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JUNE 2024 3
 Master class #1: Lee
Jung-jae in Star Wars:
The Acolyte. Below:
Master class #2: Leo
gets ranked.

BEN TRAVIS SPOKE TO LESLYE

HEADLAND FOR OUR COVER STORY
“Ever since seeing her unveil The
Acolyte footage at Star Wars
Celebration a year ago, I’ve wanted to
talk Star Wars nerdery with Leslye
Headland. And she didn’t disappoint
— so clear in her own vision, and
steeped in decades of deep love for
the world George Lucas created.”

68 HIT MAN
Glen Powell and
Richard Linklater on the

10 SCIENCE-FICTION
GETS WEIRDER 32 CIVIL WAR
Forget Team Tony or
feelgood hit of the summer.

From Dune: Part Two to 3 Body

Problem, Empire investigates
Team Steve. We’re Team Alex.
74 DAISY RIDLEY
The last Jedi on life

39

bee” is from Kill Bill Volume 2. Subs: “Delores the Road Warrior is dead on your raggedy ass” is from Lethal Weapon 3
Hollywood’s new love of hard X-MEN ’97 after (and before) Star Wars. PHOTOGRAPHER DYLAN COULTER SHOT

Disney, Payton Hall, Ben Travis. Spinelines issue 426: Newsstand: “You’re not a worker bee. You’re a renegade killer
sci-fi. And that’s hard sci-fact. Tonight, we’re DAISY RIDLEY IN TEXAS

12 INSIDE OUT 2
Maya Hawke on
gonna party like it’s two
years before 1999. 82 HUMAN TRAFFIC
The weekend has
landed... 25 years on.
“This was my second time working with
Daisy, and just like the first, it was
a fantastic and energising experience.
a film that will fill you with
joy, and Joy. 41 THE FALL GUY
Ryan Gosling and
Emily Blunt in a Majors 88 ZACK SNYDER
The Rebel Moon
She brought so much to the shoot —
all the more impressive knowing
that less than two days before she was

14 MICHAEL DOUGLAS
The A-list legend gets
frank about playing Ben
motion picture. director tackles your questions. in Australia, a time zone 16 hours
ahead of ours!”

Franklin. Yes, we found

a Founding Father.

20 BORDERLANDS
Eli Roth on the crazy
48 STAR WARS:
THE ACOLYTE
A long time ago, in a galaxy
94 EVA GREEN
The French star of
The Dreamers and The Three
characters of his upcoming far, far away… Empire gives Musketeers: Milady on
video-game movie. Hostel: Part you a first look at the new Bond, Bertolucci, and
II’s Drunk British Slob didn’t Star Wars show. buckling swashes.
make the cut for this one.

28 INSIDE NO. 9
Steve Pemberton
56 CHALLENGERS
Luca Guadagnino
making a tennis movie
106 THE RANKING
Which film is king
of the King Of The
CHRIS HEWITT DRESSED AS AN OOMPA
LOOMPA FOR THE EMPIRE PODCAST LIVE
and Reece Shearsmith say with Zendaya? Ace. World’s world? “As we were about to kick off the
goodbye to their anthology podcast’s March tour, Willy’s
series. Empire sneaks in for
a cheeky peek. 62 DOCTOR
WHO
We talk to Ncuti
108 ED
ZWICK
Wit and wisdom
Chocolate Experience was in the news
— so I decided to dress in an Oompa
Loompa costume (£32.99 from

31 PINT OF MILK
Is The Fall Guy’s
Hannah Waddingham The
Gatwa and
Russell T
Davies. About
from one of
Hollywood’s
wittiest and
Amazon), orange skin and all, for our
opening show in Birmingham. Thank
God there were no obituaries.”
Semi-Skimmed Girl? time, Lord. wisest directors.

4 JUNE 2024
 ON OUR REVIEW OF IRISH WISH:
Watched it over the weekend. Almost THIS MONTH WE ASKE D:
a hate crime. Review totally 100 per cent WHO WILL N EVE R BE CAST
balls-on accurate. AS JAME S BOND — BUT
PETER WATTS SHOUL D B E ?

ALL-WEATHERS FRIEND
Loved the tribute to Carl Weathers [‘The
Heavyweight’, issue #426]. You mentioned it “was
a crying shame he didn’t do more comedy roles”,
so how could you leave out Chubbs in Happy
Gilmore? He was hilarious. Thanks Carl, RIP.
THE PRODIGAL SON RETURNS MARTIN NOLAN, DUBLIN
I’m a lapsed subscriber returning to the “It’s all in the hips.” Truly: Carl Weathers’
magazine after a podcast-only couple of years greatness cannot be contained in one feature.
and it was a joy to return to issue #424. Not only Bond. Jar Jar Bond. Tommy Wiseau!
is it a comfort to see familiar favourites like @CAMRAY @ANDYSCHOLES1
Pint Of Milk (a refreshingly thoughtful entry
from Steve-O), but I’ve loved fitting the writing I had a lovely time at the live Tom Hardy. In If it was the ’90s and
to the podcast voice: a Liverpool FC joke @empiremagazine podcast in Sheffield a period Bond film, after Hard Boiled,
crowbarred into an Equalizer retrospective? last night. The evening climaxed when set in the ’60s, Chow Yun-Fat
Got to be Chris Hewitt. Thoughtfully written I was chased into the gents by directed by would’ve been
story of Mae West versus Hollywood? Surely @ChrisHewitt. Steady. Christopher Nolan. PRIME for Bond.
Helen O’Hara. Keep up the good work! @DANLILES78 @THEDOCCARLTON1 @DR_MAFOONY
PAUL THOMSON, BRISTOL
Welcome back, Paul. Always glad to shepherd BACK OFF, MAN, HE’S A SCIENTIST I’ve had £5 at 125/1 I have long
a lost lamb back into Empire’s paddock. To How exciting to see the old gang and especially on Dan Stevens campaigned for
sweeten the deal, have a Picturehouse Bill Murray back in Ghostbusters. I met Bill briefly since seeing The a Bond with a thick
membership on us. in 1999, and I asked him if he had any advice for Guest 10 years ago. Bostonian accent,
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Empire’s star letter wins a Picturehouse the first part of what he said, but mostly I was long game. one sees the vision.
Membership, valid for one year at all
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MICHAEL DOUGLAS COVER STORY NOVEMBER 1989

Michael Douglas speaks to Empire Attraction, Douglas was promoting
this month about his starring role in the now lesser-known Ridley Scott
new mini-series Franklin (read the noir Black Rain, but delved deep into
interview on page 14). It’s the his wider life and career. He cites
continuation of a long relationship Jack Nicholson and Danny Devito
we’ve had with the legendary actor (who he calls ‘De Veets’) as his
and producer, stretching all the way best buds; and spoke of his
back to our fifth issue, when Douglas desire to take some time off from
graced an early cover (alongside the acting. “I'm sort of dry,” he told us
curious coverline “GLUG!”). then. “I feel I’ve run the gamut of
Speaking to us a couple of years roles.” Little did he know that both
after his Best Actor Oscar win for Wall Marvel superheroes and Founding
Street and his box-office smash Fatal Fathers were in his future.

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MONTH 2023 9
JUNE 2024 | EDITED BY BETH WEBB

How hard sci-fi

went mainstream
EMPIRE INVESTIGATES WHY ULTRA-AMBITIOUS FANTASY IS
NOW HO LLY WOOD’S HOT TEST TICKET
WORDS TOM ELLEN inflame a growing trend in Hollywood for spoon-feed you. Work for your dinner. [But]
vertiginously high-concept science-fiction. I think people are willing to buckle up and
MARTA KOCHANEK Netflix’s 3 Body Problem — showrun by the team go on the ride.”
behind Game Of Thrones — landed back in March, For the creators, the challenge of sifting
IN THE SHADOWS of Arrakis lie many secrets. adapted from a Chinese novel heavy on theoretical through acres of complex source material to
Among them, it seems: the secret to making an physics and tenth-dimensional locations. This unlock the screen potential within seems to be
absolute boatload of cash. month sees the arrival of the wildly expansive, a huge part of the appeal. Speaking to Empire
At the time of writing, Denis Villeneuve’s post-apocalyptic video-game adaptation Fallout, about the epic task of refining thousands of
Dune: Part Two has taken half a billion dollars on Prime Video. And on the horizon already, hours of Fallout gameplay into eight episodes
at the box office, and is thundering towards the a third season of Foundation — based on Isaac of TV, co-director and executive producer
$600-million mark like Shai-Hulud chasing down Asimov’s brain-buckling, Roman-Empire-in- Jonathan Nolan (a veteran of ‘hard’ sci-fi, after
a thumper. Not bad for a nearly-three-hour-long space novellas — not to mention a long-awaited his success with HBO’s Westworld) says: “One of
sequel drenched in complex lore, containing vast screen outing for William Gibson’s densely the elemental questions of a role-playing game
swathes of subtitled alien dialect, and based on woven cyberpunk thriller Neuromancer, which is: will you go good or bad? You can’t capture
a doorstopping novel that was once considered is bound for Apple TV+ after decades in that with one protagonist. You have to make
‘unadaptable’ (even after David Lynch had a go). development hell. All of which suggests that choices. So I thought the idea [that showrunners
With its telepathic foetuses and colour-leached studios are now betting big on projects that Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner]
suns, the film is arguably even more out-there than would once have been considered too ‘difficult’ pitched, of telling it as an ensemble, was brilliant.
its 2021 predecessor — and yet it’s outperforming — and audiences are eagerly lapping them up. With three points of view, you can capture more
it, both critically and commercially. “You look at the [show’s] trailers and it’s, of the scale of the games and the dizzying array
A third instalment now seems inevitable. ‘What the actual fuck is going on?! But I really of choices that the characters can make.”
But beyond that, Dune: Part Two’s mega- want to see this,’” 3 Body Problem star Benedict Nolan is not alone in relishing the chance to
lucrative ‘desert power’ looks set to further Wong told Empire recently. “We’re not here to untangle these kinds of knots. In a recent chat

10 JUNE 2024
Above: 3 Body Problem, Fallout, Dune: Part Two, Foundation. people to go insane just by looking at it. Wan
Left: Fallout’s Jonathan Nolan and Ella Purnell. Below left: isn’t certain if even now the world is ready for it.
Dune director Denis Villeneuve, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin. “We’ll see,” he says with a grin. “[I’m] not even
writing it for anyone, really. It’s just something
with Empire, Aquaman director James Wan I’m passionate about. But it’s very esoteric. It’s
outlined the fun he’s having wrestling H.P. going to be a hard sell...”
Lovecraft’s famously batshit 1928 sci-fi horror Clearly, Hollywood’s finest are having a ball
story The Call Of Cthulhu into a screenplay. sinking their teeth into such substantial material.
“The thing with Lovecraft is, he reads incredible And with the likes of Villeneuve now proving how
on the page,” Wan told us. “But then you’re like, lucrative it can be, the question is: which white
‘I don’t know how to adapt this!’ That’s why so whale of ‘unadaptable’ fiction might we see hit
many great filmmakers in the past have had screens next? Ursula Le Guin’s fearsomely
a hard time trying.” One of those filmmakers cerebral The Dispossessed, with its jumbled
includes Guillermo del Toro, whose take on timelines and deep-dive into authoritarianism
the author’s chillingly arcane novella At The and anarchism? Or perhaps Iain M. Banks’
Mountains Of Madness stalled in 2012 due to it galaxy-spanning The Culture series — which
being — in the director’s words — “a period-set, opens with the highly audience-friendly scene
R-rated tentpole movie with a tough ending and of a man drowning in a room full of faeces?
no love story.” A decade and change on, it seems With Dune: Part Two still bulldozing the
pop-culture might be finally ready to embrace box office, these high-concept hard-sells may
the weirdness. And Cthulhu will get plenty weird: soon get a little easier. And if Dune Messiah
the tale features entire cities of “non-Euclidean does come into fruition, you’d better have your
geometry” and a monster so hideous it causes sandworm lore locked down.

JUNE 2024 11
 Maya Hawke
embraces her
inner anxiety
F O R INSIDE OU T 2, THE ACTOR It was this voice that she used in the audition
for Pixar sequel Inside Out 2, in which she plays
TU RNED HER A NGST INTO Anxiety, a new emotion that arrives with young
protagonist Riley’s 13th birthday. Anxiety’s
HER SECR ET WEAPON introduction was hinted at as the credits rolled
on Inside Out, when a new alarm appeared on
W O R D S H AY L E Y C A M P B E L L Riley’s inner control board that threatened to
upset the equilibrium inside the emotional
MAYA HAWKE HAS anxious moments just like headquarters: PUBERTY. Enter: Envy (Ayo
everyone else does. If you sit beside her on a plane, Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos),
for example, you will hear ‘The Voice’. “This is the Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), and
voice I do when I’m nervous,” Hawke tells Empire, Hawke’s bright-orange ball of fretfulness, who
adopting a higher-pitched, sped-up version of her arrives with all of her baggage.
natural tone. “When I get embarrassed about “She was pitched to me with a picture of
having a worry that I know is irrational I talk like her,” says Hawke, “and I was like, ‘YES, that’s
this, and I’ll go, ‘Do you think our plane is going ME! That’s the Velma Dinkley (of Scooby-Doo
to crash? Because I'm just feeling worried that it’s fame) part I’ve always dreamed of, with the
going to crash since I heard that podcast about orange and the skirt and stripes and the teeth!’”
how the Boeing planes are crashing these days Hawke said she cried in the audition because she
and this is a Boeing plane!’ I make fun of myself.” was so moved. “There’s something about this

12 JUNE 2024
 GET UP TO SPEED ON… MICHAEL

THIS BIOPIC IS AN them as grown-up stars. Meanwhile,

I N T I M AT E TA K E Miles Teller takes on the role of John
ON MICHAEL Branca, the musician’s high-powered
JACKSON’S STORY attorney, who also holds a producer
story and these characters that I think really Above: Anxiety The iconic musician was under the credit on the film. Casting for Jackson’s
brings fundamental truths about our experience — with kooky spotlight from the moment his career notoriously pugnacious pet chimp
to the surface,” she explains. “It’s so relatable, so orange hair and began at the age of five, earning him Bubbles has yet to be announced.
emotional, so pure, that whether you want to or voiced by Maya praise, obsessive fans, and controversies
not, you use what you have and what you’ve Hawke — takes aplenty. Now, heavyweight screenwriter A P P A R E N T LY, I T W O N ’ T
been through.” At the end of the audition, centre-stage John Logan (Gladiator, Skyfall) is taking S H Y AWAY F R O M T H E
she begged for the part. “It was an extremely as puberty on Jackson’s complicated journey to D I F F I C U LT B I T S
desperate thing to do, but I think what people hits. Below: becoming one of the biggest-selling Fuqua has claimed that the film will
are looking for in audition rooms is passion. Maya Hawke. artists of all time in this Antoine tackle “the good, bad, and the ugly”
That it means something to them personally, Facing page, Fuqua-directed biopic. It will be chapters of the pop star’s story. But will
and they’ll put pieces of themselves into it.” top to bottom: produced by Bohemian Rhapsody’s it include the accusations of paedophilia
Hawke says that watching Inside Out, and Emotions in Graham King, and made with the that dogged his later years? With the
playing Anxiety, has changed the way she deals turmoil as backing of the late star’s executors. executors of Jackson’s estate listed as
with her own emotions. When she gets anxious, Riley turns producers, how deep will it go? After all,
that anxiety manifests as hypochondria — the day 13; Sadness MICHAEL JACKSON WILL Jackson’s estate filed a $100 million
before speaking with Empire, she was convinced (Phyllis Smith) B E P L AY E D B Y H I S lawsuit against HBO for its lacerating
she had rabies after a raccoon attacked her dog and Joy (Amy OWN NEPHEW 2019 documentary, Leaving Neverland.
and she cleaned the wounds; a week earlier, she Poehler) help Twenty-seven-year-old Jaafar Jackson,
had been convinced she had lost her voice form Riley’s son of Michael’s brother Jermaine, is I T ’ S T H E L AT E S T I N
before singing on The Tonight Show. But she has Belief System; making his debut acting role and playing A L I N E O F L U C R AT I V E
learned to feed Anxiety some facts: to reason Envy (third MJ in his prime. Despite his lack of TIE-INS
with her, rather than let her take the wheel. right, Ayo on-screen credentials, Jackson has Jackson’s estate has netted more than
Hawke now understands that emotions can be Edebiri) and received the seal of approval from the $2.4 billion since the star passed away
separate from the ultimate truth of Embarrassment late singer’s mum Katherine, who has in 2009, and in 2023 he topped Forbes’
what is happening. The truth is that she (right, Paul said, “Jaafar embodies my son.” list of top-earning dead celebrities. He
successfully sang on The Tonight Show Walter Hauser) works harder than most living performers:
and she doesn’t have rabies. Well, yet. join the crew. IT’S GOING TO GET his posthumous output includes two
There’s still the incubation period. N O S TA L G I C albums, a Las Vegas show featuring a
She pauses, her eyes growing The whole clan is coming to life in the hologram appearance of the performer,
wide as she playfully admits, film. Colman Domingo and Nia Long will a world tour, and two West End
“I still might have it, you know!” play Jackson’s parents Joe and musicals. With the estate keen to keep
You can take the girl away Katherine, while his brothers will be MJ’s memory alive, this is unlikely to be
from Anxiety… played by two sets of actors: one to his final resurrection. ALICE SAVILLE
represent The Jackson 5 as fresh-faced
INSIDE OUT 2 IS IN CINEMAS FROM 14 JUNE teenagers, and another to represent MICHAEL WILL BE IN CINEMAS FROM 18 APRIL 2025

JUNE 2024 13
 bit to do with that one,” Douglas laughs. “You’ve
got to bring it back down to Earth, right? I was
not afraid to show a little of the rascal side, or
the bon vivant. He liked the libation, liked the

MICHAEL
ladies. He could negotiate with a country and
have a good time.”

THE LOOK
DOUGLAS AS Originally Douglas was set to be physically
transformed, with a daily two-and-a-half

BENJAMIN
hours in the make-up chair. But he nixed that
before the shoot began. “We tried appliances
and this and that. But the producer part of me

FRANKLIN
kicked in — the production would have had to
wait for me, which I hate. Also, if [you’re on
screen for] eight hours, you’ve got to have
yourself shine through.” Boosting the stripped-
down look: some natty furry hats. “That is his
THE LEGENDARY STAR ON common-man touch. Canadian fur, the Western
frontierman look, identifying as different than
W IGGING UP TO PL AY the elaborate hats worn by the British and
French.” Nothing says gravitas like a pine
A FO UNDING FATHER marten on your head.

THE HISTORY Top: Coming over all nautical as the titular Founding Father in THE OOH LA LA
Amazingly, the 79-year-old Douglas has hitherto Franklin; With Noah Jupe as Benjamin’s precocious grandson When he arrives in France, Franklin’s grasp of
shunned projects set in the distant past. “I’ve Temple; Stacy Schiff’s book on which the series is based; the local language is, shall we say, “pas trop
never really done a period project,” he ponders. Michael’s father Kirk with Janet Leigh in The Vikings (1958). chaud”. Despite his having hitch-hiked around
“Though, at the very, very beginning of my Europe as a young student, Douglas claims his
career, I did something on television (1972’s THE ATTITUDE linguistics skills aren’t much more impressive.
American Revolution: The Impossible War). While he voiced Benjamin Franklin for “I think ‘rudimentary’ is the right word,” he
It was one of the reasons I wanted to do this, a 2003 documentary, now Douglas is playing chuckles. “My French and Franklin’s French
because I’m in a phase where I’m doing things him properly in Apple TV+’s Franklin, about are very close together. This is the first time
I never did before.” Perhaps his father Kirk’s the Founding Father’s nine years in France I’ve really had to [speak another language for
famous historical epics made him want to carve convincing that nation to back America against a project]. Like most actors, I can speak French
out his own niche with more modern stories? Britain in the War Of Independence. The star a little better than I can understand it. But
“You know, it’s possible. I used to watch him immersed himself in literature, starting with the I loved shooting in Paris, being taken to little
practicising his quick-draws, or working the Stacy Schiff book on which the miniseries is hidden bistros on the weekends and stuff.”
Getty Images

oars on The Vikings. And there may have been based. But just as important was capturing Délicieux. NICK DE SEMLYEN
a feeling of, ‘Man, how can I ever do what my Franklin’s cheeky side: in the first episode, he
father can do? So I’ll go this way…” farts outrageously during a dinner. “I had a little FRANKLIN IS ON APPLE TV+ FROM 12 APRIL

14 JUNE 2024
WHEN CREATORS
GET CRANKY
A GROWI NG WAVE OF FILMMAKE RS
AND SHOWR U NNE RS ARE TAKING
RE BOOTS OF THE IR WORK TO TASK

IT’S GETTING CATTY out there. As Hollywood

continues to sequelise and rehash, some
filmmakers are ditching diplomacy in favour of
airing their grievances. “Eric Draven’s having
a bad hair day,” Alex Proyas, director of 1994’s
The Crow, wrote on Facebook as photos hit of
Rupert Sanders’ upcoming remake, starring
a mulleted Bill Skarsgård. “Next reboot thanks.”
In the comments he went on. “I guess he’s
supposed to be a bad mofo with all those tats
and skulls on his jacket,” Proyas miaowed,
following that with a crying-laughing emoji,
the true refuge of the damned.
And this after True Detective creator Nic
Pizzolatto spent a portion of February reposting
negative Instagram comments about Issa Top: Things get a bit blustery in Twisters. Above: Issa López’s
López’s recent season, platforming people True Detective: Night Country. Left: Bill Skarsgård shows off
criticising the writing and calling Night Country his ‘bad mofo’ tats in the new Crow. Below: Paul Schrader.
a “hot mess”. Why? Proyas and Pizzolatto
both enjoyed big success with their original Facebook to say that he told Paramount its plans
iterations, but for some reason, they can’t let for a TV take on his 1980 film American Gigolo
it lie, taking shots at their successors would be “a terrible idea”, especially without his
with true Trumpian panache. And Chung’s Twisters, telling input. They made it anyway, gave him $50,000,
while there’s something to be said for Inverse that due to all the and he wrote that he didn’t plan to
actual “fuck it” honesty in a media- practical effects in the watch it.
trained industry that’s often stiflingly original, “It’s a movie that Hollywood always has, and always will,
polite, you do wonder why some cannot be remade”, and that recycle. Surely a continued interest in a
people have a problem with just, he’d need someone else to filmmaker’s work, and a desire to do something
well, moving on. see the film and report back new with it for a new crowd, is flattering, at
There’s something in the air. Jan before he could handle least. Sometimes, though, bitterness doesn’t
de Bont, director of 1996’s Twister, watching it. Meanwhile, dissipate. Oh, and Issa López got commissioned
recently spoke about not being Paul Schrader, never averse for another season of True Detective. Stick that
consulted on this year’s sequel, Lee Isaac to speaking his mind, took to in your Insta story. ALEX GODFREY

IN THE CUT
THRE E ACTORS WHO RECE NTLY HAD THE IR SCR E E N TIME IN
MAJ OR MOVIE S RE SCINDE D

TIM BLAKE NELSON OLIVA COLMAN ANONYMOUS CAT

DUNE: PART TWO BARBIE ARGYLLE
Even spread over two Among the host of big names The realms of nepotism know
expansive instalments, who didn’t materialise in Barbie no bounds. Argylle director
Denis Villeneuve struggled to — including Saoirse Ronan, Matthew Vaughn has admitted
pack in all of Frank Herbert’s Timothée Chalamet and Ben to swapping an expensive cat
epic source material. One Affleck, whose schedules actor, who he deemed
casualty was Tim Blake stopped them from being “a disaster” and “definitely
Nelson, who shot scenes involved — was Olivia Colman, not trained”, for the Vaughn
in an undisclosed role for the according to the film’s narrator, family pet Chip on the first
sandy sequel, only to be cut Helen Mirren. The pair shot an day of filming. The scorned
entirely. “I am heartbroken on-screen scene in which they feline is now rumoured to be
over that, but there’s drunkenly clashed over “who is working on a tell-all memoir
no hard feelings,” the the real grande dame of British penned by Elly Conway.
actor said. actresses,” Mirren confirmed. BETH WEBB

JUNE 2024 15
 Who ya
gonna call?
WITH FROZEN EMPIRE GET TING MIX E D REACTIONS,
W E D ON OU R PR OTON PACKS TO DEBATE THE FUTURE
O F THE GHOST BUSTERS FRANCHISE RUSSELL MOORCROFT

Chris Hewitt (Executive Editor): I like all the fleshed-out, and then did the dirty on them.
Ghostbusters movies, but the only one I love is Nick: Perhaps it’s because of the ‘Ghost-Bros’.
the original, and I feel that they haven’t gotten This franchise has a very hardcore following;
close to recapturing the magic of that film yet. people worship the original film. Ghostbusters is
Alex Godfrey (Features Editor): I really liked irreverent itself, always poking fun at stuff, so
Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The new crew were I think it’s strange that there’s a tribe of people
fantastic, Carrie Coon and Mckenna Grace who get aggressive if the franchise tries to move
especially. I thought that this sequel would away from its roots.
be a sequel to Afterlife, but it feels just as much Alex: Do you think that Jason Reitman and
like a sequel to the first two films as well. Gil Kenan made this film in response to those
Chris: Weirdly, the thing that is holding this people in the same way that J.J. Abrams did with
iteration of this franchise back is the original Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker?
Ghostbusters. I think if they cut those guys loose Nick: I think to an extent. Otherwise why
and focus on this compelling, likeable cadre of include a scene in which someone is reciting the
main characters that Gil Kenan and Jason lyrics from the Ray Parker Jr song?
Reitman created, they would have a really solid Chris: I think it’s more about the filmmakers
franchise going forward. trying to recapture the spirit of a film that they
Nick de Semlyen (Editor): Afterlife was quite fell in love with. And that means crowbarring in
timid in its own way, because it brought in new as many cameos as they can possibly get from
characters and a new setting but then clung the original cast. Sometimes it works.
to the Gozer mythology from the first film. Nick: The frustrating thing about Frozen
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire at least brought in Empire is that there are good ideas in there.
a new bad guy. I enjoyed the freshness of that, I really enjoyed the stuff with the ghost
but I think that they now need to cut all ties character — even if it was a little bit Casper countries. Every country has its own unique
with the past. — but it felt like that got pushed to the side. kinds of ghosts and its own mythology. You
Alex: I’d be interested to know why they The new tech was cool, expanding the lore. could have a really great Ghostbusters film set
didn’t do that for Frozen Empire, because I interviewed Dan Aykroyd years ago, and he in England or Japan, for example.
they built up something so interesting, mentioned all these plans that they had for Chris: You’ve got to be careful, though, because
introduced these new characters who were so setting the Ghostbusters films in different you’re raising the spectre — no pun intended —

MAYDAY EDDINGTON THE MAN WITH THE BAG

Filming has begun on the Emma Stone, Joaquin Ho-ho-holy moly! Arnold
new action-adventure from Phoenix, Austin Butler and Schwarzenegger and
Jonathan Goldstein and Pedro Pascal will lead the Alan Ritchson are set to
John Francis Daley, the all-star line-up for Ari Aster’s flex their comedic muscles
writer-director duo behind next A24-backed feature. in Adam Shankman’s
Dungeons & Dragons: Production on the film, (Hairspray) upcoming festive
Honour Among Thieves. a project once enigmatically family caper. Shooting
Bound for Apple TV+, the described by Aster as later this year, the film
film — the plot of which is a “Western-noir dark sees Santa turning to
shrouded in secrecy — will ensemble comedy”, his naughty list for help
star Ryan Reynolds is already underway in when his magic sack
opposite Kenneth Branagh. New Mexico. is stolen.

WORDS JORDAN KING

16 JUNE 2024
 always freaks me out. The demon dogs, the
painting that comes alive, that stuff is genuinely
creepy. I want the next one to be as freaky as
possible. The possessed pizza was a step in the
right direction.
Alex: I really enjoyed James Acaster in this
film with his deadpan delivery, and I saw
that a lot of people felt the same way. He’d be
a brilliant Ghostbuster.
Nick: He was great, but the film was too
overstuffed with characters.
Alex: I liked Paul Rudd in Afterlife. I thought
his relationship with Carrie Coon was really
interesting, but now they’re just ‘happily ever
after’ and there’s nothing for them to do. Then
with the legacy cast, I think they just expected
that these people would show up and the
audience would love it.
Nick: I would keep Dan Aykroyd in the
franchise moving forward, because Ray is the
heart of Ghostbusters. Do you set him up as
the Nick Fury of the films, just turning up in
little appearances?
Chris: I think that Aykroyd has got this
incredible facility for making gobbledygook
sound a) palatable and b) plausible. One of
my favourite scenes from the first movie is
Ray and Winston [Ernie Hudson] talking about
The Book Of The Dead. It’s quite a serious,
sombre scene.
of Men In Black: International. You don’t Empire, the one on the beach with the icicles Nick: Exactly. It doesn’t all need to be
want Ghostbusters: International. But I do popping up, but it never really follows through comedy riffs.
agree. I think there’s a huge scope for future on that. Chris: The main thing is, it needs to jettison
instalments with Ghostbusters. I’d also like to Nick: There’s spooky stuff from the first film some characters, I honestly wouldn’t have
see it return to being scary. that has stuck in my head for decades. The fur minded if they’d killed someone. Maybe it’s time
Alex: I like the Jaws sequence in Frozen coat that comes alive and runs down the street that Ghostbusters had some stakes.

MERCY SNL 1975 UNTITLED NOAH THE ACCOUNTANT 2 OH. WHAT. FUN
Rebecca Ferguson and Dylan O’Brien will play BAUMBACH PROJECT Ben Affleck is set to Arnie’s not the only one
Chris Pratt have been cast comedy legend Dan Greta Gerwig has joined return as the titular feeling festive this month.
in an original sci-fi thriller Aykroyd in Jason Reitman’s the cast of her Barbie number-crunching Michelle Pfeiffer is
from Timur Bekmambetov real-time retelling of the co-writer and husband’s (and bone-crunching) attached to lead The Idea
(Wanted). Set in a dystopian chaotic moments preceding next Netflix film. Penned by Christian Wolff in the Of You director Michael
near-future, the film — the first episode of Saturday Baumbach and Emily long-gestating sequel to the Showalter’s Home Alone-ish
which is looking at a spring Night Live. Shooting has Mortimer, the line-up 2016 movie. The follow-up, seasonal comedy about
shoot — follows the already started on the includes Adam Sandler, filming now, finds Wolff a woman whose family
attempts of a detective movie, which has a stacked George Clooney, Laura teaming up with his accidentally leave her
(Pratt) to clear his name cast that includes Rachel Dern, Riley Keough, Eve estranged brother behind while on a festive
after being accused of Sennott, Gabriel LaBelle, Hewson and Jim Broadbent. Brax (Jon Bernthal) to outing. ‘The Idea Of
a violent crime. and Nicholas Braun. What a Kensemble! solve a murder. Yule’, anybody?
Getty Images

JUNE 2024 17
 Owen
Teague
THE R ISING STAR ON
TR ANS ITIONING FROM
MA N TO BEAST FOR
KINGDOM OF THE PL ANET
OF THE APES
W O R D S H AY L E Y C A M P B E L L

MATTHEW SALACUSE

WHEN OWEN TEAGUE WAS FOUR YEARS

old, he saw Disney’s Beauty And The Beast and
wanted to be in it. Not do a voice in it — actually
be in it. “My mum was like, ‘Um, okay, sure, but
that’s an animation. There are community
theatres you can audition for?’” So he started
doing community theatre, mostly musicals.
Then, in 2005, Peter Jackson’s King Kong
arrived. Seven-year-old Owen was bewitched.
When his mum explained that King Kong was
played by an actual guy in a performance-
capture suit, Teague saw his future.
Almost 20 years later, he is that guy. In
Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes, Teague
plays the lead, Noa, a young chimpanzee born
nearly 300 years after the events of the last film
in the franchise. After a successful audition
aping around in a self-tape on the floor of his
apartment, Teague says the hardest part of the
role was figuring out the voice. Set centuries
after the previous films, when the apes were just
starting to figure out speech, Teague didn’t want
to copy what came before — but it also had to be Above and below:
something that could believably come out of Owen Teague,
a chimpanzee. “There were a couple of weeks photographed
where I was like, ‘I have no idea how I’m going exclusively for
to say these words when we start filming.’” Empire in New York
Not entirely knowing what he’s doing is City on 20 March
part of Teague’s MO. “Every job I have I’m like, 2024. Far right:
‘Man, I have no idea how to be an actor,’” he Monkey business:
laughs. “I’m starting from scratch! [I think], as Noa, the hero in
‘I suck, and this is going to be my last job ever.’” Kingdom Of The
Despite Teague’s self-doubt, he has been Planet Of The Apes.
consistently employed since he was 14. Now 25,
with a sizeable CV, Apes is his biggest role yet.
Prior to this, he has been in three Stephen King

18 JUNE 2024
 THE SHOW
SUITS
“I was in Florida
recently for a couple
of months, which is
where I grew up,
and my mum had adaptations: he was a survivor in
gotten into Suits. 2016’s apocalyptic Cell; he played the
One night I watched bully Patrick Hockstetter in both
an episode with her, instalments of It; and he embodied
and it became this the iconic Harold Lauder in the 2020
little ritual where TV adaptation of The Stand. Apart
we’d watch an
episode before bed.
from being a lifelong fan, why is he so
right for King’s stories? “I have one
of those faces,” he grins. “I make
IT’S TIME TO SMELL
THE GLOVE AGAIN
It was really sweet.
I don’t know if it’s a good villain. But I think I grew up
a good show!” on a lot of horror-esque material.”
Sweeney Todd is still his favourite
THE ALBUM musical. He loves Tim Burton and ROCK ’N’ ROLL’S MOST PUNCTUAL BAND
NORMA The Lord Of The Rings. When other ARE FINALLY RE TURNING WITH SPINAL
BY MON LAFERTE kids were running around dressed as TAP II. HE RE ARE TE N REASONS TO BE
Styling: Nico Amarca. Styling Assistant: Joanna Fu. Grooming: Bruce Wayne. Main shot: Coat, Hugo Boss; Suit, Hugo Boss; Shirt, Michael Kors; Shoes, Sebago.

