In short
Empire magazine’s May 2026 issue (issue 452) and how it’s made, with a focus on the cover story featuring The Mandalorian and Grogu, plus a rapid tour of other features and listener questions.
Guests
Nick de Semlyen (editor of Empire; co-host) and Chris Hewitt (host; Empire staff). No other guests appear as interview subjects on the show itself, but the issue’s Mandalorian feature includes interviews with Pedro Pascal, Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Jeremy Allen White (as Rotter the Hutt), and Sigourney Weaver (as Colonel/Admiral Ward).
Key claims
This is Empire’s first photo shoot with Star Wars characters; it took about six months and involved Los Angeles soundstage production and “many macarons.” Rotter the Hutt is “Jabba’s son” and a gym-obsessed “swole slug.” The Mandalorian feature’s opening line is “It was the soup that did it.”
Notable examples
John Mugent spending 24 hours as a Mandalorian (plus a Grogu plush day) and being photographed in a bath wearing a helmet; features on Apex (Charlize Theron, Taron Egerton), an oral history of Stand By Me (Rob Reiner tribute), and “Flame on” about practical fire stunts.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VODiscussing the Mandalorian Issue
0:45 to 2:30
Chris and Nick discuss the recent Empire issue featuring the Mandalorian and Grogu.
“Yes, we have shot on the cover the Mandalorian played, of course, in the film by Pedro Pascal.”
Excitement Over the Cover Shoot
2:30 to 5:00
The hosts reveal details about the unique cover shoot featuring Mando and Grogu.
“it's coming out in May and we got Ben Travis to write this feature didn't we Nick?”
Interview Insights: The Team Behind Mando
5:00 to 8:15
Nick shares insights from interviews with key figures of the Mandalorian series and film.
“Well, helpfully, we have an article that breaks down all the various huts.”
Listener Questions and Quick Features Run-Through
8:15 to 11:15
The hosts begin answering listener questions and quickly summarize features in the issue.
“Go Around London and painted blue for the first Avatar.”
In-Depth Features Discussion
11:15 to 14:00
Chris and Nick delve into various features including 'Apex' and 'Stand By Me'.
“So I imagine these things were in your thoughts when you decided to do this.”
Exploring Bob Odenkirk's New Role
14:00 to 15:30
Learn about Bob Odenkirk's portrayal of a small town sheriff and the colorful killers in his movies.
“Yes, he had a movie coming out last week as well called Bulk.”
Feature Ideas and Ben Wheatley's Influence
15:30 to 16:40
Discover the origin of the feature idea inspired by Ben Wheatley and its execution.
“Oh my gosh, that was exactly what he said.”
The Feature on Fire in Movies
16:40 to 18:00
Uncover the intriguing feature about fire in films and its practical effects.
“Although he was on fire writing this piece because it's fantastic.”
Interview with Fire Experts and Stunt Coordinators
18:00 to 19:30
Delve into discussions with experts about practical fire stunts and their significance in cinema.
“And we have Danny Ockelston, one of the world's leading Beatles experts, talking us through.”
Highlights from the Latest Issue
19:30 to 22:40
Learn about the exciting content and features in the latest issue of Empire magazine.
“We have a spoiler special on Wonder Man.”
Show all 21 chapters
Listener Questions and Magazine Insights
22:40 to 28:00
Gain insights into how the magazine is put together and the thought process behind it.
“You have just about 13 more days to go pick this up from good, evil, or virtual news agents.”
The Art of Podcast Commissioning
28:00 to 29:10
Learn how podcast episodes are commissioned and the importance of relationships.
“So there's no right answer or wrong answer to anything.”
Creative Writing Challenges
29:10 to 30:50
Discover the playful challenges writers face when incorporating themes into features.
“Chilly First says, can you do a retro shameless plug on the using all of the Jack Reacher book titles gag for that early article on the first Cruise movie?”
Planning Film Features and Spoiler Specials
30:50 to 33:20
Understand how long-term planning for film features is managed, especially during crises.
“And I put a really daft joke in the Jason Bourne feature.”
Adapting to Changes in Film Industry
33:20 to 36:40
Explore how the film industry impacts publication planning and feature execution.
“I mean, we're reacting to what's happening in Hollywood.”
The Stress of Meeting Deadlines
36:40 to 40:00
Hear about the pressures of magazine production and dealing with missed deadlines.
“And to get Peter Jackson, to get Cate Blanchett and Liv Tyler together, to get Vigo and Sean together, to get all of that stuff that we got.”
Shifts in Publishing Culture
40:00 to 42:01
Learn how the culture of magazine publishing has evolved over the years.
“And it is honestly, it has changed my life.”
Reflecting on Magazine Culture Changes
42:01 to 43:57
Learn about the evolution of magazine culture and work dynamics over the years.
“And we'd all get loads of pizzas from Domino's, and we would just sit there, and you'd be reading pages.”
Listener Questions: Magazine Insights
43:58 to 46:06
Discover how magazines plan and decide on articles while addressing listener questions.
“Listen, I don't think we're going to be able to do all the questions that people have sent in.”
The Reality of Film Festivals
46:07 to 49:16
Explore the challenges and experiences of attending film festivals and how they affect work.
“The one in Rory says, when you're attending film festivals, do you like to spend your free time taking in scenery of summer like Venice or Sitges?”
Scrapping Work: The Creative Process
49:17 to 51:49
Understand the creative process of writers and the challenges of scrapping work.
“And this was back in the day when I was able to pull all-nighters and I would start very late and I was, I think I'd written the whole thing.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:15Chris Hewitt:Hello pod, I'm Chris Hewitt. Welcome to the latest episode of The Shameless Plug, the show in which I sit down every month with the editor of Empire, Nick de Semlyen, and we chat about what is inside the brand new issue of Empire. and this month this is the way for on the cover is the Mandalorian and his little pal Grogu it's the Mandalorian and Grogu folks it's exciting isn't it Nick? hello hey Chris I'm clad all in Beskar for this podcast the finest
0:50Nick de Semlyen:only the finest Beskar yeah I don't know why I bothered because no one can see me but um
0:54Chris Hewitt:I would like to see the Navy but yes
0:59Nick de Semlyen:you are correct this is the Mandalorian and Grogu issue we have had Mando and Grogu on the cover a few times but this is the first time we've ever shot them in fact you shot them?
1:11Chris Hewitt:well
1:11Nick de Semlyen:did they shoot first? you shoot first? McClunky we we went to Los Angeles and we found them busy at work finishing their movie and this is actually the first time in Empire history that we have done a photo shoot with Star Wars characters and they were very nice fortunately
1:27Chris Hewitt:they didn't have any tantrums Who was in the Mandalorian armor? Can you know? Can you say? Was it Grogu? It was Hans Sourlo. There you go. This is very, very exciting indeed. Yes, we have shot on the cover the Mandalorian played, of course, in the film by Pedro Pascal. If you don't know what this is, this is a film. It's a film continuation, I guess, of the Mandalorian show. The Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni created Mandalorian show, which has been huge on Disney Plus over the last few years. Mando, he's of course a Mandalorian bounty hunter, Din Charin is his name, and he has a little ward little Grogu, little baby Yoda so adorable so delightful, and now Jon Favreau Favs himself is directing this movie, it's coming to the big screen, it's going to be the first Star Wars movie in seven years, and more of course if you ignore the existence of The Rise of Skywalker and this is exciting it's coming out in May and we got Ben Travis to write this feature didn't we Nick?
