Table of contents for December 2015 in Empire

SUPERHEROES, MAN. THEY HAVE IT SO EASY. THEY bounce back from that heart-shattering familial tragedy to fly/drive/swing into the lives of those in peril and invariably save the day, sunlight glinting off their polished teeth. Not complex enough for you? Not quite dark or damaged enough? Not boasting a textured backstory that would make Alan Clarke shudder? Not certifiably insane and sporting a white-as-snow straitjacket? Then, friends, come with us into a new chapter in comic books on the big screen: the world of the supervillain. More specifically, into the world of the Suicide Squad, the latest addition to DC’s Extended Universe. When the first trailer dropped during Comic-Con in July (and our heads nearly spun right off our shoulders in sheer excitement), these were the guys described as “the…

Steve Zahn has joined the cast of War For The Planet Of The Apes. He’ll be a monkey mate of Andy Serkis’ Caesar. Not Tar-Zahn. Ant-Man is finally getting a partner. Not Dec-Man — Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly will team up for Ant-Man And The Wasp. Fact: the ‘F’ in F. Gary Gray stands for ‘Fast&Furious8’. Handily, that’s also the name of the movie he’s just been hired to direct. Seth Grahame-Smith will direct Ezra Miller as The Flash, due in 2018. Get a move on, so-called Fastest Man Alive.…

BLUR’S GREATEST hits, but with Han, Luke, Leia and Chewie. The Marshall Mathers LP, now featuring Nien Nunb. And AC/DC’s For Those About To Rock, reimagined with the world’s favourite astromech droid. These beautifully designed Star Wars album covers are the brainchild of British graphic designer Steven Lear. We liked them so much we asked him to create a selection just for us. You can enjoy the rest of his collection via his Instagram account, @whythelongplayface. Perhaps while relaxing to the strains of Teen Spirit, Smells Like from Yoda’s Mindnever. CH…

• Da.on wInter/nyt/reDux/eyevIne BEST AND WORST ON ROTTEN TOMATOES 93 % AMERICAN HUSTLE (2013) GREATEST QUOTES “We fucked up.” THE HANGOVER 0% BROTHER’S JUSTICE (2010) “You have to do everything you can, you have to work your hardest, and if you do, if you stay positive, you have a shot at a silver lining.” SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK “Well, now I’m standing. Happy? We’re all standing now. Bunch of jackasses, standing in a circle.” GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY COOPER BY NUMBERS 3 CONSECUTIVE ACTING OSCAR NOMINATIONS FROM 2013-2015 (Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, American Sniper) 2 AVENGERS WORKED WITH 29 THE AGE AT WHICH HE QUIT DRINKING 14 HIS SHOE SIZE HIS FIRST ROLE AS JAKE ON A 1999 EPISODE OF SEX AND THE CITY . HE COPPED OFF WITH SARAH…

• ANNIE TRITT/NYT/REDUX/EYEVINE 1 Three movie characters are wielded as weapons in the store fight in Tomorrowland: A World Beyond . Which ones? One of them is Gort from The Day The Earth Stood Still. The Millennium Falcon gets clonked over somebody’s head. Then there’s a spear from Star Trek. So that’s three, but they’re not all people. 1/2 The correct answer is Gort, Han Solo and R2-D-2 2 You have a voice cameo in Jurassic World as the monorail announcer. What comment do you make about the entrance gate? That it’s made from the wood of the original Jurassic Park gate. Colin (Trevorrow) and I decided this guy was an aspiring actor, who prepares for every monorail announcement as if it’s a…

HARDY SECURED A DREAM gig when he agreed to direct The Crow reboot. After all, he even used to dress up as Brandon Lee’s Eric Draven from the 1994 movie. The film was on course to shoot this year, with Jack Huston on board to star. But when backers Relativity filed for bankruptcy in July, Huston left and The Crow went into limbo. Given the chequered history of the project, including Lee’s tragic on-set death, it’s easy to draw a morbid conclusion… Is The Crow cursed? Having just made an independent movie that took eight years to make, it feels the opposite. I don’t believe that the production is cursed. That would be terrible. How close were you to making the movie? I had a full cast of actors coming…

“IT ALL STEMS FROM A philosophy handed down to me by Jack Lemmon,” begins Kevin Spacey, speaking at this year’s First Shot premiere in Los Angeles. “If you have done really well, then it is really valuable that you make sure you pay it forward, as some people like to say. Jack Lemmon used to say, ‘Send the elevator back down…’” It began four years ago, over a few drinks in Dublin, with Spacey keen to repeat the success he had had in mentoring new theatrical talent in his Old Vic New Voices programme in the world of film. Joining forces with Jameson, and his partner at Trigger Street Productions, Dana Brunetti, they created First Shot. Herein prospective filmmakers put forward script ideas for short films, from which three winners…

