Author: Empire

For a man who may or may not have at one point recently said retirement was on the cards, Denzel Washington is showing no signs of hanging up his acting boots just yet. Not only is the two-time Oscar winner on board for The Equalizer 4 and 5, and not only has he got Spike Lee Apple TV+ joint Highest 2 Lowest due out this summer, but he’s just signed on for another eyebrow raising project, too. Per Deadline’s reporting, the Training Day veteran is set to star alongside Robert Pattinson and Daisy Edgar-Jones in Here Comes The Flood, a…

Over the course of his career, Ralph Fiennes has played some truly chilling cinematic villains. Amon Goeth in Schindler’s List, Chef Slowik in The Menu, Harry Waters in In Bruges, Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter, and, of course, the dastardly Victor Quartermaine in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit. Now, having gotten in touch with his better angels in last year’s Conclave, Lionsgate has today confirmed that Fiennes is going back to bad in a big way to play President Snow in Francis Lawrence’s upcoming The Hunger Games prequel Sunrise On The Reaping. Previously played by the late,…

This week’s episode of the BSME Awards-nominated Empire Podcast had better not be the episode that the BSME Awards judging panel listens to ahead of voting, or our nomination might be rescinded. Which is to say, chaos reigns as Chris Hewitt returns — eventually, after being waylaid by a McQ&A — to the hosting chair, and is joined by Helen O’Hara, James Dyer and, for a limited time only, Nick de Semlyen for another carnage-filled edition of your favourite film podcast. Outside of the podbooth shenanigans, our brilliant guests on this week’s show are a cracking pair of pairs. First…

As a certain bandana sporting, M60 wielding, PTSD addled Vietnam war veteran once said, “Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don’t turn it off!” It’s a line, spoken by Sylvester Stallone’s John Rambo in 1982 action epic First Blood, that in context decries generational cycles of violence and the endless horror of war. It’s also a line that, given the four sequels Ted Kotcheff’s movie would go on to spawn, pretty accurately captures the Rambo franchise as a whole. Which is why now, six years after Rambo: Last Blood seemingly put the final nail in the coffin of on one…

At this point, when we get word of a new casting announcement for The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping, we generally find ourselves saying “stranger things have happened.” After all, Francis Lawrence’s upcoming Games prequel has welcomed the likes of Jesse Plemons, McKenna Grace, and Kelvin Harrison Jr. to its increasingly stacked roster already. But today, Stranger Things really have happened: as shared on the movie’s official Instagram account this evening, Maya Hawke — whose big break came playing Robin Buckley in the Duffer Brothers’ Netflix smash — is gearing up to trade Hawkins for District 12 with a…

Don’t you just hate it when you’ve popped the ‘Out Of Office’ on, got your sunnies and shorts ready, and are just about to enjoy some switched off, chilled out family time on holiday, only for work to get in the way of your jollies? Hutch Mansell is a man who can sympathise. The newly released, violent AF first trailer for Timo Tjahjanto’s action-thriller sequel Nobody 2 sees Bob Odenkirk’s government-assassin-turned-family-man-turned-assassin-again Hutch heading out to catch some rays with his family in sunny Plummerville, only to find his trip swiftly derailed by a series of encounters with a crooked theme…

It would be fair to say that there have been some legendary clashes in the history of cinema… Luke Skywalker vs Darth Vader, Bruce Lee vs Chuck Norris, Neo vs Morpheus, *ahem* Alien Vs Predator to name but a few. And it looks like The Old Guard 2 is about to give us another scrap for the ages: Charlize Theron vs Uma Thurman. In the first trailer for Victoria Mahoney’s Netflix action sequel, which is set to once again take viewers into a world of immortal mercenaries doing battle across the centuries, we see Theron’s millennia-old warrior Andy and her…

It may have taken the best part of two decades, Disney literally buying 20th Century Fox, and a multiversal team-up between Deadpool and Wolverine, but at long last it seems the X-Men’s arrival into the MCU is within an adamantium claw’s reach. And with production now underway on Avengers: Doomsday as the Multiverse Saga nears its end, it seems Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios already have one eye on their next big move. According to Deadline, Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier is being eyed to usher in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s new age of mutants. Having proven himself a dab hand…

They scrapped in Hong Kong in Godzilla Vs Kong, became buds and joined forces with Mothra to save the Hollow Earth in Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire. and now everybody’s favourite scaly boi and giant ape Titan duo are set to return in the freshly titled Godzilla X Kong: Supernova. Today, Warner Bros. took to social media — and YouTube — to reveal the official title and release date for director Grant Sputore’s upcoming MonsterVerse movie, confirming that the Zillakong threequel (as nobody is calling it) has now entered production with a nifty little teaser video. Check it out…

We’re not ones to toot our own horns often, but it’s another cracking episode of the freshly award-nominated Empire Film Podcast this week, folks. Helen O’Hara slips into the hosting chair for our latest episode and tries to wrestle James Dyer and Alex Godfrey into shape as the trio talk changeable movie titles, great actor/director pairings, Alex’s favourite teen movies, and a busy week in the world of movie news. Among the headlines are Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on the film industry, new trailers for The Long Walk and Highest 2 Lowest, the renewal of Apple TV+ tinseltown satire series…