2:37Nick de Semlyen:we did our very own Grogu full of innocence and joy and but he'll he'll fuck you up he will he'll vomit on you he'll eat he'll steal your macaroons space spiders he'll take your macaroons is it macaroons or macarons?
2:52Chris Hewitt:I think it's macaroons but it might be
2:54Nick de Semlyen:I feel like we had a big conversation it's spelt macaron but I've always been in the office during the making of this issue. But yeah, no, Ben did the thing. But yeah, we should talk about the shoot before we dive into the mysteries of the cover story because yeah, this was very exciting. This was like a big, old, huge production that took us about six months to put together. We had the idea, we've done Mando and Gregor on the cover a whole lot. How do you do something different? And we thought, why not try and shoot them? and so we kind of came up with the conceit of them behind the scenes on a soundstage making their movie in Hollywood and we proposed that to Disney and Lucasfilm and there were many, many calls and conversations and it's obviously a very complex business.
3:39Nick de Semlyen:Many macarons to buy for Grogu.
3:41Chris Hewitt:Many macarons died.
3:43Nick de Semlyen:Yes, they all got eaten. To bring us this cover shoot. But yeah, it was really special. I couldn't be there myself. I really wish I had been because I would have loved to have got a selfie with Grogu. Andy Demando hey Pedro
3:56Chris Hewitt:take off the helmet Pedro hello
3:57Nick de Semlyen:and he runs away wants to preserve the mystery there he goes but we got Grogu just before he headed off to the Oscars he can't clap but he can pose and we got great shots and in fact our subscriber cover this month is Grogu holding a clapper board looking bloody adorable that is so exciting love that image
4:17Chris Hewitt:oh that's amazing and inside Nick in the feature itself Ben has spoken to many, many wonderful people.
4:26Nick de Semlyen:Who's he spoken to? He's spoken to Pedro Pascal. Yep. Spoken to Jon Favreau. Yep. Spoken to Dave Filoni. Yep. He has spoken to Jeremy Allen White. What? Who is playing Rotter the Hutt, a character that we're all obsessed with. This is a swole slug. Imagine Jabba the Hutt if he had gym membership and was just eating protein bars and flexing. I mean, it's quite something. Jim Bro Jabba.
4:57Chris Hewitt:Jim Bro Jabba. He's related to Jabba the Hutt, isn't he? He's Jabba's son.
5:00Nick de Semlyen:He's Jabba's son. He's Jabba's son. Well, helpfully, we have an article that breaks down all the various huts. So how many huts can you name?
5:09Chris Hewitt:So Jabba, Jabba's the easy one.
5:11Nick de Semlyen:Jabba and Rotter, that's premature. Rotter the Hutlet. Yeah. There's also Zero.
5:16Chris Hewitt:Yeah.
5:17Nick de Semlyen:And the Twins, whose names? I can't find but they were in the book of Boba Fett being carried around on some kind of
5:26Chris Hewitt:some kind of platform
5:27Nick de Semlyen:so yeah there is Jeremy Allen White the star of the bear very serious fespian actor man is playing
5:35Chris Hewitt:a slug he's playing a slug we know more about this movie now we know a little bit more about the story it's all in here it's a great feature written by Ben who's a big Star Wars fan and a big Mandalorian fan and he loves Grogu more than life itself. It's a great read. His opening line is it was the soup that did it.
5:57Nick de Semlyen:That's a cliffhanger. I want to know more. You've got to know more. Our next cover story also has soup involved in it. So maybe this is like a What? We'll reveal all in a month's time. But yeah, there is a portion of soup involved in our next cover story which is quite a tease. Ben also talked to Sigourney Weaver we should say. Yes. Who is making her Star Wars debut. Yes. She's a queen of sci-fi. She's done Alien. She's done Avatar. And now she's in Star Wars as Admiral Ward. She's ticked them all off.
6:27Chris Hewitt:Colonel Ward. It's amazing. Colonel Ward. Oh, God. What do I want? She's been demoted or promoted. Which is higher, a colonel or an admiral? I'm saying an admiral. Admiral would probably be higher than a colonel. I'm guessing. Sorry, Sigourney. Yeah. Maybe in the next film. I might be completely wrong about that. But I think that's the case. Interesting. That's exciting. Hey, Nick. So this week, we have endeavored to take listener questions. We've been promising it, slash threatening it. since the shameless plug began over a year ago. So we're going to race through the issue a little bit faster than we normally do.
6:58Chris Hewitt:We're not going to talk about every feature. We're not going to talk about every page of my section, even though they are all perfection. But what I do want to talk about is something that I think is very, very old school empire. And that is a sidebar in the Mandalorian piece, where John Mugent spends 24 hours dressed up as a Mandalorian. well I say he dressed up as a Mandalorian he got a helmet of the internet and put it on over his normal face and wore his normal clothes and went about his business and this is a very old school empire thing
7:30Nick de Semlyen:yeah this is very much the Timu version of the Mandalorian of Grogu because we also got a cuddly Grogu plushie which John spent a day with but yeah this is a lot of dreams came true this issue we got to shoot Star Wars characters for the first time and we also got to shoot John Nugent in the bath which is something we've been trying for
7:50Chris Hewitt:and you insisted on doing this yourself didn't you
7:52Nick de Semlyen:I had to get the shots just right but yeah this is a big month for the John Nugent fans what are the fan community called are they Nugents are they Nujers but they're going to be very pleased because John one of the shots is of John in the bath with his Mando helmet on
8:07Chris Hewitt:it's very tastefully done and John was fully up for it John's in the bath with his helmet out and we printed it yeah
8:13Nick de Semlyen:I remember when we we made John Hitchcock's Go Around London and painted blue for the first Avatar.
8:19Chris Hewitt:Oh, that was the first? I thought he was just doing it.
8:21Nick de Semlyen:Yeah, well, it just happened he painted himself blue so it worked out well. But yeah, and we did the Bond-a-thon where we spent 45 hours in tuxedos.
8:31Chris Hewitt:Yeah. That one wasn't so bad. Yeah. Although actually,
8:33Nick de Semlyen:in some ways, it was the worst of all. It was awful. Because we didn't sleep for three days and we had to watch 14 hours straight of Roger Moore Bond movies. Roger Moore. Moonraker almost broke me. But yeah, it's a bit of old school silliness Yes, and so that is really funny. The headline for that is, this is not the way.
8:50Chris Hewitt:Yes, it's very good. So well done, everybody involved with that. We're going to race through the features section now. We're going to say very, very quickly what the features are, and Nick's going to give you a very, very quick fact and story about each of the features. A story? Okay. Or just a fact, or your opinion, whatever you want to do, but we've got to get to the listener questions. We've been promising it for over a year, so we should deliver. so the next feature is about the thriller Apex which sees Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton battle each other in an unforgiving Australian landscape this is written by the great Anthony Bresnikan is this his Empire debut I believe yeah
9:30Nick de Semlyen:I think so yeah I think so but yeah he's a great writer we're very happy to have him working for us and yeah he spoke to Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton and the director Balthazar Cormica that's correct who did Everest and I spent an amazing day on the set of Everest at Pinewood where they were simulating snow with mashed potato, I believe.
