Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2015 i Empire Australasia

AS MOVIE FANS/HOMO SAPIENS (I’LL LEAVE IT TO YOU TO decide which you are first) we are prone to classification, categorisation, criticism. Hunger and a thirst for planetary dominance may have got us trudging out of the primordial ooze, but being FIRST with an opinion on Episode VII or arguing the details of what Bill Murray said to Scarlett Johansson at the end of Lost In Translation is the stuff that keeps the soul… zesty. Thus, for the first time since 2013, we’ve polled you magnificently evolved simians on the movies that matter most to you, then sent our correspondents to investigate and report. The result is a treasure trove of cinematic ephemera, full of discoveries into every aspect of filmmaking. For the spark of inspiration, try Dan Jolin’s search…

1. For Y’ur Height Only (1981) 2. Thunderball (1965) 3. Minority Report (2002) 4. The Rocketeer (1991) 5. Spy Kids (2001) 6. The Running Man (1987) 7. Kick-Ass (2010) 8. King Of The Rocket Men (1949) 9. Gravity (2013) 10. Captain America: TWS (2014) Fahrenheit 451 (1966): “The squad of bad guys in this movie rock some pretty retro jetpacks!” ANTHONY JONES, VIA EMAIL Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow (2004): “Angelina Jolie’s pilot Franky Cook blasts away.” AVA CARROW, VIA EMAIL Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979): “If memory serves me right, Spock goes for a bit of a jetpack ride in this.” GARY PRICE, VIA EMAIL Sleeper (1973): “Woody Allen tries to escape from the security police.” JESSIE OWENS, VIA EMAIL RoboCop 3 (1993): “The one where…

CHRISTOPHER LEE made his movie debut in Corridor Of Mirrors (1948). He was so busy, well into his nineties, it’s likely he’ll have credits in movies for a few years yet. But perhaps his apt farewell was reprising Saruman in last year’s The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies . All in all, he had 66 years of constant work in films of all kinds, all over the world, from huge franchises such as the The Lord Of The Rings (an adaptation of a book he’d championed long before it became fashionable) and Star Wars films, to tiny disreputables ( Funny Man ; Meatcleaver Massacre ). In the 1950s,…

KEY: USP - UNIQUE SELLING PONT (WHAT MAKES IT SPECIAL) MVP - MOST VALLIABLE PLAYER (WHO BRINGS THE MAGIC) OMG - OH MY GOD! (BEST MOMENT) 300 ANDREI RUBLEV 1966 USP: Andrei Tarkovsky stages eight episodes in the life of a Russian monk. Big visuals, bigger themes. MVP: Unknown actor Anatoliy Solonitsyn as Andrei — one of cinema’s greatest faces. He became Tarkovsky’s muse. OMG: The raid of the Tartars. Stunning. 299 KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE 2015 USP: Kick-Ass version of a Bond mission. MVP: Colin Firth transforming Mr. Darcy’s civility and poise into the dapper form of a punchin’, kickin’, ball-tearin’ machine. OMG: Firth goes postal. Inside a church. Take that, Jane Austen. 298 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS 2013 USP: Two hours-plus of nerve-shredding tension. Except for that bit with…

“THERE’S SCANT HISTORICAL RECORD,” EXPLAINS MEL GIBSON OF THE significant narrative liberties taken in Braveheart. “Blind Harry [15th-century author of epic poem The Wallace] was fanciful and kicked it up to the mythic level, but if you’re looking for a complete compendium of the real life of William Wallace, you’re not going to find one.” For screenwriter Randall Wallace, the story was more important than the meagre historical record, to the extent that the research came second. “My approach infuriates the professors and the purists,” he chuckles. “I didn’t know if they used longbows or crossbows, but what I knew was that they had courage. Blind Harry had an encounter between William Wallace and the wife of Edward I, but I thought the story was richer if she was the…

