Bobby Omelettes And The Dolby Rumbler (ft. guests Alex Cox and Ralph Ineson)

20:41Chris Hewitt:And then over a crackly phone line, he heard and liked enough of what he heard to write that. So therefore, was that already creating a branched-off timeline? Oh my God, do we have to send it in the TBA? I think we need to prune Marty McFly. We absolutely will not be doing that. I think that we are going to assume that Chuck Berry would have done it anyway. Would he have done it anyway? Yes, because otherwise it's appropriation of black music by a white teenager. Marty McFly is problematic and should be cancelled or pruned. Not pruned, no pruning. As Ant-Man said in Avengers Endgame, Back to the Future is a bunch of bullshit.

21:21Whoa, okay, all right, okay. And look, I love Back to the Future, but you know, it's paradoxical. I love Avengers Endgame and the Ant-Man movies. I just realized who the headliner should be.

21:32Chris Hewitt:Oh, okay. Wait for it. Okay. Wait for it. Keep it in your pocket for the time being. All right. So what are we saying? Is this three o 'clock? Are we doing three o 'clock? Two o 'clock was the Irish bands. Is that two o 'clock? Yeah. Okay. So 12 o 'clock was Max Rebo. One o 'clock was Four Town. Yeah. singing Nantipunks Fuck Off 2pm was were that the Irish bands then I've already forgotten was it the Irish bands Scott Pilgrim Scott Pilgrim 3pm is the Irish bands so now we're moving on to 4pm School of Rock School of Rock yeah that works for me School of Rock okay because they're they're barons and they need to get into bed before the watershed 5pm then is the legend slot and you're thinking we're all thinking slightly longer well well yeah maybe Spinal Tap Spinal Tap or okay Can I introduce you to two gentlemen from Chicago, Illinois, and their most excellent backing band?

22:26Chris Hewitt:Oh, man. I am, of course, talking about John Goopman from the Blues Brothers 2000 and Joe Morton from Blues Brothers 2000. No, I'm talking about Julia Jake and Elwood Blues, a.k.a. the Blues Brothers. I have to say, if I had a choice between what to listen to and also what to watch, I'd be pumping for the Blues Brothers over Lissa Spinal Tap. Oh, really? I would. I would, too. But then I'm more sold than Mel. Yeah, but the Spinal Tap will put on a show. They'll, you know. They will get trapped in things. Yeah. They will get lost in a way to the stage. They might be late. Is it safe to allow them that close to Stonehenge?

23:05I don't know that it is.

23:07Chris Hewitt:That's a good point. From the word, their standing is actually the right size. It's the right size. Okay, can I suggest in that case, because Spinal Tap will get lost on the way to the stage. In fairness, that backstage area is very large and confusing. Oh, well, Helen knows, of course. Helen, by the way, is not watching any of this shit. She's doing movie Q &As over in the Pilton Palais. They're all up online now, by the way. Oh, are they? If you want to see them, yeah. Okay. So to pad out the silence, Rachel Segler comes on. No, it's Blues Brothers. Okay. With the Blues Brothers band. I'm very happy with that, yes.

23:41They're amazing. Incredible.

23:43Chris Hewitt:And then this works perfectly because we know from the Blues Brothers that they only stick around for a couple of numbers and then they're going to be chased by the cops offstage. Have a massive car chase. Yeah. So they're being chased by the cops. Meanwhile, Spinal Tap come on, do big bottoms. Yeah. Talk about bum cakes. My girls got them. And all their famous, Lick My Love Pump, all the classics. And then that is the legend slot over and done with. Are there only two more slots then, Hellspells? I think there's only two more slots, yeah. All right, this is getting tough. John, who is your second from last?

24:16Oh. I think the penultimate headliner, and I might be going out on a limb here, is Connor For Real and the Style Boys. Yeah, from Popstar, Never Stop, Never Stopping. And you know they'd put on a show. They would put on a hell of a show. They would have holograms. They would have a guy wearing a helmet with lights. They'd have a goldfish who had come to life and sound. My name's Mr. Fish. Mr. Fish playing the guitar. I mean, it would be...

24:45Chris Hewitt:John, these are just a few of your incredible thoughts. This is amazing. Yeah. Honestly... No argument. Yeah. They're an argument. Okay, great. They're headliners. Oh, really? Okay. Oh, no, I have an argument. Oh. Number two, I'm 100 % with Conor For Real. I'm sticking with Conor For Real. I'm not even going to argue with that. Okay. Even though I love Josie and the Pussycats and DuJour, who would be featured. But the headline, they'll have to wait for next year because the headliners this year, the ultimate headliners, are wild stallions. Oh. Come on. Are they better at air guitar than they are guitar?

25:22I don't know. Arguably, yes. But they go away and they learn how to play guitar over a period of months and they grow ridiculous beards and they learn to play God Gave Rock and Roll to You. And importantly, they bring peace and prosperity to the whole world. And I think that's something worth headlining.

25:40Chris Hewitt:Max Reba Band has a little blue guy with a trunk. Wild Stanions has the personification of death on bass. That is true. They have a freaking Martian playing something, I forget what. They have time-traveling women on drums and keyboards. Time-traveling women? Time-traveling women. Women never get to time travel, it's usually the boys. Look at poor Rachel McAdams. Subject of Helen's next book, Women vs. Time Travel. Seriously, look at Rachel McAdams. I would like to look at Rachel McAdams. Her boyfriend or husband has been time traveling at least three times. And she remains a time traveler's wife, Dr.

26:19Strange's girlfriend. He went back in time. About times, you know, girlfriend and wife. Come on, man.

26:25Chris Hewitt:It's a good suggestion. Compelling argument. I don't know that they have the oeuvre of, well, I'll do it again. I don't know that they have the oeuvre of Connor for real and the Style Boys featuring Michael Bolton. Yeah, Michael Bolton would have to appear. Admittedly, there is a bit of the Bill and Ted face music. It is Bill and Ted face music, isn't it? Where they sing the song and everyone turns up. Yeah. And Dave Grohl is in that film as well. So, oh, I'm torn. Tenacious D. But Tenacious D are a real band. That's true. Okay. I'm going to suggest Wild Stallions in the number two slot. Oh, disrespectful.

27:02Chris Hewitt:I am. I'm going to suggest it. Their songs just don't stack up against Style Boys. those songs are legitimately aren't they really those songs are so good Incredible Thoughts is it's a banger incredible I've had because I've been listening to the Lonely Island podcast obsessively so I've re-watched Popstar recently I've had Mona Lisa you're an overrated piece of shit like stuck in my head for so long oh my god can we can we do this thing where we're having lots of featuring so what if it's Conor For Real Style Boys and Michael Bolton featuring Josie and the Pussycats, featuring Douchour. Sure.

27:43Chris Hewitt:That's a great way to finish this music festival. Okay, well, that's hard to argue with. There you go. And then after that, after it's done, you can go to the fucking tent and watch Helen interview, I don't know, Tilda Swinton or someone like that. So that'll be exciting. Yeah. Go to the southeast corner for some banging house. I beg your pardon? Banging house. Thank God she finished that sentence. Oh, my word. All right. Well, there you go. We're about an hour into the podcast now. but hey we've had fun and that's all that matters shall we have a guest please please who do you want do you want Alex Cox yes yes let's have Alex Cox so people of a certain vintage John you may not be one of them you're very young you're very young John Movie Drome slightly passed me by yeah yeah of course it did didn't pass me by though Movie Drome it was an amazing show on BBC2 it was along with the debut of Empire Magazine one of the things that set me along the road to where I am now.

28:38Chris Hewitt:So if you want to know who to blame, it was Empire and Movie Drone, which was an amazing show on BBC Two where basically the BBC had a library of hundreds, thousands of films and they presented them in this show, Movie Drone, every Sunday night. Classic movies, classic indies, cult classics, movies from around the world as well. For the first six seasons of this, it was presented by Alex Cox, the British filmmaker who had made Repo Man, and just before Movie Drome debuted Walker, which was a film that was not that well received critically, but ultimately, like Alan Partridge, Alex Cox had the last laugh because in series five of Movie Drome, Walker was screamed.

29:25Chris Hewitt:And his introduction to that is on YouTube. It's very, very funny, by the way. He basically reads out a negative review of the movie. But this show was hugely, hugely important to me growing up and introduced me to so many mini films that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. Alex Cox left after six series. Then Mark Cousins took over for about another six series or so. And then that was it. That was it for Movie Drum. Hugely important in terms of film curation. Hugely important in terms of introducing people to cinema and the concept of world cinema and the concept there is more to life. And I realize this is ironic me saying this than the multiplexes, but there is and there was and it's great and nothing like that exists on TV now and it is a fucking crime.

