Home//Empire/October 2024/In This Issue
Empire|October 2024WELCOMEA YEAR AGO, a study carried out by a Swedish influencer on Instagram revealed the following, somewhat surprising fact: many men think about Ancient Rome several times a week. (I must confess that I missed this at the time, deep in reflection as I was about Tiberius’ retirement to Rhodes in 6 BC.) It’s unknown whether Ridley Scott takes part in Swedish Instagram studies, but I’m willing to bet he’s a long-time member of this demographic. Because a quarter-century after first entering the Colosseum with Gladiator, the legendary filmmaker has picked up his sword and laced up his sandals again, striding back through those doomy gates to make another pumped-up, blood-soaked saga. He couldn’t get the Roman Empire out of his mind, and we’re glad he couldn’t, because Gladiator II…2 min
Empire|October 2024THE PIPELINETHE DRAMA Zendaya and Robert Pattinson are in talks to lead Dream Scenario writer-director Kristoffer Borgli’s latest. Plot specifics are under wraps for now, but apparently The Drama unfolds around a couple whose relationship takes an unexpected turn just before their big day. KILLING GAWKER Good Will Hunting trio Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Gus Van Sant are reteaming to give controversial wrestler Hulk Hogan’s legal battle against Gawker the big-screen treatment. The Big Short’s Charles Randolph is on scripting duty, while Affleck himself reportedly wants to play the Hulkster. UNTITLED PEAKY BLINDERS FILM Rebecca Ferguson is swapping the sands of Arrakis for the streets of World War I-era Birmingham in Steven Knight’s gang-series feature follow-up. Ferguson will star opposite Cillian Murphy’s returning Tommy Shelby in the Tom Harper-directed movie,…2 min
Empire|October 2024Why a movie master chose a small-screen mystery“I WISH I could say that I’m a television expert, but I’m a filmmaker,” Alfonso Cuarón tells Empire. It’s a candid statement from someone who’s about to launch their first major miniseries. The multi-Oscar-winning director admires the impactful transitions from big screen to small that directors like David Lynch made with Twin Peaks, Ingmar Bergman with Scenes From A Marriage and more recently Lars von Trier with The Kingdom. He even briefly ventured into TV himself, serving as co-creator of the J.J. Abrams-backed series Believe — about a young girl with supernatural abilities — which was cancelled after one season in 2014. But when he came upon Disclaimer, the 2015 mystery novel from Renée Knight, he initially saw himself adapting it into a very long movie. Yet he couldn’t figure…3 min
Empire|October 2024GIOVANNI RIBISI SHOOTS FOR THE MOONGIOVANNI RIBISI HAS worked with some of Hollywood’s most visionary filmmakers, from Lynch to Cameron, (Sofia) Coppola to Spielberg. Yet, ever since he was a child actor some 40 years ago, he found himself gravitating towards and befriending the camera department. “[It was] this mysterious machine,” he tells Empire of his fascination with cinematography. As his acting career went from strength to strength, he continued to be “a pest” to these departments on set. He even struck up a bond with the late Andrew Lesnie, who shot the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, after working with him on 2004’s Love Brother. “I don’t want to say he took me under his wing, but he was very helpful in that way,” says Ribisi. Some 15 years ago, after studying visual effects…2 min
Empire|October 2024“The trailers I remember most fondly are the ones that tantalise”IN 1996, BACK when I was a teenage Empire reader, I eagerly pawed open the gift that came with issue 80: a videotape containing “an hour’s worth of the best trailers of the year”. Popping the cassette into my cumbersome VHS machine, I devoured the teasers for Toy Story, Heat, Broken Arrow, Loch Ness and more. It didn’t matter if some of the films looked a bit lame — who greenlit a meet-up between Ted Danson and a water-monster? — because in my book, movie trailers were great. They sizzled with promise, splicing together thrilling and funny moments, fizzed up with clever editing and judicious deployment of Voiceover Man. Flash forward to 2024, and my love of movie trailers has dwindled. In fact, I even sometimes find myself jettisoning out…2 min
Empire|October 2024ON OUR MINDSBETH WEBB IS THINKING ABOUT… HENCH RALPH FIENNES You can call me an English patient after seeing Fiennes’ beefed-up transformation into Greek king Odysseus for historical epic The Return. Could this bow-and-arrow-wielding look spell a new action career? Fast 11 is still a few years away… BEN TRAVIS IS THINKING ABOUT… MICKEY MOUSE’S POP-PUNK ALBUM Okay, which Millennial is steering Disney’s music department? Incoming album A Whole New Sound has ’00s pop-punkers tackling Disney covers. Best of all? The photoshoot, with Goofy in a plaid shirt and Mickey swagging out in a hoodie. SOPHIE BUTCHER IS THINKING ABOUT… CHARLI XCX-MEN Thanks to Charli XCX’s buzzy album, it’s officially been a ‘brat’ summer. Given the return of Wolverine, and since the Marvel mutants have their very own Charles (XC)Xavier, surely some…1 min