ON AT-ATS “There was talk about doing the walkers as miniature robotic things. There would be little motors and you’d push a button and it would walk. It was a neat idea, but if you could do that, they would be cleaning your carpet then you’d take them for a walk. I thought it was the perfect place for stop motion: being walking machines, it would give a kind of machine feel.” ON ASTEROIDS “There was concern that the Falcon was flipping over too much. On Star Wars: A New Hope, the idea was that the Falcon was flat and anchored like a ship in the ocean. I thought, ‘It’s more fun if it can do a barrel roll.’ It helped the graphic look of it but the people in…

Strangerland 2015 / FROM JULY 8 / RATED MA15+ Focusing on the unhinged parents rather than the kids that have gone walkabout in the Outback, director Kim Farrant’s dark debut takes the tried and tested missing children formula, tosses it into a room full of actors and waits for the fireworks. Nicole Kidman is back on form, after her Grace Of Monaco, misfire, as the mother on the edge of a nervous breakdown; Joe Fiennes plays against type as a twitchy ex-pat father; and Hugo Weaving is his usual affable self as the cop on the case. EXTRAS Featurettes. DAVID MICHAEL BROWN Pound Of Flesh 2015 / FROM JULY 8 / RATED MA15+ You know it’s time for a life rethink when you wake up one morning submerged in an…

1 Star Wars: The Force Awakens Mývatn, Krafla In northern Iceland you can visit Lake Mývatn and the Krafla volcano, reportedly locations for Episode VII. Both are eerily beautiful, but watch out for the midges the lake is named for. Sightings of Daisy Ridley and John Boyega’s stunt doubles suggest action scenes, and rumour has it Iceland will play the planet Sullust. 2 Sense8 Harpa Music And Concert Hall, Reykjavík The climactic scene in the Wachowskis’ TV sci-fi mindbender takes place on a dock right next to the waterfront Harpa Concert Hall. It involves all eight people from around the world who find themselves mentally linked in the show. But you don’t need a hive mind to visit this extraordinary modern building. 3 Interstellar Vatnajökull National Park Christopher Nolan’s home…

BELLE ÉPOQUE THERE’S SOMETHING overwhelming about successful Disney fairytales. For better or worse, they tend to replace all other versions of the story in our cultural consciousness, transforming fable and legend into something with bigger eyes and more talking animals. It was Walt Disney Animation that gave the seven dwarves their now generally accepted names, took the knives out of The Little Mermaid and turned Beauty And The Beast from a slightly insipid 18th-century romance into a witty modern musical with a surprising number of sentient household objects. The 1991 adaptation was not their first attempt. Walt Disney believed in the power of fairytales and had developed virtually all of them during the early days of the studio in the 1940s and ’50s. But he only moved into…

LEGEND OF GRIMROCK iPAD A classic grid-based dungeon romp in the mould of ’80s classic Dungeon Master, this PC game has successfully weathered the transition to iPad. spellcasting works well with a touch interface and there are countless hours of puzzle-filled exploration to be had. MARVEL FUTURE FIGHT iOS, ANDROID this brawler features everyone from Iron Man to MODOK, letting you bounce between a team of three as you play. With special attacks to be earned and an extended roster to unlock, this is one of Marvel’s best mobile offerings yet.…

STUNG BY STINGS! Empire! You have let me down, you have let yourselves down, but worst of all, you have let Kenneth Branagh down! Yes, Sir Kenneth Branagh no less! I must remind you of the severe nature of such a grievous act! I direct you to your otherwise excellent ‘A Tale In The Stings’ (nice pun by the way) piece (Empire, July 2015). Thor was not to be “Joss Whedon’s first work as director for Marvel” as it was directed by the wonderful aforementioned Mr. Kenneth Branagh. I will continue with the scurrilous attacks on Empire’s honour until an appropriate apology is made to Mr. Branagh. (Unless of course I am wrong. In which case, sorry and no need to contact KB, unless of course you are meeting him…

EVEN WITHOUT THE surname, it’s obvious: the steely squint and right-angled jaw give it away. Scott Eastwood is Clint’s son, alright. And he’s finally learned to accept that, having started out as an actor with his mother’s surname. “I wanted to go under the radar but that didn’t really matter,” says the actor formerly known as Scott Reeves. “My dad’s not in the audition room. You’ve got to go in and win the part. Doesn’t matter if you’re Reeves or Eastwood or Joe Jackoff.” Well, Joe Jackoff would probably struggle, but Hollywood has certainly started taking notice of Eastwood Jr., who looks like the Marlboro Man as reimagined by Abercrombie & Fitch. He’s recently been impressing in The Longest Ride as a sensitive bull rider “with the biggest balls in…