UNMISSABLE EXCELLENT GOOD POOR TRAGIC Steve Jobs OUT NOVEMBER 13 / CERT. TBC / 122 MINS. DIRECTOR Danny Boyle CAST Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels PLOT In the lead up to three product launches, spread over 14 years, we plunge into the mounting crises, both personal and technical, that confront Apple head Steve Jobs (Fassbender). STEVE JOBS IS thrilling. Which should sound counter-intuitive. Isn’t this a film about a man who made computers? Operatic in scope, breathtakingly articulate, and held firm by a snake-charmer of a central performance, it is, in fact, another ambitious reckoning with a flawed American titan; a sister parable to the Zuckerberg-autopsy The Social Network; an intricate, dazzling, zeitgeist-lassoing Citizen Kane. Or, if you prefer, The West Wing in the tech sphere. The…

The Closer We Get Out NOVEMBER 6 / CERt. PG / 91 MINS. DIRECTOR Karen Guthrie CAST Karen Guthrie, Ann Guthrie, Ian Guthrie there’s something disconcerting about documentarists seeking catharsis by letting skeletons out of the closet. Karen Guthrie’s study of her furtive father and a stroke-paralysed mother feels additionally resistible as it has been so archly constructed to wring the maximum melodrama from a sad situation. DP Do I Sound Gay? Out OCTOBER 30 / CERt. 15 / 77 MINS. DIRECTOR David thorpe CAST David thorpe, Dan Savage, George takei, Margaret Cho Big issues get raised but glossed over in this witty exploration of the (self-) reinforcement of gay stereotypes. the old movie clips are fantastic. But, while the musings on persona as performance intrigue, the insights into media…

GEORGE MILLER He took Hollywood to school with Mad Max: Fury Road NOW THE DUST HAS SETTLED ON MAD Max: Fury Road, the enormity of George Miller’s achievement is easier to comprehend. At the age of 70, a director whose last film was Happy Feet Two rediscovered his inner badass, returning to the franchise that made his name with the energy of someone half his age. Shot over 120 days in the heat of the Namibian desert, with dozens of jaw-dropping stunts in-camera, this is a movie whose production was as crazed as its characters. “I should probably own up to being insane,” laughs Miller, looking anything but in a black leather jacket and jumper. “Plenty of people keep telling me that I am. Particularly my family.” Madness may course…

BRYAN CRANSTON On tackling Trumbo, his biggest role since Breaking Bad THERE IS A WONDERFULLY tragicomic scene in Bryan Cranston’s new film which sees him, as blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, sitting opposite Alan Tudyk, playing his friend Ian McLellan Hunter, as the pair regard an Oscar on the table between them. It’s been awarded to Hunter for writing Roman Holiday, but he wants Trumbo to take it because it was Trumbo who really wrote that script, though as a communist he’s barred from working in Hollywood. But Trumbo resists. “He actually threw it in a bottom drawer,” says Cranston. “Until you can have your own name on your own work, it’s worthless.” That was the tragedy of the anticommunist campaign of the late ’40s and ’50s, which saw hundreds of…

IN GENERAL, THERE’S MORE controversy about the welfare of animals in films than the safety of their human co-stars. In cinema’s early days, wild animals were irresistible to the adventurous likes of Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, who made spectacles such as the jungle epic Chang: A Drama Of The Wilderness (1927). It included a tiger shimmying up a tree and gaping its jaws to eat the cameraman (Schoedsack). The directors staged some footage, but admitted killing animals “for the picture”. At least the pair moved on to unreal creatures for their greatest collaboration, 1933’s King Kong. In Jesse James (1939), a horse was thrown fatally from a cliff, leading to the American Humane Association monitoring animal welfare in films. Later causes célèbres include Cannibal Holocaust (1980), with…

ADR Automated Dialogue Replacement. The process of re-recording lines to replace poor-quality sound or change a line-reading. BLOCKING The process of staging a scene before you shoot it to decide actors’ movements, lighting and camera placements. DAILIES The prints of footage shot the previous day, viewed by the director and the creative team the following day. Also known as “rushes”. THE MARTINI SHOT The last shot of the day. PICK-UPS Shots done after the end of shooting, often things that became apparent after editing. WINNEBAGO The trailers used by movie stars on sets. Not to be confused with ‘honeywagons’ which are portable loos. SQUIB An explosive device used to replicate bullet hits or small explosions. Perhaps the most famous use occurs in The Godfather, when a hail of bullets hits…

BOOM OPERATOR The sound technician who wields the boom, the telescopic pole with the microphone attached. BEST BOY Assistant to the gaffer (see below). GAFFER The chief electrician on a film set, responsible for supplying, placing, operating and maintaining the lights. CRAFT SERVICES The US term for the team responsible for providing food and drink to the crew. The most famous example is Javva The Hutt. FOLEY ARTIST A sound effects artist who creates sounds that are recorded to match the images on screen (for example, smashing melons to replicate punches in Raging Bull). GRIP A stagehand responsible for transporting and setting up equipment and props. Led by the Key Grip. LEADPERSON The head of the Swing Gang (see below) who assists the set decorator in obtaining, storing and placing…