Read the full transcript
9:50Chris Hewitt:You see, the stories don't have to be about the film we're talking about. That's good.
9:54Nick de Semlyen:You delivered a good story. And I was meant to go up into the Dolomites where they were filming. They decided that wasn't safe for me. So instead I went to Pinewood where I proceeded to bang my head on a pipe and I had to be seen by a medic. That's amazing. You can't take me anywhere. But yes, this is a really great read.
10:11Chris Hewitt:Someone else you used to work for the magazine. and I won't say who it was, but also had to be tended to medically on a set once after tripping over a wire. Oh, interesting.
10:20Nick de Semlyen:Yeah.
10:20Chris Hewitt:Well, also on Rock of Ages,
10:22Nick de Semlyen:one of our writers was slipped, I believe, in some water and was tended to by Tom Cruise's mom. Really? Yep. Blimey. That's incredible.
10:33Chris Hewitt:I wonder if it's the same person.
10:34Nick de Semlyen:Maybe our stories have been completed. It's possible. Maybe there was a wire involved. Yeah. But anyway, this is a great read. And I'm really intrigued to see this because Taron Egerton, he's playing this sort of creepy serial killer villain and it sounds like he's very Gollum-y. A Gollum-y fellow. A Gollum-y fellow. And I'm excited to see what he does after reading this. But yeah, it's a really good read. And I think these are the first interviews on this film. Looking forward to it.
11:02Chris Hewitt:Exciting indeed. It's going to be on Netflix, I believe. Netflix Apex. Yeah, good, good, good, good. Next up is An Oral History of Stand By Me. obviously Rob Reiner died just a couple of months ago. The movie is also 40 years old. So I imagine these things were in your thoughts when you decided to do this.
11:21Nick de Semlyen:Yeah, we were talking about Rob Reiner and how we could pay proper tribute to him. And yeah, the anniversary of this film was coming up. So we spoke to a lot of people. They were all really eager to talk about the film. They all loved the film. They had an amazing time making it. A lot of them were very young, the cast, obviously. and yeah they all had really warm memories of Rob Reiner so it's a really lovely read we spoke to so many people Jerry O 'Connell, Will Wheaton, John Cusack Corey Feldman the casting director, the two writers and it's a really really lovely read by Jamie Graham
12:00Chris Hewitt:I think is the world's leading authority on Stand By Me it is his favourite film he's seen it over a hundred times he's written about it many many times including for a former rival publication but this I think he is maybe this is his masterpiece because he's never done this format before and he's never had these conversations with these people before to this depth so yeah it's beautiful it's a really really lovely read from Jamie yeah I'm not even doing the opening lines on this one it's such a great piece speaking of people writing for us for the first time Nick we have another feature on the film Rose of Nevada and this is a piece written for us by the film's director, the unique British director Mark Jenkin Yeah, the guy behind Bait and Ennis Mane
12:50Nick de Semlyen:and now Rose of Nevada which is a really special film it's kind of about a ghost ship but it's really undefinable and he makes these amazing films set in Cornwall he's a really singular filmmaker and you know it's just like having this piece in a Star Wars issue you know that you can really you can you can really mix it up and so it's a it's a very as far from Star Wars as you can get really it's this very independent interesting singular film but he's written a great piece for us Mark about putting it together and he said writing this was harder than writing the script genuinely I don't know really which so he put a lot of energy So thank you for that, Mark.
13:35And yeah, it's a great read.
13:38Nick de Semlyen:And he even name checks Quantum Leap and reveals that he bought a Quantum Leap box set while making this film. Yikes. Why didn't he have it already?
13:45Chris Hewitt:Yeah, come on, Mark. What are you doing? Next feature is one I wrote. It is a piece about Ben Wheatley's rogues gallery. Ben Wheatley's got a new movie coming out in April. It's called Normal. Yes, he had a movie coming out last week as well called Bulk. But this is Bob Odenkirk as a small town sheriff who goes toe-to-toe-toe-toe-toe-toe-toe-toe-toe-toe-toe-toe-toe-toe with a lot of psychotic killer type people. And so we had the capital idea that Ben Wheatley's had a lot of colorful killers in his movies. So we decided to talk to the great man about those people. And that is what I did.
14:27Nick de Semlyen:The Meg is one of them, is included, is a psycho. I remember distinctly us coming up with this feature idea as you, myself and Alex Godfrey, our feature editor and we were walking back from a screening through central London and yeah, spitballing this idea
14:44Chris Hewitt:so it's good to see it on the page I think this actually will tie in very nicely to a question we have
14:48Nick de Semlyen:coming up later on, so I'm not going to say
14:49Chris Hewitt:too much else about it but Ben was wonderful, he gave me a lot of time which was very very nice of him the opening line is Ben Wheatley has killed a lot of people and it's initially by the way real quick the headline for this is killer list killer list but we dubbed it unofficially Wheatley's Wrongans yeah it was referred to as Wheatley's Wrongans yes the problem with that was that Ben's Baddies Ben's Baddies Wheatley's Wrongans the problem with that is that Ulysses Richardson who is the Bob Odenkirk character in Normal is not a Wrongan he's a hero so we had to change that name Ben's Bad Boys anyway let's let it go
15:28Nick de Semlyen:it's been printed it's too late
15:30Chris Hewitt:it's too late to change it killer list is very good yes it is hey this is a the next feature is a fantastic opening spread really catches your attention it says simply flame on and the flame on is a fire why is that Nick? why is that?
15:44Nick de Semlyen:because my friend we have done a feature on fire in the movies and this was a pitch that came out of nowhere a guy called Craig Barbosa emailed us from the Pirates of the Caribbean yes there was a lot of rum involved in his pitch
15:59Chris Hewitt:You best start believing in features about fire, Mr. Dissemblian. You're about to edit one.
16:05Nick de Semlyen:Oh my gosh, that was exactly what he said. Word for word. With that voice. Really? Yeah, no, no. Craig emailed us and just pitched this idea, and it was so original, and he was going to a fire workshop in New York where a load of stunt people get together and set themselves on fire. And this may be the first feature in Empire History where the writer sets himself on fire. No, I did it for the Ben Whiply feature. I was on fire. Which is not even the only one in the issue. But yes, Craig, there is a photo at the front of the magazine of Craig setting his arm on fire. And I hope he put it out.
16:42Chris Hewitt:Although he was on fire writing this piece because it's fantastic. It's a really fantastic piece. It's really great.
