0:11

Who you gonna

0:13

call? That's

0:17

right, it's Sidney Sweeney, star

0:20

of Immaculate. Plus,

0:22

who you gonna call? That's

0:24

right, it's David Doss Malchian, star of Late Night

0:27

with the Devil. But finally, who

0:30

you gonna call? That's

0:32

right folks, it's OG Ghostbuster.

0:35

Oh, Ghostbuster? Ernie

0:37

Hudson, Winston Sedamore himself. Oh

0:40

yes indeed. All that. Plus,

0:43

the usual news and nonsense on the movie

0:45

podcast. It has its suntan

0:47

lotion packed, it has its swim

0:49

trunks packed, it has its sunglasses

0:51

packed. Oh yeah baby,

0:53

Dublin, we're coming for you. Oh

0:56

yeah! I can feel the Irish

0:59

sun baking my skin even now.

1:02

Hello Pod, I'm Chris Hewitt, welcome to the Empire

1:04

Podcast. Yes, we are in the Grey Depressing Pod

1:06

booth for one of the last times, isn't it?

1:09

My two colleagues of such lethal cunning are here. James

1:11

Dyer, great big fucking nerd. Hello. Geek

1:14

Queen, Helen O'Hara. Hello. Hello, how are you?

1:16

Yes, because we'll be moving soon, won't we, to a brand new

1:18

studio, apparently. So they tell us. So

1:21

they say. So they say. So they say. But

1:23

we're here in the Grey Depressing Pod booth for

1:25

one of the last times. And tomorrow we

1:27

head off to do the penultimate show of

1:29

our March Madness tour. We're

1:32

going to be in Dublin. Dublin! At

1:34

the Laughter Lounge. And this is the first time we've recorded a

1:36

podcast before doing one of the live shows,

1:39

right? On this

1:41

tour. So it could have gone horribly wrong. It might

1:43

end up like the end of a Fent Horizon. So this

1:45

is like preview night? Yes,

1:47

this is very much it. But anything we say,

1:49

because people will go back, people who go to

1:51

the show tomorrow night, or Saturday night, will be

1:53

able to listen to lists on

1:56

Friday, the day after the show. And

1:58

if any of our opinion... mirror

2:00

what we said on stage, look

2:02

and get a refund. But then surely

2:05

if our opinions contradict what we said

2:07

on stage? That's even worse. No, that's

2:09

even better because it means we show

2:11

that we've got growth as people

2:13

and we can roll the punches. Well, in

2:15

that case, look forward to my five star review of

2:17

Ghostbusters' first Nephi. Oh my

2:19

God. Next week we

2:21

round off our tour in Salford slash

2:24

Manchester at the Salford slash Manchester Keys

2:26

Theatre in Salford slash Manchester. And we

2:28

are very, very excited and tickets

2:32

are still on sale for that. So if you

2:34

want to come along and see us bring our

2:37

tour to a triumphant end, you may even get

2:39

to see what I just saw, which is James

2:41

Dyer yawning live on stage. It's a beautiful sight.

2:44

Imagine that Hippopotamus had made it with a xenomorph. It's

2:47

not an end and then Lobot was in there somewhere as

2:49

well. It's not a million miles away from

2:51

that. I'm channeling my inner sandworm. You

2:54

keep your inner sandworm for

2:57

yourself, my friend. You keep the

2:59

water of life where I can see it. Actually not where

3:01

I can see it. I keep it as far away from

3:03

my eyes as possible because that stuff kept blind. Chris, put

3:05

your hand in the box. But

3:08

it's not the mind killer. It's

3:11

something else entirely. Anyway, anyway, Helen

3:13

has a hard out, folks. So

3:16

where are you going? Oh my God. Yeah,

3:18

where are you going? I am going to a three body problem event.

3:21

That's exciting. With DJ Obi Wong scheduled.

3:23

I beg your pardon. What is that

3:25

Nick What's happening? What's

3:27

happening? One is on

3:30

the deck Benedict Wong moonlighting Benedict Wong.

3:32

Yeah, is DJ Obi Wong.

3:35

I mean, that still doesn't make me want to

3:37

go to it, but that sounds fun. I'm considering

3:40

I was not going to go and do anything

3:42

this evening. So I was going to get ready to

3:45

go to the airport or the crack of dawn. But

3:47

Helen has maybe persuaded me to go and watch one

3:49

was on the decks. So I mean, not much watches.

3:52

And to be bad. Yeah, I'm

3:54

I'm I'm there for it. Also, my problem is it's

3:56

great. So is he does he DJ normally we should

3:59

get him on the the show. He has DJ

4:01

before, I think he did it at another premiere

4:03

party they've had. So yeah,

4:05

we should, I mean, if we DJ'd,

4:08

we could have him on the show to DJ, but that's

4:10

not really what we do. No, no, but we could talk about it.

4:12

We could talk about it, you know. Yeah. Does he take requests? Does

4:14

he cut to the weather? I want

4:16

to know these things. I want to know these things. Do DJs at

4:18

clubs you go to usually cut to the weather?

4:20

Helen, I haven't gone to a club since 1973. But I

4:22

imagine they do. I imagine

4:24

they do. I imagine music

4:27

rises. And now he's going to be

4:30

calling with the weather. How's it looking

4:32

up there in Colin? And he's

4:34

like 3am, may I mop my tits? Wow.

4:36

Yeah, I don't know. Astonishing, astonishing vision of

4:39

the club like that. Wait for the drop.

4:41

In pressure. The drop as he

4:43

flies the helicopter in the building. Oh

4:45

my word. Oh, poor Colin and everyone who died at

4:48

night. Anyway, if you want to buy tickets for that

4:50

show, it's going to be a lot of fun. It's

4:52

going to be in Wonger's backyard, in

4:54

fact, because Benedict Wong is from

4:56

Manchester slash Salford. So that's exciting.

4:59

Probably slash Oldham as well. I don't know. And

5:02

tickets for that are still available via the

5:04

Salford Keys Theatre website or ticketmaster.co.uk or

5:08

empireonline.com forward slash

5:10

pod tour. It's been a fun tour, right? It's

5:12

been good. Yeah, it has so far. I mean,

5:14

last week's show. I mean, it continues to be

5:16

so. Yeah. Again, it could go event horizon at

5:19

any second. But last week's show on Sheffield was

5:21

an absolute singer. So yeah, we're having a lot

5:23

of fun and we hope that that you are

5:25

as well. Thank you for coming. Let's

5:28

have a listener question. Fun fact. I

5:30

just saw a film. I just got

5:33

Ghostbusters Frozen Empire and I was racing here to get

5:35

here and I forgot to ask for a question. So

5:38

I first

5:40

I've done a panic shout out. I've got some questions. I'm going

5:42

to throw them at you. Warren

5:44

York hypnotherapy. I don't

5:46

think hypnotherapy says last time. I think that's what he does. Warren

5:49

York Hypno. He says, can you

5:52

sing Benny Gesserit to the tune of Benny

5:54

and the Jets? Well,

5:56

Warren, you can and we would,

5:59

but we already did on the Dune Part 1

6:01

spoiler special if you go back and listen to

6:03

that and if you want you can also listen

6:06

this week. Thank you, Warren, for allowing me to

6:08

get in a cheeky plug. The Dune Part 2

6:10

spoilers, but oh my god, I thought we'd lost

6:12

you. I genuinely thought we'd lost you. You've

6:15

been sitting there yawning to

6:18

most of the show in fairness. The reason

6:20

for this, Chris, the reason why I am

6:22

yawning so much is I'm currently going through

6:24

an ill-advised sugar detox whereby I

6:26

am trying not to have sugary snacks. I heard

6:28

about this. And the result of this is I'm just

6:31

like blamondes on low sugar, blamondes on the

6:33

floor with no energy or ability to move.

6:35

Do you want to tell the listeners what

6:37

you did on Sunday? Oh, must

6:39

I? Must I shame myself in this? Oh

6:42

god. So I went to change this perfect Sunday,

6:44

by the way. I did my weekly shop and

6:46

my perfect Sunday involved. I walked down the entire

6:48

aisle at St. Peter's. There was the entire aisle

6:50

devoted to Easter

6:52

eggs. And I was like, do you

6:54

know what? I deserve an Easter egg.

6:57

I deserve to have my

6:59

own Easter egg. So I got myself a

7:01

giant cabbage flake Easter egg,

7:04

put it in the fridge, which is obviously what you

7:06

have to do with it for a couple of hours,

7:08

and then demolished the entire thing. And when I say

7:10

demolished the entire thing, I mean, I didn't just eat

7:12

the entire egg. I also ate the three flake bars

7:14

that came with it in one sitting.

7:16

And I felt so

7:19

unbelievably sick afterwards, I swore

7:21

off sugar. And I have been

7:23

on the wagon ever since. I, you

7:26

know, Sunday was actually St. Patrick's Day.

7:28

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I did, I

7:30

did allow myself some mini

7:32

eggs, even though like, I'm not off

7:34

chocolate for Lent. You know, usually St. Patrick's Day

7:36

doesn't count as part of Lent. This is a thing. Patrick,

7:38

famous for mini eggs. Look,

7:41

my point is, usually St. Patrick's Day falls

7:43

during Lent. And usually, as a kid, I

7:46

was told I should give up chocolate for Lent,

7:48

which always seemed a bit sus to me,

7:50

to be honest. Anyway, Easter works, but St.

7:52

Patrick's Day didn't count as Lent. So you were allowed to

7:54

eat chocolate. So I was just stuffing my face. Did he

7:56

chase all the chocolate out of Ireland? No, he would

7:58

never. You

8:00

know my favourite Easter

8:03

egg? It's

8:05

when you can see RTD2 and 33PO on the

8:07

wall of the Well of Souls. Good God. You

8:10

know the crunchy Easter egg? I'm trying to bring

8:12

it back to a film podcast. A film podcast.

8:14

Oh, we talked about the chocolate. Actually baked into

8:16

the egg. Yeah. Like into the skin

8:18

of the egg. I'm sorry, I've got to go. This is not

8:21

new. I've got to go to the shop right now. I'm going

8:23

to come off. Like in the 90s,

8:26

I got like a cherry chocolate orange egg

8:28

that was cherry chocolate orange. Oh my

8:30

God. The point is the egg was made of the thing.

8:32

The thing was the egg. The thing was made of the

8:34

thing. John Carpenter's the thing. Now we are bringing it back

8:36

to the films. Oh my God. That's hellently upsetting. Were you

8:39

assimilated? Quick, James, give her a

8:41

blood test. You've

8:43

got to be fucking kidding me. I just, you know. Helen's

8:46

head for people who can't see this at

8:48

home has just sprouted spider legs. That's true.

8:51

It's running around the studio. Running around the

8:53

studio. Yep. Anyway,

8:55

back to Warren York. Can we

8:57

sing Benny Jesser? Yes we can. So, we're

8:59

going to go to part one and June

9:01

part two, the three hour podcast for June

9:04

part two featuring Denis Villeneuve is up right

9:06

now. Focus on our spoiler special feed. If

9:08

you subscribe to that, you can go and

9:10

listen to that and it's well worth your

9:12

time. It's basically me being dunesplained to

9:14

two for three hours by these two. But

9:17

I enjoyed it. I had a good time. Yes,

9:19

me too. Yes. There we go. Excellent

9:22

stuff. One more question before we prowl straight into the

9:24

movie news. A couple of

9:27

people have asked us to talk about the alien Romulus trailer

9:29

and obviously we were going to do that in news, but

9:31

we might as well do it now. We're

9:34

busting the Romulus trailer out of news.

9:37

It's not unprecedented. We've done it before. There are quite a

9:39

lot of trailers to talk about this week, but fine. Let's

9:42

put that one out here. But people are asking about that

9:44

one specifically, maybe because it's just dropped. But

9:46

someone, it's Transylvania on

9:49

Twitter has asked, on the

9:51

basis of the trailer, what are your thoughts

9:53

on how the movie will fit into the

9:55

existing series tonally? Are they

9:57

going full horror or is this a horror

9:59

actioner? So this is the trailer for alien

10:01

Romulus. It's just dropped Betty Alvarez's movie, which

10:03

is coming out later on this year and

10:07

this one stars David Johnson from Ry

10:10

Lane and Kaylee Spainy and

10:12

some other people in it as well. I'll look up the cast list

10:14

in a second Traders just

10:16

dropped looks very horror if I

10:19

think it's it seems to be leaning more

10:21

towards the horror than the sci-fi Which I

10:23

think is a bad thing. It's an interesting

10:25

change for me They lean very heavily on

10:28

the original alien aesthetic whether it be like

10:30

the corridor shots the music or even you

10:32

know Frankly the font So

10:34

I guess they're trying to conjure those images

10:37

of rediscussed original Which is obviously the most

10:39

horror inclined of all of them But that

10:41

said this this felt to me like it had

10:43

a touch of the evil-dead body horror to her

10:45

There's lots of face hugger action in this things

10:48

coming out of people's mouths Like it seems like

10:50

it might it might dial up the ick factor

10:52

a bit which would be again another interesting choice

10:54

I felt if you've got hordes of face huggers

10:57

sort of scuffling around the place That's probably

10:59

going to lead to more action rather than horror

11:01

and you do see a girl in the vest

11:03

with a giant gun So that's quite, you

11:05

know, actually, but I wonder it doesn't look

11:07

like it's going for that kind of slow

11:09

burn Horror that Scott went for

11:11

that kind of very sort of slow build

11:13

out It feels like it's going to be

11:15

like full-on, but I reckon it's going to

11:17

be gnarly. I have a feeling

11:20

it's going to be quite Gnarly yeah, but the

11:22

fact that the opening shot is something splattered and

11:24

blood would seem to indicate that it's going to

11:26

be gnarly Yeah,

11:28

yeah, I like to fit it out for

11:31

as is evil dead remake remake. It's um,

11:34

but the fuck is it a recall? It's a

11:36

parallel equal whatever it is I

11:39

like that. I like to don't breathe Yeah,

11:42

he knows he knows how to ring

11:45

tension out of People

11:48

around tight dark claustrophobic spaces

11:50

and dying horribly. Yeah I

11:53

mean I did I did wonder in the first half of the

11:55

trailer perhaps uncharitably I'm like, oh do you have to pay

11:57

the actors more if you show their faces in this trailer?

