In short
Empire magazine’s August 2025 issue (No. 443) and how its cover lines and collectible “light-up” cover are made, plus highlights of the issue’s main features and sections.
Guests/backgrounds
Nick de Semlyen, Empire editor (co-host). Chris Hewitt, Empire’s pod host. Cover story author Alex Godfrey (Tron specialist) is discussed. Interviewees featured across the issue include Jeff Bridges, Steve Lisberger, Greta Lee, Trent Reznor, Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Akiva Schaefer, Chris Evans, Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, Bob Odenkirk, Timo Tjahjanto, Sharon Stone, Mike Flanagan, Noah Hawley, Stormzy, Nick Offerman, Jesse Armstrong, Priscilla Page, Mark Frost, Gareth Evans, Kim Newman, Tony Gilroy, and Denzel Washington (quiz).
Key claims
Cover lines are finalized days before press; they’re designed to “hook” shoppers (including the top “newsstand” line and roundels). Print is “not dead.” The Tron Ares cover glows when a button is pressed (about 8–10+ seconds) and was pitched to Disney and built with W.H. Smith Travel/TJ Jones.
Notable examples
Light-up Tron cover; cover-line workshop jokes like “Liam Neeson gets Frank”; Tron Ares set anecdotes (Jeff Bridges on Battlezone addiction; a day involving a microwaved burrito); Naked Gun feature riffs on cop shows and Tony Scott/Mission: Impossible; Materialists Q&A with Evans/Johnson/Pascal; Nobody 2 “Turning up the heat” with Odenkirk/Sharon Stone; Alien Earth, Predator Badlands, and Avatar: Fire and Ash coverage.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOExploring the Tron Ares Cover
0:45 to 3:17
Discussion on the cover of issue 443 featuring Tron Ares and cover lines.
“Because this issue, issue 443, the August 2025 edition of Empire, the world's biggest movie magazine on the cover is Nick.”
The Art of Cover Lines
3:17 to 4:25
Nick explains the deliberation process behind choosing cover lines.
“Nick, tell us about the art of cover lines.”
Behind the Limited Edition Cover
4:25 to 7:21
Details on the exciting light-up cover feature and its production story.
“I'm so sad I opened this line of question.”
The Evolution of Gimmick Covers
7:21 to 11:01
Discussion on past gimmick covers and ideas for future issues.
“But the cover itself is very, very exciting, Nick.”
Creative Cover Ideas for Future Issues
14:00 to 15:43
Exploration of imaginative magazine cover concepts, including unique materials.
“We bring back the wet issue and it's made entirely of water.”
Tron Ares: Insights and Behind-the-Scenes
15:43 to 17:45
Discussion about the movie Tron Ares and exclusive insights from set visits.
“So as you say, the cover movie is Tron Ares.”
Interviews and Anecdotes from the Feature
17:45 to 22:55
Sharing anecdotes from interviews with cast and crew of various films.
“You don't always get gold when you go to movie sets.”
The Naked Gun and Liam Neeson Interviews
22:55 to 28:01
Discussing interviews with Liam Neeson and the making of the new Naked Gun film.
“Yeah, if you have a love triangle you want to talk to all three of them at the same time and it became an interview square and it's just great.”
Setting the Stage for Bob Odenkirk
28:01 to 29:56
Discussion about Bob Odenkirk and the complexities of magazine timelines.
“If I cast my mind back is an affectionate nickname that Empire coined for her years ago.”
Thursday Murder Club Insights
29:56 to 33:00
Sharing insights and anecdotes from the upcoming Thursday Murder Club adaptation.
“There are eight features this month, Nick.”
Show all 15 chapters
Features and Interviews in Empire Magazine
33:00 to 35:59
Overview of the features, interviews, and special segments in the latest issue.
“And this month, we talked to Stephen Lang.”
Home Entertainment and Jesse Armstrong
35:59 to 37:54
Discussion about the home entertainment section and Jesse Armstrong's new work.
“There's another cracking issue with some of the best.”
Time Capsule and Film Rankings
37:54 to 40:09
Exploration of the Time Capsule feature and a look back at movies from 1995.
“And we obviously can't do that in a magazine, but what we can do is show people pictures.”
Wrap-Up and Listener Questions
40:09 to 42:01
Closing thoughts and an invitation for listener questions for the next episode.
“would you like to hear a sample question yeah alright I'm not gonna get it right how many BAFTAs has you taken home so far zero correct I knew that one I knew that one there you go Thanks for asking me that one.”
Engagement with Readers
42:01 to 42:35
Learn how to engage with the magazine and share your experiences.
“so you do currently have to go to a WH Smith travel.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:15Chris Hewitt:Hello 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 Empire's editor Nick de Semlyen and we talk through the latest issue of Empire. The show is carefully planned and carefully coordinated so that each episode drops roughly halfway through the cycle of the magazine's on-shelf life. Or should I say, Nick?
0:38Nick de Semlyen:Light cycle. Light cycle. Oh. You set them up and then you also score.
0:44Chris Hewitt:Oh, that's so good. Because this issue, issue 443, the August 2025 edition of Empire, the world's biggest movie magazine on the cover is Nick. Is that the sound a light cycle makes?
1:02Nick de Semlyen:I have no idea. Something like that. Very futuristic looking, incredible light cycle from the upcoming film Tron Ares. Tron Ares, the third Tron movie,
1:14Chris Hewitt:which is coming out later on this year. And we have got it on the cover. And on the newsstand cover, it's a lovely shot of a light cycle. And it's got Tron Ares, the cover line. Rev your digital engines on set for the ultimate state-of-the-art blockbuster. Very good. Some Alex Godfrey magic.
1:34Nick de Semlyen:I got to attribute it to him. He's our Tron guy. Okay. Not to be confused with actual Tron guy.
1:38Chris Hewitt:As in the cover line was Alex Godfrey? Yeah.
1:41Nick de Semlyen:Okay. And he also wrote the cover story. He wrote the cover story as well. Rev your digital engines very much. Godfrey magic. Magic is being given.
