The Shameless Plug #11: Peaky Blinding

0:15Hello Pod, I'm Chris Hewitt and welcome to the latest episode of The Shameless Plug, the show in which I sit down every month with the editor of Empire Magazine, the award winning editor of Empire Magazine, the award winning editor of Empire, winning empire magazine nick disemlian and we talk about the brand new issue of yes you've casted empire magazine and we uh peek behind the curtain and tell you how things came about hello nick hello chris how are you doing i'm all right where are you i'm at home i'm i have just read the final page of our issue we've had such little time to put this uh put this new issue to bed which we'll be talking about on the next episode um but i'm really really really happy with it i think it's amazing um it's actually been the cover story uh just to be a little bit cryptic uh has been stumped in the making um but this issue has been like 11 working days in the making which has destroyed us all and so i am half lempest half man um but the issue's looking great and you wrote quite a lot about yourself i did i did but not the cover not the cover story uh that will remain cryptic for the time being it'll be announced i guess early jan i think that one in case people didn't hear what Nick said because we're doing this on teams this is a first for the Empire podcast and Nick's connection has been brilliant until the minute he said this cover's been six months in the making and then it all went a bit haywire Nick doesn't have a microphone either but I think he sounds alright so we are moving ahead we're moving apace and we should say yes we're here to talk about the brand new issue of Empire that has issue 449, which means, hey, Nick, we've been talking about whether we will be doing something special for issue 450 for a long, long time on this show.

2:07And you've been saying, no, not really. And I think that's kind of not true. There is something incredibly special lined up for 450. But we can't say what it is yet. There is. So there are limits to how much we can say. There is something very, very special. very special indeed let's say an issue of special magnificence one might say that's not a clue, is it a clue? I don't know but we should say as well that because of the fagories of the Christmas break we are recording this, Nick's at home I'm at my home and this is Monday 22nd of December it is 4.46pm I have just paused the darts between Rapid Ricky Evans and James Wade and a tiebreaker in the deciding set to come in to record this.

2:54We are going right close to the wire with Christmas. And because of that, because of going to the wire with Christmas, we've had to do the issue we'll be talking about on next month's show in about, what, a week and a half? Two weeks? Obviously, there's been lots of prep for it before that and stuff. But the actual business of it, we finished this issue, the one we're about to talk about, the Peaky Blinders issue. And then we immediately went straight into 450. We slammed into it. I think it was 11 working days, which is not a lot to put an issue of a big magazine together. And, you know, one with photo shoots and illustrations and all kinds of complex things going on in it.

3:33But it's come out great, I've got to say. My wrapping is coming together less great. I'm covered in sellotape as I speak to you. And let's not talk about that. What did you get me? I got you this podcast. This episode of this podcast. You're welcome. Thank you very much, Lee. You got me issue 449 of Empire Magazine, which has – now, this is interesting, Nick, because a couple of months ago we had Stranger Things on the cover, the fifth and final season of Stranger Things. We have another TV show on the cover, but in case people think we've turned it to pilot TV podcast, the magazine, we haven't.

4:10There's a bit of a twist here. There's a bit of a wrinkle to our picky blindersness on the cover, isn't there? Because it's a film? Yes. That's it. That's it. it's a tv show that is mutated into a film sometimes it goes the other way around uh this case it's going from small screen to big um but it's one of those shows peaky blinders that felt very cinematic right from the beginning and it's full of movie stars and big swaggering visuals and cool music and so it's easy to imagine this on the big screen um but yeah it's another the Netflix thing. We haven't been purchased by Netflix, despite appearances.

4:49We are desperately trying. We're open to cash offers, but no, it hasn't happened yet. But yeah, it was sort of a Netflix BBC Co-Pro Peaky Blinders when it started. And it is a gigantic juggernaut of a show. I haven't got the numbers, but let's just say 7 million. I just made that up. But yeah, this is like one of the most watched things on Netflix all over the world. Like it's a very, very British thing. You know, it's about a bunch of very well-dressed gangsters in Birmingham earlier in the 20th century and sort of spanning the first half of that century. And so it's very esoteric and very British, but it has caught on all over the globe and it's become absolutely huge and a big pop culture sensation.