12:00

Everybody was like shot from the back and it was

12:02

all very, you know, still shots and everything else. I

12:04

know it's only a teaser trailer and we'll get more down the line. What

12:07

if he didn't? What if this was it? I mean, obviously

12:09

great, you know. We don't need 16 trailers for everything anymore.

12:13

No, nobody would have been warned if this was the movie and this is

12:15

all he shot. One minute of footage. Well,

12:18

that would be disappointing, I feel like. That would

12:20

be a bad use of resources. And yet

12:22

still better than Aliens vs. Predator Requiem. So

12:24

that's fair. There you go. Yeah.

12:27

So the cast includes Eileen Wu. This is just

12:30

people who are listed on the IMDB at the

12:32

moment. I'm sure there are more people. Spike Fern,

12:34

David Johnson, as we said, from Ryan Lane, who's

12:36

brilliant in that. And this is kind of like

12:38

his big breakout performance.

12:42

Archie Renault, Kaylee Spaney, as I

12:44

said, who was Priscilla in Priscilla

12:46

and Isabella Merced. She's

12:48

also coming up in Civil War, Kaylee Spaney.

12:50

She is. But having

12:52

a moment. This looks good. It doesn't

12:55

look wildly groundbreaking or different. But

12:57

maybe at this point in the Alien franchise,

13:00

we could do with Back to Basics, scary

13:03

slash film set upon a space station. It

13:05

looks like in this case, a space station.

13:08

What's going to be interesting is when this is

13:10

set. So apparently this is set in between Alien

13:12

and Aliens. So it's kind of

13:14

Alien 1.5 and how that will fit into

13:16

the wider mythology, Adam. Yeah.

13:19

Yeah, that's interesting. I mean, on the

13:21

one hand, exciting is happening. On the

13:24

other hand, don't mess with Aliens, please.

13:28

Aliens is in the back. No,

13:31

no, no, no. This is the pissing in the pool thing

13:33

all over again. Alien isolation takes place

13:35

in that time frame as well, which is

13:37

the video game. And actually, good job. I

13:39

haven't played that. Terrifying. Also

13:42

too long, but terrifying. Okay. Does

13:44

Alien 3 ruin Aliens for you? Only

13:48

a tiny bit. Doesn't ruin

13:50

it, but it sullies

13:52

it fractionally. But how? Okay.

13:55

You know what, please. I'm just intrigued.

13:58

How would this movie ruin Aliens? Well

14:00

because the thing is, as I have said many

14:02

many times, when you say it doesn't slightly things,

14:04

the problem is that when you go back and

14:06

watch the film that you love, you can't help

14:08

but follow those narrative threads to where they ultimately

14:11

lead. And if they end in shit, then that

14:13

ends up creeping back. If this movie doesn't impact

14:15

aliens at all, does that matter? Whereas Alien 3

14:17

directly impacts how aliens end. Well it does, but

14:19

then if this sets things up in weird ways,

14:21

then when you watch Aliens again you're going, no

14:23

this has just happened, oh that shit thing just

14:26

happened. It bugs me. It's

14:28

the thing that bugs me. Alan, if they made Buttercup's

14:31

daughter, the Princess Bride

14:33

sequel, and the first five minutes

14:35

was Wesley and Buttercup being killed

14:38

by a giant tractor, a runaway

14:40

tractor, or maybe even calling with the weather. That would

14:42

be a surprise because we know that we have the

14:44

first chapter of that. Right, but okay, that's the first

14:47

chapter, that's the first four minutes. The second chapter starts,

14:50

the fifth chapter starts from the second chapter,

14:52

the runaway tractor kills Wesley and Buttercup. Would

14:54

that ruin the Princess Bride for you? No,

14:56

obviously not, but that's a different thing because

14:58

first of all they haven't even reached the industrial age,

15:01

so it makes no sense. Inconceivable. And

15:05

second of all, it's very much

15:07

removed at this point, it would have to be done in animation

15:09

or with a whole other cast. But I get the

15:11

point about if you change the canon of things, it

15:14

does mess with people's heads a bit. And

15:16

I think when you introduce things like midichlorians,

15:18

they're not just bad on their

15:20

own, they're like, oh does nothing make sense

15:22

anymore, this has upended my whole understanding of

15:25

the universe. So

15:27

I get what James is saying even if he's being a

15:29

little bit precious about it. I have to

15:31

say, I felt a little bit this week with

15:33

the Acolyte trailer where they were going, this will

15:35

change forever how you think about the Jedi and

15:37

the Sith. And I'm like, that's kind of George

15:40

Lucas' job. It's up to him to tell us

15:42

what's different about the Jedi and the Sith. Someone

15:44

going back and retconning and stuff like that, not

15:47

one of them. I mean George does retcon the

15:49

fair bit himself, so I think it's fine to

15:51

take it off his hands. If they want to

15:53

retcon that, go for it. Because kind of going

15:55

back to what we said before, it is impossible

15:57

now to watch Darth Vader as he walks in

15:59

that incredible... entrance in the original Star Wars, it's

16:01

impossible not to look at him and think, Yippee! Do

16:03

you know what I mean? Like, you can't get Jake

16:05

Lloyd out of your head. It is possible, actually. I

16:07

don't think of Jake Lloyd really ever. But

16:10

again, I understand what you're saying,

16:12

roughly, but you

16:14

can put things aside a little bit. I

16:16

do think that canon changes are the hardest

16:19

ones. Acolyte takes place a lot further forward.

16:21

So, really, that's a long time ago. An

16:24

even longer time ago in a galaxy far, far away. So,

16:27

actually, that bothers me far less. Also, the trailer flight looks

16:29

great. Really cool. Yeah. I was very excited about that. Do

16:31

you want to talk about that now? Sure, let's do it.

16:33

While we're just completely fucking the past, I thought I'd let

16:35

through it. Do you want to

16:37

put it in an interview and just then call

16:39

this a movie news section? Yeah, we'll just go... We're

16:42

not going straight into the movie news section. I just want to... This

16:44

is going to be a new trailer news section. We're going to talk

16:46

about all trailers now. We're just going to front load the whole thing.

16:48

Oh, jeez. Sure, why not? So,

16:50

yeah, the Acolyte trailer. First of all, they're

16:52

teaser trailer, which had, you know, the blood above

16:55

the sort of lightsaber hill, making it look like

16:57

a set of lights over. That was cool. And

16:59

then the trailer itself just felt, it felt action

17:01

packed. It felt a little bit fresh. Then

17:04

there's no volume in the Acolyte, which

17:06

I'm pretty fucking stoked about. Very good. But,

17:09

you know, they've taken the Andor route. Like, it's more practical.

17:11

It's more, you know, located. Well, you know when there's no

17:13

volume, James? Because they're in space. And

17:16

in space, no one can hear you make

17:18

sound effects. Yeah. Wow. This

17:20

is painful. But

17:23

I did have questions. I was surprised that they

17:25

said there was no volume because it

17:27

looked not. It looked quite volumy. Yeah, it was

17:29

like bump up the volume. You know,

17:31

it just looked a little bit. And I'm not

17:33

like not to disrespect it. I had a good

17:35

time. I'm intrigued to see it. It looks like

17:37

it might play a little bit young, but in

17:39

a kind of good way,

17:42

I think, you know, kids, Star Wars should. There's

17:44

a lot of blood on the poster. Okay,

17:46

but like, there's also a lot of young

17:49

characters is what I mean. And that's

17:51

the sky board. So there's that.

17:53

And then, yeah, obviously, Carrie animals, you know, Kung

18:00

Fu like maneuvers super

18:03

here for it. Cool

18:05

cloak. Yeah very very much

18:07

up here for that. So I'm hyped for

18:09

it but you know if it doesn't use

18:11

the volume but it does use something that's a lot

18:13

like the volume I'm not sure what we've gained. Someone

18:18

on Twitter yesterday was saying that it's

18:20

wild how we've gone from five years

18:22

ago when the Mandalorian season one comes

18:24

out and people went we're using this

18:26

incredible technology it's called the volume it's

18:28

going to change everything and now that's

18:30

been tainted so much that

18:32

they're going we did not use the volume

18:34

on this and do not even suggest for

18:36

a second that we did and that's a

18:38

real shame because the volume when used brutally

18:40

by people who know what the hell they're

18:42

doing aka Greg Fraser on the Batman and

18:44

other things Mandalorian. The Mandalorian it

18:47

looks incredible. This is it it's never about

18:49

the technology it's about how you use it and

18:51

you know it's the same you know way that

18:54

everyone turned against nuclear

18:56

bombs when when you know Chris

18:58

Reynolds says oh I do everything practically and it's like

19:00

okay but you're a being and that's

19:02

great. And I think Andor was a breath

19:04

of pressure not this all because it was

19:07

absolutely brilliant but the locations just stood in

19:09

absolute stark relief against Obi-Wan which was a

19:11

little awful use of the volume. Yes. And

19:14

I think it's you know it yeah I

19:17

think I think it's nice to see Star Wars not using the

19:19

volume just because we've had bad experiences with it but it's not

19:21

as you say a terrible technology in and of itself. All

19:23

right okay listen should we have an interview

19:26

now should we have a guest before we barrel straight

19:29

into the rest or what's left

19:31

of the movie news section. Should we have

19:34

Sydney Sweeney? Brilliant. That's of Sydney Sweeney. She's

19:36

so hot right now. She's so hot right

19:38

now. Sydney Sweeney she is a

19:40

rising star in Sydney Sweeney she has been seen

19:42

this year in the likes of Madam Webb but

19:44

we're putting that to one side where we're putting

19:46

Madam Webb to one side forget about Madam Webb

19:48

she was in Anyone But You which is one

19:50

of the great sleeper sensations of the last couple

19:52

of years the rom-com with Glenn Powell she's been

19:55

in Euphoria she's been all kinds of things she

19:57

was in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. Yes

19:59

she was. Paul Robert, she was there.

20:01

What was that great film she did

20:03

last year about reality? Reality, yeah. Reality,

20:05

yeah. She's very, very good indeed and

20:07

she will be seen this week as

20:10

a novice nun who undergoes a

20:13

freaky-dicky, potentially supernatural experience in

20:15

an Italian monastery in Michael

20:18

Mohan's Immaculate. And

20:21

I had a chat with her on Saturday

20:23

night about that. She also produces this film.

20:26

And in fact, she auditioned

20:28

to star in this movie or to play a role

20:30

in this movie, a smaller role in this movie, 10

20:32

years ago and didn't get the role and the movie

20:34

didn't go. But she

20:37

liked it so much. She liked the idea and the

20:39

script so much that she kept the watching brief. And

20:42

when she was in a position of power in

20:44

Hollywood, she decided to try and get it made

20:46

as a producer and then brought her old, the

20:48

four years director Michael Mohan back to direct it.

20:50

And lo and behold, here she is. And she also produced Anyone But

20:53

You. So she's 26. And

20:55

she is very, very

20:57

much on the up, killing it indeed. So here

21:00

we are. We're talking about Immaculate. Now, I will

21:02

say probably it's not a spoiler

21:05

interview. We tiptoe around things, but

21:07

there are moments, a particular

21:09

moment in this film we kind of talk

21:11

about that is incredible. So maybe

21:13

go see the film and then come back and listen to

21:15

the interview and you'll know what we're talking about. You'll have

21:18

more of an appreciation for what we're talking about by that

21:20

point. But here is Sydney Sweeney. I had a real blast

21:22

with her. Do please enjoy. We

21:24

are delighted to be joined on the Emperor podcast

21:26

by the star and producer of Immaculate Sydney Sweeney.

21:28

How are you? I'm good. I'm

21:30

glad to be getting to speak with you. Oh,

21:33

no, likewise, likewise, because I'm in

21:35

a bit of a bind if

21:37

I'm honest with you, because I

21:39

want to talk about the ending of this

21:41

film, but I know for obvious reasons that we can't.

21:43

But the ending of this film has lodged

21:46

itself in my head ever since I

21:48

saw it. And I figured

21:50

out a way to talk about it ish. Okay,

21:53

you auditioned for this movie

21:56

about 10 years ago now.

21:58

Yeah. Okay. And obviously

22:00

didn't get it at the time but hung

22:02

around, played the long game. Yep, you

22:05

gotta play that long game, don't take

22:07

notes for answers. Absolutely, keep

22:09

your friends close, your enemies closer, make lists

22:12

of things like that. And

22:14

eventually of course you were the driving force behind

22:17

Get Net Made and I wondered if the ending

22:19

was the same when you first read it and

22:21

if the ending launched in your head and that

22:23

was a big reason why you wanted to make

22:25

it. No, the

22:27

ending was not the same. Whoa,

22:30

well there's my theory out the window. No

22:36

the ending was not the same. I'll

22:39

have to thank Michael

22:41

Mohan for bringing that idea

22:44

to the table. The

22:47

original draft was actually immensely

22:50

different because

22:53

one, the characters were 15, 16

22:56

years old. They were in a boarding school

22:58

in Ireland and when

23:00

I finally was able to get

23:02

my hands on the script, I

23:05

was much older and

23:07

so we had to change the

23:09

entire backdrop of the

23:11

story and the location

23:14

and the elements

23:18

of the main character as well because she wasn't 16

23:20

anymore. So what

23:23

was it about the story then that

23:25

lodged in your head and made

23:27

you hang on to it? There were two elements.

23:30

I mean the original

23:32

draft, the character's story arc

23:34

was still quite intense. It

23:37

wasn't as intense

23:39

as what you will see on screen

23:41

but it still had an insane

23:44

journey and an

23:46

insane outcome. So

23:49

as an actor, it's so

23:51

exciting to be able to push

23:53

yourself and go to such extreme places

23:56

and discover depths of

23:58

the soul that you did not even know. that you

24:00

could unlock. And

24:02

then I also am a huge fan of horror

24:04

films. I grew up loving them. My dad would

24:08

watch them with me and I loved

24:11

that this felt like a

24:14

pretty grounded version of a

24:16

horror film where the

24:19

main thing that Cecilia was

24:22

absolutely terrified other than this

24:24

convent was fucking insane was

24:27

this thing that was

24:30

growing inside her and she couldn't escape it.

