Radio 1's Screen Time

Ali speaks to friend of the podcast Kim Taylor Foster, who has literally written the book about The Matrix, all about the game-changing film franchise. Also, he has a hilarious interview with Emily Blunt, Dwayne Johnson and Jack Whitehall, who all star in the new Jungle Cruise movie.

The Suicide Squad comes a whole five years after the original Suicide Squad, bringing a couple of veterans along for the ride, and a whole host of newbies too. Here in this particular Screen Time interview special, you'll hear from Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, David Dastmalchian, Joel Kinnaman and our writer/director James Gunn.

M. Night Shyamalan is the writer-director behind the likes of The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Glass, Signs, The Village, Split, The Visit and now the efficiently-named "Old", a horror-thriller that almost defies description. A group of holidaymakers are taken to a mysterious private beach where they soon start to notice that they're aging at an alarming rate: children become teenagers, then young adults, over the matter of hours. Horrifying, right? You bet. Listen here to Ali talking to the man himself about where the idea came from and the practicalities of shooting on a beach in the Dominican Republic for days on end...

Seen Black Widow? Well, boy is this the podcast recorded expressly with you in mind. Ali teams up with friend of the podcast Clarisse Loughrey to talk about the 24th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in spoilerific detail. Seriously, the spoiler siren has been well and truly sounded. So look forward to about an hour's worth of in-depth catsuit-related geekery as the pair discuss Russian accents, plot twists and, um, pigs. Again, you really should see the film and then all that will make a tonne more sense...

Vanessa Kirby is the star of Mission: Impossible - Fallout, Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw, The Crown, the Oscar-nominated Pieces Of A Woman and now The World To Come (out July 23rd), a period drama / romance set in 19th century rural New York state where two women (Kirby and Katherine Waterston) fall for each other in a world full of hardships and obligations. In this interview, Kirby talks about shooting in Transylvania, having Jason Statham's number on her phone and the fine art of acting when you've seriously hurt your ankle. As the saying goes: you suffer for your art, and in this case, it's really really true.

At long last, the follow-up to the 2013 Dreamworks animation The Croods is finally in UK cinemas. Fans of the original hoped for a sequel much sooner, but with a pandemic and studio changes getting in the way, it's been a quite a while indeed. Speaking to its stars - Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone and Kelly Marie Tran - back in November 2020, Ali asks about the fine art of voice acting, pretending to be punched over and over (and over), working with the legend that is Nic Cage and their comfort food movies and TV shows. It turns out The Artist Also Known As Deadpool is also a Great British Bake Off fan. Now you know!

Swooping into Ali Plumb's Film Club, smashing a skylight as he does so, is 1989's Batman: Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Tim Burton and a lot of facial prosthetics, just the way you like it. Comedian and member of double act 'The Pin', one Ben Ashenden, is the man with the Bat-plan this week, stopping by to lovingly take the mick out of the movie that gave us 'Batmania'. And as a special bonus treat, we've also got Zendaya talking about her role as Lola Bunny in Space Jam: A New Legacy - and why not?

As well as a bumper-sized trip to Ali Plumb's Film Club this week - where Starstruck's very own Emma Sidi stops by to talk about her love of 2014's The Lego Movie - we've also got Monsters At Work (and Monsters, Inc., of course) stars John Goodman and Billy Crystal round to talk about their new show, as well as their co-stars Ben Feldman and Mindy Kaling. And that's not forgetting the news section and a reminder of all that's worth watching in the cinemas these days.

Black Widow - at long, long last - is finally here, both in cinemas and on Disney+ Premier Access, which means we've also finally got a 'Becoming... Black Widow' interview to enjoy. So look forward to Scarlett Johansson herself opening up about how she got the role, what the character Natasha Romanoff means to her, mementos she's kept and much more. And as a bonus we've also got her Black Widow co-star O. T. Fagbenle also talking about his role, plus director Cate Shortland to boot! So what are you waiting for? Get busy listening, go on.

Out in cinemas - finally! - this weekend, Freaky is a body-swap horror comedy starring Kathryn Newton and Vince Vaughn and it is a lot of fun - as is this interview, where the two stars talk about their favourite 'kills', flicking back imaginary hair and an-all important secret handshake. Note: just to be extra, extra clear, this is a conversation about a gory horror comedy, so please note... it's got some red on it.