16:49Nick de Semlyen:It talks about, he interviews all kinds of stunt coordinators and fire experts about, you know, the scene with the flamethrower in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. the flame thrower battle in Ballerina and gets into you know the fact that they still do this stuff practically
17:04Chris Hewitt:other times
17:05Nick de Semlyen:people do it digitally but you know are we still going to be doing practical fire stunts or is that age coming to an end so it's really really interesting
17:14Chris Hewitt:I hope so because you know CG fire there's something about it that just doesn't quite work for me so for example recently Chris Hemsworth for Extraction there's a scene where his character Tyler Rake has his arm set alight and they did it for real. They set Chris Hemsworth's arm alight. Yeah, Mission Impossible, Final Reckoning.
17:30Nick de Semlyen:Tom Cruise jumped out of that plane and set himself on fire, set the parachute on fire. Yeah, that was real. And so people are still doing it. So it's a really, really interesting read and it's something you probably haven't thought about too much, but it's a really cool deep dive into.
17:43Chris Hewitt:Fire! Fire! Fire! Fantastic. That's the feature section done. We're going to race through. I mean race through, but with obviously all due respect to the other sections, which are Beth Webb's section which is the first word section the news section and there's lots of great stuff inside the issue we have the first look at the Nick Cage live action Spider-Verse spin-off very excited Spider-Noir which is great we have a look at the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale called The Testaments we have an interview with Brian Cox who's about to make his directorial debut no he wrote a piece for us he wrote a piece for us
18:22Nick de Semlyen:yeah he wrote a piece for us there was less swearing than I expected from Succession but no it's a really sweet piece he's directed his first movie we've got Craig Mazin explaining why he has made a film about talking sheep
18:36Chris Hewitt:that's amazing which is the sheep detectives
18:40Nick de Semlyen:we did a spotlight we did a photo shoot with the two stars of California Scheming, James McAvoy's new film Samuel Bottomley and Seamus McClane Ross
18:48Chris Hewitt:and that's really cool
18:50Nick de Semlyen:and Sparky, we spoke to Chase Infinity and we, in a lovely bit of corporate synergy, spoke to our brother magazine, Mojo, about the Beatles movie. And we have Danny Ockelston, one of the world's leading Beatles experts, talking us through. And it was incredible how much information he could glean from just looking at the four images that have come out from the San Mendes Beatles movies. There's a feedback loop.
19:13Chris Hewitt:Don't make me interview Pilot TV, otherwise... Yeah, it's coming.
19:17Nick de Semlyen:Oh my God. It's coming for you.
19:18Chris Hewitt:My overwhelming contempt will be made clear. Bill Skarsgård on a roll he talks about his role in Gus Van Sant's very good new crime thriller Dead Man's Wire which is out Nick already came out last week so that's good and I spoke to Judd Apatow about Mel Brooks because he's got a great new documentary about Mel Brooks I really want to see that which is really really terrific
19:42Nick de Semlyen:I really want to see that worth four hours of your time what I don't want to see is anything involving the Soviet Mickey Mouse Cheburashka which we have done a piece on I'd never heard of this and it's imagine Mickey Mouse but just wrong it'll hold your dreams I call him Mucky Mouse but yeah he is massive in Russia and so we investigate that and there's loads of other stuff it's a great section yes
20:04Chris Hewitt:Sazie Beetz who is the star of Label Kill You which is out in cinemas next week so after this is out is the subject of this month's pint of milk if you were wondering
20:14Nick de Semlyen:what Sazie Beetz would like to have on her gravestone wonder no longer
20:19Chris Hewitt:yes buy this issue and find out it will be revealed yes alright my section the best section John's section the review section is always very good it's got lots of great stuff inside there all the reviews you could possibly wish to read and some of that you don't and my section final cut is just oh it's just wall to wall bangers once again starts off with an interview Q &A with Dan Trachtenberg who is the Prince of Predator and Predator Badlands is now in Disney Plus and Shiny Disc and it's great and I had a lovely chat with Dan Trachtenberg about resurrecting the Predator franchise. We have a spoiler special on Wonder Man.
20:54Chris Hewitt:Mike Lee talked to Jamie Graham about Life is Sweet, which is a brilliant film that Mike Lee doesn't really rate that highly. We rank Robert Zemeckis' movies. You will never guess what number one is, but you might not guess what number eight is. I did a time capsule with Joe Carnahan talking about his movies. And this one's quiz is Jennifer Lawrence. Would you like a sample question, Nick? Yes, please.
21:20Chris Hewitt:what is the name of Lawrence's character in Darren Aronofsky's Mother? She doesn't have one?
21:27Nick de Semlyen:She is called simply Mother. Oh, that was going to be my guess, and I didn't... There you go.
21:35Chris Hewitt:It's an amazing, amazing issue. If you're a fan of Stand By Me, The Beatles, Charlize Theron, Dan Trachtenberg, Nick, John in the Bath, all of these things, you should pick it up.
21:49Nick de Semlyen:Yeah, it's got Star Wars and Predator, but it's also got Mark Jenkins and Mike Lee.
21:53Chris Hewitt:Do you think Mike Lee watches Mandalorian and Grogu? I thought he was going to just Mike Lee listen to this. I would watch Mike Lee and Grogu if that was a TV show. I remember seeing once at Cannes years and years ago, Mike Lee was at the premiere of The Fifth Element, which was at Cannes, and he came out and he was interviewed afterwards, and he was actually quite positive. He was by mistake. He was very positive about it. He was like, oh, it was really, really inventive. and they had a gag. I remember this. They had a gag where the cigarettes, the filters are longer than the actual cigarette bin.
22:26Chris Hewitt:And that really tickled him for some reason. I just love the idea of Mike Lee watching, you know,
22:32Nick de Semlyen:Lilo Dallas Multipass.
22:34Chris Hewitt:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that would have been a fun one. But there you go. The brand new issue is on sale right now. It is the May 2026 issue. You have just about 13 more days to go pick this up from good, evil, or virtual news agents. It is issue 452. It is an absolute belter. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into this. And of course, also John Nugent's helmet. Nick, we've been promising people that we would answer listener questions about how this so-called magazine is put together and the questions have come in in their... I'll be honest, tens, single digits. Single digits, yeah. No, I'm kidding.
23:15Chris Hewitt:We have one question. I did ask I've asked several times for questions and I lost them all so I decided to ask instead on the Empire subreddit so these people's names are not the real names Fluffy Attention 7425 asks how do you decide who gets to write which segment also wanted to thank you for the beautiful Stand By Me segment it's one of my dad's childhood favorites and he thought it was a beautiful read
23:40Nick de Semlyen:oh that's nice to hear yeah
23:41Chris Hewitt:thank you Fluffy and to your dad
23:44Nick de Semlyen:yeah you had my Fluffy curiosity. Now you have my fluffy attention. Papa Fluffy. It's an arm wrestling contest. It's like that Stallone movie. We wrestle. We wrestle nude, covered in Swervega. Yeah, no, there is no one answer to this, really. I mean, it could be that somebody is particularly passionate about a film series. It could be that there's a writer that we want to try out, that we're excited about, like Anthony Bresnikin, that we want to bring in on something. generally it's just I guess the main answer is passion you know if someone is really into something you want that passion so if someone is a big Christopher Nolan fan
24:24Chris Hewitt:you know
24:26Nick de Semlyen:that makes sense that they would do that you wouldn't send someone who doesn't enjoy his films there is no real sophisticated answer to this we also like to rotate it though we like to keep it fresh so you know I've done quite a lot of articles on Jurassic Park and Jurassic World so I kind of wanted to take a break from it and let someone else come in with like a fresh perspective on it all. The last one. What are your thoughts? You commission people.