24:32

It's not like she could run outside and

24:34

escape a demon chasing after her like

24:36

this thing was growing inside her. Yeah

24:38

it's a very human dilemma. Yes.

24:41

In many ways. Yeah I love I love that as well and

24:43

I also love I'm a big sucker

24:46

for The Omen is one of my

24:48

favorite horror films. I'm a big sucker for films

24:51

that deal with subject matter like Miss Rosemary's

24:54

Baby of course is a is another huge

24:56

touchstone here as well. So were those going

24:58

through your mind were those touchstones for you

25:00

and Michael as well? Rosemary's

25:02

Baby was definitely a big inspiration for

25:05

Mike and I cinematically

25:07

character study-wise. That

25:11

was probably our main draw.

25:14

It's hard to stick the landing.

25:17

Again we're not gonna we're not gonna

25:19

talk about the ending in specifics but

25:21

with this and anyone but you

25:23

those are two movies that you are

25:26

you produced and both

25:28

of them stick landing in very

25:30

very different ways you don't leave

25:32

the cinema as euphoric. You might

25:35

not be dancing on your way

25:37

out. I'm very curious to see

25:40

what trend comes

25:42

of the ending of this movie. I'm

25:45

really excited to see you. I think in time there's

25:48

gonna be a lot of gifts in

25:50

time. Probably. Yeah.

25:52

I find that I

25:55

cannot outrun my

25:57

life like it's just wherever

26:00

I'm texting with my mom it's just constant gifts

26:02

back and forth. I don't even have to reply

26:04

a single word, it's just send a gift. Of

26:07

yourself? Of

26:09

myself. That

26:12

is wild. That is wild. I imagine,

26:14

yeah, you go on social media and

26:16

there are constant gifts of yourself and

26:18

that must get weird after a while.

26:20

Or is it normal? I

26:23

mean, nothing is normal in history.

26:27

But it's more fun. It's

26:29

fun to see what people

26:31

are drawn to or what they get

26:33

a laugh out of or what they like. Alright,

26:35

excellent. Well, let's go back to the idea

26:37

of sticking and landing for

26:39

both of those films, for Listen and Anymore

26:42

About You. How important is that? I mean,

26:44

during the development phase, is that something

26:46

that you want to zero in on? You know,

26:48

I want to leave people dancing on air or

26:51

just traumatized for life? I

26:54

think it's always important

26:56

to have a strong

26:59

either visual or emotional

27:02

ending to a film that

27:04

makes you walk out

27:09

and have a very distinct feeling.

27:11

I think that's important because you can

27:14

go on such a wild ride, the entire

27:16

film, be up and down, cheering, laughing, crying,

27:20

and then if you just end on one

27:22

note that you just have to sit with

27:24

and then allow the audience to process all

27:27

of their emotions. I think that's really

27:29

fun. I'm fascinated that you stayed the

27:31

course with this and you produced it

27:33

as well because it

27:36

is basically a bit

27:38

of an assault course for your character, for

27:40

Cecilia. I mean, the things that happened

27:43

to her during the course of this movie are

27:46

extraordinary and as an

27:48

actor, that must have been incredibly

27:52

grueling. So is

27:54

Sydney Sweeney the producer trying to

27:57

punish Sydney Sweeney the

27:59

actor? That's

28:03

a very funny outtake of

28:05

that process. Sydney

28:08

Sweeney, the producer, is

28:10

wanting to push Sydney Sweeney, the

28:13

actor, to more

28:16

challenging places. That's

28:19

definitely the call. What

28:21

about Sydney Sweeney, the actor? Where

28:24

does she want to go? She

28:26

wants to constantly be challenged. I want

28:28

to find things that scare me, that

28:30

teach me new lessons, that are

28:33

challenging in their own way. What

28:37

is so fun about this industry is I get to play

28:39

all these different people, and I get to try all these

28:41

different lives, and never know

28:43

what to

28:45

expect next. I know

28:47

you didn't shoot these films back to back in

28:50

this way, but obviously in the last three months

28:52

we've had Anyone But You, and Madame Webb, and

28:54

now Immaculate. I can't think of

28:57

many actors who've done roles as different

28:59

as those three in such

29:01

a short space of time. That's

29:03

crazy. I filmed Madame

29:06

Webb first, and

29:08

then I had a little bit of time

29:10

in between Madame Webb and Immaculate, and then

29:12

I went into pre-production on Immaculate for a

29:14

couple months, and I started

29:17

filming that, and then I

29:19

was in pre-production on Anyone But You while

29:22

I was filming Immaculate.

29:25

While I was filming Madame Webb,

29:27

I sold Anyone

29:29

But You and Immaculate.

29:32

I was doing pitch meetings, I was

29:34

putting the teams together, and in the

29:36

process of filming that movie, I was pitching and

29:38

selling both of these films. I

29:41

went into pre-production first on Immaculate,

29:43

like a month after wrapping Madame

29:45

Webb, and we

29:47

were pre-production for two

29:50

months, and then we filmed for two months,

29:52

and while we were filming, I was in

29:54

pre-production on Anyone But You, and then

29:57

the week after I wrapped Immaculate, I went

29:59

and finish prep for anyone but you

30:01

in Australia and start filming anyone but you. And

30:05

then after that a long break or more

30:07

stuff as well? Right after

30:09

anyone but you I went into filming Echo

30:12

Valley with Julianne Moore for

30:14

Apple and then we

30:18

had the strike and then I went

30:20

into Ron Howard's film Eden which I

30:22

just got done. Oh my god okay

30:24

I'm exhausted just even hearing that but

30:27

I guess overall as well I mean each one

30:29

of those is completely different from the last. So

30:33

if you got another script tomorrow

30:35

that was horror movie set the conference you'd

30:37

be going nope done that even if it was the

30:39

best script in the world you go no I've done

30:41

that already or would you be interested? It

30:45

truly depends on the character I probably I'm

30:48

always looking for something vastly different

30:50

because I do like to surprise

30:53

myself and the audience with whatever I

30:55

do next so it might not

30:57

be at the top of my reading

30:59

list. But

31:02

I like it as well as you said that

31:04

you know you're a horror film fan so that

31:06

is that something that you're going to keep

31:09

coming back to perhaps throughout your career?

31:12

Perhaps I really enjoyed

31:14

the filmmaking process. Of

31:17

this? Yeah it was

31:19

fun. It

31:22

was fun being tortured and brutalized

31:24

for a few months straight. It's

31:28

fun because there's no real rules or

31:31

boundaries when it comes to the

31:33

horror world. Like

31:36

you can randomly make a door shut and

31:39

no one's going to be like no one

31:41

colors that door like that's not going to

31:43

be called out on IMDB if I got

31:45

this didn't this wasn't real you

31:47

can actually you can play with the

31:49

psychological nature of a world and I think

31:51

that's a lot of fun. Yeah I

31:54

mean again not to give anything away

31:56

but there is a scene in this

31:58

movie that I is one of the most extraordinary

32:01

images I've seen in a long time, and

32:03

one of the most extraordinary performances

32:07

I've seen in a long time as well. People

32:09

will know it when they see it. They'll know it.

32:11

You'll know it. But

32:13

you go to a dark

32:15

place at a certain point

32:18

in this movie. Without saying too

32:20

much about that, what was going

32:22

through your head? What was going through your

32:26

thought processes at that time? Whenever

32:31

I'm filming, I really

32:35

just give myself away

32:38

to my character. I find

32:41

that I let Sydney and

32:43

the outside world kind of disappear the

32:45

moment my action gets called, and I

32:47

let Cecilia or

32:49

whatever character I'm playing come

32:52

out, and however they're

32:54

feeling or whatever's happening

32:57

to them just unlocks

32:59

within me, and then the moment we

33:01

call cut, it's all gone. I'm back to

33:03

Sydney. Are you conscious of

33:05

it at that point, or did Sydney

33:07

leave at that point? Sydney

33:10

leaves. What's really odd is a lot of

33:12

times, and I didn't really have to move them actually because

33:15

I was heavily involved in everything,

33:18

so I was very aware and

33:21

conscious of everything

33:23

going on. But a lot of films

33:25

and TV shows, the ones

33:27

that I didn't produce, I'll

33:29

go back and I'll watch something like at the

33:31

premiere, and I won't even remember filming it. Really?

33:36

It's a very disassociated moment. I

33:38

won't remember the scene, the lines,

33:40

any of it. I remember that

33:42

day. I remember hanging out on

33:44

set. I remember the crew and

33:47

the setup, all of that, but

33:49

the actual logistics of the

33:51

scene and the dialogue and dynamics, I'll

33:53

be like, oh wow, what was this? Where

33:56

did I go? That's funny. Sydney,

34:00

you know what you've described? What?

34:03

This is possession. Ahhh! That's

34:05

what it is. That's what it is. I

34:08

guess no, we just aspire to be possessed. But

34:19

just for a bit. Just for a bit. And by

34:21

a benign spirit. Just for a few minutes at a time.

34:24

Yeah, yeah. And then the

34:26

spirit leaves and everything's fine after that

34:28

as well. I'm glad you're

34:30

going a second. But I had the pleasure this week of talking

34:32

to Will Gluck about

34:36

anyone but you's phenomenal

34:39

success. And

34:42

I just wondered what it was like for

34:44

you watching that build. Honestly,

34:47

I just have to think. The

34:50

moviegoers and the audience. They

34:54

showed the world what they wanted to see.

34:59

And the critics determined what

35:02

they should see in a theatre or not. They

35:04

loved it. And so they shared that. Will

35:07

was telling me that he would pop in

35:09

to see screens of it and kind of

35:11

see whether it was playing and

35:13

how it was playing and which bit were connected with

35:15

people. Did you sneak into screens as it

35:17

began to build and build and build? I

35:20

did. While I was in theatres

35:23

for the beginning main chunk of

35:25

it, I was in Australia. So

35:28

Joe Davidson and I, we

35:30

would jump in and surprise

35:32

some moviegoers. It was a

35:34

lot of fun. Well,

35:36

as in you would do Q&As or? No,

35:40

Joe would legit go and bring board

35:42

games and thank everyone for coming as

35:45

they were walking out of the theatre

35:47

and they'd be like, oh my gosh,

35:49

what is happening? You want to

35:51

go play some games? We had the

35:53

best cast. Honestly, the

35:56

kindest, most fun cast

35:58

you could possibly imagine. Because

36:00

I'd love to see a post, anyone

36:03

but you, Q&A with you, where someone goes,

36:05

can you remember what happened in this scene?

36:07

And you go, nope, I have no idea.

36:10

Honestly, I always find Q&A as impressed,

36:15

kind of difficult because they ask

36:17

such intense, interesting questions.

36:19

And I feel like I'm disappointing everybody when

36:22

they're like, so what was your prep work

36:24

to get into this? What was your mindset?

36:26

What were you thinking? What were you drawing

36:28

from? And I'm like, I think Cecilia was

36:31

hungry. Like I'm not sure. You

36:34

should say, I don't know, Sydney wasn't there that

36:36

day. Can

36:39

you imagine those headlines? Imagine

36:41

if you could work on your head spinning

36:43

around 360 degrees, that would really freak

36:45

people out. Maybe, maybe. I

36:47

think you should try and add it to your arsenal. There's

36:52

been a lot of talk about this five year

36:54

plan that you came up with when you were

36:57

a young aspiring actor years and years

36:59

ago. And then obviously you

37:01

played the long game with Immaculate as well. So

37:04

has anything else in

37:06

your head, any other scripts that you didn't get when you

37:08

were 10 years ago,

37:10

eight years ago, that is

37:12

in the drawer, the metaphorical drawer for

37:15

you? There's a few that

37:18

I've come across in the last five years that

37:23

are definitely stuck in my mind and I'm chasing. There

37:26

you go. Sydney Sweeney never forgets. Never forget.

37:28

Never forget. It's been a pleasure. Thank you. Absolutely

37:31

pleasure. Thanks so much, Dave. Thank you. Thank

37:34

you so much. Cheers. Okay,

37:37

that was Sydney Sweeney and we will be talking about

37:39

Immaculate later on in the reviews section of the show.

37:42

But right now it's time to delve deep into the

37:44

movie news that's out this week. So there's been a

37:46

trailer for Alien Romulus. This is interesting. Have you guys

37:48

seen this? It looks good. So anyway,

37:50

there's a new Furiosa trailer. Furiosa!

37:53

Which is pretty cool. I think I had fun.

37:56

It looks very, very mad. You think

37:58

you had fun or you think... What

38:00

was the comment in that sentence? Oh, I'm sorry. I had fun.

38:02

OK. Please,

38:05

I'll take an eight-wall punctuation before I run in. Exclamation

38:08

mark. Why

38:11

did you think you had fun? No,

38:13

that was different. Oh, I see. OK. All

38:15

right. Yeah, no, I

38:17

thought it looks great. Very, very reminiscent, obviously,

38:19

of Fury Road in

38:21

the way that the action shot, the sort of

38:24

centering of events in the frame, gives you a

38:26

tiny bit more of a demented,

38:28

of course, cancerous character and a

38:30

little bit more of her backstory. I'm

38:33

just hyped to say it. I didn't feel like I learned very

38:35

much more from it. No. I'm very

38:37

excited about this film, but also a little bit

38:39

scared. Because I feel like-

38:41

Are you once again worried about pissing in pools? Because

38:43

there are no pools. Because there are any

38:45

grounds. That's true. There's no pool to piss

38:48

in. Once again, we send our pisses to

38:50

the pool farm. But I'm not sufficiently invested

38:52

in the Mad Max mythology that I care,

38:54

particularly whether they piss in this pool. I

38:56

think Fury Road is great. The mythology doesn't

38:59

really tie to me in that way. I

39:02

suppose my concerns are threefold,

39:05

if you will. One, I

39:07

worry that it does feel very Fury Road. And

39:09

I feel like we've seen a lot of this

39:12

stuff, specifically the War Boys and all of that.

39:14

I maybe wanted to see- Something

39:16

else. Yeah, more shades of this world.

39:19

And I don't really want to see the same shades

39:22

that we saw last time. The

39:24

other thing that concerned me ever so slightly

39:27

is there's a very specific shot in this

39:30

of a dementus with lava beneath him

39:32

and the bullets flowing over him, which

39:34

was very CGE, sort of distracting the

39:36

CGE. And I was thinking, oh, no,

39:38

no. I mean, we're on.

