The Empire Film Podcast

This week's episode of the award-winning-but-mostly-award-losing Empire Podcast could easily have been retitled Giggling Idiots Go! To The Movies, as Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, James Dyer and our Editor-In-Chief Terri White (or is it Terri White?) convene in the podbooth for an hour of utter nonsense. There will be discussion of the week's big movie news. There will be reviews of Ant-Man And The Wasp, The Escape, and Teen Titans Go! To The Movies. There will even be an attempt to answer a listener's question. But there will also be daft impressions, much giggling, and Chris gets his innuendo-o-meter out and tries to get to grips with it. Elsewhere, due to an unfortunate last-minute guest cancellation, we decided instead to bring you an early preview of next week's second part of our epic Mission: Impossible - Fallout spoiler special with director Christopher McQuarrie. This one's just a mere 15 minutes. Next week will be... longer than that. Enjoy!

Mission: Impossible - Fallout's Vanessa Kirby swings by the podbooth this week in an interview only five hours and fifty eight minutes shorter than Chris' upcoming spoiler special chat with director Christopher McQuarrie. Elsewhere, Chris, James, Helen and Nick tackle the third act firing of Chekhov's (James) Gunn, delve into the bountiful delights of this year's Comic-Con and take a terrifying step into the world of Frasier fan fiction. Enter at your own risk.

Two more guests check into Hotel Empire Podcast this week. Let's hope they don't do that thing people do on Four In A Bed, where they run their finger along the wardrobe to check for dust. No telling what people might find in the darkest corners of the podbooth... First up is Jeremy Irvine, who talks to Ben Travis about playing (and singing as) a young Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. That starts at 23:56 and finishes at 46:16. Then Drew Pearce, co-writer of Iron Man 3 and creator of Trevor Slattery, pops in to talk about his directorial debut, the all-star thriller, Hotel Artemis. It's an epic chat with Chris Hewitt that starts at 1:01:51 and runs all the way to 1:41:07. Either side of that, Chris is joined in the booth by Helen O'Hara and James Dyer to ramble on about the week's news, review Hotel Artemis and Mamma Mia! 2, and answer a question from BB-8 himself, Brian Herring. Enjoy!

We're flying high on the Empire Podcast this week, as Incredibles 2 director, and all-round animation legend, Brad Bird pops in to the podbooth to talk to Jonny Pile and Chris Hewitt. They discuss returning to animation, working with Tom Cruise on Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, and more besides. It starts at 22:48 and finishes at 47:33. Then Ethan Hawke, one of our favourite recurring guests, pops in to talk faith, his new movie First Reformed, and working inside and outside the Hollywood system. He's chatting to Ben Travis, and that runs from 01:11:31 to 01:34:16. Back in the podbooth, Chris is then joined by Helen O'Hara and James Dyer for the usual rambling dissection of the week's movie news (Joker alert!), plus reviews of both Bird and Hawke's films. They also discuss James' recent conversion to football, talk about the most beautiful places that they've seen films, and reveal the terrifying creation that is... RoboPod. Part human. Part podcast host. All cretin.

On this week's podcast, Margaery Tyrell herself Natalie Dormer joins John Nugent in the pod booth to talk about her new neo-noir thriller In Darkness. Plus, Rob Brydon treats Ian Freer to a personal rendtion of his best impressions, and explains the rules of synchronised swimming from his new comedy Swimming With Men. Elsewhere in podland, with Chris Hewitt back in The Old Country, James Dyer takes the reins with his usual levels of gentle understatement and sunny optimism, ably flanked by the ever-cunning Helen O'Hara and Nick De Semlyen.

On this week's Empire Podcast, Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin make it to dry land to chat with John Nugent about their real-life disaster movie Adrift. Plus, multi-hyphenates Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson speak to James Dyer about the cult low-budget horror The Endless, which you'll be pleased to know, despite that title, has a running time of just 111 minutes. And back in the pod booth, a heavily jet-lagged Chris Hewitt doggedly bangily-bangs his way through the week's movie news and reviews with help from Ben Travis and Nick De Semlyen.

He's battled Bond. Collected Infinity Stones. Stood in a line-up with the Usual Suspects. And now Benicio Del Toro, Oscar-winning legend and star of Sicario 2: Soldado, is gracing this week's Empire Podcast. He talks to Ian Freer about returning to play the hitman, Alejandro, his Bond and Star Wars experiences, and more. Then, in the podbooth, a dearth of colleagues of such lethal cunning means it's a two-person pod this week, with Helen O'Hara hosting James Dyer as they talk about that proposed 'fan' remake of The Last Jedi, kick around the week's movie news, and review Freak Show and In The Fade. So, sit back, relax and enjoy this belated podcast (we delayed it because the Benicio Del Toro interview didn't happen until this Saturday afternoon), which may be the first one in our history to feature someone in Los Angeles linking to themselves in London. All will be revealed...

There's a rumour going around that this episode of The Ranking is so late because Chris Hewitt forgot about it. That's an evil and pernicious rumour that we don't wish to dignify with acknowledgement. Anyway, here it is at long last: four Empire writers, locked away in a meeting room in Empire HQ (hence the echo), talking through the filmography of the great Sir Ridley Scott, with one goal: come up with a definitive top ten. So, join Chris, Nick de Semlyen, Dan Jolin, and James Dyer as they argue the toss about Alien, deploy controversial theories vis a vis Kingdom Of Heaven and Gladiator, talk about going clubbing with Russell Crowe, and much, much more, including the world's worst - and, let's face it, possibly only - impression of the man we love to call Ridders. Don't think of this as a late episode. Think of it as a director's cut, and a director's cut arrives precisely when it means to.

He was the first person to betray Indiana Jones. He had the power of the sun in the palm of his hand. And he holds the record for having the most Lego mini-figs made in his image. He is, of course, the great Alfred Molina, and he's our guest this week, popping into the podbooth to chat with Chris Hewitt about Raiders, about Sam Raimi, and about Molina's new play, a revival of John Logan's Red. It starts at 49:36 and ends at 1:23:22, fact fans. Then, Chris heads into the podbooth proper and is joined by Nick de Semlyen and Jonny Pile for an even-more-rambling-than-usual discussion that takes in the worst movie dinosaurs, a brief cameo from a geek queen, an exploding banana, reviews of Hereditary and Ocean's 8, a shameless plug for the new issue of Empire, a live watch-along of the trailer for Corin Hardy's The Nun, and an episode of R U Talkin' R U Talkin' R U Talkin' R.E.M. Re: Me Re: Me Re: Me? Good ep? Great ep.

How could you not love the man who is Gollum, Supreme Leader Snoke, Caesar, Ulysses Klaue, and an all-round great big bloody brilliant bloke? So we're delighted that Andy Serkis is our guest this week, talking to Chris Hewitt about Black Panther (out on DVD and Blu-ray next week) about that film, and more besides. It's a bit spoilerific, so don't watch unless you know that [REDACTED] [REDACTED] in [REALLY REDACTED]. Interview begins at 56:03, ends at 1:17:37. Elsewhere, Chris ventures into the podbooth with Helen O'Hara and Jonny Pile for a fun episode that takes in their views of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, runs the roost over the 292 trailers that debuted last week, and takes on a serious hue for this week's listener question, tackling the harassment which appears to have driven Kelly Marie Tran away from social media. Oh, and all that, plus the debut of a brand-new podcast, R U Talkin' R U Talkin' R.E.M. Re: Me Re: Me? We spoil you lot.