“It’s based on all the knights or princesses, Teague was E XCITE D FOR THE COME DY SEQUE L
things she heard pretending to be Gollum. “I was
when she was never the attractive hero in my 1 THE WHOLE BAND IS BACK Top: Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), Nigel Tufnel
dancing in retro little childhood fantasies. I was Frontman David St. Hubbins (Michael (Christopher Guest) and David St. Hubbins (Michael
ballrooms. It’s really, always some screwed-up thing. I was McKean), guitarist Nigel Tufnel McKean). Above: Rob Reiner’s Marty DiBergi in Tap.
really cool.” a weird kid!” (Christopher Guest) and bassist Derek Below: Tap II’s Paul McCartney and Questlove.
Next up, he’s in the untitled new Smalls (Harry Shearer) are reuniting
THE BOOK Brad Ingelsby (creator of Mare Of for their first proper feature film in 6 AND NEW MID-GIG TOMFOOLERY
FAITH, HOPE AND Easttown) show for HBO alongside four decades. (Okay, there was 1992 This Is Spinal Tap saw the trio get lost
CARNAGE Mark Ruffalo. He can’t tell us concert film The Return Of Spinal Tap, backstage and trapped in futuristic
BY NICK CAVE anything about it, except that it’s a but that’s just nitpicking, isn’t it?) pods. What will go wrong this time?
AND SEÁN kind of character he’s never played Our guess: everything.
O’HAGAN before (“I’m wearing my pants 2 AND SO IS MARTY DIBERGI
“I love Nick Cave’s somewhere around my mid-thighs. The director of Kramer Vs. Kramer Vs. 7 CAMEOS WILL ABOUND
Like the waistband. I’ll tell you Godzilla and This Is Spinal Tap, in fact Paul McCartney, Questlove and Garth
Far left: Suit, Hugo Boss; Shirt, Paul Smith; Socks and shoes, stylist’s own. Additional imagery: Getty Images

way of looking at
the world and how that”). After that, he would love to a fictional filmmaker played by Rob Brooks are all confirmed to appear as
he relates to his do more performance-capture. “I’ve Reiner, is on board again, despite the themselves. Could it be Tap are no
fans and grief. I’m never had so much fun in my entire band accusing him of having a fake longer opening for puppet shows?
not religious, but his life!” he says. “Once you forget about beard on the DVD commentary.
relationship with the fact that you’re covered in dots 8 THE SOUND WILL BE RICHER
that is beautiful and and wearing tights and there’s 3 IT’S REVIVING THE There have been great advancements
fascinating to me.” a camera strapped to your head, MOCKUMENTARY in Dobly technology since 1984.
there’s so much freedom in it. You Eugene Levy recently lamented the
have this entire other dimension to sub-genre’s passing — here’s a chance 9 THEY’RE SHOOTING IN
work in.” His childhood dream of starring in an for a mock-rock-doc to put it back NEW ORLEANS
animation wasn’t so crazy, after all. in vogue. Tap heading to Louisiana suggests
there will be a bluesier flavour to their
KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES IS IN CINEMAS 4 WE’LL CATCH UP ON THEIR shenanigans this time around. Will a
FROM 10 MAY HISTORY drummer die in a freak gumbo accident?
How many drummers have expired
since 1984? Has their music evolved? 10 TAP WILL MEET TECH
Did Artie Fufkin ever get his ass Influencers. TikTok. AI. The music
kicked? Hopefully these urgent scene has changed radically since the
questions will be answered. ’80s. Will Tap handle the changes
gracefully? We highly doubt it.
5 THERE WILL BE NEW SONGS
New anthems will join the 11. THIS ONE GOES UP TO 11
likes of ‘Hell Hole’ and ‘Big Like Nigel Tufnel’s
Bottom’ (sample lyric: legendary amp, this movie is
“Talk about mud flaps/ going to get one louder.
My gal’s got ’em”). We Head to your nearest
assume they’ll tread mosh-pit and await
the fine line between the mayhem.
stupid and clever. NICK DE SEMLYEN

JUNE 2024 19
 EL I ROTH IN TR ODUCES THE UNRULY OU TCASTS AT THE HEART OF Borderlands is a goofy game series about
a swarm of odd criminals descending on
HIS VIDEO - GA ME ADAPTATION BORDERLANDS a ravaged planet, Pandora, to raid it for treasure.
In the movie, Blanchett plays Lilith, a criminal
WORDS OLLY RICHARDS “Cate Blanchett is the greatest and any who’s strong-armed into finding the daughter
movie I make, she’s the first person I’m of Atlas (Edgar Ramirez), the most powerful
ELI ROTH WORKS by the adage that if you going to go to,” says Roth, which makes arms manufacturer in the universe. During
don’t ask, you don’t get. When it came to casting sense — who wouldn’t want Blanchett playing that quest, Lilith reluctantly finds herself in
Borderlands, his “sci-fi spaghetti Western” the lead in anything at all? — but doesn’t a gang of misfits — all with their own reasons
adaptation of the hit loot-’em-up video-game explain how he persuaded her to say yes to to hate Atlas — who have a collective interest
franchise, he wanted an awards-calibre cast. taking on a gun-toting outlaw with lollipop- in hunting down something very valuable in
And, somehow, he got it. coloured hair. an underground vault.

20 JUNE 2024
 Roth and Blanchett had worked together
before on 2018 family fantasy The House With
A Clock In Its Walls. It was a conversation on that
Clockwise set that gave Roth the idea that Blanchett may
from left: be up for something crazy. “She loves Escape
The misfits: From New York,” says Roth. “It’s her favourite
Lilith (Cate movie. But nobody would know that because
Blanchett), why would you ask her about Escape From New
Roland (Kevin York when you’re interviewing her about Lydia
Hart), Tiny Tár?” He says she jumped at the chance to “do
Tina (Ariana this incredible kind of Kurt Russell [character]”.
Greenblatt), Once Blanchett was on board, everyone
Krieg (Florian wanted to be involved. “Jamie Lee Curtis was
Munteanu) then in like that,” says Roth. She plays Tannis,
and Tannis a scientist studying Pandora who Lilith calls on
(Jamie Lee to help find the missing pieces to a key that will
Curtis); Don’t open the vault. When Empire spoke to Blanchett
mess with last year, she described working with Curtis as
gun-toting “like I’d died and gone to heaven”, and Roth says
criminal Lilith; that chemistry was instantaneous: “When you
Director Eli saw them on set it was like they’d been making
Roth with movies together for 30 years.”
a gang of Also in the gang are Kevin Hart as Roland,
Pandora an AWOL soldier. Roth calls the role a big
baddies. change for the comedian. “We talked about
when Will Smith went from being the Fresh
Prince to doing Bad Boys,” he summarises. Hart
took to the action elements so quickly that Roth
kept adding new sequences to push him further.
“Kevin is a serious athlete and a fighter. I asked
him, ‘Have you ever killed anyone in a movie?’
He said no. I said, ‘I’m going to have you kill
hundreds of people.’”
It turns out that Roland is the man holding
Atlas’ daughter, Tiny Tina, a snarky munitions
expert played by Ariana Greenblatt, who Roth
signed up before she’d been cast in Barbie (the
Borderlands shoot took place in mid-2021).
Rounding things out are Florian Munteanu
as Krieg, Tiny Tina’s musclebound psycho
guardian, and Jack Black as the voice of
mechanical sidekick Claptrap. The latter was
another House With The Clock In Its Walls
reunion. “I just thought, ‘What if we paired
Cate and Jack again, but this time Jack’s an
annoying robot?’” laughs Roth.
Having assembled this highly eclectic cast,
Roth didn’t just want them there to sell the
comedy. He wanted them to throw themselves
into every gun-toting, alien-crushing, monster-
exploding part of the movie. “You’ve seen
[Blanchett] twirling the baton [in Tár], but you
haven’t seen her twirling guns behind her back,”
says Roth. “She’s a master at it. A big part of the
fun of the movie is watching it and thinking,
‘I can’t believe they all did this crazy stuff.’ Cate
with a flame-thrower — a real flame-thrower
— come on! That’s pretty badass.” Is it likely
to be the film that brings Blanchett her third
Oscar? No. Is it likely to be a Blanchett role
unlike any other? Oh hell, yes.
OLLY RICHARDS

BORDERLANDS IS IN CINEMAS FROM 9 AUGUST

JUNE 2024 21
 1 2

The
Crow
W E D ISSECT THE FIRST
3 4
LO OK AT THE REBOOTED
DA R K AVENGER
Alex Godfrey (Features Editor): The original
film was iconic because the character, Eric
Draven, was cool and a big old goth, and it stood
out from the other superhero films that were
happening at the time. Dare I say it — what
happened to Brandon Lee (the lead actor was
fatally wounded by a prop gun while filming) gave
The Crow legendary status. 5 6
Beth Webb (News Editor): I remember that
there was a coven of girls in my A-Level Film sounds like it’s been borrowed from (500) Days Beth: It looks like the music videos that I’d
Studies class that worshipped that film. It has Of Summer. come home from school and watch on Kerrang!
such a die-hard following. John Nugent (Reviews Editor): I wonder or MTV2. It’s all very dark and saturated and
Alex: I think that there needed to be a lot of if they’ve got a “Live, Laugh, Love” poster in grainy. There’s a lot of pretty people dying. This
time before this story was approached again. their flat. is basically the trailer accompaniment to
Graham Jones (Deputy Art Director): The Sophie: But a black one, with skulls all Evanescence’s ‘Bring Me To Life’ music video.
1994 one is a beautiful-looking film. It has around it. Ben: I’m a Crow newbie, and a bit confused.
a heavily Gothic feel to it. And because Brandon Alex: Danny Huston has become a bit of a rent- Is he being brought back to life to the time after
died during filming, it’s a really early example of a-bad-guy. [3] he was killed or before?
CGI being used. Sophie: He’s always playing a wrong’un, isn’t he? Graham: He’s reborn to avenge them both, so
Ben Travis (Deputy Online Editor): This Alex: As soon as you see that passive-aggressive I think he’s in the present day.
reboot has been in the pipeline for ages, hasn’t evil grin, you know that no good is coming. Ben: I hope that we see a comedy montage
it? Corin Hardy was linked to it for a long time, Beth: They’ve truly gone one step further with where Eric keeps trying shit and dying over and
and Jason Momoa was tipped to star. Eric Draven’s appearance in this version of the over again, Happy Death Day-style.
Beth: Bill Skarsgård is a solid choice for this. [1] story, haven’t they? [4] Beth: This shot makes me think that the film
He’s got a tortured presence about him; he was Sophie: It’s a wild look. The tattoos are will be catering to the Ryan Murphy fans who
so chilling in the It films, and then he’s getting incredible. He looks painfully ripped as well. have watched every single episode of American
creepy in Nosferatu later this year. Graham: He looks like a skinny John Cena. Horror Story. [5]
Sophie Butcher (Social Media Editor): He’s Ben: I think this SoundCloud-rapper look is Sophie: It reminds me of True Blood: Season 5,
proving himself as an action hero as well; he’s important. The subtext of the ’90s film was which I’ve just been watching.
got Boy Kills World out soon, which looks that it was post-Kurt Cobain and Eric was John: There are certainly video-game levels of
intense, and he was in John Wick: Chapter 4 really co-opting that appearance. With the violence in this trailer.
last year. This feels like it could be a step even SoundCloud rap scene, a few of those musicians Beth: It’s not hugely realistic, though. It’s got
further in that direction. have died, including Lil Peep, who’s been a pulpy feel to it.
Alex: He’s going for these massive, freaky a reference for the film. I think there’s John: I like that the goths can have a film once
psycho roles and really committing to them. a connection between real-life tragedy and in a while. Just let them have a film, and that can
He’s the newly crowned prince of emo. He has this character. get them off the streets. [6]
a taste for the unhinged in the kind of projects Beth: The original film kills the couple off very Alex: I don’t know if the streets are overrun
that he likes to do. I say bring it on. early on in the story. But with this adaptation, with goths.
Beth: There’s such palpable chemistry we’ll see more of Eric and Shelly’s [Twigs] John: I worry about them in the summer
between him and FKA twigs as well. [2] She relationship before they’re killed. This trailer because they wear really thick leather. They
has a unique, impressive physicality through covers a lot of ground. look so uncomfortable. Let’s get them all into
her dancing. Ben: I’ve got to say, after Sophie and I watched a nice, air-conditioned multiplex to watch this.
Alex: She’s got an ethereal quality to her, hasn’t this trailer yesterday, we were both Googling Ben: They survived the summer of Barbie. They
Getty Images

she? And she was brilliant in Honey Boy. Evanescence. deserve this.
Beth: I’ve got to say, there’s a soppy feel to Sophie: There is a real noughties vibe to
some of the dialogue. “You feel like my person” this trailer. THE CROW IS IN CINEMAS FROM 7 JUNE

22 JUNE 2024
 ‘ALBALA’
SAMBA TOURÉ
IO CAPITANO
The gently rhythmic strums of
Touré’s acoustic guitar during this
Oscar-nominated migrant drama make
for an easy, relaxing listen.

‘DUEL OF THE FATES’

JOHN WILLIAMS
STAR WARS: THE PHANTOM MENACE (RE-RELEASE) A HORROR PROTÉGÉ HEADS
INTO THE WOODS
Williams’ iconic music dominates the
renowned battle between Darth Maul,
Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon Jinn, as a chanting
choir joins forces with furious French horns.
The resulting track feels at once mysterious ISHANA NIGHT SHYAMALAN
and urgent. ON BREAKING AWAY WITH
HE R DIRECTORIAL DE BUT,
‘YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME’ THE WATCHE RS
BON JOVI
THE FALL GUY HOW DOES SOMEONE who’s grown
An iconic, thumping bassline and Jon Bon up surrounded by scary films purge
Jovi’s raw vocals help in teasing the themselves of fear? They make scary
complicated relationship between Ryan films themselves. Such has been the
Gosling’s stunt man and his director case with Ishana Night Shyamalan,
(Emily Blunt). who, as her surname suggests, has
been exposed to the genre since her
‘NICE MOVER’ childhood. “I remember he showed us
GINA X PERFORMANCE Poltergeist very, very early on, and that
LOVE LIES BLEEDING was absolutely terrifying,” laughs the
An epic montage of eggs, sex, biceps and 23-year-old Shyamalan while recalling
weapons is set to this bold and striking slice movie nights with her father, M. Night.
of electro-punk in Rose Glass’ pulpy When they weren’t glued to the screen,
bodybuilding thriller. her sister would pull her hair over her
face, pretend to be the girl from The
‘BABY ONE MORE TIME’ Ring, and chase her around the house.
TENACIOUS D Shyamalan’s progression into this
KUNG FU PANDA 4 kind of filmmaking feels inevitable — Top to bottom: Mina (Dakota Fanning) comes
Letting Jack Black’s powerhouse vocals loose she worked as second-unit director over all Blair Witch; Ishana Night Shyamalan on
in any movie is never a bad thing, and his on Old and Knock At The Cabin and set; Ever feel like you’re being watched?
unique flourishes make this a hilarious helmed six episodes of Servant, the
rendition of a Britney classic. show M. Night co-directed and [as a] young person in this world,” she
produced — but it also feels full-blooded. explains. “During the writing process
LISTEN NOW! HEAD TO THE EMPIRE SPOTIFY Her debut film as a writer-director, I felt like [the movie] was about
ACCOUNT TO HEAR ALL OF THE ABOVE The Watchers, is adapted from a 2021 judgement; the idea of being watched
novel by A.M. Shine. It follows Mina and how uncomfortable that can be.”
(Dakota Fanning), who, after getting When it came to the look and feel of
stranded in a remote Irish forest, the film, she drew on some old masters,
becomes trapped in a glass building with with hints of Andrei Tarkovsky via Lars
three strangers, all of them surveyed von Trier. “We were really inspired by
by unseen, sinister creatures. “It was Antichrist; the feeling of the forest in
cathartic,” Shyamalan says of making the that movie and how unsettling it is,”
film. “I can put those darker thoughts she recalls of conversations with her
and fears somewhere else, and then be cinematographer. If these are touch-
a person who is much more full of light.” points for a filmmaker using horror to
Shyamalan’s personal perspective exorcise her dark thoughts, Shyamalan
has been integral to carving out her own may just be the happiest person on the
filmmaking voice. It’s why she was so planet. BETH WEBB
drawn to Mina. “I built her to represent
some of the emotions that I deal with THE WATCHERS IS IN CINEMAS FROM 14 JUNE

JUNE 2024 23
 Ghouls
gone
wild
FALLOU T ’S WA LTON GOGGINS Goggins explains. In the world of Fallout,
ghoul waters run deep.
O N PL AYING A N ANARCHIC, Having not played the games (his
character was created for the show), the actor
NO SELESS A NTIHERO decided to take inspiration from James Arness’
performance as a battle-worn US Marshal
WORDS BETH WEBB in long-running ’50s Western drama series
Gunsmoke when building up his surly yet
PRIME VIDEO’S NEW post-apocalyptic sci-fi misunderstood outlaw. Because, aside from
series Fallout, adapted from the seminal his radiation-charred exterior, this guy shares
video-game franchise, sees among its various little else with the remaining mutants that roam
species a population of former humans, warped this retrofuturistic world (he’s even partial to
by radiation from a devastating nuclear war. snacking on them). The effects of the war have
They are known as ‘ghouls’, and Walton significantly extended The Ghoul’s lifespan, but
Goggins plays ‘The Ghoul’: a gnarly, noseless, his past life as Cooper still lingers. “You have to
wisecracking cowboy who has managed to understand the world that he was living in
remain highly functional and more human- beforehand to really contemplate the horrors
like in nature while others of his kind have that he’s seen over the last 200 years and why
become feral. “I’ve been given the opportunity he’s still alive,” says Goggins. “Why doesn’t he
to play morally ambiguous characters for just succumb to becoming a [feral] ghoul or put
a long time,” the actor, who’s left his murky a bullet in his head?”
mark on shows like Justified and The Shield, Goggins’ relationship with his character
tells Empire cheerfully. “I can be funny to Top to bottom: He nose, you know: Walton Goggins as The has even slipped into his subconscious. The
some people and maybe engender some Ghoul, a nasally challenged bounty-hunter in a world where frequent napper describes one lunchtime
pathos for horrible people. That’s what I like many humans have been hugely disfigured by a nuclear war. snooze on set while filming the show. “I was
to think. Or maybe it’s because Sam Rockwell having this strange, vivid ghoul dream and
was unavailable.” civilisation of vault-dwellers established by the I remember waking up and thinking, ‘Thank
The Ghoul — once a gentle-natured wealthy while the war ravaged the Earth’s God I’m not that person,’” he recalls. “And
Hollywood actor called Cooper Howard — surface (and the less fortunate humans who then I raised my head up and looked in the
makes a living as a bounty-hunter, and in true remained above ground). Their differences mirror — I forgot that I had make-up on —
cowboy style abides by his own moral code. bring out The Ghoul’s saltier side, although as and went, ‘Holy fuck!’” What The Ghoul lacks
“I want to survive and I will do anything in order the series progresses and more of Cooper’s past in facial features, he sure makes up for in
to survive,” says Goggins of the character. In the life comes into the story, the lines between lasting impressions.
show, his vocation leads him to kidnap Lucy antagonist and protagonist blur. “The Ghoul is
(Ella Purnell), who hails from an underground funny as shit, but he’s masking a lot of pain,” FALLOUT IS ON PRIME VIDEO FROM 11 APRIL

24 JUNE 2024
 KNOW YOUR
PLUMBOBS FROM
YOUR WOOHOOS Left: Playing
RE AD E MPIRE ’S HANDY GUIDE the game — The
T O THE SI MS A HEAD OF THE IR Sims 4: City
B IG -SCRE E N A DVE NTURE Living. Below:
Director Kate
REALLY? A MOVIE ABOUT THE SIMS? WHAT WILL THAT Herron and
EVEN BE? Sure, it sounds odd. But in a post- producer
LEGO, post-Barbie world, there’s real potential Margot Robbie.
here — especially with Margot Robbie
producing, and Loki’s Kate Herron directing. your bank’ side of the game and immediately on the radio and let’s vibe out to some jaunty
Since The Sims is a life simulator — where furnish your home with the most expensive Simlish pop songs.
players guide Sims into work, relationships, mod-cons. It may well be Orson Welles’ greatest
parenthood and more — you could easily make impact on popular culture. SIMLISH? The official Sims language, duh. For
a social satire, or just go completely wild. Stay The Sims 3, Katy Perry re-recorded her hit ‘Last
tuned to see which actors will get those glowing WHERE’S THE DANGER? THE STAKES DON’T SOUND Friday Night’ entirely in gobbledygook. Here’s
green diamonds above their heads. VERY HIGH. Easy for you to say as a regular human. hoping the film has a banger-filled soundtrack
For Sims, danger lurks everywhere. of Simlish-sung smashes.
GREEN DIAMONDS? Yep. Every Sim has a floating Cooking inevitably leads to house fires,
crystal — technically called a ‘Plumbob’ — while you can catch ‘rabid rodent RIGHT. ARE WE DONE? That about covers it.
indicating their mood and needs that appears fever’ from your pets, or even die
when you’ve clicked on them in the game. If it from laughter — no joke. Not to WOOHOO! Don’t say that. ‘WooHoo’ in
turns yellow, they need help. If it turns red, they mention, countless Sims have the Sims world is the official term
need a total lifestyle overhaul. been killed by cruel gamers for… you know… making baby Sims.
who lure their avatars into It’s an ambiguous but vigorous
HMM. THIS HARDLY SOUNDS LIKE CITIZEN KANE. swimming pools, remove the affair, all bouncing bedsheets and
Wait, come back! Citizen Kane actually factors steps, and let them drown. backflipping pillows.
in here. The game’s most famous cheat code is
‘Rosebud’ — a get-rich-quick cash-booster, so BUMMER. CAN WE BRING THE I WISH I DIDN’T KNOW THIS. Too late.
you can skip the whole ‘find a job, slowly build MOOD UP A BIT? Fine, stick Game over. BEN TRAVIS

JOHN NUGENT IS THINKING BETH WEBB IS THINKING N I C K D E S E M LY E N I S T H I N K I N G

A B O U T… A I R B N B I N G T H E A B O U T… S T R E S S E D S I S T E R S A B O U T… T H E R O C K ’ S
A N AT O M Y O F A FA L L H O U S E I never see nuns having a great time anymore. OWNERSHIP RIGHTS
The French ski lodge featured in Justine Triet’s They’re either pregnant with the devil in The First No longer am I able to happily dispense the phrase
drama has quietly popped up on AirBnB for €90 Omen, pregnant with something equally “roody poo”, or tell someone they’re a “candy ass”.
Marco Vittur

a night. It’s a very brave couple who’d take unpleasant in Immaculate, or slaying demons in Because The Rock has copyrighted those, plus
a romantic trip there. Maybe just make sure there Warrior Nun. Give them a mountainside and other bons mots like “Team Bring It” and “jabroni”.
are witnesses? And for God’s sake, take a dog. a rousing musical number already. It’s frankly a roody poo start to my 2024. Oops.

JUNE 2024 25
 A new
THERE’S A GNARLY bunch of brutes in The
Bikeriders. On the surface, at least: Jeff Nichols’
drama, inspired by photojournalist Danny
Lyon’s 1968 book documenting motorbike
gang the Outlaws, gets to know the men behind

gang of
the leather jackets. Using Lyon’s photos as
a springboard to unpack American masculinity,
Nichols fictionalises the world, presenting
a gang called the Vandals, with a formidable
cast bringing them to life. He gives us the
down-and-dirty lowdown.

rebel
BENNY (AUSTIN BUTLER)
A smouldering livewire, Benny is a dangerous,
enigmatic mystery. “In the book he seems a bit
like a myth,” says Nichols. “And that was the
line of thinking when I started to build that

riders
character. He’s a stand-in for this unattainable,
probably unrealistic human being.” And the
director found the perfect embodiment in the
form of Austin Butler. “The minute I was
shaking his hand, I just was like, ‘Wow, this

gear up
is a good-looking guy,’” he remembers of
meeting the actor. “But he’s so disarming in
how generous and nice and polite he is. It is
a bit of a mask, I think. That guy’s got some
serious gears at work under there.”

KATHY (JODIE COMER)

A Chicago woman who can’t resist Benny’s
JEF F NICHO LS BREAKS DOWN charms, even though he’s a violent mess of character from there. “She’s a woman in the
a man. “Kathy is the heart of the movie, and 1960s that’s struggling to understand her place
THE MOTLE Y MOTORCYCLE also the conscience,” says Nichols. “She’s the in this very specific world. And Jodie really
lens through which this club is interpreted.” embraced that. She really worked on it, to carry
CREW AT TH E HEART OF Much of her dialogue is directly taken from all of those complications.”
Lyon’s original interviews with the real-life
TH E B IKERID ERS Kathy, which Comer studied intricately JOHNNY (TOM HARDY)
(“Kathy’s got this great snort that Jodie could At first glance, Vandals leader Johnny is an
WORDS ALEX GODFREY do,” says Nichols) — but the director built the archetypal alpha but, as Tom Hardy plays him,

26 JUNE 2024
 “I fear that the cheesy
movie speech is on the
brink of extinction”

A M E L I A TA IT ON WHY WE NEED A RETURN

TO THE GLORY DAYS OF ROU S ING,
QUOTABLE DIALOGU E

Facing page, top to bottom: Riding for a fall? Benny SOMETIMES — AND BY sometimes motivated his soldiers to charge towards
(Austin Butler) and Kathy (Jodie Comer); Mike Faist as I mean often, and by often I mean death — at the Battle Of Waterloo,
Danny Lyon, writer of the film’s source material; Kathy, the alarmingly often — I will sit down to Phoenix offers a trite, “Never surrender,”
heart of the movie; Tom Hardy channels his inner Brando as watch the famous, furious monologue and, “For homeland and glory.”
Johnny. Here, top to bottom: The Vandals hit the road; from Ridley Scott’s Gladiator. “My This is no King Théoden telling the
What started as fun turns into something more sinister. name is Maximus Decimus Meridius,” riders of Rohan, “Spear shall be shaken,
it begins — and so, too, do my shield be splintered, a sword-day, a red
he’s eccentric and affected. “There’s this really goosebumps — “Commander of the day, ere the sun rises!” The cheese from
seductive quality to his performance,” says Armies of the North, General of the Felix my childhood recurs in my brain: “You
Nichols. “A vulnerability that really raises what Legions, and loyal servant to the true best start believing in ghost stories,
was written on the page.” Also not on the page: emperor, Marcus Aurelius.” Russell Miss Turner — yer in one!” from 2003’s
Johnny’s nasal voice. There’s a scene, inspired Crowe’s gladiator stares into the eyes of Pirates Of The Caribbean, and the
by the book, in which Johnny watches Marlon Joaquin Phoenix’s trembling emperor intentionally parodical, “Hello. My name
Brando in The Wild One, and Hardy latched onto Commodus as he continues: “Father to is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father.
that. He didn’t let Nichols hear the voice until a murdered son, husband to a murdered Prepare to die” from 1987’s The Princess
they were rolling. “We were on set on the first wife. And I will have my vengeance, in Bride. I genuinely can’t remember the
day and he starts to talk. I sit there for a second this life or the next.” last time a movie speech made me want
and I’m kind of processing it. Then Tom goes, Just typing this out makes me to stand up, snap my fingers and scream.
‘What do you think?’ And I was like… ‘I fucking want to jump up onto the table in this In recent years, audiences have
love it!’” café I’m writing in, throw a chair across accused screenwriters of deliberately
the room and scream, “YEAAAAH!” in constructing lines that can be turned
DANNY (MIKE FAIST) the faces of strangers. It’s just so good. into GIFs, with screenwriter James
“That character is a bit of a device,” admits Will a similar speech feature in the Capel admitting, “Becoming a meme
Nichols of Danny — in fact, Danny Lyon, whose upcoming, extravagantly budgeted totally helps.” I worry about the rise
book inspired the film. “These people unburden Gladiator sequel, starring Paul Mescal of shareable soundbites, which means
themselves to this young man, and his camera, and out this November? I fear not. I fear that dialogue is often prized for its
which I think happened in real life. I needed that the cheesy movie speech is on the relatability. Of course, earnest speeches
someone that could just be there without brink of extinction. And if this trend haven’t totally disappeared — many
imposing themselves on these situations.” He continues, I will have my vengeance. people, after all, enjoyed America
found that in Mike Faist — although the job (In this life. Or the next.) Ferrera’s monologue in Barbie — but
looked deceptively simple, continues Nichols. Take, for example, a more recent true cheese, to me, is unrealistically
“Because you’re like, ‘Hey, all of that stuff that Ridley Scott epic, also featuring Joaquin poetic and spine-tinglingly over-the-top.
you do that makes you so compelling to watch Phoenix — 2023’s Napoleon. Rousing It’s fundamentally unrelatable — the
— I just need you to tuck it inside.’ It’s amazing speeches were swapped for comical kind of thing you would never have
to find an actor at that age that has control over one-liners: “You think you’re so great cause to say in your everyday life.
that, and Mike did. I’m proud of him. I’m proud because you have boats!”; “I am enjoying My name is Amelia Bernadette
Marco Vittur

of all of them.” Get ready to ride. a succulent breakfast!” Though the (I know) Tait. Lover of film, admirer of
movie’s battle scenes were magnificent, great writing, and loyal servant to the
THE BIKERIDERS IS IN CINEMAS FROM 21 JUNE there is little sense of how Napoleon true emperor, the cheesy speech.

JUNE 2024 27
 A comedy
classic’s
number
is up
STEV E P EMBERTON AND was this couple we once saw on the Tube. there’s a caper element to the story, “like
They sat down in their anoraks and proceeded Manhattan Murder Mystery or Only Murders
REECE SHEA R SMITH ON to get out an apple each and eat them at the In The Building”.
same time. It’s something that’s tickled us
REASO NS TO BE EXCITED for years.” IT GETS PSYCHOLOGICAL
One episode, ‘The Trolley Problem’, will see
F O R INSIDE NO. 9 ’S NINTH THEY FOUND INSPIRATION IN a psychotherapist played by Pemberton inviting
CLASSIC FILMS a mysterious character (Shearsmith) into his
AND FINA L SEASON The same episode revolves around a kangaroo home on a dark and stormy night. Amazingly,
court forming in a stuck London Underground
W O R D S B O Y D H I LT O N carriage, and takes inspiration from Sidney
Lumet’s 1957 classic, 12 Angry Men. When the
THEY’RE THROWING EVERYTHING cast gathered on set, actor Mark Bonnar told
THEY’VE GOT AT IT Shearsmith that one of his character’s lines
By the time the final episode airs, Steve vaguely reminded him of Juror #3, Lee J. Cobb.
Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith will have “It’s literally a Lee J. Cobb line from the film,”
created 55 totally different half-hour stories Shearsmith told him.
in 55 totally different settings with 55 totally Another episode, ‘Mulberry Close’, which
different casts. Having decided to close No. 9 is set in a suburban house and has its action
for good, the creators took the opportunity shown entirely via a fixed door cam, doffs its
to deploy ideas they’ve been thinking about cap to Hitchcock’s voyeuristic thriller, Rear
for decades. Window. “We knew there would be some kind
Take the episode ‘Boo To A Goose’, which of crime in this cul de sac and Rear Window
features Shearsmith and Siobhan Finneran came into our heads,” says Pemberton.
as an oddball couple. “We finally included “Because the viewers are staring out at that
this thing that’s been hanging over us for frame, they become the detective trying to find
about 20 years,” explains Shearsmith, “which [out] what’s going on.” Shearsmith adds that

28 JUNE 2024
 it is the first instalment of Inside No. 9 to
feature only the show’s creators and nobody
else; Series 4 episode ‘Bernie Clifton’s
Dressing Room’ was almost entirely them,
but featured a brief cameo from Sian Gibson.
“We thought, ‘Let’s see if people can bear
just the two of us for the full half-hour,’”
laughs Pemberton.
The title of the episode refers to, as
Shearsmith puts it, “a real dilemma they posit
in psychology about a certain situation and how
you would deal with it”. That dilemma being:
if a runaway trolley is about to kill five people,
do you divert it onto another track if it will
kill only one? We predict that, whatever the
answer here, there will be blood.

THEY’RE GOING BUST

We’ve seen Pemberton and Shearsmith play
everything in the show from flatulent Germans
to 17th-century witchfinders. But this final
season breaks new ground, in the form of
a voluptuous, blue-haired drag artist in a pink
dress, played by Pemberton. “I hadn’t done
drag at all in Inside No. 9,” he explains, “so
I thought, ‘Let’s get out those boobies!’”

MASTER OF THE POOHNIVERSE

Originally he mooted the idea of Shearsmith
joining him in a drag duo in the ‘Boo To A Goose’
episode, but he went solo in the end. “We
wanted to capture the idea that all human life
is here,” Pemberton says. THE CO - CREATOR OF A NEW basically going to wipe the slate and,
CINE MATIC FRANCHISE ON because of that, we could redesign all
THERE ARE BIG TWISTS THE CROSSOVE R EVE NT the creatures and not be tied into
Inside No. 9 has a rich legacy of jaw-dropping, THAT LITE RALLY NOBODY anything,” Frake-Waterfield explains.
head-spinning twists, involving everything from SAW COMING But the ambitions of the group
hitmen to car crashes to spooky shoes. So it of filmmakers behind Jagged Edge
stands to reason that the final crop of episodes IF YOU GO down to the woods today, Productions didn’t stop there. With
will include their fair share of inventive you’re sure of a big surprise. Not only takes on Peter Pan, Pinocchio and more
rug-pulls. “I can’t believe anyone will guess the will you encounter a homicidal Winnie in the pipeline and as avowed fans of
twist,” says Shearsmith of the ending of ‘Boo To The Pooh and psychotic henchman Freddy Vs. Jason, inspiration struck.
A Goose’, a knowing grin on his face. The pair Piglet, you might also meet an undead “We were all in a room at one point,”
are, of course, staying mum. “Well, it wouldn’t Bambi, a demonic Pinocchio and an Frake-Waterfield recalls, “And we were
be a surprise if we talked about it,” says upsetting incarnation of Captain Hook. like, ‘Wouldn’t it be mad if Pooh rode
BBC/James Stack

Pemberton, logically. Start your predictions This is the Twisted Childhood Bambi?’ And then all of our heads
now. Our guess: that ‘9’ has been an upside- Universe (the TCU): a new, started churning!” The noisy online
down ‘6’ this whole time. interconnected series of low-budget response to the TCU announcement
slashers from the team behind Winnie — ranging from dismay (“Stop, this was
INSIDE NO. 9: SEASON 9 IS ON BBC TWO AND BBC iPLAYER SOON The Pooh: Blood And Honey. These one joke that’s already run out”) to
films, released over the next year, will delight (“Yes. Horror is cooking with
Main: Life’s a drag: feature a who’s who of bedtime-story this”) — was exactly what they had
Steve Pemberton and favourites hacking people to bits, hoped for. “We think this is what fans
Reece Shearsmith in culminating in 2025’s Poohniverse: want, and to see how bloody mad it’s
‘Boo To A Goose’. Monsters Assemble. “There are some been, it seems to be true.”
Left: Neighbourhood very devoted fans of what we’re doing,” Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble,
watch: Vinette says writer/director/producer Rhys currently in pre-production, may not
Robinson (left), Adrian Frake-Waterfield, “but you have an ultimately be the biggest crossover event
Scarborough and equal number of people who are like, of the century, but it could certainly be
Dorothy Atkinson ‘You shouldn’t be doing this!’” the daftest, as all of the aforementioned
join Shearsmith Last year’s viral, childhood-ruining characters, plus Sleeping Beauty, Peter
and Pemberton for sensation Blood And Honey was a result Pan and Tinkerbell, will come together,
‘Mulberry Close’, an of author A.A. Milne’s original story Avengers-style. The team promises
episode seen entirely going out of copyright, and its recently pure bloody carnage, with the all-star
from the POV of released, higher-budget sequel, Blood murderous ensemble bludgeoning each
a door cam. And Honey 2, is essentially a reset, with other as well as their human victims. As
a brand-new grizzled look for Pooh. Disney’s version of Winnie would say,
“We always knew that we were “Oh, bother.” LAURA VENNING

JUNE 2024 29
FILMMAKERS AND TEAM EMPIRE
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 Hannah
Waddingham
THE STA R OF THE FALL GUY
ON SWA PPING A-LISTERS
FOR OATLY

WORDS TARA OKEKE

What’s the best thing you’ve ever stolen old bedroom in her parents’ house and, because into your eyes like there’s no-one else in the room.
from a hotel? the art department asked which posters I wanted It’s the fact that they still bother when neither of
I can’t get arrested for my responses, can I? I’ve her to have, Patrick Swayze is on her wall. them need to. They’re both very, very cool.
had to rename it ‘lovingly rehoming’ because I’m
spectacularly light-fingered. I’m pretty much an Do you have any nicknames? When were you most starstruck?
‘if it ain’t screwed down’ kind of gal. But even if I’m the one that gives nicknames. If I love you, Recently, at the BAFTAs, I met Michael J. Fox.
it is screwed down, if I really like it, I will try and I don’t call you by your given name because I feel I’m a Back To The Future obsessive. It’s in my top
undo the screws. I’ve taken a lamp — just a little, like I’m telling you off. But, for me, it’s ‘Han’. three films of all time. As I was ushered in to
dome-y, wellbeing lamp — and I thought, “I’m just ‘Waddie’. ‘Wadders’. There are a couple of people meet him, I thought, “If I never meet anyone
going to rehome this and love it more than the who call me ‘Anna Paddington’ because they find else ever again, I’m totally cool with that.” Then,
people who might stay in this room in the future.” it hilarious. It’s just the ongoing saga with my at the afterparty, Michael and I exchanged
surname. People have butchered it! Not as bad as details because I’m hopefully going to join his
What do you do better than anyone else? ‘Adele Dazeem’. But, you know, they’ve gone in. organisation for Parkinson’s research. And, as
My knowledge of crisps and the various joys of he moved away from the table, I was absolutely
crisps. You know when you finish a packet and Do you have a signature dish? engulfed with emotion. I was a mess. To meet
there’s all the flavouring stuck in the bottom I’m pretty epic at the old scrambled eggs, somebody who’s made such a mark on you in
corner? A friend of mine and I used to have a sourdough toast and avocado. And I know that your youth and for them to choose to say
category that was ‘best corner’. The best are doesn’t require a lot of cooking, but you get an goodbye to you before they leave — which he
always the supermarket own-brand — the ones egg wrong and that kills the whole plate. didn’t have to do [especially] given his physical
that take off the inner edge of your lips and the constraints — I was so touched. It was a really
roof of your mouth. I’m a salt-and-vinegar purist: What film makes you cry? beautiful, pinch-me moment.
none of your fancy, middle-class, balsamic-cider A Beautiful Mind. After watching it, I sat in the
ones — I want the nastiest, shittiest, really cinema by myself as the cleaners cleaned up and What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
skanky, you’ll-probably-die-after-a-packet ones. had to be asked to leave. And I can’t watch The Humility in all things. After I received
Green Mile without needing a moment either. a scholarship to drama school, my [secondary-
How much is a pint of milk? So, imagine being asked by Tom Hanks to school] drama teacher, Mr Wooley, said to me, “I
I should know this but, in my defence, I don’t interview him one-on-one (Waddingham hosted have no doubt you will make a splash in whatever
drink milk. I’d say Oatly is £1.80 or £2. an in-conversation event with Hanks in 2023). part of this industry you choose, whether it comes
tomorrow” — and this was really quite prophetic
Whose poster was on your wall as a kid? Who’s the best Tom: Cruise or Hanks? — “or in 20 years. But the key to it all is humility.”
150,000,000 per cent Patrick Swayze. He ruined You can’t ask me that! That’s literally the most I’ve never forgotten his words. And I always think
all other men for me. I judge all other men by the impossible question. Both of them have of them in any privileged moment I find myself in.
beauty of Johnny in Dirty Dancing. In fact, there’s something — talent aside — that has made them
the scene in Ted Lasso where Rebecca is in her stand the test of time. It’s how they look right THE FALL GUY IS IN CINEMAS FROM 2 MAY

JUNE 2024 31
1 1 A P R I L - 8 M AY 2 0 2 4 | EDITED BY JOHN NUGENT

Journalists Jessie
(Cailee Spaeny) and Joel
(Wagner Moura) enter
dangerous territory.