Empire|October 2024On A Role JAMES McAVOY IS… PADDYTHE PSYCHOLOGY In this English-language take on a 2022 Danish psychological shocker, McAvoy plays a brash alpha nightmare. Welcoming an American couple (Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis) to their isolated country house, Paddy and his wife (Aisling Franciosci) steadily ramp up the levels of discomfort. “The thing I thought I could exploit in the character was, he thinks he’s a bit of a f*cking West Country Andrew Tate,” says McAvoy, namechecking the famed misogynist. “He’s like, ‘I’m going to teach you what it’s like to be a man again.’ But there’s a sort of polite face on it that isn’t quite Andrew Tate, enough of a sheen of, ‘I’m not one of those guys.’” With every social interaction, though, he marks his territory. “He’s challenging you: ‘Do you not have…2 min
Empire|October 2024Your ticket to HollywoodThe ultimate Empire experience. See page 8 for details. EMPIRE Every issue delivered to your door, before it arrives in shops, with exclusive collectible covers SUBSCRIBE BY VISITING EITHER GREATMAGAZINES.CO.UK/EMPIRE, CALLING 01858 438 884 OR SCANNING THE QR CODE Terms and conditions: *Saving applies to lowest-priced subscription option. The minimum term is 12 months. Offer closes 25/09/24. Subscriptions will start with the next available issue. Offers cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Order line open 0800hrs – 2100hrs (Mon-Fri). 1000hrs – 1600hrs (Sat). Calls may be monitored or recorded for training purposes. Call costs from mobiles vary according to the calling plan chosen. Typically, they are included in free call packages. However, if you call an 01/02 number outside of any inclusive minutes, they can cost between…1 min
Empire|October 2024SING SINGOUT 30 AUGUST / CERT 15 / 106 MINS DIRECTOR Greg Kwedar CAST Colman Domingo, Paul Raci, Clarence ‘Divine Eye’ Maclin, Sean San José, David ‘Dap’ Giraudy PLOT Divine G (Domingo) runs an inmate theatre group at Sing Sing prison. His peace-making skills are tested by Divine Eye (Maclin). SOME MEN WOULD rather go to prison than to therapy. Or at least, some men do go to prison rather than to therapy. This intensely empathetic and non-judgmental drama, based on a true story, suggests that beauty and emotion might result if desperate, damaged men were allowed to find other ways to express themselves, and emphasises the power of art — even bad art — to change lives. Colman Domingo stars as John ‘Divine G’ Whitfield (the real Divine G makes…3 min
Empire|October 2024ALIEN: ROMULUSOUT NOW / CERT 15 / 119 MINS DIRECTOR Fede Alvarez CAST Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, Aileen Wu PLOT Decades after the events of the Nostromo, a group of miners on a distant space colony attempt to retrieve cryopods from a deserted ship. They soon find the ship is overrun with mysterious alien creatures… SEQUELS TO THE landmark 1979 space horror Alien have ranged from the superlative (Aliens) to the mixed-bag (Alien Resurrection) to the messily philosophical (Prometheus) to the best forgotten (Alien Vs. Predator). Director Fede Alvarez’s latest gambit for the franchise is a smart one: to take the best elements of the two best films in the series — Ridley Scott’s original and James Cameron’s original sequel — and squash them together,…3 min
Empire|October 2024DUSTBORNPC, PS4, PS5, XBOX ONE, XBOX SERIES X|S STICKS AND STONES may break your bones, but words… words can change you. Literally, in the world of Dustborn, where certain people have emerged as ‘Anomals’, the power of their voice able to twist the world around them. For protagonist Pax, that means a form of coercion: the right word at the right time able to push people to do what she wants. For her best friend Sai, it’s more personal, physically altering her own body for strength or defence. This is no superhero outing, though. Set in a scarily close 2030, the story sees the US splintered into disparate authoritarian territories, a militarised police abusing its power, and Anomals a persecuted minority. The fact this is an alternate timeline, branching off…3 min
Empire|October 2024Unleash HellBaboons. That’s how you make a sequel to one of the most legendary films of all time: stick some baboons in it. And a rhino charging into the Colosseum with a man standing on its back. And why not flood the place, fill it with naval ships, then let loose some ravenous sharks? It’s the Colosseum and this is Ancient Rome and we are here to be entertained. We want blood and betrayal, death and glory. Which is why Ridley Scott transformed 12 small stuntmen into vicious baboons. “They were mean, muscular, real tough guys. And I put them on short stilts under their armpits so they could crawl on all fours and attack in the arena,” Scott tells Empire, balling his fists and puffing out his arms like a…16 min
Empire|October 2024ALL THAT GLITTERSBE IT THE TRANSGENDER SEX WORKERS of Tangerine or the down-and-out p*rn-star hustler of Red Rocket, Sean Baker has long been a chronicler of life on the American margins. His films bathe in the nocturnal overpass-glow of late-night gas stations and strip clubs; his characters are survivors, hustlers, flakes, vulgarians, and — often — very funny. His latest, Anora, is an anarchic romp through the life of 23-year-old exotic dancer and sometime sex worker Anora (Mikey Madison), who impulsively marries Ivan, the son of a Russian oligarch. In chaotic Baker fashion, Ani — as Anora insists on being known as — has an Instagram sugar-baby dream which becomes a nightmare. As Baker has it, “We’re telling the Cinderella story with sex workers.” The film is as sumptuous as it is…11 min
