The Empire Film Podcast

We've gone bonus content mad on the Empire Podcast this week! Every day this week, we'll bring you a brand new pod, culminating in Friday's mothership. And we kick things off with this very fun, and compact, commute-sized conversation with two of the key figures behind last year's biggest movie - Star Wars: The Last Jedi. And, just in case you weren't already sure, those figures are Rian Johnson,...

On this week's Empire Podcast, we're filled with joy as Anya Taylor-Joy pops by our offices to talk to Chris Hewitt about her new film Thoroughbreds, dealing with tricksy accents, the much-delayed The New Mutants, and the moment when she found out that Split was a stealth sequel to Unbreakable. It's a fun, and lengthy, chat that starts at 27.44 and runs all the way to 55.56. Elsewhere, Chris deriv...

Paddy Considine was our very first guest on our very first podcast, way back in 2012. Since then, we've been like ships in the night. But we fix that this week, with Paddy popping into the podbooth for an epic chat with Chris Hewitt about his new movie, Journeyman, and all manner of things. (50:46-1:17:54) Elsewhere, Chris talks to Blockers star Leslie Mann (17.06-32.49), teaches her about Pacific...

This week's Empire Podcast sees the man anointed as Empire's Legend Of Our Lifetime... talk to Steven Spielberg. Here all week. Try the fish. Yes, at long last we spiel with The Berg, as Steven Spielberg - former Empire editor, and director of one or two classic movies - chats to Chris Hewitt in the immediate aftermath of last Sunday's Rakuten TV Empire Awards, where Spielberg was given the above...

Because (some of) you demanded it! Today saw the debut of the second (and probably final) trailer for Avengers: Infinity War, the superhero team-up to out-cape them all. And, as it hit the internet just too late for us to bang on about it on the regular podcast, we decided to seize the opportunity to bang on about it in a very special trailer breakdown podcast. This one follows hot on the heels of...

This week's Empire Podcast is a bumper affair, jam-packed with more big names than the Avengers: Infinity War trailer. Well, almost. First up, Call Me By Your Name stars Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet - or Timothy Chalet, as autocorrect insists on calling him - popped into a London hotel room at the end of January to talk about their Oscar-winning love story with Chris Hewitt. And while they d...

The second episode of The Ranking, our new ongoing cross-platform series (hashtag brandsynergy hashtag sharedgoals hashtag TeamEmpire), sees four Empire writers lock themselves in an increasingly stuffy meeting room to argue the toss over one of the greatest film directors of all time: Martin Scorsese. It's all here: talkin' Taxi Driver, raging about Raging Bull, and finding there's not a lot to s...

This week's episode of the Empire Podcast was, unlike our Oscars 2018 podcast special, recorded on a full night's sleep, but is no less delirious. So apologies in advance, as Chris Hewitt, Nick de Semlyen and James Dyer decide who their Desert Island Director would be, discuss the week's movie news, and review You Were Never Really Here, Gringo, and Mom And Dad. Plus, they debut the catchiest song...

The Oscars are over for another year. Yes, the 90th edition of the Academy Awards took place last night in the glamorous heart of Hollywood and so Empire responded in kind, by recording a sleep-deprived, seriously sweary podcast, detailing our verdict on the ceremony itself, and the winners and not-winners. No glamorous heart of Hollywood for us. This was recorded round the kitchen table of our ve...

This week's Empire Podcast sees a filmmaking Lawrence, famous for an association with The Hunger Games franchise, drop by for a chat about their new movie, Russian spy thriller Red Sparrow. Yes, it's director Francis Lawrence, who chats to Ben Travis about all manner of things, from Russian accents to torture implements. What, did you think we meant another filmmaking Lawrence, famous for an assoc...

The Ranking is a new monthly edition of the Empire Podcast that ties in with a regular feature in the magazine. The concept is simple: every month, we pick a director/writer/actor, or a franchise, and four Empire writers lock themselves in a room and argue the toss, with the aim of emerging with the definitive Top 10. This edition sees Chris Hewitt, Nick de Semlyen, James Dyer, and Simon Crook (ma...

For the past few years, Lennie James has been battling zombies as Morgan on The Walking Dead. He's about to jump ship to the spin-off show, Fear The Walking Dead, but somehow he's found the time to create, write, produce and star in new 6-part Sky TV series, Save Me, about a Londoner who, after finding himself accused of his daughter's abduction, vows to track down the real culprit. And we were de...

You might not believe it, largely because we know we don't look a day over 290, but the Empire Podcast turned 300 this week. Yes, we've somehow clocked up 300 episodes of movie news, interviews and nonsense since we started way back in 2012 and to 'celebrate', we took to the stage at Kings Place, London, for a cracking evening. And 400 of you came along as well, which was nice, considering that it...

