen in arenas across the country during October — accompanied by the renowned Hallé Orchestra, who will perform Williams’ iconic music live on stage. Starting on 18 October, it promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We’ve got a pair of tickets — plus, excitingly, a page of music for the film signed by Williams himself — for three winners. To enter, crack the crossword, solve the anagram and follow the instructions below. Hold on to your butts! TICKETS FOR JURASSIC PARK IN CONCERT ARE ON SALE NOW VIA AEGPRESENTS.CO.UK TERMS AND CONDITIONS:  The prize offered is…