Empire|October 2024MAKING TIMETHE BEFORE TIME (2016) I’m both a postpartum mum and filmmaker. And broke, actually. Making a film is such a joyous miracle that you become aware that, proportional to the human lifespan, because of the average length of gestation of a British indie film (YEARS), you haven’t much Time. After so many reincarnations in my career, I’d be pretty lucky to get to go again. You’d better fill the film with all your favourite things: carriages, aerobics, masks, wigs, dild*s, axes, pink cats. What will you do with this, your one, precious film? PRE-PRE-PRODUCTION (2017-2019) We’re trying to raise finance for the script. But a) I am pregnant again, and b) Covid is about to hit. I’d wanted to write something about mortality, second chances, the sadness of wanting something,…12 min
Empire|October 2024The Liman IdentityA FRESH LOOK AT HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERVIEWING DOUG LIMAN is much like his career: you have no idea where it’s going, but it’s entertaining as hell. One minute you start asking the 59-year-old director about his latest movie, the action-comedy caper The Instigators, the next he’s telling you in detail (Doug Liman doesn’t do short answers) about an unplanned sojourn he made to Ukraine with a group of mercenaries. But that’s Liman’s credo. He goes wherever he thinks will interest him most. “I’m a storyteller,” he says. “If you go have these experiences, you then have stories to tell.” And what stories he’s told over the years, starting out with 1996’s Swingers (technically his second film; the first, 1994’s Getting In, is currently unavailable), and then swiftly transitioning into thrillers…10 min
Empire|October 2024Beverly Hills Cop: Axel FIT’S BEEN 30 years since we last glimpsed Eddie Murphy’s Axel Foley in action (and, as anyone who saw Beverly Hills Cop III will know, 37 years since we last saw a good Axel Foley film). Thankfully, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F co*cks a merry snoop at the wait, delivering a legacy sequel that mostly succeeds in giving people what they want (Murphy at his most Murphy-ish in years, a raft of familiar old faces, some intriguing new characters, and plenty of action and quips) while lacing it with a degree of vulnerability that acknowledges that Murphy, now 63, is no spring chicken. “When I first sat down with him,” says Mark Molloy, the Australian director who makes his feature debut with this, “Eddie told me this is the most…5 min
Empire|October 2024After birthTHE FIRST OMEN is the kind of dark miracle it usually takes a coven of duplicitous nuns and priests to pull off. It’s fair to say that expectations for the first Omen film in 33 years (43 years if you ignore 1991’s dreadful made-for-television sequel, Omen IV: The Awakening, which all right-thinking folk should) were not high. Yet, against all the odds, first-time feature filmmaker Arkasha Stevenson has made something that is not only comfortably the best Omen movie since Richard Donner’s 1976 original, but might actually be the scariest and most unsettling entry in the entire series. Much like Longlegs, another of this year’s run of belting horrors, it’s a movie that feels insidious and oppressive, almost as if it has evil in its very pores. When Stevenson and…5 min
Empire|October 2024The cubwho would be kingBARRY JENKINS HAS never before made a movie that kids could watch. Whether it’s the Oscar-winning Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk or his streaming series adaptation of The Underground Railroad, the filmmaker has always told adult-focused stories. Which is why he wanted to do the opposite for his next project: a prequel to Disney’s 2019 photo-real-animated reimagining of The Lion King, telling the origin story of Pride Rock’s GOAT. Make way for Mufasa: The Lion King. “This was an opportunity to experience so many things with an audience that isn’t typically engaged with my work — which is young people,” Jenkins tells Empire. “Just about everyone on the planet loves The Lion King.” Including members of Jenkins’ own family. “I remember raising my nephews and watching the 1994 [film]…3 min
Empire|October 2024The Spotlight Joe Locke“I’VE ALWAYS ENVISIONED myself being in a Marvel, ever since I was a kid,” says Joe Locke. “Ever since” in this case is not reaching very far back into the past. Locke is still just 20 and he’s already achieved that childhood dream. In the upcoming Marvel TV series Agatha All Along, a WandaVision spin-off, Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha has been stripped of her witchy magic and is on a quest to restore it. Locke plays her fanboy assistant, simply known as ‘Teen’. “To be doing it, it’s very ‘pinch me’,” he tells Empire. The last few years haven’t been short on pinch-me moments for Locke. In 2021, he was just any other teenager, growing up on the Isle Of Man, “applying to normal universities to study history and politics”. Then…4 min
Empire|October 2024NEED TO KNOWIT’S BASED ON A (DEEPLY ODD) MEME Unless you’re a member of Generation Alpha (i.e. born after 2010), you may not be aware of Skibidi Toilet — the unsettling-meme-turned-internet-series, now heading to film and TV. Briefly, then: in February 2023, Georgian animator Alexey Gerasimov, in his early twenties, uploaded an 11-second YouTube video featuring a warped human head emerging from a toilet, singing a maddeningly catchy tune. Eighteen months later, that absurdist seed has grown into a 24-season web series charting a nightmarish dystopian war between freaky-heads-in-latrines (the titular ‘Skibidi Toilets’) and a race of anthropomorphic CCTV cameras. Have a look for yourself — but don’t blame us if you can’t get that song out of your head. THE KIDS LOVE IT… Featuring no dialogue — and therefore no language…2 min