24:57Chris Hewitt:Rarely. You mostly write it yourself. You commission yourself. I write a lot of my section myself. My thoughts, yeah, I think there are definitely times where something comes in and I think I'm not particularly well placed to do that. I'm not well suited to do that. there's someone who's going to be better qualified than me to write that piece. The Mike Lee one. For example, I really like Life is Sweet. And I've interviewed Mike Lee before. I've done an oral history podcast with him and David Hewlett and the cast and crew of Naked, which is one of my proudest achievements on this podcast. So I'm not afraid of Mike Lee.
25:31Chris Hewitt:What are you implying? Are you implying I'm afraid of Mike Lee? I'm not afraid of Mike Lee. I'll take Mike Lee in a fight. I'll wrestle.
25:38Nick de Semlyen:Sometimes it's tone as well, right? different writers have different tones and some lean into humor a little bit more and some subject matter is more appropriate to that. So, you know, sometimes it's just a case of, oh, I bet so-and-so would write a really entertaining thing on that. And sometimes you want to match someone up with something that could be a little dry and a little starchy and you want to diffuse that a little bit by putting someone onto it who has a bit more of an accessible tone.
26:05Chris Hewitt:Yeah, with the Life of Sweet thing, I was thinking, you know you need someone who's got a lot of movie knowledge and we obviously have a lot of people like that but some people have specialist areas and some people don't Jamie Graham's a great all-rounder so I thought immediately of Jamie Graham and he was a really good fit for that in terms of some other stuff I don't know for me it's really interesting that you did step aside from the Jurassic World Rebirth one and I can kind of see why because sometimes when you're writing about the same subject over again and I write a lot of Marvel stuff, and sometimes, you know, I guess it can be a little bit tricky to go back to the well again and again and again, but then the subject matter is so varied.
26:46Chris Hewitt:But with Jurassic Park, it's the same thing every single time, right? So I don't know.
26:53Nick de Semlyen:It's what I love about writing about film is that every film is different. So, you know, one thing you're commissioned to do could be about set in space, and so you end up researching space travel and learning a lot about that, and then the next thing you do is based on ancient history. And so you're constantly writing about completely different things and learning different things. And so that's one of the things I like to do is do something completely different each time rather than just write about dinosaurs every single time. I think it's nice to broaden it out.
27:26Chris Hewitt:Yeah, I mean, comfort zone is a big thing. We've discussed this an awful lot on the podcast. And sometimes when you're taken out of your comfort zone and you're writing about maybe a filmmaker, you're not that au fait with or a subject that you're not that in love with, it can lead to really, really interesting work. Sometimes it can read like a feature from a person who's out there comfort zone. And then conversely, if you're in your comfort zone, sometimes you can deliver a tired piece of work, but then also conversely, you can be really, really comfortable with the subject, be an expert in the subject and deliver a really, really fun feature.
28:01Chris Hewitt:So there's no right answer or wrong answer to anything. Every feature, everything I commission, every podcast we do is weighed up on its own merits. Certainly when I'm doing podcasts, I know this question's not about podcasts, but when we're doing spoiler specials, I do want to bring in people who are kind of experts in their field.
28:18Nick de Semlyen:Yeah, so it's balancing that. But I also think most writers are open to doing pretty much anything and want to be stretched and want to do things and learn about stuff.
28:26Chris Hewitt:Yeah, especially I say, oh, also we should say freelance writers who get paid for this stuff.
28:31Nick de Semlyen:Staff writers are like,
28:32Chris Hewitt:okay, maybe I don't want to do that. But in terms of commissioning, I mean there are there are relationships as well
28:37Nick de Semlyen:that's another thing to mention
28:38Chris Hewitt:is you know
28:39Nick de Semlyen:with Steven Spielberg Ian Freer has been doing the Steven Spielberg interviews for Empire for as long as I can remember and for a good reason because he is so passionate and so well informed and just knows his stuff inside out and has that relationship Spielberg knows him and puts him at ease and you know he's literally written the book yeah
28:58Chris Hewitt:I mean look at this month this month's issue right the Ben Wheatley feature so I've known Ben for years so So it felt like that was a good fit for me to do that, to talk to Ben Wheatley again. All right, let's move on. This is a weird one. Chilly First says, can you do a retro shameless plug on the using all of the Jack Reacher book titles gag for that early article on the first Cruise movie? Was it the first Cruise movie? I think it was the second Cruise movie. It was the second Cruise movie. Right.
29:33Nick de Semlyen:I remember this happening, and I remember there being a discussion of should we stop him? Can we stop him?
29:38Chris Hewitt:Do you want to explain what you did? Yeah, this is me. I wrote the feature for Jack Reacher Never Go Back and as I was writing the feature I decided it would be a capital idea maybe this is to challenge myself because I was in my comfort zone. I thought it would be a hilarious thing to smuggle the titles of every single Jack Reacher novel into the piece which meant that I really had to work hard with things like echo burning. But they were in there and then this was noticed and the powers that be at the time were on the verge of jettisoning it and I protested in the strongest possible terms.
30:20Nick de Semlyen:I think some kind of siren went off and the five families were gathered. There was a discussion at the time definitely. I think I admire your playfulness when it comes to writing. I think more than probably anyone else I know you like to push things and be playful and experiment sometimes the occasional time it goes too far fuck you but most times it's to be lauded I take back the fuck you I think it was great look the fact that somebody is still bringing it up all these years on frankly the only memorable thing to come out of chat reach and never go back let's be honest I was insanely proud of it I was really really proud of it and I was like please don't cut this please don't cut this
31:01Chris Hewitt:I remember once as well I wrote a a really, really daft joke because I put a lot of daft jokes on my features. And I put a really daft joke in the Jason Bourne feature. And I remember including when I sent it in, I went, there's a really daft joke. It's intentional. Please do not cut it. Because once I send it in, it's out of my hands. So I've no guarantees that stuff I've written will actually make it to press. But I was really proud. Thank you, Jill, for pointing that out. There have been some high concepts. I'm sure at some point there was a one-take film,
31:36Nick de Semlyen:like a film with one single shot that you talked about you were going to write it as one sentence. You haven't done that. No, I haven't done that. Have you tried to do it and it's been stopped?
31:44Chris Hewitt:No, I was really disappointed when Dan reviewed 1917 and it wasn't in one sentence. But it's really tricky.
31:52Nick de Semlyen:I did a David Lynch feature once that ran backwards and that was a bad idea. That was a harrowing week I spent watching all of David Lynch's films and then writing about them backwards because I had the flu at the time and I didn't feel well and it didn't help. I love stuff like that. It's like, this shit's meant to be fun.