5:40And all kinds of people are into it. Yeah. Created by Stephen Knight, of course. Stephen Knight the co-creator of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is the creator of Piggy Blinders and it has such big names in it never mind the people who watch it, what about the people who've been in it over the years? So Cillian Murphy is the main man, he plays Tommy Shelby who's the head of this crime family, you know, think of it as the Godfather with more flat caps and there have been all kinds of stars in it, Sam Neill has played a big part, Tom Hardy and then Stephen Graham and then in this new film which is called The Immortal Man.

6:16We're getting Barry Keoghan, Rebecca Ferguson, and a whole host of people. It's an incredible cast. And we were on set. We sent Rebecca Nicholson up north to Birmingham, and she visited the set, held a hand grenade, visited the Garrison pub, all the things you would want to do. That's how we get on set of these movies. We hold hand grenades until someone lets us on set of them. And then we put the grenade away, we do some interviews, and then that's that. That's my tactic for sure. It's how I got on Infinity War. I thought you had a Infinity Gauntlet on but yeah, it's a great read and it's the first interviews anywhere on this film on The Immortal Man and we had the first pictures and it was all very, very exciting and hush hush.

7:01Absolutely, so if you want to have a snoop around the content of that you can check it out, it's in the brand new issue which is on sale right now and all good and evil news agents but hey, if you're not necessarily blinded by the picky blinders. What else is in there, Nick, for people who are intrigued by other films and TV shows? Where do we start? Well, let's talk about the review of the year. It's actually one of the things that people often write letters and go, are you definitely going to do a review of the year this year? People really like them. We really like putting them together. I think it's a bit of a doozy this year.

7:36I think it's cool. It's like 20-something pages and we are celebrating all kinds of stuff. From Amy Madigan, Aunt Gladys from Weapons, we've talked to her about playing the year's most iconic villain. We've got a piece on the eyeball from Alien Earth, the year's other most iconic villain. We talked to Mark Gatiss about his blockbuster year turning up in a Marvel film and a Mission Impossible film. Nobody saw that coming. We talked to Sam Rockwell about his Crazy White Lotus monologue. You did a breakdown of the submarine scene from Mission Impossible, which was fun. Got Paris Leeds talking about what it feels like for a girl, which is a great TV show.

8:19Adolescents talked to Jack Thorne. There's lots and lots and lots of good stuff in here. We should say as well that, so this is the, what issue is this? Is this the March issue? No, it's the February issue. So this is the February issue. I'm losing track because I'm working simultaneously on the March and April and May issues at the same time. So this is a February issue. Traditionally speaking, for years and years and years, the review of the year in Empire came out in the January issue, or thereabouts, or tended to come in the issue that was on sale in November. And only recently have we switched to the issue that's coming out right at the tail end of the year.

9:00And this is something, and I know this isn't why you did it, but this is something I've been agitating for years to do, because it just seems so strange to me that we would review the year before the year had officially finished. And obviously there were still films we hadn't seen at that point by the time we were putting review of the year together. And I'm really glad that we're doing this. Why are we doing this? Why did we make the shift after all these years? Well, I think it was just that we wanted to do it a little bit later. You know, I think the logic was always that we wanted to get it out ahead of other reviews of the year so that, you know, we're not coming so late that everyone by then is like, yeah, yeah, another one of these.

9:37but the later you go, the more you can fit in and the more stuff we've seen. I mean, even now, Marty Supreme is not in our list of the greatest films. And that's purely because enough people didn't see it at that point that we didn't get to see it early enough. Otherwise it would definitely have been in there. Our number one of the year though is sinners. And we sent him on woman to meet Ryan Coogler. And there's a big four page interview with him. That's fantastic. There are other great things inside the issue as well. we're going to go through the issue very very quickly not at our usual luxurious pace but we're going to talk through some of the other features in there there are fewer features this month because of the huge review of the year and because of the picky blinders thing both are huge but there are other features we have Nouvelle Fague which is Richard Linklater's letter of love to the French New Wave and to A Bout de Souff aka the original Breathless très joli Monsieur Linklater wrote us a piece, he's written us a feature what?

