The Empire Film Podcast

With Chris Hewitt away on an actual holiday, this week's Empire Podcast sees Helen O'Hara slide into the host's chair as she, Ben Travis, and Amon Warmann tackle a hat-trick of listener questions, including musing on male damsels in distress, movies-turned-plays, and the ongoing role of Bluey in saving the world. Then the trio tackle movie news, most of which comes out of this week's CinemaCon, in...

It's another jam-packed edition of The Interviews this week, folks. First, Chris Hewitt talks fillums, scary and otherwise, with the wonderful Jack Reynor, star of Lee Cronin's The Mummy. [1:35 - 18:44 approx] Then he has a chaotic, recorded-on-iPhone-because-reasons, chat with Seamus McLean Ross and Samuel Bottomley, the stars of James McAvoy's California Schemin' [20:48 - 37:01 approx]; and fina...

Ok, first things first. Let's get it out of the way. Yes, the Empire Podcast team — Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, James Dyer, and John Nugent — spend a great deal of this week's podcast answering a listener question about great movie quartets. They also spend a great deal of time, in the Movie News section, talking about The Lord Of The Rings: The Hunt For Gollum. And yes, despite all that, they spe...

This week's episode of The Interviews is a one of a kind, as the legendary Richard Kind pops in to the podbooth to tell Chris Hewitt all about his role as Max Bialystock in the West End production of Mel Brooks' The Producers. Also popping into the podbooth this week are Regé-Jean Page and Halle Bailey, the ridiculously charming pair who headline new rom-com You, Me & Tuscany. They tell Chris...

This week's episode of the Empire Podcast is an Easter bonanza, folks, that sees Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, and James Dyer (with new honorific firmly in place, at least for now) discuss the best resurrections in movies, wax lyrical about Richard Kind in The Producers, and cast their learned eyes over a glut of movie trailers, including the new one for Supergirl, and review Fuze, The Drama, The Su...

This week's episode of The Interviews, the spin-off show that rounds up our chats with film folk, is a belter. First, Chris Hewitt chats accents and auditions and more with Theo James, star of The Fuze [1:36 - 17:51 approx], and then Jamie Graham is joined for some trash talk by The Pope Of Trash himself, John Waters, just in time for the launch of a new season at the BFI Southbank called Trash! T...

This week's Empire Podcast sees us clamber into the Magic Faraway Tree to talk with the writer and director, respectively, of the brand new Enid Blyton adaptation, Simon Farnaby and Ben Gregor, who tell Alex Godfrey all about how they branched out. Ahem. Either side of that, Chris Hewitt hosts Helen O'Hara, James Dyer, and Kobi Omenaka to discuss their favourite movie trees and competence porn; ru...

This month's episode of The Shameless Plug sees Chris Hewitt sit down once again with Empire editor Nick de Semlyen for a deep dive into the latest issue of Empire magazine. Our dynamic duo talk about the origins of the first ever cover shoot with Star Wars characters, as we celebrate The Mandalorian & Grogu, plus many more stories about the brand new issue, which is on sale right now in all g...

Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes? Because St. Patrick's Day was earlier this week, and to celebrate the man who drove all the snakes out of Ireland ("you alright in the back there, lads?") this week's Empire Podcast sees Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, James Dyer, and Beth Webb discuss some of their favourite snake moments in films. Or fillums. Then, our intrepid quartet get their parseltongues in...

The Interviews is back, folks, with a cracking hat-trick of cinematic conversations, as Chris Hewitt talks to Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come director duo, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and their star, Samara Weaving, about coming back with a sequel after six years away; Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, directors of Marianne Faithfull docu-drama Broken English, about shining a spotlight on on...

This week's Empire Podcast is the second of the year to fall on a Friday the 13th (November will complete the hat-trick), and so the podteam — Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, James Dyer, and Ben Travis — discuss the life and work of one Jason Voorhees, and head off in a rather unexpected direction. Speaking of unexpected directions, they also pop off to space to discuss their favourite movie astronaut...

This week's Empire Podcast sees Chris Hewitt sit down with The Bride! herself, Jessie Buckley, and her writer/director, Maggie Gyllenhaal, for a lovely chat about their wildly ambitious new movie, The Bride!, which daringly reframes the story of the Bride Of Frankenstein. [22:21 - 40:21 approx] Either side of that, Chris is joined in the podbooth by Helen O'Hara, James Dyer, and Alex Godfrey to ca...

