The Empire Film Podcast

This week's Empire Podcast is brought to you even remotely in lockdown than usual (all will be revealed within), as Chris Hewitt convenes over Squadcast with Helen O'Hara and James Dyer for another, we're told, fun-filled episode. As well as talking about Helen's new book, Women Vs Hollywood, and a particular Empire milestone for Chris, our three colleagues of such lethal cunning talk about the we...

We may have missed George C. Wolfe, director of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, when it first hit Netflix just before Christmas, but with the film one of the major awards contenders, we put that right in this week's episode, as Amon Warmann sits down for a chat with him about the movie, its impact, and working with the late Chadwick Boseman. Our second guest this week is the wonderful British actress, J...

Happy birthday to us! It's a landmark episode for the Empire Podcast, folks, as we go 450 up. Due to the pandemic, this episode isn't a live show, as had been originally intended, but that will happen, we promise you. But it's a cracking episode, as Chris Hewitt, James Dyer, and Helen O'Hara take a little trip down memory lane to recall the early days of the pod. Then they also discuss the best st...

The new issue of Empire, curated by Edgar Wright, features a celebration of the type of amazing movie-going moment that can shake an audience to its very foundations. It features contributions from some of the biggest names in the business, and is so special that we decided that we would only do a companion podcast if we could make it just as special. We think we've succeeded. Join your host, Chri...

In case you haven't already bought (and read) this month's issue of Empire magazine, which is a colossal celebration of those incredible movie moments that are best enjoyed with an audience in an actual cinema, Edgar Wright -- who orchestrated the whole shebang -- drops by this episode to tell Chris Hewitt all about it. They talk about Edgar's status as Empire's new unpaid intern, the decision to...

This week's Empire Podcast goes Down Under -- metaphorically speaking, of course -- as Chris Hewitt has fun-filled chats with two wonderful Antipodean actors. First off, there's Isla Fisher, the Australian star of Blithe Spirit, who tells Chris all about her affinity for accents, Hot Rod, and working with Judi Dench, while Chris makes an impromptu purchase. Then Chris has a chat, and a Kurt Russel...

This week's Empire Podcast features two interviews with fast-rising British stars, both of whom play icons in films released this week. First off, Chris Hewitt has a chat with actor-musician Johnny Flynn about his experiences playing David Bowie in Stardust, and later has a natter with Kingsley Ben-Adir about playing Malcolm X in Regina King's sensational directorial debut, One Night In Miami. The...

We're back! Despite popular demand, the Empire Podcast returns, refreshed after its Christmas break, and ready to tackle 2021. Or, at the very least, trip up 2021 when it isn't looking. In the first episode of the year, Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, James Dyer, and Ben Travis discuss what they got up to over the long break, and their favourite film-related Christmas presents. They also play another...

And so, as the worst year in living memory draws to a close, Team Empire gathers together (virtually, at least) to have a good old natter about it from a cinematic point of view. In this bumper-sized example of 2020 vision, Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, Ben Travis, and Terri White answer listener questions about the year that was, talk about their personal highlights (and lowlights) in the face of t...

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 M...

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 Michae...

"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 nig...

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 comi...

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 in...

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...

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 see...

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...

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...

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....

Josh Hartnett was born in America, but now lives in England. Emily Mortimer was born in England, but now lives in America. That's not why we asked them both to guest on this week's Empire Podcast. That's just an incidental fact with which you can amuse your friends and dazzle your enemies. But they do both guest on this week's show, talking to Chris Hewitt about Target Number One, getting a bottle...

As luck, or the devilish machinations of our dark lord Beelzebub, would have it, this week's episode of the Empire Podcast is, if you count all our specials and one-offs, our 666th. It's all for you Damien etc. etc. And, as it lands one day before Halloween, it's a suitably spooky ep, as Chris Hewitt has a chat with fast-rising British actor Sope Dirisu, star of the fabulous Netflix horror movie,...

Is Olivia Cooke a psychopath? What, exactly, does her mum keep on a corkboard in her Manchester home? Where did her Irish accent come from for her new film, Pixie? These burning questions, and more, are explored by the British actor as she guests on this week's episode, having a fun chat with Chris Hewitt about all this, her love for Spielberg's Hook, and much more. It starts at 00:45:08.333, ends...

This week's Empire Podcast brings us all one degree closer to Kevin Bacon, as the star of You Should Have Left zooms in for a remotely-distanced chat with Chris Hewitt in which the pair talk about Bacon's reunion with writer/director David Koepp, those EE commercials he does, Tremors, and more. Then, in the virtual podbooth, Chris is joined by Helen O'Hara, Amon Warmann, and James Dyer for another...

One of the standouts of this year's BFI London Film Festival -- which runs until this Sunday -- was the UK premiere of Soul, the latest slice of dizzying and dazzling Disney/Pixar brilliance from director Pete Docter. In this very special interview episode, Chris Hewitt Zooms into a chat with Docter and his co-writer/director, Kemp Powers, and producer Dana Murray for a wide-ranging chat about the...

With Halloween just around the corner (followed by an unsatisfying reboot, no doubt), the Empire Podcast is turning its attention to scary fillums this week, and they don't come much more scary than Rose Glass' astonishing debut, Saint Maud. Glass, and her star, the wonderful Morfydd Clark, both chat to our Ben Travis in this week's episode. And the not-in-any-way-scary-but-still-great crime comed...