1:52Chris Hewitt:people throw the word magic around so much these days it's a state-of-the-art cover line it really is uh what else the cover lines we got alien earth inside 2025's scariest show uh the naked gun liam neeson gets silly uh yeah well maybe we'll talk about cover lines
2:08Nick de Semlyen:it's almost in a second liam neeson gets frank we had we had a lot of permutations of this cover line did i think we had at one point liam neeson smells the fear and we workshopped that You did tell me about that one.
2:18Chris Hewitt:I think I rang you and I was like,
2:19Nick de Semlyen:Chris, is this insane? And I think you were like, I quite like it. And then I was like, no, it's insane.
2:23Chris Hewitt:Yeah, I don't think I was sure about Skyl's of Fear. Then I said, Leon needs to get Frank. And then I saw the cover and you changed it.
2:32Nick de Semlyen:Yeah. So, furious. If you're not up on your cover line terminology, that Naked Gun one is in a circle, which in the industry parlors, it's called a roundel. It is. It is. It's called a roundel. It's a$10 word.
2:45Chris Hewitt:We've never talked about the cover lines in now the fifth episode of The Shameless Plug before we started recording. You pointed out that this makes us the Attack of the Clones. This episode is the Attack of the Clones or The Empire Strikes Back, depending on your point of view. Five stars either way. Five stars either way. Oh, dear God. And there's a lot to talk about. We want to talk about the very, very cool limited edition cover that is available for people who aren't on the newsstands. We'll talk about that in a second. But we've never talked about cover lines. Nick. sounds like I'm reading something off the page.
3:17Chris Hewitt:Nick, tell us about the art of cover lines. How do you decide what gets a cover line and what gets mentioned on the cover in the first place? Well, there's a lot of deliberation
3:26Nick de Semlyen:and discussions of what fear smells like and sometimes, occasionally, if that's relevant. But yeah, we get together. It's generally just a few days before we go to press. It's pretty much the last thing that we do on an issue. And you get the cover and your aim is to... Yeah, we do it about quarter to six. on a Friday. No, the aim is obviously to hook people in. Catch people's eye.
3:50Chris Hewitt:Grab them. It's a grabber. By the way, you got the belly jaffers.
3:53Nick de Semlyen:So it's not necessarily a reflection of, you know, of what we think are necessarily the things that we're most excited about or we're most proud of. It's not like a true reflection of everything that's in the magazine. Let's put it that way. We are proud of all this stuff.
4:06Chris Hewitt:You can only mention, what, six or seven things? At a push. On the cover, you obviously got your big splashes for your cover movie, which this month is Tron. Ares. So how do you decide to...
4:17Nick de Semlyen:Well, the second most important one. So that's the most important one is the cover, the film that's on the cover or the TV show that's on the cover. Right. The second most important one is the line across the top. And do you know why that is, Chris? I'm so sad I opened this line of question. Yes, no, why? Because if you're in a news agent and Empire is behind another magazine, which I do my best to avoid that happening by going into shops and putting it in front of magazines. I wish I was kidding. No, I do that too.
4:43Chris Hewitt:I've been known back in the day when Total Film was still with us I would go into shops and cover Total Film with Empire and I'm sure they did the same as well
4:52Nick de Semlyen:my mum has been known to do that too although once she went to the shop and came back with a copy of Total Film I'm not kidding she said it looked better so
5:01Chris Hewitt:anyway it's because if it's behind a magazine
5:03Nick de Semlyen:then you can see only the very top line so you want something in that line that is going to make people go oh what's that and grab it what a builder So yeah, then you've got a round all, which is just a fun little kind of button thing you can put on. You can actually press it though. But you can press this cover. We'll get to that in a second. You can press a button on the cover. You can press Liam Neeson's button. And then you have the ones that are just like titles or names. So obviously then you are trying to think of the names and titles that are most familiar to people. Yes. So you don't want to put some super obscure person on there, even if they're great.
5:36Nick de Semlyen:It might be a great interview. But this is all about trying to get people to pick up the magazine and leave for it and hopefully buy it.
5:42Chris Hewitt:Can I say, okay, this is interesting. I didn't expect to be making this detour, but here we are. No, I am interested. So at the bottom, you have gone plus, and you've chosen Nobody 2, Materialists, and Predator Badlands. Now, I know for a fact that Tom Hiddleston is in this magazine. Did you consider putting Tom Hiddleston's name in the cover because he has such a huge fan base?
6:08Nick de Semlyen:It's quite long.
6:09Chris Hewitt:It's quite long. You could have said, but then there's Predator Badlands.
6:11Nick de Semlyen:But then also you've got Sharon Stone, you've got Pedro Pascal, you've got a lot of big stars. So you're going titles rather than people. Yeah, in this case, because it's a preview thing. And I think if you put Tom Hiddleston on, he's great, the interview's great, but it's not entirely clear what you want to read. So there's some thinking like that. And you want it to reflect also what the article is. So for instance, we don't put names and titles on unless we actually have some good access, some new material, new interviews. And we didn't want to put, say, Sharon Stone on or Pedro Pascal because they're part of an ensemble.
6:45Nick de Semlyen:So that doesn't reflect what you're going to read. You know, because Pedro Pascal is talking to Chris Evans and Dakota Johnson. Okay. So, yeah, all these are kind of considerations.
6:56Chris Hewitt:You've explained yourself sufficiently. And also Tom Hiddleston.
6:58Nick de Semlyen:He's been on the cover a lot. He has.
6:59Chris Hewitt:He's had a good innings. But if I'm in the newsagent and I see Hiddleston's name, I'm going, yes. That's interesting. What about if you see Liam Neeson get silly? I go, I wish it was Liam Neeson gets Frank. Oh, if only he was serious, I would pick that up. Such a shame. Anyway, all right. So there are cover lines sorted. We don't have to talk about those for another month now. But the cover itself is very, very exciting, Nick. Tell the people why. Well, so it lights up. It glows in a limited edition cover
7:32Nick de Semlyen:that we are doing in association with W. Smith Travel. So you have to go to a W. Smith Travel. I believe it's now called TJ Jones. It's changed its name.