EXPERIENCE 2004 ER Dahlia Taslitz, a concerned friend 2010 Agatha Christie’s Poirot Mary Debenham, a calm, collected English murder suspect 2010 The Debt Young Rachel Singer, a younger version of Helen Mirren’s Mossad agent 2011 The Tree Of Life Mrs. O’Brien, a gentle Texan housewife 2011 The Help Celia Foote, a naive but kind housewife 2012 Zero Dark Thirty Maya, an uncompromising CIA agent searching for Osama bin Laden 2013 Mama Annabel, a rocker turned reluctant mother 2014 A Most Violent Year Anna Morales, a fiercely ambitious wife and business partner 2015 Crimson Peak Lady Lucille Sharpe, a cold and brittle British woman SKILLS “I GOT TO MEET WITH HELEN MIRREN AND WORK ON THE ACCENT TOGETHER — BUT I DID JUST WANT TO STARE AT HER, SOAK UP HER…

1 SHE’S A QUEEN OF ACCENTS As Nancy in Man Up, the 36-year-old flaunts a great British accent. “Fully realising a British character is something that’s been on my work bucket list,” she says. “And working with Meryl Streep — I’ve done that, so this was next up!” Still to kick the brogue bucket? Australian, Irish and Scottish. 2 SHE WAS VERY NEARLY DEPOSED… Bell maintained the accent at all times, only “coming out” on her last day. “I made a speech to the crew as Nancy and then switched into my American. But many people did not know I was American. Everyone felt I was a liar. It could have gone dark — they could’ve thrown me into the river!” 3 SHE COULD HAVE BEEN THE NEW JEREMY CLARKSON…

THE VITAL STATS ON THE HELLRAISER-TURNED-HERO US Box Office COLIN FARRELL VENN DIAGRAM AWARDS 1 x Golden Globe (Best Actor, Comedy Or Musical, In Bruges, 2009) 1 x Empire Award nomination (Best Actor, Minority Report, 2002) 1 x MTV Movie Award (Best Trans-Atlantic Breakthrough Performer, 2003) EMPIRE SPOILER ALERT! THE MANY DEATHS OF COLIN FARRELL Intermission Shot! By a cameraman Ordinary Decent Criminal Shot! By Stephen Dillane Minority Report Shot! By Max von Sydow Alexander Dies! From Heartbreak/Typhus/Poisoning In Bruges Shot! By Ralph Fiennes Pride And Glory Beaten To Death! By a mob Cassandra’s Dream Drowned! By his own hand London Boulevard Stabbed! By Jamie Blackley Horrible Bosses Shot! By Kevin Spacey Fright Night Staked! Through the heart by Anton Yelchin Saving Mr. Banks Killed! By…

THE EMPIRE MOVIE GUIDE UNMISSABLE EXCELLENT GOOD POOR TRAGIC Inside out OUT NOW / RATED PG / 102 MINS. DIRECTORS Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen CAST (VOICES) Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling PLOT THE EMOTIONS OF 11-YEAR-OLD RILEY GO INTO OVERDRIVE WHEN HER FAMILY MOVES FROM MINNESOTA TO SAN FRANCISCO. PIXAR IS THE OWNER OF cinema’s most famous brain trust, a group of wildly different personalities who come together to shape adolescent (and grown-up) hearts and minds through the power of storytelling. It is perhaps surprising, then, that they have taken so long to make Inside Out, a film about a literal brain trust, this one controlling the heart and mind of a kid on the brink of adolescence. What Pete Docter, the driving force…

