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This Week...
With the news that snow is falling in Newcastle today, we're declaring it officially winter, the season of hot chocolate and warm fires and having a cast-iron excuse to stay in and catch up on your DVDs. Hooray! That also means it must be Oscar season, so we're soon going to see films with acting in place of explosions, which is a change. Although of course this week there's Tony Scott's Unstoppable, which – thanks to Denzel Washington, Chris Pine and a runaway train – has plenty of both. We've got interviews with everyone involved in that one, as well as a huge array of other features this week, from your guide to fainting like Harry Potter to an interview with The American director Anton Corbijn (he's not an American; his film is). And I leave you with this thought for the week, via Julia Segal on twitter: "If you have a parrot and you don't teach it to say,"Help, they've turned me into a parrot", you are wasting everybody's time." Helen O'Hara
Deputy Online Editor, Empire | | |
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|  | | | There's a level of cock-in-face you can deal with and a level you can't
James is appalled by public nudity levels in his new gym's changing rooms. | | |  | | |
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What We're Thankful For: A Movie Special
It's Thanksgiving across the Pond. Empire, of course, is a stiff-upper-lipped, drive-on-the-left, already-bought-three-Royal-Wedding-commemorative-mugs Brit through and through, but that hasn't stopped us from reaching out to our American cousins, and taking a moment to consider what it is in the movie world right now that makes us thankful. It's deep. It's profound. It comes with a side order of vegetables and some cranberry sauce. | | | |
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The 30 Comic Books You Should Have Read
Between the Iron Men and X-Men and Thors and Supermen, comic book movies continue to dominate our schedules. But if you don't know an Asterix from a Tintin or a Green Lantern from a Green Hornet, where do you start with superheroes or graphic novels? We've compiled a list, in no particular order, of the most essential for the comic newbie, from superhero epics to perfectly-crafted indies, from political allegories to knockabout comedies. For your convenience, we've also tried to choose books that are actually available, usually in trade paperback form. Some of these are extremely well-known, some have been made into films, some are still under the radar – but they're all worth seeking out... | | |
|  | | Become A Spy Thrillers Expert In Ten Easy Movies
As Anna Chapman proved when she got trapped by the FBI over a mocha-frappuccino in Starbucks, spies seem to have got a bit, well, gormless lately. Poisoned brollies are out; shopping at Saks is in. Everyone needs to up their game, and the KGB, CIA, MSS (that's the Chinese one), Mossad et al could do worse than take a leaf out of SPECTRE's evil handbook and hollow out a volcano or two, just to keep us all interested. Gary Oldman is bringing Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy's uber-spook George Smiley back to the screen, so there'll soon be even more inspiration waiting at Langley's nearest multiplex. Until then, here's a dead-drop's worth of spy classics to keep them, and you, entertained. It's off the record, on the QT and very hush-hush. |
|  | | Video: Unstoppable Interviews
Not to be confused with the Unstoppable where someone tries to melt Wesley Snipe's mind, Tony Scott's latest action opus takes the true-life story of a train packed with chemicals careering across Ohio. Then it adds Denzel Washington and Chris Pine to the already explosive mix. Ka, and indeed, boom. We chatted to the three of them, and Rosario Dawson, who witnesses the on-screen carnage from the relative safety of the control room, to find out about bringing the loose caboose to the screen. |
|  | | Cinema Would Be Nothing Without Trains
If you're lucky enough to call Britain home, there's a world of Harry Potter locations out there right on your doorstep. Okay, not literally - you'd probably have noticed a group of house elves and a camera crew outside your front door - but you know what we mean. There are familiar landmarks, Muggle and magical, dotted across these fair islands, if ye know where to go. Platform 9 3/4, Hogwarts, Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade Station are just a few of the iconic locales used during the eight Potter films. Take our - wait for it - Harry Pott-tour and discover where to find them... |
|  | | 16 Movie Stars You Didn't Know Appeared In Games
If you've recently played Fallout: New Vegas, you'll no doubt have been surprised to meet a character called Benny Gecko, played by Matthew Perry, and another, a decrepit, rotting, zombie-like mutant by the name of Raul – voiced by Danny Trejo. That's right, Danny Trejo, as in Machete Danny Trejo, otherwise known as the world's greatest bad guy. So in honour of his gaming voiceover work, and his first leading role as Robert Rodriguez's Mexpoitation knife obsessive, here's some of Hollywood's finest who've appeared in non movie tie-in video games. |
