The Empire Film Podcast

As well as chatting with the comedy hero that is John Cleese, this bumper-sized edition boasts a lot more to look forward to. Get ready to hear the team talk comedy sketches that deserve a chance on the big screen, the further casting announcements from the Expendables 3 camp, Twitter users to follow, Elysium, Kick-Ass 2 - which explains our interview with the director, Jeff Wadlow - not forgettin...

Now busier than central Norwich on market day, Armando Iannucci is the man who brought us On The Hour, The Day Today, The Thick Of It, In The Loop, Time Trumpet, Veep and now Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, but despite his hectic schedule, he still found time to drop by the Empire Podcast booth for a natter about Hitler, sneaking into US government buildings and perfecting the Alan whine. Elsewhere, t...

Mitch Hurwitz is the worryingly funny writer-cum-director-cum-showrunner behind Arrested Development, the cult classic sitcom that enjoyed just two and a half seasons between 2003-2006, only to come back from the dead this year thanks to Netflix and its legions of fans. In this very special Empire Podcast, the comedy genius behind Pop Pop, Franklin The Puppet, the banana stand and much more talks...

Alan Partridge finally arrives on the ruddy bloody big screen next Wednesday, so this week's Empire Podcast features an extensive interview with the man behind the cardigan, Steve Coogan, where he reveals the origins of both Lynn and Michael, as well as what to expect from (the beginning of) the sequel...

The delightful black-and-white Noah Baumbach movie Frances Ha goes head-to-head with James Mangold's summer blockbuster The Wolverine this weekend, and so the two directors duke it for supremacy in his week's Empire Podcast. Mangold does have one clear advantage, though: Hugh Jackman's in his corner. Gulp.

It's been one hell of a Comic-Con this year, with Avengers 2 getting a subtitle, the whole of the X-Men: Days Of Future Past crew turning up and some intriguing idea about Superman teaming up with Batman in a film getting the green light from Warners HQ. There to cover it all was Team Empire, and here is the podcast special to prove it, complete with interviews with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 direct...

The World's End is out this weekend, which probably explains why Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright were kind enough to drop in the podcast booth to talk all about it, on top of pitching a new movie set in Twickenham (in all makes sense in context). Also out this weekend is serial killer thriller The Frozen Ground, which starts John Cusack and Nic Cage, with the latter also stopping by to tal...

There's one hell of a monster mash in this week's Empire Podcast, with Pixar's Monsters University going head to head with Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim. Will Sulley smash a jaeger in its robo-noggin, or shall Mike and co. be left trembling before the mighty power of Del Toro's metal mountain men? Only time will tell. Elsewhere in the podcast, you can expect our usual mix of general film chit c...

If you've ever wanted to hear magic tricks on a podcast - come on, you know you want to - then look no further, as Now You See Me's Isla Fisher and Jesse Eisenberg are more than happy to oblige in this week's Empire Podcast. As well as dove impersonations and expert card shuffling, there's A Field In England's Reece Shearsmith on crashing the Empire Awards, pretending to take magic mushrooms and d...

Two of the nicest guys in show business, Steve Carell and Seth Rogen, dropped into the Empire Podcast studio this week, the former to talk about Despicable Me 2, the latter in honour of his latest, This Is The End. Along the way, Carell enjoys using his Gru voice for no particular reason, and Rogen explains how he battled with Edgar Wright and his team over apocalytic movie titles. Elsewhere, the...

Neil Gaiman is the award-winning author (and graphic novelist) who's brought us The Sandman, American Gods and The Graveyard Book, as well as Stardust and Coraline, which film fans may recognise from the movies they inspired. And as Mr. Gaiman has a new book out - The Ocean At The End Of The Lane - we took the time to speak to him at length about his career, his good pal Hayao Miyazaki and the Gai...

The one and only acting man mountain that is Jason Statham drops by the Empire Podcast studio this week, as does the man who has scared millions to tears after writing the World War Z - the book, not the film - Max Brooks. As if hearing from those two fascinating fellows wasn't enough, there's also our tribute to the late great James Gandolfini, as well as a discussion of the upcoming Fifty Shades...

Joss Whedon is director of the Serenity, Avengers and now... a black and white Shakespeare adaptation that he shot in just 12 days with a group of friends and a very small film crew. In this very special podcast, you can hear him (and the stars of the film, Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker) talk about the project, as well as details on Avengers 2, Quicksilver and, as they say, much, much more...