32 JUNE 2024
 himself in Men — this is still a film less about its

CIVIL WAR
characters than its ideas.
Slowly, we learn tidbits on how the situation
deteriorated: that Texas and California,
operating under a two-star flag, have joined
HU H! WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? IN ALE X together as the ‘Western Forces’, while a ‘Florida
GARLAND’S HANDS, QUITE A LOT Alliance’ has been defeated. Such details largely
appear, matter-of-factly, in the background,
★★★★ and Garland’s script is deliberately vague; the
OUT 12 APRIL / CERT TBC / 109 MINS reasons for the conflict almost immaterial
compared to the conflict itself. By uniting Texas
DIRECTOR Alex Garland and California, two states traditionally from
CAST KirstenDunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee opposite sides of the political coin, Garland
Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, seems to want to move past the usual political
Nick Offerman binaries and look at the bigger picture. Anyone
hoping for a direct commentary on the state of
PLOT The United States is ravaged by civil war. things in 2024 might find this a frustrating act of
As the conflict reaches its climax, a group of fence-sitting, a centrist dad in cinematic form.
journalists make the treacherous journey from Yet it is not entirely apolitical. The plot
Top to bottom: New York to Washington DC. hinges on a fascist President played by Nick
The President Offerman, who trades in a very Trump-like,
(Nick Offerman), IN 2014, THREE years after civil war broke out bellicose form of rhetoric (“Some are already
making America in Syria, the charity Save The Children released calling it the greatest victory in the history of
great again...; ‘If London Were Syria’: a brutally effective, mankind,” he remarks at one point). He appears
Seasoned 93-second commercial that brought the war to have granted himself a third term, and orders
reporter Sammy home to those of us in the UK. It depicted a young airstrikes on his own citizens. Though it avoids
(Stephen girl living in London, whose happy, ordinary life direct avatars for current world leaders, the film
McKinley is suddenly disrupted by a hypothetical British — released in a US election year with “democracy
Henderson); civil war. The intended effect of the advert was on the ballot” — does ponder: what happens when
Photojournalist clear: what if it happened here? democracy fails, and violence fills the vacuum?
Lee (Kirsten That is the question Alex Garland poses, Garland is fascinated, too, in how
Dunst) prepares with brutal lucidity, in Civil War. War is so often journalists remain objective in their work,
to shoot. an abstract concept to those of us in the West: how they stay stoic and retain their humanity
something you could comfortably wave off as a in the face of inhumanity. Lee seems to have
thing that happens to other people in other places. lost hers; Jessie is just discovering hers,
At a time when real-life hostilities rage around their paths crossing and converging. Like
the world, Garland vividly imagines a United Nightcrawler or Peeping Tom, it is interested in
States riven by conflict, a big-screen cautionary the simultaneously destructive and illuminating
tale that turns familiar peacetime settings — power of observation. What does it mean to
New York, Washington DC, the car park of witness history? What does a life behind a lens
a JCPenney — into apocalyptic war zones. cost your soul? Garland seems to implicate
He doesn’t mess about. As the film begins, himself — and us — in the contradictions.
America’s second civil war appears to be at an Because, fundamentally, this is a gorgeously
Alex Garland has
advanced stage, battlegrounds flaring from sea to made film, full of shock and awe. War is hell
cited 1985’s Come
shining sea. There are suicide bombers wrapped in — and it’s never looked better. Rob Hardy’s
And See, the
the stars-and-stripes, soldiers in Hawaiian shirts, cinematography mixes chilling realism with
seminal World War
refugee camps in abandoned stadiums, bodies graceful, haunting beauty, buoyed by some
II-era film from
hanging from bridges. The country is a near-failed ridiculously well-staged, muscular set-pieces.
Soviet director
state. It feels uncomfortably, distressingly real. (The symbolism of a firefight on the steps
Elem Klimov, as an
Unusually, the focus is less on the soldiers of the Lincoln Memorial is obvious but
important example
on the front lines, or even the politicians calling irresistible.) It never lets up, always gripping,
of the kind of
the shots, than it is the reporters documenting always pummelling your senses, always
anti-war film he was
it. Our proxies to this story include over-eager ghoulishly compelling. Whatever your response
seeking to make.
cub photojournalist Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), to its political prevarication, this is undeniably
hardened photographer Lee (Kirsten Dunst), confident, intense, sweaty-palmed filmmaking
boozy writer Joel (Wagner Moura) and old-hand at the highest level. JOHN NUGENT
Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson). But
while the tone isn’t as coldly detached as that V E R D I C T As a political statement,
of Garland’s previous films, Ex Machina or Civil War is provocative and occasionally
Annihilation — blessedly, there is no equivalent exasperating; as a purely cinematic experience,
scene to Rory Kinnear repeatedly giving birth to it is urgent, heart-in-mouth, extraordinary stuff.

JUNE 2024 33
 Death becomes her: Fran
(Daisy Ridley). Top to
bottom: Wth new work
colleague Robert (Dave
Merheje); Not the life and
soul of the (office) party.

a coastal Oregon town who takes pride in her

faculty with spreadsheets. She keeps herself at

SOMETIMES I THINK a remove from her co-workers, barely speaking

in the office and floating around her home like
a ghost. The closely observed office scenes — the
The fact that both her daydreams and her
reality are desaturated and blue-washed also

ABOUT DYING struggle of thinking of a heartfelt message for

a colleague’s leaving card, enduring ice-breaking
exercises at a meeting — stand in contrast to the
means that this has none of the visual contrast
of a Walter Mitty or a Chicago; these daydreams
sneak into everyday life unannounced and are,
DA ISY RIDL EY DIE S HARD dreaminess of Fran’s visions of death. As the at times, barely distinguishable from what one
title promises, she daydreams about her end. might term ‘real life’.
★★★ When new guy Robert (Dave Merheje) joins Lambert deserves some praise for not going
OUT 19 APRIL / CERT TBC / 91 MINS the office, Fran makes him laugh, and it seems to the cod-psychology route of providing some
inspire her to dare a little human interaction pat answer for Fran’s disconnection, nor for
DIRECTOR Rachel Lambert — which visibly does not come naturally. What suddenly abandoning subtlety to build to a huge
CAST Daisy
Ridley, Dave Merheje, Parvesh follows is a tentative courtship, almost too finish. The finale, instead, focuses in on Ridley’s
Cheena, Marcia DeBonis delicately played to be visible. remarkable performance, to its benefit. There
But the result is an odd film: while Lambert are some lovely moments from her colleagues
PLOT Fran (Ridley) lives a closed-off, buttoned-up clearly means to suggest that Fran has retreated too, particularly Marcia DeBonis as the
life. But when Robert (Merheje) starts work in her from the world deep into one of her own, there’s ready-to-retire Carol, and a real sense of place.
drab office, she tentatively tries to connect. little sign that her inner life is a particularly That said, it is possible to be too subtle on the
warm or welcoming one. Her visions of death big screen, and sometimes the film’s very
IT CAN BE difficult, when making a film about a are strikingly shot but lonesome; this is not restraint makes it seem as closed-off and
depressed, disconnected character, not to make someone who dreams of being vindicated of some forbidding as Fran herself. HELEN O’HARA
a depressing film that is hard to connect with. great wrong or perishing in an act of heroism.
Happily, Rachel Lambert’s indie centres around Neither does she engage with art, or the V E R D I C T A beautiful, subdued Daisy
a really effective Daisy Ridley performance, (stunning) scenery of her seaside home, or Ridley performance anchors a story that is
hinting at just enough inner light to keep you really do any of the things you might expect underplayed to the point of almost non-
watching even when things get a bit gloomy. a lonely person to take joy and comfort from. existence. Still, if you’re tired of blockbuster
Ridley plays Fran, an office worker in She’s sort of a beige-clad blank. bombast, this could be the antidote.

34 JUNE 2024
WAK E U P
TO
R E A L M U S IC
ON THE
DAVE
BERRY
BREAKFAST
SHOW

DIGITAL RADIO APP “PLAY ABSOLUTE RADIO”

 Love at first sight: Jackie
(Katy O’Brian) and Lou
(Kristen Stewart).

Top to bottom:
A startlingly coiffed
Ed Harris as Lou’s
dad; Looks like
Jackie just clocked
that ’do.

luminous as Jackie, while

Stewart seems born to play
this taciturn but tender-hearted
lesbian trying to leave her dark
past behind.
memorably features its protagonist “I fucking Glass also takes obvious

LOVE LIES
impaling her own feet with nails. love you, pleasure in the Americana of it all,
Love Lies Bleeding, a title borrowed you idiot.” whether through a sunrise over
from a type of blood-red flower, LOU a desert highway, the oiled-up

BLEEDING
proves that Glass is definitely not (KRISTEN artificiality of bodybuilding, or
a filmmaker for the faint of heart, but STEWART) the completely disembodied
this time the extremity is anchored brutality of the gun range owned
in a swoon-worthy queer romance. by Lou’s estranged crime boss
BE GAY, DO CRIME , WITH KRISTE N 1989, New Mexico. Lonely gym manager father. Lou Senior, played by a menacing Ed
ST EWA RT Lou (Kristen Stewart) spends her free time Harris with eye-popping hair extensions, is
masturbating and listening to cassette tapes a deliciously nasty villain, taunting his daughter
★★★★ on quitting smoking. The only thing keeping to confront the capacity for violence he knows
OUT 19 APRIL / CERT 15 / 104 MINS her in this small town is her sister Beth is within her.
(Jena Malone), who is frequently beaten by There’s no question that this film is a bit
DIRECTOR Rose Glass her spineless husband JJ (Dave Franco). messy, veering from noir to revenge thriller
CAST Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Jena Malone, Everything changes when Jackie (Katy O’Brian) to body horror to pitch-black comedy via
Ed Harris, Dave Franco, Anna Baryshnikov saunters into the gym: a square-jawed, moments of magic realism. But there’s never
leotard-wearing goddess heading to Vegas for a dull moment; Love Lies Bleeding pulses with
PLOT Gym manager Lou (Stewart) falls fast and a bodybuilding championship. an irresistible energy and potent eroticism.
hard for bodybuilder Jackie (O’Brian). But violent From the outset, the film playfully subverts When it’s not purely thrilling and darkly funny,
forces threaten to tear them apart. hyper-masculine tropes, and has zero interest in it’s also just so wonderfully gay. Kristen Stewart
either placating or titillating straight audiences. with a mullet reading a book called ‘Macho
BLOOD, SWEAT, VOMIT and saliva — this The camera takes on Lou’s view as she admires Sluts’ might just be the representation queer
film is all about the body, what lurks within Jackie’s body while she pumps iron and women have been waiting for. LAURA VENNING
it and what physical extremes we’ll push injects herself with steroids, revelling in an
ourselves to for lust, love and freedom. The unabashedly queer female beauty. Their sex V E R D I C T Visceral and heady, this is
presence of all these fluids will come as no scenes are sensual but never voyeuristic, a blood-soaked, all-American fable that’s as if
surprise to those who saw writer and director and the two leads have scorching chemistry. Thelma and Louise literally went on steroids.
Rose Glass’ debut, Saint Maud, which O’Brian, a real-life former bodybuilder, is Rose Glass is a force to be reckoned with.

36 JUNE 2024
 Here: Edwin Stanton
(Tobias Menzies) and
a grieving Mary Lincoln
(Lili Taylor). Below:
Hamish Linklater as
the lauded President.

PA LM R OYA L E
★★★★
OUT NOW (APPLE TV+) / EPISODES VIEWED 10
OF 10
SHOWRUNNER Abe Sylvia
CAST Kristen Wiig, Laura Dern, Allison
Janney, Leslie Bibb

Camp, lavish, and with lots of smart ideas

tucked into its silly mood, Palm Royale is
about a woman — and a country — adrift
but refusing to sink without a fight. Maxine
(Kristen Wiig) is desperate to make her way
into the exclusive Palm Royale resort, by

MANHUNT
any means necessary; she soon discovers
a life of luxury comes at a very high cost. It’s
soap opera played by a cast of exceptional
quality: Kristen Wiig anchors it wonderfully,
while Allison Janney is part Dorothy Parker, C SI: 1 860 s WASHINGTON DC
part Ru Paul. When it tries to pivot to more
dramatic moments the tonal shift can be ★★★★
a touch lurchy, but the overall experience is OUT NOW (APPLE TV+) / EPISODES VIEWED 7 OF 7
so fizzy and imaginative that you’ll want to
keep staying for one more round. OR SHOWRUNNER Monica Beletsky
CAST Tobias
Menzies, Anthony Boyle, Lovie much by a need for the spotlight than any
Simone, Hamish Linklater political convictions.
The cat-and-mouse of it all isn’t exactly
PLOT After Abraham Lincoln (Linklater) is white-knuckle, mostly because Beletsky takes
assassinated by actor John Wilkes Booth (Boyle), a decidedly novelistic approach by moving
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (Menzies) hunts around the timeline, sometimes hours before
down the killer. the murder, sometimes years. It broadens the
scope and ambition of the show, resembling
ON 14 APRIL 1865, actor John Wilkes Booth, Oliver Stone’s JFK, as a Presidential
a Confederate sympathiser, shot President assassination kickstarts an investigation
Abraham Lincoln in the head during into the highest seats of power; who signed
a performance of Our American Cousin at Lincoln’s assassination order slowly becomes
Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC. The event is the key dramatic question. As well as political
reconstructed in compelling detail in the first intrigue, the freewheeling storytelling also adds
RI CK Y STA NIC K Y episode of Apple TV+’s Manhunt, but it’s to the an emotional resonance, with flashbacks that
★★ credit of showrunner Monica Beletsky (The cement the depth of feeling between Stanton
OUT NOW (PRIME VIDEO) / CERT 15 / 113 MINS Leftovers, Fargo) that the rest of the show and Lincoln (Hamish Linklater, not quite
DIRECTOR Peter Farrelly doesn’t feel anticlimactic. For Beletsky and Daniel Day-Lewis) and illuminate the former’s
CAST John Cena, Zac Efron, Andrew directors Carl Franklin, John Dahl and Eva obsession with catching his friend’s killer.
Santino, Jermaine Fowler Sørhaug not only mount a gripping detective The tricksy structure also helps join the
drama, but in the same breath deliver a knotty dots to wider history — the rights of African
Sometimes, a film sets up its expectations portrait of a country finding its feet in the Americans to own land and get an education, as
perfectly. Peter Farrelly’s Ricky Stanicky aftermath of the Civil War. represented by Lovie Simone’s Mary Simms
begins with a penis-based comedy, which Adapted from James L. Swanson’s 2007 — while Manhunt is alive to the present-day
receives an almost imperceptibly mild laugh bestseller Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase For resonances, be it governmental intimidation of
from another character. That’s the strongest Lincoln’s Killer, Manhunt is a police procedural, the press or the threats to democratic processes
kind of reaction you can expect: desperate replete with antiquated versions of such (Stanton pointedly says in Episode 1, “This is
variations of dick jokes that warrant more classic crime-show tropes as a villain tooling up America — we replace our Presidents with
groans than giggles. There’s a fun concept (with olde-worlde weapons), an obsessive cop elections, not with coups”).
here — a lie of a made-up friend has become married to the job, and a board full of pictures It’s not perfect — it overuses opening
all too real — but the film does nothing with linking suspects. The “cop” in question is episodes with dream sequences — but Beletsky
it. The only bright spot here is John Cena as Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (a terrific pulls off a coup of her own. She takes a 159-
Ricky, trying his very best to create something Tobias Menzies), who doggedly traces Booth year-old case and makes it fresh. IAN FREER
out of nothing. Alas, it all makes you feel like cross-country, the latter en route to the
you’re watching a duck try to drown a dog. Confederate stronghold of Richmond, Virginia. V E R D I C T Well-played and strikingly
That’s not a clumsy metaphor, to be clear — Anthony Boyle’s Booth is evil but charismatic, made, Manhunt is part crime potboiler, part
it’s something that actually happens, for some an actor living in the shadows of a more famous political thriller, part historical overview —
inexplicable reason, in Ricky Stanicky. BL thespian father and brother, who is driven as and each strand works a treat.

JUNE 2024 37
 Manhattan mayhem
as Ecto-1 races to
the rescue.

2021’s Afterlife, a surprisingly moving sequel co-wrote Afterlife and Frozen Empire with

GHOSTBUSTERS:
to the originals that introduced a likeable new Reitman — serves up zippy flair, and it’s cheering
breed of ’busters. Now, Frozen Empire throws to see 15-year-old Phoebe taking charge on the
everything against the wall to see if any of the gunner seat, her proton blasts wreaking havoc

FROZEN EMPIRE
slime sticks. Bits of it do; much of it just gloops around the city while her mum catches the
off. There are some entertaining ghouls, but translucent terror with a drone trap. This is
the real fear this time seems to be off screen. nifty work — and a good gang! But it soon
Trying to play it safe, buckling under the becomes apparent that underneath the exploits
IS T H IS A BE T TE R GHOSTBUSTE RS 2 weight of its own heritage, Ghostbusters itself there’s just not much for them to do. Nowhere
TH A N THE LA ST G HOSTBUSTE RS 2? is running scared. of real substance for the Ecto-1 to go. This old
Afterlife got the new era off to a sturdy start: jalopy is running out of road.
★★ Carrie Coon (as the late Egon Spengler’s daughter Afterlife more-or-less let the new crew hold
OUT 22 MARCH / CERT 12A / 115 MINS Callie), Mckenna Grace (as his granddaughter their own, only really parachuting in the OGs at
Phoebe), Finn Wolfhard (as her brother Trevor) the end to bring Egon’s story to a close: their
DIRECTOR GilKenan and Paul Rudd (as bumbling teacher Gary appearance was sweet, and felt earned. Here,
CAST Mckenna Grace, Dan Aykroyd, Paul Rudd, Grooberson) comprised a refreshing new team, though, the Spengler family are short-changed
Ernie Hudson, Carrie Coon, Bill Murray and Jason Reitman sprinkled some pleasingly in favour of more screentime for the old guys,
nostalgic Amblin-ish dust over a clearly who this time don’t have an emotional core to
PLOT After an ancient icy monster is unearthed, personal story swirling around the death of hang onto, back in the film for the hell of it.
the Spenglers and the original Ghostbusters team Harold Ramis (and, on screen, Egon). Bustin’ chops makes him feel good, but never
up to thwart its dastardly deep-freeze plans. Its successor kicks off well: after a spooky has Bill Murray seemed more like he was on
prologue, set in 1904 New York and introducing autopilot, sleepwalking his way through
GHOSTBUSTERS ISN’T IN the afterlife just the deadly ‘Death Chill’ (not too hot to handle, disappointingly disposable lines that sound
yet, but it might be in purgatory. Has there ever definitely too cold to hold), the present day like they’re in the vague vicinity of Venkman,
been a franchise with as much of an identity sees the Spengler-Groobersons jump-suited maybe, if you squint your ears. And that’s not to
crisis? We’ve had 1984’s comedy-horror and its up and careening around Manhattan under mention the countless cameos, including the
follow-up; years later a zany gender-flipping the screaming siren of the Ecto-1, chasing return of William Atherton’s Walter Peck, in the
reboot that had its charms but floundered; and a formidable spectre, the Hell’s Kitchen Sewer first film a punchable douchebag, now merely
then, pretending that one never happened, came Dragon. Here director Gil Kenan — who a vacant villain; also that of Slimer, because why

38 JUNE 2024
 Here: Get animated, they’re
back! Below: In the eye of
the Storm (Alison
Sealy-Smith).

X-MEN ’97
A SATURDAY-MORNING CARTOON
Top to bottom: A Firehouse stand-off for Phoebe RE TURNS (TO WE DNE SDAYS)
(Mckenna Grace) and family; OGs assemble!; Old favourite
Slimer returns to gloop everything in sight. ★★★★
OUT NOW (DISNEY+) / EPISODES VIEWED 3 OF 10
not?; and appearances by… well, whatever. The
fan-service throughout elicits sighs rather than SHOWRUNNER Beau DeMayo original 1992 pilot ‘Night Of The Sentinels’, is
smiles, and there’s just not enough faith in CAST (VOICES) CalDodd, Lenore Zann, George admittedly a little slow going, the X-Men’s
everything Afterlife introduced afresh. It is Buza, Catherine Disher, Chris Potter, Alison perennial struggle — being a marginalised group
stuffed. It is Jurassic Park: Dominion. It is Sealy-Smith, Adrian Hough, Ross Marquand trying to pursue a peaceful existence in a world
The Rise Of Skywalker. It is a shame. bent on vilifying and othering them — speaks
Reitman and Kenan’s hearts are in the PLOT Still reeling from the loss of Professor X as powerfully to the world now as it did to that
right place, and those hearts do beat here, (Marquand), the X-Men find themselves facing of 30 years ago. It’s actually refreshing to see
somewhere. Phoebe’s resentment as Peck’s all-new challenges. a superhero property that takes a clear political
bureaucracy gets her excluded from the stance from the get-go and sticks by it.
ghostbusting is well conveyed by Mckenna WITH ITS ELECTRIFYING synth intro, But the real secret sauce at the heart of
Grace, but the script doesn’t favour her nearly endlessly quotable catchphrases and eye- the series is, unsurprisingly perhaps, the
enough. Afterlife presented a fleshed-out family popping aesthetic, X-Men: The Animated Series voice cast, whose collective work proves to be
drama that grounded the whole thing, the ghostly was peak ’90s Saturday-morning TV. And yet a magnetising force. The familiar tones of Cal
goings-on playing second fiddle to a portrayal of the show, which originally ran between 1992 Dodd’s gruff Wolverine, Alison Sealy-Smith’s
sadness and love, and while this one explores and 1997, still somehow always felt way ahead magisterial Storm, Lenore Zann’s sultry
the family’s growing pains, it does so with the of its time. Almost three decades later, then, Southern belle Rogue, and George Buza’s
broadest of strokes, buried under an unwieldy the arrival of X-Men ’97 makes perfect sense. loquacious Beast have only gained in lustre
plot, crushed under the film’s obsession with its Serving as neither remake nor reboot but in the quarter-century since X-Men: The
legacy. The life is squashed out of it. rather a direct continuation of the original Animated Series ended. Elsewhere, incoming
It's not un-fun: James Acaster’s deadpan series, this isn’t simply the nostalgic ’toon you voice-acting veterans Jennifer Hale and Ray
scientist Pinfield fits well, toiling away in know and love. It’s the show X-Men was always Chase find new depths in Jean Grey and Scott
a lab full of captured spirits, and some of the meant to be. Summers/Cyclops’ relationship as they navigate
phantasms, including a pesky poltergeist-esque The first thing that registers once the pregnancy, leadership struggles, and the
possessor, are a laugh. The masochistic revamped opening titles hit, other than just how prospect of a life beyond the X-Men, whilst A.J.
Mini-Pufts, gleefully churning themselves to hard that initial “Bwa-na-na-na naaaa na-na” LoCascio slips into Gambit’s flirtatious New
death and joyfully burning each other, are goes, is the quantum leap the series has taken Orleans patois effortlessly.
a mischievous delight. But such window- aesthetically. The artistic wizardry of South It’s all enough to make you want to grab
dressing isn’t enough. The film, a misshapen Korean animation outfit Studio Mir (The a big bowl of Cheerios and sit three inches
hybrid, squanders its opportunities, its creators Legend Of Korra) delivers visually audacious from the screen like it’s 1997 again. If what’s
too cautious to leave the past behind. They’ve ensemble set-pieces and emotionally impactful to come is half as good as what we’ve seen so
crossed the streams and trapped themselves. close-ups with a real contemporary flair, while far, then the future’s looking real bright, bub.
ALEX GODFREY inventive use of a fuzzy VHS-style visual grain JORDAN KING
and the studio’s faithfulness to the character
V E R D I C T There was potential here, and world design of the OG series take care of V E R D I C T A blast from the past with
but Frozen Empire is an overpopulated the warm and fuzzies. eyes laser-focused on the franchise’s
mish-mash, with too many heroes to wrangle. Nailing the look would all be for nought if future, X-Men ’97 is as sharp, shiny and
What’s left is a bit of a gooey mess. We’ve it were wasted on weak material, though. And frankly frickin’ cool as Wolvie’s
been slimed. while the first episode, a semi-remake of the adamantium claws. Snikt!

JUNE 2024 39
 Fighting fit: Kid (Dev
Patel) gets assailed.
Below: And assails.

IRISH WISH
★★
OUT NOW (NETFLIX)
DIRECTOR Janeen Damian
PARTICIPANTS Lindsay Lohan, Ed Speleers,
Alexander Vlahos, Jane Seymour

What is it about terrible American-made,

Ireland-set romantic comedies? As you
might expect, Irish Wish is chock-full of
hoary clichés and head-scratching accents.
First and foremost, though, this is un film de
Lindsay Lohan, the actor re-establishing
herself as a Lifetime Movie-esque romcom

MONKEY MAN
brand. She plays book editor Maddie, who
wishes upon an apparition of St Brigid of
Kildare that she was marrying the man she
loves; wouldn’t you know it, though — just as
ME E T DEV PATE L : ACTION HE RO her dream comes true, she starts to realise
that she’s falling for photographer James
★★★★ (Ed Speleers). On a fundamental filmmaking
OUT NOW / CERT 18 / 121 MINS level, it simply cannot be recommended. But
taken on the terms on which it was made
DIRECTOR Dev Patel — you don’t mess with the Lohan. JN
CAST Dev Patel, Pitobash, Sharlto Copley, Vipin There’s a sense of glee to the newly minted
Sharma, Sikander Kher iconography, such as Kid’s first monkey-masked
arrival at the fighting ring he frequents,
PLOT In the Indian city of Yatana, a rookie fighter heralded by a never-sleazier Sharlto Copley
(Patel) with a monkey mask and not much else (yes, this is the Chappie reunion nobody saw
sets out to avenge an old wrong. coming). And while the combat is a while
coming — Kid spends the first act suppressing
“YOU LIKE JOHN Wick?” The question is swells of emotion — when it arrives it’s giddy
asked of Dev Patel’s still-green hero Kid by and creative, with a streak of mad mischief.
a pushy arms-dealer a little way into Monkey There are first-person-POV shots. There is an
Man. (The dealer has one of Wick’s signature elevator knife-kill you’ll still be wincing at
handguns, the TTI Combat Master, in his a week on. There are exploding fish.
catalogue.) It’s a meta moment that nods to one While the action stuns, there are flaws
of writer-director-star Patel’s many action- elsewhere. The film suffers from EFS (Excessive
movie influences; when the pulsing trailer for Flashback Syndrome), with too many sun- ST E VE ! (MART IN)
the film dropped, complete with crunchy dappled fragments of Kid’s blessed childhood A DOCUME NTARY IN 2 P IECES
gunplay and ouchy stabbings, comparisons to chucked at us. On the other hand, there’s not ★★ ★ ★
the Keanu Reeves franchise flew like bullet enough of wiseass sidekick Alphonso (Pitobash) OUT NOW (APPLE TV+) / CERT TBC / 193 MINS
casings. Happily, though, Monkey Man is no or friendly sex worker Sita (Sobhita Dhulipala), DIRECTOR Morgan Neville
Continental clone. It’s got juice of its own, who both fade from the story after promising CAST Steve Martin, Martin Short, Tina Fey,
energy to burn, an engine behind it with introductions. And a lull involving Kid being Jerry Seinfeld
something to prove. looked after by mystics known as the ‘hijra’
That engine is Patel, who started off his makes the otherwise taut tale sag a little in Morgan Neville’s two-part doc asks what
career as a skinny scamp in Skins. Few would the middle. was going on under the prop arrow that
have predicted a metamorphosis into Bruce Even there, though, there are moments of adorned Steve Martin’s head in his stand-up
Lee. Yet, all this time, Patel was mainlining originality and cinematic serenity — a training heyday, and how the actor feels about it now.
mayhem: gorging on Enter The Dragon, The sequence involving tabla drums; a Kathputli Part 1 gallops through Martin’s time on
Raid and gonzo Korean thrillers, he began to puppet show — which elevate proceedings. America’s comedy circuit, Saturday Night
cook up his own riposte. Monkey Man takes And the climax, rising floor by floor through Live and superstardom; it’s a wild and crazy
a straightforward revenge-o-matic plot — a corrupt nightclub like a quest up a cursed ride that suggests a comedian ahead of his
Patel’s never-named Kid wants justice for the mountain, should leave any mayhem aficionado time. Part 2, though, is a surprise: suddenly
violent death of his mum, going after the elite satisfied. Dev Patel, the unlikely action god, has we’re At Home With Steve Martin in 2021,
who let it happen — and stirs in new spices, arrived. Heed his call. NICK DE SEMLYEN where he looks back on his movies and
including ancient Indian mythology (prepare family life (from Parenthood to parenthood,
to get acquainted with Hanuman the Monkey V E R D I C T Stylish, high-energy, smart if you will). A fascinating compare-and-
God) and modern-day politics (Patel’s and eye-wateringly violent. There are contrast exercise between an anxious young
punches are pointed). quibbles, for sure, but where it counts, Monkey man on the cusp of greatness, and the
It feels fresh. More to the point, it feels fun. Man goes bananas in the best possible way. cultural icon he became. NA

40 JUNE 2024
 Ryan Gosling is on fire.

KE E P ’E M Or has been recently.

PE E LE D
inclusion. And it makes the case while Hill included. The script will hardly

THE FALL GUY

The star of the
having a lot of fun along the way. win awards for originality, but even in
original TV
Leitch, a former stunt performer, series, Lee
moments where the lightweight plot
presents this as a movie-lover’s dream. Majors, makes seems stretched beyond capacity,
It follows in the same self-referential a brief cameo in there are more than enough jokes and
GIVE S A NEW MEANING TO THE footsteps as Bowfinger, Tropic Thunder the film — as needle-drops to hold your interest.
PH RASE ‘ STUNT CASTING’ and Babylon, a behind-the-scenes does his beloved The real fun of The Fall Guy
depiction of a Hollywood poking fun stunt truck, the comes thanks to the dynamite pairing
★★ ★★ at itself. Almost every scene comes 1981 GMC
K-2500
of Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt.
OUT 2 MAY / CERT 12A / 126 MINS brilliantly infused with a tongue-in- Gosling, still riding high off his
Wideside.
cheek, meta in-joke about the Kenergy, has by now mastered the art
DIRECTOR David Leitch filmmaking process. But you still feel of playing the loveable rogue. Every
CAST Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor- a sense of warmth and affection in mischievous smile and whip-smart
Johnson, Hannah Waddingham, Winston Duke, every frame. Each stunt sequence — be it a high- comeback showcases why he’s at the top of his
Stephanie Hsu risk jump from a helicopter, an elaborate fight game. Blunt — no stranger to stunt-work herself
scene in a neon-lit nightclub, or a pyrotechnic — equally delights, with a nice line in deadpan
PLOT Stuntman Colt Seavers (Gosling) comes out car chase across a beach — is a death-defying delivery. Want to see her hilariously roast
of retirement when the star of a film — directed by tribute to the men and women behind the craft. Gosling, almost literally, as he is forced to
his ex-girlfriend Jody (Blunt) — goes missing. Ripping a page out of the Nice Guys playbook, repeat the same fireball stunt again and again?
its mystery-noir plot features an egocentric She’s got you covered. Leitch plays to their
HOW DO WE live in a time where the Academy superstar in Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, strengths, and paired together, the duo summon
still hasn’t recognised Hollywood’s stunt brilliant), a dodgy producer in Gail Meyer some old-fashioned, feel-good romantic charm:
community with an Oscar category? When films (a scene-stealing Hannah Waddingham) and in other words, a proper summer movie.
such as John Wick: Chapter 4 or Mad Max: Fury a movie within a movie called ‘Metalstorm’ KELECHI EHENULO
Road have pushed the boundaries of stunt (think Mad Max meets Cowboys & Aliens).
excellence, it seems mystifying. Thankfully, What follows is an action-packed rabbit-hole V E R D I C T With some incredible stunts
David Leitch’s romcom/action blockbuster The of calamitous events, including hallucinatory and Gosling and Blunt on top form, this
Fall Guy — based on the 1980s TV series starring unicorns after a spiked drink, and a will-they- gloriously entertaining comedy is a love-letter
Lee Majors — is an apt reminder for its necessary won’t-they relationship, references to Notting to the unsung heroes of cinema.

JUNE 2024 41
 “Everything you’ve
heard about me is true”:
Billy Dee Williams as
Lando Calrissian.

WHAT HAVE
WE HERE?
T H IS B OOK D E AL IS GE T TING BE T TE R
A LL THE TIME !

★★★
AUTHOR BILLY DEE WILLIAMS

TO MOST, BILLY Dee Williams

is Lando Calrissian: the
line between him and the
smooth-talking, cape-wearing,
ladies-loving Star Wars
space-smuggler forever blurred.
The actor’s autobiography, What
Have We Here? Portraits Of
A Life, is keen to stress that there’s more to him
than that. But the similarities are in plain sight.
It seemed that way from the beginning.
Born in New York in 1937, Williams describes his
parents as “good-looking people with a sharp
sense of style”; sartorial sophistication was highly pull of his acting career. It’s only when Williams whole life. Most of the stories here — that that
valued in the Williams household. “Sonny, you is cast opposite Diana Ross in the 1972 Billie he was beguiled by Carrie Fisher, that he was
always tip your hat to a lady,” his father advised Holiday biopic Lady Sings The Blues that things harangued by fans for Lando’s double-cross, that
him. His mother is described as his “first fall into place for him professionally — and the he walked his daughter down the aisle at her
girlfriend”, one of many old-fashioned phrasings book finds a throughline, too. Finally, he had wedding to Darth Vader’s Imperial March — will
you’ll find here. Williams, now close to 90, is very found a role that responded to his obvious talents be familiar to Star Wars fans, but it’s good to
much of the old school, and takes a traditionalist and excess of charisma, and he quickly became hear them direct from Williams. And he writes
approach to writing —and a rather old-school a sex symbol, at a time when roles for Black actors movingly about returning to the franchise for
approach to salaciousness, too. were largely limited to racist stereotypes. He The Rise Of Skywalker in 2019. When J.J. Abrams
In true Lando style, he writes in the is refreshing and honest — though rigorously asked him if he was ready to be Lando again,
language of the lothario. We read about one level-headed — on his frustrations with an Williams’ response was perfect. “J.J.,” he said,
woman whose “sexuality was out in the open, like industry that never quite caught up with him: “I’ve never not been Lando.” JOHN NUGENT
a piece of jewellery”; perfume that “cast its spell”; never interested in activism, always preferring to
a “ménage à trois”; arriving home to find “an orgy let the work speak for itself. V E R D I C T Though occasionally rather
in progress”; and an eyebrow-raising account Just when it seemed like the roles weren’t old-fashioned and meandering, this is still
of the first time he gave a woman an orgasm. there, along came Lando: the swashbuckling a relentlessly charming — and typically
More interesting, though, is the push and larger-than-life hero he had been looking for his lascivious — portrait of an old smoothie.