30:12Chris Hewitt:The BFI clearly agree with me because they are putting on right now at the BFI South Bank in London a season dedicated to MovieDrome and they've got Alex Cox where they had Alex Cox to come along and do a couple of introductions for that where it's been going now for a couple of weeks but I sat down with Alex Cox on Zoom about a week and a half ago We chatted about Movidrome, its impact, what it means to him, the whole Walker situation, and everything you could possibly think of. And it was a joy. Here we go. Enjoy, Alex Cox. We are delighted to be joined on the Emperor Podcast by the great filmmaker, Alex Cox.

30:50You might also know him as the original host of Movidrome.

30:54Chris Hewitt:How are you, sir? Very well, thank you. And yourself? I'm not too bad. I'm not too bad. I have to say, Alex, you probably get this a lot, but Movie Drone played a huge role in my filmic upbringing. It was very, very formative to me. Do you get that a lot, people saying that to you? Sometimes people say that, yes. Yes, it's interesting. Sometimes people obviously did watch that series and remember it. It was a huge, huge thing for me. And now it's part of this season at the BFI. Yes, that's nice, isn't it? actually seeing the films on the big screen instead of on telly, which is great. Absolutely.

31:28Chris Hewitt:When was this first mooted to you, this season of the BFI? I think they've been planning it for about six months because obviously they have a long lead time. Yeah. About six months ago that Nick mentioned it. Okay. This is Nick Frienne-Jones, who was the producer of Movie Drums. Producer, director and the curator of the Movie Drums series of both I and Mark Cousins. Because I think that's a common misconception that you chose the films It was Nick who chose the films, at least initially, or did you have input as time went on? Oh, I persuaded him to get the BBC to acquire three Italian Westerns.

32:05But other than that, all the selections were by Nick. It was his baby. And he was very hardworking and really did delve into what was under license of the BBC. and his genius was that these were films that probably wouldn't have even been broadcast if he hadn't created a format for them how did you get involved in the first place you were you

32:26Chris Hewitt:you know at the time you were very very busy as a film director uh walker i wasn't no no i was blacklisted i had just made a film called walker in nicaragua during the time that the united states was bombing the hell out of those poor people and so yeah no i wasn't very popular in hollywood and never have been since. So it was a job, you know. I mean, Nick actually offered me money to do a job, you know, and I was delighted. How did he pitch it to you? I don't remember, really. He just said he was going to do a season of films to go out on Sunday night on the BBC and would I like to be the presenter?

33:02Chris Hewitt:Were you licking your wounds after Walker? Because MovieDome started a few months after Walker came out. And I know Walker was a bruising experience for you. Oh, but it was a great experience. too. I mean, making the film is a fantastic experience and you can't really control the distribution. I mean, either a film gets distribution or it doesn't. And if it gets a distribution, it might be good or it might be very bad. But making the film itself is a tremendous experience. I was very happy. And along comes Movie Drum. And you had shot a couple of introductions for something similar previously.

33:36Yes, that was that series that Nick had also produced and directed where he got a whole bunch of, you know, very, very respectable British film directors like Ken Russell and Lindsay Anderson and Stephen Frears and Nick Rowe to talk about films. I was lucky to be included among their august pranks.

33:56Chris Hewitt:But clearly he liked what you were doing. And I think one of the things that stood out for me about MovieDrome was you and your introductions to the movies. Was it something that you took to naturally? Yeah, I mean, it's not like the person that you see on MovieDome is different from me. It's the same thing. And did you write those intros as well? Yes, yes, I wrote all the introductions. Because delivering them, you have such an interesting unique delivery style as well. I'm just fascinated about how you did that. Were you one take Cox in a way, or did you have multiple takes? Did you remember your scripts, or were you reading of an autocue?

34:39The first time that we did Movie Drone, we shot it in the studio at the BBC. And we didn't have a teleprompter. And so I just read, I had like little crib sheets on my knee. And I would just base my discourse off the crib sheets. But when we did the second season, we had teleprompter. So that was a big advance.

35:02Chris Hewitt:Again, one of the wonderful things about Movidrome was those intros and the locations that you travelled to. You went all over the place, basically. What are your memories of where you went? we shot the first in the studio bbc in the second year we went uh to um no went to sun arizona and we shot around tucson following year we went to almeria in the south of spain where leone and david lean all those filmmakers work and the year after that we were in new york and the year after that we went to budapest so there were four different location shoots and weren't you nudging Nick in a particular direction, or was this all at Nick's behest in these locations?

35:49He chose locations. I mean, I had a base in Arizona at the time, and I was very familiar with Almeria, and so I was able to suggest a couple of locations in those areas. But when it came to New York or Budapest, it was all Nick. He was the person in New York City.

36:11Chris Hewitt:The intros themselves were so wonderfully cinematic. Is there one that stands out for you in your memory? Oh yeah, the one for Sunset Boulevard. Because all I had to do was sit by a pool and be shot by my then wife. So that was... That'll do it. That'll do it. But as you say, you wrote the introductions. Nick chose the films with three notable exceptions. And that gave you a really interesting freedom in a way because these weren't your personal favorites. Sometimes you didn't even like the movies that Nick had chosen and you were incredibly allowed to say so as well in the intro. It's something I always found really, really fascinating that you weren't just doing the big rah, rah, rah presentation for the movies we were about to see.

36:59I think that's because I never wanted to be a film critic or a journalist or anything like that, so I didn't have anything at stake. I didn't come from that world at all, from the world of television or the world of journalism or the world of criticism. So I didn't have an approach to it. I didn't care. You know, it didn't matter to me if they didn't want to hire me anymore. That was OK. It wasn't like I was making a living off it. And so it was just something to do for fun and to make a little bit of money. And luckily, Nick had had very wide ranging and interesting tastes and was able to come up with some really, really good films.

37:37or films that had some flaws, you know, but there was always some merit in them. I never felt we showed a film that was completely bad.

37:44Chris Hewitt:Yeah. But it was nice to be able to talk about the films honestly rather than pretend that everything was fine. How much research did you do into the films? I always remember your intro to Assault on Precinct 13 and where you pointed out that John Carpenter took a pseudonym on that movie. He took a pseudonym of John T. Chance. He was the editor of the film under John T. Chance. who of course is the John Wayne character in Rio Bravo. And I, at that point, was a young kid. I hadn't made that connection. That blew my mind and stuck in my head ever since. So was that something that you just knew or were you doing lots of research into your introductions?

38:21It depended on the film because if I knew the film really well, like Ujimbo, I didn't really need to do any research. But I think in the case of Assault on Precic 13, I didn't know the films as closely. And so, yeah, then it would be a question of doing the research. And there was no real internet in those days. So I suppose there were books, the library, you know, and there was the monthly film bullet.

38:45Chris Hewitt:Were there any movies that made you reconsider your position on them? Because I know you weren't a huge fan at first of The Wicker Man, which was the very first film shown on Movie Drum. Yeah, because I was never really a horror film fan. I mean, I saw The Wicker Man when it came out. And then when we showed it on Movie Drum, of course, there was this expanded version. that they'd been able to put together with some extracts from a print that Roger Corman had. But not being a horror film person, I wasn't that excited, by the way. I enjoyed it well enough. But thinking about it since then, you know, it's really unusual.

39:21I mean, how many films are there which talk about the relationship between the original pagan religions of our country and Christianity? and the conflict of those two. I can't think of any film that does that other than The Wicker Man. And think about the character of the protagonist. How many films is the protagonist identified as a devout Christian? Very few. I can't, unless it's a film about a priest, you know. So that's a very interesting, very interesting subject. I think that the choice of subject and the execution of the film were really worthwhile and get better as the years go by.

40:04Chris Hewitt:I want to leap ahead because I think it's Series 5. I'm going to say Series, not Season. Series 5 of Movie Drome. Walker is shown. And I watched the introduction to that. It's on YouTube. All your introductions are on YouTube. Yeah, people keep putting them up there and the studios take them down and put them up again. Yeah. And so that was a Nick choice, Walker, or were you hoping to get it onto movie? No, that was Nick. That was Nick. I guess that I suppose that the BBC had acquired a block of films from Universal and one of them was Walker. That was the one Nick pulled out and put into the season.

40:44Chris Hewitt:So there you are, introducing this film that you had made, what, five years previously by that point? Yes, five years previously, yeah. Yeah, yeah. What was that experience like? Your intro is fantastic, by the way, where you read out a fairly negative review in the monthly film bulletin. Entirely negative. Entirely negative. Because that was mostly the critical reaction to the film. And I can't just sit there and praise my own work. You know, that would be very inappropriate, you know. And so I thought it was more interesting to read the review of the monthly film bulletin, which I obviously hadn't really watched the film because you remember the monthly film bulletin, like Sight and Sound, now they have a little synopsis.