32:10Chris Hewitt:Yeah, at the end of the day, like we're meant to be writing features that are informative and educational, but they're also meant to be fun and they're meant to be injected with your personality and your sense of humor. And that is what I did with that feature. Here is one from username suggestion 44. How far in advance are you planning the event style features? Are you taking your cue from PR contacts for who will be available? and do you prioritize higher when you'll have a spoiler special or podcast interview tie-in? I think we can take the second, the last part first. No, we do not. What was the question there?
32:43Chris Hewitt:Do you prioritize higher when you'll have a spoiler special or podcast interview tie-in? So do you maybe, you'll say, okay, that's going to be a feature because that's going to be something that we'll have a spoiler special on. No, we don't.
32:54Nick de Semlyen:No, because if it's major enough, a film or TV show to get a spoiler special, we would be considering it for a feature.
33:00Chris Hewitt:And then sometimes there'll be things that get supported specials that don't even get a feature.
33:06Nick de Semlyen:Sometimes we'll build it up as a package, though. We will, in this very early conversation, say we'd like to do this, but we also would like to do an event,
33:13Chris Hewitt:we would like to do a podcast.
33:15Nick de Semlyen:In terms of planning ahead, more than ever, we're planning a long way ahead. Obviously, when I became editor, the pandemic happened two months in.
33:24Chris Hewitt:You started the pandemic, didn't you?
33:25Nick de Semlyen:I accidentally started it. but yeah we had all these plans we built up all these plans and they all got swept aside and so we had to spend you know that year and a half or whatever it was improvising and coming up with stuff out of nowhere so that was tough but now we've now things have gone back to normal we are able to plan a long way ahead and we have stuff we're thinking about for next year already 2027
33:49Chris Hewitt:yeah but again conversely to use that word we have another question from cookiead9018 who says what would be the furthest in advance feature you've had so you're planning stuff a year and a half and conversely they use the word as well the shortest notice so have we ever had to pull features out of our arse at the 11th hour oh yeah routinely
34:15Nick de Semlyen:stuff has dropped out I don't know about in press week I remember the days where you were doing the news section and you would be writing stuff on press day which gives me palpitations thinking about that now
34:26Chris Hewitt:because I think we're more of a well-oiled machine. We are. The structure has changed so much.
34:32Nick de Semlyen:No, but stuff happens for sure. I mean, we're reacting to what's happening in Hollywood. So if we are, we have a week left and, you know, Carrie Fisher dying, I remember that being something we had almost finished the issue and we broke for Christmas and Carrie Fisher sadly passed away. And we, I think it was like 20 something pages that we made so quickly.
34:52Chris Hewitt:Yeah.
34:53Nick de Semlyen:And we ended up, you know, Dan Aykroyd wrote us a piece about Carrie Fisher, and we did all these tributes. It was incredible team effort by everyone to react so fast. But yeah, that does happen.
35:04Chris Hewitt:There's a feature in this issue that was pulled together with about five days to go.
35:08Nick de Semlyen:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the flat plan is always changing as we go. We have about three and a half weeks to do an issue, and we start off with a flat plan. Stuff falls through all the time. All the time. Because a lot of stuff is out of our control. An actor will change their mind, or an actor will get ill, and they're not able to do an interview, or a film will be delayed. Or pushed back or something like that. Or pictures won't be available. When the pandemic happened, we lost everything in our issue. It just went, all the interviews got cancelled, all the screenings got cancelled, we lost our cover.
35:37Nick de Semlyen:It was horrific.
35:40Chris Hewitt:I mean, even recently, I don't want to name names, but there was something I did recently. It was meant to be a feature and then pictures weren't available. Enough pictures weren't available to make it a feature. so I'm not going to say downgraded because that implies that other sections are not as important as features. Everything's important but it was downgraded.
36:03Nick de Semlyen:We get that all the time and part of the job is dealing with bad news and you get your hopes up and then something gets cancelled. We had a cover last year, a massive cover, a massive film and it got cancelled with very little notice and out of nowhere
36:16Chris Hewitt:and just was like, ah! Some of those pivots are incredible. And you know what? We ended up doing Jaws
36:20Nick de Semlyen:instead and that Jaws was our biggest issue of last year. It sold more copies than any of the big films we put on and we really learned something from that and that's why we ended up doing Lord of the Rings which has also been a really big issue for us. And actually, talking of how long have we spent planning an issue, that Lord of the Rings issue, we did the photo shoot for the cover back in the summer last year, I think it was August, maybe July. And to get Peter Jackson, to get Cate Blanchett and Liv Tyler together, to get Vigo and Sean together, to get all of that stuff that we got. That took like eight months.
36:53Nick de Semlyen:I genuinely have no idea how your hair is that color. If I did what you do, I'd be great.
36:58Chris Hewitt:It's all about breathing deeply
37:00Nick de Semlyen:because there is drama almost every day. But it's all worth it because when you get a yes on something, you've thrown some mad idea into the ether and you get a yes from whoever it is. And so every month is super exciting and full of joy and amazement that we're able to get these amazing exclusives. But then you are also on the flip side dealing with a lot of no's and rejection and that's just part of it. You just have to keep going.
37:29Chris Hewitt:For King Ace, I think that's meant to be a plan fucking. What has been the most stressful issue to get out the door? Have you ever come close to missing the print deadline?
37:39Nick de Semlyen:Have we?
37:42Chris Hewitt:I'm sure I've skirted close to the edge a couple of times.
37:46Nick de Semlyen:I know I have an answer for this.
37:50Chris Hewitt:What the most stressful issue?
37:53Nick de Semlyen:I'm not going to say what it was.
37:56Chris Hewitt:How recent was it?
37:57Nick de Semlyen:It was, I think, two years ago, maybe three years ago. It was on press day, and our press deadlines are in stone. And if you miss your press deadline, which we've never done, to my knowledge, then it costs an insane amount of money. For every day, you extend it by its insane money. we have never done it but I remember there was the one issue where we had no cover for I want to tell the story properly but I can't I can't
38:25Chris Hewitt:oh is this the one where I was on the cover
38:26Nick de Semlyen:no this was not the one where you were on the cover but what I will say I can't say what it was you're being so vague even I don't know what you're talking about mime it
38:33Chris Hewitt:what do you
38:34Nick de Semlyen:no because then you're going to say it you're just an air dicked why did you air dick you're air dicking what are you doing oh so we had so we had so we had we had no cover and there were multiple covers and we had no art. And I remember lying down on the ground and I think Chris Lupton, our creative director, also got on the floor because we were so stressed out. It was insane. And again, it's completely out of our control. You're waiting for people to provide you with the stuff. And we were doing a split run. It was a big issue. And I remember we found a bit of clip art at the last minute that if all had gone wrong, we were going to have to put a bit of clip art on the cover.