JA M ES BO ND: DR . NO AL I E NS: WHAT IF… CART E R BURKE HITCHOLOGY

★★★ ★ ★ HAD L IVE D? ★★ ★ ★
AUTHOR/EDITOR PAUL DUNCAN ★★ AUTHOR NEIL ALCOCK
AUTHORS PAUL REISER, LEON REISER,
With the usual caveat required for any ADAM F. GOLDBERG, HANS RODIONOFF, BRIAN What can you say about Alfred Hitchcock
Taschen tome — like most of their releases, VOLK-WEISS that hasn’t been said? The movie legend
this volume comes with a eye-watering already dominates bookshelves — which
price-tag, and has a limited-edition print run James Cameron’s 1986 sequel gets the Neil Alcock acknowledges on page one.
— this is a gorgeous, comprehensive Marvel ‘What If...’ treatment as Paul Reiser’s The USP is that each of Hitch’s 53 films
account of the first 007 outing. With Eon duplicitous company man pursues his gets equal billing, all earning a fresh, funny
opening their archives for rare photographs agenda into middle age. Taking some and illuminating chapter-length essay: so
and posters, and an array of fascinating questionable liberties with the original film’s Juno And The Paycock gets the same detail
interviews, it’s as effortlessly stylish — and chronology, this bizarrely bland comic leaves as Vertigo. A refreshingly different approach
elusive — as Bond himself. JN us to wonder less ‘what if?’ than ‘why?’ JD to a familiar filmmaker. JN

42 JUNE 2024
 Wrestle-mania:
Conor McGregor
and Jake
Gyllenhaal.

film undoubtedly looks resplendent on screens thugs what for, in a series of brilliantly

ROAD HOUSE
of any size — and it’s perfect for a super-fun choreographed mass brawls. Somehow, we
night in. entirely buy the idea that this guy can single-
Liman’s version switches the action from handedly hospitalise half a dozen bikers while
small-town Missouri to the more photogenic sustaining only minor injuries himself.
IT ’S JAK E GYL L E NHAAL’S WAY — Florida Keys (the Dominican Republic standing Even Dalton’s speedy romance with local
O R THE HIG HWAY in for the archipelago), where Gyllenhaal’s hero- doctor Ellie — played with charm and gusto by
with-a-dark-past, Dalton, reluctantly agrees to Daniela Melchior (The Suicide Squad) —
★★ ★★ help the local watering hole survive relentless somehow avoids cliché. As for the main villain,
OUT NOW (PRIME VIDEO) / CERT TBC / 114 MINS attacks from horrible people. While Swayze’s Brandt, Billy Magnussen is entertainingly oily
Dalton was cool and enigmatic, Gyllenhaal’s as the smug, pink-suited prat, who’s desperate
DIRECTOR Doug Liman incarnation is garrulous and approachable. Not to keep on side with his criminal-kingpin
CAST Jake Gyllenhaal, Daniela Melchior, Billy to mention even more ripped: with muscles dad. He’s joined by a gaggle of goons for hire,
Magnussen, Lukas Gage, Conor McGregor, bursting from every inch of his body, he’s so led by real-life MMA superstar Conor McGregor
Jessica Williams absurdly hench, he makes his pro boxer in 2015’s in his first movie role. It’s a daring bit of stunt
Southpaw look like a slob. casting, but after making quite an entrance,
PLOT Ex-UFC fighter Dalton (Gyllenhaal) is hired But even more impressive than his sculpted McGregor maintains an impressive level of
as head bouncer at the roughest of all bars in body is Gyllenhaal managing to find nuance in hyper-intensity throughout. Indeed, everyone
a corner of the Florida Keys. what is, on paper, a fairly standard, testosterone- involved, from great supporting actors like
fuelled character. As cheesy as it may sound, Lukas Gage (The White Lotus) to the bands who
IT’S FAIR TO say the release of this remake this Dalton really is a new kind of action hero, as perform at the road-house bar while mayhem
of the much-loved but thoroughly ludicrous caring and sensitive as he is ruthlessly violent erupts all around them, bring their A-game to
1989 Patrick Swayze action vehicle has taken when he needs to be. This guy actually smiles. a remake that has far more fun than it has any
a controversial turn. Director Doug Liman is not A lot. He also forms a sweet, sincere bond with right to. BOYD HILTON
happy the movie is going straight to Prime Video the teenage daughter of the victimised local
without opening in cinemas first, and has not bookstore owner, which could almost be V E R D I C T Expertly handled by director
been shy in telling the world of his frustration, from another movie entirely. Yet the star is Doug Liman, wittily scripted, and boasting
while star Jake Gyllenhaal says it was always simultaneously believable as a fighter who’s an original take on the action archetype, this
meant for streaming. Whatever, the finished clearly having a great time showing the local new Road House hits harder than expected.

JUNE 2024 43
 American Gothic: PI
Edward Carnby (David
Harbour) with client Emily
Hartwood (Jodie Comer).

ALONE IN
THE DARK
A CLA SSIC SURVIVAL GAME GE TS
A STARRY UPDATE

★★★
PC, PS5, XBOX SERIES X/S

YOU CREEP THROUGH the grounds of a

decrepit manor. Two pinpricks of light flicker in
a dark, open sewer. You expect something — or
some thing — to leap out. It never comes, but
still might. You’re more distressed than ever.
Such moments of tension are scattered
throughout Alone In The Dark, creating
a perpetual sense of unease. Unfortunately,
it never quite manages to cross the threshold
into true terror, but there’s still plenty for genre
fans to enjoy in this latest attempt to revive the
classic horror series.
Despite returning to the 1920s Louisiana
setting and protagonists of the original 1992 and questions raised in the ‘real’ world are often work, with monsters routinely failing to even
game — private detective Edward Carnby and answered only in the hellish one. While these trips notice, let alone follow, any of your distractions.
his client, Emily Hartwood, now with added star are usually deliberate, thanks to a pivotal talisman, Thankfully, Alone In The Dark’s strong
power thanks to performances from David the crumbling of existential walls smartly keeps exploration and puzzle elements bolster these
Harbour and Jodie Comer — this proves more you on edge throughout, with the simple act of more disappointing mechanics, while the cast and
remix than remake. The pair are still drawn opening a door having the potential to transport story are compelling enough to draw you through
to the unsettling Derceto Manor, a former you to the darker alternate reality. to the end. As a package, it’s not quite enough to
plantation-turned-asylum, seeking Hartwood’s While the original Alone In The Dark single-handedly revive the franchise, but it does
missing uncle Jeremy, but developer Pieces famously influenced Resident Evil, 2024’s outing is show there’s potential in the characters and
Interactive incorporates elements from across less like the action-horror series it helped inspire concepts if given the proper care. MATT KAMEN
the ’90s trilogy of games to craft something new. and more like a 3D point-and-click adventure,
Returning players might find it a little like packed with strange objects to find and mind- V E R D I C T Elevated by strong
an unreliable memory — apt for gameplay that bending puzzles to solve. It’s probably for the performances from Comer and Harbour, this
involves travelling between the sinister Derceto better, though, as moments of combat are just about makes a case for Alone In The
and nightmarish realms populated by inhuman clunky, with unresponsive movement and a Dark’s return, but it will take something with
ghouls. A tale of cults and Lovecraftian cosmic dearth of options if you’re out of ammo. a little more polish to truly resurrect this
horror is uncovered as you traverse dimensions, Meanwhile, attempts at stealth simply don’t long-dormant series.

FI NA L FA NTA SY V II R EB IR TH OUTCAST: A NE W BEGINNING STAR WARS: DARK FORCES RE M A STER

★★★ ★ ★ ★★ ★★ ★ ★
PS5 PC, PS5, XBOX SERIES X|S NINTENDO SWITCH, PC, PS4, PS5, XBOX ONE,
XBOX SERIES X|S
2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake re-imagined “A New Beginning”? Anything but — this
the beloved PlayStation classic, while building revival of the cult 1999 game serves as Sure, Rogue One rendered this tale of
on it in meaningful ways. This second a direct sequel, making for a confusing mercenary Kyle Katarn stealing the Death
instalment pulls off the same feat, continuing experience. Little is explained, and dialogue Star plans non-canonical, but Dark Forces
(but not concluding) the story, while doubling is frequently disjointed, characters referring remains pivotal to gaming and Star Wars
down on ambition to deliver a superior to quests and events not yet uncovered by history. Remade by Nightdive Studios, this
sequel that boasts deeper combat and more the player. Worse, despite a fantastic open keeps the look of 1995’s original but updates
character-focused storytelling. The result is world to explore and a phenomenal score, it for 4K screens, while cramming in bonus
a spectacular, sprawling, open-world RPG a litany of glitches mar whatever potential making-of content. Its play time is a little short
worthy of the Final Fantasy VII name. MC this may have had. MK for a stormtrooper, but this is still a classic. MK

44 JUNE 2024
 Gozilla and Kong debate
whose turn it is to do the
washing up.

March; while TV spin-off Monarch: Legacy Of giant ape than they are the big lizard. Like Jia,

GODZILLA x
Monsters proved that it is possible to have Kong is lonely, searching for more of his kind
compelling human characters amid all the clashes and a place to belong, a quest that ultimately
of titans. The MonsterVerse, which began with leads him to unlikely allies like smaller ape

KONG: THE NEW

Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla in 2014, has gradually Suko, and foes like Skar King, whose
become less sombre and more silly with every introduction as the big bad arrives fairly late on.
entry, a trend that continues with returning The power-struggle that emerges between

EMPIRE
director Adam Wingard’s Godzilla x Kong: Kong and Skar King is beautifully rendered,
The New Empire. At its best, it delivers a fun and that it’s all communicated effectively sans
slice of monster mayhem, even if we have to dialogue is a testament to Weta’s increasingly
wait too long for the titular duo to charge into impressive visual-effects work. Meanwhile,
T H IS Y EA R’S HOT TE ST battle together. periodic check-ins with Godzilla amount to little
CO LOSSUS- COL LAB JUST DROPPE D The journey to that moment is somewhat of more than a change in complexion (though we
a mixed bag. Rebecca Hall’s Dr Ilene Andrews is learn he is fond of taking naps in Rome’s
★★ ★ once again saddled with chief-exposition duty, Colosseum between beat-downs).
OUT NOW / CERT 12A / 115 MINS aided by Brian Tyree Henry’s returning podcaster Frankly, The New Empire takes far too long
Bernie Hayes and franchise newcomer Dan to get to the main event that it’s staked all of
DIRECTOR Adam Wingard Stevens as Trapper, a kind of titan Doctor Dolittle. its marketing on. But when the time comes
CAST Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Both Hayes and Trapper are shallow but fun, with for Godzilla and Kong to finally join forces, it
Stevens, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns, Fala Chen Stevens’ laid-back vibes an especially good fit for makes for bright, inventive, crowdpleasing fun,
a world where human casualties aren’t taken all as atomic breath is unleashed and thunderous
PLOT A dangerous threat emerges in the Hollow that seriously. And though she could have done punches find their mark. It’s hard not to watch it
Earth. To defeat it, titan Kong will need to team with a little more screentime, Hall ekes out every without a grin on your face. It’s just about worth
up with his best frenemy: Godzilla. moment of substance she can in playing a mother the wait. AMON WARMANN
desperate to do right by her adopted daughter
IT’S BEEN 78 years since Godzilla made his first — and Kong-whisperer — Jia (Kaylee Hottle). V E R D I C T This doesn’t reinvent the
on-screen appearance, and his stock is as high As for the titular duo, Wingard plus wheel, and keeps you waiting too long for the
as ever: Godzilla Minus One deservedly won an screenwriters Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett and final showdown — but when the creatures
Oscar for its incredible visual effects back in Jeremy Slater are much more interested in the collide, it still delivers satisfying thrills.

JUNE 2024 45
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 Here: Marisa Abela
shines as Amy
Winehouse. Below: With
husband Blake Fielder-
Civil (Josh O’Connell).

BACK TO BLACK
MUSICA L B IOPIC S, SADLY, ARE
A LOSING GAME

★★ DAMSE L
OUT 12 APRIL / CERT TBC / 122 MINS ★★
“There’s nothing wrong with going hammy,
DIRECTOR Sam Taylor-Johnson claimed he had a nervous breakdown after but the delivery is as lifeless as the dragon’s
CAST Marisa Abela, Jack O’Connell, Eddie Amy’s release). The aim of this film is to tell victims. Damsel wants us to take it seriously,
Marsan, Lesley Manville us this same story but from Amy’s perspective, but the message and fairy-tale trappings are
but it fails at its most Amy-perspective hurdle: too simplistic for that.” DAVID OPIE
PLOT Amy Winehouse (Abela) rises to fame as what is it she saw in Blake Fielder-Civil
a jazz singer/pop star, while falling in love with (played here by Jack O’Connell), the man who IMMACULAT E
Blake Fielder-Civil (O’Connell). But away from would become her husband, that the rest of ★★ ★
the spotlight, she struggles with addictions. us didn’t? Here, he’s no more than he was in “Sydney Sweeney almost single-handedly
the tabloids. lifts it out of the hokey-religious-fright-film
THE GREATEST SIN a biopic can commit is Elsewhere, cherry-picked facts allow category. The face of horror in 2024
playing footage of the real person over the her father, played by Eddie Marsan, to come is Sweeney’s blood-smeared to-camera
credits to show how accurate the acting was. off as the unquestioned hero, while other stare accompanied by a truly soul-
You’ll find none of this in Black To Black: most elements of her life have been skimmed over. scraping scream.” KIM NEWMAN
of us lived through Amy Winehouse’s rise, fame Her best friends, in reality so close that one
and decline, so even the most casual observer of them personally picked out the Dolce RE NEGADE NE LL
can play the footage in their own mind. & Gabbana leopard-print dress she wore for ★★ ★ ★
An incredibly bold and admirable move, her cremation, are brief asides in an otherwise “A refreshingly unique take on the period
then, for relative newcomer Marisa Abela Blake-centred tale. romp, Renegade Nell is an ambitious show,
(BBC TV drama Industry) to take on what might Perhaps the issue is the film’s concept: weaving elements of intriguing politicking,
be the most scrutinised performance of her the script draws its inspiration from her lyrics thrilling highway action, and hints of folklore
lifetime. And she is great: Abela can sing, her in Back To Black, and Fielder-Civil was the and fairy-tale magic.” NICOLA AUSTIN
voice is recognisably the gobby and vibrant subject of this second and final album. But
Amy, who spoke in interviews without a filter, while the songs act as a musical-like narrative FAST CHARLIE
and the alcohol shakes in the cold light of the of her life, no time is devoted to showing us ★★
corner shop ring true. In a scene set at 2008’s how she made them (pouring them out “Brosnan’s character, Charlie Swift, is
Glastonbury Festival, she gets down off the stage fully-formed in her bedroom with an acoustic a Brosno-nonsense kind of guy, and Brosnan
to totter close to the audience on high heels, guitar doesn’t count). We see none of the artistic is the brightest spot here. But it doesn’t quite
almost daring the security guards to let her fall. decisions she made in the studio that led to her hang together, feeling all rather directionless:
It feels woozy and alive and real. becoming a phenomenon, or the complicated going nowhere, fast.” JOHN NUGENT
It’s unfortunate, however, that she is let but powerful singer-songwriter who won five
down by a weak script that tells us even less than Grammys in one night. In Back To Black, Amy LAT E NIGHT WITH THE DE VIL
we already know. In 2015, Asif Kapadia’s Winehouse is just a girl singing about a boy. ★★ ★ ★
documentary Amy showed us extensive archive HAYLEY CAMPBELL “A truly chilling success, with shades of the
footage and the few parts of her life she was real-life tragedy of 2016’s Christine as well
able to keep from the press. In 2021, the V E R D I C T A solid performance let down as The Exorcist. Directors Cameron and
BBC documentary Reclaiming Amy saw the by a cringey script that cherry-picks the facts Colin Cairnes build the tension remarkably
family offer a counter-argument to how they and ultimately tells us less than we already well, finally letting loose in a gory but
had been portrayed (her father, Mitch, know. Watch Asif Kapadia’s Amy instead. satisfying ending.” HELEN O’HARA

JUNE 2024 47
 LET
THERE
BE
LIGHTSABERS

SET AN EVEN LONGER TIME AGO

IN A GAL AXY FAR , FAR AWAY,
THE ACOLY TE PROMISES
A GLEAMING, ECLECTIC BUNCH
OF JEDI — AND A WHOLE NEW,
MYSTERIOUS ADVENTURE. YOU’ VE
NEVER SEEN STAR WARS
LIKE THIS BEFORE…
W O R D S B E N T R AV I S

48 JUNE 2024
JUNE 2024 49
 THE WOOKIEE
JEDI WAS
GREETED
WITH
THUNDEROUS
APPLAUSE.
Clad in a yellow tabard draped across his massive
furry frame, lightsaber clipped to his utility belt,
the Chewbacca-alike Force-user strode onto the
main stage at Star Wars Celebration 2023 to
a cacophony of cheers. This particular fuzzball
goes by the name of Kelnacca — and his task that
day wasn’t to fight the dark side: it was to escort
his creator, The Acolyte showrunner Leslye
Headland, as she presented her bold new Star
Wars vision to the assembled throng.
If you’re wondering what exactly compels
a Wookiee — typically less inclined to lend
a hand than rip one clean off — to find harmony
through the Force, you’re not alone. “Wookiees
are fierce creatures living in their own habitat.
How does one become a Jedi?” ponders Joonas
Suotamo, the actor who here originates an
all-new walking carpet, after inheriting the role
of Chewie in the Star Wars sequels.
The Wookiee Jedi isn’t even The Acolyte’s
biggest swing. Prepare to meet “Jedi David
Bowie”, aka Dafne Keen’s incoming Padawan
Jecki — a moniker owing not just to her Aladdin
Sane-esque red-and-blue facial markings (she’s
a Theelin, like Max Rebo’s punky, pink-haired
backing singer from the Return Of The Jedi
Special Edition), but the vibe she brought to
The Acolyte’s set. “‘Starman’ was, like, my tune
while we were filming,” says Keen. “I had it on
in my trailer all the time.” And why not throw
into the mix the legendary Carrie-Anne Moss, “It just felt so iconic to me, and something films Bachelorette and Sleeping With Other
whose impeccable action abilities honed I had never seen before,” Headland tells Empire. People. If Star Wars seems a hyperspace-
on The Matrix movies are a seamless fit for “That was the first time I saw the Jedi as this leap away from that, Headland — who spent
Headland’s notion of a martial arts-fuelled massive force, as opposed to that smaller her formative years devouring Expanded
Star Wars series, channelling wuxia and concept of the one-on-one, the Jedi versus Sith: Universe novels and penning her own
samurai movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Luke versus Vader, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan fan-fiction — had been preparing for it her
Dragon and Lady Snowblood. versus Maul. The idea that a whole platoon of entire life.
Together, they make up just a handful of the Jedi could be dropped into the middle of the With the Skywalker Saga about to wrap
sprawling ensemble of Masters, Knights and ring, move the way they moved. And that there up and the future of Star Wars uncertain,
Padawans ready to leap into action in a Star were so many different kinds — it isn’t just Headland didn’t wait for Lucasfilm’s call.
Wars story like no other — exploring an entirely people that look like Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon and She pitched Kathleen Kennedy directly,
new era of the galaxy while doubling down on Anakin, but different species.” That moment presenting a potential-filled top-line premise:
space oddities, laser-swords, and deep Force crystallised an important notion in Star Wars The Acolyte would be “Frozen meets Kill Bill”.
lore. The art kids have taken over. Make way for rarely depicted in the movies: that an ever It would also be “a completely original story, not
Star Wars’ biggest, boldest, brightest new hope. longer time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there connected to any existing canon characters” —

O
were Jedi everywhere. and that meant going back, before Anakin’s turn
f all things, it was Attack Of The Cut to 2019, and Headland was preparing to the dark side, before the Clone Wars, before
Clones that forever changed to pitch her own Star Wars series, as a lifelong Qui-Gon’s noble end, to a point 100 years prior
Headland’s conception of the Jedi. In devotee of Lucas’ world (“Empire Strikes Back to the prequels. “I was very interested in, how
Episode II’s final reel, George Lucas introduced me to the concept of a cliffhanger did the Jedi get to where they are in Phantom
delivered an image that fans had, as a child,” she recalls. “That just blew my Menace?” says Headland.
until then, only ever dreamed of seeing on screen: mind”). She had already found streaming Because, as Obi-Wan Kenobi put it in
hundreds of Jedi igniting their lightsabers at success with Netflix’s time-loop hit Russian A New Hope, the Jedi were — for over a thousand
once, charging together into battle on Geonosis. Doll, and received acclaim for indie comedy generations — the guardians of peace and justice

50 JUNE 2024
Clockwise from in the galaxy. Until they weren’t. As The Last
top left: Jedi’s disillusioned Luke pointed out: “At the
Amandla height of their powers, they allowed Darth
Stenberg as Sidious to rise, create the Empire, and wipe
warrior Mae; them out.” Headland, then, imagined a series set
New walking in a historical time of bounteous Jedi, set amid
carpet Kelnacca a seemingly peaceful era of the galaxy, as the tide
(Joonas begins to turn.
Suotamo); “I was driven to write a story that essentially
Showrunner was from the perspective of the bad guys. I write
Leslye Headland that way with my other work,” she explains,
with Lee Jung- whether it’s Sleeping With Other People’s
jae; Mae gazes commitment-phobic lovers, or the chaotic
upon a world maelstrom that is Natasha Lyonne’s Nadia in
of shadowy Russian Doll. “I am always attracted to amoral
secrets; Master — or immoral — characters, and finding the
Indara (Carrie- humanity within the villains.”
Anne Moss); The pitch was a hit. Next, having been
Dafne Keen as handed the keys to the speeder, Headland just
young Theelin needed to fulfil that promise: getting under the
Jecki Lon. skin of the dark side like never before. ❯

JUNE 2024 51
 “IT ’S IN THE
DETECTIVE
GENRE . IT ’S
GOING TO
KEEP YOU ON
THE EDGE OF
YOUR TOES.”
LEE JUNG -JAE

T
he pantheon of Star Wars is replete Clockwise from top left: An intense moment for Indara and Mae; The magnificently green Vernestra Rwoh,
with all-time great villains. Darth played by Rebecca Henderson, with the “incredibly powerful” Master Sol (Lee); Mae and Indara face off; Yord
Vader. Emperor Palpatine. Kylo Ren. Fandar (Charlie Barnett) comes over all Neo; Would-be Han Solo Qimir (Manny Jacinto).
The prison-industrial complex (hello,
Andor). But while The Acolyte has the
dark side in its sights, the identity of its villain
remains to be seen.
Something, though, is seriously awry.
Puncturing the galactic peace, a spate of
violence sees Jedi being killed off. Enter Lee
Jung-jae’s Master Sol, leading an investigation
into whodunnit and why. “It’s one story with
several reveals, and new clues and new
information each episode,” Headland says.
“It’s not just a mystery that you have to find
out. It’s not unlike Russian Doll. It’s almost
like a spiral — it digs deeper and deeper and
deeper.” For Lee, it’s this genre addition that
really makes The Acolyte tick. “It’s going to get
even more intriguing and gripping, because
of that detective genre,” he promises. “It’s
going to keep you on the edge of your toes,
wanting to guess.”
The prime suspect seems to be Amandla
Stenberg’s shadowy figure Mae, a knife-wielding
renegade described as a “dangerous warrior”.
But according to Stenberg, “It’s a lot more
complicated than that. Which is the point of the
show. Hopefully, if we did our job right, the show
makes it an interesting interrogation into what
it means to be on the light side or the dark side.”

52 JUNE 2024
 THE CHOSEN ONES
THE ACOLY TE CAST PICK THE
GAL AXY ’S GR EATEST FORCE-USERS

Dafne Keen on LUKE SKYWALKER

“I love that we see him become a Jedi.
That section where he’s with Yoda, training
— it’s so amazing. It’s cinema. I love Mark
Hamill. I met him a few years ago,
and it was my favourite interaction I’ve ever
had with someone I’ve been a fan of.
He’s really sick.”

Amandla Stenberg on MACE WINDU

“Come on! How can you not? Samuel
L. Jackson, man! And he’s got a purple
lightsaber. That’s just fresh! [My fandom] really
started with the prequels, because that’s the
age range I fall into. I would be ecstatic if
[Mace Windu didn’t actually die in Sith].”

Manny Jacinto on YODA

“Yoda is the GOAT, because he just seems so
Whichever side Mae is on, she cuts an somewhere between then and The Phantom unassuming and low-status. But then when
ominous figure — clad in chainmail-style Menace, the Sith manage to re-emerge, right you see him fight in the prequels, you’re like,
armour, hair in locks that frame in an arc around under the Jedi’s noses. ‘Oh.’ He carries the intelligence of someone
her face. “One of my references was Gogo from “You’re definitely getting a sense that, with years beyond his age, but has the physicality
Kill Bill. I’ve always loved that character,” the the Jedi, the writing may be on the wall,” teases of a kung fu master.”
actor says of Tarantino’s schoolgirl assassin. Headland of the bigger picture. “One aspect
Headland even screened Volume 1 for the cast of Star Wars is, the individual versus an
and crew before shooting began. “We also institutional threat. I don’t think that the Jedi
thought about Joan of Arc, Ethiopian tribes, are a threat — I want to be clear about that.
Renaissance garb,” adds Stenberg. “There was But they are the reigning institution, in both my
something very tough and very feminine about era and The Phantom Menace. They are in
it at the same time. We wanted this character charge, for lack of a certain way of putting it.” Charlie Barnett on AHSOKA TANO
to feel both disciplined, and have a sense of She cites 1996 anthology book Tales Of The “She’s consistently listening, always aware,
freedom and an expressiveness to her.” Bounty Hunters and animated series The Clone ready to learn — but the first person to
Whether it’s Stenberg striking back or Wars as inspirations (her favourite episode is challenge herself, and those things being
someone else, Star Wars history dictates ‘The Wrong Jedi’, in which Ahsoka leaves the played in front of her. She’s a true individual,
that darkness is very much on the rise in The Jedi Order); stories set between stories, “filling beyond being cocky in all the right ways, and
Acolyte. The show is set prior to the prequels, up the cracks of Star Wars”. The lack of a wider badass, and like, fucking blue.”
and at the end of an era known as The High galactic conflict in The Acolyte means the
Republic, recently established in a series of individual betrayals cut deeper. “The quote-
interconnected novels, YA books, and comics. unquote ‘war’ of this Star Wars is a much
As that name suggests, it’s a time where the smaller, more personal one,” the showrunner
Galactic Republic — the very one later notes. “The war between people, the war
dismantled by Palpatine — is at its peak. The between characters.”
Senate and Jedi are intent on fostering an air The questions are already piling high, then. Jodie Turner-Smith on GROGU
of peace, prosperity and progress; newly Who’s killing the Jedi? What’s the secret around “The Mandalorian came out when
mapped hyperspace routes are bringing the Stenberg’s Mae? And who — or what – is the
Alamy, Lucasfilm

I was heavily pregnant. I was expecting

galaxy closer together; there are greater efforts acolyte? “It’s a position, essentially, that a baby, and he’s the cutest little baby. I literally
to make Outer Rim planets feel core to the someone is going to fulfil, or step into,” Headland love that character so much. The baby-fever
Republic (drawing ire from the books’ baddies, hints. “We know with the Sith that there is part of me says Grogu — then
marauding space-vikings the Nihil). But a Master, we know that there is an Apprentice. ❯ Mace Windu, then Rey.”

JUNE 2024 53
 “ THIS STORY IS LIKE
A SPIRAL . IT DIGS
DEEPER AND DEEPER
AND DEEPER .”
LESLYE HEADLAND

But in deep EU (Extended Universe), there’s “She is very much inspired by [The Matrix’s] creates friction with Dafne Keen’s Jedi
a concept of an Acolyte, which is underneath Trinity,” Headland says of Master Indara, Padawan, Jecki (lightsaber colour: green).
Apprentice. So that is where I got the title from.” calling Moss’ casting a “no-brainer”. It’s an “Jecki’s much more competent than he is, the
The investigation is about to begin. Enter association she’s expecting audiences to make entire time. But he’s a Knight, because he’s
the Jedi. too. “I personally wanted to see someone who had older,” she explains. “So there’s this really

T
the highest status you could imagine in a Force-fu interesting dynamic of him being a little bit
rue to that climactic scene in Attack Of fight — somebody that would come in and you useless, and her being like, ‘You need to step
The Clones, Headland has ensured The immediately would be like, ‘Oh, that’s the most your game up,’ which was really fun to play.” It’s
Acolyte is absolutely stacked with Jedi. powerful Jedi in the room.’ And that’s Trinity.” a competence that likely comes from Jecki being
And if one stands tallest among them — Though Moss’ husband and kids are the the Padawan of Master Sol himself. “Jecki has
beyond even Kelnacca, metaphorically bigger Star Wars fans in her household (“They’re a huge admiration for him — she looks up to
at least — it’s the “massively respected and watching it, and my husband calls out, ‘You should him, and she wants to be perfect for him,” Keen
incredibly powerful” Master Sol (lighstsaber be on one of these shows’ — literally two weeks explains. And, she got to don a Padawan braid
colour: blue), as the showrunner describes him. later, I got the call,” she laughs), she was instantly (“Like, the sickest thing ever,” she declares).
After being catapulted to international fame hooked by Headland, likening the effect to meeting Jecki is far from the only non-human Jedi.
post-Squid Game (he was already a star in South Christopher Nolan or the Wachowskis. “I felt that There’s the aforementioned Kelnacca (lightsaber
Korea), Lee Jung-jae was “so surprised” to a few times in my career with some of the big colour: green), “another Star Wars dream come
suddenly find himself in Star Wars — even more things that I’ve done — Memento, The Matrix — true” for Suotamo. Expect some Chewie DNA in
so when he discovered his lightsaber could where you’re talking to the filmmaker and you just there, of course — and nods to Burryaga, a fan-
actually ignite. “I had thought that it was all go, ‘Oh, they totally get it,’” she says. “They know favourite Wookiee Jedi from the High Republic
going to be CGI — but [I was] very surprised to it so well that I trust them.” In return, the Force novels. But Kelnacca is his own beast. “It was
find that it actually does light up!” he beams. “It awakened something in Moss. “Within my soul interesting to try to balance the fierceness, versus
was so much heavier than I thought.” For all of and my spirit, to get to play this Jedi Master and the control of the Jedi,” he says, pointing out that
Master Sol’s fighting prowess (“I really had to pull train for the fight was [an] amazing experience,” his ’saber is extra-long; Wookiee-sized, if you will.
out every technique that I had,” Lee says of the she enthuses. “A part of me forgot how much I love If there’s one hero that High Republic
combat, despite being an action-cinema veteran), action. I love it. It’s hard. But I was just really acolytes have been dying to see, though, it’s
he’ll need back-up to face The Acolyte’s darkest thrilled that I could do it, and I wanted to do it Vernestra Rwoh (lightsaber colour: purple). The
secrets. Thankfully, he’s far from alone. well. ‘Gimme another take! Gimme another take!’” only character from the books to make the leap
Also granted the rank of Master is Carrie- Meanwhile, Jedi Knight Yord (lightsaber to live-action — as Headland confirms to Empire
Anne Moss’ Indara (lightsaber colour: green). colour: yellow), played by Russian Doll alumnus — is, on the page, a prodigious 16-year-old Jedi
Early footage shown at Star Wars Celebration Charlie Barnett, is more interested in Jedi lore Knight who’s modified her lightsaber to also
revealed a sequence of her battling against than action. “I’m hoping that the world loves become a lightwhip. One hundred years later in
Stenberg’s warrior — their hand-to-hand to hate him,” the actor admits. “There are so The Acolyte, the green-skinned Mirialan is a highly
combat interspersed with Force-pushing moves, many redeeming and beautiful qualities about respected Jedi Master stationed in the Temple
unlike anything the Star Wars galaxy has seen him, but he’s kind of a jerk! He’s a little bit of on Coruscant, played by Rebecca Henderson.
before. Simply put: she knows Force-fu. a goody two-shoes.” His try-too-hard attitude “I absolutely love Vernestra. You can tell, because

54 JUNE 2024
 tantalising new expansions of Star Wars lore.
Jodie Turner-Smith’s enigmatic Force Witch,
Mother Aniseya, sprang from the showrunner’s
love of The Clone Wars’ Mother Talzin and the
Nightsisters of Dathomir, but belongs to an
all-new coven. “They’re really trying to preserve
their beliefs, and their powers, and their
independence,” teases Turner-Smith. Barnett,
meanwhile, hints at a trip to Kelnacca’s Wookiee
planet — which notably isn’t Kashyyyk. A sense
of newness permeates.
Because, it’s rare in Star Wars to tell a story
that’s almost entirely your own. The sequel films
evolved from the characters of the original trilogy.
The Mandalorian soon caught up with Luke
Skywalker and animated series lore, while
Ahsoka sprung from The Clone Wars and Rebels,
which sprung from the prequels. Even Andor
came from Rogue One, which came from the
opening of A New Hope.
The Acolyte, though, all began with Headland.
(Even its crossover into High Republic territory
was, she says, “a happy accident”; the show
Clockwise from left: A very regal Mother Aniseya I cast my wife,” Headland laughs. In the happened to develop simultaneously with
(Jodie Turner-Smith), a mysterious Force Witch; intervening years, Rwoh has “been through some Lucasfilm’s then-titled ‘Project Luminous’.) And
Padawan Jecki and Jedi Knight Yord on the shit”, the showrunner explains. “That has resulted she’s not pulling her punches, pouring herself into
lookout; Master Sol means business; Headland in her going from this fun-seeking adventurer a world she’s always loved. “It’s a very personal
directs Stenberg on set. character [in the books], to a little bit closer to the storyline, because it had to start with my family,
[type of ] Jedi that we see in The Phantom Menace.” essentially,” she tells Empire. “To me, Star Wars
Vernestra’s presence brings a unique is about the conflict between parent and child,
perspective in The Acolyte. “Because she has sibling and sibling — what’s come before versus the
been around for so long, she has basically met hope for something new. The individual versus the
everyone that has come through the Temple, institutional threat. To me, it was about excavating
and seen them all die their natural deaths if those things in my own life, and then placing them
they’re living a natural human life,” notes in my favourite cinematic world that exists.”
Henderson, playing Rwoh at 116 years old. Her reverence for George Lucas is evident
“She’s known Sol since he was a tiny child.” — the large-scale set-builds, location shooting
The Jedi will have reluctant back-up, too, and puppetry are “meant to invoke the practical
courtesy of a rare non-Force-user in the show way that George started this whole thing”, she
— Manny Jacinto’s Qimir, a former smuggler notes. (“I once took a nap in the Jedi Temple
who can reliably be found imbibing libations on Coruscant,” grins Amandla Stenberg, of her
down at the cantina, swept into the mystery. favourite Acolyte set. “It was the nap of my life.”)
“Qimir wishes he was Han Solo,” says Jacinto, Headland even credits her entire filmmaking
nodding to Star Wars’ most legendary smuggler. career to him. “George Lucas single-handedly
Despite their shared profession, Qimir is not, he pushed digital projection into the mainstream,”
admits, “as cool, and doesn’t contain as much she says, holding forth on the prequels. “Therefore
rizz” as the Millennium Falcon’s owner. a filmmaker like myself, who normally wouldn’t
Together, these heroes are a Force to be have been able to make her films if I wasn’t
reckoned with. It’ll take all of them to face shooting on digital, [could make films].” And
whatever darkness is coming. then, eventually, her own Star Wars too.