10:42how amazing is that? that's incredible and it's in English, not French, which is a bonus because it was 50-50 yeah, it's a fantastic piece and it's kind of like half the making of the film and half just an appreciation of the French New Wave and how it impacted all of his movies and played a huge part in him as a filmmaker that is amazing did you know that um the french new wave the filmmakers they when they got together they would go on an adventure's uh looking for treasure and uh they they coined a dance move known as the truffle shuffle okay i knew something terrible was coming but i was powerless to stop it truffle shuffle yeah goonies yeah legoonies

11:33would it would the film just end with yeah with a freeze frame of chunk looking into camera yes it would be yeah doing the truthful shuffle uh that would be absolutely amazing uh what else do we have we have the bone temple we have 28 years later the bone temple this is exciting we spoke to nia da costa who's taking over and directing duties uh from danny Boyle. We talked to Jack O 'Connell who's playing Sir Jimmy Crystal, the leader of the Jimmies. A truly terrifying crew. And we spoke to Ray Fiennes and it's a great read. I haven't seen this film yet but I'm hearing very good things from people who have and some people who have just curled up in a ball in the office and haven't spoken since they saw it.

12:15So apparently it takes all the craziness and terror of the first film and dials it up to Jimmy. That's a great feature. And I did something cool this month as well. I interviewed Matt Damon and Ben Affleck together. You may have heard of them. They're old pals from in and around the Boston area. And, you know, obviously they grew up together as actors and writers and won an Oscar at a very, very young age with Good Will Hunting, which remains absolutely terrific and became huge, huge movie stars. and then didn't work together for years, despite the fact that they were childhood BFFs and remain BFFs.

12:58But over the last few years, they have eased their self-imposed restrictions on working together, and they've worked together on The Last Duel, which they also co-wrote with Nicole Holofs Centre, and Air, which I only saw recently, Nick, and I thought was absolutely terrific. It's so much fun, Air. It's so good. Ben Affleck directed it. Matt Damon's in it as well. And now they're together once again in Joe Garnaghan's cop thriller The Rip. And to celebrate this, I sat down with them for about an hour or so. Damon was in his home. Affleck was in his home. And they were so fun and smart and really clear-eyed about their Hollywood experiences.

13:43And about, you know, because they've been through so much shit. I think Affleck in particular in terms of sort of, you know, trial by tabloid over the years. but they've come out the other side and they're as firm and as fast friends as ever and they're making really really good movies together with their company Artists' Equity and it was just a joy to talk to them I loved the detail in your Q &A about how the Peter Jackson Beatles documentary kind of played a part in getting them back together isn't it that Matt Damon was watching it? Yeah Matt Damon was watching it and the bit where they were playing on the roof made him cry because there was a a Chiron came up on the screen afterwards and said, this was the last time the Beatles ever performed together.

14:23And I think he and Ben were beginning to come together at that point. I think maybe the last duel had happened by that point, but it made him cry. And he said, what are we doing? What are we doing? Why are we not working together? You know? And so they're making it for lost time, which is great. And they're just so fantastic together. This is something we've been trying to do Empire for as long as I can remember is try and do a piece on, I know we've tried before, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in conversation and it just hasn't quite worked out but the timing finally did and it's a cracker piece.

14:55It was great. It was one of those things, it was on Zoom so we obviously didn't do it face-to-face and you're always a little bit worried about what's the connection going to be like and then one of them was a bit late and you're worried about that as well how's it going to eat into your time and you have a plan, a rough plan for your interview and then that goes out the window because everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face, right? And the minute that people start to digress and go off on tangents, your plan just goes out the window. But I remember the first five minutes or so was just hilarious.

