The Empire Film Podcast

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 director Marc Webb and the one and only Agent Carter, Hayley Atwell.

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 talk about everything from Daffy Duck to Mike Myers, not forgetting Expendables 3, mimes and hitting snakes with sticks (in self-defence, of course). Then there are the news, views and reviews you'd expect from the Empire Podcast team, including everything you could possibly want to know about Sharknado. Enough said, indeed.

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 chat - what's your favourite visual gag in films, by the way? - and movie news and reviews. Listen out for an imdb page's worth of Pixar trivia, as well as an exclusive titbit of Indy info...

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 delivering that line in Spaced. Which line, you wonder? Best get listening then...

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 fine art of watching films in foreign climes is dicussed, and the concept of 'tracking' in cinema is actually explained. Also, the team realises that someone needs to make a movie called 'Hobocop', and sharpish.

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 Gaiman movies that might have been...

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 Of Grey adaptation and which tagline is the very best ever written.

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...