39:40

There's obviously CGE in Fury Road. But it

39:43

has a very sort of practical vibe to

39:45

it. It has a feel to it. And

39:47

this shot very much didn't. So that just

39:49

sent my sense of tingling a little bit.

39:51

But I'm still feeling quite positive about

39:54

it. Undertale of Joy is great. Chris Antworth is

39:56

great. I'm excited to see it. All

39:59

right. Well, if you want to know more

40:01

about the film and more about the story,

40:03

then perhaps the answers you seek do not

40:05

lie in the trailer for Furiosa, a Mad

40:08

Max saga, but in the current issue of

40:10

Empire, where it is of course

40:12

the cover feature. Segway. Yes, I know, I'm

40:14

absolutely on my Segway game today. And

40:17

interviews with George Miller, Anya Terrejoy, Chris Hemsworth,

40:19

Tom Berg, and Lachie Hume, who plays the

40:21

Immortan Joe in this. Yeah,

40:24

looks great. Looks fantastic. Probably

40:26

the film, now that Mission

40:28

8 has moved back. You

40:30

mean now that June Part 2 is out, is

40:32

what you mean? Oh, obviously June Part 2 was

40:34

my most anticipated film of that particular weekend in

40:37

March. And now it's probably

40:39

between this and Deadpool and Wolverine that are

40:41

my two big blockbuster-y

40:43

anticipatories of the year. So

40:45

I'm excited about both

40:47

of those. I'm sure there's some other ones as well,

40:49

but the release schedule's a little bit weird this year

40:51

because of the strikes and various things. But

40:54

yeah, looks good. Was there another trailer or am

40:56

I just making a number of trailers? I think

40:58

we should cast our trailer minds back to last

41:00

week after we recorded the podcast because the new

41:02

Rupert Sanders version of The Crow dropped the trailer.

41:04

Oh yeah, I knew he was going to lead

41:06

with that. Yes. Yes.

41:09

Oh, you're not happy. That doesn't sound

41:11

like a good yes. I did

41:13

not like it. Why not? I did not like it.

41:15

It was so emo though. I

41:17

don't... Look, I'm not going for Alex Proyas

41:19

in this. Alex Proyas has been quite vocal

41:21

about the fact that he thinks that this

41:23

is disrespectful a little bit to Brandalene's memory

41:25

and that the original Crow should have been

41:27

left as is. I

41:30

mean, we've had a number of sequels to it, all of

41:32

which were terrible. So I think that ship has fucking failed.

41:35

But I didn't like this. I

41:37

just thought it lacked the poetry and the kind of

41:39

the gothic charm of the original... I mean, based

41:41

on the trailer, I've never seen the film. And

41:44

I just thought it seemed quite generic and

41:46

a bit flat. And I just thought, I

41:48

don't... I don't know. But

41:50

hey, when I watch it, maybe it's just that what

41:53

I want from the Crow is not what this film

41:55

is setting out to deliver, that I have a very

41:57

specific... Because I love the original Crow. Maybe

42:00

it's just not what I'm looking for in a crow film

42:02

and actually when I see it in situ and it's a

42:04

very different beast maybe I feel differently about it but from

42:06

that trailer I was unhappy. I mean

42:09

I thought it looked like the crow so. That's all I

42:12

feel like. All crows look alike to

42:14

you don't they? Yeah. A

42:16

murder of crows in fact. Yeah.

42:20

Hmm that's interesting though. Yeah I'm not

42:22

feeling it. Yeah okay. As well

42:24

as this on your anticipated list? I'll

42:26

go and see it. I remember watching the

42:28

original I don't have strong feelings about it.

42:30

I thought it was fine. I

42:32

thought it was generic then to be honest.

42:35

Yeah and me. With no disrespect intended to

42:37

the you know. He was iconic and the

42:39

soundtrack was amazing and he just had a

42:42

real vibe to it. I loved it. It

42:44

had a vibe but I'm not as emo as you so I

42:46

was more of a grunge girl. Have

42:49

I ever shown you the picture a lot? Because I went

42:51

on Halloween. Yes I have seen you as a crow. There

42:53

you go. I went to a Halloween party. My dreams are

42:55

haunted by it. I love the crow. So

42:58

no it was fine. I

43:00

enjoyed the Fall Guy trailer more to be honest.

43:02

I thought that still looks a lot of fun. I'm

43:05

not hyped for it but I'm pleasantly looking

43:07

forward to it you know. With

43:10

the Fall Guy starring the new Bond. Yes

43:13

that's the one. I mean

43:15

can we talk about this. So I had

43:17

literally six different BBC

43:20

stations or channels

43:23

reaching out to me yesterday to comment

43:25

on Bond. But they know that you

43:27

hate Bond. They

43:29

don't have me on the list of people who

43:32

can talk. And yeah

43:35

I genuinely had prior commitments for all

43:37

the times I wanted to do like I had plans last night.

43:40

I didn't this morning I wasn't going to cancel any of that

43:42

to talk about Bond. But also it's

43:44

still a rumour guys. It's a very

43:46

plausible rumour. It's absolutely something that they

43:48

could announce but they have not announced

43:50

it. So why not hold your

43:52

fire. Yes the rumour is Aaron

43:55

Taylor Johnson 33. Hi

43:58

Wickham. Has he

44:00

not flat out denied it at this point now? No,

44:03

he did an interview with Rolling

44:05

Stone where he just didn't comment

44:07

at all and climbed up like

44:09

a clam And okay, someone had told

44:11

me that he's now said he's not doing it Something

44:17

was there was a semi-statement or something like

44:19

that, but it might be deflection. It might

44:21

be who knows Said

44:24

he wasn't in spider-man. No way home. Yeah,

44:26

they're all don't believe us Fucking

44:29

word they say they're all trained liars

44:31

actors are trained liars. That's what they

44:34

do It's true. Godard said film is

44:36

truth 24 frames a second Bullshit,

44:39

it's all lies mate. It's all eyes apart from documentaries,

44:41

which are obviously not manipulated in any way shape or

44:43

form Yeah, I

44:45

also we should we should point out this

44:47

rumor originated in the Sun Yeah And

44:50

should therefore be completely disregarded and ideally

44:52

fired into space and also I

44:54

just like like I've said before like a lot

44:56

of My antipathy for Bond is not to do

44:58

with the films which are fine Like I don't

45:01

care but it's to do with all of this

45:03

ridiculous All this

45:05

absolute nonsense about a rumor of a

45:07

plausible person who looks good in a

45:09

suit like it Oh, look a non-american

45:11

actor who looks good in the suit.

45:13

Could this be born? I Don't

45:16

care. This is what you said when the BBC

45:18

asked you to comment it. You said I don't

45:20

care That's what I was saying. I don't have

45:22

literally said that about things like this I've

45:27

said, you know, it did just calm down and

45:29

wait for an announcement Yeah, but do they

45:32

will come and there will be an announcement at some

45:34

point because this is how they'll do it They did

45:36

it with Daniel Craig. They had a big old, you

45:38

know, how the big bit of hullabaloo But this is

45:40

this is only the second bond announcement in Like

45:45

recent memory because Pierce got

45:47

the role back in what 1994 something I

45:50

don't remember any of the hoopla around Pierce kid I don't

45:52

remember how they announced it I don't know whether you know,

45:54

but there was a big thing with Daniel Craig where they

45:56

they put him into a boat You remember this thing? the

46:00

boat and they put a life jacket on because they had

46:02

to because it's the law and off he went

46:05

and then all the papers went, ah, Bond actor

46:07

wears life jacket, what a tit. And it's like,

46:09

come on, what do you want from me? And

46:11

then of course there's a Bond, not Blonde stuff.

46:14

Yeah. But it wasn't just that. The problem is

46:16

it never stops. So then is he going to

46:18

be back? I mean, yes, probably his

46:20

contract is more than one pill. But how about now?

46:23

He's done three films. Will he be back again? Well,

46:25

they should, with whoever it's going to be, and it may

46:27

well be soon, who knows with

46:34

whoever it's going to be, they should be quite upfront

46:36

about it. And I think what

46:38

they'll want to do, they'll want to go.

46:40

This is the actor who's playing Bond. He

46:42

has a four picture deal. All right. So

46:44

let's remove any speculation with an option for a fifth

46:47

in case his knees don't drop off. And

46:49

we're going to make those in the next 10 years. That's

46:51

the thing I probably would like to hear more

46:53

than anything else, which is a commitment to making

46:56

Bond films often again, rather than once in the

46:58

blue moon, which is where we are. This is

47:00

Helen's dream scenario of once in the blue moon.

47:02

But for me, I want to go back to

47:04

the good old days when they used to make Connery

47:08

movies once a year or more movies once every

47:10

two years. And if that leads to films with

47:12

the quality of Octopussy and A Few Do

47:14

A Kill. So

47:17

be it. Damn it. But then T-DOLTS,

47:19

T-DOLTS to 1987, Living Daylight, 1989,

47:22

Lasers To Kill. But then you

47:24

have four year gaps

47:26

sometimes for Craig and you still get

47:29

specters in there. Yes. There is

47:31

no correlation in quality between the

47:34

time between Bond movies and

47:36

the quality of the film. I

47:38

will say that Aaron Taylor-Johnson, I get it.

47:41

I get where you would want him. I

47:44

also wonder if hiring another actor

47:46

who loathed press as much as

47:48

Daniel Craig did is necessarily the

47:51

way forward. That may be

47:53

something that they are discussing. Also, he

47:55

is from the rough and ready streets of High Wycombe, so

47:57

they may want to send off the It's

48:00

amazing how it boosts you and I knew that. We've

48:02

done our research, haven't we? We've looked

48:04

into this because

48:06

they may want to sand off some

48:08

of the rough edges because Connery got

48:10

a makeover. He got a sort

48:12

of queer eye for the straight guy kind of

48:14

makeover. I wouldn't call it back in the

48:16

60s. So

48:18

they could do that with

48:20

Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Yeah, but he's a media trainer.

48:24

I don't know if he wants that. He

48:26

is someone who I've interviewed him loads over the years

48:28

and I always have a good time with him. But

48:32

part of that stems

48:35

from the fact that he is so openly apathetic

48:37

about doing interviews. I mean literally I had a

48:40

good time with him and Brandt Harry Henry when

48:42

we interviewed him for Bullet Train, which by the

48:44

way is perhaps a movie that made Barbara Broccoli

48:46

think this could be the next Bond because he's

48:48

incredible in that film. He's very cool. He's wearing

48:50

a good suit, looking good in it and doing

48:52

a bunch of action. It's not, you know... An

48:55

outshining Brad Pitt. That ain't easy.

48:57

Yeah, yeah. That is not easy. And

49:00

I honestly didn't think he had that performance in him in

49:03

terms of star quality and swagger and it's

49:05

like fucking hell. As you can see why Sony

49:08

would rush to Casimir's grave in the Hunter of the

49:10

Bay. But also David leads to Casimir getting the fall

49:12

guy. I haven't seen the fall guy but I hear

49:14

he's great in that also and very, very funny. Apparently

49:16

that was originally just a cameo and then it kind

49:18

of built up a bit because they got along. So...

49:22

There you go. If he does Bond, yes,

49:24

he is. He doesn't like interviews. He

49:28

even says that in an interview that he doesn't like interviews but, you

49:30

know, he can be taught. Wow.

49:33

That sounded really worthless somehow. He can be

49:35

taught. He can be taught. I will teach

49:37

him. He will start liking them. We

49:40

should do an interview workshop. There's going to be like

49:42

a sign-off for us. Wow.

49:45

These people had to like

49:47

being interviewed. By us. I'm

49:50

not sure you're the person to do that. My

49:53

great questions including... Will

49:55

you be my friend? I won't watch your

49:57

previous movie. version

50:01

therapy they just do it over and

50:03

over but with the worst possible people. They see

50:05

my face and they just yeah until they until

50:07

they're like a mentoring candidate until their spirit breaks.

50:10

I have broken Aaron Taylor Johnson. Wow. Do

50:13

you expect me to talk? Yes I do. Anyway

50:16

anything else? Yes I'm

50:18

back on the trailer beat because

50:20

Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon part two

50:22

the Scar Giver. I'm

50:24

sorry we have to go back to putting

50:26

in the punctuation again. We absolutely do. The

50:30

thing with this is it looks good

50:33

but the thing is so did the

50:35

first one and it wasn't so I'm

50:39

more concerned this time around.

50:41

I guess the hope is that the first one

50:43

was the boring putting the team together part and

50:45

we've done that now and maybe now they can

50:47

like go and you know pew pew pew and

50:49

like have some actual. Perhaps but the

50:51

thing is from this trailer there's a quite

50:53

a lot of slow motion you're like okay

50:56

back to that again. It's

50:58

a 20 minute film stretched out over two and a half hours

51:00

but but also it's just it's just

51:07

like fighting with Ed Scrine again

51:10

and we've had that we've been there we've done

51:12

that I don't need to see it again and

51:14

I didn't necessarily love him in the first

51:16

one so it's just I don't know. You

51:18

haven't seen it like this you haven't seen it on the

51:20

the planet the moon planet type thing.

51:23

The moon planet type thing. Yeah you haven't seen

51:25

that. I haven't. I've seen it like this with

51:28

Peckinpah in the 70s and they saw

51:30

a trailer for a Sam Peckinpah film they were like oh fucking I'm

51:32

not in worse low motion. Jesus Christ. He's

51:34

back on his bullshit again. God. Yeah

51:37

look Sophia Bitala's got a new haircut. She

51:39

does exciting. Yeah. There's a

51:41

laser sword. There is. There's lots of

51:43

lots of there seems to be trench warfare with with Ed

51:46

Scrine which is an interesting unit. So

51:48

yeah I'm hopeful I'm very hopeful. It's a lot

51:50

of very beautiful people shot by a director who

51:52

makes very beautiful images so you know at the

51:55

very least it'll be eye candy. But you know

51:57

what they say. Fool me once. Same

51:59

on you. for me twice. Shame

52:01

on Zack Snyder. Our look, our

52:03

opinion on the first one was very much a,

52:06

this feels like half a

52:08

film at best of a bad film. Well,

52:10

not necessarily, not necessarily like with,

52:14

with the second part, maybe it'll be good. And

52:16

even with the first one, it felt like the

52:18

longer version of the first one, make more

52:20

sense. Well, the longer uncut uncensored version,

52:22

I feel very strongly

52:24

that the Snyder cut of rebel moon part

52:26

one will be significantly better than the longer

52:29

one. They're both Snyder cuts, like let us

52:31

not lose track of reality here. But

52:34

yes, I think the, I

52:36

agree that the longer his

52:38

preferred full length, you know,

52:40

everything plus the kitchen sink

52:42

version may be more coherent.