PORTRAIT TOM HOWARD. A BIG THANKS TO PICTUREHOUSE CENTRAL WAS SHOOTING a lot of low-budget rap videos for mates and local artists. Rappers on rooftops doing gun fingers or standing in front of their estate. At the time I was calling in favours. My little cousin George would hold all the lights. I had no idea how you progressed from a video that cost £50 to a video that had an actual budget. The Lost Generation project with GoThinkBig was a chance to intern on a Rizzle Kicks video shoot. You had to send in a five-minute video about yourself and choose which role you wanted to shadow. I picked director and luckily got the opportunity to follow (writer-director) Jamie Thraves. It was amazing. I’m obsessed with all his videos…

CHAPTER 1 1:43 The New Batch The very first image of Jurassic World is an egg cracking. Meet the Indominus Rex (and sister). “We were intent on starting with a birth,” says Trevorrow. “I was very conscious about the number of Jurassic Park references we had, and I wanted to declare early on that this wasn’t going to be a carbon copy.” CHAPTER 1 2:08 Total Recall Gray’s View-Master toy contains a frame from 1956 film The Animal World . “It’s echoed by a shot in the final battle,” says the director. “Ty Simpkins has a great look on his face in that moment, and that was his only direction: ‘You saw this same thing inside your View-Master this morning in Wisconsin, and now it’s happening for real.’” CHAPTER 2…

Entourage FROM NOW / CERT. TBC The TV show about movies is now an actual movie, though creator/ director Doug Ellin struggles to make this story feel bigger than the ones that ran on HBO. There are cameos from returning favourites (yes, Gary Busey’s teeth are back) and all the Ari shoutbursts you expect, but little in the way of surprises. NDS Southpaw FROM NOVEMBER 23 / CERT. 15 There are all kinds of muscles in Antoine Fuqua’s boxing pic, but not a lot of heart. The ripped Jake Gyllenhaal is impressive, though difficult to warm to as down-on-his-luck former champ Billy Hope. And while Fuqua knows his way around a punch-up, the riches-to-rags-to-riches story doesn’t have an original bone in its body. CH Ted 2 FROM NOVEMBER 9 /…

UNLESS SPECIFIED, THE QUESTIONS REFER TO THE THEATRICAL EDITIONS, NOT EXTENDED CUTS. 1.Identify the FILM from the theme-song lyrics. 2.Which RUNE does Gandalf draw on Bilbo’s door? 3.Identify the dwarf from the BEARD. 4. Which is the SHORTEST of the films? 5. Match the character to the CREATURE they ride. 6. Solve Gollum’s fiendish riddle: “What has roots as nobody sees, Is taller than trees, Up, up it goes And yet never grows?” 7. How many ORCS does LEGOLAS KILL across the course of the trilogy? 8. Name the US talk-show host who cameos in The Desolation Of Smaug as a Lake-town spy. 9. Which of these is NOT an actual Orc seen in the films? 10. Only one film has its subtitle spoken as dialogue. WHICH ONE?…

Gilliamesque: A Pre-Posthumous Memoir AUTHOR TERRY GILLIAM / OUT NOW BLABBERWOCKY ON TUESDAY September 8, Variety announced the death of director, artist and comedian Terry Gilliam. The next day, Gilliam posted an apology for his expiration on Facebook, urging people not to believe Variety’s “retraction”, and included a mocked-up photo of himself in deathly repose, with a spooky-faced widow holding a sign over him saying, “He was only 30! Bad reviews from Variety aged him!” Which should give a pretty good indication of what to expect from Gilliam’s “pre-posthumous” memoir. Blissfully free of misty-eyed reminiscence — instead packed with wry commentary and cheeky wordplay — it is also festooned with his art and photos, plus scrawled margin notes and self-effacing captions. All of which is presented in a handsome hardback…

Shootouts 1 ›Il Triello›Ennio Morricone› The Good, The Bad And The Ugly 2 ›Spybreak!›Propellerheads› The Matrix 3 ›Calvera’s Return Elmer Bernstein› The Magnificent Seven 4 Welcome To Tahoe!›Clint Mansell›Smokin’ Aces 5 ›Machine Gun Lullaby›Ennio Morricone›The Untouchables 6 ›Big Daddy Kills›Henry Jackman & John Murphy› Kick-Ass 7 ›Somewhere Over The Rainbow John Farnham & Olivia Newton-John›Face/Off 8 ›Shootout In The Cell Bay› John Williams›Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope 9 ›The Man With The Harmonica›Ennio Morricone› Once Upon A Time In The West 10 ›I’ll Be Back›Brad Fiedel› Terminator 2: Judgment Day 11 ›At The Farmhouse›John Powell›The Bourne Identity 12 ›Free Bird Lynyrd Skynyrd› Kingsman: The Secret Service TO LISTEN TO THE ABOVE, SEARCH ‘EMPIRE MAGAZINE’ ON SPOTIFY, OR VISIT OUR YOUTUBE ACCOUNT.…