41:26synopsis and vendor review. And just looking at the synopsis, the guy hadn't watched the film before.

41:31Chris Hewitt:Did that help in a way? Did Walker being shown on MovieDump, did that help in terms of the film's reputation, getting it out there to an audience? No, Universal continued to hate the film, and it's still not available as a stream. Criterion have, in the US, Criterion have DVD and Blu-ray rights, but they're not allowed to stream it. Universal won't give anybody the rights to stream it. Yeah, there's nothing you can do about that? yeah you look online and find a built-in cop but that raises an interesting point about film curation I know you've spoken on this in the past but there is nothing like movie drum on TV nowadays streaming services don't seem to acknowledge the films made before 1980 let alone 1970 exist they don't seem to have a duty of care to their preservation or promotion of classic movies or cult movies.

42:27Chris Hewitt:It's a really, really sad situation. What's your feeling about that? I feel exactly what you just said. I think that the choice that we're given by the mainstream streaming services is appallingly narrow and focused on recent English language, colour, American, and imitation American films. And it's a big problem. And there's no Movie Drome anymore on the BBC, which is a great shame. And there hasn't been, incredibly, for 25 years. That was the last time Mark Cousins' last season was serious. I've done it again. It was in 2000. Yeah. Change in culture. And I did notice when we were doing Movie Drome, there was more resistance just over the five years that I did it.

43:11There was increasing resistance to foreign language films. But at the beginning of the season, we were able to show Diva and Alphaville, Ujimbo, you know, films in languages other than English. But I did notice that it was much harder to get non-English language films into the program as it progressed.

43:33Chris Hewitt:And so was that one of the reasons why you called it a day after six series? yeah yeah i just felt that was enough you know um i felt that we'd lost we'd lost something when they wouldn't program foreign language films anymore i felt we'd lost some i hope movie drum comes back one day but uh oh let's see let's see i'm sure that nick would be happy to happy to organize another movie drum absolutely uh alex cox has been an absolute pleasure thanks so much indeed thank you okay that was alex cox talked about movie drum and if you want to go see there more films in this Movie Drones season stretching through July and into August as well.

44:10Chris Hewitt:Go to the BFI South Bank website for more details of what's on and when. Some of them will have introductions from Movie Drones producer and the guy who started the whole thing, Nick Friand Jones. It's going to be an absolute treasure trove of cinema, so go check it out. All right. Time to talk about this week's movie news. Has there been any, first of all? And what is it? Do you want to go first? I can go first. Do it. Well, there's LFF news. Is there? Yes. They've announced the opening night film. We did that last week, John. You did that last week. Okay. I even listened to that episode. Did you?

44:45Wake Up Dead Man. Wake Up Dead Man. Wake up, John. Okay.

44:47Chris Hewitt:Come on. Let's move on. All right. John's got some more startling and incredible news. Robert Downey Jr. is going to play Doctor Doom. It says here they're bringing back Star Wars. Alfred Hitchcock has just cast Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in Psycho based on the Robert Block novel should be good apparently it's going to be in colour now it'll never take off Janet Leigh's been cast in a major role as well I expect her to be fantastic in that movie and she'll definitely make it to the final reel anything that's happened this week John? this week? this week I've got stuff so many things The Legend of Zelda how about that?

45:28yes did you talk about that? no there you go Wow, he's very aggressive, isn't he? He's aggressive. He's like, what? The Legend of Zelda. The Legend of Zelda, yes. Which is a popular video game series, which I love and adore very much. What is it about? Tell me, because I've never played it. It's a Nintendo game. It started out, I think, in the 80s. It used to be on the NES, on the original, or maybe even earlier. It was a very, you know, 8-bit game. It's since become, you know, this vast open-world 3D. thing um breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom are the last two games and i've logged well in excess of 100 hours on each of them i think really really beautiful epic fantasy it's sort of like a japanese take on medieval european fantasy there's you you play link who is a little princeling boy who has to rescue the princess from the castle and she's Zelda princess is Zelda yes and there's an ocarina that's important the ocarina of time the ocarina of time yeah that's the N64 game where you played a little ocarina

46:36Chris Hewitt:never I had an N64 yeah but I was mainly playing Goldeneye yeah so I never I never played but neither did any of my housemates at the time or any of my friend growing up so this is strange but it's just passed me by for some reason I really recommend if you have a Switch or you should get a Switch Breath of the World is just one of the most beautiful things I've ever, like, allowed my eyes to witness. It's really, really good. Amazing. So, they are making a film. They are making a film and they have just announced the cast, or the lead cast for the film. They've announced who will be playing Zelda and Link.

47:14And who's they, by the way? Who's making this? Which studio? This is Sony who are making it with Nintendo. Right. I think they were behind the Super Mario Brothers movie, which made well over a billion dollars. Let's not hold that against them. I think Nintendo have been traditionally been very very nervous about making movies since they did that mario movie in the 90s which went very badly and yet now it looks like a masterpiece next to what they put out yes i yeah i really did not like that that that animated mario brothers movie um but they're you know the floodgates are open there's never been a zelda movie um i always thought it would make a good animated film i thought you know a sort of studio ghibli approach would be really good for this but they're doing it in live action Wes Ball who did the last Planet of the Apes movie yeah and the Maze Runner movies is directing Bo Brugassen is playing Zelda okay and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth is playing Link okay and they are unknowns relative unknowns they've been in a few things here and there but they're yeah they're both very young actors I think she's 21 and he's 16 maybe interesting British American I think they're both British Estonian they are both British okay interesting obviously your mind would instantly go to Estonia but in this case my mind is always in Estonia that explains a lot wow and yeah I think the film is out in 2027 it's exciting I'm excited are you excited?

48:39I'm nervous as well I'm very nervous I feel like they could screw this one up quite easily but Wes Ball he's good people Wes Ball is good people you know Planet of the Apes Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was very good and I think this is a this is a canvas this is a universe that could be a really good film if they get it right it's epic fantasy fun

49:00Chris Hewitt:all right epic fantasy fun i am here for epic fantasy fun um interestingly i was just double checking if this is actually right and it seems that it is according to wikipedia uh that robin williams named his daughter zelda he did yeah that's right the game yeah he was a major fan Yeah, there was actually, Nintendo did a commercial with him and Zelda Williams. Wow. For The Legend of Zelda, for one of their games, where the two of them were just playing on the sofa together. It's really sweet. It's on YouTube. That is amazing. His other child, FIFA 98, I'm not so sure about, though. Wow. Just a little joke there.

49:39Chris Hewitt:One kid always gets the short straw, I guess. Speaking of getting the short straw. Oh, okay. Ryan Gosling and Will Ferrell are going to be working together on Tough Guys. And the short straw comes in where? Well, because their characters are henchmen who are fed up of being henchmen and want to break free and write their own rules. So that's kind of the setup. Now, is this the criminal comedy ending in the word guys that we wanted Ryan Gosling to announce? Probably not. Probably not. That's probably the nice guys too. But this still sounds really fun, I think. Is it also the criminal comedy ending with guys that we wanted Will Ferrell to announce, given that he's made The Other Guys as well?

50:20So it could be The Other Nice Guys too. This is The Other Nice Guys.

50:24Chris Hewitt:So basically, the best way, the obvious way, the easy way to get either Ryan Gosling or Will Ferrell to sign up to any project is just to have The Something Guys. The Something Guys, yeah. They're guys' guys. They are guys' guys. Anything else to say about the movie? Because I'm about to go write a script called The Something Guys and lure them into it. Well, this did start as a spec script from a writer called Daniel Gold. So, you know, that's a good start. And original content. You like that? You really like original stuff? There's no word on a director yet, which is a little bit more worrying.

50:57But fingers crossed, it all sounds kind of fun. I think the idea that, you know, two henchmen are trying to, like, set their own destiny, I think could be quite fun. So I'm here for it.

51:09Chris Hewitt:All right. That sounds exciting. That's going to be an Amazon. It is. We may never see it. It may not happen, but it sounds like it might happen. But obviously, Ryan Gosling's pretty busy. He's about to do Starfighter, Star Wars Starfighter for Sean Levy. And Will Ferrell is not exactly short of offers. When he sees my script for the something guys, he's going to fucking flip. Oh my God. But that's exciting. All right, I've got something. Okay. Obviously, the thing I alluded to at the beginning of the podcast is that tickets have gone on sale for next July for the opening day of Chris Nolan's The Odyssey.

