The Empire Film Podcast

Three big hitters are out this weekend: Edge Of Tomorrow, Maleficent and A Million Ways To Die In the West. From the first, we've got director Doug Liman, here to talk about taking over Trafalgar Square and shooting his friend's wedding videos, while from the second, we've got Sam Riley, whose gravelly voice will make your brain rumble. As for the third, well... Seth MacFarlane's a busy man. Outside of the interview department, the team talk about Edgar Wright's Ant-Man anticlimax, Quentin Tarantino getting back on the horse for The Hateful Eight and what to expect from Jurassic World. Then there's your usual dose of movie chat and reviews from the guys who like to occasionally do Sam Riley impressions (but never when he's actually on the podcast).

This week, Empire Podcast veteran Hugh Jackman stops by to talk about London's second best fish and chip shop, Wolverine's love of Rick Astley and his top drawer pirate voice, with newcomer Ian McKellen instead using his interview to pitch for a job as a film reviewer. Both were in town to talk X-Men: Days OF Future Past, which the team also do, on top of some general cinematic chit chat and this week's news.

In the first Godzilla movies, The King Of The Monsters was actually just a guy in a suit, but now with the advent of modern SFX, men stomping on miniature cities are no longer required. But if they were, Gareth Edwards would be the man shouting "Punch the water tower!" and "Drop kick that battleship!", as he's the director of the new reboot of Toho's beloved scaley scoundrel. He's joined in the Empire Podcast this week by Two Faces Of January's Viggo Mortensen (actor) and Hossein Amini (director), who talk about everything from The Parthenon to Montesquieu.

Sensibly deciding to take his papier-mache head off for his Empire Podcast interview, Michael Fassbender was on fine form as he talked about his latest, Frank, as well as his stoat impersonation, his deleted dance sequence at the end of Prometheus and his love of Buck Rogers. Also under the interview lamplight were Mike Brett and Steve Jamison, directors of the inspirational American Samoa football documentary Next Goal Wins, who talk about how they made the beautiful game feel beautiful again.

Game Of Thrones' very own Arya Stark, Maisie Williams, dropped by the Empire Podcast studio this week to talk about 'The Cinnamon Challenge', that Vine she made for The Red Wedding and how Charles Dance introduces himself. Then there's Dohmnall Gleeson, here in honour of Frank (out next week), who happily chats about... well, you're best off finding out for yourself.

You might know him as Bilbo Baggins, or John Watson, or Tim From The Office (his character's full name), but this week Martin Freeman is actually Lester Nygaard from the new TV version of Fargo. He talks to us about everything from the joys of swearing to Billy Bob Thorton's pathological fear of antiquities. Elsewhere, David Cross drops by to talk about the new film he wrote and directed, Hits, and we resist the temptation to grill him about Arrested Development, Mr. Show and The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret.

This week there's Amazing Spider-Man 2 director Marc Webb, as well as Amazing Spider-Man 2 producers Matt Tolmach and Avi Arad, not forgetting Sweden's very own Lukas Moodysson, here to talk about his latest, We Are The Best, on top of your usual dose of movie news and nonsense.

The Film programme. That theme tune. This 48-minute podcast. And why not? The legendary movie journalist that is Barry Norman stopped by the Empire Podcast booth to talk about his new book, his extraordinary career and just how close he came to punching Robert De Niro.

With The Raid 2 coming out, it made sense to invite its director round for a chat about it, which explains why Gareth Evans appears on this week's podcast. Likewise, as Hammer's latest horror, The Quiet Ones, has Sam Claflin as one of its leads, it seemed like the right thing to ask him over for a cup of tea and a good scream. In other news, there's some new movie news, and the question-and-answer portion of proceedings, Carry On comes up. "Oo matron" and so on.

Four big films are coming out this weekend, namely Noah, The Double, Divergent and Rio 2, which may or may not have something to do with half term arriving. (Hint: it definitely does). In honour of two of said films, there are two interviewees this week, starting with the most beautiful Spix's Macaw parrot in cinema, Anne Hathaway, and ending with the fascinating filmmaker Darren Aronosfky. Expect stories about punching people in the face.