We don't need to tell you a new Superman movie's out this weekend - after all, the theme's been stuck in your head for months now - but here we go anyway: Man Of Steel is out out out now now now, and we've got an interview with Zod's right-hand woman (Faora, played by Antje Traue) to prove it. We've also got Zack Snyder and David S. Goyer, but that's for next Monday's spoiler special...

Matt Smith will be Doctor Who no longer. Karen Gillan will play a baddie in Guardians Of The Galaxy. The world stands in awe of the astonishing twist in Game Of Thrones. Oh, and Michael Shannon drops by to talk about The Iceman, Man Of Steel and QPR/Chelsea derbies, joining Homeland's Damian Lewis in the interviewee's chair this week. It's all going on in this week's Empire Podcast, and no mistake...

Gillian Anderson has been appearing on our TV screens rather a lot of late, turning up in NBC's Hannibal and another serial killer series, The Fall, over in the UK. In the Empire Podcast studio to talk about both those shows - as well as a little phenomenon some like to call "The X-Files" - Anderson is frank, funny and slightly forgetful as she talks about her pub quiz adventures with Simon Pegg,...

It's a difficult-to-spell interviewee double bill this week, with M. Night Shyamalan and Saoirse Ronan both in the podcast studio, the former to talk After Earth (out next week) and the latter to talk Byzantium (out this week). Elsewhere, the team sound the NEW ISSUE horn and discuss the thorny issue of spoilers.

The Cannes Film Festival is almost over. To celebrate that fact, here's our final Cannes 2013 podcast, which sees a very special guest in the form of newcomer Stevie Wong coming into the Empire fold to talk about the hits (and the misses) of Cannes V.66. Over in London, we review The Hangover Part III, Epic and My Neighbour Totoro, and in the interviews department, Alec Baldwin and James Toback ta...

The Great Gatsby goes head to head with Fast and Furious 6 in this week's special Cannes-based Empire Podcast, with FF6 narrowly overtaking TGG at The Valley Of The Ashes to win three stars to Jay-G's two. Discover more about the world's biggest film festival by listening to one of the world's top five Damos - that's Damo Wise, by the way - talking about it (at length), then be sure to check out C...

In an Empire podcast first, readers posed their Twitter questions, queries and grievances on movie ratings direct to the man who oversees classifications on a daily basis, BBFC executive director David Austin. Why was Gremlins rated 15? Why did What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? go from an 18 to 12? What’s a 12A for, anyway? What happened with A Good Day To Die Hard? We made Austin a cup of tea, sho...

Star Trek Into Darkness is out, so it's time to talk Kirk-y. And who better to do so than the writers and producers of the film, namely Bryan Burk, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof? Also in the interviewee's chair is the director of Mud, Jeff Nichols, who explains how he made a movie where Matthew McConaughey keep his top on. Sort of.

The Blade trilogy, the Dark Knight trilogy, Man Of Steel, Godzilla... what's David S. Goyer going to do next? Well, aside from create a TV show called Da Vinci's Demons, appear on this week's Empire Podcast. Joining him is Looper and Brothers Bloom and Brick's Rian Johnson, who was kind enough to drop by just because he was in the area. Elsewhere, the podcast team talk musical gems in the movies a...

Don Cheadle threatens to vaporise a member of the Empire Podcast team this week, while Steve Coogan does a pitch-perfect Roger Moore impersonation, just because he can. Sample discussion question: who has the best chin in cinema? Sample news story: Zach Braff is on the Kickstarter gravy train. Sample reviews: Iron Man 3, The Look Of Love and Bernie - and in a special teaser insert, a spoiler-free...

The star and director of Evil Dead, Jane Levy and Fede Alvarez, stop by the Empire Podcast studio to talk blood, body parts and chainsaws this week, with only two of us fainting during the process. Elsewhere, La Haine director and Amelie star Mathieu Kassovitz drops in in honour of his latest, Rebellion, and the podcast team talk embarrassing interview questions, yearly Star Wars outings and funer...

When he was a kid, Aaron Eckhart lived in the UK. When he lived in darkest Surrey, he picked up the acting bug, attempted to become a singer/songwriter and played a bit of rugby. Since then, he's gone onto appear in The Dark Knight, Thank You For Smoking and now Olympus Has Fallen, and in this week's Empire Podcast you can find out all about how it happened. Then there's Radagast The Brown himself...