51:44Chris Hewitt:And I read a report saying that most of them have already sold out. Yes. And people were going, this is ludicrous. Ludicrous asking us to book tickets for a year in advance. And then everyone else went, no, it's not ludicrous at all. I know exactly what I'm doing that day. And I'm watching whatever madness that man is going to unleash on the biggest screen possible. Is this the first time that tickets have gone on sale while the film is still filming? Like, they haven't even finished making the bloody film yet. That's a very good point, yeah. Also, does this mean the Odyssey enters the box office charts?

52:16Is this going to chart higher? I don't think it works now.

52:20Chris Hewitt:It counts next July. But they must have paid for their, if you're pre-booking. Yeah, but I don't think you can just go, Odyssey will go straight into the thing. Tickets get pre-booked months in advance. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It all counts towards the opening weekend. Okay, okay. Yeah, I think it'll be open. It's like when people pre-order books and that all goes on your… Right. Like Helen went straight. Straight in at number one. Straight in at a number, that's for sure. I think it's a number. It's hard to tell. It's quite small. It might be far away. I don't know. I've got so many books I can't keep track.

52:55Chris Hewitt:That's exciting. I think that's exciting that you can buy those tickets. Of course, we, darling, will get in for free. Using my standing on each other's shoulders wearing a massive coat. Right, yes, yes. that one yes three kids in a trench coat yes always works another thing I want to talk about is that Robert Eggers is beginning to set as they say in movie magazine parlance his cast for his new movie Werwolf yeah you need to say as Scandinavian as possible Werwolf Werwolf isn't the V thing more like Polish German really okay yeah Yeah, der Wolf. And of course, where was Nosferatu said? Germany.

53:41So, you think about it,

53:43Chris Hewitt:isn't it? Anyway, he has once again gone to his book of casts and gone, yes. And he's pointed at Aaron Taylor Johnson with whom he worked, of course, in Nosferatu. And then he's gone, Lily Rose Depp with whom he worked in Nosferatu. might be said that the best thing to happen to Lady Rose Depp apart from obviously being born and being alive is Anya Taylor-Joy being unable to do Nosferatu because it's opened up this relationship this working relationship with Bobby Eggs it has but also she was freaking incredible she was no disrespect to her there I love sorry I'm just reading from AN Film site I won't say which about this film and they say while plot details are under wraps based on the title the film will likely revolve around the mythical monster.

54:36Wow. I mean... Okay. Journalism. Again, no disrespect. That's what we do as well. But like, we know nothing, so we're guessing it's about a werewolf. There we go.

54:46Chris Hewitt:That's exciting. Anyway. It's good casting. Good cast. I mean, probably. We don't know. If she's being cast as an extremely muscular werewolf, I would suggest it's not great casting. But assuming she's, you know, fragile and imperiled, I think she'll do that brilliantly. Yeah. And what about him? He's hairy and muscular. doesn't mean he has to be a werewolf God no but it would be interesting if he's halfway there let's be honest right I see did you see him recently at the British Grand Prix being pursued it was hilarious did I talk about this last week's show? you did yeah okay being pursued by Martin Brundle and then having to every time he saw Martin Brundle during Martin Brundle's grid walk at the beginning before the Grand Prix and Martin Brundle walks around the grid trying to find famous people to interview and like three or four times he walked past a frankly, palpably terrified looking Aaron Taylor-Johnson who every time he saw Martin Brundle would suddenly turn tail and run off in the other direction.

55:41Chris Hewitt:But Martin Brundle could not pick him out of a fucking lineup. Well, why don't we cast Martin Brundle as the werewolf? No, because he's going to be... Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the victim, you know, continually going in the other direction. We could be on something. We have something here. But I've got him here marked for my remake of The Fly because he's Brundlefly. Anyway, but this is exciting. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily Rose Depp in Bobby Omelette's new movie, Wehrwolf. I have to say, I love how much airtime Martin Brundle gets on this podcast. I listened to your interview with Joseph Kaczynski and your first question was Brundle.

56:16It's all I can talk about. Speaking of people we can't pick out of a lineup, I'm just Googling him.

56:21Chris Hewitt:We've worked together for literally years. You were at my wedding. I was at yours. Oh, you could pick Martin Brundle out of a lineup. I mean, I've literally got his picture in front of me now and I don't think I could. Honestly, I hope you never have to pick Martin Brunel out of a lineup. I believe him to be a law-abiding citizen. So I'm sure that'll be fine. You pick his voice out of a lineup. That's the real question. No. Because he's more famous for the voice than the face, right? So he's a commentator as well as a person who harasses celebrities. No, he used to be a racing driver. He used to be Formula One racing driver.

56:51Chris Hewitt:So perhaps you'd know him by his helmet. We're not that close. Come on. All right. anything else you want to talk about? Yeah, a couple of things. They're going to do an animated version of Oh, The Places You'll Go. The Dr. Seuss book that everybody gets for people is like a graduation present or a christening present, which is a lovely book. It's very, you know, uplifting and encouraging, but I don't know that it has what you'd traditionally call, oh, I don't know, a plot. Yeah. Is it a short film? Like five minutes? I don't know, but Ariana Grande and Josh Gad are involved in an adaptation of it.

57:29directed by John M. Chu with original songs by Pasek and Paul. What? Coming in 2028. So I feel like maybe it's not a short film, maybe it's a film.

57:41Chris Hewitt:It's like the Horton Hears a Who or... Yeah. Yeah. Or the Lorax. But John M. Chu is busy directing another franchise that has no narrative with Hot Wheels. Oh. I thought you were going to do Wicked Part 2. No, no, no. It wasn't Wicked Part 2. No, no, no, no. Yeah, because Wicked Part 2... No, Wicked Part 2 is pretty much done. Yeah, that's under control, right? Yeah, I mean, it's probably still going through. John and Chu's listening to this. It's not fucking nearly done. He's like, fuck you, fuck you. I haven't slept in months. But in the sense that he filmed it a long time ago. He did, yeah.

58:14The VFX work is well underway, I'm sure. And he's not doing that himself.

58:17Chris Hewitt:He's got other people to do that for him. He's got other people to do that for him, yeah. So I think, you know, that's probably... I mean, I'm not saying it's done, but I'm saying, like, there's a plan, there's a strategy, there's a timeline. like that's chugging along I would imagine Hot Wheels I've got no fucking clue but this could be chugging along in the background as well yeah alright sounds good yay there were some trailers this week as well weren't there there were there are there have been there is there is the new trailer for Luca Guadagnino's After the Hunt yeah which stars Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield and Andrew Garfield and Iyo Adebiri yeah really Yeah, Michael Stuhlbarg and just really good people.

58:58Very good.

58:58Chris Hewitt:Michael Stuhlbarg, star of the amateur. It seems to revolve around Io's character making an accusation of maybe sexual harassment or worse against Andrew Garfield's character. Yikes. And both of them sort of appealing to Julia Roberts' character for backup or, you know, validation or aid or something. Okay. And so everybody being caught in this kind of trying to figure out what the right thing to do is, basically. The right thing to do. That's exciting. This is going to be in the Venice Film Festival, I believe. Are you going to Venice this year, John? I think so, yeah. I think, yeah, it sounds like, I don't think they've announced the lineup, but it sounds very likely it'll be there.

59:42Chris Hewitt:It's exciting. Very exciting. Luca Guadagnino, Julia Roberts, Io Edebiri, Andrew Garfield. I'm just saying names now, but yeah, sounds fantastic. There was one other trailer that I did watch, because it had bright colors in it. And that's the sort of thing that attracts my eye. Big fan of Movie Drone. And it is Pixar's latest Hoppers. This is super cute. The idea is that two researchers, two scientists, have built a sort of a fake animal that they can project their own minds into. And then they can go out among the real animals and learn their ways and talk with the animals, walk with the animals, and generally like do research.

1:00:24And the problem is that they're, I don't know, a young person, a child or tween who they have allowed into their lab thinks this sounds like a great idea and kind of co-ops the machinery and goes for, if you will, a walk on the wild side as a, I don't know, a beaver? Robotic beaver, yes. Robotic beaver. Yes. Please try not to giggle. What? Naked Gun is next month. That's true. so but it looks very charming it looks really funny and sweet and I have no idea where they're going to go with this concept and what we're going to see but the scenes we see in the trailer are well done and entertaining well done and entertaining nice beaver nice beaver indeed yeah in the trailer I think one of the characters says it's nothing like Avatar yes but it is quite a lot like Avatar and so they're sort of trying to get ahead of that maybe this is like Avatar for kids.

1:01:22It looks really fun. It does. It looks really fun. I'm looking forward to Hoppers 2 The Way of Water. It's not like Avatar. It's not like Avatar. When you were listening we just covered this.