W
If all goes to plan, there’ll be more Acolyte to
ith The Acolyte designed to be come. Headland mentions the possibility of future
a mystery show, its cast and seasons, which could feature more High Republic
creator are pulling out every characters (“I’ve already talked to Pablo Hidalgo
Jedi mind-trick to keep it that about it,” she says of Lucasfilm’s lore overlord).
way. “This is like surgery!” But for now, she’s achieved her aim — to make
Stenberg laughs, verbally slicing around something truly personal in the Star Wars
anything she can’t tell us. Charlie Barnett galaxy. “I feel very excited to introduce it to the
suddenly panics when he thinks he’s blabbed. world — because it’s my story, set in the world
“I don’t... I mean… She must have... Oh God, am that George Lucas created,” she says. “Which is
I giving too much away, talking about this shit?” an honour.” It’s a world of Wookiee Jedi and
he stumbles, straying towards discussing Force-fu, Jedi Bowie and witch clans, mysterious
Stenberg’s character. “Fuck. I literally am scared warriors and martial arts — bringing new light
now. I will just say that, er, er, er, she is gritty, and life to the galaxy, before plunging it into
and dangerous. And it’s exciting. Shit!” darkness. Bring on the return of the Jedi.
It’s not just twists and plot-reveals that
Headland and co are keeping under wraps — it’s THE ACOLYTE IS ON DISNEY+ FROM 5 JUNE

JUNE 2024 55
56 JUNE 2024
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JUNE 2024 57
 ZENDAYA THROWS UP HER HANDS.
“I cannot really tell you what this is,” she says.
“I couldn’t say it’s just a comedy. I couldn’t say
it’s just a drama. I couldn’t say it’s just a sports
movie.” She sits back in her chair, defeated.
“I have trouble explaining it to people.” She’s
talking about Challengers, for which she is both
star and producer. And she’s not the only person
struggling to sum it up.
Even its writer, Justin Kuritzkes, leans
on the words of others in an effort to nail it
down: “I’ve heard it called an ‘erotic tennis
thriller’, which I like.” The only person who
can describe it with certainty is its director,
Luca Guadagnino, who calls it “a comedy of
manners”. And far be it for us to disagree with
a filmmaker about his own creation, but we’d
bet almost no other viewer would describe it
that way. You could probably ask 100 people lives are always intertwined in an unresolvable path to greatness, Patrick and Art were
to describe Challengers and they’d all give love — or rather lust — triangle. It begins inseparable and Tashi was dating Patrick. It
different answers. And Guadagnino is perfectly with a furious tennis match at a crummy shows how their lives were rewritten by fate
happy with that. “The movie belongs in the eye low-tier tournament, between Art (Mike Faist), and attraction that pulls in every direction,
of the beholder.” a Grand Slam champ slumming it to try to end never finding a balance they can all live with.
Challengers is not just one thing. It’s the a persistent losing streak, and Patrick (Josh It’s a very complex story that began in very
messiness of being human; a story of unfulfilled O’Connor), who’s just trying to make enough uncomplicated circumstances.
dreams, unsated lust, and broken friendships, money to rent a bed for the night. Watching
filtered through the world of professional from the stands is Tashi (Zendaya), Art’s wife
tennis. It’s funny, vicious, exhilarating, sexy, sad, and coach, who can’t stop locking eyes with JUSTIN KURITZKES WAS NO OBSESSIVE
and occasionally twisted. Patrick. Throughout the match the film flashes tennis fan, but you didn’t have to be, to be
At its core, it’s the story of three potential back to tell this threesome’s story, starting with transfixed by the 2018 US Open final between
tennis stars whose careers diverge but whose their teenage years, when they all looked on the Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka. It was the

58 JUNE 2024
 Clockwise just watching a game.
from top left: At this point, Kuritzkes was a writer but not
Lust match: a screenwriter. He’d gained some internet fame
tennis players in 2011 with his lo-fi, weird comedy skits on
Art Donaldson YouTube (like ‘Potion Seller’, in which he plays
(Mike Faist), both a knight seeking potions and a shopkeeper
Tashi Donaldson unwilling to part with them). He’d toured a play
(Zendaya) and around New York universities in 2016: The
Patrick Zweig Sensuality Party, about a group of friends who
(Josh O’Connor) decide to have sex together, with complicated
get intimate; Art results. In 2019, he published his first novel,
is out to win, in Famous People, a faux celebrity memoir about
every way; Tashi an existentially messed-up young star.
and Patrick get Kuritzkes had no background in movies
close; Patrick or experience in the industry. Yet, somehow,
is down his script was greenlit almost as soon as he’d
and out. finished writing it, in mid-2021. “The distance
between finishing the first draft and going into
GOAT, near the end of her career, facing a future to the cinema and think, “Well, this is good, but pre-production was only a couple of months,”
star gunning for her first Grand Slam. And there not as good as watching a tennis match.” He he says in a tone that suggests he still can’t quite
was drama. knew that there was a great tennis movie to be believe it. He’s at a loss to explain quite how it
At a pivotal moment, Williams was issued made — even though nobody has ever made came together so quickly, other than to say his
a code violation because her coach, Patrick a great tennis movie — but he couldn’t figure agents managed to get the script into the hands
Mouratoglou, was seen to be offering her out how to take the tension he’d felt watching of Amy Pascal, super-producer and former head
instruction from the stands. “It was this big, Williams and Osaka and translate that to film. of Sony Pictures Entertainment. She loved it
controversial call,” says Kuritzkes. “I’d never “I had to know on a real, molecular level how and sent it to both Luca Guadagnino and
heard of this rule and it struck me as this very much was at stake for the players and the people Zendaya. And soon, things got very sexy indeed.
cinematic situation: you’re alone on court in watching,” he says. He realised it had to be
front of thousands of people and there’s one a tennis movie where winning the trophy was
other person in the stands who cares about this nothing, but beating the other person was LUCA GUADAGNINO IS NEVER SHORT OF
as much as you do, but you can’t speak to them. everything. And that was when he came up offers. He’s so busy that in the time between
I started to wonder, ‘What if you needed to have with the film’s central match, in which three starting production on Challengers, in May
an urgent, important conversation with this people are trying to communicate with each 2022, and now, he has directed another film and
person? And what if it was about something other — two on the court, one in the stands — produced six others. So packed is his diary that
really personal and dramatic beyond the game?’” without saying a word. They’ll silently betray the only point this interview could be scheduled
Over the following months, as the idea secrets, raise old grudges, and try to mend was while he’s sitting in LA traffic between
percolated, he became fixated on tennis. He’d go mistakes, while everyone else thinks they’re appointments. “I want my time to be fruitful. ❯

JUNE 2024 59
 I have many stories I want to tell,” he says.
When Guadagnino received the script for
Challengers it wasn’t, as might be expected, the
tangled romantic themes — themes he’s
explored in past projects like A Bigger Splash
and Call Me By Your Name — that forced him
to find room for it in his schedule. It was the
sport. “I don’t know anything about tennis,”
he says. “Reading [Kuritzkes’ script], I could
understand it all perfectly and the dynamic
of the game interwoven with the dynamic
of the three. That, to me, was a great feat. That
was the pulling force.” He thought, though,
that there was a way to make this game even
more interesting.
In early versions of the script, the triangle at
the heart of Challengers was unequal. Both Art
and Patrick were fixated on Tashi, but their own
relationship was brotherly love turned to fierce
rivalry. Once Guadagnino and Kuritzkes started
working on the script together, they considered
what could happen if the men were drawn to
each other as much as they were to Tashi, and
the triangle pulled in every direction. They
developed the script to show a friendship of
such intensity that it’s on the edge of sexual. manipulate them and hold them, but also to for control, her need to be in charge of every
“For me, it was not about a queer attraction,” release them and herself.” It’s a scene that sets situation, just to really protect herself, I think is
says Guadagnino. “What’s interesting is the the erotic energy that powers the rest of the something that maybe I can relate to. I think it’s
dynamic of competitiveness and the match on movie. “The only person that brings out that why I lean into producing so much. If it’s gonna
the court of life and the court of sport. It’s real fire from both Art and Tashi is Patrick,” says get done right, I have to do it myself!” She takes
attraction and repulsion.” He needed the Zendaya. “And it drives them fucking crazy.” a pause and screws up her face. “That isn’t
metaphorical match to involve everyone. “It’s always the best way to look at things, and I’m
like the ball goes to one then to the other, then trying to be better.”
another. That had to be in the movie.” IT WOULDN’T BE QUITE RIGHT TO CALL Zendaya was already attached when
The new drafts dialled up the sexual tension Challengers Zendaya’s first fully adult role. Guadagnino came aboard — “When I heard she
of the piece, but both Guadagnino and Kuritzkes She’s played young adults, and her two-time wanted to do it I was in heaven,” he says — but
were struggling to find a way to anchor it, to Emmy-winning lead in Euphoria drags her to play Patrick and Art, he chose two rapidly
establish the threesome so that it made it clear through distinctly grown-up themes. But ascending actors. He’d been aware of Josh
who all these people were. “It was hard to make Challengers has her inhabiting someone with O’Connor, who plays Patrick, since they both
all the corners of the triangle touch in a way deep life-experience. Tashi has watched her had films in Sundance in 2017 — Guadagnino
that felt organic,” says Kuritzkes. Then they childhood dreams snap in a moment. She’s with Call Me By Your Name and O’Connor with
landed on what has become the pivotal moment playing background to a husband who’s less God’s Own Country — but they were introduced
of the film. As teenagers, Art and Patrick flirt than her in every way. She’s a mother. She’s later by a mutual friend, the fashion designer
with Tashi and both fight to get her phone wondering if, at 33, this is all there is. At 27 (she Jonathan Anderson, who designed the costumes
number. She says she’s no interest in being was 25 when she shot the film), this is Zendaya for Challengers.
“a homewrecker”, but when they invite her to announcing to the cinemagoing audience just “We’d promised we were going to do
come to their hotel room, she goes. There she how much she’s capable of. something together and then when I read this
orchestrates a three-way entanglement that “First day, it was like, ‘You’re a married script, I thought that Patrick, who is this smug
ignites something none of them can ever put out. couple with a kid.’ First day!” she laughs when narcissist with an undefinable swag to him,
“We wanted to make it clear that Tashi was we speak to the cast in London. She often finds could be wonderful played by Josh.” (Who could
in charge,” says Guadagnino. “And that she knew her mind wandering when reading scripts, but not be less of a smug narcissist, to be clear.)
in advance what was underneath [the two men’s something in Tashi grabbed her immediately. Like most other people, Guadagnino spotted
friendship], and she pulled it out in order to “She always has a lid on it,” she says. “Her need Faist when he watched him in Spielberg’s West

60 JUNE 2024
 Clockwise from top left: Director Luca Guadagnino on set; Rivals Patrick and
Art turn up the heat on court; Passion play: Patrick and Tashi have a moment;
Young love: Art and Tashi take a break from training.

Side Story. His life as a dancer was a great match their behaviour together, not necessarily who becomes obsessed with a young ex-
for the intense physicality of tennis champion through having any contact between their bodies. US Navy serviceman (Drew Starkey). It’s a film
Art, but Guadagnino says he was also able to “Luca finds so much sensuality,” Zendaya Guadagnino has wanted to make for 30 years,
switch between the different sides of Art, in continues. “He builds it so it makes you feel like and Challengers was key to unlocking it.
some ways the most messed-up member of the you’re on this seductive ride.” She says the film’s Kuritzkes now even talks about Guadagnino
trio. He wants to win everything — his friend’s eroticism is largely in “looks and pauses”. To like someone he was once tentatively dating but
girlfriend and every Grand Slam — but also O’Connor’s suggestion that the tennis scenes is now fully in a relationship with (in a purely
seems to get little pleasure from it. “For me, are the real sex scenes, she claps her hands: professional sense; Kuritzkes is married to Past
this film is about being an artist and… getting “Absolutely!” Guadagnino, who doesn’t usually Lives director Celine Song). “Going through the
to a certain level of success and then life storyboard, carefully committed to paper every process of making Challengers, I now knew what
happening, and you’re still trying to find that shot, glance and sweat-drip in the tennis made Luca tick and what excites him,” says
purity or joy in doing this thing,” says Faist. sequences, to ratchet up the sporting and sexual Kuritzkes. “I would catch myself in the middle
The cast didn’t meet until pre-production pressure precisely. “Every point was a visually of writing and go, ‘Oh no, he’d like it better if
in Boston, where they did six weeks of tennis important way of communicating to the audience I wrote it this way.’”
bootcamp and rehearsals. There was no what these people feel internally,” he explains. With a film about trying to figure out what
certainty that the chemistry, without which the “Those tennis moments are so sexy!” says you want to be, its creators worked out how to
movie would collapse, would be there. “I think O’Connor. “The film is dealing with the tension advance their own games. Guadagnino found
Luca has a really good eye for knowing who is before sex and the chaos after. The sex they’re the person who could make his dream project
going to match up,” says O’Connor. Guadagnino all desperate for is on the court.” a reality (and learned how tennis works).
says those weeks of rehearsal helped everyone Kuritzkes found the person who could take him
“find the rhythm within one another”. from potentially great to the industry’s most
That became particularly important when it ONE THING CHALLENGERS DEFINITELY is exciting new writer. Zendaya graduated to
came to the intimate scenes. “Feeling safe with my not is a romance. But one great new relationship complicated adult roles and killed it. This was
actors is number one,” says Zendaya. “Knowing did come out of it: between Guadagnino and a match that pushed everyone outside their
that they’ve got my back and I’ve got theirs is Kuritzkes. Before shooting was even complete, lines and put them all at risk of failure. In the
imperative.” It’s not that it’s a movie full of sex, they were working on their next movie, an end, there were only winners.
but it’s a movie full of the yearning for sex. The adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ Queer,
cast have to portray extreme intimacy through about a 1940s American ex-pat (Daniel Craig) CHALLENGERS IS IN CINEMAS FROM 26 APRIL

JUNE 2024 61
62 JUNE 2024
 AS T H E TA RD I S

P R E PA R E S TO SPI N

I TS WAY A RO UND

T H E G A L AX Y AG A I N,

D O C TO R W HO ’S NEW

STA R A N D RET URNI NG

S H OWRUNNER ,

N C U T I G ATWA A ND

R U S S E L L T DAVIES ,

E X PL A I N HOW

T H E Y ’ R E S H A KI NG UP

T H E UNI V ERSE

WORDS BOYD HILTON

JACEY

JUNE 2024 63
 ‘Season 1’, underlining the idea that Doctor Russell, does it feel like TV and the world
Who is starting all over again. Partnering in general have changed exponentially since
with the BBC, Disney+ are now on board to your previous stint as Who showrunner
Of course it is. Isn’t it always, with Doctor Who? stream it internationally, making this a seismic ended in 2010?
But it’s been nearly three years since Russell relaunch, with Davies living out his dream of Russell T Davies: That’s why I wanted to come
T Davies agreed to run the show again, and masterminding his favourite show without having back. It is a different world. No matter what
two years since Ncuti Gatwa was unveiled one budgetary hand tied behind his back. He’s happens, it will always be a different world 15
as the new Doctor at the BAFTAs. Yet, until starting as he means to go on with ‘Space Babies’, years on. And yes, television has changed and
now, we’ve only seen an admittedly glorious the new series opener, which is daring, freaky, I love and admire the streamers. I’m there
regeneration scene, and a Christmas special. outrageous fun: textbook Russell T Davies, then. watching Stranger Things, and I’m watching
So, finally… it’s time. Time for the 15th Gatwa, meanwhile, is particularly excited for the new Star Trek [Discovery]. I’ve never
Doctor’s first full, eight-part series to arrive. viewers to see Episode 2, ‘The Devil’s Chord’, particularly loved Star Trek until this new one.
Time for Gatwa’s entirely new take on the forever to be known as ‘the Beatles episode’, Now I think it’s amazing. And I was keen and
character to really shine. Time for this most which also airs in the opening-night double-bill. desperate for Doctor Who to have a bite of that.
physical, energetic of Doctors to let rip. And As Empire sits down in person with Davies I think Doctor Who deserves that. I think Doctor
time for Davies’ extraordinary vision to get the and Gatwa, there’s a definite sense of the stars Who is better than all those shows put together.
budget it deserves. Let the battle for streaming- aligning; a fusion of unleashed showrunner So I was sitting there getting itchy, thinking,
era hearts and minds commence. and mercurial star. They bounce off each “We should be part of that.”
Davies, who in-between Who stints has other energetically, intermittently bellowing
brought us A Very English Scandal, Years with laughter, sparkling with excitement for Do you feel you have way more freedom now?
And Years, It’s A Sin and more, is calling this the new era. Davies: You can say things on television now

64 JUNE 2024
 that you couldn’t before, and I’d like to say I’ve
been part of the move to say those things. I’ve
tried to push that all my life and so you bring
that to Doctor Who as well. And that’s a whole
new energy, so it never feels like I’m repeating
what I was doing back then. I never think
about 15 years ago. It’s gone. It’s all about the
here and now, and I’m here to make it sound
and look and feel like 2024.

Ncuti, in your audition scene that Russell

wrote, the Doctor is described as “always
thinking of 500 things at once, mind
spinning, ticking, racing. And having
fun, too”. Does that accurately describe
your Doctor?
Ncuti Gatwa: Yeah, that’s the Doctor, and I’m
a hugely neurotic over-thinker, so it’s just the
perfect match! (Laughs) But that scene was so
much fun. It so encapsulated what the Doctor
is. So much of my characterisation came from
that audition scene.
Davies: Really? That’s so interesting. I read it
again recently when we put it online and it’s
tough. It’s like a set of traps for an actor. I didn’t
realise that at the time. But it’s funny, dark,
sad. And you just ate it all up and consumed it
and threw it back. You were brilliant.
Gatwa: But I didn’t think I was going to get
Main: the part…
The Doctor Davies: Well, we knew on the spot there and
(Ncuti Gatwa) then. I was standing there thinking, “You got the
and Ruby part!” But we’re not allowed to say that because
Sunday (Millie we’ve got to show the tape to the bosses. But
Gibson) make they all agreed immediately it was you.
a strange
discovery in But didn’t you take your time to actually
season opener accept the role, Ncuti?
‘Space Babies’. Gatwa: Yes, just a little bit of time.
Here, top to Davies: (Laughing) That’s cool!
bottom: Gatwa Gatwa: It was cool, but what happened was my
and Gibson with agent called me just as I was about to walk into
writer Russell T the barber shop, to get my skin fade, and then
Davies at the she was like, “Can you keep a secret?” And I’m
2023 Who thinking, “She’s not about to say, ‘You’re the
Christmas Doctor,’ is she?” And she was. So I was just
Special soaking in what that meant, and it was so huge
screening; that I couldn’t take it in, so I just thought, “I’m
Previous Doctor gonna put it away for a while and I’m just going
David Tennant to enjoy the rest of my week and do my
greets his washing.” I had a lot of washing.
successor with
open arms, post- How did you feel, Russell, in that week
regeneration; when he hadn’t yet told you he was going
The Doctor to take the part?
meets a Davies: Oh, we were like, “Line up the next
mysterious one!” (Laughs) But no, I don’t remember ever
character doubting he’d take it. We did worry he might
(Jonathan Groff) have 67 other offers at the same time. Because
in Episode 6; (to Gatwa) you were coming out of Sex
Jinkx Monsoon Education and surely they were throwing
as the Doctor’s things at you, weren’t they?
powerful enemy Gatwa: Yeah, but all different versions of Eric
Maestro. [from Sex Education]. That was my problem
— and I thought, “The next thing I do needs to
be completely different from Sex Ed.” That’s
why I did Masters Of The Air. And then that’s ❯

JUNE 2024 65
 why I did Barbie, which was completely different
to Masters Of The Air… But after that week of
thinking about Doctor Who, I knew it was
a no-brainer. I had to take this role.

When we spoke to you last year, Ncuti, you

alluded to the fact that during the first
period of filming you felt slightly unsure of
what you were doing. How anxious were you?
Gatwa: Oh, yeah, well, I wouldn’t say “slightly”
unsure. The anxiety was huge! I just felt like,
“Oh my God, if I get this wrong, that’s terrible.”
I was battling impostor syndrome, because this
is a hugely prestigious role, and each of the
actors that have played the role has been
incredible and gone on to do incredible things.
So to then be placed among that calibre of
actors, I was like, “There’s been a big mistake
here. And I don’t know why you won’t see it!”
I was so angry at times. I was constantly
thinking, “Why did you cast me?” It was going
that wrong for me. But everyone said, “It’s not
going wrong; it’s fine.” But now I’m settled, it’s so
much fun. The character is so much fun… now.

Did you take inspiration from previous

Doctors?
Gatwa: Yes, I really liked David [Tennant] and
Matt [Smith] as actors. Each of the actors that
have played the role have been great. Matt
Smith was sort of at the beginning of his career,
he was only 26 when he got it, but you could see
within him that he was a star.
My first scene was the regeneration with
David. I had watched and learned so much from
him, and I was thinking, “That’s how you do the
Doctor.” And it felt like I was really coming
full-circle, because he inspired me to get into
acting in the first place — watching his Hamlet
at the RSC, he completely formed my idea of
what a true actor is. So those layers of coming
full-circle were huge for me.

Russell, why did you decide to have both

David and Ncuti bouncing off each other in
that regeneration scene?
Davies: I wanted the two of them on screen at I love how that’s kind of relaxing it. I think of Maestro in Doctor Who, and I think we can say
the same time because it’s such a shame when kids watching it, and 21-year-old girls watching she enjoyed that part somewhat! (Cackles) It’s
you lose a great actor and another great actor it and thinking, “Oh yeah, I do that… I recognise a performance-and-a-half.
comes and just replaces them. I wanted to see that.” So it’s like there’s a hum between the Gatwa: She absolutely blew us away. It was so
the joy of them together this time. Also, it gives Doctor and the audience. There’s a certain cool to see her transfer her skill set to this show.
Ncuti’s Doctor the authority to kind of dismiss vibration between them that’s always there. She fits Doctor Who so well.
the old Doctor. I think that was really cheeky and Davies: It is truly an extraordinary performance.
bold; something new. And with this programme You’ve got some amazing guest actors in this
you’re always questing for something new. series, from Jonathan Groff to (drag star) And there’s an episode about The Beatles
Jinkx Monsoon. What was the thinking — it’s weird that hasn’t been done already,
Are you now writing with Ncuti’s version of behind their casting? isn’t it?
the Doctor in mind? Davies: It’s all about giving great actors great Davies: Well, what happened with that was:
Davies: You do two things at once: I am writing parts, so with Jonathan Groff, he came to the there’s a young director called Sam Arbor who
for Ncuti, but at the same time it’s my job to show to play a Bridgerton-style rogue for a few I’ve kind of been mentoring for a while, and when
find things that Ncuti wouldn’t normally do, weeks and was so much fun. I thought we’d I told him I was going back to Doctor Who, he was
otherwise there’s the danger I’m always writing never get him, but next thing I know he’s calling just 21 and said, “Oh my God, if I had a TARDIS,
for Ncuti and it could turn into a shtick. It can me while riding his bike round Central Park, I’d go back and watch The Beatles recording their
become a pattern or a cliché. (To Ncuti) But saying, “Oh my God, you’re the guy who wrote first album.” And I thought for a 21-year-old to
in many ways this Doctor is adapted to your It’s A Sin!” And as for Jinkx, she actually stepped say that must mean there’s something to that
voice. I love the Doctor now saying “honey” or off the stage after a Broadway run of Chicago to idea, but I also knew instantly you can never play
“babes”. William Hartnell would never! But get straight on a plane to be the character of Beatles songs on screen because the copyright is

66 JUNE 2024
 too expensive. So I’m thinking, “How would you
do a Beatles episode without Beatles music?”
And that becomes the entire plot. That’s where
the idea came from — copyright law!
Gatwa: Oh wow, really? I didn’t know that.

Ncuti, can you put your finger on what’s

special about Russell’s writing?
Davies: Oh, you can’t ask him that!
Gatwa: No, no it’s fine, and I think I can.
I would say Russell’s very good at humanity
and the duality of it. He captures the
complexity and simplicity of the human
condition and the light and the dark of it. He
puts the normal on the page and shows how it’s
really special. He’s rooted in the present. He’s
like, “Don’t be busy looking up there to the
clouds. You’re gonna miss all this special beauty
in the flowers that are there in front of you.”
Davies: Yes, don’t wait for heaven. That’s
right. Thank you.

There’s also always loads of humour in your

scripts, and from what we’ve seen of this
new season, that seems more so than ever.
Is that fair?
Davies: Oh yes, well, there is always laughter
even in the worst circumstances. There’s
laughter at a funeral. Genuinely, I sat through
Main: The my own husband’s funeral and had a laugh. Life
Doctor and doesn’t ‘genre’ itself. It’s all happening at the
Ruby prepare same time — happiness and sadness, and I’ve
to make their worked very hard to put that on screen.
move in Gatwa: Humour is so important. I find groups
Episode 1. of people that have had big trauma to be the
Here, top to funniest. I think about Irish people. I think
bottom: The about Black people. I think about gay people.
duo show off Davies: The Jewish sense of humour…
some period Gatwa: Yeah, exactly.
dance skills in
Episode 6; Now, as you gear up for your first full
Gibson and series to arrive, Ncuti, have you been
Gatwa get ready surprised by just what a big deal becoming
for action; Rock the Doctor is?
’n’ roll! Going Gatwa: Yes, it fazed me. The love for the show
full ’60s in a is intense and I was not prepared for it. I was
recording studio doing Barbie when it was announced I was the
in Episode 2, Doctor, and everyone on set was telling me
‘The Devil’s how big it was to be the Doctor, and Ryan
Chord’...; [Gosling] came up to me and said, “Oh my God
...Which also — Doctor Who!” And then I was like, “Yes,
sees The okay, this show is very powerful”.
Beatles make
an appearance. Have you been in touch with Ryan yet to
offer him a role, Russell?
Davies: Every day (laughs). (To Ncuti) What
James Pardon/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios
Alistair Heap/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios,

did he actually say to you?

Gatwa: He came up to me and goes (adopts
perfect Gosling impression): “Ncuti, you’re
Doctor Who, man!” And I said, “Yes I am!”
Then he goes, “It’s the coolest show in the
world, and now the coolest show in the world
just got cooler!” That I will never, ever, ever,
ever forget, as long as I live.

DOCTOR WHO IS ON BBC iPLAYER AND BBC ONE FROM 11 MAY

JUNE 2024 67
 IN HIT MA N , G L EN P OW EL L P L AYS A FA K E
ASSASSIN — I N FAC T, M A N Y D I F F EREN T
FAK E ASSASSI N S . AS H E A N D D I REC TO R
R IC H AR D LINK L ATER U N L EAS H TH EI R RO M C O M
T H R ILLE R , TH E D EA D LY D U O D I S C U SS TH EI R
B LO SSOM I N G C O L L A B O RATI O N
WORDS BETH WEBB

68 JUNE 2024
JUNE 2024 69
 It’s a bold statement from Glen Powell. “I’m
getting out of the business completely,” he says
to Richard Linklater, his friend and collaborator,
as the pair talk to Empire over Zoom. The
teasing continues. “I think we did it,” continues
Powell. “We did what we needed to do.”
He’s joking, but this is testament to the film
that Powell and Linklater have just made. The
actor is speaking to Empire from his home in
Los Angeles, giving us a virtual tour of his front
room. Boxes and framed pictures sit on the floor
behind him, as the actor is preparing to up sticks
and move back to his native Texas. And next
month, Hit Man hits cinemas, also marking
a new chapter for Powell.
This would be the worst possible time for
him to jump ship. Thanks to his longstanding
partnership with Linklater — the pair have now
worked on four projects over nearly two decades
— and his own box-office triumphs like Top Gun:
Maverick and Anyone But You, Powell’s status
has entered the stratosphere. Yet Hit Man
is the first time that the duo have collaborated
on a script, and gives Powell his first feature
screenwriting credit. A sexy, screwball character
study, it is loosely based on Gary Johnson
(Powell), a real-life undercover mole who
throughout the ’90s would pose as a gun-for-
hire to frame criminals. Charting their history
from high-school dreams to Mexican knife fights,
Linklater and Powell bring Empire up to speed
on what makes their dynamic killer.

THE CONTRACT different from how it is today. “It would’ve been and capacity, not to mention charm and good
“Rick has always been on the Mount Rushmore really weird if we would’ve become buddies,” looks,” he explains.
of filmmakers,” Powell says when describing the he laughs. “I was in my thirties and he was The director had the cast stay at his ranch
impact that Linklater has had on his career. a high-school boy.” outside Austin ahead of the shoot. They shared
“It’s a small mountain, by the way,” Linklater Eight years on from Fast Food Nation, bunks and played football, the goal being to
clarifies. Powell keeps going: “It’s really more of Linklater was holding auditions for Everybody form a solid, functional team ahead of their
a hill, but it’s still impressive!” Wants Some!!, the 1980-set college movie that was time together on screen. Powell took the
Mountain, hill, stump — you can call it based on his experiences playing on the varsity experience to heart. “He was like, ‘Wow, I can
what you like, but there’s no denying that the baseball team at Sam Houston State University. get better here. How can we make this better?’
filmmaker’s influence has been present ever When Powell walked in, Linklater struggled to He grabbed that opportunity and ran with it,”
since Powell, now 35, decided that he wanted to connect the young man standing before him with Linklater remembers. “You’re showing up to
be involved in films. He mentions a creative- the sophomore kid he’d met almost a decade play the game, not to figure out the sport,”
writing class that he took in high school, in earlier. “He was so smart and witty and funny; explains Powell.
which he was the only student exploring he was exactly what the film needed,” he recalls. After the film’s 2016 release they kept in
screenwriting. His professor put him onto “I was just so excited to re-engage with adult touch, throwing ideas around as to what their
Linklater’s work. “My love of writing really Glen, who had lived a life at that point.” next collaboration could be. In 2020, Linklater
started with a lot of Rick’s movies, and to get to Everybody Wants Some!! has a broad brought in Powell to play NASA official Bostick,
[be screenwriting] with him at this point in my ensemble cast, but Powell holds his own as Finn, a small but significant part, in his wistful
life, at an appropriate age, has been wonderfully a sharp college student whose joie de vivre animated movie Apollo 10½: A Space Age
full-circle,” he summarises. is as full and prominent as his ’80s moustache. Childhood. Then in the ensuing lockdown, as the
We briefly discuss Fast Food Nation, Linklater describes the character as a distillation world shut up shop, Powell called Linklater with
Linklater’s 2006 satire which featured a teenage of everything he wanted to say with the film: an an idea that would substantially level-up their
Powell in a small role, and the filmmaker is athlete who defies stereotypes with his warmth partnership. They were about to commit, lock,
quick to confirm that their relationship was a lot and wit. “I [was] looking for neural quickness stock and barrel.

70 JUNE 2024
 THE HIT
Clockwise from Gary Johnson was a contract killer with a double
top left: life. In 2001, journalist Skip Hollandsworth
Undercover — whose reporting led to Linklater’s 2011 crime
academic Gary caper Bernie — wrote an article for Texas
Johnson (Glen Monthly on the faux hit man. By day, Johnson
Powell) poses as was a psychology professor, with a wisteria-
a hitman; Chatting lined garden and Gandhi coffee-table book,
to a prospective and his contradictory world left its mark on
client; Director Linklater. Here was a man who could assume
Richard Linklater a brand-new identity, convince a client that he
with Powell on was capable of murdering someone for cash,
set; Johnson in and then return home to feed his two cats.
yet another Linklater read the article the year it was
disguise; Linklater published and, with thoughts of developing it as
films a scene a dark comedy, followed up with Hollandsworth,
while riding a who gave him boxes of grainy CCTV footage
bike; Adria Arjona of Johnson in action and transcripts of his
plays Madison, interviews. “I really put some time into it, but it
who asks just never totally worked as a film in my head,”
Johnson for help. Linklater remembers. And so Johnson lingered
in the back of his mind for the best part of 20
years. Until Powell called.
The actor has a nose for good stories: on
a fishing trip he read Adam Makos’ book Devotion:
An Epic True Story Of Heroism, Brotherhood And
Sacrifice, about pilots in the 1950s, going on to
produce and co-star in an adaptation (J.D.
Dillard’s 2022 biopic Devotion). When he read
Hollandsworth’s article, that instinct kicked in
again, particularly when he arrived at a part where
Johnson decides to help a woman who has hired
him to kill her abusive partner. Powell and
Linklater noodled over the story during long ❯

JUNE 2024 71
 lockdown conversations, until the director you’re writing the dialogue you’re just working
suggested they put their ideas into a script, lyrics to fit into the music you’ve already
together. Linklater had previous experience written,’” he explains (“Of course that comes
here, having collaborated with Ethan Hawke from Ethan,” Powell responds warmly).
and Julie Delpy when penning Before Sunset and They had the music, they had the lyrics; now
Before Midnight. “A lot of my rehearsal process it was time to play the piece.
is rewriting; it’s me having new ideas with
actors,” he explains. THE EXECUTION
They already had their blueprint for Gary Linklater is remembering an autumn day in New
(and his cats) thanks to Hollandsworth’s Orleans, 2022, when a guy with wraparound
investigation. But the more they talked, the shades, neck tattoos and long hair under a
more they found themselves playing with camouflage bandana strode into the area where
genre. “We felt the liberation to take crime and Hit Man was being filmed. Even the crew didn’t
erotic-thriller elements and throw it all in the twig that it was Glen Powell. “They didn’t know
mix,” Powell says. “It started taking on a shape it was him; they thought that someone had
that resembled the same identity crisis that wandered onto set,” the director recalls. This
Gary Johnson [had], in a wonderful way.” became something of a ritual for Powell, who
A love story emerged between their hitman plays Gary as Gary plays an array of fake hitmen,
and the woman (played by Adria Arjona) who all with distinct costumes and accents. “There was
hires him to kill her partner, which would force a moment before we started every scene where
Gary to stay in-character as his most enigmatic we laughed so hard because [when I came] out
alias, the affable, assured everyman, Ron. Powell of the van, it was just ridiculous,” Powell says.
likens the story to Tootsie. “What came to mind Each alias is tailored to Gary’s client’s
was this idea of someone who’s misogynistic expectations, from a surly Russian with a leather
having to wear the costume of a woman, and then trench-coat with a jet-black bob, to a Wall Street
ends up finding this new respect for women,” he type with slicked-back hair and a power suit.
explains of Dustin Hoffman’s character in that Powell would read books on people’s different
film. “I thought it was interesting to have someone walks and characteristics in order to embody these
who teaches humanity [Gary, the psychology characters in the same way that Gary would, rather
professor], but doesn’t engage with it, put on the than with the help of movie magic. “We were not
skin of someone who engages with it differently.” dealing with prosthetics, we were dealing with
Finally, they set to work nailing down the homegrown, simple fixes that would change your
dialogue. There’s an analogy that Linklater face and not make someone go, ‘Is that guy’s skin
borrows from Before trilogy collaborator Hawke real?’” says Powell. Ultimately, he believes that
when he describes taking their screenplay to this the film is about fantasy, and he delighted in
next level. “He was like, ‘You have the story’ — psychologically breaking down Gary’s clients
and we really had it beat for beat — ‘by the time and reverse-engineering their ideal killer.