Metal Gear Solid METAL GEAR 1987 Groundbreaking gameplay (for the time) as protagonist Solid Snake prevents a bipedal robot from ravaging the world. METAL GEAR SOLID 1998 Revolutionary new 3D graphics accompanied a gripping story and lots of hiding in cardboard boxes. METAL GEAR ACID 2004 A mobile incarnation that swapped stealth action for... card-collecting. Obviously. METAL GEAR SOLID IV: GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS 2008 Longest. Cutscenes. Ever. Many featuring the frying of eggs. METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE 2013 Another genre departure, this time for wildly over-the-top swordplay.…

MOONLIGHTING Just spotted Linda Hamilton and Bryan Cranston in the same episode of Murder, She Wrote. Didn’t hang around long enough to know if they were either the killer or the victim. But as we know, neither Walter White nor Sarah Connor would be a match for the J-Fletch. PAUL ANDREWS, FACEBOOK This ‘before they were famous’ business is a hobby of ours. Did you know there’s an episode of Law & Order which features a young Idris Elba and Kerry Washington? He didn’t do it. She did. Just read Dan Jolin’s review for Sicario. He certainly sold the film to me. Excellent use of the word ‘crepuscular’ too! @GOTHARDDANIEL HAS BIEHN? So I’m watching Terminator Genisys and it’s pretty rubbish. But am I crazy or is the cop who…

• JASON BELL/CA.ERA PRESS I CERTAINLY HAVE been a bit busy of late.” Even by Benedict Cumberbatch’s standards of charmingly British self-deprecation, this is a rather huge understatement. His current projects include, but are not entirely limited to: playing Johnny Depp’s brother in Black Mass; finishing his sold-out run as Hamlet on the London stage; playing Richard III on TV; reprising Sherlock Holmes for the BBC’s Christmas special; becoming Shere Khan in Andy Serkis’ Jungle Book: Origins; prepping for Marvel’s Doctor Strange. Oh, and he’s just become a father. “It must look like a crazy whirlwind,” he offers. “The roles do bleed into each other a bit. I suddenly realised, when getting into character as Shere Khan, that I was giving myself a hump on the same side as I…

Robert Rodriguez 9David O. Ru’’ell Quentin Tarantino Guillermo del Toro 8.5Werner Herzog 8.5Bryan Singer 8John Water’ 8 Brad Bird 7.5 Dario Argento 7Peter Bogdanovich 7Roger Corman 7Richard Linklater 7George A. Romero 7John Landi’ 6.5Paul Schrader 6.5Cameron Crowe 6Baz Luhrmann 6Judd Apatow 5Terry Gilliam 5Jim Sheridan 5Roland Emmerich 4.5We’ Craven 4John Carpenter 3John Woo 3 BRAD SCORES 71/2/10 “That was a little nerve-wracking. I expected to be right down there with Alan Smithee on the scoreboard. I’m kicking myself about Gerte’s bones.”…

• CHRIS MCANDREW/CAERA PRESS 1 HE’S CALLING THE SHOTS “I wanted to have a first-time filmmaker’s experience,” says Paul Bettany of Shelter. And he got it, shooting the romance between Jennifer Connelly’s “junkie prostitute” and Anthony Mackie’s “ex-terrorist Muslim” over just 21 days. “People don’t want to give you lots of money to make this kind of film,” he admits. 2 HE’S KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY “I kept the time-honoured tradition of sleeping with the leading lady,” he laughs of casting his wife. But it was far from a holiday. “We were shooting in a filthy alleyway. Props had a retractable syringe that was wrong. So she took a real needle and put it in her fucking vein. I went, ‘I guess we’ll roll on this!’” 3 HE’S A…

iPHONE C500 The release of the 6/6S has since addressed this, but using the iPhone 5S meant that Baker was unable to adjust the camera’s focal length and could use only a single wide angle. “We bought three iPhones but mostly just used one. With more we ran the risk of capturing another camera in the shot.” Other phones are available, of course. FILMIC PRO APP C10 This app allows filmmakers to lock aperture and focus and shoot 24 frames per second, with a higher compression rate than the iPhone’s native software. “It changes the way your phone captures video,” Baker explains. TIFFEN STEADICAM SMOOTHEE C150 A mount for the phone allowing for more stable handheld shooting. “It’s just a little grip that fits in your hand.” ANAMORPHIC ADAPTOR C160…