7:41Chris Hewitt:Have they all changed now?
7:42Nick de Semlyen:I'm not sure. I feel like I should know that. But I know the one in Muscle Oil. It's either TJ Smith or WH Jones. Right. So, yeah, if you go to a train station or an airport and you see a WH Smith, go in and grab a light-up Tron cover. It's only a pound more. That is a great deal. Yes, we should say you should pay for this. Don't just go in and grab it. Please pay. Yeah, pay. Render money for goods and services. Yes. And, yeah, you press a button and it glows up and we were like so we had this idea Chris Lupton our creative director and I had this idea many months ago we were always kind of thinking is there a cover treatment that will work for a specific film and so with Tron the first thing you think of is neon and lights and so we were like okay a magazine has never glowed before to our knowledge so how do we make that happen so we pitched it to Disney and they were up for the idea the director was up for the idea and this is a Georgeham running yeah who has the running man yeah who was posted a couple of times he posted a great video from he did the visual effects place where they're doing the visual effects for the movie he's still working on the movie and he posted a shot from the film and then panned down to the to the glowy issue which was very exciting for us
8:54Chris Hewitt:it was very very cool is that the first footage from the film
8:56Nick de Semlyen:that has been out there or is there a trailer there's a trailer okay that's cool but it's very cool it was unseen and some new music as well which some people got excited about so yeah it's one of those you come up with an idea, you kind of then have to pitch it. Obviously, you need the studio to work with you on it because they need to kind of give you the assets. And then we created it. We have a great guy called Carl who works on our production team and they made it happen. They made it happen. How did Carl make it happen? What did he do? We don't ask too many questions about that. How did he manipulate light itself?
9:26He bends light to his will.
Read the full transcript
9:29Chris Hewitt:This is fascinating. So this is, you press a button on the cover and how long does it light up for? That's a great question. I think it's about eight seconds, 10 seconds no it's longer than that it's longer than that
9:38Nick de Semlyen:it's definitely longer than that yeah
9:39Chris Hewitt:interesting
9:40Nick de Semlyen:I haven't checked it I always responsibly turn the button off so but it really works I gotta say like we were we were a little bit nervous there was a prototype that came in and it was like just before the deadline of when we had to have this thing finished and we got a prototype in and Chris and I came in looked at it and we were like it's good but not quite it's not quite what we wanted it to be and we basically asked Carl to put some more lights in and make it better. And Carl did. And we saw it for the first time when everyone else did. A box came into the office on sale week and we pressed the button and I've got to say it exceeded my hopes and expectations.
10:21Nick de Semlyen:So we're really happy with that. Excellent. Yeah, that's good stuff. I hope people like it.
10:25Chris Hewitt:So I love a gimmick cover and because they're more than gimmicks, we should say that as well. And obviously we're trying to sell magazines and so making a splash with a cover does that. If you have a cover that has a collectible edge to it, or something that is cool, or something that's never really been done before,
10:44Nick de Semlyen:that's where you push the boat out. You're looking for something that's never been done, either by us or by anyone, ideally. And that's when it really cuts through, I think. And I think it's just a great way of showing that print is not dead. You know, you get a lot of, like, print is over, it's all digital now, it's all online. Print is not dead. Print is life! Yeah, we're one of the last movie magazines going. and it's just a great chance to make the cover cinematic but it's got to be right for the film. You can't just do it for the sake of it. It's got to feel like you are amplifying something that's cool and exciting about the film.
11:17Nick de Semlyen:So for instance, the Darth Vader breathing cover which I think was the first one that we did, the first high concept cover. Certainly the first one that was super ambitious.
11:26Chris Hewitt:That was Revenge of the Sith, right?
11:27Nick de Semlyen:Yeah, 2005.
11:28Chris Hewitt:So I started at Empire a long time ago and I remember that was when I started round about they were beginning to dabble in different collectible covers multiple covers lenticular covers things like that so lenticular is a bit like those panini stickers we did lenticulars last year
11:50Nick de Semlyen:for Rings of Power season 2 and they were morphing lenticulars so again that was like a new twist but yeah Colin Kennedy was editor and went down a storm didn't it the breathing cover
12:02Chris Hewitt:it did so this was a Darth Vader's face and you could again press a button and he would breathe
12:10Nick de Semlyen:essentially
12:11Chris Hewitt:and there's been other things like that there was like a literal 3D cover I remember for The Incredible Hulk in 2008 where it was molded into
12:20Nick de Semlyen:the surface of the issue so the surface itself was 3D like he was breaking out of it
12:25Chris Hewitt:so we've done you did a Glow in the Dark cover a couple of years ago we had a Kylo Ren
12:30Nick de Semlyen:action figure we did Glow in the Dark for Ghostbusters we did a video cover for Fantastic Beasts yes I remember that well and we did a meta cover for Deadpool I think it was the first Deadpool and we had the cover talking right?
12:45Chris Hewitt:that's right yes we did we had to come up with lines and work with Ryan Reynolds and his writing team if I remember rightly to come up with stuff and that was very collaborative
12:55Nick de Semlyen:he got very involved recorded the phrases for us he did a special video for us which is still on YouTube where you can see him claiming he's locked the editorial stuff of Empire in his crawl space. Which is already semi-true. Yeah, desperately longing for the sweet release of Death, which is true. And then I remember we would have the talking Deadpool covers in our storage cupboard when we had one in our old office. And you would sometimes just hear Deadpool say something. It was really freaky.
13:23Chris Hewitt:So what else? What can be done? What's left? What frontiers have been unexplored? Without giving anything away, but anything you may have planned.
13:30Nick de Semlyen:Yeah. Do you have anything planned? Is there like a really kick-ass cool one? Are you doing kick-ass? It's the 15th anniversary of kick-ass. No, but maybe now. We do have some ideas. I will say there's nothing concrete, but we're always... Concrete cover!
13:46Chris Hewitt:Oh. Hello. Don't drop it on your foot.