15:27It was Matt and Ben just reminiscing about, you know, growing up together and about Ben not being the most reliable when his mother was asking him to take messages and do favours for him. And Matt was the dutiful one who would have to listen to that stuff and then remind Ben of something that his mother had said. and they were just they were going back and forth and having just such a great time together and another thing and this is something to think that you will recognize as well Nick is that when you do interviews with people like you know when you do preparation for it you're really you know you immerse yourself you listen to a lot of stuff you read a lot of stuff and you try you know the anecdotes you know what I mean you know you know what the things that they've said a million times that they've polished and so it's always a joy when you're hearing something for the first time and you can tell that they're having a great time and they're actually bouncing off each other and maybe they're sharing something with you that they haven't really shared before and that's always a great moment.

16:23So it's a really great feature. Again, nothing to do with me, everything to do with them. And yeah, worth a look. So should we take a quick spin through First Word? Let's go. The front section. Okay. Well, we're back to you because the opener is written by you. So you're everywhere. It is. It's Project Hail Mary. I'm so sorry about that. I didn't mean to be. It's a Hubert Takeover. I'm so sorry, but I'm very excited about this. And this is Project Hail Mary. This is a new film from Lord and Miller. In fact, their first live action movie in years since 22 Jump Street, in fact. Of course, they were meant to direct Solo, a Star Wars story.

17:01And they got a little ways down the road with that. And then, how should we say, Creative Differences took over. And they left that project and then Ron Howard came in to finish it. and they haven't made a movie since behind the camera behind the live action camera uh and so this is based on a book by andy weir it stars ryan gosling as a science teacher who is recruited to become an astronaut in a desperate mission to save the earth and he teams up with a an affable alien scientist called rocky he calls him rocky that's not the alien's real name because the alien is trying to do the same thing for his species as well and this movie looks tremendous it's out in march uh i spoke to lord and miller while they were both separately heading to a visual effects meeting and got a real sense of the movie that they want to make which is a emotional funny offbeat but also huge epic crowd-pleasing buddy comedy in space and i could not be more there for it it feels kind of um in the the spirit of the martian obviously andy wayne did the martian talking about damon uh you know it's another space thing feels like it's a little bit more um sci-fi although i gather that they didn't describe it as a sci-fi when when you chatted to them but um no they balked it out actually they uh they i don't think they it is a sci-fi it's unavoidable it's a sci-fi of course but uh that's not necessarily how they see it but it's got an alien in it a kind of a rock a rock monster called rocky so i'm gonna call it a sci-fi i don't care and I think that's a good thing it's a thing that gets me excited for it I can't wait to see it, I think Ryan Gosling has been in space before in First Man but he didn't buddy up with an alien and frankly he should have and we're covering it up If it's a nice guy's in space, I'm fully on board Can't wait for this one What else is in the news section?

18:54It's a very starry news section Beth Webb has outdone herself we've got Hugh Jackman talking about his Neil Diamond tribute performer in song sung blue which i'm hearing good things about uh we've got kristin stewart talking about chronology of water um we've got all kinds of previews and stuff but we've got some really uh interesting um uh sort of offbeat stories so we look into how like indie movies are now getting a lot of merch and specifically clothing from like the marty supreme um what is it like a jacket some kind of apparel which everyone seems to be wearing all these music and film people are wearing to A24 you can get an Aura Fong if that's what you're into, you can get some A24 socks, so we're kind of looking into what's going on we do a piece on The Hunt for Ben Solo which is a film that does not exist and will never exist, but there are some Star Wars fans who really want it to and are doing a hardcore campaign to make it a reality so we we talked to one of them and it's quite an amazing quite an amazing story um they really want it to happen um we uh and we we do a preview of um a film called my father's shadow which is uh two brothers um sort of remembering their dad their late dad and telling a story of uh them when they were younger and him in nigeria and it's got shopper dorizu um really special film that's winning awards and getting a lot of buzz so we we talked to um uh we talked to the director akinola davies jr about that well who's pine and milk pine milk is delroy lindo yes delroy lindos lewisham's finest did you know this he's from lewisham he was born in lewisham i didn't know i didn't know that until just now but um he doesn't mention lewisham in the piece i don't believe but um you find out that he does not drink milk and other facts um it's really interesting and funny and sweet.