Charlton Heston harboured serious doubts. The day, like many on the overrunning shoot now thankfully close to wrapping, had not been going well. His director, Franklin J. Schaffner, had ordered the construction of the Statue Of Liberty’s head and torch, at half-scale, on Point Dume at the end of California’s isolated, cliff-sheltered Zuma Beach. But today, on August 3, 1967, thick fog had scuppered any chance of a prompt start to shooting the statue’s shocking reveal, and once the mist had finally dispersed it unveiled a busy shipping channel, crowded with hulking, shot-ruining freighters. Time hadn’t eased Heston’s concerns. When they eventually rolled, he still wasn’t convinced. Having stumbled upon this shattered, forlorn and rusting monument, his character, Taylor, is bludgeoned by the horrifying realisation that the “upside down civilisation”…

The day Orson Welles arrived in Vienna began at the funfair and ended in the sewers. Fresh off the train, director Carol Reed asked him for one shot before breakfast: to simply stroll through the Wurstelprater, Vienna’s barely operative amusement park, in the company of Joseph Cotten, and deliver two lines in that voice as deep and rich as an oaken cask. They were finished by nine and, granted leave to return to the hotel for eggs, Welles was in a buoyant mood. “Jeez,” he extolled to Reed, all smiles, “this is the way to make movies.” Welles was vital to Reed’s vision for his unusual noir thriller. Although populated with flamboyant Americans (the leads of Citizen Kane, no less), produced by a Hungarian (Alexander Korda) and the big shot…

My brother and I saw Blade Runner on the day it opened,” says Geoff Hutchins, Blade Runner collector extraordinaire. “We actually queued for two-and-a-half hours in the rain, which I now think is quite apt.” Thirty-two years later, Englishman Hutchins is now the proud owner of the most comprehensive collection of Blade Runner memorabilia in the world. As such, Hutchins’s house plays home to a jaw-dropping array of Batty bric-a-brac. Every Blade Runner objet d’art imaginable, original or replicant, is here. This is not called collecting. It is called obsession. “I have seen it about 100 times,” says the genial Hutchins who, in his day job, stages conferences. “Even now, things pop up I just haven’t seen. At the moment Batty drops Deckard and grabs him again, Harrison Ford spits…

Kingsman: The Secret Service FROM NOW / RATED MA15+ / DIRECTOR MATTHEW VAUGHN / CAST COLIN FIRTH, TARON EGERTON, SAMUEL L. JACKSON OTT LOL VINTAGE BOND SPOOF KICKS ASS AS AN ATTEMPT TO bring a bit of levity to the spy genre which, of late, seems keen to dwell in the moral shadows, Matthew Vaughn’s latest is a triumph. Its plot, about a secret organisation of gentlemen agents who keep the world safe without making an uncouth fuss about it, packs in loving nudges to numerous retro spy franchises, a villain with a better plan than anything Blofeld ever came up with, and many stylish touches all of its own. It’s not a spoof but a film that reveres tradition while modernising it, like a good tailor. Vaughn has always…

So, Strangerland was a long 13 years in the making? You would think after 13 years I’d lose interest [Laughs]. But the themes continued to fascinate me so I had to make it. I’m interested in how we would cope in such an extreme situation, and how most of us would walk around with a happy mask on. How was working with Nicole Kidman? I think Nicole loved having the opportunity to really show the underbelly of her raw vulnerability. It’s like she’s skinless at times. It’s very brave to do, especially when someone has such a public life and public career, to have that willingness to do that, so kudos to her for her openness. It’s not like she needs to work. Was shooting in the Outback a challenge?…

INGRID MORTIMER (OLD WOMAN IN PYJAMAS) “I actually graduated from where we were shooting, the University Of Michigan, a number of years ago. It was a homecoming of sorts. It didn’t bother me at all, being in a nightgown for the role. When I auditioned, I was just asked to look like an old woman walking slowly down a hallway. And I didn’t have any trouble doing that!” “I wanted to scare the dickens out of Maika, so I used a thought that brought back fear and anger to me. When my husband and I were crossing the Saginaw Bay in Northern Michigan, a storm came, and the waves were three to four metres high. My body froze. I was as frightened as I’d ever been in my life. On…