Empire|October 2024STORMS COMING!THE SETTING The SDCC panel introducing us to Marvel’s First Family, the Fantastic Four, gave the movie an official subtitle (First Steps), and confirmed that the movie, set in an alternate 1960s, will be a retro-futuristic feast for the eyes, with director Matt Shakman talking up the influence of Syd Mead in particular. The movie, which stars Pedro Pascal (stretchy Mr Fantastic, aka Reed Richards), Vanessa Kirby (invisible Sue Storm), Joseph Quinn (flaming-hot the Human Torch, aka Johnny Storm) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (super-strong the Thing, aka Ben Grimm), just started shooting in London, and with less than a year to go until release, hopefully they’ve got time to make sure the VFX won’t look like they’ve also been ported over from the ’60s. THE TRAJECTORY While Feige, Shakman and the…2 min
Empire|October 2024Meet the Clown Prince of GrimeRECENTLY, DURING FILMING on the set of the upcoming Terrifier 3, David Howard Thornton was nearly sick. You’d think that Thornton — the actor who has played the murderous, mute, seemingly immortal Art The Clown in the Terrifier series since 2016 — would be used to gore. After all, this is a character who has hacksawed a woman in half (lengthways), ripped open a man’s head, torn a penis off another man’s body, and served children candy from a bloody skull, among other things. But something in the new film almost sent him over the edge. “There’s one particular thing I have a hard time stomaching,” Thornton tells Empire with a laugh. “I don’t want to say what it was, but I almost vomited. Of course, everybody thought it was…3 min
Empire|October 2024How Adam Pearson stole the showLIKE ALL GOOD people do, Adam Pearson suffers from imposter syndrome. Which is especially understandable when, having had little acting experience, you suddenly have a major role in a starry A24 drama. “On day one, I was just sitting there,” he remembers of starting work on A Different Man, “and I thought, ‘Why the hell are you here? You’re just some schmuck from Croydon, here with Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan. You’ve put yourself into a right situation here, haven’t you?’ But you’ve got to get over that.” He’s getting over it. Having worked as a TV producer and documentary presenter, Pearson bagged his first movie role when Jonathan Glazer cast him in 2013’s Under The Skin, for a sequence in which Scarlett Johansson’s alien picks him up in her…3 min
Empire|October 2024WELCOME TO THE WAR ROOMWATCHING WAR GAME, the adrenalised upcoming documentary from filmmakers Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber, your mind might well flit to the Stanley Kubrick classic Dr. Strangelove. This is intentional. “The War Room in Strangelove was a visual reference for us,” confirms Gerber. Adds Moss: “I revisit that film periodically. It’s totally inventive in confronting the existential threat of nuclear war. And we felt responsibility as storytellers and as citizens to find an inventive way of confronting the darkness that we face.” Their new film may not feature a man riding a bomb, and it’s short on laughs, but like Strangelove it plays out an apocalyptic scenario from within the confines of a tense government chamber. The directors, whose 2008 film Full Battle Rattle focused on a US Army training exercise…2 min
Empire|October 2024How Much Is A Pint Of Milk? Brian Tyree HenryWhich film have you seen more than any other? Kill Bill: Vol. 1. I could quote it back to front; re-enact every character. I can even recite the Japanese part. I saw it at the movies 14 times. I bought the DVD three times. I like Vol. 2 as well, but I feel like that requires a certain frame of mind. What one thing do you do better than anyone else you know? I really love setting an ambience. I love candles and incense and I will make sure anything around me — including myself — smells amazing. I like to believe I’m the king of olfactory senses… that sounds disgusting. I would like to make my own candles but it’s hard. When in your life were you most starstruck?…4 min
Empire|October 2024BORDERLANDSOUT NOW / CERT 12A / 101 MINS DIRECTOR Eli Roth CAST Cate Blanchett, Ariana Greenblatt, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Florian Munteanu, Edgar Ramírez PLOT Galaxy-weary bounty hunter Lilith (Blanchett) becomes embroiled in a crazy plan to crack open an ancient alien vault. AFTER THE LAST Of Us and Fallout, you’d be forgiven for thinking that we are finally enjoying an era of quality video-game adaptations, and that Borderlands, based on the wacky 2009 sci-fi shooter RPG, is riding the same wave. Hell, it’s even got Cate Blanchett (an actor who’s earned those italics twice over) in the lead role, having a bullet-spraying hoot as a grizzled yet elegant bounty hunter. And with its colourful assortment of irreverent characters, corralled by a writer/director best known previously for…4 min