39:15and it was
39:16Nick de Semlyen:we got it like just in time but it was the latest that we've ever had to go
39:20Chris Hewitt:I don't think I know this story yeah
39:23Nick de Semlyen:I remember Comic Con was stressful as well we went to you and I went to Comic Con
39:27Chris Hewitt:yeah in
39:28Nick de Semlyen:what year was that
39:29Chris Hewitt:yeah the last one was 2017
39:31Nick de Semlyen:yeah and just the way that the deadlines matched up like Comic Con happened just before we went to press and I remember you and I were in San Diego and everyone thinks like Comic Con is like all fun and you go there and it's like having the time of your life it was incredibly stressful because we did three days of interviews basically didn't sleep and then we had to transcribe it all and you and I had to write like 20 pages of the magazine
39:53Chris Hewitt:and we were staying in a shitbox
39:54Nick de Semlyen:we were so tired we were in this terrible hotel and all the good ones had been booked up and I just remember that Sunday where we wrote it all was one of the worst days of my life I was so tired
40:04Chris Hewitt:we were half an hour away from the convention center we were on the other side of San Diego and I remember that distinctly as well because this was back in the days like I don't I don't like AI, but I have said on the podcast, I use Otter to transcribe. And it is honestly, it has changed my life. It's a game changer. Because back in those days, back in the heady days of 2017, we had to transcribe all that shit ourselves. And the rule of thumb tends to be that it would take twice as long to transcribe as the interview is. So if you do a half hour interview, it takes an hour. And if you have 10 of those, then you can do the math.
40:42Chris Hewitt:So this was back in the day
40:43Nick de Semlyen:where you had a blank Word document and you had to literally listen to the audio and type it all out. Like nowadays, Otter AI, and then I put it into otranscribe.com. There's also Mac Whisperer. There are other things that are available.
40:55Chris Hewitt:Good shit. And that was a bad time. It cuts down the time so, so much. And I justify it to myself because I'm not costing anyone a job. I'm saving myself time as a job I used to do for myself. and so I'm saving myself.
41:12Nick de Semlyen:Although Otter.ai is slightly creepy in that it analyzes your interview and then gives you like a kind of review of your interview and sometimes tells you
41:21Chris Hewitt:where you should have asked.
41:22Nick de Semlyen:I just ignore that shit.
41:24Chris Hewitt:I go straight to the...
41:25Nick de Semlyen:It goes, the interviewer was trying to get this line but the person dodged it. And you're like, oh, great. Okay. You don't need you to point out my shortcomings. It does that. Yeah, I don't like it.
41:35Chris Hewitt:In terms of print deadlines, back in the day when I first joined Empire and for many, many, many years afterwards we had a culture where it was basically you would put everything off until the last week and then the magazine would basically be put together in the last week and sometimes in the last couple of days and sometimes in the last day and that was the culture. It used to be more brutal, yeah. Much more brutal.
41:56Nick de Semlyen:I was sub-editor and Liz, our great production editor, are still at Empire and we would routinely be at the office till like 2 or 3 a.m.
42:04Chris Hewitt:Not even that. Sometimes it would be 3 or 4 a.m. And we'd all get loads of pizzas from Domino's, and we would just sit there, and you'd be reading pages. And I remember the first time I came back, after I'd gone away and I'd worked in L.A. for a while as the magazine's West Coast editor, which is a bullshit title, but hey, I'm executive editor now, so what the fuck does that mean either? And then you come back. I came back, and I was the news editor again. And it was a bit of culture shock. I don't know, whatever it was, but I went into that press day. It's exactly what you said earlier on, with some stuff not written, and I was writing the pages as they were being designed at like midnight on the night that they were meant to go.
42:49Chris Hewitt:I had all the material, I just hadn't written them yet. And again, I'm not going to name names, but then another editor came in, eventually, and completely transformed the culture and approach of the magazine. And now I tend to be done in my section two weeks before we finish and press day, I mean, it's press day now. I know, we're on, yeah,
43:13Nick de Semlyen:we're mere days from finishing the magazine and the fact we can sit here and chat, it wouldn't have happened back in the day. It would not have happened.
43:20Chris Hewitt:No,
43:20Nick de Semlyen:I mean,
43:20Chris Hewitt:it's just the team. It's just the way magazines were done. And it's a great team. I mean, Alex,
43:24Nick de Semlyen:you, everyone is like super good with deadlines and, you know, we're dealing with chaos and unpredictability because that's just the movie industry and, you know, you're dealing with stuff changing all the time but, And it wasn't just an Empire thing.
43:37Chris Hewitt:This was just how magazines were made back in the day. But I'm very glad that it's changed now. Even though, now and again, I think, I had a soft spot for those days when we were up to two and three in the morning eating pizzas and putting the magazine together. We'd be dead. But now I would be dead.
43:54Nick de Semlyen:But yes, I haven't had a press day where I've had to lie down on the ground for a few years. And long may that continue.
44:01Chris Hewitt:Listen, I don't think we're going to be able to do all the questions that people have sent in. They have sent in quite a few and also some questions that come through from our Discord channel. But maybe we can do this again next month. So we'll keep sending them in. But we're going to take one more. We're going to take one from our Discord channel right now. And then we're going to take some more next month because I've quite enjoyed this. It's been quite fun.
44:25Nick de Semlyen:Figo, the sorrow of Moldavia.
44:27Chris Hewitt:Oh, I already like this guy. How many different issues are you working on at once? How do you decide what articles make it in and what don't. Love the Ghostbusters 2 reference. We should do a Ghostbusters 2 cover.
44:39Nick de Semlyen:Why not? In terms of how many we're working on, we are, well, like a lot, to be honest, because we are sort of thinking at least a year ahead, but there are conversations being had about stuff that's not coming out until, in some cases, 2028. Yes. So, you know, often with these big blockbusters or TV shows, they are filming way in advance of when they're actually coming out. So you need to make sure that you can get on set. You want to start banking all that material if you leave it too late. In our experience, the longer you work on something, the better the results. So you want to get in there and have those conversations early.
45:19Nick de Semlyen:So yeah, I want to say there isn't an exact number, maybe, let's say 12. Let's say we're working on 12 issues. Yeah, but really you're working on, substantially you're working on two at any given time. and sometimes as we get closer to Christmas and the crux of that is three. Mainly it's covers, but we have ideas all the time. I mean, one of the joys of the job is getting together and brainstorming and ideas come out and we only have so many retrospective slots a year, so we don't want to do too many anniversary features or whatever, but we have loads of ideas. So we actually have more ideas and we have requests in for stuff that if it happens will be later in the year.
45:54But yeah, we're constantly in conversations
45:57Nick de Semlyen:about all kinds of things going right into next year.
46:03Chris Hewitt:All right. Screw it, I'll take another one here. The one in Rory says, when you're attending film festivals, do you like to spend your free time taking in scenery of summer like Venice or Sitges? If I'm there, yes. If I'm in Cannes, I don't like to take in the scenery of Venice. It's logistically difficult. I guess we're not really film festival guys anymore, are we, really?
46:25Nick de Semlyen:No, I did Cannes a few times early on, but not for a while, and I did Toronto. I have never been to Venice. I have never been to Annecy. I would like to go to the Annecy Animation Festival. Maybe you're listening to this. Maybe you'll invite us. Please do, because apparently it's really lovely. I talked to the director of the Wild Robot who was extolling it and they have all kinds of strange arcane rituals. I think every time there's a rabbit on the screen, everyone shouts something or something like that. People jump into the lake and all this. So I'd like to go there at some point. But no, I can.