Hand Gestures Out NOVEMBER 20 / CERt. TBC / 77 MINS. DIRECTOR Francesco Clerici CAST Velasco Vitali, Andrea Boccone, Nicolae Ciortan Mesmerising and wondrously atmospheric, this is an intimate and deftly observed study of the collaborative nature of creativity and craftsmanship that reveals how methods dating from classical antiquity are still used in a Milanese foundry to create bronze sculptures. DP The Fear Of 13 Out NOVEMBER 13 / CERt. TBC / 96 MINS. DIRECTOR David Sington CAST Nick Centring on a performance monologue to camera by Nick, a convicted murderer who’s been on Death Row for 23 years, this gripping confession recalls his mistakes and misfortunes, as well as the breaks that followed his discovery of the redemptive power of literature and love. DP Unbranded Out NOVEMBER 27 /…

• SAOIRSE RONAN: STEFAN KHOO. SAOIRSE RONAN Putting away childish things in Brooklyn SAOIRSE RONAN IS 21 YEARS OLD now, and feels it’s about time people stopped expecting her to play teenagers. “I was really aware when I was about 19 that I didn’t want to play anyone younger than myself. But it’s all like, ‘Do you want to play this 16-year-old who hasn’t lost her virginity?’ Not really…” Ronan first gained attention aged 13 as Briony Tallis, the precocious meddler in Joe Wright’s Atonement, a role which brought her an Oscar nomination. Then she impressed in The Lovely Bones, Hanna and The Grand Budapest Hotel, among others. Yet the hunt for a first adult role was tough, so when one finally showed up, she grabbed it like a life…

FACT: YOU DON’T have to be a Jennifer Lawrence or Tom Hardy to carve out a career in movies. As much as it might feel like an impossible dream, working on the films and TV shows regularly covered in Empire is within your reach. The film industry offers all sorts of jobs to suit every temperament and skill set, from the technically adept and cerebrally blessed to the practically minded or wildly creative. Overleaf we profile four filmmakers who each found their own path into making movies (no-one’s dad runs a film studio) to guide and inspire you. What becomes clear is that none of them have been driven by fame or fortune. This is all about passion for telling stories in the most exciting ways possible. If this gets…

CV: SKYFALL (2012), KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE (2014), EVEREST (2015), SUFFRAGETTE (2015) How did you get into the business? In my early twenties I started at live jousting shows at the local castle. I already did a lot of riding but I worked as a squire for a couple of years, and then did three summers performing on the horses. I broke my ribs doing it — but that wasn’t meant to happen! It’s all choreographed. Some of the guys I was jousting with did filming, so I found out about the stunt register and started training. What was your big break? I didn’t have one big break; it was mainly working with more people and getting better known. It takes a couple of years. What attributes do you need…

Terminator Genisys FROM NOW / CERT. 12 ROBOTS IN DECLINE ONE OF THE MORE unexpected moments of the last few months in the cinematic firmament was the sight of the normally cagey James Cameron popping up on the internet to lend his seal of approval to the latest attempt to jump-start his tarnished Terminator franchise. A once beloved property, it last delivered anything unarguably enjoyable 30 years ago, despite multitudinous revival attempts in diverse media. But if watching Cameron sing the praises of the latest resurrection before you’d seen it was disconcerting, afterwards it’s downright incomprehensible. That Terminator Genisys is terrible is beyond arguing. What’s almost thrilling is the pitiful thoroughness with which it totally misunderstands its source material. Thus while Cameron’s originals were ripped masterclasses in narrative efficiency —…

Poltergeist FRoM NOW / CERt. TBC Upgrading Spielberg’s ghost-buster with digital-age gimmicks (iPhones, drones, CG devil-squirrels), this remake plays like My First Scary Movie: hardly a shock given Gil ‘Monster House’ Kenan directs. Jared Harris’ psychic adds campy value but the static, PG-level horror is so weak, it’s a wonder they didn’t call it Paltrygeist. Boo. SC Little Accidents FRoM NOW / CERt. 15 A sombre drama set in a small mining community, where accidental deaths unite and divide the survivors. Sara Colangelo’s direction (from her own screenplay) is low-key and thoughtful, never letting the big themes blow up into melodrama or histrionics. And the cast, which includes Boyd Holbrook, Elizabeth Banks and Chloë Sevigny, are uniformly excellent. OW Beyond The Reach FRoM NOW / CERt. 12 Michael Douglas adds…

BLACKHAT Chri’ Hem’worth furrow’ hi’ brow and hack’ into the mainframe in Michael Manns’ ’lick cyber-thriller. Its’ le’’er Mann, and i’ often ridiculou’, but there i’ a cracking ’hoot-out, Hem’worth i’ ’olid, and nobody make’ thi’ ’tuff look better. FROM NOVEMBER 27, CERT. 15 THE FRENCH CONNECTION Gene Hackman yelling, “Poughkeep’ie!” and a bli’tering car cha’e (filmed in real traffic) are ju’t two rea’on’ to catch William Friedkins’ 1971 cla’’ic. It i’, to our mind’, the fine’t movie to feature a man named Popeye. FROM NOVEMBER 11, CERT. 18 INHERENT VICE Paul Thoma’ Ander’ons’ take on Thoma’ Pynchons’ novel ’ee’ an LA detective embark on a complex ca’e that make’ The Malte’e Falcon look like Big Bird. Veering between ’lap’tick and comedy, its’ a’ black a’ the ’ole’ of Joaquin…