1:01:33Chris Hewitt:That's good. That's good everybody. Well done. Well done everyone involved with that. I'll be out next year and it's good to see Pixar making original movies and hopefully that will do better at the box office than Elio did because Elio has not fared well. All right. Should we have another guest? Let's. Shall we have Galactus? Hurrah! Yay! Galactus, I love... Your herald in Galactus. I am the herald of Galactus. I love Galactus so much. I hope he wipes the floor with those do-gooding Fantastic Four dickheads when the Fantastic Four First Steps opens in cinemas next Friday, July 25th. He will be played.

1:02:12Chris Hewitt:He is a gigantic cosmic entity of enormous immeasurable power who is beyond such mere concepts as good or evil, but not apparently beyond hunger because he runs low on this cosmic energy that he uses to basically just gamble around the universe doing nothing. And he recharges his batteries, if you will, by eating planets. It seems to work for him. As you do. Yeah. I mean, I just don't think I could eat a whole one. Well, I could eat a Mars. Really? Yeah. Anyway, he eats planets. And in Fantastic Four First Steps, he comes to Earth where the Fantastic Four, Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss Bachrach are established as the heroes and protectors of that world.

1:03:02Chris Hewitt:And he says, nice planet, I'll eat it. And they go, oi, don't do that. And then shenanigans ensue. Now, he's played by Ralph Inneson, an amazing British actor who shot to fame as Finchie in The Office. And then, as something we talk about in this interview, had a bit of a career lull after that where people kept typecasting him as Finchie and he couldn't really get a second act going. But then Bobby Omelette's Robert Eggers cast him in The Witch and everything changed just a few years later. Now he's eating earth. that's a promotion, I'm saying. So Ralph Anderson, he is from Leeds. He is a wonderful guy to talk to.

1:03:47Chris Hewitt:You know this, John. You wrote the cover feature. You spoke to Ralph Anderson. Yeah, he was great. Yeah, I asked him if he thought Finchie or Galactus was more evil. And he told me Galactus is just hungry, but Finchie's a proper... Bang, the bang. And that went in the piece. Finchie has thrown a kettle over a pub. What has Galactus done? That's right. absolutely nothing and I went along to speak to him in a London hotel room the other day after seeing about 20 minutes of footage from the Fantastic Four First Steps footage in which I cannot emphasize this enough Galactus does not appear so at the time of recording this podcast I have no idea what he really looks like I have no idea what he sounds like and that formed part of the basis of our conversation which you're about to hear now do please enjoy Delighted to be joined in the Emperor podcast by Galactus himself, Ralph Aniston.

1:04:41Chris Hewitt:How are you, sir? I'm very well, thank you. I'm not too bad. I am not too bad. What's it like to hear those words, Galactus himself? Yeah, it's strange. This is my first day of press, so I'm kind of getting used to it. Yeah. We're good guys. It's an incredible privilege to be the first person to play Galactus. and I, yeah, if I didn't quite realise it when I was offered the part, my son taught me very soon exactly how big this character was. So yeah, it's been amazing. Yeah, he's big in all sorts of ways. Yeah. Yeah. So what did you know about him when you were first offered the gig? Very little, to be honest.

1:05:26I knew about The Fantastic Four from this kid and I'd seen the previous movies with my son so he's now 25 as they'd come out as he was a kid so he taught me like viciously like a Victorian school teacher for about a month making me read everything and watching movies yeah he taught me the world of Marvel all the stuff that I you know I'd seen certain films I dipped in and out but I didn't really have a proper knowledge until that. So I spent a month solid learning that. So at this point you had the gig, you had the job. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was the thing, I was just offered it. Wow. Because I was like, I got off, I asked to go meet Matt Chapman for a coffee on Sunday morning in Richmond.

1:06:17I was like, okay, that's a bit weird. It's probably one of these things where he's gone, I've got this idea of you playing a character but the studio don't like it. I'm going to test you anyway. here's your tips yeah I thought it was going to be one of those kind of chats so I sat there having a coffee room and he starts talking about your character your character so you hadn't been told anything not really no yeah I hadn't been told I'd got it and he kind of I think assumed that I'd been told or there was some kind of assumption I kind of stopped to help and he went what am I and he went oh sorry if you want to I'm like of course I want to you know It was a very surreal moment for me.

1:07:01Usually you have to win these characters for many screen tests over meetings and all this kind of stuff. It's a real slog at times, yeah. And I kind of walked out and rang my wife and she went, and I kind of basically said, I think I've just been offered characters in a Marvel thing. And I had to kind of ring my agent the next day and she was like, well, he's offered you it. And I was like, I think so. So she had to ring and I went, and everybody yeah yeah we wanted to play it and I'm like oh my god so so I didn't really say this I expected Jeremy Beedle to pop out of a door

1:07:37Chris Hewitt:this was a great opportunity Ralph for you to you know to do your agent out out of some cash you know because you could you could have discussed money straight with Matt and then told your agent you've been offered a completely different number because no one would have found out because it's so low key that's the thing about Marvel stuff it's so it just goes under the radar it goes under the radar yeah No one would ever have known. So your son gave you this one-month Galactus school. I could have done the same, by the way. He's my favourite comic book character of all time. But at what point in your conversation with Matt in Richmond did the word Galactus come up, and did he explain what Galactus was to you, or were you just bluffing it throughout?

1:08:21I think I actually knew more, because I'd been told I was having a meeting, but I wasn't really told which character for.

1:08:31Chris Hewitt:Okay. So I'd done some last-minute cramming for a few days. Who do you think it might have been? Anything around the Fantastic Four. Okay. So I kind of knew a few Galactus Wars and things like this. So I did know more than perhaps Matt thought I did. So I've seen about 20 minutes of the movie, and for obvious reasons, Galactus hasn't been shown to us yet. I'm incredibly excited to see what he looks like and what he sounds like. Me too. When did you, I mean, Jesus Christ, where did you even start with this character who is literally largely in life and is beyond mere concepts of good and evil and is this cosmic force?

1:09:10Chris Hewitt:It's not something you play every day. No, it really was a strange one. And, yeah, you kind of, you find it over a bit of time. It wasn't a, because there's nothing logical that you'd normally do, that you'd ask the questions of a character, the achievement, all these kinds of things, because none of the things apply to collectors. It's none of the way you'd usually try and get your head around a character. None of it really works. So I just started thinking about the size of it. And it started with that, and breath. I'm lucky that my voice does vibrate through my body naturally anyway. Yeah. So my breath, I can make my breath sound in my head.

1:09:51So I started it with his breath and the size of him. And so like the voice kind of came quite naturally because Galatzin's voice is much deeper than my speaking voice. It's deeper than your speaking voice. Yeah. That's hard to believe. It comes right from the kind of lower part. So this is a speaker destroyer of voice. This is going to be a Dolby rumbler. Yeah, if ever I'm going to be able to rumble a Dolby, it's this character. It was strange just physically trying to find the size of the character and then working with the voice and the breathing all the way through. It was just suddenly like, oh, my God, I'm finding these parts of my voice that I've never quite found before.

1:10:34Jeez.

1:10:35Chris Hewitt:It's going to be very deep. about your voice. Your voice is incredible. When did you first become aware of it as this incredible tool to use? Yeah, it was never much. Has it always been this deep, for example, since 17, 18, something like that? Yeah, younger than that. Younger than that? Yeah, my voice never really broke. It kind of slid. I was... I'm still waiting for mine to break. I was a really unnaturally deep voice, kind of nine or ten-year-old. People had talked, people had talked, people had talked. Who's this urgent? I'm expecting it to be there. My voice slits. My dad had a very deep voice that he got from his mother, my grandmother.

1:11:20She sounded like a deep voice man. So it's genetic, but I'm the first to use it.

1:11:28Chris Hewitt:Have you aided it over the years? Have you augmented it in any way? There's a great story on The Exorcist and Mercedes McCambridge, smoking cigarettes drinking whiskey eating you know drinking raw eggs as well to try and get a voice more gravelly or is this just all natural well I'd like to say that I do I do smoke 60 a day 80 a day what are we talking about not that many but I did I actually managed to give up for five years and nothing changed so I do think it's more genetic you've done the groundwork yeah but I don't treat it the best so it's probably got a little bit of extra growl because of my personal abuse well well look you're reaping the rewards and football as well I think that's half the thing because yeah that's what really shreds my voice what's shouting yeah because you're not in control of it needs man I'm guessing yes yeah okay excellent so lots of reasons to shout scream shout and scream over the years it is fascinating I mean I was thinking coming into this this is the second film you starred in that could be called a selfish giant Yes.

1:12:37I'm kind of playing that one. He's not selfish though.