52:45

Are we going to see that before Skargiver comes

52:47

out? No, we're not. I think it's gonna be

52:49

later in the year at some point. I'm very

52:51

intrigued because I've spoken to him a couple of

52:53

times for the magazine about Lowe's

52:55

about this, in fact, about the Skargiver.

52:58

And he's always, you know, he's excited about

53:00

the Skargiver, but what we're going to see in April,

53:02

when he starts talking about the director's cuts,

53:05

he really gets excited. So that makes

53:07

me excited. So but again, why

53:10

didn't he start with those? It's never never

53:12

been one of them. They

53:14

resisted. No, they wanted to be one of

53:16

the PG 13 thing first. He made an

53:18

agreement with them to give them the shorter,

53:21

you know, you're easily digested PG

53:23

13 version to reach a wider

53:25

audience. And they agreed to in

53:27

return, in return give him the longer

53:30

R rated cuts that he preferred. Is

53:32

the going to

53:34

be for free in black and white? I

53:37

don't believe so. Good. Anything

53:40

else you want to talk about real quick? We got

53:42

a lot of movies to review. Let's roll off. Let's

53:44

review some movies. First off, let's

53:46

have a guest. Now this interview

53:48

may or may not be happening in three

53:51

hours time. And it is with David

53:53

Das Malchian, who is really great actor,

53:56

really great character actor, you will

53:58

know him from many, many, many. movies indeed

54:00

like Ant-Man and Wasp and Ant-Man

54:02

and Wasp, Quantum Mania of course.

54:04

We played two different characters. He

54:07

did. His first role was

54:09

in Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight. He showed up recently

54:12

in Oppenheimer. He was

54:14

in Denis Philanov's Prisoners and of course

54:17

June Part One as James has no idea

54:19

who I'm talking about. I thought we were

54:21

listening to any of it. Yeah,

54:23

I was reading my own. Oh

54:25

yes, Part of the Rees, Men's House, Ockenham. Yes indeed. So

54:27

he's in that. He was in

54:30

Boston Strangler as the Boston Strangler. He

54:32

basically he specializes for the most part.

54:35

Suicide Squad, yes of course, as Pokemon. He

54:37

does specialize in kind of weird

54:40

characters. Offbeat characters. Characters you might

54:42

not want to turn your back on for the

54:44

most part. But he also has

54:47

a really funny side and quite sweet side

54:49

to as well. Apparently he's a really geeky,

54:51

really lovely guy. So I'm really looking forward

54:53

to doing this because he is seen this

54:55

week as a light night talk show host

54:57

who maybe has a brush with the devil

54:59

live on air in late night with the

55:02

devil. And I'm going to be

55:04

talking to him I think in three hours

55:06

time. So if this has happened, then this

55:08

is it. And if it hasn't, then

55:10

it's going to be movie reviews time. So that's fun

55:12

for everybody isn't it? All right. Here

55:15

is David Delsmulchin. I hope. David, welcome to

55:17

the Emperor podcast. It's been, I've been wanting

55:19

to have you on the show for a

55:21

long, long, long, long, long, long

55:23

time. I'm delighted to finally have you

55:26

on. Especially since you're working

55:28

at the moment. So again, thanks for making time

55:30

for us. This is, you know, you're, what are

55:32

you working on at the moment? What's, what are

55:34

you shooting? What can you say? I'm working on

55:36

a very cool show. It's an adaptation of the

55:38

Murderbot Diaries book series for Apple

55:41

and Paramount Studios. And it's, it's

55:44

called Murderbot. And it is the

55:48

episodes taken from Martha's books are written

55:50

and created by Christian Paul White, who

55:52

are also co directing together. So they

55:54

co wrote and are co directing. And

55:57

I don't believe they have done that

55:59

since about boy, I believe was the last

56:01

time they did that. So being on set with

56:03

both of them is incredible. And the

56:06

cast is truly

56:09

jaw dropping the phenomenal every single one

56:11

of them. It's a small ensemble and

56:13

we're all being led by the great

56:15

Alexander Skarsgard, who's just he's so

56:18

incredible. So I'm having a wonderful time. I've also

56:20

been out here promoting Late Night with the Devil. And

56:24

it's been a really cool moment to

56:26

be a genre nerd like I am.

56:29

Yeah, I love Late Night with the Devil. And I thought

56:31

it was such a refreshing

56:34

take on a phrase I hate

56:36

found footage because it's such a

56:40

reductive way to describe an entire

56:43

genre in a way.

56:45

But it is it's fresh

56:47

and different. And I imagine

56:51

that is something that appealed to you as

56:53

well. Was it a script across your path

56:55

first? Or did you have conversations with the

56:57

Cairns first? So

56:59

Roy Lee is a great producer who

57:01

I met several years ago when I

57:03

was actually pitching myself to him to

57:05

see if I could get a chance

57:07

to audition for the sequel to

57:10

it. Andy Machete's It I

57:12

loved so much and I and I love

57:14

Stephen King so much. So I said, you

57:16

know, do you

57:18

think I could possibly be, you know, in

57:20

the mix to maybe, you

57:22

know, I wanted to audition for the

57:24

grown up version of Richie and he

57:27

he said, Oh, I think Andy's

57:29

already got that cast. I think he's already knows

57:31

who he wants. But I hear

57:33

you right. I hear you like horror. I hear

57:35

you like, you know, genre, we talked for like

57:38

three, four hours. We actually talked a lot about

57:40

three body problem. The book that has been adapted

57:42

in with series is now coming out that, you

57:45

know, he turned it Roy always has such great taste and

57:47

stuff and turns me on to so many things. So

57:50

we always were looking for somebody to work together on. And then

57:52

a few years ago, he messaged me out of the blue and

57:54

said, I've got this script, I think, I

57:56

think you'll dig it. The directors are

57:59

brothers who I think are incredibly talented and they

58:01

really want you to do it. Can

58:03

I send you some stuff? So he sends me a look

58:06

book and it

58:08

was a busy time for me as I recall. I was

58:10

kind of like, oh shoot. And it was an indie.

58:13

I knew it was not like a big studio movie. So I was like,

58:15

is this going to be, you

58:17

do, you know, one for them, one for you, one for them,

58:19

one for you. It's like, sometimes you don't get paid as much

58:21

or sometimes you don't get this as much. So I was like,

58:23

oh, if it's a small movie, man.

58:25

And then I started to look at the

58:28

pitch deck that Colin and Cameron Cairns

58:30

had crafted for this film, which was

58:32

designed to look like an old TV

58:34

guide of the seventies, kind of that

58:37

era of made for TV horror meets

58:40

late night talk show

58:42

wars. And

58:44

they'd Photoshopped in imagery of me as

58:46

like in the center of these articles

58:48

and stuff. I love the

58:51

tone of this extra can read it's the

58:53

mechanic panic. And then I get

58:55

the script and I start reading it. And I

58:57

was in, I said, I said, let me meet

58:59

them just to make sure. And they

59:01

also wrote me a really lovely letter citing

59:05

an article that I had written in Fangoria magazine

59:08

about horror hosts and late

59:10

night television, late night culture,

59:12

horror hosting. And they

59:15

so eloquently said something to the effect

59:17

of like, we read that and we

59:19

knew you were our Jack Delroy. And

59:22

I was honored. I took my family who

59:24

went down to Melbourne, Australia for month

59:27

and a half and made this crazy

59:31

bonkers gonzo movie in about 18

59:33

days. How

59:36

did you make it because when people see when people

59:38

see it, it feels like a film

59:40

of a shot chronologically. I'm guessing

59:43

for obvious reasons, but, you know, kind

59:46

of ease yourself into the situation and ease

59:48

yourself into the character perhaps. The

59:52

schedule was actually masterfully constructed. Our first

59:54

AD was insanely talented

59:56

and they did a really great job

59:58

structuring, you know, emotional. of

1:00:00

course you cannot shoot everything in order. But what

1:00:02

they were able to manage was very long shots.

1:00:04

They had three cameras running often the way that

1:00:07

you would on a live television broadcast of a

1:00:09

late night talk show. The

1:00:11

set was dressed all the way around the cameras.

1:00:13

So even if you wandered off into the fray,

1:00:15

you never really felt like you were on a

1:00:18

set. It felt like you were on, well, it

1:00:20

felt like you were on a set, the set

1:00:22

of a 1970s talk show. You

1:00:25

have a live band there, you've got this amazing

1:00:27

crew. Even the crew, our crew

1:00:29

was often wearing 70s

1:00:32

wardrobe because they might wind up in a

1:00:35

shot. So that was

1:00:37

very helpful. I spent probably

1:00:40

two, three, maybe, I don't know,

1:00:42

that's an exaggeration, maybe a hundred hours,

1:00:46

maybe more. I mean, every night I would

1:00:48

watch all

1:00:50

that I could find on the internet

1:00:52

of old, especially the monologues

1:00:54

and some of the interviews from

1:00:57

people like Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett,

1:00:59

David Letterman. And

1:01:03

yeah, and I used

1:01:05

to listen to Art Bell. I

1:01:08

loved Coast to Coast A. And I would

1:01:10

listen to and watch crazy

1:01:13

shows like the Morton Downey Jr. show.

1:01:15

And so all of that goes into

1:01:17

my attempt to

1:01:21

recreate this spirit of what a late

1:01:24

night talk show host might feel

1:01:27

like. The way that

1:01:29

they carry themselves, the way they hold themselves,

1:01:31

it's a very, very different thing.

1:01:34

I mean, obviously it's something we didn't really

1:01:36

experience growing up in the UK. But when

1:01:39

I've seen clips of Dick Cavett and Johnny Carson

1:01:41

and people like that, they seem

1:01:43

very far removed from today's

1:01:45

crop of late night

1:01:48

hosts. Yeah,

1:01:51

and that was very important to me because I

1:01:53

knew as

1:01:55

a fan, as an audience member, if

1:01:59

I go to watch a movie, about a potential

1:02:03

exorcism or

1:02:07

demonic possession story. I'm already excited,

1:02:09

but if you tell me it's

1:02:11

set in 1970s, American late night

1:02:13

talk show, if

1:02:17

the tone, if the feel of that

1:02:19

isn't authentic, it's going

1:02:21

to just take me out. So

1:02:24

I was really scared, to be

1:02:26

quite honest, that of

1:02:32

the knowledge that if I didn't do

1:02:35

something with the performance that made people feel like

1:02:38

they were actually watching, you know, old tape of

1:02:40

late night, that we'd be

1:02:42

dead in the water. I knew I would ruin

1:02:44

this movie. And so I was scared of that

1:02:47

kind of failure because I

1:02:50

knew how much the Cairns had entrusted me with

1:02:52

this role. But I also knew as

1:02:55

an audience member, how great it

1:02:57

could be. So I did,

1:03:00

I worked very hard. I feel like

1:03:02

I learned a lot about myself as

1:03:04

an actor. It's a very technical

1:03:06

performance. And I

1:03:08

think that's the

1:03:11

path for me, to be honest, I don't think

1:03:13

I'm as much of an emotional actor

1:03:16

as I think

1:03:20

I romanticize the artistry of acting. I

1:03:22

think the craftsmanship of being an actor

1:03:25

with precision and then pockets of

1:03:28

vulnerability to allow emotional flow to

1:03:30

happen is really kind

1:03:33

of key right now for where

1:03:35

I'm at in my work. And I'll

1:03:37

tell you, I've

1:03:40

learned it from many greats in

1:03:42

the very first film set I

1:03:44

ever, ever stepped on. And

1:03:46

I still have, by the way, my

1:03:48

Empire magazine from that film, they did

1:03:50

several. But when

1:03:52

I first ever walked onto a film set

1:03:55

in Chicago on the set of The Dark

1:03:57

Knight, I remember watching

1:03:59

the way Heath Ledger

1:04:01

as a master or full artist

1:04:03

was able to really calculate and

1:04:05

precisely do things

1:04:08

with his skills

1:04:14

and open up pockets of incredible

1:04:17

vocal range and emotional

1:04:19

expressiveness even under layers

1:04:22

of makeup. And then

1:04:24

in between takes be able to reset,

1:04:26

be very soft spoken

1:04:28

and kind and gentle and focused

1:04:32

and professional and then do

1:04:34

it again, do it again, do it again. It's

1:04:36

like, wow, man.

1:04:40

In terms of, you mentioned the dark night there, in

1:04:43

terms of how far you've come, when you

1:04:45

were on that set back in,

1:04:47

that would have been 2007 by the time it was being shot,

1:04:49

I guess. Yeah.

1:04:52

August of 2000. So

1:04:55

did you have like a five year plan for yourself, a 10

1:04:57

year plan for yourself? And here we are

1:04:59

now 17 years later. I've always

1:05:01

dreamed very big. At the time,

1:05:05

I was on the dark night,

1:05:07

I was five years clean and

1:05:09

sober. I had been rising

1:05:12

in a journey of theater training,

1:05:14

ready to launch into the world

1:05:17

of professional theater acting when my

1:05:20

addiction took control of my life.

1:05:22

And then I really didn't act

1:05:24

for a number of years. And

1:05:26

then fortunately survived

1:05:29

several suicide attempts and I

1:05:31

got mental health, mental

1:05:34

health help. I got professional help.

1:05:36

I got, you know,

1:05:38

very involved in learning

1:05:40

how to deal with

1:05:44

depression and anxiety without the benefit

1:05:46

of drugs and alcohol. And

1:05:49

I, it took years, which

1:05:52

also meant I

1:05:54

lost years of professional, you know, development.