The Immortal Story 1968 / FROM NOVEMBER 9 / CERT. 15 Orson Welles’ penultimate feature is a gloomy, hour-long yarn about a Macau merchant’s dying obsession. The Citizen Kane man knew a thing or two about obsession, of course, and while his powers were waning by this point, he still summons an eerie stillness from author Karen Blixen’s tale of sexual surrogacy. PDS The Cannonball Run 1981 / FROM NOVEMBER 30 / CERT. PG An embarrassment of ’70s/’80s legends embark on a wacky race across America in this scrappy but amiable comedy. Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Dean Martin and Jackie Chan are among those making an easy buck from the bawdy collection of in-jokes and outtakes. Warning: contains potentially offensive moustaches. NA Half Nelson 2006 / FROM NOVEMBER…

Crimson Peak: The Art Of Darkness AUTHOR MARK SALISBURY / OUT NOW If there’s one thing you can rely upon from Guillermo del Toro, a man who takes his sketchbook everywhere, it’s breathtaking art. And the sumptuous Crimson Peak doesn’t disappoint. This excellent, erm, peek inside del Toro’s gloriously Gothic designs, guided by Empire’s Mark Salisbury, is like taking a walk through the mind of the Mexican maestro himself. Bloody beautiful. CH Alien Next Door AUTHOR JOEY SPIOTTO / OUT NOVEMBER 6 Illustrator Joey Spiotto’s thing is taking pop-culture phenoms and reimagining them as kids’ book covers. Encouraged by H. R. Giger’s positive response to his fake effort Facehugs For Everyone, he created a real picture book featuring the Alien as a cute character who breakfasts on ‘Promethe-Os’ and plays…

THE STAR WARS SAGA GRAPH (US DOMESTIC BOX OFFICE ONLY) THE TOP 10 EARNERS Star Wars Cast Members’ Career Total (Domestic) 1 SAMUEL L. JACKSON $4.589 BILLION 2 HARRISON FORD $3.935 BILLION 3 LIAM NEESON $2.941 BILLION 4 FRANK OZ $2.148 BILLION 5 EWAN McGREGOR $2.079 BILLION 6 NATALIE PORTMAN $2.060 BILLION 7 KEIRA KNIGHTLEY $1.490 BILLION 8 CARRIE FISHER $1.321 BILLION 9 MARK HAMILL $1.236 BILLION 10 CHRISTOPHER LEE $992 MILLION DID YOU KNOW? No Star Wars film has grossed a billion dollars worldwide in its first run. Until now...? (THE PHANTOM MENACE ONLY HIT THAT BARRIER WHEN IT WAS RE-RELEASED IN 2012)…

ANY DOUBTS THAT NOÉ would be going all-out with Love swiftly evaporated when the film debuted four controversial posters in Cannes. Empire is made of sterner stuff than most, but even we can’t show them all in case society crumbles. “We came up with four visuals, based on and using photos that Gaspar had, which we retouched and reshot,” explains designer Laurent Lufroy. “The first was a close-up of three tongues.” Not too bad. “Then there was one with a girl’s mouth with her thumb on it.” Slightly more risqué, but okay. “Then we had a shot of an arse with some knickers that looked like they’d been soiled by sperm.” Steady on! “Then we had the fourth one, which was an ejaculating cock.” Nurse, the screens! The posters were…

YES, INDEED, GOOD filmmakers in the making. This year’s Jameson Empire Done In 60 Seconds competition not only offers the winner a gateway into the world of movies, but also a trip to Los Angeles to attend the Jameson First Shot weekender. First Shot, for those unaware, is the other Jameson competition for burgeoning filmmakers (see panel right), run in conjunction with Kevin Spacey’s Trigger Street productions. This competition culminates in two days of master classes from the heart of the business, offering serious advice on how to take the next step into a filmmaking career. The classes not only discuss the nuts and bolts of production but also feature panels of experts on the selling and publicising of independent films to potential distributors, right down to the intricacies of…

Whose poster did you have on your bedroom wall as a kid? I seem to remember having a Terminator poster and a Samantha Fox poster. Put those together in a movie! That’d be crazy. Do you have a nickname? If I tell you that then people will start calling me it on social media and it’s very personal, so I can’t say that. My brother used to get called ‘Armo’. It sounds Australian, doesn’t it? How much is a pint of milk? I think it’s about £1.70. No? 89p? On the website I just Googled, St. Ives cultured buttermilk costs… oh, wait a minute, that’s buttermilk. (Laughs) I did cheat slightly on that one. I’ve got my iPad in front of me. I don’t really drink milk. Have you ever…