1:12:40Chris Hewitt:Yeah, because I was going to say, how do you think of Galactus? Do you think it's fairly selfish, you could argue? Yeah, but then it's like you're going to be selfish and you call him evil. He's a force. He doesn't have choice over those things. You've got to have some kind of choice to be evil, surely. It has to be some kind of moral thing. He doesn't see it as evil. He's below and beyond that. You say it's like being angry with a hurricane or a tsunami or something. It is what it is. It destroys what it destroys because it has to destroy it for its existence. So you can't... And it's indifferent to a hurricane.

1:13:19Chris Hewitt:It's indifferent to the damage it leaves behind. It has no idea what it's doing and Galactus is the same. The same. You think of just life span. Galactus is 14 billion years old, and a human lives to about 80 years. Yeah. An ant lives to about eight months. You know how much closer a human is to an ant? To Galactus. So it's not very surprising that he's got no real interest in what humans do on their Earth. It's not really important to him. It's just an extra bit of a sprinkling on his meal. A bit of gorrish. So were you on set at any point during this, or was this very much kind of on the volume, on the screen, voice gig?

1:14:03No, three or two-thirds of it was in suit, in the full suit, practical, on set, but not working with the guys. It was mainly working on my own with the crew with this huge costume. And then the other third was in the motion capture.

1:14:20Chris Hewitt:Okay. So it doesn't matter. So you got to wear the Galactus costume? It's incredible. It's the most incredible costume. I think it's the greatest thing Jack Kirby ever did. It's absolutely amazing. The way this works as well. Every single joint of the finger and thumb is articulated. Everything you could do, I can do that. Yeah, it moves so perfectly and it's so huge, but it helps rather than performance-wise. Yeah. I feel like they're absolutely nuts.

1:14:58Chris Hewitt:Yeah, because it must imbue you with this sense of power. You have this incredible helmet with these... Neck like that. Yeah. Big muscle. Yeah, so it does kind of change your mindset slightly. So does that mean... You make you feel very weedy when you take it all off. You take it off and you go, oh my God, is this all that's left? Oh, that's rubbish. Ralph, you're a unit. Come on, man. Not comfortable acting. This is true. Most of us aren't. You've had this really interesting career. I think most people have seen you first as Finchie in the office. And then after that, you were in loads of stuff.

1:15:37But I think from the outside looking in,

1:15:40Chris Hewitt:things really began to kick off you in the last 10 years or so. I'm guessing it was the witch that put things over the top for you. Is that the case? Absolutely. Yeah, I completely changed the trajectory of what I was doing. I'd spent a lot of time working on some really good quality shows, but never really being asked to play characters that can have a journey or there was much side to them. I was playing a lot of henchmen and bad guys. And I guess you got offered a lot of Finchy-type roles as well? Yeah, I did for a few years. a lot of, you know, if there was a sexist, a misogynist, a homophobe or something, you know, I was kind of in front of the list, which was a little annoying for a while.

1:16:23But yeah, when Rob Eggers cast me in the works, that really did change everything from it. Which was really good.

1:16:29Chris Hewitt:Did you get a sense of that on set? Because you're working with this guy, you've worked with him again since? Yeah, yeah. No, from the moment I met him actually, I just kind of immediately kind of thought this guy's a genius. I was so young when I first met him on Zoom, you know, before we filmed The Witch, that just knew the intelligence just kind of radiates often. So yeah, he was great to work with. That's amazing. Because before that, you've been in, I mentioned The Selfish Giant, which is a film I love, and Clio Bernard is terrific. And, you know, you were in the MCU before this movie. Yes, I was.

1:17:04Chris Hewitt:With the first Guardians. Yeah. What do you remember to that, first of all? It was great because it was in a period when I was doing a lot of British cop shows and stuff. To get to, around the same time we did Star Wars and Small Five and Star Wars, to get to work on those sets in any capacity is just great. You know, Guardians of the Galaxy, some of the sets they built that we got to wander around on. the way the supporting artists have done all the prosthetics and yeah just to get to experience that level of filmmaking is a joy even if you don't really like Were you slightly concerned at all when you went to talk with Matt that you had been in the MCU and that might have hindered you from getting this there is a tradition Ralph I don't know if you're aware you know Eben for example has also been in the MCU he was in the Punisher series so there is a tradition of people playing two roles in the MCU.

1:18:03Chris Hewitt:But was that a worry for you at all? Somebody mentioned it, and I was like, seriously, I was Yondu's pilot, man. I'm not only lying. If I lose this game because I did that. You cannot not let me play Galactus because I was Yondu's pilot. That would be so on track. I'll have a great Yondu. Yeah, no, he's amazing. He's amazing. I'm glad you're going in a couple of minutes. But has Galactus stayed with you? when was the last time you were in in the suit has it been a while oh yeah it's been a while because I the reshoot stuff I did was in World Cup so yeah I probably haven't been in the suit since about November last year ok alright and is it a character that stays with you er it it was it was a great character to to shoot and And, yeah, it does kind of stay with you because of the world that you're bringing Galacta to life in this world.

1:19:09And that's a really, really big deal for a lot of people. So, yeah, he stays with you in that sense. You know, I don't kind of go home and start talking to my wife like Galacta.

1:19:21Chris Hewitt:This is the way you eat, too. Calling her my herald. Yeah, precisely. Trying to, you know, I must consume this apple. It doesn't quite work that way. No, I'll leave all that stuff at work. Yeah, you do kind of realise that I carry the responsibility of being Galactus for millions of people now. Absolutely. That's terrifying, but cool. Last thing, you're a Leeds fan. You've shouted and screamed at them over the years. They're in the Premier League this season. How do you think it's going to go? I hope we stay up. It's about, yeah, I think that's it. 17th? Yeah, 17th will do me. It'll do. That'll do nicely.

1:20:00That'll do, mate. How do you think your voice will be by the end of the season? It obviously depends on how many games I get to go to. Yeah, if it's many,

1:20:09Chris Hewitt:it'll be pretty shredded. It'll serve you well. It'll serve you well. Brilliant. Ralph, it's been a pleasure. Thanks, man. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, that was Ralph Inneson, star of the Fantastic Four First Steps. Galactus himself, my favorite come-up and character of all time. I'm so excited. Oh, my God. And we'll be discussing in the Fantastic Four first steps on next week's show, which is exciting. Hopefully they have put Galactus in it this time. Fingers crossed. Yeah, hopefully, A, they finish the fucking film and it actually, this is all we got, guys. Just 20 minutes. And hopefully Galactus is Galactus.

1:20:45Chris Hewitt:I know he is because we've seen little bits and pieces of him. Not like that. But he's not a cloud like he was in Rise of the Silver Surfer. Pfft. Piff. Bah. Bah. Bah. That's what I say to that. Anyway, We'll be talking about that next week. Right now, it's time to talk about the movies that are out this week in the multiplex and on your sofa-plex. Let's start with Friendship. Shall we, Helen? Oh, that's lovely, Chris. What a concept. Oh, thanks. It's really nice. Nicest thing you've ever said to me. Oh, God. Only nice thing you've ever said to me. You idiot. Okay, so yes, Friendship is the new film from Andrew DeYoung, and it stars Tim Robinson as Craig, who is an exec who works for a company that tries to make apps and products generally more addictive.

1:21:32That is his job, right? But no one seems to be, let's say, addicted to him in his life. His wife's played by Kate Mara, who has recently been through a battle with cancer. She's on the mend, but let's say that Craig doesn't seem to be dealing well with it. Let's be generous and say he's maybe processing the trauma at this point himself. Jack Dylan Grazer plays their son, who's a teenager, and therefore, you know, going through his own stuff. And then Austin Carmichael, played by Paul Rudd, moves in down the street, and he's just cool. He is a TV weatherman. He plays in a band. He gets like cool.

1:22:14Chris Hewitt:A band good enough to be in our movie festival? Respectfully, I would say no. However... Is he slapping the bass, man? He is not slapping the bass. he is like rocking out. It is a bit of punk so they could play on the bill with the green room band. Okay. Yeah, they're the what was it? Mayor, what's his name? Sucks band. All right. I forget the name of the mayor. Anyway, so yeah, he's just cool, right? And Craig is just enchanted with him and just sees this as I'm going to have a friend. He's cool. He's going to make me cool. I feel cooler by association. They go on little adventures together. And then Craig just becomes a bit too invested, let's say, in this friendship and just kind of keeps pushing for more.