13:48Nick de Semlyen:Yes. Yeah, we're thinking, we're planning. You know, it kind of requires buy-in from a studio and from filmmakers, so it's not as simple as us just deciding we're going to do it. Like, it needs to be a conversation. Yeah. but that's the exciting thing I think that yeah there's definitely a couple of ideas floating around so we'll see we'll see what could be done
14:07Chris Hewitt:what would you do
14:08Nick de Semlyen:what boundaries would you explore I don't know I'll tell you I'll let you into one secret okay for June the first June we talked about doing a sand there's going to be a bag of sand with a copy of it we got it priced up
14:21Chris Hewitt:it was I don't know I think it would have been good
14:25Nick de Semlyen:the spice must flow the sand issue
14:28Chris Hewitt:oh I don't know I don't know about that How about that?
14:30Nick de Semlyen:We bring back the wet issue and it's made entirely of water. Again, something we talked about for something that has now passed. But yeah, I think it's exciting. It's like anything. It's like if you can imagine it, you can try and make it work. And I think there are some ideas that we'll take to Carl and he'll just cry. Because they'll be insane.
14:49Chris Hewitt:I've never met this Carl. Where is he? An issue that can go into space.
14:53Nick de Semlyen:An issue. Yes.
14:55Chris Hewitt:Anyway. There's loads of ideas. I remember once there was discussion about could you do an issue where the cover was a mirror? And the idea was that, you know, you're the star of the cover. I don't know.
15:08Nick de Semlyen:What's the cover story? No idea. You have to write it yourself. It was one of those, the readers...
15:12Chris Hewitt:Interview yourself. It was one of those the readers kind of choose everything that's inside the issue
15:16Nick de Semlyen:kind of thing back in the day.
15:17Chris Hewitt:But I don't know.
15:19Nick de Semlyen:Felcro, have we done a Felcro cover? No. We need to involve you in these meetings. Or not. Flammable, have you done a Flammable cover? The Flammable issue. It's covered in dail's in petrol.
15:32Chris Hewitt:With a free match attached. Yeah, you press a button and you stand well back and off it goes. Should have done that for Fire and Ash.
15:40Nick de Semlyen:Should have done that for Fire and Ash.
15:42Chris Hewitt:Let's talk about the issue. So as you say, the cover movie is Tron Ares. I think I'm pronouncing that right. It might be Tron Aris. I think it's Ares. So Alex was on set of this movie, Tron Ares and... Alex was on set as is traditional with these podcasts.
15:58Nick de Semlyen:He's given me some bonus juice that didn't make it into the piece so you can get a bit of a sense of what it's like.
16:03Chris Hewitt:Stuff that was too shit to make it into the feature. By the way, I'm going to bring back my grand tradition that I introduced to one episode of reading out the opening line of each feature to whet people's appetite. This is a good one.
16:14Nick de Semlyen:This is a good one.
16:15Chris Hewitt:The future is now. Do you want to read the next two? Oh, okay. Because that's quite short. All right. Forget light cycles. Jeff Bridges wants to talk. About driverless cars. Wow.
16:30Nick de Semlyen:I've got to say, I want to give Alex props for this beginning because obviously the opening, how you open a feature, especially a cover story, there's a lot of pressure to, you know, make it immediately grabby. And I love that Alex, instead of kind of getting straight into all the plot and character stuff, he starts with just Jeff Bridges chatting about driverless cars and Waymos.
16:49Chris Hewitt:I just want to talk about driverless cars, man.
16:52Nick de Semlyen:He's genuinely, you get such a good sense of, and Alex has sent me the full unexpedited quote which is about a thousand words long, so I'm not going to read it out, but from Jeff Bridges, just kind of musing on humanity and murmurations of birds and the seeds of humanity and super organisms, like just very deep stuff. So I really love, it feels right to start a Tron piece with Flynn just sort of philosophizing on life. So it's really cool.
17:17Chris Hewitt:Because not many people knew he was in this movie.
17:19Nick de Semlyen:Yeah.
17:20Chris Hewitt:And we did not get a picture of him from the new film.
17:24Nick de Semlyen:So it's still very, very top secret, his role. but it was a great get to speak to him but Alex also spoke to well everyone, Greta Lee you know, Steve Lisberger the man who created Tron in the first place and the Nine Inch Nails for a separate feature
17:41Chris Hewitt:which is incredible I've got to say
17:42Nick de Semlyen:so yeah, it's a real Tron spectacular and anyway, so I got some info okay, let's have it okay, so Alex was on set this gives you a kind of feel for how these things can work he was on set in Vancouver for two days but he did not mention the first day he was on set because the scene he saw on day one involved a man microwaving a burrito. Wow. So a character. Yeah. Not just a passerby.
18:05Chris Hewitt:You don't always get gold when you go to movie sets. This is why we often push for multiple days on set. So you're doing a cover story quite soon.
18:14Nick de Semlyen:You're on set for three days, I think, for that. So it's always nice to have extra days just in case one of them involves a burrito being microwaved because that would have been quite a challenging cover story to write.
18:23Chris Hewitt:No burritos were microwaved in the making of this feature except for the burritos on microwave during the writing of the feature. I got one more interesting thing to say. Okay. And then I'm done. You haven't said anything interesting so far, but okay.
18:34Nick de Semlyen:So Jeff Bridges revealed to Alex that when he made the original Tron, he was addicted to a video game, an arcade game called Battlezone, where you ride around in a tank. Okay. And often he would have to be dragged away from it to do a scene because he was just obsessed with this little tank.
18:50Chris Hewitt:I like your thinking. I like your style. It is a cracking, cracking feature. and as you say Alex has also written the Nine Inch Nails profile with Trent Reznor and Annicus Finch from To Kill a Mocky Bird the opening line is it's coming in hot says Trent Reznor to find out what it is and why it's coming in hot you will have to read that feature it's not a microwave burrito although that probably was hot hey speaking of things that are hot we have the next feature
19:20Nick de Semlyen:yes is has Liam Neeson
19:23Chris Hewitt:in a skirt on the opening spread and it is written by Nick Disemlian and it has my favorite headline in this month's issue which is The Force Awakens and it is of course about the new The Naked Gun Nicholas we did consider calling it The Force Awakens
19:41Nick de Semlyen:but we oh I'm glad you didn't we stuck to The Force I'm so glad you didn't
19:45Chris Hewitt:yeah
19:46Nick de Semlyen:thank you and this was a joy I gotta say I'm sure you were you know I think you and I were kind of vying to do this one but you'll be hosting our VIP event.