Tell Spring Not To Come This Year Out NOVEMBER 13 / CERt. TBC / 87 MINS. DIRECTORS Saeed taji Farouky, Michael McEvoy CAST Captain Jalaluddin, Private Sunnatullah Embedded with an Afghan National Army unit in Helmand, the co-directors put themselves at huge risk to capture the terrifying reality of fighting an enemy like the taliban. the camaraderie and courage on display is humblingly affecting. DP Star*Men Out NOVEMBER 20 / CERt. PG / 88 MINS . DIRECTOR Alison Rose CAST Donald Lynden-Bell, Roger Griffin, Wal Sargent, Nick Woolf Resembling a real-life The Big Bang Theory reunion, this is a charming profile of four British astronomers on an American road trip, who retain a poignant curiosity, humility and awe despite making significant contributions to their field over five game-changing decades. DP…

BANG! THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING (2003) Multiple endings be damned, Peter Jackson reaches his destination in spectacular fashion, thanks to magnificent battle action and just the right amount of sentiment. HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS — PART 2 (2011) While Part 1 waited things out in the forest, the conclusion tears the school down with an epic stand-off, waving a tearful goodbye to a franchise a decade in the making. BACK TO THE FUTURE PART III (1990) Easing up on all the time-paradox complexity without losing our interest, Doc and Marty go for one last ride in a Western homage that brings the time-travelling trilogy to a suitably feel-good end. ARMY OF DARKNESS (1992) Ash gets medieval on our asses as he’s sent…

CV: BRICK LANE (2007), VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE WORLD (2012), SUFFRAGETTE (2015) How did you get into the business? As a teenager I didn’t watch a lot of films. Then I saw some British films by Terence Davies, Stephen Frears and Mike Leigh and thought, “Wow, there’s really a vision here.” I started having ideas for film stories but I never dared suggest I train as a director. Then I had a kind of epiphany when I saw the early films of Jane Campion in my twenties and I thought, “Wow, there are women filmmakers, it’s possible.” That’s when I applied to the National Film and Television School. What do you consider your big break? I was making all these short films, and I would send them off…

CV: FINDING NEVERLAND (2004), GAME OF THRONES (2011-2013), KNIGHTS OF THE ROUNDTABLE: KING ARTHUR (2016) How did you get you get into the business? I studied painting, but I wasn’t philosophically a painter. I went to the theatre all the time, so for my thesis I wrote about theatre. I got onto a wonderful post-graduate course in theatre design and everything just came into focus. I worked in theatre for eight or nine years before, out of the blue, I got a call from the BFI to make a film. They were terribly apologetic that they could pay me only £30 a day, and at that point I was earning £30 a week! Really, that was the beginning of my life. What was your big break? Probably a film called…

GO THINK BIG A one-stop shop for work opportunities and advice. gothinkbig.co.uk SHOOTING PEOPLE A networking organisation dedicated to independent filmmaking. shootingpeople.org.uk THE KNOWLEDGE The definitive source of UK film and TV contacts. theknowledgeonline.com BROADCAST Journal for the UK television industry. Good source for news and jobs. broadcastnow.co.uk THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE A charitable organisation designed to promote appreciation, education and love of film, TV and moving images. bfi.org.uk EMPIRE ONLINE All the latest news, reviews and interviews from the world of film. empireonline.com O2 THINK BIG Funding, training and support for 13-25-year-olds for the digital world. O2thinkbig.co.uk…

Minions FROM NOVEMBER 16 / CERT. U Minions is the world’s new second-biggest animated movie of all time — sorry, Toy Story 3 — and there’s nothing you can do about it. The cinematic equivalent of a giant bag of Haribo with a lit firework inside, it’s hyper-kinetic gibberish and barely holds together as a story, but you will laugh, no matter how hard you try not to. AP Amy FROM NOVEMBER 2 / CERT. 15 A study of talent, self-doubt and the corrosive nature of fame, this account of the rise and fall of Amy Winehouse is deeply moving. You may already be familiar with her career, but there are revelations here even for super-fans. And Asif Kapadia’s wider exploration of media abuse gives his documentary a resonance far…

Mad Men: The Final Season Part 2 FRO. NOW / CERT. 15 The finaMe to .atthew Weiner’s stuEy of the ’60s EeMivers muMtiMateraM cMosure whiMe Mosing none of its focus. HighMight: a hungover Peggy (EMisabeth.oss) striEing Eown a corriEor, hoMEing a Japanese wooEcut of a woman being pMeasureE by two octopuses. This, after aMM, was never just Don Draper’s story. DJ Hand Of God: Season 1 FRO. NOW / CERT. 15 Boasting a great cast MeE by Ron PerMman anE Garret DiMMahunt, a fertiMe concept anE Eirection from the Mikes of.arc Forster, this nevertheMess faiMs to feeM heaven-sent. The story of a corrupt juEge who beMieves he’s been given a mission of vengeance by the AMmighty, it suffers from Euff EiaMogue anE enough crime-genre cMichés to fiMM a catheEraM. JW…