This week's Empire Podcast is an unexpectedly classy joint, as Chris Hewitt talks to British acting royalty, the Oscar-winning double whammy of Sir Colin Of Firth and Dame Rachel Of Weisz, about their new movie, The Mercy, which tells the tragic story of Donald Crowhurst's ill-fated attempt to sail the world solo in 1969. And they also talk about their acting nightmares - literally and metaphorica...

Daniel Day-Lewis may be retiring, set fair for a life of Countdown and Four In A Bed marathons, but his Phantom Thread director, the great Paul Thomas Anderson, is decidedly not. Much to our delight, as he's this week's guest, having a chat with John Nugent about the film's soundtrack, how Day-Lewis came up with the name 'Reynolds Woodcock', and much, much more. Back in the podbooth, we go from Ph...

This week's Empire Podcast sees Lee Unkrich, Pixar legend, World's Biggest The Shining Fan, and all-round decent cove, drop by the podbooth to talk to John Nugent about his new movie, Coco, which will do unspeakable things to your tear ducts. Elsewhere, John joins Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, and James Dyer for a freewheeling episode that includes Chris' first-hand account of what it was like to be...

This week's Empire Podcast sees us welcome two of our favourite directors into our podcompany. First up, Joe Wright — hands down one of our favourite English directors called Wright, and maybe even in the top two — talks to Nick de Semlyen about his latest movie, Darkest Hour, which sees Gary Oldman give a barnstorming performance as Winston Churchill, and the career that might have been, as an il...

The first Empire Podcast of 2018 — Happy New Year, you lot! — boldly goes where no podcast has gone before, as Chris Hewitt discovers Star Trek Discovery with two of its hilarious, eloquent leads, Jason Isaacs and Sonequa Martin-Green. We're going to launch a new catchphrase, right here, right now: Hello to Sonequa Martin-Green! Take that, Kermode! Elsewhere, Chris chats to Andrea Riseborough abou...

2017, eh? What a palaver. But it's been a belter of a year cinematically speaking, and so — in a change from our regular podcast programming — the Empire Podcast team (Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, James Dyer, and Nick de Semlyen) locked themselves in the podbooth for ages and chewed the fat over the year that's just about to leave us. It's a show of two halves, with the first part dedicated to answ...

Ho-ho-Hugh! We're pretty much finished for Christmas, but before we gorge on mince pies and Die Hard, we decided to pop an pod-treat in your Christmas pod-stocking: a 20-minute chat with the Australian triple-threat and friend-of-the-pod Hugh Jackman. He talks to us about making The Greatest Showman and saying goodbye to Logan.

On the last Empire Podcast of 2017, the podcast team — Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara and James Dyer — are rambling even more than usual as they discuss the Disney takeover of Fox, answer your Christmas movie questions, review Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and have a big old barney over Aaron Sorkin. To paraphrase a great man we used to know in San Diego back in the '70s, that escalated quickly. And we se...

This week's Empire Podcast is really going all in on all things Franco. James and Dave, the brothers who star in (and, in James' case, directs) The Disaster Artist, the story behind the making of legendarily awful movie The Room, drop by for a chat about that with John Nugent. Then James Dyer talks to WWE legend-turned-actor, John Cena, about being strong like cartoon bull in new animated movie Fe...

This week's slightly-shorter-than-usual Empire Podcast sees the return of one of our favourite podguests, as Dan Stevens, our once and future spirit animal, pops back in to talk Dickens with Helen O'Hara. Not randomly, you see — he's playing Charles Dickens in The Man Who Invented Christmas. Elsewhere, with Helen swanning around in Malta, it's double trouble in the podbooth as Chris Hewitt and Jam...

Unless you've been hiding out in the middle of Knowhere, you'll have noticed a little teaser trailer dropped today, for an equally little film called Avengers: Infinity War. Filled with plenty of images designed to fuel discussion and speculation — just how does The Vision do that? Where does Steve Rogers get his beard oil? Why didn't Spider-Man have spider-sense in his solo movie? — it prompted u...

On this week's Empire Podcast, Lee Child — the man behind all 22 Jack Reacher books — drops by for another appearance, and once again drops a hot scoop: the name of the 23rd Reacher book. Thanks, Lee — cheque's in the post. Elsewhere, Red Oaks and Submarine star Craig Roberts challenges Chris Hewitt to a coffee-fuelled Pro Evo-off, while the podcast team — Chris, Helen O'Hara and James Dyer — get...