19:56Chris Hewitt:I will. No, I did not pitch for this at all. Oh, interesting. I didn't pitch for this.
20:00Nick de Semlyen:But this was a joy. So I spoke to Liam Neeson, I spoke to Pamela Anderson, and I spoke to Akiva Schaefer. And I am a big fan of all three of those people. I love, if you are not aware of Akiva's work with Lonely Island, get thee to YouTube and just spend a day watching Lonely Island stuff and watch Popstar Never Stop Never Stopping as well. She's heavily involved in. But yeah, he was great. he's very kind of he's funny but he's also quite cerebral about humor and it was really interesting I talked to him for an hour just about Akiva yeah
20:31Chris Hewitt:I'm talking to him today
20:32Nick de Semlyen:for the podcast he's great he's a really sharp funny guy as you can imagine from his work and he's kind of the sort of the technical one of the Lonely Island so he's edited their videos and like he's kind of you know he's in front of the camera as well the creep is what he's amazing in the creep if you haven't seen that music the production values of the Lonely Island stuff
20:54Chris Hewitt:is incredible. Yeah. When they, because Andy Samberg came back a little bit and they came back. Well, I don't think, I don't think, Yorma. I don't think Yorma Ticcone did. But certainly Akiva and Andy came back for a couple of episodes of SNL for the 50th anniversary run. And the song that they did with Charlie XCX is...
21:15Nick de Semlyen:About knocking on your neighbors.
21:17Chris Hewitt:Yeah. Not only is the song brilliant, but the production values of that video that they probably had half a day to shoot is beyond most mainstream studio comedies. They're so slick. There's so much visual invention.
21:32Nick de Semlyen:And I mean, those guys are all massive cinephiles. So Akiva was telling me how with the Naked Gun, the original was very much, the original Naked Gun films like Police Squad were very much kind of riffing on cop shows, old cop shows. This one is doing that as well, but it's also riffing on Tony Scott films. Bad Boys, Mission Impossible. Like if you've seen the teaser trailer with the mask, that's not the only Mission Impossible riff. One of my favorite bits of the film. Riffs on Mission Impossible 3. Is that a spoiler? I don't think it is. No, I love that scene. And yeah, and also just getting to talk.
22:08Nick de Semlyen:So Pamela Ransom was amazing. Again, a huge cinephile. And we started our chat by talking about Wanda, the film Wanda.
22:14Chris Hewitt:Ah, Wanda.
22:15Nick de Semlyen:Love.
22:16Chris Hewitt:Wanda Maximoff, played of course by Elizabeth Olsen.
22:18Nick de Semlyen:Not that one.
22:19Chris Hewitt:Mainstay of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You must have loved talking about that. I'm talking about the Barbara Loden.
22:23Nick de Semlyen:God damn it! But she was really fantastic. And then Liam Neeson. I think this was his first interview on the film. And he had just seen it the night before. And I asked him how it was. And there was a long pause. And he said, shit. And there was another long pause. And then I said in the article, I felt like, you know, when Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, like not sure if he's joking or not. And then he goes, I'm joking, of course. It was fabulous. but he's very he's very deadpan very very very droll and yeah he's a fan of Napoleon Dynamite which I I came away reeling from that interview with that knowledge yeah can't imagine him watching Napoleon Dynamite I just can't
23:05Chris Hewitt:no no I can't I think the last time I interviewed Liam for the magazine for the podcast actually he was just about to go start filming this and I recommended to him I said oh you must love this sort of stuff have you ever seen Top Secret and he went no I don't think so and then I explained the top secret world and he went oh actually no I do think I've seen that I didn't like it and I was like how could you not A how could you not like top secret and B if you don't like that sense of humor then you might be in for a tricky ride but luckily he's come through he has come through alright Nick this is your opening line one object struck fear into the hearts of interviewers around the world throughout the 1980s and 90s do you want to reconsider that line or you have as good as Alex's
23:50Nick de Semlyen:from now on I need to remember to get you to read out my first line and then I can go I do I still freak what they do in the office I need a snappier first line to find out what it is
23:59Chris Hewitt:read the feature it's a good feature
24:01Nick de Semlyen:thanks man
24:01Chris Hewitt:there you go alright here we go next feature multiple choices headline it is about Celine Song's new movie Materialist she of course was the director of Past Lives and she's moved rapidly up the casting echelons here and has gone for an A-list trio in this movie with Chris Evans, Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal and yes, we spoke to all three
24:26Nick de Semlyen:of them together. Yeah, if you have a love triangle you want to talk to all three of them at the same time and it became an interview square and it's just great. I think this was the perfect way to cover this film. We'd had Celine Song the issue earlier talking in the front section of the mag and now you get Pedro, Dakota and Chris Evans just chatting about this film, about love, about life. And there was talk at one point, Alex and I considered asking Celine Song to write some questions for them. Right. But we ended up with the questions from Diana Murray, who interviewed them, and they're fantastic questions.
25:01Nick de Semlyen:And it's a great Q &A.
25:03Chris Hewitt:Okay. The sentence, the feature begins. Give anyone the task of naming the most ineffable, charming stars of today. And odds are, Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal would make that list. Right away. Fair. Got them by the Jaffas. It's fair and accurate, I'd say. Fair and accurate. All right. Some fucking idiot has been allowed. Unleashed once again on the feature section for the next feature, which is about a little film I like to call Nobody 2. Turning up the heat is the headline. It is about the return of Bob Odenkirk as, can you name his character, Nick? John Nobody. Oh my God. it's Hutch Mansell of course or Mansell I think that's how they pronounce it in the States but I grew up on Nigel Mansell beautiful design I've got to say beautifully designed
25:53Nick de Semlyen:beautiful work by our design guys with the the cell we call that so it's a headline and then it's a cell which is the few lines on the opener and they're kind of burning off the page it's like it's melting and then revealing the lines behind it you can just have a look instead of me describing it
26:09Chris Hewitt:you know this is it hopefully people will have the magazine open as they listen to this and they can flick through the magazine as we are. You can hear us flicking through the pages.