1 AfterDeath In Gez .eEinger anE Robin SchmiEt’s creepy, originaM Brit flick, five young peopMe kiMMeE in the coMMapse of an overcrowEeE nightcMub wake up in a beach-house Mimbo which contracts as their souMs are graEuaMMy cMaimeE by heMM. A cMaustrophobic mystery with viviE characters, it has a noveM rationaMe for the cast’s gooE Mooks, Earing theoMogy, Eark humour anE pMenty of cMever, surprising twists. 2 Justice League: Gods And Monsters This animateE feature offers aMternative DC Universe takes on Superman (the mean, goateeE son of ZoE), Batman (a vampire Kirk Langstrom, not Bruce Wayne) anE WonEer Woman (an aMien berserker Jack Kirby creation). BesiEes the gimmick reinterpretations anE eEgier tone, it runs to a Eecent murEer mystery about who’s kiMMing the worME’s greatest scientists. 3 The Night Has Eyes…

Found Footage IN THE NEW DIGITAL democracy, anyone with a phone is a filmmaker. Hence the unrelenting rise of the found-footage movie: cheap to make, plausible to audiences and, I’d argue, a legit 21st-century film movement. When they work, they pack a raw, illicit immediacy that’s tough to shake off. When they don’t, you wish they’d kept the lens cap on. Still, I’m a sucker for them, and Netflix boasts quite a collection. For the optimum shaky-cam reader experience, sit on a washing machine mid-spin cycle. Don’t attempt anything above 1,600 rpm — the words will fall off the page. First up: The Blair Witch Project — a film I’ve avoided since 1999, primarily to protect the memory of its aftershock. Two things strike second time around. First, Heather’s “I’m…

2015 / FROM NOVEMBER 23 / CERT. TBC WAR CRAFT BARRING PETER Jackson locating test footage of Sylvester McCoy windsurfing across Wellington Harbour, this is officially the end of the director’s great saga. And while reinstating Thorin’s (Richard Armitage) funeral gives more of a sense of completion, the sixth epic has changed the least structurally. What the extended Battle has is extended battle. It revels in it, becoming the goriest Middle-earth movie of all. In mockery of the balletic Legolas moments, James Nesbitt’s Bofur calamitously pilots a battle troll, while William Kircher’s Bifur finally loses that axe-head from his own head. It is a splatter-happy chase aboard a wagon towed by giant rams that is the biggest reward. Balin (Ken Stott) steers, Dwalin (Graham McTavish) fires bolts at a troll’s…

The Cat And The Canary 1939 FRoM NOW CERT. PG Bob Hope’s breakthrough was in this horror-com, unleashing his wisecracking cowardy-custard in a booby-trapped bijou mansion. This is mock-gothic in both style and script. Black cats, cellars, paintings with shifty eyes... every genre cliché gets shot down by Hope’s zinging sarcasm. Sample gag: “Dead people come back.” “What, like the Republicans?” The Conquest Of The Air 1940 FRoM NOW CERT. U Alexander Korda’s oddest folly is a docudrama chronicling the history of flight, from Icarus to Spitfire. Shot over five years, the detail’s astonishing (each machine was lavishly constructed), but the spectacle is flattened by pompous narration. You half-expect an exam post-credits. Fascinating moments, but as entertainment it soars like an ostrich. The Wages Of Fear 1953 FRoM NOVEMBER 23…

r›(&55:›I."(&4 1 Black Mass Opening Title “This is , ‘Welcome to this group of people who will entertain you for the next two hours.’ The motif for Whitey (Bulger, played by Johnny Depp) comes through strongest. I extended this track for the album.” 2 Boston Crime Lord i(Director) Scott Cooper wanted a movie about humans you learn are capable of terrible things, not terrible criminals you learn are human. So the approach was to create something organic but very dark.” 3 John Connolly “There's a lot of sound design on the piano that become important. i used it for scenes where Bulger tortures or murders people.” 4 Bulger Burial Ground iThere's a spot where whitey buried all his victims. There's very dark sound design to accompany that location - we…

LARA CROFT GO iOS/ANDROID Tomb Raider reimagined a’ a turn-ba’ed ’trategy game, thi’ follow’ in the foot’tep’ of Hitman Go and ’ucceed’ ju’t a’ well. The challenge i’ light, but guiding Lara through a gauntlet of pit’, trap’ and bea’t’ i’ rarely dull. STAR WARS: UPRISING iOS, ANDROID An action RPG ’et ju’t before The Force Awaken’, thi’ i’nst the mo’t original game to bear the Star War’ label but theres’ ’till a compul’ive quality to the endle’’ dungeon-crawling, loot-hoarding and bla’ter-waving.…