1:05:56

And so by the time I got

1:05:58

back to acting. I

1:06:01

was very behind most

1:06:03

of my peers and what I was determined

1:06:05

to do is I dreamed of being able

1:06:07

to make a living, like pay my bills

1:06:10

with acting and I was starting to really

1:06:12

put together enough theater work and commercial work

1:06:16

to start getting close to doing

1:06:18

that and doing that and then I

1:06:20

got cast in the Dark Knight, first

1:06:22

time I've ever been on a movie set. When

1:06:26

I left the set I go, okay, now

1:06:28

my confirmation has been affirmed within my heart.

1:06:33

I'm going to Hollywood. I'm

1:06:35

going to go to Los Angeles and

1:06:37

I have a credit now and I

1:06:40

want to pursue this dream working in films

1:06:42

and I scooted

1:06:46

a little bit. I went to New York for one year.

1:06:49

Didn't work at all except in commercials

1:06:51

but I met my

1:06:53

incredible wife Eve and I met a lot of

1:06:55

my creative collaborators and then I went to LA

1:06:57

by 2010. It's

1:07:00

wild, you think, oh, he had a part

1:07:02

in the Dark Knight. I still really struggled

1:07:04

to get representation and the

1:07:07

reps I was able to get, I had

1:07:09

to trade my commercial business to get them

1:07:11

to take me out on film or TV

1:07:13

auditions and I didn't really book much

1:07:17

of note but I was doing lots of

1:07:19

wonderful independent stuff and making my own things

1:07:21

and just doing

1:07:24

it. But the dream to me, if I had, I

1:07:26

don't think I had a five, 10 year plan. I

1:07:28

always had goals, annual goals, annual

1:07:30

goal first years. I've got to book a co-star

1:07:32

or guest star on a TV show. At least

1:07:34

give me a couple lines on TV shows. Get

1:07:37

a good agent, get a manager, get someone to

1:07:39

represent me, get more than $30,000 a

1:07:42

year which is

1:07:44

about what I was making at that point. Get

1:07:49

a car that works. But

1:07:54

I have always had three career

1:07:57

goals at any given time. Those

1:07:59

Guided. Me on my weekly monthly

1:08:02

quarterly and and or goal setting

1:08:04

up programs and damn. When

1:08:07

I came to Los Angeles I have three

1:08:09

career goals. The. First was to

1:08:11

work with The Muppets. She's. Always been

1:08:13

a dream of mine. I. The

1:08:15

Muppet movie changed my life. I love the

1:08:17

Muppets! Ah, the

1:08:20

second was to be a Bond villain

1:08:22

I always dreamt of. Get a to

1:08:24

bring. I'm fine to

1:08:26

his or her knees and. Just.

1:08:31

Destroyed them. Ah,

1:08:34

the third was to work with

1:08:36

David Lynch and so every day

1:08:38

when I wouldn't have anything to

1:08:40

do, I would go okay. What's.

1:08:42

A step towards that goal you

1:08:44

could practice and as as wildly.

1:08:47

General as even watching maybe grapevines, guns and

1:08:49

going oh I I know when I could

1:08:51

do differently here or you know thinking about

1:08:53

and am I could I volunteer to be

1:08:55

a P A on like a Muppet project

1:08:57

and in for David Leitch. I was just

1:09:00

trying everywhere he could you get in front

1:09:02

of his passing people. Can I finally did!

1:09:04

In two thousand Sixteen I finally got to.

1:09:07

Go And. Meet with

1:09:09

the people making David Lynch's Return to Earth

1:09:11

and Peaks. I got cast an hour to

1:09:13

be a part of it. so. Dream.

1:09:16

Big kids. That's him. He has as

1:09:19

I say interceptions he should be afraid

1:09:21

to remodel bigger darling. Oh how would

1:09:23

the the the kid that you were

1:09:25

I guess essentially on the Dark Knight

1:09:27

Nobody think of all this now when

1:09:30

the on how far you've come as

1:09:32

is astonishing I'm at a twelve year

1:09:34

old David Be. Honestly,

1:09:36

like over the moon. I don't think

1:09:38

he ever saw this as possible. Never

1:09:40

even imagined some of these things. I

1:09:42

think my imagination was tasked as a

1:09:45

kid, but it was back in the

1:09:47

sense of like. Imaginary fantasy

1:09:49

play and like that kind of stuff. But the

1:09:51

fact that I get to do this as a

1:09:53

job. It's. such

1:09:55

a guest it's so cool i'm

1:09:58

so lucky or been reading in

1:10:00

comic books for

1:10:03

more than three decades. And

1:10:05

my entire career

1:10:08

really grew out of and stems from getting to

1:10:11

be a part of one of the greatest, if

1:10:13

not the greatest comic book movie ever made. And

1:10:15

then I've gone on to be a part of the

1:10:18

greatest cinematic universe ever. The Marvel cinematic

1:10:20

universe has gotten to be a part

1:10:22

of now

1:10:24

this adaptation of the Murderbot Diaries. I mean,

1:10:26

it's nuts. I'm a very lucky man. I

1:10:30

hope I never take an ounce of this for granted.

1:10:33

You reunited obviously with Chris Nolan recently.

1:10:36

How had he changed? You have changed

1:10:39

massively, I'm guessing since

1:10:42

that time on set. That's

1:10:44

an interesting question.

1:10:47

To be honest, the whole experience of being

1:10:50

on The Dark Knight was such a blur

1:10:52

to me that he seemed very similar as

1:10:54

this person in presence that I remember. Because

1:10:56

what I remembered about him from The Dark

1:10:59

Knight, and which was exactly the same with

1:11:01

Oppenheimer, is a man with

1:11:04

a vision that is so strong

1:11:07

that he stands on set

1:11:09

in a kind of stillness

1:11:12

with a kind of clarity that exudes

1:11:14

so much mastery over what it is that

1:11:16

he's trying to do that you just willingly

1:11:20

withdraw yourself into whatever he

1:11:22

asks. And he always had

1:11:24

that quality. So I

1:11:26

don't know, maybe he got a couple of grays. I

1:11:30

don't know. He's so wonderful

1:11:32

with actors. He's so... He's

1:11:38

amazing. It's

1:11:40

really fantastic. And

1:11:43

you mentioned the MCU and the

1:11:46

Ant-Man movies. And one of

1:11:48

my favorite moments in the Ant-Man trilogy

1:11:52

is the moment when Ghost appears out

1:11:54

of nowhere in Ant-Man and the Wasp and

1:11:56

you yell, Baba Yaga. Which

1:12:01

is one of the funniest moments in the MCU for

1:12:03

me. I just wanted to ask you about it. What

1:12:06

are your memories of that

1:12:08

in particular? So that was a great...

1:12:12

They recalled the Bobby

1:12:14

Yaga bit and the joke was so well written.

1:12:18

I am huge fans. The

1:12:22

guys, Makenna and Stomer's

1:12:24

who wrote that film, are so freaking

1:12:27

funny and smart. Introducing

1:12:30

that bit at the beginning of the film

1:12:32

and letting it come back was

1:12:34

pretty great. But

1:12:37

I didn't know what to do

1:12:40

because I'm tied up. I didn't know

1:12:42

what to do when I finally saw her because I'm just

1:12:44

sitting there going like this. So I

1:12:46

did come up with this little Bobby Yaga lullaby

1:12:48

to think like when we were little they taught

1:12:51

us this song. That like, if

1:12:53

the Bobby Yaga is coming you have to sing the song. I

1:12:56

start coming to myself under my breath and

1:12:58

you're like, Bobby Yaga is coming, it's nice

1:13:00

little children sleeping tight. And it went on

1:13:02

and on and on. Hayden

1:13:06

was dying laughing. He thought it was so

1:13:08

great. Um, Bobby...

1:13:11

I just went off. I was

1:13:13

like, um... Bobby

1:13:17

Yaga, you so smelly. Bobby Yaga,

1:13:19

you heard a fairly Bobby

1:13:22

Yaga. The

1:13:24

teeth is leaking. Bobby Yaga

1:13:27

laked like chicken. Bobby Yaga.

1:13:30

I mean, it went on and on and on and on. And

1:13:33

that's how that moment happened. And

1:13:37

it's a very proud moment in my career.

1:13:40

That is amazing. Thank you for that. The

1:13:43

last thing is you are a

1:13:45

horror fan, a horror buff,

1:13:47

a horror nerd. What

1:13:50

is your favorite horror film? It

1:13:52

doesn't have to be a horror film actually. With

1:13:54

the phrase, the devil in the title.

1:13:58

Um, probably, uh... Reach.

1:14:01

The Devil? No good choice. I also

1:14:04

like the Devil Rights out on the

1:14:06

contrary. I.

1:14:09

Was going to see. It's not the

1:14:11

devil. That's right. Dracula is a

1:14:13

special class A. You.

1:14:17

Know I really love on. I

1:14:21

love Devil's Advocate, A movie based revisiting

1:14:23

some time that's a frickin' great film.

1:14:26

Kiana Reefs are in Alpha Chino and

1:14:28

how may I really like that? You

1:14:30

know what David you have just accidently

1:14:32

programs and amazing torture to tell us

1:14:35

because of race the devil the Devil

1:14:37

rays outs the satanic right of Dracula

1:14:39

and then Devil's Advocate that that that

1:14:41

will be a hell of a Friday

1:14:44

night and to send. Boom

1:14:46

and in wealth. And top it off with late

1:14:48

night with the Devil and you have yourself ah,

1:14:50

an all nighter that's that's that's always guys. Check

1:14:52

out Li Node the Devil. I'm so proud of

1:14:55

it. I don't know when you're dropping this but

1:14:57

I certainly hope you those with a chance to

1:14:59

check it out because I i really think if

1:15:01

is pretty if you if you have empire. I.

1:15:04

Think you're gonna like lately with the devil? I

1:15:06

mean. If. You if you

1:15:08

go see your like it feel free to

1:15:10

throw that message right up on my Instagram.

1:15:12

Everyone else likes to give me their critiques

1:15:14

of things I do in make So am

1:15:16

I To though I feel like I feel

1:15:18

like. I see

1:15:20

League affiliate around some fun with it so they

1:15:22

are giving it a shot Means a lot to

1:15:25

me and thank you for your support Me and

1:15:27

I appreciate you and everybody at Empire give my

1:15:29

best. A.

1:15:32

Korean now some. Inappropriate.

1:15:35

Texts. That the know

1:15:37

the we're at now they like twice as

1:15:39

much as going after pleasure. Cheers My thinking.

1:15:42

Jailers Thanks man! Okay,

1:15:45

healthy numbers Davidoff mansion and will be talking about

1:15:47

Late Night with the Devil later on. in the

1:15:49

reviews x of the showed us where we are.

1:15:51

Right now there's a lot of movies out the

1:15:53

three folks. A lot of movies. The remote place

1:15:55

to start to I think the biggest from the

1:15:57

week is without a doubt Irish. Wish. Oh

1:16:02

boy. And the week we're

1:16:04

going to Dublin as well. My God.

1:16:07

My Irish wish came true. And

1:16:10

this is, look, people have been saying it's the

1:16:12

worst film ever made, which with respect, it

1:16:15

is close, but it is not because it's

1:16:17

just another one of these bad

1:16:19

Netflix rom-coms. And I don't think

1:16:21

it's much worse than many of

1:16:24

them. What is intriguing about it

1:16:26

is that it's a

1:16:28

film allegedly set in Ireland,

1:16:30

and I believe somewhat filmed in

1:16:32

Ireland, that feels

1:16:36

foreign, has managed to cast a

1:16:38

Welshman and an Englishman and true love

1:16:40

interest to the American heroine's

1:16:42

love story. What

1:16:45

is this film, first of all? So this is the Lindsay

1:16:47

Lohan Netflix movie, the second in her deal after her

1:16:49

Christmas movie, which the name of which I forget, they

1:16:51

all have the same name. Christmas

1:16:54

Wish, probably. They all have a wish in the title. I mean,

1:16:56

it's a good title. But so

1:16:58

she is a book editor who

1:17:01

is in love with one of her authors, who

1:17:03

is Paul Kennedy. He's always called Paul Kennedy for

1:17:05

some reason, not just like Paul. You know,

1:17:07

Paul Kennedy. Yes, that's right. They keep rolling

1:17:09

out the surname. It's unclear why. It's really

1:17:11

weird. Anyway, so he, it turns

1:17:14

out, is a typical posh boy.

1:17:16

He's played by Alexander Vlois. I apologise if

1:17:18

I'm pronouncing that wrong. I almost certainly am.

1:17:21

And she is in love with

1:17:23

him. But wouldn't you know, he meets her best

1:17:25

friend, sparks fly, and he's getting married to her

1:17:27

best friend. So she loyally goes over for the

1:17:29

wedding in Irish on his posh estate and

1:17:33

wishes on a wishing chair. A

1:17:36

wishing chair? Yeah, there's one of the

1:17:38

Germans' clothes, where like, that's totally respectable.

1:17:40

Anyway, that she was

1:17:42

the one marrying him instead. She's egged on in

1:17:44

this by Saint Bridges, which, again, I have notes,

1:17:46

but at least it's not a leprechaun. So that

1:17:49

would have been the worst movie ever made. This

1:17:51

is like, I don't know about that. One percent

1:17:53

better than that. And then

1:17:56

she wakes up and she is indeed engaged to this

1:17:59

guy's wedding. she's got a crush on and

1:18:01

it's not like snogging his face off or

1:18:03

anything else. She basically avoids him and acts

1:18:05

really super weird around him and ends

1:18:07

up spending all her time with

1:18:09

the local photographer who's English, played

1:18:12

by Ed Spilliers, who's James Thomas, who God bless

1:18:14

him is doing everything he can to keep this

1:18:16

film on track. He's a Captain Picard son,

1:18:18

the man has gravitas. I mean, he

1:18:20

does a genuinely good job

1:18:23

with undeliverable lines, like, fine,

1:18:25

but you won't see me again because after

1:18:27

this job, I'm off to photograph

1:18:30

endangered tree lizards in Bolivia. How's

1:18:32

that undeliverable? It sounds like

1:18:35

a Joey Tribbiani chat-up line. I

1:18:37

mean, if you sound like you're from Madame Web and you're not

1:18:39

even in Madame Web, that's not a good start.

1:18:41

Helen, I spent three weeks writing that script.

1:18:46

It didn't sound undeliverable to me when I wrote it.