46:56Nick de Semlyen:I have some fond memories. not so much as the scenery although walking up and down the croissette is really really nice and you get the beach front but the key phrase here
47:05Chris Hewitt:is free time and the truth is you don't have a lot of it I mean I was very young
47:12Nick de Semlyen:when I went to Cannes and I remember all of you guys got to go to a cocktail party with Steven Spielberg and hang out with him and I was the one person who didn't get an invite so I wandered the streets bleakly and I hung out with a pigeon or was it seagull probably a seagull but yeah I did see I did get to go to a Kung Fu Panda boat party where George Lucas was dancing next to a a person in a Kung Fu Panda suit although I don't think he was dancing probably that's amazing the panda was dancing
47:41Chris Hewitt:that's amazing by the way I was working that party that was that was you in the seat we were doing the 50 bloggers yeah yeah yeah but yeah you don't get you don't get a lot of
47:48Nick de Semlyen:free time film festivals are like we were saying about Comic Con is so intense and full on and you're running around trying to get to another screening. And it's actually quite, you know, as much as watching films can be considered hard work, it is hard work.
48:03Chris Hewitt:It's an upper dawn pride to Halloween siege that I will never fully tell you about. And the last question from Stig, have you ever started work on a feature, done a lot of the work, and then just scrapped it completely if you feel it's just not working? Yes.
48:16Nick de Semlyen:Yes, there's a short answer to that. Do you mean scrap it completely or just scrap the draft and start it again? Because generally we have interviews. Yeah, I don't think you mean scrap it completely and bring something else in.
48:28Chris Hewitt:You think he means have you started a second draft or whatever?
48:30Nick de Semlyen:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, sure. I used to agonize. I used to get writer's block and I used to have a much harder time for two reasons. One, I never used to actually structure anything before I started. I would just start writing and see what happened and that has proved to be a bad idea. And two, I do a lot more writing these days because I do book stuff as well so that has kind of means that you can't afford to... Noted author, Dick DeSantis, says book stuff.
48:55Chris Hewitt:Well, book stuff.
48:57Nick de Semlyen:ultimately. So yeah, I think if you plan ahead more, which I do these days, then there is less chance of you scrapping it. But yeah, I definitely, when I used to wing it, I'd get halfway through and go, what the hell am I doing?
49:08Chris Hewitt:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
49:09Nick de Semlyen:Yeah, I remember doing that.
49:11Chris Hewitt:I remember scrapping, God, I think it might be another Bourne, a Bourne feature. And this was back in the day when I was able to pull all-nighters and I would start very late and I was, I think I'd written the whole thing. I was just like, this is fucking shit. And I scrapped it and I worked through the night and I wrote another draft. It completely changed my intro. But the building blocks of your feature, you tend to know what quotes you want to use.
49:39Nick de Semlyen:Yeah, that's something that comes with experience, I think. Because you, you know, yeah. Sometimes you don't have to write something for a year, but I know how I'm going to start. I'm not going to say what it is, but I have an image in my head. I went on a set and I saw something and I went, that's the beginning, that's the opener. And you just know straight away from you're seeing someone doing something. You're like, that's amazing. I wish I could scrap stuff retrospectively. I wish I could scrap my Predators feature, which started with the worst fake-out I've ever done of pretending I'm next to a real Predator.
50:10Nick de Semlyen:Yeah, we don't like doing that now. And then I go, oh, it's just an animatronic one. But I was trying to make the sound that a Predator makes and do that in text form and it was Karaw, I think. I don't know what else.
50:23Chris Hewitt:Yeah, that used to be an old staple of Empire. Oh my God, a lion is rushing towards Empire. Oh my God, our lives are in jeopardy. No, it's just a fake lion. We've all done it.
50:35Nick de Semlyen:That's like the horriest chestnut you can do. So we try and avoid that. There are cliches, and by now we kind of know enough not to repeat them. But we've all done them. I think I would also scrap my George Lucas impersonators on MySpace feature,
50:52Chris Hewitt:which hasn't dated well.
50:59Chris Hewitt:Written the day after the Bond-a-thon.
51:01Nick de Semlyen:So you can partially blame that for it being absolute shit.
51:07Chris Hewitt:I had to write that Bond-a-thon copy the day of the Bond-a-thon. We were given a generous four hours off. Yeah, didn't you want the headline to be Diarrhea another day? I don't know if I wanted the headline to be it, but that is in the piece. That is in the piece. I think there was talk of it being the headline. We ended up with for sore eyes only, which is perfect. Yeah, Diary Another Day made it in because, listeners, I got the shit towards the end. Are we really ending this episode with shit? That is how we're ending it.
51:35Nick de Semlyen:A tornado of shit.
51:37Chris Hewitt:This has been a lot of fun, Nick. I've enjoyed this. The listener questions, keep them coming. There were some ferried ones in there as well that we haven't got to, but we will get to them next time, hopefully, but then I've made the promise before, but we will definitely do another listener question special done at some point.
51:53Nick de Semlyen:If it's not next month, it'll be the month after. Yeah, it was fun. Thanks for the questions. And thank you for reading the magazine. If you haven't picked up this issue, please do. We're really proud of it. And we are very excited about our next one. We have done another shoot for the cover. And we have shot something or someone that we are very excited about. This is exciting. They're not green or small. But yeah, we are really, really excited about the next one. so yeah
52:19Chris Hewitt:we're excited about all of them there's some cool stuff coming so I have been in meetings about this issue for the last four weeks and I'm so tired I've forgotten what it is so I am excited to find out what it is oh god don't do that again Nick's air dicking again it's your answer to everything
52:39Nick de Semlyen:no air dicking
52:40Chris Hewitt:I've never heard of that before today it's from Ricky's to Nicky
52:45Nick de Semlyen:there is no air dicking on the next cover I can confirm alright so we're not ending on shit now
52:51Chris Hewitt:we're ending on air dick you happy now you happy now alright this has been another episode of the Shameless Plug we hope you enjoyed it and go out yes please buy the magazine if you haven't already done so if you haven't subscribed you can subscribe online at empireonline.com and you can join our VIP club which gets you a magazine subscription it gets you a podcast supporter special subscription and it gets you the chance to attend all the incredible events we do as part of the VIP club we have one tonight we have ready or not 2
53:19Nick de Semlyen:colon here I come and next week we have David Chase we're going to be watching the finale of The Sopranos with David Chase for the launch of HBO Max and then James and I
53:28Chris Hewitt:are going to be talking to him anyway Nick pleasure as always this was the way this was the way thanks Chris let's go play Dungeons & Dragons thanks for listening see you next time that wasn't a joke that's what we're about to do thanks for listening see you next time bye bye
53:47Thank you.
From the publisher
This month's episode of The Shameless Plug sees Chris Hewitt sit down once again with Empire editor Nick de Semlyen for a deep dive into the latest issue of Empire magazine. Our dynamic duo talk about the origins of the first ever cover shoot with Star Wars characters, as we celebrate The Mandalorian & Grogu, plus many more stories about the brand new issue, which is on sale right now in all good, evil and virtual newsagents. But as if that weren't enough, at long last Chris and Nick answer listener/reader questions about the magazine and how it's put together. It's a cracker, this one — enjoy!