|  | | Video: The American Interviews
Control director Anton Corbijn's second feature The American is a suspence-stroke-thriller-stroke-character-study-stroke-Western. Half soulful mood piece, half moving hitman drama, one thing it's not is easy to define. We chatted to Corbijn about the man at its heart, George Clooney's Mr. Butterfly, a weapons specialist looking for a way out. The lovely Violante Placido also stopped by to tell us about the movie's spaghetti influences. That's spaghetti as in Sergio Leone, not spaghetti as in Chef Boyardee. She didn't know anything about him. |
|  | | Ray Winstone Webchat
Fresh from treading the mean streets of his new crime thriller, London Boulevard, and adorning his mantlepiece with an Empire Award for the huge contribution he's made to British cinema, Ray Winstone popped in to Empire towers for a little (web)chat. He fielded your probing questions on everything from working with Scorsese and Spielberg, why he missed out on the Harry Potter bandwagon and West Ham's chances of staying in the Premiership (don't put money on it apparently). Read on for all that and more... |
|  | | Colin Farrell Talks London Boulevard
William Monahan's London Boulevard cast reads like a who's who of British talent: Colin Farrell, Ray Winstone, Keira Knightley, Anna Friel and David Thewlis just to name a few. Set in the dark underworld of London's violent firms the film follows Mitchell (Farrell), a GBH convict who's just been released from Pentonville and is determined to turn his life around. Unfortunately for him, falling in love with and duelling with vicious gangsters get in the way. We sat down with the actor to find out more... |
|  | | How To Faint Like Harry Potter
Ever noticed how Harry Potter is always fainting? Of course you have - because he genuinely can't stop fainting. It's only in the later films that he manages to stop rolling on the floor and blanking out, hitting the concrete in Philosopher's Stone, Azkaban (three times) and Goblet Of Fire. Fans of the books will note that he does it even more in the novels, notably coming over all peaky twice in Chamber of Secrets, something handily removed from the film adaptation. So to celebrate his floor-loving ways, here's our step by step guide to getting all woozy with the boy wizard. |
|  | | Ask The Boss: Jeffrey Katzenberg
There are few more powerful and influential men in the world of feature animation than Jeffrey Katzenberg. Along with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, he's one of the founding members of Hollywood production powerhouse DreamWorks SKG (yes, he's the 'K'), and is the Chief Executive Officer of its Animation division. Empire has arranged an exclusive chat with Katzenberg, and we'd like to ask YOUR questions. So if you have something — anything — you're burning to ask one of feature animation's heaviest hitters, then send it through to us. |
|  | | Empire's Christmas Gift Guide 2010
Did you know that there are less than 6 weeks worth of shopping days till Christmas? Did you know that horrendously well-organised people are already scooping up the best stuff out there? And of course you're probably still recovering from last year and wishing it was still June. But fear not! Empire is here to help, bringing you the coolest kit this Christmas for the discerning present buyer. After all, if you get good stuff for the people around you, they might get you good stuff in return. It's a double-whammy! |
|  | | Promotion
The Blue Peter Go Cardz Appeal
Whizz Kidz and Blue Peter have teamed up to launch a Christmas appeal. Every penny is going to help fund vital equipment for disabled children, helping them regain their independence. Blue Peter launched the appeal on TV, asking their viewers to create handmade Christmas cards. The response was overwhelming, over 100,000 individual cards were made. These cards are now exclusively on sale in selected Tesco and Tesco Extra stores nationwide, retailing at £1.20 per pack. To add a little twist many celebrities have also turned their hand at creating cards, these have randomly been dropped into packs. So you could be lucky and get a masterpiece creation from the likes of Lewis Hamilton or Wallace & Gromit's Nick Park. Cards are on sale now, to find out where you can buy yours just click here. Make a difference today! | | | |
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A plethora of Green Lantern goodies, nicely presented in a box that recites the Green Lantern oath every time we open it. In brightest day, in blackest night, on June 17, 2011... | | | |
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|  | | | |  | |  | |  | |  | | | Don't Stop Believin' In Robocop. | | Daniel Radcliffe IS Harry Potter. | | Your guide to The Bold and the Beautiful. | | A shaggy dog story. |
If you have any timewasters to share, then e-mail them in to me. | | | |
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Toy Story 3 
A kids' movie for grown-ups. A grown-up movie for kids. Exactly what you'd expect — and hope for — from the latest, and we're guessing final, Woody and Buzz adventure. | | | |
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