PAC-MAN 1980 An icon is born in the form of a pill-and-fruit-chomping yellow blob, navigating a maze while pursued by ghosts. MS. PAC-MAN 1981 A dash of lipstick and fetching red ribbon reinvents the formula for the fairer sex. Not a massive evolution but still a hit. PAC-ATTACK 1993 Pac-Man returns in a Tetris-like game featuring fairies as well as ghosts. Frantic ‘versus bouts’ were a high point. PAC ’N ROLL 2005 Rolling Marble Madness-style, a young Pac-Man first learns the art of ghost-fighting from a Pac-Master (yes, really). PAC-MAN AND THE GHOSTLY ADVENTURES 2013 Fully 3D Pac-Man must save Pacopolis from Betrayus, king of the netherworld.…

DOWN THE HOLIDAY ROAD Just finished watching the new trailer for the Vacation reboot/sequel/whatever you want to call it. This is sacred territory for me, so I’m a little scared. I have the car from the original tattooed on my shoulder — that’s how much I love those movies. LACHLAN MARKS, VIA EMAIL Lachlan, never have we seen a greater tribute to Chevy Chase and his Wally World pilgrimage. We doff our caps! Every letter printed this month receives a Blu-ray copy of Project Almanac , a found footage sci-fi thriller that sees a bunch of teens cause mayhem after some ill-advised time-hopping. DeLorean not included.…

JULY 1 May the odds of securing a ticket for The Hunger Games: The Exhibition, from today in New York, be ever in your favour. thehungergames exhibition.com JULY 2 Don loafers (no socks) and a horrible jacket to wish Sonny Crockett happy birthday. According to Michael Mann’s movie, he was born in 1970. JULY 3 Ahead of Independence Day, get into Sydney’s Golden Age Cinema for a join-in screening of American weirdo legend, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. JULY 4 “Nobody puts Baby in the corner.” Unless it’s at Brisbane’s Lyric Theatre. The Dirty Dancing stage show plays tonight. Yes, this is the bit where you make reference to having the time of your life and owing it all to you. JULY 5 Post-Fourth Of July carnage, Brody, Hooper and Quint…

GIVEN HIS PEDIGREE AS HIGH SCHOOL über-jock, Abercrombie model, dancer and male stripper, Channing Tatum’s acting career should, by rights, have comprised little more than beefcake himbos. Instead, his filmography since a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it debut in 2005’s Coach Carter marks him out as a hugely versatile performer, able to turn his hand to pyrotechnic action (G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra, White House Down), comedy (21 Jump Street), musicals (Step Up), chick-flick romance (The Vow) and taut thrillers (Haywire) with equal aplomb. As Mark Schultz in last year’s Foxcatcher, he proved himself equal to a role that would have daunted any actor. If that weren’t enough, he also has the charisma of a true movie star, with chiselled looks and a yet more chiselled physique. None of which, to make matters…

LIME TIME Orson Welles’s enigmatic figure has inspired various tributes. Harry Lime is Joe Pesci’s character name in Home Alone, and lurking in the background of the John Saylesscripted creature-in-the-sewer flick Alligator, look out for the graffiti declaring, “Harry Lime Lives!” COME ZITHER Anton Karas’s catchy theme, played entirely on a zither, became such a hit — 11 weeks at number one on the US Billboard chart —that trailers for the film suggested Karas would leave audiences “in a dither with his zither!” The tune was referenced in 1950’s The Happiest Days Of Your Life, while Carry On Spying did its own comedy version in 1964. DARK SHADOWS Robert Krasker’s legendary cinematography has been ripped off in everything from Steven Soderbergh’s The Good German (above), which stages its own sewer…

Was The Last Five Years’ non-linear storytelling style a challenge? In the play the pair only meet for one song and we knew we had to do more than that if we wanted to win over our audience. We had to recreate the emotions the musical created while making a film. They are very different mediums. Were the songs recorded live? Eleven of the 14 songs were. With such an emotional story, I had to give the actors the opportunity to create their characters through the songs. Otherwise it’s just lyrics. Why cast Anna Kendrick? Todd Graff’s Camp was the very first film I saw her in. Have you seen it? It’s about a musical theatre camp so I knew she could sing but then I saw her in Up…