This week's episode of The Interviews brings you another sensational hat-trick of goodies, as Chris Hewitt gets frank, and Frank, with The Bride! star, the wonderful Christian Bale; has an absolute hoot and a holler with Hoppers lead voices, Piper Curda and Bobby Moynihan; and celebrates the shiny disc release of Edgar Wright's The Running Man by bringing you an excerpt from our spoiler special in...

This week's Empire Podcast sees Chris Hewitt sit down in a London hotel room with Amanda Seyfried and Mona Fastvold, star and director respectively of the audacious new musical biopic, The Testament Of Ann Lee. It's a conversation that takes in everything from wearing T-shirts with your face on it to the trick of choreographing incredibly complex dance numbers, and is a ton of fun. That starts aro...

The latest episode of The Shameless Plug — the show in which Chris Hewitt and Empire editor Nick de Semlyen dig into the latest issue of Empire magazine — is here, folks, and it's a cracker. Join Chris and Nick as they talk about the Masters Of The Universe cover story, Chris' encounter with Renny Harlin, and the long pursuit to nab Jon Hamm for Pint Of Milk. We should have just scooped him up in...

Another week, another episode of The Interviews, the new show that compiles our most compelling cinematic conversations. This week, Chris Hewitt has lovely chats with Rose Byrne about her Oscar-nominated turn in If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Neve Campbell on returning as Sidney Prescott for Scream 7, and Corin Hardy about his new horror film, Whistle. The latter is an excerpt from our epic spoiler s...

Want to know the story of how Chris Hewitt almost stepped on Florence Pugh's dress? Well, this isn't the podcast for you, as it features Chris and Helen O'Hara trying to tell that tale, from the press night of Cynthia Erivo's Dracula (sorry, Draclier), only to get sidetracked by a dozen different things and forget to finish it. But if you want to hear Chris, Helen, James Dyer, and John Nugent talk...

The Interviews returns this week, folks, with a bumper-sized edition of chatty goodness. First, Chris talks to David Jonsson and Tom Blyth, the stars of hard-hitting prison drama, Wasteman, about the impact of their movie, and wild auditions. Then, Chris has a right giggle with Asim Chaudhry, who is one of the potential saviours of the world recruited by Sam Rockwell in Gore Verbinski's Good Luck...

Love is very much in the air on the Empire Podcast this week, as Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, James Dyer, and Becky Darke cram themselves into the podbooth and get all misty-eyed over Jason Voorhees, the masked maniac from the Friday The 13th movies, just in time for his birthday. But Valentine's Day also looms large this weekend, so the podteam answer a listener question about the worst choices ma...

This week's Empire Podcast sees Chris Hewitt sit down for a delightfully dotty chat with Send Help stars, Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien, who talk about being directed by Sam Raimi with a paper bag over his head, pretending to know how to play golf, and delivering the greatest line reading of all time. There are no spoilers here, but maybe wait until you've seen Send Help before listening. Eithe...

Another week, another episode of The Interviews, the new show that collects the Empire Podcast's chats with filmmakers into a handy one-stop shop. This week sees Chris Hewitt talk to Kristen Stewart about her directorial debut, The Chronology Of Water, the directors who inspired her to direct, and working with national treasure, Imogen Poots; Zootropolis 2 director Jared Bush about the wild succes...

Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans' golden animated movie, KPop Demon Hunters, is the kind of phenomenon that comes along once in a blue moon, dominating both the Netflix charts since its release last June, and the music charts over the last few months. Now, fresh from success at the Grammys, the Oscars are firmly in its sights. So it's the perfect time for KPop Demon Hunters' writer/director duo, Ma...

This week's episode of the Empire Podcast sees Chris Hewitt sit down with Bradley Cooper and Will Arnett, director, co-writers, and stars of the new dramedy, Is This Thing On?, which takes inspiration from the real-life story of British comedian, John Bishop. It's an in-depth chat that we bring to you in full (although we did cut out a bit where someone poured a glass of water. Sorry to all you wa...

We interview a lot of people for the Empire Podcast, folks, and we've finally decided to collect most of them in one easy-to-find place. So welcome to the second episode of The Interviews. This week, Chris Hewitt catches up with Jason Statham and Ric Roman Waugh, star and director of new action thriller Shelter, and along the way Chris and The Stath realise they've been doing the interview dance t...

The Shameless Plug is never late. Nor is it early. It arrives precisely when it means to, roughly halfway through the on-sale cycle of the latest issue of Empire. To which, after all, this show is dedicated to shamelessly plugging. And once again, the Fellowship of the Plug — Chris Hewitt and Empire editor, Nick de Semlyen — have assembled in the Podmines of Moria for that plugging. You have...