Empire|October 2024THE INSTIGATORSOUT NOW (APPLE TV+) / CERT 15 / 101 MINS DIRECTOR Doug Liman CAST Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Paul Walter Hauser, Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina, Toby Jones, Ron Perlman PLOT An attempted robbery of an election-night party goes awry, leading the culprits on a desperate escape from Boston. THE PERFECTLY SERVICEABLE mid-budget movie is an increasingly rare beast, too often quietly shuffled off to streaming, gathering virtual dust. Doug Liman’s The Instigators — which has had a limited theatrical release here before finding a permanent home on Apple TV+ — is a perfect example of the kind of film you used to see in cinemas all the time, its appeal simply found in its big personalities colliding. Though the film is carried by Matt Damon as…3 min
Empire|October 2024TRAPOUT NOW / CERT 15 / 105 MINS DIRECTOR M. Night Shyamalan CAST Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Night Shyamalan, Hayley Mills, Alison Pill PLOT When Cooper (Hartnett), aka ‘The Butcher’, takes his daughter Riley (Donoghue) to see pop star Lady Raven (Saleka Night Shyamalan), he discovers he’s been drawn into an FBI-laid trap. SOMEWHERE DEEP INSIDE Trap there’s a good movie bound, gagged and struggling to get out. It might be a grim comedy with something satirical to say about fandoms, drawing the line between the icky fascination with serial killers and shrieky pop idolatry. It could be something straighter and darker; a taut single-location claustro-thriller. Or it might even be closer to a heyday M. Night Shyamalan joint, which takes pride in a good ol’ fashioned rug-pull. But…2 min
Empire|October 2024The FighterWhy do you think you get on so well with Ridley Scott? He comes from the north of England, from South Shields. I come from Maynooth. We’re not from the meccas of filmmaking — we’re not from Hollywood, we’re not from London. So I think we both feel lucky to have arrived at this point, and we are similar minded. He avoids the bullsh*t and I would like to say the same about myself. I’ve never met somebody who is less bullsh*t than Ridley Scott! I knew from the off what he wanted from me, and it felt very collaborative and easy. I loved, loved spending time with him, and tried to soak up as much of his knowledge as humanly possible. What kind of knowledge did you soak up?…3 min
Empire|October 2024BUILDING THE FUTUREFRANCIS FORD COPPOLA LOVES TO GAMBLE. Megalopolis, his 23rd feature as a director, represents the biggest punt of his 61-year career. Making Apocalypse Now look like a flutter on the Grand National, few films have been the focus of such intense entertainment-press speculation. The decades in the planning. The 300 rewrites (Coppola’s fanciful estimation). The self-financing, by the filmmaker, to the tune of $120 million. The subsequent runaway budget. The art department quitting. Wow Platinum, Aubrey Plaza’s character name. It has all come under microscopic scrutiny. Even the Cannes premiere caused a stir when, during the screening, the house lights came up and Adam Driver’s protagonist started talking to an actor placed in the auditorium, Sadly, this won’t be the case at the Romford Cineworld. Given the brouhaha around its…15 min
Empire|October 2024RIDE OR DIEImagine, for a moment, that it’s 2003, and you’re an assistant director on a new Michael Mann movie. Exciting, right? After all, Mann is one of the best in the business; the guy who directed Heat and The Insider, and who just got an Oscar-nominated performance out of Will Smith in Ali. And, after that movie, in which not a single person commits a major felony, this new one sees Mann back in the crime game, directing Tom Cruise as Vincent, an assassin who forces cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) to ferry him from hit to hit across one blood-soaked LA night. You’ve heard rumours about the stuff Cruise is doing in preparation for his part, but you put them to the back of your mind. Not your concern at…12 min
Empire|October 2024Monty Python’s Life Of BrianTHE ORIGIN The story of the shot might actually be, for once, the story of a song. Monty Python’s Life Of Brian, the legendary comedy troupe’s third film (if you count And Now For Something Completely Different), ends on the most uplifting downer you’ll ever see/hear. Having been mistaken for a Messiah throughout much of the movie, the hapless Brian Cohen (Graham Chapman) has been captured by the Romans and condemned to death by crucifixion. Up there on the cross, in the depths of despair, he hears a chirpy co*ckney voice behind him. “Cheer up, Brian,” says Mr Cheeky (Eric Idle), “you know what they say…” before he launches into the song that has become Idle’s signature: the breezily infectious ‘Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life’. The movie…3 min
Empire|October 2024TALES FROM THE KIM’S CRYPTTHIS MONTH MOVIE WISDOM 2.0 HEY THERE, NOSTALGICS… Empire used to run a feature called ‘Movie Wisdom’ which set out the unwritten rules of the cinema. Since that was discontinued, many more rules have become conventional, so here’s an update. A savvy big-city family who buy a house in the backwoods never check to see if any gruesome unsolved murders have occurred on the property. A woman in the Middle Ages can act like a feisty Beverly Hills high-school girl without being locked up in a nunnery for the rest of her life — and they all have great teeth, except in Terry Gilliam films. Action heroes always fight lesser minions before proceeding to inner-circle henchmen and the head baddie. It is considered rude to finish off the main villain…2 min