1:18:48

Well, so I'm going to say it again. Anyway,

1:18:50

you have Jane Seymour playing her mum,

1:18:53

Lindsay Lohan's character's mum, who

1:18:56

must have had it in her contract because she didn't

1:18:58

have to meet or talk to anyone else because she

1:19:00

never does. She's just on the end of

1:19:02

a phone. It's a very weird film. It

1:19:04

obviously trucks in horrible Irish stereotypes. Oh,

1:19:07

you had my curiosity. Now you

1:19:09

have my tension. Hello. It's

1:19:11

just run down the street. There is a jig.

1:19:14

They dance a jig. There is a jig. There's

1:19:16

Guinness. There's friendly pub owners who

1:19:18

refuse to serve you white wine

1:19:21

for some reason. Like, this isn't

1:19:23

the 70s. Anyway, that's

1:19:25

amazing. It's

1:19:27

not good. It's not good. But

1:19:29

it's not the worst. It's just

1:19:31

very bad. A glowing review there. God bless

1:19:33

Lindsay Lohan. I still think she's a talented comedian. I

1:19:38

just wish somebody would give her literally anything better than this.

1:19:40

I must say I thought she was very bad in

1:19:42

this. But

1:19:45

what's quite interesting is that a film like

1:19:47

this is always going to draw a certain

1:19:49

amount of rather, shall we say, artfully rendered

1:19:51

takedowns, right? But New York Magazine's one is

1:19:53

pure fucking art. It is pretty glorious. They

1:19:56

basically accuse it of being written by A.I. and

1:20:00

Dave at the Cine Mile have absolutely

1:20:02

gone to point on it, and rightly so, and they

1:20:05

are completely right on all sides. Yeah, I mean

1:20:07

it is bad, but as is

1:20:09

pointed out in the Empire Review by

1:20:11

John Newton, it's terrible. It's not good

1:20:13

on any level, either technically or artistically,

1:20:16

but it does what it sets out to

1:20:18

do. And for the audience that, you know,

1:20:20

lap their shit up, they're going to probably

1:20:22

enjoy it. There is something to be said. As

1:20:25

someone who watches a lot of Christmas movies, which

1:20:27

are all like this, there is something to be

1:20:29

said for the film where you know exactly what's

1:20:31

going to happen before it happens, and then it

1:20:33

happens anyway, you know? And like,

1:20:36

fine. It's ridiculous and

1:20:38

bad, but I've seen worse. So

1:20:41

two stars, Empire! There

1:20:43

we go. Sounds good. I'm all over that.

1:20:45

I'm going to watch it tonight ahead of

1:20:48

the Irish show. Dear God, dear God, what

1:20:50

have they done to my script, is what

1:20:52

I'll say. There we go. Who directed this?

1:20:55

This was directed by Janine Damien. It's

1:20:58

all for you, Janine Damien. Two

1:21:01

stars? Did we give it to you? We gave

1:21:03

it two stars. Two stars. She did also do,

1:21:05

I should say, she did Falling for Christmas.

1:21:07

That was the Lindsay Lohan Christmas movie. So

1:21:09

they have previous form in

1:21:12

this respect. Wow. Both shackled to the same contract

1:21:14

that they can't get out of. Like the John

1:21:16

Wayne and John Ford of shit

1:21:19

rom-coms. So that's exciting. Next

1:21:23

up is the film that is the biggest film of this

1:21:26

week. That's debatable. I think it

1:21:28

is. And it is Ghostbusters

1:21:32

Frozen Empire. Jimbo,

1:21:34

you said you were going to give this a

1:21:36

five star review. I detect the sarcasm. Yes.

1:21:40

Why sarcasm? Because it's

1:21:42

a disappointment, I

1:21:44

would say. And that

1:21:46

is putting it mildly. So yes, this picks

1:21:48

up from the delightful Ghostbusters Afterlife, which frankly

1:21:50

had no reason to be as good as it

1:21:53

ultimately turned out to be. And I thought it

1:21:55

was a really lovely way of introducing an

1:21:57

entirely new mythology and cast of characters to

1:21:59

this film. choice, breathing fresh life into it,

1:22:01

but also balancing the nostalgia with something new. And

1:22:03

it gave you a lot of potential as well.

1:22:05

It built up all these things. There was

1:22:07

a Sigourney Weaver Sting at the end and

1:22:09

you thought, I'm really genuinely excited to see

1:22:11

where this goes. And

1:22:14

it goes here. So this is a

1:22:16

Gil Kennan takes over here from

1:22:18

Jason Reitman and it follows some of

1:22:20

those characters. They're now busting ghosts in

1:22:23

New York, but there's a ball made

1:22:25

of, I think it was copper, brass,

1:22:28

some kind of alloy. And

1:22:30

it has some kind of ghost in it

1:22:32

who turns out to be an evil iced

1:22:34

god who is going to bring the cold

1:22:36

and freeze everyone to death. And that's broadly

1:22:38

speaking, the setup for this film. Except

1:22:41

that it isn't because there are so many freaking

1:22:43

moving parts and random asides and

1:22:45

new characters and old characters and new

1:22:48

old characters and old new characters. Yeah.

1:22:50

And by the end of this film, there are 13,

1:22:52

is it 13, 13 protagonists on screen. You're just

1:22:56

like, Oh my God, what is even happening here? So

1:22:59

there's actually only 12 lined up at once, but

1:23:01

there are 13 quote unquote, good guys involved in

1:23:03

that final battle. But we seem to like Avengers

1:23:05

Endgame. But then that's a

1:23:07

classic example of how to do that. Well, how

1:23:09

to give each character a hero moment and make

1:23:12

them all feel like they're a part of a

1:23:14

larger narrative. This does the opposite. It makes no

1:23:16

one feel a part of the story. I think

1:23:18

my, my main issues with this are, and

1:23:20

I don't want to sort of accuse the film of being

1:23:22

lazy because obviously I don't know the process that went into

1:23:24

it, but if I had not known better, if I had

1:23:27

not known the people who were involved with this, um,

1:23:30

I would have thought that this, this has the,

1:23:32

the feel of a film that exists solely to

1:23:34

push an IP for financial gain. Like it doesn't

1:23:36

seem like it in any way was created because,

1:23:39

you know, right when it kind of said, you

1:23:41

know what, this is a story that needs to

1:23:43

be told. This is a story that has to

1:23:45

be told. I'm really excited to tell this story.

1:23:48

It feels like they sat down and thought we

1:23:50

are contractually obligated to make a Ghostbusters film. Do

1:23:53

you have a checklist of things we could

1:23:55

put in it? And for me, that's what

1:23:57

this film was. It leans incredibly heavily into

1:24:00

nostalgia. There are so many references back

1:24:02

to frankly the first and best film

1:24:04

and it just doesn't seem to bring anything new, it

1:24:07

doesn't do anything meaningful with the mythology. None of the

1:24:09

cast get anything worthwhile to do. Spare a thought for

1:24:11

Carrie Coon who certainly has nothing going on in this

1:24:13

film and it's quite upsetting. McKenna

1:24:16

Grace I think acquits herself very well.

1:24:19

There is a particular character in this

1:24:21

called Melody that I won't say anything

1:24:23

about that I found genuinely interesting but

1:24:25

again isn't really developed that well. All

1:24:28

in all I found this film to

1:24:30

be a very large disappointment and it

1:24:32

should speak volumes that it got exactly

1:24:34

the same star rating from Empire magazine

1:24:37

as Irish Wish did. Emma Yes

1:24:39

it's just a bit messy and I

1:24:41

think that it

1:24:44

really does feel like a studio mandated checklist. This is written

1:24:46

by Reitman

1:24:49

and Keenan together again as was

1:24:52

the last one but you kind

1:24:54

of feel like you're throwing away the

1:24:56

characters that they built up last time and then

1:24:58

also bringing some back who didn't have any reason

1:25:00

to be there so Podcast and Lucky

1:25:02

who were two of the

1:25:04

characters. Who couldn't forget Podcast and Lucky. They are

1:25:07

brought back to no avail.

1:25:09

They're not given anything to do. They

1:25:11

introduced a new character Lars Pinfield, good

1:25:13

name, played by James A. Castor, good

1:25:15

comedian and then again like he's just

1:25:17

there for a minute and then gone

1:25:19

and you're just like what is happening?

1:25:21

Do you think? I think he gets way more to the

1:25:24

most of the other characters. Yeah which

1:25:26

is still not enough to make much of an

1:25:28

impact. Like I said there's just too many

1:25:30

people here. Camille Nangiani gets probably

1:25:32

the most after

1:25:34

McKenna Grace I feel like. I

1:25:37

think so but also I felt like he had

1:25:39

very little to work with on the page but

1:25:41

because he's brilliant he did his absolute best with

1:25:43

what he had. Maybe so but he

1:25:45

just it wasn't yeah it

1:25:47

just I was so disappointed by

1:25:49

this. It felt so safe, so conservative

1:25:52

with a small c, so

1:25:54

lacking in any kind of originality.

1:25:56

I thought that the last one

1:25:59

was overliness. nostalgia that the

1:26:01

last act for me of Afterlife kind

1:26:03

of lapsed too heavily and

1:26:05

leaned too heavily on nostalgia and kind of

1:26:07

lost some of these new characters in

1:26:09

that finale. And I get why they did it and I kind

1:26:11

of, you know, I caved a bit

1:26:14

but I did ultimately give them kind of

1:26:16

a pass on it. But this time it's

1:26:18

just putting in nostalgia for the sake of it and

1:26:20

not doing anything with it. And that is really

1:26:22

disappointing. I very

1:26:25

much disagree with both of you. I

1:26:27

enjoyed it a lot more than I

1:26:29

thought it was going to. Maybe because I'd lowered my

1:26:32

expectations. I've been told that you all thought it was

1:26:34

meh and not very good and two stars.

1:26:38

And I had a perfectly fun time with it.

1:26:40

I think it is inventive. I think it does

1:26:42

new and interesting things that we haven't seen before

1:26:44

in the Ghostbusters franchise. I agree with a lot

1:26:46

of your points. I will say that I

1:26:48

think there are far too many characters here. There are some

1:26:50

who just frankly should not even be in the film. Annie

1:26:54

Potts should not be in this film. Bill

1:26:57

Murray should not be in this film, quite frankly. William

1:27:00

Atherton, I don't think it's a spoiler to say William

1:27:02

Atherton's in this movie. He's in pretty much the second

1:27:04

scene that you see as

1:27:06

Walter Peck shouldn't be in this movie.

1:27:10

And then they could have focused I think a little

1:27:12

bit more on some of the characters who were interesting

1:27:14

last time around like Finn Wolfhard to Trevor who gets

1:27:17

nothing to do in this film. You're right.

1:27:19

Carrie Coon gets nothing to do in this

1:27:21

movie. But they have decided and they decided

1:27:24

in fairness with Ghostbusters Afterlife that Phoebe

1:27:26

Spangler is the lead of this franchise.

1:27:29

And they do write by her. I think McKenna

1:27:31

Grace is very, very good in this. She gets

1:27:33

a lot to do. I really

1:27:35

like, and this is something that

1:27:37

goes back all the way to the first Ghostbusters, I

1:27:39

like when they build up their

1:27:42

mythology within the film. I like scenes in

1:27:44

which smart people talk in

1:27:47

harsh to overtones, undertones, in

1:27:49

harsh to undertones about the

1:27:52

end of the world and this threat they're facing

1:27:54

and all of this thing and I read this

1:27:56

book about ancient Samaria and blah, blah, blah, blah,

1:27:58

blah, blah, all that stuff. stuff, I can

1:28:00

just gobble that up. Like Ray

1:28:03

and Winston talking about the Book of Revelation in

1:28:06

the Ecto 1 in

1:28:09

the first movie. There's a lot of that here and then

1:28:11

Patton Oswald comes in to be Basil X

1:28:14

position for a few minutes. And

1:28:16

I was absolutely on board with it up until kind

1:28:18

of the scene after that. I don't want to say too

1:28:20

much about what happens. And then it just becomes a little

1:28:22

bit fragmented and none

1:28:26

of the characters behave like human beings. And

1:28:28

they have this central mystery with

1:28:31

this brass ball that is

1:28:34

giving off unspeakable hitherto

1:28:36

unseen waves of evil energy.

1:28:39

And they're like, yeah, okay, well, that's

1:28:41

interesting. And they don't really seem

1:28:43

to devote that much time to investigate that meanwhile

1:28:45

they're all off on side quests and things like

1:28:48

that. But I laughed

1:28:50

quite a lot. I thought Camille Nanciani was very

1:28:52

good. I like James A. Castor. I had

1:28:55

a decent time with it. But I know

1:28:57

that I am pretty much alone in

1:28:59

Team Empire in doing so. So we give

1:29:01

this one two stars. Two stars then for

1:29:04

Ghostbusters Frozen Empire. Frozen out

1:29:06

by Empire more like A, A,

1:29:08

A. Next up

1:29:11

Roadhouse. Yeah. Hell's

1:29:14

Bells. Doug Lyman, Jake Gyllenhaal.

1:29:17

They're back. They haven't been away. Have they

1:29:20

worked together? I don't know. No. No. Strange

1:29:23

and true. But let's go with it. Look, I have nothing

1:29:25

to say. I thought we were going to talk about Michael at next. I'll

1:29:27

be honest. So I was prepared for that. Yeah,

1:29:29

this was this is a remake, obviously, of

1:29:31

the Patrick Swayze starring movie

1:29:34

with Jake Gyllenhaal hired to

1:29:36

bounce people from a Florida

1:29:39

Roadhouse. It's meant to be down in the Keys

1:29:41

in the Florida Keys. He

1:29:43

is hired by Jessica Williams, who is having trouble

1:29:45

with the wrong sort of people coming around and

1:29:48

causing all manner of mess.

1:29:50

And Gyllenhaal Dalton is

1:29:52

a former UFC fighter

1:29:54

who has

1:29:57

a bad reputation. Yes, let us say. Yeah. you

1:30:00

people are done. Artfully done unfolded

1:30:02

over the course of the movie, you'll see

1:30:04

what it is coming a mile away, but

1:30:06

nevertheless, we'll let you find out for yourself.