72 JUNE 2024
 with an open road leading to future possibilities.
Powell is cackling as another sports metaphor
comes into the conversation. “First of all, you
tie each other together by the wrist, and then
you pull onto it, so there’s no running away,” the
director summarises while gesturing.
It was a dynamic that Powell felt strongly
throughout the shoot and into an intense period
of post-production. “I’ve got to give Rick credit;
he’s been making films for as long as he has and
he hasn’t lost one bit of enthusiasm,” Powell
says happily. “So we worked each other to the
bone. He thought I never slept, and Rick, well,
you just can’t wear this guy out. We were
working night and day.” And that’s how they
stayed until the bitter end; locked in together,
willing the other person on. “We could always
make a better movie,” Linklater recalls.
That movie would earn standing ovations
at the Venice Film Festival, where it made its
Clockwise from Indeed, the film uses Gary’s background in world premiere last September, and then again
top left: Food for psychology to wrestle with big themes of identity. at the Toronto International Film Festival a
thought: Johnson Before his journey as Ron ramps up, Gary posits couple of weeks later. The actors’ strike meant
lures Walt (Bryant a question to someone: “When do you become that Powell would have to experience its success
Carroll) into his the person that you’re pretending to be?” It’s a second-hand, through excitable calls from
trap; The hired question that holds some resonance with Powell, Linklater. But the collective experience has only
hand with here playing a leading man, co-written by himself, cemented their desire to work together again.
Madison; for the first time. “I’ve spent a lot of time failing They’re currently passing ideas back and forth,
Relations get out in Los Angeles; I’ve been doing this job since but unsurprisingly, both are in no hurry to
steamy; Linklater I was ten years old,” he reflects. “Moving out to compromise over the kind of story they want to
with Powell LA, success definitely wasn’t quick.” An especially tell. “We’re trying to figure out what sort of thing
between takes; low point arrived, where the actor got the distinct gets us both fired up,” says Powell. “I think that’s
Putting on an act: feeling that Hollywood was done with him. Instead the special part about Hit Man; the more we
Johnson is the of caving, he made a choice: to lie to himself, and talked about it, the more fired up we got.”
great pretender. to buy into that lie wholeheartedly. “[I was saying], The pair have got plenty to keep them
‘This is just that part in the story where the occupied until then. Powell will next appear in
character loses it all and they’re trying to get him to blustery blockbuster Twisters, and is co-writing
leave. Every screenplay does this.’” He leant into and starring in Chad Powers, a comedy series
his aspirations, operating on the basis that he about a disgraced quarterback. Linklater is
would, one day, work with people like Linklater, working on various projects in-between his
playing the characters he wanted to play. ambitious 20-year adaptation of Stephen
While Gary was busy playing other parts in Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along. Yet, as long
other people’s lives, all Powell wanted to do was as their Mexican knife-fight rumbles on, these
play Gary. two will always stay in close proximity, always
challenging each other to make a better movie.
THE AFTERMATH They are far from being done with what they
“Do you know what that is? A Mexican knife- needed to do.
fight? The two Texans can explain it to you.”
Linklater is trying to sum up the work ethic HIT MAN IS IN CINEMAS FROM 24 MAY AND ON NETFLIX

that he shares with Powell today, post-Hit Man, FROM 7 JUNE

JUNE 2024 73
Daisy Ridley, photographed
exclusively for Empire
in Austin, Texas, on
10 March 2024.

74 JUNE 2024
H AV I N G S U R V I V E D A F E V E R I S H LY

D E B A T E D S T A R W A R S T R I L O G Y,

DAISY RIDLEY IS FORGING HER OWN

PATH — AND TAKING CONTROL

WORDS
IANA MURRAY

DYLAN COULTER

JUNE 2024 75
 FO R DA I SY R I D L E Y,
T H E THR I LL CO M E S FI RS T
AN D T H E FE A R CO M E S L AT E R .
While wading in the middle of the Black Sea for By the end of it, I couldn’t believe how much just the intensity of the swimming. I basically
Joachim Rønning’s rousing 1920s-set biopic better I’d gotten at swimming, because when I first had a chronic ear infection the whole time, and
Young Woman And The Sea, in which she stars started training, I literally couldn’t do a length. now I have a thing with my eardrum, so my
as Trudy Ederle, the first woman to swim across We went to a 20-metre pool, and I got to halfway hearing went a bit funny.
the English Channel, Ridley’s aversion to and stood up and was like... (Heavy panting)
open-water swimming confronted her fully. One image that really stands out is when
“You know when you go in the sea?” she asks. Was there anything surprising you the camera looks up at Trudy from
“I never go beyond where I can see my feet. discovered in your training? underwater and she’s beaming. There are
The whole thing was such an exploration of The injury I actually sustained was the moment films about the hardships that athletes
things I don’t really like.” Her voice sing-songs: in the film where I’m dragged out of the water. endure, but here, what overrides that is
“The lies we tell for the jobs we do!” Because I had to slump over Christopher the pure joy she gets out of swimming. Did
Of course, the London-born actor is Eccleston (who plays her ill-intentioned coach that resonate with you?
well-acquainted with treacherous waters. At the Jabez Wolffe), I ripped some muscle in [my I’m glad you feel that because, obviously, what
age of 21, Ridley was plucked from anonymity arm]. And then I have mad ear issues now from the swim represented was so huge in a social
to lead the Star Wars sequel trilogy as Rey, way, but my feeling was that I wanted to play
a preternaturally gifted Jedi whose fraught Trudy loving swimming. Who knows how
lineage is perhaps one of the most debated plot- she really felt, because there isn’t so much
twists in modern movie history. No pressure [information] about what was really motivating
when your CV to date mainly consisted of her except for the fact that she was so gutted
a bit-part on Casualty and a Morrisons ad. that she didn’t win gold at the Olympics. But
A decade later, Ridley’s ludicrously busy I wanted this to feel like someone who just
calendar speaks to the ways she’s taken her loves what they’re doing. And I wanted the
career by the reins, honing in on subdued feeling that everything she does, she’s able
character dramas about women who correct to do because of the support of her family.
their futures through their own sheer will. The I wanted this to feel like a love story between
stakes vary, from an introvert struggling to her and her sister.
connect (Sometimes I Think About Dying) to an
athlete achieving superhuman feats (Young You’re an executive producer on the film,
Woman And The Sea) to a child actor’s mother and a producer on Sometimes I Think About
failing to keep her marriage together (the Dying and Magpie. Is there something you
forthcoming Magpie, which she conceived and get from having that creative control that
co-wrote). Add to that a step-up behind the you don’t necessarily find in acting alone?
scenes — she has production credits on all three At work, I’m generally treated like an involved
of those films — and it’s clear that she’s levelling partner. I was very thrilled to be given the credit
up. And then there’s the upcoming Rey movie, on Young Woman. I had been attached to the
which promises Ridley’s return to Star Wars film for a little while, and then I was doing
and all the exhilarating and terrifying wonders accent prep on the film, which was quite ❯

that entails.
Calling Empire on a morning off while she Above and
films survivalist thriller We Bury The Dead in
Previous page and this page: Sequin dress, Emilia Wickstead

right:
Australia, she opens up about what it means to Braving the
dive back in. open sea as
long-distance
At the beginning of Young Woman And The swimmer Trudy
Sea, Trudy only knows how to doggy paddle. Ederle, the first
It looks like really hard work to fake being woman to swim
a bad swimmer. across the
Doing the doggy paddle was the worst part of all English
of the swimming. It’s the time when we’re in Channel, in
these very intense costumes, like the bloomers Young Woman
and the dress. That day where we went in and did And The Sea.
our test for the coach was so rough. I could
honestly barely breathe. It is such an intense
waste of energy. So ridiculous compared to the
crawl. That was really the hardest day filming.

76 JUNE 2024
JUNE 2024 77
78 JUNE 2024
 “ I WA N T T O B E A
revealing, so I gave loads of script notes. And adjustment that no-one can really be
so that was sort of the beginning of it. I was WO R K I N G ACT O R : ready for.
consulted and involved in creative chats about I think when everything actually happened,
lots of stuff, so for something like this, it was I stayed at home and sort of was like, “Okay!”
pretty mega to be given the executive producer THAT ’S MY T HI N G . There’s a craziness, and then everything goes
credit. Even on [We Bury The Dead] I was like, away again, which is great. For all the people
“I’m gonna come in as an actor and not get
involved in any other way.” [But] I just can’t A N D I ’ M DO I N G I T going, “Your life is going to change,” it did in
some ways, and then you just go to your mum’s
seem to help myself anymore. I’m like, “Let’s house and you’re like, “Okay, this is nice.”
have a chat about the script!”
A N D I T ’S P R E T T Y Having such a solid foundation was the absolute
best thing for me. Obviously, on a professional
Your recent roles have this contrast to Star scale, things changed, and [in terms of ]
Wars, which is all about maximalism and
a heart-on-your-sleeve approach to emotion.
FUCK I N G G R EAT.” anonymity, things change, but only actually
really briefly. There were a lot of changes, but
With these last few films, character-wise, also many things stayed the same.
you’ve dealt a lot more with interiority.
I suppose the thread I have found with them all And now you’re preparing to star in
is that they’re all overcoming something. With another Rey film. Was it a difficult decision
Sometimes I Think About Dying, it’s merely to come back?
being able to maintain a conversation with It wasn’t a difficult decision. I didn’t say yes right
someone in a social situation. And with Trudy, away, Kathy [Kennedy, Lucasfilm president] was
it’s overcoming a feat that has literally never like, “Take as long as you need.” It was actually
been done by a woman. They’re two very really funny, on the way there [to meet
different things, but both are struggling for Kennedy], I was on the phone to my best friend
something. So that’s what I tend to find not at and he goes, “Oh my God, Dais, imagine if they’re
the time, but after the fact. doing a Rey TV show.” And I was like, “Nah,
we’re literally just going for breakfast.” And then
Jumping back to Star Wars, how prepared I called him and I was like, “You will never guess
were you for how that was going to affect what.” Why wouldn’t I [do it]? Yes, they have
your life? been divisive, but also they bring a lot of love
There was a lot of love and protection. I can’t and joy to a lot of people. It feels pretty amazing
really remember that well — it was ten years ago. to be able to continue a character — like, can
There was a lot of support given, but nothing can I even remember how to play her? It’s an
really prepare you for what you’re going to go interesting challenge as an actor to come back to
through on an individual level. something and try to figure out what’s changed
for me and what’s changed for her.
You were also pulling pints in pubs before
you got cast. That’s a rapid lifestyle What are your hopes for Rey’s arc in this
next film?
Top to bottom: I honestly have no idea. I know the story beats,
Fran gets close but other than that, I’m not sure what it’s going
to nature in to be. But I’m reading a script next month. I’m
Sometimes curious about it all.
I Think
About Dying; You said yes to joining the films the first
Shattering time, of course, but does it feel like you’re
thoughts as coming back on your own terms?
Annette in Coming in a bit more eyes wide open, I suppose
Magpie; I feel more like I’m owning it. I suppose I owned
Director J.J. it the first time. Basically, I’m an adult now.
Abrams with I certainly did not feel like an adult at the time.
Ridley — as the Obviously, personally, things have changed, and
now iconic Rey professionally, I’ve had lots of other experiences,
— on set of Star and so I definitely feel like it’s a different thing
Wars: The Force this time. There’s just a lot of joy with me
Awakens (2015). and these films. Honestly, if I wasn’t excited,
I wouldn’t have done it. It feels like a great thing
to be part of.

Since you’ve been stepping into the

producer role and having more creative
input in projects you’re making, have you
felt you have more agency as an actor than
Navy dress, Batsheva

you did ten years ago?

I think that’s because of J.J. [Abrams]. He was
my first real working relationship as an actor,
and he always made me feel like I had agency ❯

JUNE 2024 79
 “ T HE R E WA S
and was always part of conversations, and a stunt thing that I was being asked to do that
had the freedom at 21 years of age when I had A LO T O F was being asked not by the stunt team, which is
never been on a set for longer than two weeks. where the problem lay. I’m pretty gung-ho, so
He always heard what I had to say. And again, I think over time people go, “Oh, okay, if you’ll
I don’t take that lightly, because I know that’s SUP P O RT G I VE N do this, then we’ll do this.” I think so much
not the case for everyone. I feel like so many of it is about that hardwired thing of not wanting
people have come before me in order that we,
women particularly, have a voice on set and in
[ON S TA R WA R S] , to feel like a disappointment. You don’t want to
hold things up. You don’t want to look difficult.
working life. Starting off with J.J., who was the Nine times out of ten, I would say I’ve not been
most respectful, wonderful, collaborative
person, I always felt that. Now I probably have
B UT N O T HI N G CA N in that situation.

more cognisant agency, whereas before, it Speaking from an outsider’s perspective,

was just part and parcel of everything, and
I wouldn’t have known that it was different to
REA LLY P R E PA R E when an actor’s career takes off from
a franchise, it seems difficult for them to
other people’s experience. extricate themselves from that property
YO U FO R WHAT and establish themselves as an individual
Chaos Walking is one of those films that with their own artistic identity. Is that
had its hurdles and didn’t land how people something you’re cognisant of ?
wanted it to. How do you reflect on that YOU’ R E G O I N G T O I suppose the truth is, [Star Wars] will always be
experience and the reception to it? the first thing that is connected to me in my
Back when it came out, I was watching Mark
Kermode, and once Chaos Walking flashed up…
G O T HRO UG H.” career. It’s something I’m aware of, but it’s also
not something I feel is a difficulty. I feel very
no-one has turned the TV off quicker than in privileged to have done that role, and obviously
that moment. I think that was a lesson in you will continue to. In the business way of things,
just don’t know how things are gonna roll. And I’m then lucky to have been able to go and do
that is very much something I signed on to as other stuff because of those films. So I don’t take
an actor. I loved the initial script, the idea, the any of that for granted. I want to be a working
world. I love the books. You sign on and you do actor: that’s my thing. And I’m doing it and it’s
what you can. I’ve never really been asked about pretty fucking great.
Chaos Walking.
YOUNG WOMAN AND THE SEA IS IN CINEMAS FROM 31 MAY

Really?
Yeah. Everyone was like, “We won’t mention it!” Right, top
That’s something I really wasn’t involved with to bottom:
creatively. Not out of choice, just because it With Tom
was one of those things. I was like, “This is great: Holland in
I come in as an actor, do my thing and then off Chaos Walking
I go.” It’s so funny, we were watching a show and (2021);
someone used the phrase, “It didn’t trouble the “Be with me”
box office.” What can you do? — Rey channels
the Force in

Navy dress, Batsheva; Brogues, Church’s. Additional imagery: Disney, Lucasfilm, Rob Baker Ashton
You’ve talked before about discovering the The Rise Of
power of saying no. I’m curious about what Skywalker
it took for you to learn and absorb that. (2019).
It was one of the things I have learned over time.
It is really hard being uncomfortable. “Do you
want to go to a night out?” Ooh, don’t want to
say no, but [I’m] feeling the pressure to do the
thing. So on a small scale in that way, I think
[it’s about] being more comfortable with being
uncomfortable, because most of us are
hardwired to not let anybody down. I can’t
really give an example bar that, you know?

You’ve never felt uncomfortable in

a work sense?
There was a moment on a film that I won’t
name. There was an expectation that I would
do this thing, and in that moment, there was a
group of people stood around looking at me and
it was incredibly uncomfortable to say no. And
I was like, “No, and also, this isn’t the way that
I should be being asked.” But then I left and
cried, because it was uncomfortable being asked,
and the way it was asked. It’s a film that has not
been mentioned in this conversation. But again,
I don’t think it came from a bad place. It was

80 JUNE 2024
 Styling: Leith Clark
Assisted by Delaney Williams
and Larissa Jaks
Make-up: Kindra Mann @ TMG
using Chanel
Hair: Nancilee Santos @ TMG
using Hair Ritual by Sisley,
Oribe, and T3 tools
Photographer assisted by:
Chris Davis, Michael Jennings
and Robert Amador.
Prop stylists: Madison George
and Gabriel Doerr

JUNE 2024 81
 IN 1999, A BUNCH OF HEDONISTIC RAVERS GOT
MAKING A FILM BY DAY. AS HUMAN TRAFFIC HITS
A TRUE CULT CLASSIC. NICE ONE, BRUVVA!

82 JUNE 2024
TOGETHER, PARTYING BY NIGHT AND, SOMEHOW,
25, WE ASK THEM HOW THEY ENDED UP WITH
Words John Nugent
 It’s not a question actors expect to hear in an
audition. More often than not, you might hear
something like, “Can you do an American
accent?” or, “Are you willing to appear nude on
camera?” But this most unlikely line of inquiry
was exactly the ice-breaker Welsh filmmaker
Justin Kerrigan used while auditioning for his
1999 rave comedy-drama Human Traffic.
“That was the first question!” recalls Danny
Dyer, who would go on to win the role of Moff.
At that point, Dyer had never appeared in a film,
his future as Queen Vic landlord and Cockney
national treasure not yet assured. For the then
21-year-old, it was a calculated risk. “I suppose
it’s usually a no-no — when you walk into an
audition, you don’t talk about how many drugs
you’re taking.” He offers a cheeky grin. “Of course,
I answered honestly.”
As it turned out, it was the right answer.
This was a cinematic reverse-doping test that
came with a point: Human Traffic was designed
to be the first film about clubbing and raving
from people who actually understood it — who
had lived it, disco biscuits and all. “It was about
finding young actors who were a part of the
rave scene,” writer-director Kerrigan explains.
“Before the actors did a reading, I wanted to find
out in our opening pleasantries what their
experience was in the scene. I could always tell.”
He chuckles. “The one that was most obvious
was Danny.” each other, have a comedown and go back to work misery of a soulless retail job. “I worked in [now
“He just wanted authenticity,” says John — roll the credits.” Grab your glow sticks: the defunct department store] British Home Stores,”

T
Simm, who would play Jip, the film’s lead and weekend has landed. he recalls. “I hated working in British Home
audience surrogate, of Kerrigan. Like Dyer, Simm Stores. So when it came to the weekend, there
was also able to provide ample qualifications he ‘Second Summer Of Love’, was no stopping me.” Kerrigan was introduced
from the University Of Rave. “He didn’t want as it is sometimes called, to dance music in the early 1990s, when the
people pretending what it must be like on arrived in the UK in 1988, subculture was still nascent — “like a secret
ecstasy, gurning. At the time, I was going out when acid house, exported club,” he says.
most weekends. That was our world. That was from Chicago, exploded out By the decade’s end, dance music had gone
the audition.” of the nightclubs and into the mainstream. Yet there was still no adequate
They both got the gig. The result was Human free-party scene. Warehouses, farmers’ fields, cinematic take. The few depictions on screen
Traffic: still the most truthful depiction of the service stations off junction 6 of the M25: all tended towards the scolding and scare-mongering;
’90s rave scene ever committed to screen. Made played host to a new generation of ravers ‘issues’ films like 1995’s Loved Up, made primarily
for next-to-nothing, it’s a raucous, energetic, reaching for the lasers, embracing big beats to be screened to schoolchildren, warned of
sweat-drenched, 99-minute mash-up, depicting a and the loved-up euphoria of MDMA, also the dangers of raving; even Danny Boyle’s
single night in the life of five pals: party patriarch known as ecstasy. The Conservative government Trainspotting, which had a more playful approach,
Jip, “Cockney space case” Moff, wannabe DJ notoriously attempted to outlaw “repetitive ultimately focused on the subculture’s destructive
Koop (Shaun Parkes), unlucky-in-love Lulu beats” at public gatherings with 1994’s Criminal side. Clearly, there was a gap in the market.
(Lorraine Pilkington), and fast-food wage slave Justice Act, but the movement only grew larger. “There was nothing to represent rave culture
Nina (Nicola Reynolds). “There were loads of scare stories about at that time,” Kerrigan says. “There was just no
It became a cult classic that captured the ecstasy at the time,” recalls John Simm. “But youth movie that I could identify with.” While
chemical generation, just as it crested; acted millions of people were going out every weekend studying at Newport Film School, Kerrigan was
as career launchpad for Simm, Dyer, Andrew and having a ball. It was a huge youth movement. encouraged by a tutor to write a screenplay, and
Lincoln and many others; and made the phrase It was massive.” The cast of Human Traffic were began jotting ideas on the back of BHS receipts,
“Nice one, bruvva!” an eternal meme. Twenty- part of this movement. Even if, admits Dyer, writing candidly and unselfconsciously about his
five years after release, it remains a lightning-in- “There was only certain gaffs I could get into experiences; the first draft of the script was 400
a-bottle time capsule. Or, as Dyer succinctly puts where I could really have it large.” pages long. But he was eager to get it all down
it: “It was just about young people who go out, get For budding filmmaker Kerrigan, the rave while it still felt fresh. “It was important for
fucked up, talk a lot of shit, dance around, cuddle scene of his native Cardiff was an escape from the me to make the film while I was still young,” he

84 JUNE 2024
 Clockwise from
left: Human
traffic: Jip (John
Simm), Koop
(Shaun Parkes),
Nina (Nicola
Reynolds), Lee
(Dean Davies),
Moff (Danny Dyer)
and Lulu (Lorraine
Pilkington); Dyer
gets his big break
on the bog; Koop
spins a banging
choon; Wiry
wage slave Jip;
Legendary DJ Carl
Cox, cameoing as
Pablo Hassan,
manager of the
Asylum nightclub.

explains. “I always felt that the best youth culture for pennies, in a place — Cardiff — without much which Jip and Moff repeatedly scream the
movies are made by young people.” Remarkably, of a film industry, made life tougher than phrase at each other — was a loose riff on the
Kerrigan wrote the script aged 23, filmed it at 24, a particularly challenging hardcore-techno DJ original script by Dyer and Simm, for example.
and completed it aged 25. set. The production was constantly fighting for “We pushed that to the absolute fucking
An independent film about drugs from a first- its life. “On the back of the call-sheet every day, extreme,” says Dyer. “I just went fuckin’ crackers
time director in his early twenties was never Justin would learn that another five scenes had on it, which I was allowed to do. Moff being
going to be easy to get off the ground. Kerrigan been cut, because of money, or whatever reason,” the biggest fucking cane-head in it — I could
and his producers were repeatedly turned down; Dyer recalls. Kerrigan estimates that “we only shot really play that. It was my first outing to really
if it wasn’t for an anonymous private investor, it 60 per cent of the script” due to budget constraints express my... Cockney-ism, whatever you want
might never have been made. But it resonated and schedules overrunning. (A voiceover from to fucking call it.”
with the people who knew the scene. “It was the Simm’s character, added in post-production, Life would occasionally imitate art. Dyer
script that got us all on Justin’s side,” says Simm. helped to paper over the cracks.) “We couldn’t mainly remembers that he doesn’t remember
“We thought, ‘This guy is living it. He’s living in our pay extras,” Kerrigan recalls, “so we had to drag much. “We partied a lot,” he recalls, “and we
world.’” It was the same for Dyer, then looking for them off the streets. I’d have to improvise a lot. made a film in-between.” Reports are mixed
his big film break. “It was the first script,” he says, You can imagine how stressful it was.” on how ‘Method’ the actors went with the
“that I picked up and thought, ‘Fucking hell. I’ve And yet, elation was never far away. “It was intoxicants. “I think that’s been vastly blown out
got to get this. I will never get over it if I don’t.’” like an amazing holiday,” says Dyer, and “you’re of proportion,” chuckles Simm. “I mean, you
The dancefloor was calling. But this party up each other’s arses every day.” As Simm says, can’t act if you’re off your nut on a pill. There’s

A
was not without its perils. “It was madness. Anarchic. I’m amazed it got just no way.” He concedes there was a fair bit of
finished. But it actually worked in the film’s indulgence once the cameras stopped rolling:
sk anyone involved favour. I don’t think we could have done it any “We were partying at night. So some days filming,
about what it was like to other way.” The ensemble cast quickly bonded we hadn’t been to bed. But we were supposed to
film Human Traffic, and in the rave trenches; Simm already knew be in that state anyway!”
one word keeps coming Shaun Parkes (who played Koop) and Andrew Kerrigan is reluctant to dob any of his actors
up. “It was absolute Lincoln (who played Felix), and “as soon as I met in; even after all this time, he won’t spill who,
chaos,” says Kerrigan. Danny Dyer, he was one of my best friends — it exactly, was mashed off their tits. “Everyone’s
“Beautiful chaos!” says Simm. “I don’t mind was just immediate.” grown up, most of them have got kids.... So I’m
a bit of chaos in my life,” smiles Dyer. Improvisation was encouraged. The not gonna say who did what, when and where.
The reality of making an independent film now-famous “Nice one, bruvva!” scene — in But there were certainly drugs on the set.” He ❯

JUNE 2024 85
 is adamant, however, that none of the main actors away from the bad bits. There’s that brilliant line was fantastic. I was laughing like a drain.”) The
took MDMA during filming, despite rumours to in it: ‘What goes up, must come down.’” clubbing community immediately embraced it,
the contrary. “That was a rule,” he says, “because Still, the filmmakers were determined it too; dance-music bible Mixmag featured it on the
they’d be coming down when I needed them to wouldn’t finish with a preachy, hand-wringing cover, with the line, “Why every clubber must see
come up.” Instead, the five leads wore contact ending, as many potential producing suitors had this film.” Some more puritanical critics didn’t get
lenses during the party scenes, to replicate the hoped it would. “A lot of distribution companies it (“These kids are clueless,” wrote Roger Ebert),
dilated-pupils look that comes with ecstasy. The just didn’t want anything to do with it,” Dyer but its continued life on VHS and DVD (and later
no-pills rule did not apply for the supporting cast, remembers. “They were saying, ‘You gotta streaming) confirmed its status as a cult classic.
though. “Some of the extras in the club scene reshoot it. There needs to be some sort of moral “The reaction was mad,” says Kerrigan. “There
were off their fucking heads,” the director recalls. ending.’” He scoffs. “I mean, it’s not fuckin’ was quite an explosion.” It made instant stars of

“MY BAR BILL AT THE END WAS BIGGER THAN

ME WAGES. I WENT HOME IN DEBT!” DANNY DYER
Shutterstock. With thanks to Empire Design

“It was like a two-week party for them.” Oppenheimer. It’s not gonna make you feel thick its cast. Simm recalls going to the Creamfields

A
As wild and bacchanalian as the shoot could while watching it. You know what I mean?” festival with Dyer, shortly after the film came out,
be, the film took care to neither vilify nor glorify and being mobbed. “Honestly, it was like The
the drug experience. “I wrote it truthfully from decade after the rave scene Walking Dead!” he laughs. “I thought we were
my own perspective of what I saw,” says Kerrigan. exploded in the UK, in the gonna get ripped to pieces. As soon as we’re
“I didn’t see anybody dying on ecstasy. But as Koop summer of 1999, Human spotted on a dancefloor somewhere — everybody’s
says in the film: when the comedowns outweigh Traffic was released. It loved up, off their nut — mate. Forget about it.”
the good times, the party’s over.” For all its giddy earned a respectable £2.5 Behind-the-scenes, however, the comedown
highs, Human Traffic is not short on paranoia, million in the UK, Kerrigan hit hard. A new version of the film, Human Traffic
alienation and anxiety. “Drugs affect people in was nominated for the Most Promising Newcomer Remixed, came out in 2002; the director says he
different ways,” says Simm. “A lot of people freak BAFTA, and the film accrued fans from all corners. was blindsided by the release. “I got a call from
out. The film was pretty true to life. It didn’t shy (Sir Ridley Scott told one journalist, “I thought it the local paper in Cardiff,” recalls Kerrigan. “He

86 JUNE 2024
 Traffic
Clockwise
from main: Has
Jams
anybody got any HUMAN T RAFFIC’S
Veras?; Director FIVE FATTEST
Justin Kerrigan NEED LE DROPS
cameos as
junglist ‘Ziggy ‘BUILD IT UP, TEAR
Marlon’ — who, it IT DOWN’
turns out, can FATBOY SL I M
throw some The film kicks off with an opening-credits
shapes; Lulu gets montage that sets out its stall magnificently:
the party started; footage of revellers at a real rave (shot
Jip’s boss gives guerrilla-style by director Justin Kerrigan),
him some, er, gyp; juxtaposed with a 1994 protest against the
“Get aht of my Criminal Justice Act — all soundtracked to
pub.” Dyer gets Norman Cook’s bouncy big-beat banger.
his Cockney
geez on. ‘STALKER’
A P H RODI T E
This 1999 jungle classic, by Welsh DJ
and producer Aphrodite, “could turn
Hare Krishna into a bad boy”, according
to Koop (Shaun Parkes). Kerrigan cameos
as a customer in the record-shop-rave
that follows; his line, “Any jungle in,
guy?” remains a catchphrase on drum-
and-bass forums.

‘DIVING FACES’
LI QUI D CH I L D
said, ‘Would you like to comment on the new to change my life. Which proved to be true.” The gang finally make it into the Asylum
version of Human Traffic that’s coming out on Indeed, the Human Traffic party never really nightclub in Cardiff, this euphoric trance
DVD on Monday?’ That was news to me. That stopped. A few years back, “Nice one, bruvva!” track from German duo Liquid Child
was how I found out that the producer had done could be heard as a shout-out across the campsites blasting through the speakers. Kerrigan was
a producer’s cut.” Dyer is more blunt: “I just think of Glastonbury, videos of the phenomenon going keen not to restrict the soundtrack to just
that was fucking disrespectful.” viral. Simm’s now-adult son witnessed it, unaware one subgenre — so trance, house,
Years later, an attempt to mount a sequel of the source. “I had to say to him, ‘You know that’s drum-and-bass, hip-hop, even industrial
proved fruitless. Dyer was attached to star, and my line?’” he laughs. The phrase endures on GIFs, techno all feature.
other cast members were interested (although T-shirts, mugs, tattoos, even a craft beer, cementing
notably, not Simm), but Kerrigan spent five years the film’s legacy. “It’s still there,” says Dyer. “It ‘BELFAST’
in legal turmoil, wrangling for the rights; when it caught something. I’m really proud of that.” O RBI TA L
was finally resolved around 2020, “The entire Simm is slightly reluctant to revisit the film. Techno legends Phil and Paul Hartnoll
fucking world goes into lockdown,” he says — and “They called it the last great film of the ’90s,” he released this blissed-out beauty in 1991 and
by the time the pandemic was over, the rights had says. “I don’t know how well it’s held up. I find it it has been a balm for sore heads ever
expired. “It was a real motherfucker.” All this really difficult to watch myself nowadays anyway, since. Fittingly, it is the song that plays as
has, understandably, soured the director on the but with Human Traffic, the characters are the gang drive home, some asleep in the
original film. He rarely gives interviews about it, heightened versions of ourselves. But that’s the back seat, as the morning sun rises.
as a result. “I wouldn’t do Human Traffic 2 now,” secret to its longevity — none of it is forced. It’s Goosebumps-inducing stuff.
he says, “if you paid me for the first one.” just us having fun.”
And he never actually did get paid, he says. And despite the painful birth, and even more ‘COME TOGETHER’
“The only thing I received was something called painful aftermath, Kerrigan can look back at it (ANDREW WEATHERALL MIX)
secondary royalties. Literally, about 50 quid.” with pride. “The best thing about the film for PRI MA L SCR E A M
Simm doesn’t remember a giant payday either: me — and this was a surprise — is that people see The song that plays over the end credits of
“We did it for the love of the subject matter, and themselves in the characters. I was not intending the film harks back to the beginning. This
the script,” he says. “We did it for Justin.” Dyer on doing that. I just wrote it from my own extended album version, remixed by acid
remembers that “my bar bill at the end of the job perspective. But it seemed to hit on something. house pioneer Andrew Weatherall, was
was bigger than me wages. I actually went home That, for me, is what cinema is all about.” released in 1990, just as the Second
in debt!” But it was worth it, he says: “I always They say that if you remember the ’90s, you Summer Of Love peaked. It’s included here
believed that when the film came out, it was going weren’t there — but Human Traffic can help. as if to say: “We salute you, rave elders!”

87
88 JUNE 2024
 WORDS
CHRIS HEWITT

NEIL JAMIESON

INTO THE

FOR 20 YEA RS, Z AC K SN Y DE R H AS UN L EASH E D H IS V E RY SP EC IF IC BR A N D

OF GODS A ND MONSTE R S, P R OVO K IN G STR O N G R EAC TIO N S WITH OUT FA I L .
AS REBEL MOON — PART TWO: THE SCARGIVER P R E PAR ES F O R L AUN C H,
WE P UT HI M I N F R ON T O F H IS MO ST SP IR ITE D AUDIE N C E Y ET: YOU
JUNE 2024 89
 NOT THAT YOU’D know it to look at him,
necessarily, but Zack Snyder recently turned 58.
The celebrations were “quiet, but good”, he tells
Empire when we speak to him a couple of days
later in early March. “Quiet” might come as
something of a surprise to anyone who’s tracked
the director’s career. Snyder kicked things off by
chronicling the world crashing to its doom with
that sensational opening sequence of Dawn Of
The Dead in 2004, and the Baron Of Bombast
has not let up since, marshalling mayhem
aplenty in the likes of 300, Watchmen, and his
entries in the DCEU (Man Of Steel, Batman V
Superman: Dawn Of Justice, and Justice League,
with his four-hour cut finally released after quality at the beginning. It is a continuation. Do all the Jimmys in the Rebel Moon
a lengthy delay). You don’t want to be too tonally different. It’s universe sound like Anthony Hopkins?
Most recently, he unveiled his Netflix- a real second chapter. The real tone-switch LEWIS NUGENT
backed sci-fi magnum opus, Rebel Moon — Part comes with the director’s cuts later this year. If you were to meet another Jimmy, it would not
One: A Child Of Fire. His work has not always That’ll be something to look forward to. The sound like Anthony Hopkins. It would sound
been critically well-received, nor universally director’s cuts are more overtly deconstructed more like Ian McKellen, or Ben Kingsley. It
beloved by audiences (want a fun night on social sci-fi. The heightened violence and over the would probably sound like an Oscar-winning
media, just mention Justice League and wait top-ness of it draws that into sharper focus. You English actor. You see a glimpse of other
for the arguments to start), but what seems get a bit more commentary on the genre because Jimmys, and you might see some other weird
inarguable is that Snyder is one of modern of it. I think the Heavy Metal aspect of the movie robots in the director’s cut.
cinema’s most distinctive visualists, with an is much more exaggerated.
eye (and an ear) for a stunning set-piece. What’s your favourite item of memorabilia
On the eve of the release of Rebel Moon — How do you think your style and aesthetic in your collection?
Part Two: The Scargiver, we got on the phone has evolved from Dawn Of The Dead to ROSS BURNETT
with the ever-affable filmmaker and, for an hour, Rebel Moon? One of my favourites is Rorschach’s grappling
bombarded him with questions. Not our questions, SCOTT VANDEROHE gun [from Watchmen]. I have Gerry’s [Butler]
mind. Your questions, from Snyder-bros and Weirdly, I’m a little more self-aware, although helmet from 300. His actual helmet. I have the
Snyder-sceptics alike, running the gamut through I would argue that Dawn Of The Dead was prototype ’S’ that was printed for Superman’s
his career. His answers? Quiet, but good. a great movie for me to begin my career. It has all S. I have a batarang. When we did Sucker Punch,
the elements I love. It uses the tropes of a genre the armour for the dragon sequence was from
With Rebel Moon — Part 2, from a rating of and turns them on themselves to re-examine Excalibur. We rented it, and I was tempted to
one to 11, how much insanity are we talking? the genre itself. The most immediate and keep a helmet and say we lost it or damaged it.
JEFFREY WARFIELD JR obvious thing I can think of is the centre But I didn’t, so that was a mistake. (Laughs) And
I feel like it’s probably an 11, because it’s pure montage with the Richard Cheese version of I do have one of the swords from Conan The
insanity. And when you’re gonna go for insanity, ‘Down With The Sickness’. In a normal movie, Barbarian. It has these leads in it so that when
the purest insanity is the best kind of insanity to you would have the Disturbed version. I think by you hit two swords together, it sparks.
go for. We haven’t seen real war yet and that’s having the Richard Cheese version, you get this
Alamy, Netflix, Warners

what we’re gonna get a taste of. other tone. It’s more self-aware. It’s like, “What What’s the hardest scene you’ve ever had to
is a montage? Why are we doing this passage-of- shoot, from a technical standpoint?
Will the tone of Part 2 be different to time thing?” I still feel like I’m doing that dance ROGELIO BARREIRO
the first? with the audience. Sometimes they get it, The hardest thing I ever filmed was putting Tig
COLLEEN WREN sometimes they don’t, and that’s fine, but I’m Notaro into Army Of The Dead after the movie
A bit different. It has a bit more of a pastoral definitely doing the dance. was finished. I DP’d that movie and the whole

90 JUNE 2024
 thesis from a visual standpoint was very
naturalistic lighting. A lot of it was lit with
flashlights and I meant for it to be beautiful, but
it was very tricky with a thin depth of field. And
when we put Tig in the movie, it became this
ultra-insane technical thing where we had to
recreate all that lighting meticulously, so I could
match it. There’s this whole thing about, “Zack
Snyder isn’t a real DP, he’s a director.” I defy
you to say that if you had any idea how the Tig
Notaro aspects of that movie were done. The
arrows in my quiver run deep, because that was
fucking legit work.

