The Empire Film Podcast

Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans' golden animated movie, KPop Demon Hunters, is the kind of phenomenon that comes along once in a blue moon, dominating both the Netflix charts since its release last June, and the music charts over the last few months. Now, fresh from success at the Grammys, the Oscars are firmly in its sights. So it's the perfect time for KPop Demon Hunters' writer/director duo, Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, to sit down virtually with our Alex Godfrey for a deep dive into the movie's origins and subsequent success. Enjoy.

This week's episode of the Empire Podcast sees Chris Hewitt sit down with Bradley Cooper and Will Arnett, director, co-writers, and stars of the new dramedy, Is This Thing On?, which takes inspiration from the real-life story of British comedian, John Bishop. It's an in-depth chat that we bring to you in full (although we did cut out a bit where someone poured a glass of water. Sorry to all you water completists out there), and it's well worth your time. It starts at 55:50 approx and runs until 1:20:14 approx. Either side of that, Chris is joined in the podbooth by Helen O'Hara, James Dyer, and Alex Godfrey for a fun episode in which they discuss the movie moments guaranteed to make them cry no matter how many times they've seen them; run their eyes over what passes for movie news (it was quite a slow week); review Is This Thing On?, action-comedy The Wrecking Crew, Jason Statham's Shelter, mad monkey movie Primate; and Richard Linklater's love letter to the French New Wave, Nouvelle Vague. Oh, and we make good on last week's promise, and bring you James, Helen, and Chris tackling their specialist subjects in a round that pays homage to classic BBC quiz show, Mastermind. It's pure chaos. Thanks to Magneto Magnetosson, for stepping in at short notice to host. Enjoy.

We interview a lot of people for the Empire Podcast, folks, and we've finally decided to collect most of them in one easy-to-find place. So welcome to the second episode of The Interviews. This week, Chris Hewitt catches up with Jason Statham and Ric Roman Waugh, star and director of new action thriller Shelter, and along the way Chris and The Stath realise they've been doing the interview dance together for a long, long time. Chris also chats to director Derek Cianfrance about the excellent Roofman, which is out now on shiny discs and streaming. And finally, we have an excerpt from our 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple spoiler special chat with that film's director, Nia DaCosta, who tells Ben Travis all about some of that film's key moments. Remember: swerve that if you don't want to be served a nice big slice of spoiler pie. Enjoy!

The Shameless Plug is never late. Nor is it early. It arrives precisely when it means to, roughly halfway through the on-sale cycle of the latest issue of Empire. To which, after all, this show is dedicated to shamelessly plugging. And once again, the Fellowship of the Plug — Chris Hewitt and Empire editor, Nick de Semlyen — have assembled in the Podmines of Moria for that plugging. You have Nick's microphone, and Chris' copy of Adobe Audition, and if the deluge of Lord Of The Rings references hadn't already clued you in, the duo are here to talk about issue 450 of Empire, which is dedicated to celebrating 25 years of The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Rings. Nick regales us all with tales of reuniting the four Hobbits and Sir Ian McKellen, virtually collecting the rest of the Fellowship, plus Cate Blanchett, Liv Tyler, Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, and getting Andy Serkis to write a piece for us. It's not all LOTR, with tales of Raimi-wrangling, a bit of Gore, and a Gollum impression you will never be able to unhear. Simples. Enjoy!

In the first episode of a new regular, the Empire Podcast brings you the interviews that matter about the movies of the moment. So that means a lovely chat with the legendary South Korean director, Park Chan-wook, and actor Lee Byung-hun, as they (with the help of translators) tell Amon Warmann about their new movie, and first collaboration in over 20 years, No Other Choice. And things get very Irish as Chris Hewitt sits down with Steve Coogan and Éanna Hardwicke to talk about their new movie, Saipan, which tells the story of the real-life falling out between Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy (Coogan) and captain Roy Keane (Hardwicke)just before the World Cup in 2002. Enjoy.