Empire|October 2024The Ranking The Mad Max SagaChris: So, Mad Max. It’s just five movies, but I can’t think of too many franchises like this that have reached a minimum of five films with their creator, George Miller, still in control, and full of energy and ideas. Christina: You see “from visionary director” on every movie trailer now. But with George Miller, at the risk of sounding hyperbolic, his imagination is incredible. Ian: As a franchise, it’s ridiculously influential. Chris: Let’s go film by film, and start with Mad Max. Mel Gibson is a divisive figure now, but it’s hard to avoid talking about him, especially with the first three films. Ian: I was surprised by how little he’s in the first film. Max isn’t in the last film, Furiosa. Mad Max isn’t central to this franchise.…7 min
Empire|October 2024The Ultimate Empire QuizTHIS MONTH QUENTIN TARANTINO 1 What was the name of the Manhattan Beach video store Tarantino worked in (alongside Roger Avary) before he became famous? 2 Before Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino started making what would have been his debut film (but it was never completed). What was it called? 3 Back in his acting days, Tarantino played an Elvis impersonator on which classic US sitcom? 4 How many Oscars has Tarantino won (and for what)? 5 What connects the following characters? ‘Jimmie’, ‘Chester’, ‘First Scalped Nazi’, ‘The LeQuint Dickey Mining Co. Employee’. 6 What is the exact wording of Reservoir Dogs’ first line? 7 In Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood, Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) points at the TV because he sees himself in which (real) TV show? 8 Tarantino, as…5 min
Empire|October 2024COMMENTLETTER OF THE MONTH A CROSS WORD I love doing your crosswords. A great way to relax in the bath. But this time [Crossword, issue #431] you have made things a little more difficult… by having no clue for one part of the crossword. NINETEEN DOWN? Doesn’t seem to exist. Must try harder! Consequently I can’t seem to figure out the name anagram because of this. RICHARD MAY, VIA EMAIL Apologies to all readers who were understandably baffled at the lack of a clue for 19 Down in last month’s crossword — taking “cryptic” to a whole new level. For those on tenterhooks, the missing clue is “Surname of Alice and Apollo (5)”, and the answer can be found on page 113. Empire’s star letter wins a Picturehouse Membership, valid…3 min
Empire|October 2024The battle to restore etiquette to the cinemaDURING A RECENT showing of Inside Out 2 at the Genesis Cinema in East London, emotions weren’t just running rampant on the screen. While teenager Riley navigated Anger, Joy and Anxiety in the Pixar sequel, duty manager Enrico Lo Coco was dealing with two pre-teens who were vaping in the audience. “I went to them being like, ‘I’m really sorry, I need to ask you to leave, because vaping is strictly forbidden within the premises,’” he tells Empire. Anger was clearly manning the shift when it came to one of the accused. “[They] started challenging me: ‘I’m not going now, bro. I’m not gonna do that, I can vape.’” Lo Coco summoned the venue’s security guard, and after some screaming and shouting from the offended party, they were made to…3 min
Empire|October 2024HOW TO MAKE A #METOO SHOCKERENLIST YOUR GIRLFRIENDS Co-written with Céline Sciamma, who directed Merlant in Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, The Balconettes follows three best friends hanging out in their Marseille apartment block during a blistering heatwave. The idea came to Merlant — who directs and stars in the film — while staying with girlfriends some five years ago. “We started to talk about our desires or traumas in a particular way, with a lot of humour in it,” Merlant says. It was during this time that they noticed a man in a window across the courtyard, watching them intently. This became the inspiration for her villain: a sexual predator who gets his grisly comeuppance. DEPLOY DIRTY GAGS “I wanted a utopian world where women were starting to defend themselves,” Merlant says of…2 min
Empire|October 2024Marvel gets Doom scrollingChris Hewitt (Executive Editor): So, Robert Downey Jr is back in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this time not as Tony Stark but as Doctor Doom. I was intrigued when I heard the news because I don’t know what the hell they’re going to do. I don’t know how they’re going to pull this off. And I’m excited by that. I’m also terrified because it can f*ck things up in a million different ways. But the Russos haven’t put a foot wrong in the MCU so far, so in them we trust. Alex Godfrey (Features Editor): I asked the other day if there was a narrative, comic-book reason for casting him. And everyone said, “No!” But I saw there was some interchangeability between Doctor Doom and Tony Stark, or one’s mind…7 min
Empire|October 2024The heat was onTHE WINNERS GLEN POWELL If Powell hadn’t already charmed you in Hit Man earlier this year, his full-blown commitment to playing the “science cowboy” co-lead in Twisters surely did the trick. Trotting the globe with pocket-sized dog Brisket (plus Daisy Edgar-Jones) for the film’s exhaustive press tour, the Texan actor cemented his star status and even earned an in-person endorsem*nt from his Top Gun: Maverick mentor Tom Cruise, who made a surprise appearance at the film’s London premiere. LONGLEGS’ MARKETING CAMPAIGN This Nicolas Cage-as-a-supernatural-serial-killer indie has raked in an impressive $90 million worldwide on its $10 million budget, thanks in part to Neon’s inventive marketing campaign. From an online video that played Maika Monroe’s rapid heart-rate when she first sees Cage’s villain to offering free tickets to those born on…3 min
