The Empire Film Podcast

Part two of the final Empire Podcast (special episodes notwithstanding) of 2020 sees the podteam of Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara and James Dyer discussing the week's movie news (including an update on at least one of The Hollywood Chrises), and reviewing Wonder Woman 1984, Soul, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and The Midnight Sky. Chris also sits down for a fun, if slightly audio-compromised, chat with Ma Rainey's Black Bottom stars Colman Domingo, Michael Potts, and Glynn Turman, who talk about getting involved in the August Wilson adaptation, their chemistry together, and working with Chadwick Boseman on what would prove to be his final film. We're back on January 8th, folks. Review Of The Year will be up next week in our stead. Have a very happy holidays, everyone!

The final episode of the Empire Podcast in this most accursed of years proved to be so big, folks, that we have split it in twain. In this first part, you will find Chris Hewitt reconnecting with pod fave, David Oyelowo, talking about his new movie, Come Away, and his approach to directing with his upcoming movie, The Water Man. This interview sees one of the two men incessantly impersonate Michael Caine. See if you can guess which. Then, in the podbooth, Chris is joined by Helen O'Hara and James Dyer to tackle a series of Christmas movie-related listener questions, while The Three Fact Structure takes an interesting twist... Enjoy.

"Who ya gonna call?" "INVESTORS!" Yes, folks, the annual tradition that is Disney's investment call, in which shareholders are reassured that Scrooge McDuck hasn't absconded with all of their cash, took place yesterday, and was a four-hour epic in which the company announced more than 50 new projects to be spread across some of their biggest brands. And, because you demanded it, in this Friday night special, Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, James Dyer, and Ben Travis put their heads together and talk about all the new Marvel announcements (Fantastic Four! Ironheart! Christian Bale butchering gods! The Loki trailer!), the Star Wars shenanigans (Ahsoka! Lando! Patty Jenkins' Rogue Squadron!), the Buzz Lightyear prequel, Sister Act 3, and as much as they can possibly cram into just under an hour. If you want to hear more, you won't believe what we've got lined up for the Empire Podcast Investors' Call next Friday. Calls cost £9.99 per second. Please don't seek the permission of the bill payer before you call. Enjoy.

This week's Empire Podcast sees Chris Hewitt sit down (across Zoom) with two directors whose first film came out 30 years ago, and who are back back back in the director's chair with new efforts. First up is Reginald Hudlin, the polymath who, along with his brother Warrington, made House Party, then tried his hand at a number of things, including producing the Oscars and writing Black Panther comics. His new film, Safety, hits Disney+ this week. Then Chris also chats to the legendary producer Frank Marshall, who returns to the director's chair for only the fifth time (Arachnophobia being his first) with the documentary, The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart? In this interview, Chris chats to Frank about his musical background, working on Noises Off!, and his strange Twitter handle, @LeDoctor. Then, in the virtual podbooth, Chris is joined by Helen O'Hara and James Dyer for a fun episode in which they talk about their ideal cinematic Christmas presents, answer a listener question about Christmasified (it's a word, honest) sequels, discuss the week's movie news (NOT including the big Disney news drop, which will get a special all of its own), and review Dreamland, The Prom, Safety, Songbird, and the last of Steve McQueen's epic Small Axe series, Education. Enjoy.

Happy spookies, everyone! To celebrate the cinematic release of Rob Savage's savagely scary Zoom-based horror film Host (one of the best movies of the year, folks!), in this interview special Chris Hewitt jumps onto Zoom and has a natter with Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Caroline Ward, Emma Louise Webb, Radina Drandova, and Edward Linard, aka the cast of the movie. It's a fun-filled chat, full of insight about how they made the movie, their reaction to its immense success and, while this isn't a spoiler special, talk of some of their characters' fates. So, if you're yet to log on to Host, perhaps give it a watch before you give this a listen. For the rest of you... Enjoy.