20:54He gives the best ever answer. We ask sort of the same set of questions and we have been for years. He gives my favourite answer to the question, what was your role in your first ever school play? It's a brilliant answer. So, what else is in the issue? We have John Newton's review section where he reviews a lot of stuff, or he and other people review a whole bunch of stuff. What's in there, Nick? Yeah, we try and stop him, but he just can't be stopped. He just loves reviewing stuff. We have got Hamnet as the opener. we have got Kill Bill The Whole Bloody Affair, Stranger Things 5 Volume 1 I did, I went with my friend Neil Alcock and we went to Picture House Central, I bought the biggest bag of pick-a-mix, I'm still paying for that I'm still in some kind of sugar coma from that, but we sat and watched all five hours of it and it was tremendous, it was absolutely tremendous I loved it.

21:43Did it change massively? Not really, he's taken a few things away, like the little cliffhanger at the end of Volume 1 is gone. He's added a new bit of animation and there's a CG Paul Dano that is now a major character, which I did not expect. She now has to take on Paul Dano as the big boss and it's incredible. Nobody saw the CG Paul Dano coming, least of all Quentin Tarantino. That is very exciting. And Marty Supreme and Anthony Hopkins' book, which is going to be my Christmas reading. We did all cake it. We did all cake it. I'm upset because I wanted to get the audiobook and he does not do the audiobook.

22:20He only does the intro. Do you know which actor narrates which other very famous actor narrates Anthony Hopkins' memoir? He likes Shakespeare. Shakespeare. He has recently played a famous detective in a series of adaptations. Branagh? Yes. Kenneth Branagh. Ooh. Kenny B himself. Kenny B. So, yeah, Yeah, I'm looking forward to Kenneth Brenner talking about the time he played Hannibal Lecter and Ate a Man's Brains. So does he do the voices? I don't know. I haven't heard it. I'm on the fence, to be honest, about whether I'm not sure. It was like when I listened to the Britney Spears audio book and it was Michelle Williams.

23:06And as great an actor as Michelle Williams is, the vibe is very different. Her vibe is very different to Britney Spears is. So I don't know. I think I might just read it on the page. Alright, I have to edit this over the Christmas holidays So let's wrap this bad boy up By talking about the best section in the magazine The best part of the magazine It is of course the last The adverts? It's the adverts What are the adverts this month Nick? Are we not correcting adverts? I'm not going to go through the adverts There's got to be a line Even in this podcast That I won't cross It is my section, it's the final cut section Which is dedicated to films and television shows that you can see in the comfort of your own home on your sofa.

23:52And Nick, I finished this section two months ago, so you're going to have to talk me through what's in it. Do you remember talking to a man called Joseph Kaczynski? Yes, I do. That was ages ago. Yes, I do. About F1 or F1 the movie, depending on your point of view. And this was great. hey, I really enjoyed this. I've enjoyed talking to Joe Kaczynski over the years, principally for Top Gun Maverick, where he was probably sick of me because I kept showing up every few months to interview him about something or other. And I loved F1, one of my favorite blockbusters of the year. And this was an interview that's kind of about F1, but also is about his career.

24:36He's got a fascinating career. And, you know, he's got such an interesting visual approach to things. and he was very open and honest about how his career in Hollywood began and all the near misses that he's had over the years as well. So, yeah, really enjoyed that. Do you think there's any credence to the rumor that's going around, possibly just one person, I've read their tweet, but that there will be an F1 Days of Thunder crossover event with Tom Cruise as Cole Trickle, teaming up with or racing against Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes? I don't. Would you like to see it? Would you like to see it? No.