Is there anything you would change about

any of your movies?
LUCAS
The only movie I would change is Sucker Punch,
because it never really got finished correctly.
Even the director’s cut is not really the correct
cut. It’s really just an extended version. If I had
a chance, I would fix that movie. I have the
footage already shot: they just have to let me
put it together. We ask every now and again.
We have to ask again. I think there has to be
a window when no-one’s got the movie. If
they want to start a campaign, that’s alright.

Would you say you have any consistent

themes or philosophies in your films?
BRAD CURRAN
Every now and again this sort of underdog story
will appear. Or it’s the few against the many. The
idea of a team, or a family, that seems like a thing
I seem to do over and over. I don’t know what
that means, other than that I love punishment.
I can’t help myself. Whenever I make a movie,
I’ve put a team together. Man Of Steel is
probably the movie I made with the least ‘team’
in it. It’s got one guy. I would love to do another
movie like that with one guy or girl in it.

Why do you think your DC adaptations

generate ire and love from different
spectrums of the fandom?
@DCUMOVIEPAGE
I don’t know. It’s a good question. There’s
a percentage of the fandom that does not like
the deconstructivist approach that I take, where
I test the mythology. I think that makes some of
the fans mad. But basically what it says is that
your hero is worthy. I always feel like the movies
I made, in the end, though they may test that
notion, they confirm your suspicions about
their hero status. You might have to go on a bit
of a journey to get there.

Clockwise from Were you surprised Batman and Superman

top left: Dawn killing people ruffled a few feathers?
Of The Dead; LORETTA SWILLMAN
Rebel Moon No. The only reason I’m not surprised is that
— Part 2: The some people got brainwashed by a bunch of
Scargiver; material that’s not consistent with true canon.
Watchmen; 300; And that’s fine. They’re on their own journey.
Snyder on set
of Army Of Empire has a running joke where they refer
The Dead. to a drink called Zack Snyder’s Snack Cider. ❯

JUNE 2024 91
 Is this something you might be interested in
launching in real life?
MEHDI AHMAD
Zack Snyder’s Snack Cider? Is that alcoholic?
It sounds great. It sounds refreshing, but also
like it could get you a little drunk. So it sounds
exactly what you want. Consistent with my
motion pictures.

Can you tell us details of the cancelled

‘Wonder Woman 1854’ movie, which would
have taken place during the Crimean War?
GABRIEL FERREIRA
The idea of that was an early riff we were
doing: once Wonder Woman left the island in
search of Ares, what happened to her in her
different incarnations? If you look at that
photograph that I have in my office, my idea for
it was that she would travel around the world
looking for Ares and she would go to every
place where there was conflict. And on those
battlefields she found these lovers, warriors,
and they would age out because she is immortal.
They would be her lover for ten years or they
might die in battle, and it was probably sad
for a lot of the guys because they would see her
starting to be nice to the next young soldier and
be like, “Oh, I’m being replaced.” But all the
guys that she had with her were those loyal
warriors she found on the battlefields all over
the world. So, our Crimean story, we talked
about if Steve Trevor was there in Crimea. It
was never a screenplay, but we talked about it
so much that it kind of had its own life.

Would you ever direct a live-action version

of Shrek?
DANISH MANSURI
Ha! I don’t think so. Although I do love Shrek.
That’s a weirdo question.

Where do you keep your Oscar? [Zack

Snyder’s Justice League won 2022’s
fan-voted Oscars Cheer Moment category.]
NATHAN CALLENDER
They never sent me one! There was no actual
award. You take that up with the Oscar
committee. It’s a real scandal.

You’ve said you’d be interested in making an

Elektra movie. Are there any other Marvel
characters you’d like to adapt?
DAVID COOKSON
The thing is, I love Elektra Lives Again because
I’m a Frank Miller fan. I just like the look of that
book. It’s Lynn Varley, and that old Frank and
Lynn combo. It’s pretty hard to beat.

Can you tell me about your approach

to directing actors? You get incredibly
nuanced performances out of even minor
characters and silent moments.
BRANDON MARINO
It’s intuitive. There’s a learned skill to
communicating, but on the other hand, a lot of it
is like telling someone a story, then having them
tell it back to you. But the trick is not telling

92 JUNE 2024
 make the movies you want to make, and still
make the movies for the studio — that’s the
real crux. I’ve been able to make these giant
movies within the constructs of this machine
that is Hollywood, and get to make these things
that are still very personal and singular. It’s
them to tell you it back. You don’t tell them how being in the business of making movies that
to act. That’s their job. What you do is say, “This have no business existing. The pure idea at its
Clockwise from is the emotional fuel I want to give you for it.” core is controversial or economically not
top left: Action Sometimes it’s what you ask for, sometimes feasible, but how do you do that? If someone
fantasy Sucker it’s not. Sometimes it’s better than what you says you can’t do that, I go, “Okay, what if I do
Punch; asked for. I’m less afraid of actors. I used to be this?” There’s no “no”. I’m not interested in
Superhero frightened of them, as you should be. “no”. There’s a way.
face-off in
Batman V Do you pay for Netflix? When will we be seeing more Army Of
Superman: Dawn SOPHIE FREEDLAND The Dead?
Of Justice; Henry I do pay for Netflix. Absolutely. No-one told me MICHAEL McLEAN
Cavill and I can get it for free! I’ve never really asked. I keep asking Netflix and they say, “We want
Snyder check you to do a little more Rebel Moon.” I need to
the monitor on You seem to be drawn to fascist characters get back to it. I’m ready.
Man Of Steel; in your movies. Why is that?
Game on in JAMES ALEXANDER WHITE-ALDWORTH I read you were interested in making
Zack Snyder’s Fascist characters? Like Noble (Ed Skrein’s villain a movie about George Washington. Is
Justice League. in Rebel Moon), I guess? Who else is a fascist? that true?
Xerxes? Zod, maybe? But he’s always been RIEL STONE
a fascist. It’s interesting. I’ve been accused of I did. It was a very weirdo movie. I haven’t
being a fascist, but I don’t think I am one. I think written a script or anything. The concept
that comes from the sort of images I make, the was, what if the story of George Washington
larger-than-life images. That’s somehow infused and the Founding Fathers and the creation of
with some sort of propaganda. I honestly don’t America was 4,000 years old and had only been
know. I’m pretty low-key in real life. handed down as an oral tradition? What would
we have left of the story? You could get to the
If you had to remake Batman V Superman: mythological essence or heart of the actual
Dawn Of Justice but you could only use events. But I never did it.
previous Batmen and Supermen, who would
you go for and why? Would you be open to finishing your Justice
HANNAH JEFFERS League trilogy in animated form?
That’s hilarious. That’s a crazy question. I’d ANDREW VERDON
have to go for probably Christopher Reeve’s Yeah, absolutely. That’d be fun. That’d be cool.
Superman. And Adam West for Batman. He’s
probably the closest to my Batman. Does he get What would you like your legacy in movies
to wear my costume? Can he take my direction? to be?
Then he’s gonna be fine. FRANCIS REYES
That in the end the movies we made on our
How do you keep a balance between the own terms, in our own way, were exactly that:
corporate side of filmmaking and the uncompromising, singular visions that didn’t
artistic side? give a fuck. That would be awesome.
DEVNIK DUTTA
That’s the real trick, isn’t it? That balance is REBEL MOON — PART TWO: THE SCARGIVER IS ON

really the story of my career. The way you NETFLIX FROM 19 APRIL

JUNE 2024 93
JUNE 2024 | EDITED BY CHRIS HEWITT

Going
THE NAME MAY be English and, more often
than not, the accent is too. The CV is also
littered with American and British films. But
make no mistake — Eva Green is as French as
they come. (It’s pronounced Ey-va, for one
thing.) “Sometimes I wish my name was ‘Dupont’

Green
or something more French, so people saw
how much work I put into the English,” she
tells Empire, on the phone from Normandy.
However, her career is currently bookended
by French movies. The most recent is Martin
Bourboulon’s The Three Musketeers: Milady,
in which, as one of the title characters, she
constantly outsmarts and outswashbuckles the
EMPIRE TA LKS TO THE other title characters. The first is The Dreamers,
the Bernardo Bertolucci-directed drama that
WO NDER FUL EVA GREEN ABOUT was Green’s debut film in 2003, and which
launched her onto the scene in spectacular
THE DREAMERS , THE THREE fashion as a young woman who engages in
a most unusual ménage-à-trois with a young
MUSKETEERS , BOND AND MORE American student (Michael Pitt) and her own
brother (Louis Garrel) in 1968 Paris. Green is a human. Maybe the only thing the characters
extraordinary in the film, charting a complex have in common is that they like to play
character’s trials and tribulations, and baring different people. The character of Isabelle in
her body and soul. It’s no wonder that The Dreamers is a bit of an actress, but there’s
Hollywood came calling almost immediately, something psychotic about Milady.
with Ridley Scott’s Kingdom Of Heaven and then
Casino Royale and Vesper Lynd — the most You haven’t made that many films in France.
impactful of all Bond girls — coming soon after. A few years ago you said you wanted to
Now, with both The Dreamers (in a make more, and since then you’ve made
bells-and-whistles re-release) and Milady Proxima and these two Musketeers movies.
coming out together, Empire lui parle de son But still I don’t get enough French scripts. I wish
incroyable carrière. people thought of me more. But English is not
my mother tongue. Just to be able to act in
This is quite a serendipitous time, with French, there’s no worries about the accent.
The Dreamers and The Three Musketeers: There’s more freedom.
Milady both coming out.
They’re so different. When I think of The How did The Three Musketeers come
Dreamers, I was like a baby. It was my first film, your way?
WORDS CHRIS HEWITT and one of my favourite experiences actually, as It was during Covid. I was about to do

94 JUNE 2024
 Above: Eva a mini-series with Vincent Cassel, and I think he
Green as suggested my name for Milady. I’d never met
Isabelle in her him before, but he suggested my name, and
first film, The I read the script. The guys were already cast, and
Dreamers I loved the fact that it was kind of a different
(2003), with take, because there’s been so many takes on
Michael Pitt The Three Musketeers. I absolutely adored the
and Louis version by George Sidney with Lana Turner.
Garrel. I grew up with her in mind. She is the Milady for
Left: And in me. So it was quite daunting when they said,
her most “Would you like to play her?” It’s like, “Do I have
recent, last the right? But maybe if she’s a bit different, then
year’s The maybe I can explore another side.” And that was
Three the case. In the novel, she’s insane. She’s kind of
Musketeers: a psychopath, which is very interesting. She’s
Milady, in completely extreme and she screams and has
the title role. fits. What I like about this version is that there’s
something a bit more ambiguous and wounded.
Alamy

❯
There’s a human underneath.

JUNE 2024 95
 Right: Milady
with D’Artagnan
(François Civil) in
The Three
Musketeers:
Milady. Below:
As Queen of
Jerusalem
Sibylla in
Kingdom Of
Heaven (2005).
Below right: As
Serafina Pekkala
in The Golden
Compass
(2007). Bottom:
Mighty warrior
Artemisia in
300: Rise Of An
Empire (2014).

What about the action side of things? You’ve

made a lot of movies in this arena, but
haven’t done that much action yourself.
There was the movie — the masterpiece — 300:
Rise Of An Empire, with double swords. That
was quite full-on. But here, it’s so important if
you really get on with your stunt co-ordinators
and stunt doubles. It can be so much fun. That
was my favourite thing in this movie, to work on
this fight that I have with D’Artagnan at the end.
I’m very awkward in real life. I like to do sports,
but put a sword in my hand and I look like
a moron. So it was a good challenge. It gave me
the confidence, in a strange way, to be this lady,
this raw, strong woman.

And of course, it was a reunion of sorts

with your Dreamers co-star Louis Garrel,
although you don’t have scenes together.
No, unfortunately. But we saw each other in our
trailers and it was absolutely lovely. Nothing
had changed.

When you hear that title now — The

Dreamers — what’s the first thing that
comes into your head?
I think of the apartment. I remember the
colours. My parents lived very close to this flat,
like, three minutes’ walk. So it’s part of my
world. A friend, her mother moved into the that keen on you doing The Dreamers, right? sex scenes. I wanted to look like a grown-up. But
building a few months ago and I went to see it. My mum, at first she was very excited. And every night I would go back to my parents’ and
That was so strange. then I told her the story, and she talked to other sleep in my little bedroom. But it was a very kind
people, and she was like, “I’m not sure if it’s atmosphere on set. There was never any power
Did you knock on the door of the apartment a good idea.” But I was so sure in my gut that bullshit, because we were young actors. We were
to see who was living there? I had to do it. I loved Last Tango [In Paris], strong together and really got on and had fun.
No, it had changed. They had become several I loved Bernardo’s work. I think it’s the same for
little flats. They killed the soul of the flat. It’s any script that you read. You never listen to Isabelle is such a complicated character.
a shame. But the staircase is the same, the lift what people say. Always listen to your gut. This is your first film. But your
is the same. The building had been abandoned performance is utterly fearless. There’s
for years and years after the shoot. Every time Given that your parents lived so close, did a boldness and confidence that seems
I passed by, it was completely deserted. you pop in from time to time? effortless. But I’m guessing wasn’t.
I lived with my parents. Would my parents pop by No. I’m so insecure. Bernardo, I did several
It’s fascinating that your parents lived on set? No way. Are you kidding me? I would hate auditions and he’s like a psychic Little Buddha.
around the corner. Because they weren’t that. Oh, God. And not even because there were He’d go, “I think she can do it.” I think he liked

96 JUNE 2024
 “I am so shy in
real life. When not that easy. You always have to fight for a role.

I was naked, the For Bond, I know Martin Campbell was a big fan
of Ridley and thought, “Ooh, if she can be in
a Ridley Scott movie, perhaps she can be in this

character was movie.” But you still have to do a lot of auditions

to prove yourself. They were worried about the
English because at the time my accent was still

my armour.” quite French, quite staccato. I had to work like

crazy with the dialect coach.

Bertolucci leads to Ridley. Ridley leads to

Martin Campbell and Bond. You have this
domino effect that starts right there.
the couple where I was with Louis. He liked our It’s true. Because I was not sure if I wanted to
energy together. And I like characters who have continue. I was in a play in France, and it was
secrets as well, who you think everything is fine a tough experience. The fact that I got this job
on the surface but they’re boiling inside. But on The Dreamers was a godsend, because I didn’t
I was worried about getting fired all the time. believe in anything. Bertolucci’s my saviour.
Even now, when I have to do another project, on
the first day of shooting I’m always so nervous. There’s a scene in Casino Royale where
Bond comforts Vesper in the shower,
Did you shoot The Dreamers chronologically? which people are really drawn to. Do you
I imagine that might have helped. remember shooting that?
I can’t tell you exactly. I think the first scene was Yes. It was one shot, and I remember my character
the staircase scene where we take the lift and [originally] had to be in her underwear. And
tease Michael Pitt. Then a few days later we did I made a big deal out of it. I was like, “She’s so
the Cinemathèque where I’m chained to the shocked, she’s not even gonna take off her dress.
gates. It was kind of in order. It wasn’t, “First day, She should be on the ground.” I thought that was
do a sex scene.” Bernardo was not that sadistic. a more striking image. I was worried about being
a Bond girl here in her underwear. She would
That would not have been the ideal first day. have been less vulnerable. But we did one or two
The nudity and the sex scenes are such a huge takes. That was it. Martin’s very good at that.
part of the film. I’m curious about how the
three of you navigated that together. You’ve just worked with Martin again, on
Top to bottom: I mean, I am so shy in real life. I think when you Dirty Girls.
Dark Shadows have to do something like that, you know it’s Yeah, he’s so organised. He knows what he wants.
(2012); Miss justified for the story. When I was naked, the He’s a great captain. He’s 79 or something (in
Peregrine’s Home character was my armour. If you feel self- fact, he’s 80) and he’s so full of energy. I feel he
For Peculiar conscious suddenly, you kind of fuck it up. has more energy than on Casino Royale. I don’t
Children (2016); Adrenaline, as well, is an armour. So you kind of know what he’s on. But I had even more fun with
Sin City: A forget you’re naked. You just do it. At the time, him on this job.
Dame To Kill For and especially in America, it was such a big thing
(2014); James — “Oh my God, you’re naked!” Now I’m very How would you describe that movie?
Bond (Daniel careful and feeling much more self-conscious. It’s another character that’s quite wounded. She
Craig) comforts comes back to Afghanistan after the American
Vesper Lynd in It struck me that making that movie now troops left, and has to go back to rescue some girls.
Casino Royale would be very different. The intimacy It’s an action movie, but there’s a lot of depth. She’s
(2006); Animal co-ordinator would have a full-time job. a very fucked-up, really strong, great character.
antics in Dumbo Oh, God! Can you imagine? I understand the
(2019). co-ordinator, but it’s like having a threesome Are you drawn to wounded characters?
with an unknown person. It’s a movie in itself. I mean, there are several levels. Not smooth.
It’s a bit extreme, I find. It’s a crazy, crazy world. Smooth is boring. I read an amazing script, and
it’s at an early stage, but it’s a comedy. I’ve never
Obviously, you and Louis reunited on the set played something that light. I mean, I always
of The Three Musketeers. When was the last have to find a wound somewhere, but there’s
time the three of you were together? nothing compared to the dark characters I’ve
A long time ago. I saw Michael a couple of years played before.
ago in Paris. He was wearing a suit. I was like,
“Oh my God, you’ve grown up!” You have made lighter films. Dumbo, Miss
Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children...
What did The Dreamers do for your career? I know. But people don’t mention them. They
From the outside looking in, you went always see me in the femme fatale box. But I have
straight onto Kingdom Of Heaven and then played other people. You should be my agent!
Casino Royale. Was that the reality for you?
Ridley had cast me in Kingdom Of Heaven before THE THREE MUSKETEERS: MILADY IS OUT ON 22 APRIL ON DVD,

The Dreamers came out. It’s true. He knew I had BLU-RAY, 4K AND DIGITAL. THE DREAMERS IS OUT ON 13 MAY ON

shot with Bertolucci, so that was a plus. It was 4K BLU-RAY

JUNE 2024 97
 ADAM SANDLER IN a Netflix movie as an ITSY BITSY SPIDER
astronaut who buddies up with a giant, talking The aforementioned alien spider — which
alien spider? It sounds like one of those Jakub eventually dubs Hanuš, after his father —
high-concept comedies that Sandler built his first appears in what seems to be a dream
reputation on. But Johan Renck’s strange, sequence, in which it slowly crawls its way
beautiful, and deeply odd Spaceman finds across the inside of Jakub’s face. But this is no
Sandler in serious mode, reflecting on his life, mere dream sequence. “Hanuš has the ability
love, and the secrets of the universe. Here, to get into Jakub’s head, to ride his memories,”

Spaceman Renck — who most recently directed the 2019

mini-series Chernobyl — talks us through the
key beats of his movie.
explains Renck. “Hanuš has been poking
around in his head, trying to understand
a little bit about him, and then left some
breadcrumbs to the extent that Jakub has
THE OPENING SHOT a nightmare about it.”
DIRE CTOR J OHAN RE NCK Spaceman opens with Sandler’s spacesuit-clad
GUIDE S U S THROUGH HIS ADAM Jakub, who spends much of the movie in his FIRST IMPRESSIONS
SA NDLE R SCI-FI DRAMA ship, en route to Jupiter, on strangely Earthly But their close encounter gets even closer
terrain, searching for someone in a body of when Hanuš first shows up, in the form of
water. We don’t find out who that person is until a hairy arachnid the size of a Labrador. “It
the film’s final moments, but the juxtaposition was very interesting trying to figure out how
immediately demands your attention. “That afraid Jakub is going to be,” says Renck of
scene was intended to be later in the film,” says the character’s fairly calm response. “He’s
Renck. “But I wanted to start with something a scientist, an astronaut. He’s intelligent enough
that really pulled you in, and made you lean to know that because he’s been on a solo journey
forward a little bit and ask, ‘What is this?’ You in space for six months, cabin fever and isolation
understand that it's a dream, but nevertheless are not far-fetched. That’s why he’s not literally
W O R D S A M O N WA R M A N N it poses a question. And it’s always good to open screaming or trying to escape the ship. The
a film with a question that you want to find idea is that Jakub 100 per cent thinks that he’s
an answer to.” having a hallucination.” There is a debate

98 JUNE 2024
about whether or not Hanuš is real — not least unbeknownst to him, is planning to leave him. Cloud. But before he passes, he gives his
because he’s voiced by Paul Dano — but Renck In one sequence, Jakub peruses old photos of new friend one last piece of advice: “Everything
seems to confirm his corporeality. “Hanuš is not his wife and comes to understand how much she is permanent, yet nothing ever is.” Renck’s
an evolutionary product of the Earth in any truly means to him. “I came up with that, and in take on that is, “When bad things happen,
shape or form,” he adds. “He’s 14 billion years all honesty I was slightly apprehensive,” Renck you deal with it, and you move on. It’s up to
old.” Which is just one reason why he cast Dano. recalls. “What made it really work is Adam, and you to try to continue this gift and miracle,
“He has this slow, kind of meandering way of how he just breaks down. When you take away because we get to live for a little blip in the
talking. He’s got a soft and beautiful voice. And everything that’s fun, and everything that eons of time.”
he’s also a bit pathetic in some of his roles, and a comedian can hide behind, the comedic
I wanted Hanuš to be pathetic also.” Paul, if actor playing serious roles in this capacity THE CALL
you’re reading this, that is a compliment. becomes even more vulnerable and fragile If the movie opens with Jakub searching for
than a dramatic actor doing it.” Lenka, it ends with him finding her. At least,
HANUŠ’ OBSERVATIONS to an extent, as the spaceman — saved from
Rather than call Jakub by his actual name, THE HUG a lonely death in the cold reaches of outer
Hanuš constantly refers to his new companion “I always had this image of Jakub from behind, space by a rival South Korean ship — phones
as “skinny human”. It’s a detail that Sandler took with all these spider legs across his back,” home to his wife, and begins the process of
seriously. “Adam lost 30 lb to play the part,” says says Renck of the moment when Jakub and healing. “Would you kiss me again?” He
Renck. “Hanuš’ idea of calling Jakub ‘skinny Hanuš engage in a tentative intergalactic hug, asks. Her smile would seem to suggest “yes”.
human’ is probably more from observing Earth a symbol of their burgeoning friendship. “But Hanuš’ work here is done. “This ending wasn’t
and thinking humans are actually kind of bulky, it’s also the beginning of the goodbye,” says always like this,” says Renck. “It was more
and this guy seems to be less bulky than Renck. “For Hanuš, this is the first time in open-ended in some earlier versions, but
everybody else.” 14 billion years that he’s hugged somebody, and I wanted a hopeful ending. I really believe that
he allows himself to fall into that. I still well up the wisdom of our kind is our ability to see hope,
JAKUB PURGES when I see it.” and the hope aspect was really important to
Friendship tentatively established, Hanuš me.” In space, nobody can hear you wipe away
almost becomes something of a marriage-advice THE FINAL LESSON a happy tear.
counsellor for Jakub, whose pregnant wife Sadly, Hanuš doesn’t live to see Jakub and Lenka
Lenka (Carey Mulligan) is back on Earth and, reconcile, perishing in the cosmic Chopra SPACEMAN IS ON NETFLIX NOW

JUNE 2024 99
 Ocean’s
Eleven
CLOONEY A ND SODE RBE RGH’S
A-PLU S A-LIST RE MAKE

WORDS JOHN NUGENT

NOBODY REALLY WANTED an Ocean’s 11

remake. The original 1960 film, about a group of
World War II veterans who plan a New Year’s
Eve heist on five Las Vegas casinos, was better
remembered for its cast than its quality, its chief
reason for existing mainly so that the ‘Rat Pack’
— entertainers Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin,
Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop
— could hang out, gamble and get drunk.
Watched with today’s eyes, it’s a rather cheesy,
dated, best-forgotten crime comedy. “The truth
is,” George Clooney later said, “most people
never saw the original Ocean’s 11. They just think
they have. Because those guys were the coolest.”
Somehow, its legacy and memory endured.
For one thing, the 1960 film transformed
Las Vegas’ reputation and status, playing
a significant role in turning this once sparsely
populated, dusty desert town — previously best fledged movie star, came on board too. like, exemplified in the iconic silhouettes of the
known for nuclear testing — into the epitome of By the turn of the century, Soderbergh was Bellagio fountain of the final scenes.
cool and sophistication. (Its impact can still be the toast of Hollywood, riding high on being The Bellagio was involved thanks to
literally seen in the town; Sinatra, Martin and nominated twice in the same Best Director Weintraub, whose wine-’em-and-dine-’em
Davis Jr have Vegas streets named after them.) category (for Traffic and Erin Brockovich, winning approach allowed unprecedented access; the
More importantly, it laid the groundwork for the former). And after years of intense dramas production took over as much as a third of
for that hottest of hands: the remake that and dark subject matters, he was looking for the casino floor for filming, an unheard-of
surpasses the original. something a little brighter. “That was conscious imposition on the venue. Clooney would later
The story of the new Ocean’s Eleven on my part,” he later reflected, speaking about call Weintraub the ‘Pope of Vegas’, and “truly,
— numerics aficionados will note the written-out Ocean’s. “I wanted it to be a sort of light the greatest showman on Earth”.
number there, distinguishing it from the original’s entertainment. I wanted it to be sparkling.” So Ted Griffin’s superb script is chock-full of
“11” — begins with legendary, larger-than-life Soderbergh set about making a comedy caper bubbly, ring-a-ding-ding dialogue, the kind that
producer Jerry Weintraub. An old-fashioned, with one foot in the retro razzle-dazzle of the would not seem out of place in a Howard Hawks
Brooklyn-born dealmaker, Weintraub started original, and the other in the sharp, slick, hyper- movie. Take this early exchange between Danny
out in the music industry, producing tours for cine-literate smarts of the time. “I wanted it to and Tess. “You’re a thief and a liar,” says Tess.
Elvis Presley and — yes — Frank Sinatra, before have a baroque visual palette and style to burn,” “I only lied about being a thief — I don’t do that
moving into film in the 1970s. Despite openly Soderbergh explained, “and yet be breezy.” anymore,” says Danny. Tess: “Steal?” Danny: “Lie.”
professing that he “never thought the [original In Ocean’s Eleven, everything is cool, It’s such an appealing, light-footed exchange,
Ocean’s 11] was great”, he bought the remake everything is fun, everything is entertaining, establishing both characters so elegantly — and
rights in the 1990s, and held onto them for everything is stylish and sexy. No element of the sets up the real heist at hand. (Danny is not
several years, seemingly recognising a certain film escapes Soderbergh’s effervescent mission doing it for the $160 million in the Bellagio
magic quality in having an ensemble of insanely statement. David Holmes’ score, an achingly hip vault; he’s willing to bet it all on one woman.)
cool, handsome, famous people hanging out in blend of bossanova, jazz and trip-hop, cements The true magic, though, could only come
a phantasmagorically unreal place like Vegas. the tone; Stephen Mirrione’s editing is precise from the guys actually pulling the damn heist
George Clooney was first on board as Danny and ingenious, teasing reveals in delicious off. Replacing the Rat Pack proved a delicate
Ocean, and so it wasn’t a surprise when his Out morsels; the cinematography from Peter alchemy; actors initially considered included
Of Sight director, Steven Soderbergh, the man Andrews — a pseudonym for Soderbergh, who Bruce Willis (who would later briefly join the
who had helped turn Clooney into a fully- shot the film himself — is dreamy and lounge- sequel), Mark Wahlberg, Luke and Owen

100 JUNE 2024

 Left: Smooth
criminals: Danny
Ocean (George
Clooney) and the
gang. Top to CHOSEN BY CHRIS HEWITT
bottom: And with
wife Tess (Julia
Roberts); Casino
owner Terry
Benedict (Andy
Garcia); Acrobat
Yen (Qin Shaobo).

1 SHŌGUN
(OUT NOW, DISNEY+)
James Clavell’s novel about a British sailor
rising through Japanese society at the start of
the 17th century is not unfilmable. Not when
it’s already been filmed, as a 1980 mini-series.
But it wasn’t filmed like this, with FX financing
an extraordinary evocation of long-ago Japan,
while showrunners Justin Marks and Rachel
Kondo ensure that it’s the unfolding intrigue
between Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) and
Mariko (Anna Sawai) that engages the heart.

2 AMERICAN FICTION
(OUT NOW, PRIME VIDEO)
Writer-director Cord Jefferson deservedly
won an Oscar for his screenplay for
American Fiction, which sees Jeffrey
Wright give a career-best turn as a writer
who finds himself being boxed in, creatively
and personally, by a novel he wrote as a
piss-take of what he considers to be Black
Wilson, Mike Myers, Ewan McGregor, Alan trauma porn, but which turns out to be
Arkin, Ralph Fiennes, Bill Murray, and, a runaway success. One of the year’s best.
mind-bogglingly, Joel and Ethan Coen, who
were considered for the roles of the Malloy 3 THE HOLDOVERS
brothers, despite having no acting experience. (OUT 22 APRIL, DVD/BR/DIGITAL)
(The Coens, perhaps sensibly, quietly declined.) As is Alexander Payne’s movie, which sees
Casting was complicated. Clooney assisted, Paul Giamatti’s curmudgeonly teacher
sending a script to Julia Roberts personally, along bonding with a spiky boarding-school pupil
with a $20 bill and the handwritten note, “I hear (Dominic Sessa) and a grieving cook
you’re getting 20 a picture now” (a reference to (Oscar-winning Da’Vine Joy Randolph).
her now-regular $20 million payday). The final a “pleasure from beginning to end... a movie that
line-up included a mix of established A-listers you just surrender to, without embarrassment 4 KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS
(Clooney, Roberts, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don and without regret”. Critics at the time, perhaps (OUT 22 APRIL, BR)
Cheadle); veteran legends (Elliott Gould, Carl suspicious of such an unconditional indulgence, Two Ealing classics get re-released this
Reiner); up-and-comers (Casey Affleck, Scott were reluctant to dole out too much praise. month. The Lavender Hill Mob is superb, but
Caan); and one Chinese acrobat, with no screen (Empire’s five stars was a rare gush.) Kind Hearts And Coronets not only brings
experience (Qin Shaobo). Seeing them all rub But time has only been kind, and while plenty of dark chuckles but also, thanks
shoulders carries its own thrill, and the obvious the sequels never quite hit as hard, Ocean’s to Alec Guinness, eight of the greatest
giddy fun the actors had behind the scenes seeps Eleven’s repeat value is stronger than ever; performances of all time.
onto the screen. Clooney, especially, has rarely even today, the enormous amount of
been as caramel-smooth charming as he is here, effort that went into it still looks 5 POOR THINGS
channelling the charisma of a Clark Gable or effortless. The petition for Las (OUT NOW, DISNEY+)
a Cary Grant, and doing a better Bruce Wayne Vegas to introduce ‘Soderbergh Emma Stone deservedly bagged
than the time he actually played Bruce Wayne. Drive’, or ‘Clooney Boulevard’, a little gold guy for her unhinged
In these actors’ hands, the Eleven are starts here. turn as a freshly revived woman
essentially fantasy criminals, the kind who might (with the brain of a baby) in
rob a casino simply because it would be a lark. Yorgos Lanthimos’ odd odyssey
Alamy

OCEAN’S ELEVEN IS OUT NOW ON DVD,

It became what Soderbergh hoped it would be: BLU-RAY, 4K AND DIGITAL of awakenings of all stripes.

JUNE 2024 101

 Five steps to
a sleeper hit
ANYONE BUT YOU DIRECTOR
WI LL GLUCK ON THE SECRETS
O F HIS FILM’S SUCCESS
WORDS CHRIS HEWITT

WILL GLUCK’S GLOSSY romcom Anyone But

You is the kind of success story that, it seemed,
had long gone the way of the dodo. A true sleeper
hit, it debuted just before Christmas with a dismal
opening weekend of just $6 million, but then,
despite some less-than-generous reviews,
connected with audiences and kept going. And
going. And going. At the time of writing, it has
grossed just over $212 million worldwide. “Every
time I see a movie theatre [it’s playing at], I sneak
in at the end to see it,” says Gluck, who must
therefore have contributed a few bucks to the
fund. “And it’s really a movie that you can’t walk
out of without a smile on your face and a skip in
your step.” Is that the reason why it’s built up
buzz while other films quickly vanish from sight?
Empire has a few theories about its success.

1 CAST SYDNEY AND GLEN

A will-they-won’t-they-of-course-they-will is
only as good as the people doing the will-theying
or won’t-theying. Anyone But You takes two
incredibly attractive up-and-coming actors in
Euphoria’s Sydney Sweeney (who, as producer,
brought Gluck on board in the first place) and
Top Gun: Maverick breakout Glen Powell, and
turns them into movie stars in front of your
eyes. “Very early on, I knew they had something
together. The chemistry was really amazing,” Clockwise from top: Director Will Gluck on set with affected the film’s reception. “They hooked up in
says Gluck of the pair, who play two hot young Sydney Sweeney as Bea; Ben (Glen Powell) and Bea the beginning of the movie,” he says. “Then Tom
things who, after a date’s gone wrong, slowly are stranded in Sydney Harbour; “Not horrible to look Rothman, who is the Sony studio head, said,
build a bond while bickering at a wedding. “And at”; Tensions rise... ‘Make sure you cover yourself and you shoot
I don’t think they were overexposed beforehand. it so that they don’t hook up.’ And in editing
They haven’t been in 38 movies you’ve seen, so version, but it’s not gratuitous.” But Gluck admits I remember calling him and saying, ‘You are
this is the perfect opportunity to showcase who there’s quite a bit on the cutting-room floor. “We 100 per cent right.’ All the charge was let out of
they are. But as I was filming, I was like, ‘You had much more that we pulled back,” he adds. the gun. That basically saved the movie.”
can’t keep your eyes off them.’ And they’re not “Initially we really wanted to make it very adult
horrible to look at.” with the sex and the nudity, but the more we 4 DEPLOY THE OTHER SYDNEY
shaped it we realised that’s not what people want Due to Gluck’s desire to set the movie in Sydney,
2 SEX (BUT NOT TOO MUCH) SELLS in a romantic comedy. It was quite a lesson, Australia, Anyone But You doesn’t feel like most
An unashamed R-rated comedy, Anyone But You actually. They want love and emotion and of its romcom peers. “It was the summertime
has its fair share of ribald and risqué moments, bickering and interplay. They don’t necessarily there, so the entire cast was able to have the
including plenty of comedic nudity, particularly want to see what happens after the kiss.” greatest summer,” says Gluck. “I wanted to
for Powell, and a brief sex scene as the two shine a light on the Sydney you have never seen,
finally overcome their exaggerated antipathy 3 DON’T RUIN THE MAGIC so there’s the beaches and the streets.” Although
towards one another. “People say it’s edgy and Or, indeed, before the kiss. Gluck also reveals the film’s climax does take place at the Sydney
sexy. I just said, ‘It’s authentic,’” says Gluck. “I just that the film initially began in a very different Opera House. “Well, if you’re going to London,
can’t imagine this movie being a sanitised way, one he believes might have adversely you gotta shoot Big Ben, right?” laughs Gluck.