Empire|October 2024THE FELINE FILM FESTIVAL THAT WON’T QUITTHE SUMMER ALWAYS brings with it an explosive time at the cinema. Blockbusters hit the big screen, promising star power and action aplenty. Yet since 2012, a rival movie event has been drawing in a rapidly growing crowd, packing out over 100 cinemas across the US and Canada. That event is CatVideoFest. “One of our biggest shows every year is at Music Box Theatre in Chicago; it’s this huge and historic theatre,” festival director Will Braden tells Empire, his own cat Nin dozing behind him. “And last year they were showing Oppenheimer and CatVideoFest back and forth and they were all sold out.” Braden became involved in this feline phenomenon when he won a ‘Golden Kitty’ for a short film he entered into the 2012 festival, its inaugural year. That…2 min
Empire|October 2024THE QUEEN OF THE GALAXY RETURNSTHE COMIC 1962 French cartoonist Jean-Claude Forest was tasked by his publisher with creating a ‘female Tarzan’ character. Cheerfully ignoring this brief, Forest conjured ‘Barbarella’ instead — a Barbie-meets-Buck-Rogers adult comic in which an impossibly voluptuous heroine travels the galaxy, bedding aliens and experimenting with ‘org*smatron’ machines. Even the French thought it was a bit much, and by 1964 the books were banned. THE MOVIE 1968 Director Roger Vadim signed on to bring Barbarella to the screen with his wife, Jane Fonda, playing the lead. The film, Barbarella: Queen Of The Galaxy, was an outrageous romp featuring phallic rayguns, naked angels and a space piano that induces fatal sexual pleasure. Scoffed at by critics, the movie has become a cult favourite, influencing everything from Austin Powers to The Fifth Element.…2 min
Empire|October 2024reviews29 AUGUST – 25 SEPTEMBER 2024 EXCELLENT STRONG GOOD WEAK YIKES WATCH FIRST Coralie Fargeat has cited the films of David Cronenberg as a major inspiration in particular, The Fly (1986) and Crash (1996) FILM THE SUBSTANCE BEAUTY GETS BEASTLY IN THIS BODY HORROR OUT 20 SEPTEMBER / CERT 18 / 141 MINS DIRECTOR Coralie Fargeat CAST Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Hugo Diego Garcia, Phillip Schurer PLOT An ageing star (Moore) decides to try an experimental drug which creates a younger version of herself (Qualley) — with unbelievably gruesome consequences. WRITER AND DIRECTOR Coralie Fargeat’s viscera-splattered follow-up to 2017’s Revenge is about as subtle as a bludgeon to the head, or, indeed, a needle to the thigh. Thankfully, it’s also much more perversely enjoyable than either of those…4 min
Empire|October 2024STARVE ACREOUT 6 SEPTEMBER / CERT 15 / 98 MINS DIRECTOR Daniel Kokotajlo CAST Matt Smith, Morfydd Clark, Erin Richards, Robert Emms, Arthur Shaw PLOT A couple move to rural Yorkshire for their asthmatic son — but a family tragedy pushes the pair to embrace the supernatural. DIRECTOR DANIEL KOKOTAJLO follows up his 2017 debut Apostasy with a radical shift that no-one could have predicted. Adapted from the Andrew Michael Hurley titular novel, Starve Acre trades the religious fervour of Apostasy for the folkloric kind, though the stark intimacy of Kokotajlo’s restrained filmmaking remains, with mostly solid results. The film is disorienting from the outset, rupturing an idyllic day out for archeologist Richard (Matt Smith) and his wife Juliette (Morfydd Clark). The couple are picture perfect: lounging against a tree, his…2 min
Empire|October 2024BLINK TWICEOUT NOW / CERT 15 / 103 MINS DIRECTORZoë Kravitz CAST Naomi Ackie, Adria Arjona, Channing Tatum, Alia Shawkat, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis PLOT When two friends meet a charming-but-cancelled tech billionaire, they accept his invitation to take a trip to his private island. AFTER STRIKING RECENT performances in the High Fidelity series, Steven Soderbergh’s Kimi and as Selina Kyle in The Batman, Zoë Kravitz steps behind the camera with Blink Twice: an unsettling tale of coercion, violence and ‘cancel culture’. Originally titled ‘puss* Island’ — which we should all mourn, greatly — Blink Twice sees nail artist Frida (Naomi Ackie) and best pal Jess (Alia Shawkat) strike up an unlikely connection with wealthy tech mogul Slater King (Channing Tatum) after crashing a fancy gala.…4 min
Empire|October 2024BAD MONKEYOUT NOW (APPLE TV+) / EPISODES VIEWED 10 OF 10 SHOWRUNNER Bill Lawrence CAST Vince Vaughn, Michelle Monaghan, Jodie Turner-Smith, Meredith Hagner, Rob Delaney, Natalie Martinez PLOT Former Miami detective-turned-food inspector Andrew Yancy (Vaughn) spots a chance to get his old job back with a new case involving a mysteriously severed arm. WHAT’S SUMMER WITHOUT a breezy, paradise-set murder-mystery? Enter Bad Monkey, an adaptation of Carl Hiaasen’s bestselling cult novel and the latest effort from Ted Lasso and Shrinking creator Bill Lawrence. With a similarly quirky blend of eccentrics as those shows, this ten-episode dark comedy joins the swelling roster of murder-mystery shows on Apple TV+ (see also: The After Party, BadSisters, and most recently, Presumed Innocent). Channelling the likes of Dexter and Death In Paradise, this is a solidly…2 min
