Author: Empire

It’s no great secret that Andrew Scott is one of the most versatile actors working today. Whether he’s reenacting the most important conversation ever had about the weather (Pressure), playing every part in a one-man production of a Chekhov classic (Vanya), or living rent-free in all of our heads as The Hot Priest (Fleabag), the man is a true actor’s actor. Now, in Simon Stone’s true-story inspired Elsinore, Scott is an actor playing another actor — namely Chariots Of Fire star Ian Charleson — as he defies HIV complications and fights to play Hamlet in the National Theatre’s 1989 production…

In 2009, James Cameron’s Avatar became the highest-grossing movie of all-time with a whopping $2.78 billion box office haul. In 2019, The Russo Brothers’ Avengers: Endgame took the Na’vi Nation’s title with a super $2.81 billion global haul. Then, in 2021, a cheeky Avatar re-release saw Cameron’s sci-fi smash reclaim the top spot, with its lifetime total now sitting at an eye-watering $2.92 billion. Now, in the latest round of the battle between cinema’s biggest A-named blockbusters, Avengers: Endgame Encore has just assembled itself an impressive $86 million worldwide opening weekend, reopening the race for that coveted all-time No. 1…

This week’s episode of the Empire Podcast is all about birthdays, folks. Partially because Chris Hewitt just had one, but also because this week’s listener question asks our Three Colleagues Of Such Lethal Cunning — Chris, Helen O’Hara, and James Dyer — to discuss the best movies released on their birthdays. The answers will shock and, in one case, depress the hell out of you. Elsewhere, our intrepid trio — joined by this week’s workie, Grace — discuss a number of trailers, including The Further Mis-Adventures Of Cliff Booth, and compare audiobook casts for starriness; and review David Ayer’s Brad…

In 2026, Tom Holland has held down the Ithacan fort — and fired an arrow or two — in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, thwipped into action alongside The Punisher and faced down a Savage Hulk in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and done a Pepsi advert with footballing GOAT Lionel Messi. But as we reported back in July, the in-demand actor isn’t stopping there — he’s already limbering up to finally make his long-gestating Fred Astaire biopic with Wonka director Paul King. And now Deadline has confirmed that the project has just cast actor-turned-pop-megastar Sabrina Carpenter and The Substance’s Margaret Qualley…

After two failed attempts to revive the iconic Saw franchise in the last decade — first with 2017’s barn-bound Jigsaw, then 2020’s bizarre Chris Rock starrer Spiral: From The Book Of Saw — it had, until fairly recently, seemed that the Jigsaw puzzle was one Hollywood simply couldn’t piece together any longer. But after 2023’s fan-pleasing Saw X and last year’s exciting announcement that Blumhouse Atomic Monster had bought Saw’s rights, things have been looking up for the bloody billion-dollar saga. And now, per Deadline’s reporting, Saw’s next chapter has found its director: Beware Boiúna director Mike P. Nelson.No stranger to bringing something new…

Jake Schreier’s X-Men movie has its cast. Spider-Man: Brand New Day has proven a record-shattering hit. Avengers: Endgame Encore is mere days away. A Ryan Gosling Ghost Rider movie is actually happening. And — AND! — Avengers: Doomsday is just around the corner, bringing with it the introduction proper of Robert Downey Jr. as one Victor Von Doom. Seriously, could things get any better for MCU fans just now? Well, if you happen to live in the UK then yes, actually, they can. As confirmed to Digital Spy by Disney, The Russo Brothers’ upcoming multiversal epic is officially set to…

As anyone who has seen Suzie Miller’s acclaimed one-woman stage play will know, Prima Facie is arguably one of the most important pieces of theatre in recent memory. The story of a young barrister, Tessa, who specialises in defending men accused of sexual assault and then finds her view of the legal system changed forever when she herself is assaulted, Miller’s play is a timely, urgent meditation on consent and the flaws in the judicial process. And now it’s also a movie from BAFTA winner Susanna White, starring none other than Wicked’s Cynthia Erivo as Tessa — and if the…

Before 2026 is through, we’ll finally get to see what became of Cliff Booth – the stuntman of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood – in the 1970s. And yet, until now, the project has been kept tightly under wraps, with plot details scarce and no trailer to be seen. Not that you need such things to be excited for a film written by Quentin Tarantino, directed by David Fincher, and featuring the return of Brad Pitt in the role that won him an Oscar. But finally, here we have it: a trailer for The Further Mis-Adventures Of Cliff Booth…

Across his career, Daniel Craig has dealt with major character archetypes: he’s played the super-spy, as James Bond. The ultimate detective as Benoit Blanc in the Knives Out films. And now, we’re about to see him play a magician. More specifically, the magician of The Magician’s Nephew, in Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of C. S. Lewis’ Narnia stories. It’s Craig’s Uncle Andrew that sets the whole affair in motion, a man who has spent his life tinkering with magical objects and artefacts, with life-changing results for his young nephew Digory (David McKenna) and neighbour Polly (Beatrice Campbell).Since Andrew’s attention is firmly…

If your entryway into Narnia has always been The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, you already know that Jadis is bad news: this, after all, is the White Witch, who by the time of that story has imposed her rule over the fantasy kingdom. But in The Magician’s Nephew, chronologically the first Narnia tale, Jadis is in a very different place (literally and metaphorically) though clearly on the path to who she’ll eventually become. In Greta Gerwig’s adaptation – Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew – the role is being played by Emma Mackey, previously one of Barbie’s Barbies (Physicist Barbie,…