26:17Nick de Semlyen:A great picture of Sharon Stone holding a knife and laughing, looking quite maniacal. Was she fun to talk to?
26:23Chris Hewitt:She was a lot of fun to talk to because the idiot who wrote this feature is me, in case I wasn't clear. I love The First Nobody and I was very, very excited to do this. I spoke to Bob Odenkirk. I spoke to the film's director, Timo Chajanto, who is an Indonesian director making his American debut with this movie. and I spoke to the legendary Sharon Stone. She was a lot of fun. She is, you know, formidable, but also very, very funny indeed. And Bob Odenkirk, I've interviewed him a number of times now and he's just an absolute blast. He spoke to me about two hours before he was due on stage in New York for Glengarry Glen Ross, in which he plays, of course, Shelley the Machine, the Fiend.
27:03Chris Hewitt:And here he plays Hutch the Machine, Mansell, who is this unstoppable one-man army. And the first film was tons and tons of fun. I've got really, really high hopes for the second. And this was a lot of fun. Here's my opening line. You can judge it. All right? It's part of a bigger paragraph. So don't judge this line in isolation, necessarily. Bob Odenkirk can be brackets and has been brackets many things.
27:29Nick de Semlyen:If you can put brackets in your opening line, I always do. And as many as you can fit in, I would say.
27:35Chris Hewitt:Yeah.
27:35Nick de Semlyen:No, it's a powerful opening line. I also, I was going to ask you about this line from near the end. So you're talking about Sharon Stone. Yeah. And you say, welcome back Shazza. You've been missed. Did you have doubts about saying Shazza? No. No doubts at all. No, you didn't second.
27:48Chris Hewitt:No doubts at all.
27:49Nick de Semlyen:Didn't consider not doing that. You know you could change things after I submit them. Sorry, I did.
27:56Chris Hewitt:I probably won't do this.
27:58Nick de Semlyen:No, Shazza, she's a Sharon. I read that and I wonder what she will.
28:03Chris Hewitt:I think Shazza.
28:04Nick de Semlyen:She'll enjoy it maybe.
28:05Chris Hewitt:If I cast my mind back is an affectionate nickname that Empire coined for her years ago. Okay. So. It's a tradition you're keeping alive. Shazza Stone. Sharon is a Shazza. But the Bob Odenkirk line, it's a setup for a quote describing Bob Odenkirk that culminates with Bob Odenkirk can be one scary motherfucker. So that's what I'm doing with that opening bit. I'm setting that up later on. I don't just throw the shit together, you know. That's a good feature if you can get past my words. Next up, last month, Mick, you got confused about the timeline. I don't blame you because whenever we're working in magazines, we're working in basically three different timelines at once and I've got the podcast as well so I'm working in four timelines at the same time.
28:47Chris Hewitt:It's a bit like 10-edding.
28:48Nick de Semlyen:Yeah, but without car chases and with more conversations about commas.
28:52Chris Hewitt:Precisely.
28:53Nick de Semlyen:Yeah, I formed the Thursday Magazine Club to work out which issue it was in and Thursday Murder Club feature written by the great Ian Freer.
29:00Chris Hewitt:And last month you were about to drop tidbits that Ian hadn't, again, too shit to get into the feature and you were going to drop them and I reminded you that that actually wasn't in the issue we were plugging shamelessly. Ian has sent me five. Oh God, you only have time for three.
29:15Nick de Semlyen:All right, I'll give you the best for Ian and then you can tell me which is the best.
29:17Chris Hewitt:Okay.
29:18Nick de Semlyen:All right. Okay. When Ian spoke to Celia Emery for this piece, she was zooming in from her cabin on the Queen Mary 2. That's pretty good. Okay. That's pretty good. Chris Columbus told Ian He was also on a voyage and he found a country. that some Americans arrived at the Engelfeld Estate. They thought it was the Downton Abbey house, but it's not. Less good. and this is Ian's favorite see if you agree when you put Pierce Brosnan through the otter transcription service when he says Thursday Murder Club it transcribes it as birthday motherfucker with an exclamation mark
29:52Chris Hewitt:and that's why AI will not kill us all just yet so this is the Thursday Murder Club which is the adaptation that's going to be on Netflix next month of the hugely successful Richard Osman written murder mysteries with an incredible cast Pierce Bronholm Helen Mirren Sir Ben Kingsley and Celia Emery as a quartet of old fogies who come together to solve murders that's basically the log line Chris Columbus is the director and this is a phenomenon a publishing phenomenon so the movie should be huge and hopefully a lot of fun as well here's the opening line
30:29Nick de Semlyen:CSI I think that might be the end piece
30:31Chris Hewitt:yes indeed here is the opening line what a delightful way to spend a summer
30:39Nick de Semlyen:yeah there you go
30:40Chris Hewitt:that's a piss processing quote it's a set up for more it is a set up for more next up we mentioned Tom Hiddleston is going to be in this issue he is in this issue sitting alongside director Mike Flanagan as they talk to us about the life of Chuck their new Stephen King adaptation which is very structurally daring and this is a very very interesting Q &A indeed the opening line Mike Flanagan knows the word feel good isn't often associated with the apocalypse. There you go. Again, right away, Chavez, etc. There are eight features this month, Nick. Usually there are seven, but there are eight features this month in Empire.