25:15Okay. All right. I don't think I would. I think that would be strange. I don't know. I might be wrong about this. I do want to see a legacy sequel that is just called Days of Thunder colon Trickle, like in the Maverick style. I would love to see that. I don't know, honestly, that the affection for Days of Thunder is there in the way that there was clear affection for Top Gun. But it doesn't matter. it would be tom cruise and brad pitt racing in a in a giant racing movie i think it would be cool i think it would get people excited i get that but then who would win maybe you would have maybe you have depended on the cinema you went to they would shoot two different endings the same way they did with f1 cruise would win in hemel hemstead but then you would go to blackpool and pitt would win instead i don't know it would yeah you're right it wouldn't work but um i can dream does that even work i mean are they even the same studio i don't know i don't know but it's um food for thought it is it's very very much uh food for thought as you so rightly say what else is in my my section nick we have um akiva shaffer talking through the best jokes in the naked gun it's a film i'm going to be revisiting over christmas that's the interview that we talked about last month's shameless plug where he showed up uh where i interviewed of rages and then afterwards gay crashed my interview with paul rudd and jack black for anaconda that's that interview indeed uh we have john hughes movies ranked i agree with the number one i gotta say uh we've got paul greengrass talking through uh the lost bus as in the spoiler special slot story of the shot you talked to nicholas mayer the director of star trek 2 the wrath of khan that's incredible i did i was very very excited about that one of my favorite uh films certainly the greatest trek movie and it's the death of spock in that and the story behind that is phenomenal and is so complicated and multifaceted and it's one of the great death scenes in cinema and how it came about and how they pulled it off is quite the tale.

27:15And then just to finish off Brian Helgeland is our time capsule talking through various images from his career and he has some great stories. He did, he did. In fact you reminded me, he emailed me the other day asking if he could get a copy of it so I must I must drop the line and send it to him. Yeah, Brian's tremendous legend, his Cray Twins movie with Tom Hardy as Ron and Reggie Cray is out now in 4K UHD and is 10 years old, which is absolutely sending me because I was on set of that movie. I can't remember being on the set of that movie at the Café de Paris in London and watching Tom do scenes as Reggie in the morning and Ronnie in the afternoon.

28:02And that's how they did it on that movie. And so to celebrate that, I thought we would get Brian on Zoom and show him pictures from his favourite films, from the films he's made as director and writer and some amazing, amazing stories. And he was really moving on Heath Ledger, with whom he worked twice. um yeah it was just such a really really great interview um i love brian he's tremendous so yeah that's in there as well he talks about uh the breakfast place um where the craze had breakfast in real life and in the film and there is a still from the film framed above the table where they filmed it so it's very meta uh it is pelicis on bethnal green road so if anybody listening to this has been there and has a photo of you in there or wants to pop in and take a photo, send it to us, please.

28:51We'd love to see it. It's great. I love doing time capsule because it's so random in certain ways, but the people who do time capsule don't know what images we're about to show them. And so you will get that, you know, I'll either be on Zoom. Most cases will be on Zoom. Sometimes I'll be in person. So Taron Egerton spoiler alert is next issue. and as people will know if you listen to the podcast I went around the Terrence flat in London and interviewed him and I did time capsule and I was literally I had my iPad out and I was just cycling through images and so you get this real fresh response to an image if it's something that really really sticks in their mind and you can get this really lovely lovely natural reaction to it which is great sometimes they'll look at it and go don't remember that and you go shit I don't have a backup but it is what it is literally seeing their life flashing before their eyes but without the death at the end of it so feels much like the experience on the shameless plug Nick thanks Chris I'll take that as a compliment it's been a thrill we're very tired so apologies if you're listening to it if you made it this far we are shells of men Tommy Shelby's of men we're shells there we go but we're really proud of this issue we're really proud of the next one and the one after that which we haven't started on but we're already proud of it but thanks for sticking with us this year and we really appreciate it and we'll see you in 2026 see you in 2026 I'm not sure if this is coming up before Christmas so let's maybe say Merry Christmas Happy Holidays as well and if it comes out after Christmas then just have a great 2026 and Happy New Year and there'll be more Shameless Plugs in the following year we're coming up to a full year of shameless plugs and we're going to celebrate i think with that long-awaited listener readers questions special yeah we're hoping to reach new depths of shamelessness next year um it's going to be particularly devoid of shame all right nick you uh have managed to make it through without being attacked by your cat so well done it's a first it is uh it's picky blinding in fact uh on that note that's it for the shameless plug uh happy new year once again to everybody who listens and thank you so much for listening to this and supporting us as goodbye from nick goodbye and thank you and it's goodbye for me by the way there is an alternate ending to this podcast that you can only get in Blackpool where Nick wins who knew who knew thanks for listening see you next time bye bye