Empire|October 2024SLOW HORSES: SEASON 4OUT 4 SEPTEMBER (APPLE TV+) / EPISODES VIEWED 6 OF 6 SHOWRUNNER Will Smith CAST Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, Hugo Weaving, Jonathan Pryce, Kristin Scott Thomas PLOT A bomb goes off in a packed shopping centre, causing destruction in the heart of London, but MI5’s reject squad is on the case. AFTER 2022 SAW Slow Horses drop not only two complete seasons, but enough protagonist bodies to pack out a Ford Cortina, the third outing successfully lulled us into a false sense of security. Save for a kidnapping, some light torture, and a near-miss with a double-decker bus, Season 3 left our heroes largely undented. Strap in for round four, however, as showrunner Will Smith (Veep) and author Mick Herron (whose fourth book, Spook Street, is adapted here) are back…3 min
Empire|October 2024The SchemerYou had a long working relationship with Tony Scott, but this is only your second film with Ridley. Did you know Ridley well because of your closeness with his brother? I didn’t know him at all really. I mean, I knew his brother — I didn’t really know him. Just professionally. We had a great go-round the first go-round [on American Gangster], and here we are. How do their modes of working differ? Could you tell they were related? I was too busy working on my character to be thinking about them. I can’t say, “Oh, this one does that.” I don’t compare directors. You see the different personalities. I suppose they do [have similarities]. By the time they get to me, they’ve done all the work. On the days…3 min
Empire|October 2024UNDER DEVELOPMENTA.I. 1973-2001 (28 years) Stanley Kubrick worked on this sci-fi opus from the 1970s through to his death in 1999. At one point he’d asked Steven Spielberg to direct it, and when Kubrick passed away, Spielberg finished the job. GANGS OF NEW YORK 1970-2002 (32 years) Martin Scorsese read Herbert Asbury’s 1928 non-fiction book in 1970 and wanted to make it then. Due to the scale and cost of the production, though, it took him three decades to get the cameras rolling. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD 1987-2015 (28 years) George Miller first talked about a Max-centric chase movie in 1987. After years of prep, it officially went into pre-production in the early 2000s, but various disasters hobbled it. In 2015, he finally triumphed. THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE 1989-2018…1 min
Empire|October 2024JOE MARTINTHE RED DRESS JOE MARTIN HAD gone wild. Apesh*t, you might say. Lips curled back into an angry grimace, with a defensive hunch and a stony expression, the great animal star of the early silver screen was having a temper tantrum that would make Joan Crawford look like a pushover. The ape was on the roof of a building on the Universal lot, surrounded by onlookers, among them his befuddled, usually authoritative trainer, Al ‘Curley’ Stecker. The orangutan-actor of silent comedy had become a household name in the 1910s, but he was in no mood for monkey business on that day in late July of 1919, having escaped his enclosure at the renowned Universal City Zoo. In his so-called three-day rampage, Joe reportedly ripped his cage door off its hinges…12 min
Empire|October 2024GRYPT KEEPERSTHE COFFEE TABLE (DIGITAL) Even a trigger warning for Caye Casas’ 2022 movie would trigger many people. In this compelling one-bad-day tale, new dad David Pareja’s decision to buy an ugly coffee table against his wife Estafania de los Santos’ wishes has dire consequences. Arguably the blackest black comedy ever made. ENTER THE CLONES OF BRUCE (BLU-RAY, DIGITAL) A fascinating documentary about those who tried to fill the gap left by the untimely death of Bruce Lee. Meet Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Bruce Lo, Bruce Liang, Dragon Lee and Bruce Thai. ‘Brucesploitation’ began with biographical quickies and escalated to fantastical nonsense. FOUNDERS DAY (DIGITAL) Writer-director Erik Bloomquist follows She Came From The Woods with a Scream-type slasher set during a small-town mayoral election. A masked killer dressed as a judge…1 min
Empire|October 2024Marathon ManIS IT SAFE? No, Marathon Man is not safe. At every twist, at every turn, with every gruelling bit of violence — a garrotte slicing through a defensive hand, the unforgiving medieval dentistry, a neck slashed in broad daylight — for every bit of betrayal and back-stabbing, for the double-crossing rug-pulls… no, it’s not safe. The sense of danger ratchets up exponentially until everyone — everyone — is tortured or killed. It’s a sweaty film, a thriller that often feels like a horror, dripping in dread and distrust. It’s not safe. Not a bit. People have amorphous allegiances in Marathon Man. Adapted by William Goldman from his own novel, it picks at McCarthyism and Nazism, ending up with a portrait of a morally murky America on the take, seemingly turning…5 min
Empire|October 2024THE ELECTRIC CHAIRFemale TroubleRose Glass: “I’m going to the end of Female Trouble. I really wanted to have a poster of it on Lou’s [in Love Lies Bleeding] apartment wall, but we couldn’t clear the poster, for some reason. It’s a chronicle of Dawn Davenport, played by Divine, and it culminates in her getting the electric chair at the end of the film and she gives this amazing speech. There’s some sort of sensibility in there which inspired Love Lies Bleeding a little bit.” INT. CELL — DAY Dawn (Divine) is in her cell, awaiting her moment in the electric chair. A cellmate, Cheryll (Marina Melin) is with her. A bailiff (Christine Mason) comes in. BAILIFF #1: Get back to your cell, Cheryll. The show’s over for Dawn Davenport! CHERYLL:(hugging Dawn) Goodbye, Dawn!…3 min