31:22Chris Hewitt:The eighth feature is about alien Earth. And our resident alien expert, Ian Nathan,
31:30Nick de Semlyen:The man who's literally written the book, and read the book
31:33Chris Hewitt:that he wrote on Alien. yeah yeah
31:36Nick de Semlyen:about aliens yeah this is talking to Noah Hawley and the cast of what a show that I'm extremely excited for and finding out what the hell they're up to opening the line
31:46Chris Hewitt:a computerized female voice is broadcasting impending doom oh there you go it's another apocalyptic first line it's a it's a strong one so there you go what a cracking feature section we're going to talk about the other sections real quick as well Beth Webb's news section is called First Word and oh it's talking of Alien we go straight to Predator
32:10Nick de Semlyen:yeah
32:11Chris Hewitt:so we have a piece about Predator Badlands which is Dan Trachtenberg's latest Predator movie he made one just two months ago but he's back already with Predator Badlands which is a live action movie in which the focus is actually on a Predator for the first time so so that's good that's exciting good pictures good words yeah yeah yeah happy happy
32:32Nick de Semlyen:indeed Indeed. Indeed. And we've got Lindsay Lohan talking about coming back to body swapping in Freakier Friday. Yes.
32:40Chris Hewitt:Yes, which is out very, very soon. Which is exciting. Let me see what else is in there. We have a trailer talk, which is where Team Empire get together and they say things about a trailer and then all the libel and stuff gets cut out and then what's left is published and it's about Eddington, Ari Aster's new movie. So that's exciting. We've got an interview with Darren Aronofsky about his new movie called Stealing which is one of my most anticipated films of the rest of the year sort of feels a bit like After Hours but with Austin Butler
33:10Nick de Semlyen:yes
33:11Chris Hewitt:a load of gangsters yeah and Matt Smith with the ridiculous punk hairdo which is a lot of fun every month for the last few months and indeed for the next couple months we will be well a whole year one might say indeed is it the whole calendar year really
33:26Nick de Semlyen:wow
33:26Chris Hewitt:almost like you planned it we'll be walking the path to Pandora with a different focus on Avatar, Fire, and Ash. And this month, we talked to Stephen Lang.
33:37Nick de Semlyen:The great Stephen Lang. Quaritch himself. Who is always good value. He tells Ian Freer, are things going to get all lovey-dovey? It's doubtful, pal. I just can hear that. What a great quote. But yeah, he talks about Quaritch and where he's going to go in the next one and his relationship with Spider. You wrote a thing on Spaceballs 2. Let's not talk about that.
33:58Chris Hewitt:So the other stuff as well, we did an interview with Ethan Cohen and Trisha Cook about their new movie Honey Don't and their last one Driveway Dolls was a lot of fun Long Walk which is again one of my most anticipated films of the year which is based on a Stephen King slash Richard Bachman story that has taken a long long time to get to the big screen and weirdly is coming out a couple of months after The Running Man which is a hell of a time to be Richard Bachman he must be getting some crazy checks and speaking of crazy checks no he's British Stormzy Stormzy is in this magazine because Stormzy yes lad Stormzy has made a short film in which he does he produce it and star in it he definitely stars in it and yeah it's called Big Man it's available right now on YouTube and Beth Webb spoke to him
34:52Nick de Semlyen:shock revelation he's really into Sister Act 2 Back in the Habit who isn't
34:55Chris Hewitt:yeah who isn't and Nick Offerman yeah Ron Swanson himself is this month's pint of milk. It's an all-time pint of milk. Some of these answers are among the longest I've ever seen.
35:06Nick de Semlyen:Yeah, he went for it. He went for it. Sometimes when you do a pint of milk, it's an unorthodox interview format, and sometimes you're asking quite personal questions, and sometimes answers need to be coaxed out of people. And other times you have Nick Offerman, who reveals, well, let me just read one quote from this. I've crunched the numbers on this, and I can tell you there is always another sexual position that can be mastered. Thanks, Nick Offerman.
35:27Chris Hewitt:He did not need much coaxing. he goes for it it's a joy to read yes very very jealous of Dan Jolin for doing that one how much is a pint of milk John Eugen's section the review section as ever delivers the reviews that you need to read about the films you need to see or maybe not in this case if you give a film obviously one or two then maybe you can skip it three is of course a recommendation four is a fairy recommendation and five is a must recommendation so So there you go. There's another cracking issue with some of the best. Film writing you will possibly see anywhere. And speaking of some of the best film writing, you will possibly see anywhere.
36:09Chris Hewitt:It's your section. Means we can skip my section entirely. It is Final Cut. It's the home entertainment section. And it's at the back of the magazine. The logic is, Chris, it's too good to be at the front. It's too good to be at the front.
36:21Nick de Semlyen:People would stop reading after and know. It's all everything about home entertainment you need. You talked to Jesse Armstrong about Mountainhead.
36:29Chris Hewitt:I did. I mean, I did. I did. Yes. Yeah, Jesse Armstrong, who, of course, is the creator of Succession and the co-creator of Peep Show. And he has, as his Succession plan, really, I guess, has it, he has written and directed Mountainhead, which is on Sky Cinema right now. And one of the things I like about the final cut section is that I actually like the fact that I hold stuff back often until something is physically out or is out on digital or out on streaming so that people can read the piece and then go see the film or see the film or the TV show and then read the piece. You can kind of, it's kind of,
37:10Nick de Semlyen:read along the mountain head. You can watch five minutes of it, then you can read the line, then go back, watch five more minutes.
37:16Chris Hewitt:You can do that, you can stretch it out, you can have a whole day with just one feature in my section can take up a whole day of your time but that's a great interview with Jesse Armstrong and again nothing to do with me
37:27Nick de Semlyen:entirely to do with him really good installment of the Empire Masterpiece with the great Priscilla Page writing about the Lee Marvin film Point Blank Point Blank which is an absolute cracker I need to revisit that and this piece made me want to ASAP really really great writing yes yeah very much so anything she does is great she's great she's really really great
37:49Chris Hewitt:and so Time Capsule I don't know if people really know what Time Capsule is I don't know if we talked about it on the show which is a regular in my section it was your idea right it was my idea this is something we did years ago we did this as a feature with Michael Caine
38:06Nick de Semlyen:and so
38:08Chris Hewitt:I ripped this off completely wholesale no shame I'll admit it from Mark Cousins scene by scene where he would sit down with it was a wonderful program on BBC2 where he would sit down with actors Steve Martin Sean Connery and he would show them clips from their career and then he would talk about those clips. And we obviously can't do that in a magazine, but what we can do is show people pictures. So we did it years and years ago with Michael Caine. It was meant to be a regular feature and then just never happened. The sequel never really took off. So about a year or so ago, I guess, we brought this back.
