Author: Empire

Who is the killer in Sean Cunningham’s iconic 1980 slasher Friday The 13th? It’s a question that’s proven the undoing of many a pub quiz team over the last 45 years, but the answer, as we expect anyone reading this will know, is not Jason Voorhees: it is, of course, his deranged mother Pamela Voorhees (originally played by Betsy Palmer). And, courtesy of Deadline, we now know who’ll be playing Jason’s vengeful ma in Peacock and A24’s upcoming, long-gestating franchise prequel series Crystal Lake — Dead To Me and Scooby-Doo star Linda Cardellini. Jinkies! In Cunningham’s original 70s set movie,…

Coco fans, prepare to go un poco loco — we’re heading back to the Land of the Dead! Yes, forgoing the kind of pomp and ceremony that would ordinarily herald a new Pixar film announcement, Disney CEO Bob Iger used the company’s annual shareholder meeting earlier today as a platform to reveal that Coco 2 is in early development, with directors Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina both on board for a return to the Pixarified world of Alebrijes and singing skeletons. Check out the official title treatment for the film below; “While the film is just in the initial stages,…

Over the last four decades, few figures in the world of film have given as much to the form as Thomas Cruise Mapother IV — or, as we know him best, Tom Cruise. Across 47 films and counting, cinema’s real-life action man has run, jumped, climbed, flown, cycled, dived, danced, danced some more, fought, and even breathed his own carbon dioxide, all in service of making the big screen experience as big as it can possibly be. Now, in recognition of his years of service to cinema, both as an actor and producer, the BFI have today announced they’ll be…

We’ve another bumper-sized edition of the Empire Podcast in store for you this week, folks, with a double whammy of top notch guests — so buckle up! Our first guest is legendary director Barry Levinson, who sat down with our very own Chris Hewitt on the eve of the release of his new gangster joint The Alto Knights to discuss working with Robert De Niro, Robert De Niro, aaaand Robert De Niro’s dogs, as well as the life-changing impact Marlon Brando putting on a glove in On The Waterfront had on him as a young whippersnapper. [23:31 — 40:13 approx] Then,…

Change is afoot in the world of cinematic spy craft. James Bond has been reassigned to Amazon. IMF agent Ethan Hunt is about to undertake quite possibly his last impossible mission — The Final Reckoning. And now, after disappearing at the end of Jason Bourne back in 2016, everybody’s favourite amnesiac assassin is looking for a clean break too. Per THR’s reporting, the rights to Robert Ludlum’s propulsive spy saga have fallen out of Universal’s hands, and the search for a new studio to reboot the franchise and bring Bourne back is very much underway. According to THR, Skydance, Apple,…

In 2023, first-time director Raine Allen-Miller stole our hearts with Rye Lane, a wildly inventive rom-com shot on the streets of South East London. And now, for her next cinematic trick, Variety are reporting that Allen-Miller is set to follow that David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah starrer up with The Roots Manoeuvre, a self-penned joint that will see Allen-Miller take to the streets of London once again — this time for a daring heist comedy. Produced by Amazon MGM Studios’ Orion Pictures and BBC Film, The Roots Manoeuvre is not an unexpected biopic about British rap legend Roots Manuva (though…

Over the last decade, Maika Monroe has emerged as one of Hollywood’s go-to scream queens, notching up a slew of memorable performances in the likes of It Follows, The Guest, Watcher, and, most recently, Osgood Perkins’ ‘Satanic panic’ psychological chiller Longlegs. And now, having just wrapped production on another genre piece, Michelle Garza Cervera’s upcoming remake of The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, Monroe is looking to switch it up with a starring role in Reminders Of Him, a Universal bound adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling romantic drama. Per THR’s reporting, Monroe has already closed a deal to star in…

Listen up, Sand-heads. The Adam Sandler sequel you’ve long long long been waiting for is finally on the way. (No, not The Wedding Singer 2.) For years now, the comedy icon has had a fruitful partnership with Netflix, delivering fresh comedies (the Murder Mystery movies, Hubie Halloween) and more serious fare from the star (Hustle, Spaceman). Now, the streaming service is responsible for finally delivering Happy Gilmore 2 – following up Sandler’s beloved 1996 sports comedy, in which the titular character swaps ice hockey for golf, and becomes something of a sporting legend. The first teaser is here, not only…

In the winter of 1997, Dutch auteur Paul Verhoeven somehow managed to sneak Starship Troopers, an eye-popping satirisation of Robert A. Heinlein’s eponymous 1959 man-vs-alien-bug book, through the studio system. Like much of Verhoeven’s oeuvre, Starship Troopers — the third part of the Dutchman’s ‘sci-fi trilogy’, also comprising Robocop and Total Recall— was widely misunderstood upon release (despite a healthy $121 million box office showing), only going on to be critically reappraised after garnering a cult following in the years that followed. Now, THR is reporting that 28 years after Verhoeven did his part, Chappie and District 9 director Neill…

Hey! Millennials! Wanna hear something scary? Somehow, it’s been 22 whole years since Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan first swapped bodies in Mark Waters’ pop-punk driven noughties classic Freaky Friday, a fan-favourite remake of Disney’s own 1976 Jodie Foster starrer. Wanna hear something exciting though? Two decades on and JLC and Lohan are back back back for Freakier Friday, a full-on legacy sequel from The High Note and Late Night director Nisha Ganatra. And, as the title (which we called!) suggests, things are about to get a whole lot freakier for Tess and Anna Coleman second time around. Check out the…