1:23:02Chris Hewitt:Comes on too strong. Yes, and then relentlessly so, and then it just begins to deform his whole life. So I really enjoyed a lot of this film. I think it's so funny at times. It is just unbelievably awkward to watch at times as well. There is a bit of cringe humour in this, so if that is not your thing, like, buckle up. I'm expecting a lot. I haven't seen this movie. Okay, yes, there is a lot. Okay. But it's not, like, full, it's not reliant on that. It's not full The Office. It does kind of go to some places as well. And I do have a little bit of a sense that they didn't quite know. It feels like a shaggy dog story.

1:23:40It feels like they started with this great kind of concept and these great characters and then just kind of meandered a little bit. But it was meandering in ways that I found entertaining and weird and just different from anything I've seen, certainly recently or really before. So I just had a good time with it. I think there is a thread here about, you know, the difficulties of forming friendships as an adult and especially as an adult straight man. I think that's a difficult thing to do at the best of times. And it's fair to say that Craig is not experiencing the best of times. but yeah it's just it's very it's just great great character work and great great script writing I think for the most part even though as I say I find the plot a bit meandering just the moments and the and the beats of it and the the dialogue is just so so sharp and so clever that I had a really good time it's all very kind of autumnal looking this is a weird time of year for it to be out if I'm honest

1:24:40Chris Hewitt:you know it's been out in the States for a while now yeah it's yeah Yeah, I think I'll be honest, I probably would have sat on it till October if it were me. But at the same time, I had a good time and it's unlike anything else currently in cinemas, which is a nice thing to see. So this is written and directed by Andrew DeYoung. Correct. And I was surprised when I discovered that he had written this because Tim Robinson, in case people don't know who he is, he is the star and creative driving force behind I Think You Should Leave, which is that amazing sketch show that is on Netflix, three seasons.

1:25:13Chris Hewitt:not every sketch is a winner but my god the ones that hit they stay with you sometimes you close your eyes you can't escape them they're there and Tim Robinson is someone who absolutely like he's the inheritor I think of Larry David's cringe comedy King Mantle and he absolutely has cornered the market in comedy that just makes you want to tear the flesh off your bones yes and so I was surprised that he hadn't written this or wasn't involved with it creatively because it feels like it was written by him for him as I understand it it was written for him as in it was written with him in mind I think the character was written for him to play it feels like it must have been and it does feel very much of a part with what we've seen him do before the same way I'm writing The Something Guys for Will Ferrell and Ryan Gosling yeah very much like very much like that okay so sharp so funny yeah Just like something guys.

1:26:14Chris Hewitt:Two Estonians, and there's a werewolf. I know Beth Webb managed to see this when she was in the States a couple months ago and absolutely loved it as well. So we've given this four stars. And I cannot wait to see it. Four stars for friendship. We haven't given four stars, spoiler alert, to the Smurfs. John, tell us why. Yeah, well... If you just want to read out your review, because I keep hearing it's very, very funny. So do you want to just read it out? We should say it's Smurfs. Just Smurfs. Just Smurfs. There's no definite article. It's like Fast and Furious. Yeah, yeah. Smurfs up to the streets.

1:26:50Yes. Well, I'm going to spoil my review and say, just by way of explanation, I gave this film one star. One star. Which is a very rare thing we do. We don't give one stars out very often. We've gone months without a one star review. and you know it's it's it's very much reserved for special cases but i just i have very little good i can say about this film i i really disliked it i hated it i found it cynical uh i found it horrible um so yes this is essentially a soft reboots of the franchise there's the belgian cartoon series um that was you know it was an animated show for a while and And then we had a sort of hybrid live-action, a couple of live-action animated films in the 2010s, I want to say.

1:27:43And then there was a... Hank Azaria as Gargamel. That's right. Katy Perry then was Smurfette. And then there was an animated film a few years ago, Smurfs' The Lost Village, which was Demi Lovato. Wow. Is that how you say her name? Sure. With Smurfette. And we have to have a pop star playing Smurfette. So this time it's Rihanna. As you will know, if you've seen any of the marketing, you would think the film is called Rihanna is Smurfette Smurfs. Yes. And I don't know. Do you need to know the plot for this? I mean, it's barely a plot. You know what you need to know? You need to know that it's actually not built around Smurfette.

1:28:23By the way, like Rihanna is terrible.

1:28:25Chris Hewitt:Does she leave and fuck off her balcony halfway through? No, no. But, well, metaphorically, yes. but Rihanna is terrible casting as Smurfette, right? Rihanna has way too much cool to be Smurfette. Like, Katy Perry is good casting as Smurfette. Open brackets, uncomplimentary, close brackets. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Rihanna, no, Rihanna is not right for Smurfette. Baby, she's a firework. We have finally found something that Rihanna cannot do, and that is fit the role of Smurfette, because the role of Smurfette is simply not cool enough for her. I refuse. I couldn't figure out what was upsetting me about the early scenes where I see Smurfette in this film, and it is that.

1:29:07It is a fundamental disconnect between actor and role. And I'll tell you what's worse. They have cast James Corden as the likable put-upon Smurf who is at the heart of this story, and whose story it is. It is not Smurfette's story. It is No Name Smurf's story. And No Name Smurf is played by James Corden like it is 2007. It is quite strange. I mean, I will say, I know James Corden is an easy punching bag. And I think he is capable of doing good. I saw him in One Man, Two Governors. I saw him in One Man, Two Governors. He was brilliant in that. He's a talented actor. He was astonishing in that. He's done some really good stuff.

1:29:52I think both he and Rihanna are not good in this.

1:29:55Chris Hewitt:isn't it? Hang on, aren't they both in Ocean's 8? Are they? Are they both in Ocean's 8? Was he in Ocean's 8? I believe he's in Ocean's 8. Oh, good Lord. Anyway, yeah, No Name sings a song in this film. I mean, there's a lot of songs. It's essentially a musical. I think it was originally pitched as a Smurfs musical and Rihanna has a couple of songs as well. His song is maybe the low point of the film. It's just interminably earnest. I don't know I mean yeah what can you say about this film it just feels it has the whiff of corporate mandates is what I've said in my review is that the character name?

1:30:35corporate mandates I know I'm corporate mandate yes I think because it's there's some maybe the reason it's been made is for some complicated rights reasons it's gone to a different studio feels like that and they're just like trying to hold on to the film rights but it's very tedious. No name, his whole thing is he's, you know, the Smurfs naming conventions, they're like, you know, Vanity Smurf or Grumpy Smurf. They're like the dwarfs. Vanity Smurf, wasn't that the one who was originally voiced by Billy Lord? But here in the UK, we get Ryland Clark. Ryland Clark. No disrespect to Ryland, but like this whole stunt casting of local people is stupid and pointless.

1:31:16Yeah, unless of course they

1:31:17Chris Hewitt:cast us, in which case we're fully on board. I'm not on board with being in the Smurfs. I hate the Smurfs. I don't want anything to do with the Smurfs. I mean, you know, that's the other thing. I don't know who likes the Smurfs. I mean, I guess... Maybe kids. Maybe kids. I think it's there for little kids. And I think it might even work for the less demanding among them. I don't know. I just... Nothing about this is new or fresh or exciting. Even the Rihanna songs, and she hasn't released an album in like a million years because she's been busy living her life. Even those are not particularly exciting.

1:31:49and I just and like they go to Paris for no reason and the Parisian geography makes no sense and there's another female Smurf there which is weird because canonically like Smurfette was meant to be like a lure to you know destroy the Smurfs so anyway that's a whole thing

1:32:05Chris Hewitt:but then how do the Smurfs procreate? no and then there's and then they go to Australia for no reason are the Smurfs big in Australia? why why are they suddenly in the outback for no point at all I don't understand any of the decisions creatively that this film makes the Gargamel has a brother I was hoping spoiler now I will say something that may get you back on board Chris I'm not on board I was never on board just to clarify there's a very cool warrior smurf who is voiced by Kurt Russell five stars five stars then for Smurfs which of course is directed by someone good no no no no it is No, not that Chris Miller.

1:32:51Chris Hewitt:No, I know it's not that one, but it's directed by someone good, Chris Miller, who's actually directed things that make sense and where people don't fall over. He's the director of Shrek the Third. Yeah, but it's not a good Shrek film. It's one of the best four. Oh boy. You know, he's been in stuff, he's directed stuff, he directed Puss in Boots. That's a good film. No, he directed the first one, not The Last Wish. But the first one's still solid. No. I'm not going to have Chris Miller's name, not that one, be besmirched. This is, everyone has to eat, like Galactus. So maybe this is what he had to do.

1:33:29He did do Captain Underpants, the first epic movie, which I think is a fun movie.