1:30:09

But he is kind of reluctant

1:30:11

to start, but she's offering good money and

1:30:13

he's just been stabbed. So he goes along

1:30:15

anyway, meet a local doctor paid played by

1:30:17

Daniela Melchor. And when you know it, there

1:30:19

are bad people who want to get control

1:30:21

of this roadhouse. Jesus Christ. And they're sending

1:30:23

these thugs in. I know. You

1:30:26

know, I think Billy Magnussen might have something

1:30:28

to do with it. I do. Now

1:30:30

that may be controversial, Chris, but I

1:30:32

think his Ben Brandt, maybe Ben

1:30:34

Brandt, he may be bent. Wasn't he

1:30:36

the editor of the Washington Post? I

1:30:40

think that was a different brand. Okay, was a

1:30:42

Ben Bradley? I think it might have been. Okay,

1:30:44

right. So yeah, so

1:30:47

look, it's, it's ludicrous, but it

1:30:49

kind of knows it's ludicrous and is having fun

1:30:51

with its own ludicrousness. And the fights

1:30:53

are quite amusing, even if bone

1:30:55

breaking. And Dalton is a really great

1:30:57

character as portrayed here by so by

1:30:59

I mean, Jack

1:31:03

Reacher, I mean, Jack Reacher, he kind of

1:31:05

is because like, you know, if you remember,

1:31:07

like Patrick Swayze character was like a Zen

1:31:09

master. He was like super chill, super pain don't

1:31:12

hurt. Pain don't

1:31:14

hurt, like everything kind of buttons up,

1:31:16

never really reacted himself usually sent other people in.

1:31:19

And then of course, when he goes nuts, he

1:31:21

really goes nuts. Whereas this

1:31:23

Dalton is more of a,

1:31:25

I don't know, he's more sardonic,

1:31:28

I think he's more right, I think

1:31:30

in keeping with Gil Noll himself. And

1:31:33

I just find him

1:31:35

very amusing a lot of the time, I

1:31:37

just thought his, his kind of eye rolling

1:31:39

reactions to everyone else, his underplaying of it

1:31:42

was really, really good fun. And then

1:31:44

Conor McGregor shows

1:31:46

up, who's obviously a controversial human

1:31:48

being with a not great controversy

1:31:50

section on Wikipedia. But

1:31:53

playing a similar

1:31:56

person. So he's well

1:31:58

cast. He

1:32:00

is the nemesis in this film. Nox, Nox,

1:32:02

Nox, Nox. And you know that because his

1:32:04

name is tattooed multiple times on this show.

1:32:07

To remind himself of his own name. Just a way

1:32:09

to cover up his actual tattoo. It's the cover of

1:32:12

McGregor. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

1:32:15

Yeah. So he, like, Conor

1:32:17

McGregor pulled me out of it a

1:32:19

touch because his character is so caricatured

1:32:22

and over the top cartoonish that it

1:32:24

pulled me out the story a little bit. I know it's

1:32:27

a deliberate choice. I don't think it's necessary that he was,

1:32:29

it's the first time he's ever acted in his first, his

1:32:31

first role. But I do

1:32:33

think it was deliberate to have him that. And you know,

1:32:35

there is a slightly heightened cartoony feel to this at times.

1:32:38

It's quite silly. It is fun. And

1:32:40

I think Jill and Haul's Dalton

1:32:42

is a lot of fun to be around.

1:32:45

And there is something quite, there's always

1:32:47

something cathartic about this, this Reacher setup,

1:32:49

this, you know, the unstoppable man, the,

1:32:51

you know, he's terribly nice. He's terribly

1:32:54

polite. But ultimately if he has to

1:32:56

throw down with you, he's going to

1:32:58

absolutely tear you apart. And the first

1:33:00

time this happens when J.D. Pardo from,

1:33:03

from my and Tim C turns up and

1:33:06

they'll have a fight in the parking lot.

1:33:08

It is an incredibly well choreographed fight. Doug

1:33:10

Lyman, obviously born identity knows how to

1:33:12

stage a decent fast edit fight. And

1:33:14

it's, it's good. It looks really good.

1:33:16

Dylan Haul is terrifying. I've never seen

1:33:18

anyone with 17 discreet

1:33:20

abs, but fuck it. He manages it here. It's

1:33:23

funny because he, he almost never

1:33:25

is semi naked in this film.

1:33:28

I mean, he's constantly in a state of undress.

1:33:30

Yeah. He doesn't own many t-shirts. I

1:33:33

think he doesn't know. And the one and the shirts he

1:33:35

have don't button up. They just don't have buttons in the

1:33:37

board. I don't know if you're not being funny. If I

1:33:39

had the abs that Jake Gyllenhaal has, I would never wear

1:33:41

clothes if I had worked that hard. Yes,

1:33:43

I can see that. Absolutely. It's

1:33:46

a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. I thought it,

1:33:48

I thought it was giggle. It's not to be

1:33:50

taken too seriously, but it's enjoyable. I'd

1:33:53

spare thought again, if we're thinking of underused

1:33:55

women in films, Daniela Mercier, who

1:33:57

doesn't have a lot to do. But

1:34:01

I did a Kelly Lynch in the first one. The

1:34:03

amazing story by the way, I'm sure you guys know this because

1:34:06

I'm sure Nick said it on the

1:34:08

podcast before, but Kelly Lynch is the

1:34:11

wife of Mitch Glaser. And

1:34:15

apparently whenever Bill Murray

1:34:17

was watching TV, anytime Bill Murray was

1:34:19

watching TV and Roadhouse, the original Roadhouse,

1:34:21

Rowdy Harrington, Patrick Swayze, Sam Elliott Roadhouse

1:34:24

is a classic and whenever it was

1:34:26

on TV in rotation, Bill Murray would

1:34:28

watch it and then would call

1:34:30

Mitch Glaser and go, I'm watching your wife have

1:34:32

sex with Patrick Swayze without sale. So

1:34:35

this is a bit more chaste than that, this

1:34:38

movie. It's

1:34:40

a little bit more restrained. It's a bit

1:34:42

more restrained, yeah. But then the violence

1:34:44

is eye popping. It really is. The

1:34:46

violence is a lot. I have to say, I

1:34:50

think this is better than the original. So I

1:34:52

really had a good time with it. I'm in a very

1:34:54

long time. I have a lot of fond memories

1:34:56

of it. But it has adverts in it. I started watching it

1:34:58

and then the others and I did it. But

1:35:01

the adverts, no. Hey. I

1:35:04

don't know if this has anyone as magnificent

1:35:06

as Sam Elliott's hair in the original. Oh

1:35:08

my God. But otherwise, I had an absolute

1:35:11

blast. Four stars

1:35:13

in for Roadhouse. We really, really enjoy that.

1:35:15

It is on Prime. Next

1:35:17

up, we have a five star belter. It

1:35:19

is Robot Dreams. Yes. This is Robot Dreams

1:35:21

and this is the story of a dog

1:35:23

and a robot in New York City in

1:35:25

a kind of heightened 1980s

1:35:27

New York. It

1:35:30

is an animated movie. It

1:35:32

is a dialogue free animated movie. It's

1:35:34

kind of whimsical. It's fantastical. And essentially

1:35:36

what happens is a dog who is

1:35:38

very lonely and he mail orders a

1:35:41

robot companion. They become very, very firm

1:35:43

friends until one day at the beach,

1:35:45

his robot friend goes in the sea

1:35:47

and gets rusty and is left on

1:35:49

the beach because he cannot move.

1:35:51

And the dog is for reasons I won't go

1:35:53

into unable to go back and reclaim him. So

1:35:55

essentially the film is this robot having

1:35:58

a series of bizarre sort of. fantasies

1:36:01

about how he gets rescued and how his

1:36:03

life plays out. And it's a little powerful

1:36:05

about relationships and loneliness and friendship. And it

1:36:07

is actually beautifully put together. And I'm deliberately,

1:36:09

as I speak, not making eye contact with

1:36:11

Helen, who gave it five stars and absolutely

1:36:13

loved it. And she is not alone. I

1:36:15

should say everyone I have spoken to has

1:36:17

seen this film thinks it's a masterpiece. And

1:36:19

it is wonderful. The only thing I will

1:36:21

say is it is an hour and 45

1:36:24

minutes long. It is entirely dialogue free. And

1:36:26

it is a cartoon about a dog and

1:36:28

a robot. So I think it was always

1:36:30

going to be quite a hard sell for me.

1:36:33

I do think it's beautiful. I think it's it's

1:36:35

a lovely, lovely film. But

1:36:37

also, it was an hour and 45 minutes without

1:36:39

any dialogue. And I struggled with that. Helen,

1:36:42

you monster you absolute monster. But no,

1:36:44

yeah, it's a story about love and

1:36:46

loss and relationships and, you

1:36:49

know, what you do to try and move on and what kind

1:36:51

of holds you back

1:36:54

and tethers you together. And

1:36:56

it's really lovely. The animation

1:36:58

style is very stripped back,

1:37:00

very cartoony, frankly, very, very

1:37:02

simple and childlike. But

1:37:04

the ideas it's dealing with are massively

1:37:07

growing up. This was not an

1:37:09

Oscar nominated for nothing. It's really,

1:37:11

really beautifully done. It's teeming with

1:37:14

life and color and all these other characters

1:37:16

around them. The sort

1:37:18

of, you know, fantastical bits are really,

1:37:20

really well put together. And I think

1:37:23

that I don't think you need a lot

1:37:25

of dialogue here. You get exactly what's happening

1:37:27

at every single moment of the story. It's

1:37:29

really beautifully played. I absolutely loved it.

1:37:32

Five stars. No notes. It's

1:37:36

what you review, right? There

1:37:40

we go. If reviewing was that simple, I would

1:37:42

do more of it. All right, next up we

1:37:45

have Immaculate. Hell's Bells. This is

1:37:47

Sydney Sweeney, as we said before, as

1:37:50

a young nun undergoing a traumatic experience.

1:37:52

How much more can we say? Well, I

1:37:55

think it's pretty obvious in the

1:37:57

trailer that there's a pregnancy and

1:37:59

immaculate conception. obviously is the

1:38:02

sort of hook here.

1:38:04

She plays Sister Cecilia, Sydney

1:38:06

Sweeney, and who goes from America to

1:38:08

join this convent in Italy and

1:38:12

is trying to learn her bit of Italian and kind

1:38:14

of fit in and is a bit taken aback by

1:38:16

some of the sisters

1:38:19

she encounters. Most friends though,

1:38:21

settles in, learns to do all these

1:38:23

different tasks around the place and then

1:38:26

things start to get a bit frickin' weird.

1:38:28

What I enjoyed about this is that

1:38:30

unlike some Catholic-y

1:38:33

horror films, the filmmakers of

1:38:35

this one at least appear to have met

1:38:37

a Catholic. That's not always the case, I'm

1:38:39

not naming names, but not all of them

1:38:42

feel Catholic. This one feels very

1:38:44

Catholic, the monastery looks right, Catholicism is

1:38:46

a super Italian religion, there's a lot

1:38:48

of Italians in this, that felt right.

1:38:50

The music mostly rings

1:38:52

extremely Catholic. It's mostly

1:38:55

Foster and Alan. The only thing is that there is a point

1:38:57

where they use the Carol of the Bells in

1:39:00

Latin to be scarier. In Latin.

1:39:02

I don't think that's one of ours, I'm

1:39:05

going to be honest. I don't think that's a Catholic Carol. But

1:39:07

apart from that, the music felt

1:39:09

right, the vibe felt very

1:39:12

Catholic, but with a massive

1:39:14

horror, freaky, weirdo, psycho, madness

1:39:17

twist. Yes. And

1:39:20

I think Sydney Sweeney is fantastic

1:39:22

in this. I think she starts

1:39:24

off extremely idealistic, extremely devout, and

1:39:29

things really test her faith here.

1:39:32

It's fair to say it's not a

1:39:34

good time for her in a lot

1:39:36

of this movie. But

1:39:38

really beautifully played. Alva Amorte,

1:39:40

who I certainly know from Wheel of Time,

1:39:43

is a good, obviously sinister,

1:39:45

extremely handsome priest. To see

1:39:47

Alan. He's not

1:39:50

Alan. He's Logan,

1:39:52

obviously. He's Father Tedeschi.

1:39:56

Really good supporting performances from people

1:39:58

like Simona Tabasco. But

1:40:01

it's basically Sydney Sweeney's story

1:40:03

and she does. Surprisingly

1:40:05

low-key ending. I wasn't expecting that it would go out,

1:40:07

not with a bang, but with a wimple. I

1:40:11

mean, it just shows what you know because it really

1:40:13

does go out with quite a lot of... I was

1:40:15

going to say. Simona Tabasco is

1:40:17

very much the film's secret sauce for me.

1:40:19

Oh boy. Tabasco. Anyway,

1:40:22

there is a bit of sort of Chekhov's

1:40:24

catacombs which were mentioned early in the film, so

1:40:26

you're like, well, somebody's definitely going in the catacombs by the

1:40:28

end here and that won't be fun. But

1:40:31

I was scared. I was very scared. As previously

1:40:33

established, I'm a big old wimple. Jump scares, a

1:40:35

lot of jump scares. A lot of jump scares.

1:40:37

Jump scares, but also genuine like creepy exploitation of

1:40:39

women kind of nastiness here as

1:40:44

well. Yes. I have to

1:40:46

say, I said this in the interview with Sydney Sweeney and I wasn't blowing smoke. I

1:40:49

think the ending is brilliant and it's

1:40:51

stayed with me. The final shot in

1:40:53

particular is primo primo.

1:40:56

It's very, as I say, endedly. Primo

1:40:59

primo primo. That

1:41:01

would mean early, early. Yes, it's

1:41:03

early, early. God

1:41:05

damn you in your duolingo ways and

1:41:07

your Italian fiance. Don't god damn your Italian fiance. I've met

1:41:10

him. He's a lovely fella, but you know, come on. Yes,

1:41:13

primo. It is, what would I say? It's

1:41:16

superb. What's good? Multobene.

1:41:18

Multobene. So there you go. We

1:41:21

gave this one three stars, three stars then for Immaculate. And

1:41:25

I honestly cannot wait to double bit listening

1:41:27

with the first omen when

1:41:29

it comes out in two weeks time. Anyway,

1:41:31

very quickly because he's kind of got their heart out and they

1:41:33

got to go. Late

1:41:35

night with the devil is really great, isn't it? It really

1:41:38