102 JUNE 2024

 KEVIN COSTNER
& BRYAN CRANSTON
PHILLIP NOYCE ON A COUPLE OF FAST CHARLIE
LEADING -MAN NEA R-MISSE S

DUE TO BUDGETARY constraints — the main one being that, with

five days to go before Phillip Noyce began shooting, he didn’t actually
have a budget after financing fell through — Fast Charlie boasts
some 20-odd executive producers, many of whom came in at the
last minute to keep the Pierce Brosnan thriller alive. Kevin Costner is
not one of those producers, but he is mentioned in the film’s Special
Thanks, and for much the same reason. No Costner, no Fast Charlie.
“Kevin had the rights to Victor Gischler’s novel, Gun Monkeys, which
inspired Richard Wenk’s screenplay,” Noyce explains to Empire.
“Kevin had wanted to play Charlie Swift, or Fast Charlie, for years.”
But with Costner up to his neck in Westerns on both the small
screen (Yellowstone) and big (Horizon: An American Saga), Fast
5 BOW TO THE BARD Charlie was going nowhere fast. So producer Daniel Grodnik
“A lot of the criticism of our movie is, ‘It’s a trope, swooped. “Dan purchased the rights, had a conversation with Kevin,
it’s enemies to lovers, we know what’s going to and then approached me,” says Noyce. “I don’t know chapter and
happen,’” says Gluck. “To which I respond, verse about how those discussions went, but I think Dan wanted
‘Well, William Shakespeare created this trope.’” to go into production sooner than Kevin would be available.”
For Much Ado About Nothing was the inspiration, With one Fast Charlie out of the picture, the road to Brosnan
Sweeney and Powell a modern-day Benedick and seemed straightforward. But another Special Thankee suggests
Beatrice. “That’s definitely a huge reason [for its a quick stop was made at Bryan Cranston-ville. “Bryan
success]. Shakespeare knew what he was doing.” was discussing the script with us for about a month-
and-a-half,” says Noyce. “Then he went off to do Your
NOW, AS THE film is finally slowing down and Honor in New Orleans and wasn’t available anyway.”
hitting home video, Gluck’s had time to reflect But Cranston did make a proposal that made it
on its unexpected endurance. “It’s been crazy,” into Wenk’s screenplay. “Bryan suggested Charlie
he says. “If there’s a lesson, it’s that people needed to see the other side of his vengeance,”
want a fun time at the movies.” Not that he says Noyce. So a scene in which Charlie
expects Anyone But You to change the way encounters the wife of someone he’s marked for
Hollywood works. “The one thing I know is, death was born. “That’s why we thanked him,”
Getty Images

no-one is going to learn a thing from this.” adds Noyce. That’s what we call Breaking Good.

ANYONE BUT YOU IS OUT NOW ON DVD AND DIGITAL FAST CHARLIE IS ON PRIME VIDEO NOW

JUNE 2024 103

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 possible for a dedicated fan to see every
surviving horror film. By 1981, it would have
VA MP IRE WEEKEND: required monastic devotion, industry contacts
and a private income. From the mid-’80s,
PA RT ONE there weren’t enough hours in anyone’s day
LEGE NDARY AUTHOR AND CRITIC to keep up, especially after a tidal wave of
WHEN I READ Carlos Clarens’ Horror Movies KIM NEWMAN BRINGS US HIS near-homemade horrors poured out on VHS,
in 1971, I decided to be a horror-film completist. UNIQUE TAKE S ON CULT CINE MA later DVD and digital. Pretty much every fan or
Horror Movies has what was then essential in specialist critic gave up on being a completist.
film books — a tantalising and extensive In 2024, it takes a major effort to put a dent in
filmography. Like many young fans, I put ticks my to-be-watched pile of physical media (the
Getty Images. *Archived at https://johnnyalucard.com/2020/11/10/your-daily-dracula-archive/

MATTHEW BRAZIER
next to the (few) films I’d seen and aspired to size of a 1950s fridge), let alone access all the
tick every title. It became a mission to see every screening links sent by hopeful distributors/
horror film ever made. filmmakers (sorry) or keep up with what’s on the
Of course, even in 1971, an alarming number various streaming services I’m signed up to.
of films were lost — forget Lon Chaney as But I try…
a sawtooth vampire in London After Midnight; So if you can’t be a whole genre completist,
what about F.W. Murnau’s Jekyll and Hyde how about a sub-genre? I suspect if you set
movie Der Januskopf? — and a lot of the titles out to watch all the mummy movies, it’d take
Clarens listed hadn’t been released in the UK a few months to tick off every surviving title
and weren’t likely to be scheduled on our (the King Tut-Egyptology craze of the early
three TV channels. American ‘movies on TV’ 20th century yielded a ton of now-lost pictures).
paperback guides made us envy lucky Yanks who Werewolves? It’d take two or three years to
— we supposed — had a diet of Italian Hercules track down every last howler. Old, dark house
movies and Mexican wrestling pictures freely mysteries? Elastic definition makes that a tough
available, whereas Brits were lucky to get nut to crack, though it’d be fun. Slasher films
Dracula: Prince Of Darkness after the snooker — forget it, Jake, that’s crazytown.
on a Friday night. So, I picked vampire movies. They feed
Availability changed — and is still changing… my ‘Your Daily Dracula’ online project*, and
fabulous rarities are now on YouTube or I got into horror and films in the first place
streaming sites. While looking for something by watching Dracula (1931). Which is why
else, I recently stumbled on A Bid For Fortune I inputted the keyword “vampire” to several
(1917), a British silent film featuring supervillain popular streaming platforms and spent a whole
Dr Nikola, which I’d presumed no longer weekend watching the listed films I’d not
existed. Not that I’ve had time to watch it. Rate Top: 1917’s silent A Bid For Fortune. Above: Helen already seen.
of production has changed too. In 1971, it was Chandler and Bela Lugosi in Dracula (1931). So, how did I get on? Tune in next month…

THE JESTER LOVELY, DARK, MONOLITH PUNCH SUITABLE FLESH

(DVD, DIGITAL) AND DEEP (DIGITAL) (DIGITAL) (DIGITAL)
Another evil clown (in (DIGITAL) Lily Sullivan gives Mr Punch, end-of-the-pier Joe Lynch nods to a) author
orange suit and grin-mask) Teresa Sutherland’s a bravura performance in poster boy for spousal H.P. Lovecraft (this is based
stalks at Halloween, doing impressive first feature Matt Vesely’s sci-fi- abuse, is such a bizarre on his ‘The Thing On The
street magic and bothering parallels the recent-ish thriller. A podcaster shares fixture of UK children’s Doorstep’) and b) director
the daughters of the guy he Outpost but takes a cosmic- her home with a picky- entertainment, his Stuart Gordon (with refs
recently pestered to death. horror route. A new forest eating turtle and a bank of makeover into slasher to Re-Animator and From
Good performances and a ranger is less interested in tech. She looks into a weird villain was inevitable. He Beyond). Semi-possessed
nice spookhouse vibe, but looking after hikers than phenomenon — unrelated capers and kills through Heather Graham delivers a
this keeps reverting to searching for her missing people who are sent Andy Edwards’ downbeat grisly riposte to the gender-
Terrifier knock-off — and sister in the sinister, shifting reality-altering bricks. When seaside horror, persecuting confused icons played by
the ending’s a damp squib scenery. Star Georgina Sullivan gets her own brick, reluctantly-back-in-town Ellen Barkin in Switch and
with a soap-opera moral. Campbell is outstanding. things get way weirder. protagonist Alina Allison. Steve Martin in All Of Me.

JUNE 2024 105

 Leonardo DiCaprio
movies
HE’S THE KING OF THE WORL D!
BUT WHAT ’S THE JEWEL IN HIS C ROWN?

SELMAN HOŞGÖR

Chris: So, Leonardo DiCaprio. in The Wolf Of Wall Street,

Why are we talking about him? and Once Upon A Time In
I think it’s because he has Hollywood for Tarantino, he
proved himself, over the last has this ability to be really
30 years or so, to be one of the funny but bring real depth
best and most versatile actors to characters who would
on the planet. I don’t always otherwise seem superficial.
love his movies, especially the Helen: In the last few years
ones that seem to last for he’s played a series of absolute
weeks, but he is often electric dum-dums.
CHRIS on screen. John: His idiot in Killers Of
HEWITT Helen: He’s an astonishing The Flower Moon comes
Still wants to know actor. He’s quite picky. He with a point. He’s a dangerous
what was eating works a lot with the absolute idiot, and a useful idiot, and the
Gilbert Grape. best auteurs, and therefore instrument of white supremacy.
his hit-rate is astonishing. He But I think Killers is maybe his
was able to turn his teen and Scorsese’s best film.
heartthrob status into an Chris: I appreciate The
A-list career, and part of that Departed as a piece of
is very good taste. filmmaking, and the script is
MIKE Mike: He’s quite diverse, too. very quotable, but I think
MUNCER In the ’90s it was easy to DiCaprio’s performance as anxiety, basically. wildly impetuous.
Tried, and failed, dismiss him as maybe just a man who is so clearly an Chris: He loves a death scene, John: His introduction, where
to vote for a pretty face, but what I’ve undercover cop is perhaps doesn’t he? Not in Shutter he’s sat on the beach smoking
Bounty Law. loved about him, especially not quite as subtle as it could Island, but he does like to die a roll-up cigarette and writing
over the last ten years, is how have been. on screen. In his early days, poetry as a Radiohead song
he’s a really funny actor. John: It’s such a stressful his survival rate wasn’t great. plays in the background is the
Chris: The Quaalude performance. It’s so intense. If Romeo & Juliet. Titanic. And in purest form of ’90s teen angst.
sequence in The Wolf Of Wall he’s got a niche, it’s intensity. The Quick And The Dead, he Chris: Baz Luhrmann is one
Street is astonishing. It’s Mike: He’s not as good in has a really heart-rending of the few directors he’s
extraordinary physical it as he is in The Wolf Of death scene. worked with more than once.
JOHN comedy, and honestly not Wall Street. But I think that’s Helen: That might be his most Where do we stand on The
NUGENT something I would have a great performance in tragic death. That upsets me Great Gatsby?
Isn’t sure if his thought he was capable of. a pretty painfully long and even more than Titanic. John: To paraphrase Steve
memory of Helen: There were very funny self-indulgent film. I would Chris: I love The Quick And Coogan: on the windpipe,
watching Inception moments in Romeo & Juliet, rewatch The Departed in The Dead. It mirrored what ideally. I do not like that film
is real. Titanic, What’s Eating Gilbert a heartbeat over sitting was happening in real life, at all. DiCaprio is maybe
Grape?. The talent was there. through eight hours of The because he was this young, the best thing in it. That
Catch Me If You Can is Wolf Of Wall Street. cocky, charismatic, good- film is ugly and misguided
a fantastically funny film. Helen: I’m the opposite. looking upstart with charm to and misunderstands the
John: His batting average is I would absolutely go for Wolf burn, going up against this source novel.
insane. It helps if you do six Of Wall Street again. There’s titan in Gene Hackman. But Mike: I think he’s perfect as
Portraits: Marco Vittur

films with Martin Scorsese. a moral indignation to it I quite he’s magnetic in that. Gatsby. But you forget almost
HELEN Chris: Although, I don’t know enjoy. But I think my favourite Helen: I think Romeo & Juliet everything else about it.
O’HARA if he and Scorsese have always of theirs is Shutter Island. is interesting. It’s also a tragic Chris: What about Tarantino?
Leo had her meshed that well. Gangs Of I love its energy. I loved him and death scene, but he’s fantastic He worked with him first
curiosity. Now he New York was their first movie Mark Ruffalo as a double act. in it. He gets exactly the right on Django Unchained, in
has her attention. and was a bit of a misfire. But John: It’s just two hours of level of young and stupid and which he played possibly the

106 JUNE 2024

 THE WOLF OF
WALL STREET (2013)
felt like, “You went through
hell shooting this — have
an Oscar.”
Helen: I like it quite a lot. It’s
beautiful and it wouldn’t work
without somebody that
intense in the middle of it. ONCE UPON A TIME IN
Mike: He’s probably delivered HOLLYWOOD (2019)
better performances and made
better movies, but this is the
quintessential Oscar-winning
quote-unquote performance,
isn’t it?
John: It’s certainly the
film with the most acting. TITANIC
(1997)
My cousin had a panic attack
and fainted in the aisles
watching this.
Chris: I can relate to John’s
cousin. I have a panic attack
every time I think about that
movie and my experience of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S
watching it, when all I wanted ROMEO & JULIET (1996)

to do was claw my own face

off and crawl inside a horse.
Interestingly, he wasn’t
nominated for Titanic.
Helen: He makes you believe
in the love story. He sells this
fairly thin character really CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
(2002)
well. It’s so much charisma
poured into that empty vessel
that Jack ends up feeling like
a human being.
Chris: He’s so vibrant and
likeable, which is so
important. Because otherwise, INCEPTION
the ending wouldn’t hit in the (2010)

way that it does.

7
John: It’s my number one.
most evil person in his than any other character he John: It might be my favourite Chris: Was there enough
entire filmography. has ever created, and part of film of his in terms of pure room for him on that little
Mike: It’s almost cartoonish, that has got to be what Leo did entertainment, but I don’t door at the end?
isn’t it? The film gains a bit with it. think it’s his best performance. John: He does try to get
DJANGO UNCHAINED
of energy and momentum John: It’s a really vulnerable Helen: It definitely needed to further on it, doesn’t he? And (2012)
when he comes into it for that character in a lot of ways. be a movie star, but it doesn’t then it starts to flip.
second half. It’s probably my There’s a lot of pathos in feel like it had to be DiCaprio, Chris: He didn’t try hard
least-favourite Tarantino film. that role. whereas some of his other enough. Maybe he was meant
Helen: You can see him Chris: It’s a role about getting films absolutely do. to live, and then he got to
thinking he’s very cunning in older. And it always fascinates Chris: What’s his best movie- set and was like, “I’m Leo
the film, which is inherently me when DiCaprio chooses to star performance for you? DiCaprio, I die in movies, it’s
funny, especially given that he push against his movie-star Catch Me If You Can, maybe? what I do.” THE DEPARTED

Helen: Maybe. That role Mike: I think you could argue

(2006)
has to have his opponent’s plot looks and charisma, and when
explained to him in detail. he chooses to embrace it. For requires so much lightness that Leonardo DiCaprio is
John: He and Tarantino example, does Inception hit as and fizziness, even though a massive reason why that film
mesh together really nicely. big as it does without DiCaprio the character is under became the biggest film of
He’s very good at being able to looking like… well, Chris pressure. I think that’s kind all time.
wrap himself around really Nolan, but also an A-list movie of extraordinary. Helen: I think he was
wordy dialogue. star at its centre? Chris: Let’s talk about The overlooked because of his SHUTTER ISLAND (2010)
Chris: Did he get Mike: I think it needs Revenant, the movie that won teeny-bopper status.
overshadowed by Brad Pitt DiCaprio for sure. As brilliant him the Oscar, finally. He’s Chris: Alright, enough
in Once Upon A Time a filmmaker as Nolan is, very good in that film, but it squabbling. Let’s vote!
In Hollywood? sometimes the high concepts
Helen: I think so. But overshadow emotional beats.
Rick Dalton is so close to You need actors who are
Tarantino’s heart. This is going to bring that themselves. THE REVENANT (2015)
someone he cares about more He does. / THE QUICK AND
THE DEAD (1995)

JUNE 2024 107

 Ed Zwick
versus
Hollywood
THE STOR IED DIRECTOR ON
L ESSO NS HE’S LEARNED FROM
HIS ILLUST R IOUS CAREER
WORDS CHRIS HEWITT

IF ED ZWICK ever wants a reminder of what

life in Hollywood is like, he doesn’t have to look
far. In his LA office, just a few feet from his desk,
is the Oscar Zwick received as producer of
Shakespeare In Love, when it won Best Picture
at the 1999 Oscars. It’s a wonderful thing, but it
also represents a missed opportunity, and the
knowledge that in Hollywood, you have to roll
with the punches. Because for the longest time,
Zwick was that film’s director. He had developed
it with Tom Stoppard as the screenwriter. He
had cast Julia Roberts as the woman with whom
Shakespeare would be in love. “I was working
with the best British character actors,” he
tells Empire. “I had studied Shakespeare at
university, and it’s something I really was

“If you sit long

interested in portraying.” a wildly successful TV show (Thirtysomething),
Enter the slings and arrows of outrageous creative partnerships with A-listers like Denzel
fortune. Zwick was six weeks out from filming, Washington (whom Zwick directed to his first
with sets already constructed, when, in the Oscar in Glory) and Tom Cruise, and solid,
absence of a Shakespeare that appealed to
Roberts, the project crumbled. Zwick set it up
again at Miramax, but found himself relegated
prestige fare like Legends Of The Fall, Blood
Diamond and Glory. He’s funnelled all his
accumulated wisdom into a new book called
enough, the
to producer in favour of John Madden. So, when
Zwick took the stage along with Madden and
Harvey Weinstein, the Miramax monster who
Hits, Flops, And Other Illusions. Well, nearly all.
Some wisdom he’s saved for Empire. Such as his
willingness to embrace the bad times, as with his
bodies of your
gazumped him, it was surely a bittersweet night.
“I am not a regretful person,” says Zwick.
“I got to sit with Tom Stoppard, and be in
Shakespeare In Love experience. “It’s not about
if you’re going to get knocked down in this
business, it’s when you get knocked down. And
enemies will
wash past.”
a working relationship with someone whom what you do when you get knocked down. And
I admired more than anyone. And it was amazing how does it affect the next thing you do?”
to visualise the film. We built sets at Pinewood It took a while for Zwick to get knocked
that were then destroyed. In essence, I made the down. Straight out of the gate as a film director
movie in my mind. And it was real. And when it he found success with About Last Night..., an seasons but was a phenomenon, and changed
appeared and did as well as it did, it certainly adult comedy with a cracking David Mamet Zwick’s life. “Between the time of shooting
reflected a good amount of my contribution. script. “What I learned from that was to begin to the first pilot and making Glory, we’d made
And in the case of Harvey Weinstein, if you sit trust my own instincts, and how to find a tone about 40 hours of film, and I was a different
long enough by the banks of the river, the bodies that wasn’t the usual romcom tone,” says Zwick. filmmaker having worked and shot that much.
of your enemies will wash past.” “It’s not enough for me to be comedic; I wanted I could not have made that big movie without
That’s just one of the many lessons Zwick to have meaning too. It had a great effect on the having done all that work. It’s like finger
has learned over the course of his long career in creation of Thirtysomething.” exercises for a musician.”
Hollywood, one that stretches back all the way That TV show, which Zwick co-created Glory, the tale of an all-Black regiment that
to the mid-1980s and has taken in co-creating with Marshall Herskovitz, ran for just four fought in the US Civil War, introduced Zwick to

108 JUNE 2024

 Washington, with whom he would work again on
Courage Under Fire and The Siege. “Denzel is
very self-contained in his process,” says Zwick.
“I remember many times we’d cut and there was
something I wanted to talk to him about, and
before I had a syllable out of my mouth he’d say,
‘Yeah, I know, I know.’ He’s so smart.”
Since then, Zwick has cultivated a reputation
for not only being able to work with A-listers,
but spotting talent just as it’s about to explode.
“I was a theatre kid,” he says. “I was directing
plays when I was 15 years old, and acting in them
badly. And after thousands of hours, you begin
to have an eye for that unique quality certain
actors have: that is, an inner life. I’ve done a few
screen tests in my life, but they haven’t been
the thing that’s got me. It’s been sitting there
with Matt Damon when he was 25, or Claire
Danes when she was 13, or Ken Watanabe in
Clockwise a little room in Japan, or Brad Pitt doing one
from main: Ed day’s work on Thirtysomething. There is no
Zwick and Tom movie better than the worst player in it. So you
Cruise shoot cast those small parts with the same intensity
a sylvan scene that you do the leads.”
in The Last If going from a relationship drama on TV to
Samurai (2003); a large-scale battle movie seemed like a pivot,
Leonardo Zwick has built his career on such shifts. He can
DiCaprio in go from World War II thriller (Defiance) to
thriller Blood glossy all-star romcom (Love & Other Drugs),
Diamond (2006); and then to compelling chess drama (Pawn
Demi Moore Sacrifice) and action sequel (Jack Reacher:
and Rob Lowe Never Go Back) as adeptly as a modern-day
get serious Howard Hawks. “Certain people have benefitted
in Zwick’s by becoming predictable, and have been
directorial debut, a kind of brand,” he says. “But I get easily bored.
About Last I wanted to be interested and I wanted to be
Night... (1986); a little bit scared. It just made it an adventure
Directing Denzel every time.”
Washington for Now 71, Zwick is still hoping to embark
the second time upon a couple more adventures. “I love to
in Courage work,” he says. “I don’t know what lies in
Under Fire store for me. There’s one thing I’m working on
(1996); The that’s quite large, and a couple that are small.
much-lauded You can’t predict. You’re always running
Glory (1989). a couple of horses, and you don’t know which
one’s going to get to the gate first.” More
wisdom from a man whose cup overfloweth
with the stuff.

HITS, FLOPS, AND OTHER ILLUSIONS: MY FORTYSOMETHING

Alamy

YEARS IN HOLLYWOOD IS OUT NOW IN HARDBACK,

E-BOOK AND AUDIOBOOK FORMATS

JUNE 2024 109

 Eddie
Marsan

THE BR ITISH CHARACTER

ACTO R ON MOMENTS FROM
HIS SCR EEN LIFE
WORDS CHRIS HEWITT

EDDIE MARSAN’S CAREER has been about

the long game. Always funny and frank, the
55-year-old Londoner has carved out a reputation
as one of the most versatile character actors
in the business, something he displays this
month with turns in Back To Black, the final
series of Inside No. 9, and Franklin. The last of
which sees him play John Adams, a role he came
very close to playing in 2008. There’s that long
game again.

THE ADAMS FAMILY

FRANKLIN (2024)
“I was doing The Illusionist with Paul Giamatti,
and they offered me the part of John Adams
[former US President] in an HBO mini-series.
I did a screen-test in Virginia, I signed a contract, (THERE IS) NO GREATER LOVE GANGS WARFARE
and came back to London and did loads of tests BACK TO BLACK (2024) GANGS OF NEW YORK (2002)
with actresses to play Abigail Adams. Then what “I wasn’t interested in doing a derogatory “The first day, I turned up and they said to me,
happened is, they fired the original director and performance [as Mitch Winehouse], or to ‘You’re going to have lunch with Jim Broadbent.’
the show went away. The next I heard, I wasn’t be involved in a film that was perpetuating Because I was playing Jim’s sidekick. And
doing it, and Paul was doing it. He’s a lovely the narrative that was out there. The villain I spent nine months with him, every day.
bloke and a good friend of mine. I was so pleased of the piece is addiction, but that isn’t I learned so much about being an actor, about
for him. And as an actor, I went on. Then Kirk a narrative that’s easy to sell. I believe we how to treat people, about how to keep your
Ellis, who wrote the John Adams series, wrote live in a world where you have to have powder dry. So it was wonderful, but it was
Franklin and I got an email from my agent that somebody to blame, and what we do is we terrible for my career. I had a great part, but he
said, ‘Kirk Ellis has asked: would you play John demonise someone like Mitch. Mitch was got cut down to two lines in the film. I think
Adams for him now?’ I jumped at the idea. What a very loving father, trying to cope with there’s a cut somewhere which is four hours
Alamy

goes around comes around.” extraordinary circumstances.” long. I’m amazing in that!”

110 JUNE 2024

 A WIMP AMONGST MEN
THE WORLD’S END (2013)
“I forget what was in those pint glasses now. Probably coloured water. There was a lot I loved
about this film. Most of us had been in the business for about 20 years and we were good at our
jobs. We were like a really good band. The funny thing is, I played the wimp of the group, but Simon
[Pegg] always said that actually, I’m probably the hardest one.”

ROLLERCOASTER RIDE
RAY DONOVAN (2013-’20)
“This was in Coney Island. We had to go around
again and again, but it wasn’t that bad. I play
quite a lot of villains, but Terry is the character
people love the most. He’s the closest character
to me that I think I’ve ever played. He’s a boxer,
he’s a tough guy, but actually he’s the mother
of the family.”

MONSTER MAN
TYRANNOSAUR (2011)
“Olivia [Colman] and I were given case studies
from a charity and shown what men like this
did to their wives, and the dynamics of their
relationships. One of the most shocking things was
that the men always wanted to be loved. They
didn’t see themselves as villains. That’s how
DRIVE I played it. It’s more terrifying. I went to do a Q&A,
HAPPY-GO-LUCKY (2008) and two women came out of the theatre, and they
“Mike Leigh asked me to study conspiracy were traumatised by my character. The first person
theories. So I spent a year studying conspiracy they bumped into was me. They screamed!”
theories and created this character of Scott.
I thought I was making another Naked. I thought
I was going to be like Travis Bickle. I remember
thinking, ‘I’m going to get so many Oscars for this
because I’m playing such a dark character.’ And
then Mike said, ‘You’ve got to pick up someone
and give them a driving lesson.’ And Sally
[Hawkins] came in, and I went, ‘Oh my God, I’m
in an Ealing comedy.’ That’s the brilliant comedy
of the piece. And I remember being in that car
with Sally, and food. She’d eat all the time.”

DRIVE (AGAIN)
ATOMIC BLONDE (2017)
“David Leitch’s choreography and camerawork was incredible. We were driving and the camera would
come down and when there was a close-up on Charlize [Theron] they’d say, ‘Eddie,’ and I had to press
a button and my seat would go back, and the camera would take my perspective and shoot Charlize.
Then they’d say, ‘Eddie,’ and I would sit back up. It’s amazing, what they managed to achieve.”

BACK TO BLACK IS OUT NOW. FRANKLIN IS ON APPLE TV+ FROM 12 APRIL. THE FINAL SEASON OF INSIDE NO. 9 IS ON THE BBC IN SPRING

JUNE 2024 111

 JAMES BOND
MOVIES 5 In Goldfinger, what does Bond liken drinking
Dom Perignon ’53 above the temperate of
38 degrees Fahrenheit to, the colossal snob?
15 Whose solitary line of dialogue in the
Bond series is, “Well, here’s to us”?

6 Roger Moore’s 007 visits wife Tracy’s grave

at the beginning of which film?
16 Name every actor who has been credited
as Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the official Bond
series. And the key word here is “credited”.

7 Vic Flick. Sounds like a Bond villain, but isn’t.

But what is his Bondian claim to fame? 17 Never Say Never Again is a remake of
which EON Bond film?

8 What’s the name of the import-export

company Bond claims to work for? 18 What are the first words we hear Pierce
Brosnan say as Bond in GoldenEye?

9 Who’s the odd one out? Bernard Lee, XX,

Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes. 19 And what are the last words we hear
Daniel Craig as Bond in No Time To Die?

10 “Names is for tombstones, baby!” — which

Bond villain says this, and in which movie? 20 Mads Mikkelsen played Le Chiffre in the
2006 version of Casino Royale, but who

1 Which Bond actor has notched up the

longest running time, with 886 minutes
across their films? 11 Who so far has directed the most
Bond movies?
played him in the chaotic 1967 movie?

2 What does SPECTRE stand for, apart from

outrageous bellendery? 12 Who played Felix Leiter in Licence To Kill,
in which he disagreed with something that
ate him and became Felix lighter?

3 Maud Adams is one of the few actors to

play two different roles in separate Bond
movies. We’ll give you Octopussy. Name the 13 Desmond Llewellyn’s Q bowed out in The
World Is Not Enough with which pithy line?
other movie she appears in.

4 Which was the first Bond theme song to be

nominated for an Oscar?
14 In On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, George
Lazenby was overdubbed when Bond is
disguised as Sir Hilary Bray. By which actor?

including Anthony Dawson and Eric Pohlmann, were uncredited 17 Thunderball 18 “Beg your pardon. Forgot to knock.” 19 “I know. I know.” 20 Orson Welles
Donald Pleasance, Telly Savalas, Charles Gray and Christoph Waltz. Max von Sydow plays him in the non-EON Never Say Never Again. Other actors,
Let Die 11 John Glen, with five 12 David Hedison 13 “Always have an escape plan.” 14 George Baker 15 Richard Kiel as Jaws — he says it in Moonraker 16
in the EON Bonds. Bonus points for John Huston in Casino Royale (1967) and Edward Fox in Never Say Never Again 10 Mr. Big (Yaphet Kotto) in Live And
Getty Images

without earmuffs 6 For Your Eyes Only 7 He played the guitar on the James Bond Theme in Dr. No 8 Universal Exports 9 Robert Brown — they all played M
Die’ by Paul McCartney, in 1973 (although ‘The Look Of Love’ from Casino Royale, a non-EON Bond, was nominated in 1968) 5. Listening to The Beatles
ANSWERS 1 Roger Moore 2 Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion 3. The Man With The Golden Gun 4 ‘Live And Let

112 JUNE 2024

 FIVE CULT
’80s BLU-RAYS

FANCY NABBING SOME classic ’80s Blu-rays

this month? First up is cult fave Repo Man.
Directed by Alex Cox and starring Harry Dean
1 ‘Crocodile’ Dundee’s first name (4) 1 Business partner of Mrs Miller (6) Stanton and Brat Pack icon Emilio Estevez,
3 Jamie from Belfast and Fifty Shades (6) 2 Ansel Elgort’s Divergent character (5) it’s a blackly comic sci-fi fantasy dripping with
8 Helen Mirren-John Lynch drama (3) 3 Last year marked this studio’s 100th year of edgy cool. Next is Cujo, Stephen King’s tale
9 Horror classic, currently being revamped by wonder (6) of a rabies-infected mutt terrorising a mother
Robert Eggers (9) 4 Donovan’s — (John Wayne movie) (4) and her son. Then, Rumble Fish, Francis Ford
10 Whose Oscar-winning feast from the 1980s (8) 5 James Gray movie that put Pitt in space (2,5) Coppola’s gorgeous adaptation of S. E.
11 The franchise within the Scream franchise (4) 6/14 Down Acclaimed courtroom thriller from Hinton’s YA novel, with a host of the decade’s
13 Von Trier and Vinterberg’s 1995 movement (5) Justine Triet (7,2,1,4) finest including Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke,
15 Sound Of — (Riz Ahmed film) (5) 7 Aka Albert R. Broccoli (5) Diane Lane and Dennis Hopper. Horror Fright
19 Salma Hayek’s Eternal (4) 12/21 Down King Kong was smitten by her in the Night is our fourth film, a key title of the genre
20 Charlton Heston’s Michelangelo started painting 1976 remake (7,5) that dominated so much of that era. And
them, while others worked with John Lark (8) 14 See 6 Down finally Valley Girl, Martha Coolidge’s quirky
23 Her passion was put on screen by Carl Theodor 16 Godzilla or Gamera or Mothra, maybe (5) romcom starring Nicolas Cage and Deborah
Dreyer (4,2,3) 17 It featured a mermaid called Madison (6) Foreman. We have copies for five winners, so
24 The Marvels director DaCosta (3) 18 Could be Jason, or could be Oscar and crack the crossword, solve the anagram and
25 Two cats mean there’s one in the Matrix (6) Hempstead Wright (6) follow the entry instructions below.
26 He’s been played by Olivier, Neeson, Crowe 21 See 12 Down
and Bean (4) 22 “If you are thinking of going into this house...” (4) ALL TITLES ARE AVAILABLE FROM EUREKAVIDEO.CO.UK

COMPETITION ENDS 6 MAY

HOW TO ENTER Take the letters from each coloured square and rearrange them to form the name of an actor, director or character. Visit
www.empireonline.com/crossword and fill out the form, along with your answer, in the provided field. Entry is free and closes at midnight on
6 May. Winners are selected at random. See below for terms and conditions.
MAY’S ANSWERS ACROSS: 1 Working Title, 7 Oscar, 9 St Louis, 10 Zoe Bell, 11 Maya, 14 Runner, 15 No-Face, 18 Buzz, 20 Charlie, 23 Tramell,
24 Draco, 25 Egon Spengler. DOWN: 1 Wood, 2 Raccoon, 3 Gisele, 4 Isla, 5 Laura, 6 Escaper, 8 Rublev, 12 Tribute, 13 Conrad, 16 Abigail, 17 Philip,
19 Zhang, 21 Dern, 22 Poor. ANAGRAM DEMENTUS

TERMS AND CONDITIONS: One entry per person. Entries are free. Entries must be received before 7 May or will not be valid. The Competition is only open to people aged 18 and over who live in the United Kingdom and are not a Bauer employee
or their immediate family. One winner will be selected at random from all valid entries. Competition promoted by H Bauer Publishing t/a Empire (“Empire”). Empire’s choice of winner is final, and no correspondence will be entered into in this regard. The winner will
be notified, via email, between seven and ten days after the competition ends. Empire will email the winner a maximum of three times. If the winner does not respond to the message within 14 days of the competition’s end, Empire will select another winner at random
and the original winner will not win a prize. Empire is not responsible for late delivery or unsatisfactory quality of the prize. Entrants agree to the collection of their personal data in accordance with Empire’s privacy policy: http://www.bauerdatapromise.co.uk/.
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Any questions, please email empire@bauermedia.co.uk. Complaints will not be considered if made more than 30 days after the competition ends. Winner’s details available on request (after the competition ends) by emailing empire@bauermedia.co.uk.
For full T&Cs see http://www.bauerlegal.co.uk/competition-terms.html

JUNE 2024 113

 selling human flesh, passing it off as chicken. I was afraid of girls. I was afraid of people. And
Oh, and killing people in order to get more meat. to some extent I still am, let me tell you. But then
I met Tina. And I thought that things would get
Bjarne: We’ll never talk about this again. Tomorrow a lot better, but they didn’t. That was when
we just say that there are no more chicken fillets. I decided to open my own shop.

Svend: Chicky-wickies. That’s what I call them. Bjarne: How the fuck did you work that out?
Svend’s Chicky-Wickies.
MEAT IS MURDER ... Svend: Perhaps I didn’t say it right.
Bjarne: Svend, stop it.

The Green Bjarne: No.

Svend: Yes, of course. That’s that. (He rings up the
register and sits down. After a beat…) That’s that. Svend: I’m tired and confused.

Butchers
They sit in silence for a spell. Then Svend speaks. Bjarne pats Svend on the back.

Svend: I never told you this. But my parents died Bjarne: We’ll see each other tomorrow. (He gets
when I was very young. up and starts to prepare to leave.)

Bjarne: Yes, you have. Many times. Svend: But, Bjarne, I would like... I can rephrase
CHOSEN BY JOEL EDGERTON it. I can put it more bluntly. I’ve never been loved.
(ACTOR) Svend: And I wasn’t popular at school, so I got The cat is out of the bag. That’s it.
beaten every day. The other kids were free to
pick on me, because I didn’t have any parents. Bjarne: And…?
Yes, sirree. They hit me and stole my lunch
JOEL EDGERTON: “I worked with Mads money. That’s why I’m so skinny. I didn’t get Svend: And today… here… What I had here today
Mikkelsen on King Arthur in 2003. And it anything to eat before I began training as behind the counter, Bjarne, it was fantastic. It
started my obsession with Mads. I think he’s a butcher. Sometimes they’d hit me with stuff. was great. People spoke to me differently. They
a living, breathing master, and one of the most With wood. And with flashlights. And with smiled at me. Suddenly I was someone else, and
versatile actors in the history of cinema. a green bicycle pump. And with belts... I really liked that. Don’t be angry, Bjarne, but we
There’s a [2003] movie called The Green can’t open tomorrow without more meat. We can’t.
Butchers, made in Denmark, and he plays Bjarne: Svend, enough with the examples. It
a butcher who’s selling a particular kind of doesn’t matter. What are you trying to say? Bjarne kicks Svend in the shin.
meat. There’s this empathetic scene in the
middle of the film where Mads explains what Svend: I’m very well aware that I’m not Bjarne: It stops here. It’s sick and I don’t want to
his childhood was like. Its tone is hilarious, a charming person. People have always treated hear any more about it.
yet by the end you’re like, ‘I’m okay with you me rough. They’ve called me names. They called
killing more people.’” me... you know... Bjarne walks off. Svend hobbles up against a wall.

INT. BUTCHER’S SHOP — DAY Bjarne: Svend Sweat? Svend: That really hurt. You’re insane!
Svend (Mikkelsen) is counting coins when his
business partner Bjarne (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) walks Svend: Yes, let me tell you… I was always afraid. Bjarne: It’s only a problem to be insane and not
in. Bjarne, smoking, is upset as Svend has been I was afraid to go to school. I was afraid to die. know it. See you tomorrow.

114 JUNE 2024

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