This week's Empire Podcast is a particularly bumper-sized (more so than usual) edition, largely thanks to the late-breaking news about Warner Bros' decision to release their entire 2021 slate of movies simultaneously to streaming via HBO Max in the US. So Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, Amon Warmann and James Dyer jumped back on and had a fairly involved chat about that. You can hear that in the news section, where they also pay tribute to the late David Prowse and Hugh Keays-Byrne. Elsewhere in the show, our colleagues of such lethal cunning get festive with a very special MCU version of A Christmas Carol, one-up each other in The Three Fact Structure, review Mank, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Alex Wheatle, Falling, County Lines, and more. Oh, and Amon declares that he's going to win an Oscar. Our guests this week are fast-rising British star Harris Dickinson, so chilling in County Lines, who talks to Chris about a career path that will almost certainly see him end up in the director's chair. And, speaking of actors who have turned their hands to directing, Chris has an epic chat with Viggo Mortensen about his moving directorial debut, Falling. What's more, they're joined by the legend who plays Viggo's dad in that movie, the great Lance Henriksen. Enjoy. Perhaps in a couple of batches.

This week's episode of the Empire Podcast sees Chris Hewitt chat it up a storm with David Arquette, star and subject of new documentary, You Cannot Kill David Arquette. The two talk about Arquette's return to the wrestling ring, 20 years after a publicity stunt for a movie saw him somehow end up as a world champion, his reasons for coming back to the Scream franchise as Dewey Riley, and why he seems to have taken the title of his latest movie as a challenge. Either side of that, Chris is joined by Helen O'Hara and James Dyer to talk about great movie phone calls, discuss the week's movie news, and review Uncle Frank, Happiest Season, Possessor, The Christmas Chronicles 2 and the latest of Steve McQueen's Small Axe films, Red, White And Blue. Oh, and somewhere along the way Chris challenges their knowledge of the Police Academy movie titles, and loses his mind. The two may be related. Enjoy.

We love Carl Weathers at Empire Towers. How can we not? Over the course of a career that has spanned almost 50 years, he has played some of the most iconic characters around. Apollo Creed. Dillon from Predator. 'Action' Jackson. Chubbs Peterson. And now Greef Karga in The Mandalorian. And so, in the first of an occasional series, the Empire Podcast team — Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, James Dyer and Rocky superfan Terri White — get together to take a very special, and deeply affectionate, look back at Weathers and his storied career. But that's not all. This series will also delve into the Empire Podcast archives to bring you interviews we've done in the past. So you can hear the interview Chris did with Weathers when he came to our London studio in 2017, which runs from 03:16.412 to 28:43.245. And you can also hear an extended excerpt from the chat the two had just last week about Weathers' work starring in and directing the latest episode of The Mandalorian. That runs from 28:57.301 to 47:11.805. And yes, we hope to have Carl back to discuss Upgrade 2: Unlandable: Holding Pattern With Carl Weathers at a later date. If you don't know what that is, have a listen to the episode. Enjoy.

This week's episode of the Empire Podcast sees us go rogue with M.J. Bassett, the director of new VOD title Rogue, in which Megan Fox does battle with a very angry lion. M.J. chats with Chris Hewitt about making the movie, working with Megan Fox, making her peace with a negative Empire review of her first movie, Death Watch, and coming face to face with a black mamba. Then, in the virtual podbooth, Chris is joined by Helen O'Hara, James Dyer, and Beth Webb for an episode in which they discuss saying painful goodbyes to beloved TV shows, engage in a very animalistic edition of The Three Fact Structure, mull over the greatest haircut and shaving scenes in cinema, discuss the week's movie news including Wonder Woman 1984's new release strategy, and review Steve McQueen's latest Small Axe offering, Lovers Rock, as well as Rogue and Train To Busan Presents: Peninsula. Oh, and Chris mounts a desperate campaign to be verified by Instagram. Enjoy.

This week's Empire Podcast sees one of Chris Hewitt's favourite writers, Lee Child, the man who created Jack Reacher, drop by the virtual podbooth to talk about the 25th Reacher novel, The Sentinel. But he also brings his younger brother, Andrew Grant (now Child), who co-wrote the book, to talk about handing over the reins of Reacher, the Amazon Prime show that's in the works, and much, much more. Then, in the podbooth, Chris is joined by Helen O'Hara, Amon Warmann, and Ben Travis to talk about terrible Irish accents, famous film types with whom the podteam share birthdays, rank the Friday The 13th series in unusual fashion, discuss the week's movie news, and review Steve McQueen's Mangrove, Ron Howard's Hillbilly Elegy, and the Netflix movies Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Story and The Life Ahead. Enjoy.