1:33:33Chris Hewitt:There you go. So with that in mind, and with the knowledge of Kurt Russell's in this film, but then again, Russell Corden, oh, I don't know. It is tricky. He was in Ocean's 8, by the way, James Corden. Yeah, but that was a long time ago. So I thought we as a society had moved on. Hey, Ocean's 8 is a solid movie. I didn't say it wasn't. Okay. By the way, Kurt Russell voices a Smurf called Ron, which is another thing that irritated me because, you know, No Name's whole thing is that he doesn't have a trait. You know, all the Smurfs are named after their traits. Except for Ron and Ken. Except for Ron and Ken.

1:34:11And Ken, his brother. And Papa Smurf, whose trait is he's, you know... He's the daddy. He's the daddy? he's just like the patriarch who's and like yeah what's going on there and Smurfette's trait is woman I guess that's you know she doesn't have a trait other than female it's all very troubling that's a trait and there's some random drive-by body shaming in this film as well for no reason just saying

1:34:35Chris Hewitt:I realize I said Chris Miller the director I didn't want his good name besmirched I should have said besmirfed I'm sorry I almost said that I apologize I thought that's too that's too low what a That's too low hanging fruit. What a smurfing smurf. Not for me it isn't. So one smurf then for smurfs. And finally, four letters of love. I can think of four letters of love. Helen O 'Hara, tell us about this please. So this is directed by Polly Steele and it is written by Niall Williams based on his own book, which has very good reviews. It's very beautifully lyrically written. And I think this film kind of goes to show how difficult it is to adapt a book where the big selling point is the beautiful lyrical writing.

1:35:20The beautiful lyrical writing. Rather than, for example, the characters of the plot.

1:35:24Chris Hewitt:Such as it is. Such as it is. The idea here is that two young people are destined to fall in love, right? That is the basic thrust of this story, is that young Nicholas, who's played by Fiona Shea, and Isabel, played by Anne Skelly, are destined to fall in love, but they keep not meeting because of stuff going on in their lives. So Nicholas's dad, who is, and here we're getting to the interesting bit, played by Piers Brosnan. Oh, this is a Piers film. Yeah, this is a Piers film. So we're in 1970s Ireland, and Piers Brosnan is a government bureaucrat, and one day he has a divine revelation that tells him to quit his job and go to the West and paint.

1:36:08Chris Hewitt:I've seen a film in which Piers Brosnan quits his job working for the government, but he didn't go and paint. Well, he did, but he painted the walls with bad guy's blood. And it was called one of the James Bond films. He was in. I forget which one. Alan, are you saying he said in the film maybe he shouldn't be living there? Essentially, yes. So he goes off to the West to paint, which causes lots of trouble for his young son, Nicholas. Meanwhile, Isabel is being raised on an island by Helena Bonham Carter as her mum and Gabriel Byrne as her dad. And she's out dancing on the edge of a cliff one day, as we all do in Ireland, with her brother who's played by Wheel of Time's Donal Finn.

1:36:50And he has an attack of some sort and is left unable to walk, unable to speak. And so her life is kind of shaped by that loss, by that tragedy in the family, as indeed they all are. So it's then about, you know, how are these two people ever going to meet and what's going to happen? And look, it's all beautiful looking. It's shot in Donegal and in the glens of Antrim and it looks lovely. It's meant to be Connett somewhere but we'll draw a veil over that.

1:37:19Chris Hewitt:Helen's geography-o-meter is going I mean look like one of their shots is like evidently Murloc Bay. I know I thought exactly the same thing. Of course you did. I knew you did. I knew you would. I had to stop the film and walk around for a little bit to compose myself. Understandably so. And they're all wearing fabulous jumpers and everything. Lovely jumpers. And I understand that the 70s on an island off the west coast of Ireland is like the 30s anywhere else. Like I do get that outside of the city's Ireland took a wee bit of time to catch up and maybe that's why they all look like they're in a famine era drama.

1:37:50But at the same time, it is really a very shaggy dog story which doesn't really go anywhere very fast and I did find it a bit frustrating that the characters, especially the young people, were not better drawn. I think we get a little bit of colour from the adults in this scenario. I think they all have a bit of something going on. And I don't think it's a performance I think generally these are all good people but I don't I didn't think Isabel and Nicholas made a case for themselves to be the protagonists of this film

1:38:19Chris Hewitt:she looks like a Jodie Comer regen though don't you think just like it's like are we already replacing Jodie Comer is this I'm finding it hard to keep up she has incredible hair as well lovely hair and don't they all have lovely bottoms oh good lord and she did good work in the Nevers we know she's a good actress I just like there's not enough to her character or to Nicholas's character in this to really make them feel like the protagonist. And they don't meet for fucking ages. They don't meet for fucking ages. And that works in Sleepless in Seattle, where their characters are nevertheless the focus of the entire story.

1:38:52And you get that these two people are both wonderful people and you want them to be wonderful together. But in this case, they're not even the focus of the stories that are happening on either hand. So you just don't really care if they get together or not.

1:39:07Chris Hewitt:And national treasures abound in this movie. Helena Bonham Carter. Not... Perhaps does the best Irish accent out of any of them. And I'm including actual Irish people. Can we talk about Bronholm? Because this is becoming a bit of a problem, isn't it? Yeah, I would say he's maybe been gone too... And look, I say this as something... You've been gone too long. I've lived over here longer than I live there now. But at the same time, his Irish accent is a problem in a number of things now that he's tried to essay an Irish accent in recently. It's not good. It's not. I would go as far as to say it's quite bad.

1:39:45Chris Hewitt:Well, I think he's being very democratic in that his accent covers the entire island of Ireland, sometimes within the same sentence. And maybe drifts into the Atlantic. I love him to bits. I love him so much. He is Piers Brosnan. And he does bring a lot of charisma to this role. I enjoyed him as this kind of... He looks very windswept, doesn't he? Yeah, with dreadful wig, but you know... And he sells it. He really does sell it. And Gabriel Byrne is good. No, Gabriel Byrne's Irish accent is very, very good. It's when Gabriel Byrne does other accents that I bump up against a little bit. But yeah, Brosnan's accent, I don't know, I think someone needs to sit him down and show him stuff.

1:40:26Play him some tapes, maybe.

1:40:27Chris Hewitt:Play him some Father Ted, perhaps. Weirdly, his English accent is better than his Irish accent. Like, he can do a passable English. Oh, he's very good English. Yeah. Yeah. But this, yeah, this is, I mean, Helena Bonham Carter had like a couple of wobbles, but really far fewer than she. She speaks Irish in this. Yeah, far fewer than you'd expect. She's solid, very solid. Absolutely. Unlike the film, sadly. Yeah, I'm afraid so. Which I thought was a little bit, what's the word? Tedious. In the extreme. Yeah, I'm afraid I gave it two stars as well. I wanted to love it more than I did. Does it have a character who thinks he's a bee?

1:41:01That's what I want from my Irish films. Wow, that's a hate crime.

1:41:06Chris Hewitt:oh from Wild Mountain Time Wild Mountain Time yes yeah I was like what the fuck are you talking about I know we've been doing this a long time but I think John's lost his damn full mind Wild Mountain Time no that is a real film that exists it is it's a film an Irish love story where the star-crossed element is that the man thinks he's a bee that film makes this film look like Gandhi I don't know why I chose Gandhi as a comparison point there but nevertheless less what's the best Irish film like what the best film Gandhi wasn't shot in Ireland Commitments all right yes okay Sing Street is very Irish Sing Street that's very good Banshees obviously about Inner Sharon Banshees about Sharon Calvary Calvary The Guard The Guard yeah good stuff The Guard yeah Neil Jordan film maybe yeah yeah yeah My Left Foot you think no let him get there he's so close and the name of the father that's Jim Sheridan oh yes there it is unbelievable Michael Collins there we go alright I'll do it again that film makes this film look like Michael Collins there we go good movie even better man two stars two stars for, what's it called?

1:42:33Chris Hewitt:Four letters of love. Yes. There we go. Oh, my word. And on that note, that is it for this week's Empire Podcast. Join us next week for more film-related fun, but we'll be joined by Matt Shackman, director of The Fantastic Four, First Steps, and hopefully, because it hasn't happened yet, but apparently it will happen, making his return to the Empire Podcast. It's only the star of several Martin McDonagh films, honorary Irishman Sam Rockwell, star of The Bad Guys 2. That's exciting. Hooray. That's exciting for everybody. So there we go. But until then, until we meet again, until that auspicious occasion, it is goodbye from my two colleagues of such lethal cunning.

1:43:25Chris Hewitt:Goodbye to you, John Nugent. Goodbye. goodbye to you Helen O 'Hara toodaloo and it's goodbye from me I'm off to stand on a balcony for no reason whatsoever and survey my loving audience scum subhuman scum thanks for listening see you next week bye bye