38:42Chris Hewitt:And this month's entry is Mark Frost, who is a co-creator of Twin Peaks and it is a Twin Peaks special. Mike Munster, who's a big Twin Peaks fan, sat down with him and talk through loads and loads of great stuff. Spoiler alert, by the way. There's a massive spoiler in the first picture that people will see. But, you know, Twin Peaks is a show that is 35 years old. So hopefully, hopefully most people know what happens, even if you haven't necessarily seen it. But anyway, the whole section is spoilerific, as is the next section, the next feature, which is Gareth Evans talking about the standout moments of Havoc.
39:18Chris Hewitt:And then we have Kim Newman's regular Tales from Kim's Crypt feature which is also terrific we have this one's ranking which is the movies of 1995 the last time we did a year it was the movies of 1985 Nick if you remember it was a disgrace somehow we all voted Commando into the second spot we went Commando and we didn't know what to do with ourselves and we all resigned in disgrace immediately and then walked back in the next day George Costanza style and hoped no one would notice but I'm looking at the top five here from 1995 and I don't think it's a disgrace I think 1995 was a solid year at the movies so that's four of us talking about the movies of 1995 then we have Tony Gilroy talking about Andor as that movie sorry TV show has now finished his run at Disney Plus and this month's quiz is Denzel Washington would you like to hear a sample question yeah alright I'm not gonna get it right how many BAFTAs has you taken home so far zero correct I knew that one I knew that one there you go Thanks for asking me that one.
40:19Chris Hewitt:Danza Washington has never been nominated for a BAFTA, let alone won a BAFTA. Shame on BAFTA. The contents. I'm just looking through it here. I write the contents every month. What have you changed? Alien Earth. Alien Earth. I wrote in Chiswick, no one can hear you scream. You've changed it to game over, Chiswick. Game over. Explain yourself.
40:41Nick de Semlyen:It's a great question.
40:42Chris Hewitt:You're putting me on the spot. You're thinking, how do you remember this stuff, Chris? You wrote that literally three weeks ago. Oh boy.
40:49Nick de Semlyen:What was yours?
40:50Chris Hewitt:In Chiswick, no one can hear you scream.
40:53Nick de Semlyen:I have no idea. I have absolutely no idea. Yours is probably better. They're both good. They're both good.
41:00Chris Hewitt:Otherwise, I think you've pretty much left me alone.
41:03Nick de Semlyen:We should do a split run situation. You can get the version of Empire that has your contents jokes in and the version that has my contents jokes in. I think you've improved my Nine Inch Nails one. I don't remember what I wrote for that,
41:13Chris Hewitt:but I didn't write Anyone Got a Big Hammer. But you did. I did. And that's fine. that's improved it and finally I got my don't know your RS from your LWAB guy again which is good
41:23Nick de Semlyen:and Liam Neeson gets Frank see rejected cover line makes it into context
41:28Chris Hewitt:I think I was aware that it wasn't on the cover by that point so that's why I did that nothing is wasted we'll use the whole buffalo
41:36Nick de Semlyen:no terrible pun
41:38Chris Hewitt:is ever dispensed
41:40Nick de Semlyen:for that you get the nose the fin
41:42Chris Hewitt:the tail the whole damn thing what's the line I don't know anyway so that's on sale right now, all good, evil, and virtual news agents. It is an absolute belter. Cheap at twice the price. The light-up cover, that's still available. Can people get it elsewhere
41:57Nick de Semlyen:or do they have to go
41:58Chris Hewitt:to the WH Jones?
41:59Nick de Semlyen:Well, currently it's sold out online, so you do currently have to go to a WH Smith travel. But that means people just need to book a train or a flight. It's not that expensive. All you have to do is book a holiday, especially, and then buy a copy going out and then buy another copy going out. That's all we ask. We don't ask for much. But yeah, please do. send us photos to our social media of you reading the magazine
42:20Chris Hewitt:not of the glowy of the glowy of the glowy cover yeah yeah
42:24Nick de Semlyen:no nudes no nudes no nudes no nudes is good nudes exactly so yeah we hope you like the issue let us know
42:31Chris Hewitt:I like the issue I love the issue thanks Chris thanks thank you hey Nick the future is now forget life cycles it's time for us to leave alright alright that's it for another episode of the shameless plug hope you guys have enjoyed it next month we might do listener questions yeah so if you have any questions about how Empire works or things we've talked about on the show previously as well as talking about next month's issue which is an absolute belter believe me you want to pick up that month month's issue of Empire as well send in questions I'm on Twitter I'm at Chris Hewitt I'm on Blue Sky Chris Hewitt as well and then we will choose the best ones and read them out next month's show we'll be back four weeks from now four weeks from today it's going to be epic it's going to be absolutely epic in the meantime it is thank you and goodbye once again to my friend my neighbour my colleague my hero my sensee Nick Dissembly it's been a pleasure nay an honour and it's goodbye from me I'm off to get frank thanks for listening see you next time bye bye
From the publisher
This month's episode of The Shameless Plug sees Chris Hewitt sit down with Empire editor, Nick de Semlyen, for a deep dive into the latest issue of Empire magazine, which just happens to have a limited edition light-up cover to commemorate our latest cover movie, Tron Ares. Together, our dynamic duo discuss the art of the cover line, their favourite envelope-pushing covers from Empires past, and the contents of the issue. Nick talks about writing a feature on The Naked Gun, Chris discusses his experiences of writing about Nobody 2, and they both chat about whether 'Shazza' is a good nickname for anyone called Sharon. As Chris Evans (who's in one of the features, fact fans) once said, there's a lot of great stuff inside the issue. Enjoy!