Author: Empire

Ask anyone who watched Barbarian in cinemas, and they’ll tell you the same thing: they never knew quite what was coming next. Zach Cregger’s 2022 horror was full of thrilling narrative hairpin turns, twisting in wildly unexpected ways as it unspooled its loopy story. And by the sounds of things, he’s only just getting started. The writer-director is back this summer with the highly-anticipated Weapons, another horror original, with an almightily creepy premise. The gist is this: in the middle of the night (2:17am, to be exact), an entire class of children (except for one) wakes up, and disappears into…

In the annals of cinema history, there have been many movies inspired by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s 1818 Gothic masterwork Frankenstein. To name but a few, James Whale did it in 1931, and repeated the trick with The Bride Of Frankenstein in 1935; Mel Brooks turned the Promethean tale into the stuff of farcical gold with Young Frankenstein; and Robert De Niro channelled his inner creature to memorable effect in Kenneth Branagh’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. But Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, heading to Netflix this November after a hard-fought 17 year journey to the screen, could well top them all — at…

On the surface, The Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards has everything going for him. The guy is literally known as ‘Mr. Fantastic’, with a reputation for being, well, the smartest person ever. Within Marvel’s First Family, there are all kinds of hats that Richards wears (not literally; he doesn’t have a Captain America-style helmet). He’s the nominal leader of the group, using his considerable brains to lead the way; their tech genius, who has populated their Baxter Building home with gadgets and gizmos galore; he’s a loving husband to Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman; and, in The Fantastic Four: First Steps,…

To become the Elden Lord in FromSoftware’s hard-as-nails fantasy game Elden Ring takes some serious kit: we’re talking Blasphemous Blades, Golden Greatshields, and other such alliterative wares. To become the Elden Lord in Alex Garland’s upcoming live-action Elden Ring movie for A24 however might take another kind of kit entirely. Namely, Kit Connor. Yes, according to Deadline, Garland could be looking to reunite with his Warfare star as he prepares to venture into the Lands Between. Now, with this scoop coming from Deadline’s ‘The Dish’ sidebar, we would as ever advise all to take this news with a healthy pinch…

That Keanu Reeves is something of an angel is no secret. Sure, he might’ve killed a few hundred baddies in John Wick, unleashed his dark side as spiny speedster Shadow in Sonic The Hedgehog 3, and starred in The Lake House, but the Canadian actor-musician-comic-book-writer is, by all accounts, a divine being in human form. Handy then, as in Master Of None creator Aziz Ansari’s upcoming comedy Good Fortune, Reeves plays a literal angel, Gabriel, who comes to Earth and finds himself meddling in the lives of gig worker Arj (Ansari) and venture capitalist Jeff (Seth Rogen). If the first…

First, there was Barbenheimer. Then, a month ago, there was Revenge Of The Sinners (as approximately nobody ever called it.) Now, as the summer box office hots up, a new clash of the cinematic titans has arrived — Mission: Stitchpossible! Yes, this past weekend saw both Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch remake and Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie’s hotly anticipated Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning arrive in cinemas, smashing Memorial weekend cinemagoing records as Experiment 626 took a $341.7 million bite out of the box office and Ethan Hunt’s latest outing lit the fuse to the tune of $204…

It is with great sadness that we bring you the news Empire Magazine’s founding editor, Barry McIlheney, has died at the age of 65. The Belfast-born journalist, editor, publisher, broadcaster, and one-time vocalist for Northern Irish post-punk band Shock Treatment passed away in his sleep in the early hours of yesterday morning, it has been confirmed. Colin McIlheney shared the news of his brother’s death on Facebook this morning, writing the following: “It is with a very heavy heart that I have to share the news that my brother Barry died unexpectedly and peacefully in his sleep in the early…

Having lit up the ring as WWE superstar The Rock, and dominated the box office in blockbuster fare like Moana, Jumanji, and the Fast & Furious franchise over the last decade, it looks like Dwayne Johnson is ready to fully enter his thespian era. And with Benny Safdie’s A24 MMA biopic The Smashing Machine and a Martin Scorsese Hawaiian crime movie already lined up, Johnson has just added another eye-catching project to his increasingly stacked card. Per Deadline’s reporting, the wrestler-turned-actor is reteaming with A24 on Breakthrough, an intense sounding original psychological thriller. Penned by emerging talent Zeke Goodman —…

Dread it, run from it, delays to a Marvel Studios production arrive all the same — and even The Russo Brothers are not beyond the great leveller that is the slate reshuffle. Which is why, though disappointing, it comes as no great surprise that Disney has announced Avengers Doomsday and Avengers Secret Wars have both been bumped from their respective 1 May, 2026 and 7 May, 2027 release dates. Instead, Doomsday is now set to hit cinemas on 18 December, 2026, with Secret Wars due to follow on 17 December, 2027. News of Doomsday and Secret Wars’ changed release plans…

This week’s episode of the Empire Podcast sees Chris Hewitt mark the release of Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning by doing a non-spoiler, non-epic (less than 20 minutes!) chat with that film’s director, the legendarily loquacious Christopher McQuarrie. [26:00 — 43:06 approx.] And that’s not the only interview we’ve got for you on this week’s veritable guestapalooza, nuh-uh. Chris also has a lovely natter with the stars of the new Wes Anderson film, The Phoenician Scheme, Benicio del Toro and Michael Cera. [1:01:37 — 1:15:35 approx.] And then, right at the end of the show, we also bring you…