Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2015 i Empire Australasia

THINK IT WOULD BE FUN TO RUN a newspaper,” says Charles Foster Kane. Well, this is the closest I’ll ever get, and on the basis of the last few months, I think he might have been right. Working with Empire on this special edition of their splendid magazine has been a really enjoyable two-way process. Ian, Chris, Dan, Adam, Debi and the team dropped by our offices in Neal Street and made it all very easy. We then welcomed them behind the normally closed doors of the 007 set, and revealed the odd secret or two; and they in turn have accompanied the Spectre team on our journey around the globe. In this edition you will find reports from the front line — from Mexico City (the most exciting time…

So, Sleeping With Other People is based on real life experiences… I have a guy friend I was very close with, who was not nearly as charming as Jason Sudeikis [laughs], and we were friends, and he knew me way more than my romantic partners knew me. Everyone thought we were something more, even to this day people think that we dated. And I also had a brief fling with a guy who was with someone, and that really made me feel bad. I find it interesting that I’m rarely experiencing it while it’s happening; it’s much more after the fact that I create these little stories that I can feel all of those things and share it with people. Do you consider the film a good date movie? I…

HERE HAVE BEEN ONLY TWO BOND movies since Christoph Waltz won his first Academy Award, for Inglourious Basterds, back in 2010. And yet, when the Austrian actor was confirmed as Bond’s arch-nemesis and potential ‘step-brother’, Franz Oberhauser, at the Spectre global press conference last December, it was hard not to ask: what took them so long? Waltz and Bond seem made for each other. Eloquent, urbane, incredibly intelligent, able to imbue a single word like “James” with the sort of menace that would stop lesser double-00 agents in their tracks, the 58-year-old double Oscar-winner may not be able to spar physically with Bond (that’s Dave Bautista’s role), but is the sort of wily coyote you can imagine running rings around MI6’s finest. “We’d never had a supervillain,” says Mendes of…

UNITED KINGDOM, PINEWOOD STUDIOS DATE FEBRUARY 1, 2015 SAM MENDES ALMOST didn’t edit this issue. Because Sam Mendes almost didn’t direct Spectre. Back in March 2013, there were over a billion reasons why Eon’s Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli wanted Mendes back in the director’s chair for the 24th Bond film. That’s how much Skyfall, Mendes’s previous crack at the world’s least-secret secret agent, had raked in around the world, a record for the 50-year-old series. But money isn’t everything; there was also critical acclaim, not for the first time in 007’s history, but certainly on an unprecedented scale. There were awards. There was love in the air. It seemed like a no-brainer for Mendes to become the first director since John Glen to direct two consecutive 007s. But…

10,000 Dollars paid for Roger Moore’s sage-green safari shirt from The Man With The Golden Gun at auction in 2014. The driver who performed the film’s famous corkscrew jump had never done it before. He nailed it on the first take. 3 Crocodiles stepped on by James Bond in Live And Let Die. It was Roger Moore’s idea for croc-keeper and stuntman Ross Kananga to wear crocodile-skin shoes for the stunt. 1.2 Height in metres of Hervé Villechaize, The Man With The Golden Gun’s Nick Nack. When Sesame Street’s Oscar The Grouch sprouted legs from the bottom of his trash can, it was Villechaize inside the suit. 23.5M People who watched Live And Let Die on its first UK TV broadcast in 1980. It remains the most watched broadcast of…

DANGER EXPLOSIVES,” SAYS THE sign. Must mean Chris Corbould is near. Though, despite the warning, Empire is not on the Pinewood backlot this clear, June morning to witness any Spectre pyrotechnics. Instead, we’re audience to Corbould’s other speciality: a huge, elaborate rig, constructed by his industrious special effects crew to represent a collapsing building in Mexico City. On this, Daniel Craig (and stunt double James Embree) will roll, slide and jump down, from floor to crumbling floor, like a marble on a run. Fourteen metres high and flanked by towering, cable-trailing cranes, it’s an imposing set-up. Ingeniously, it’s designed to be repeatedly reset. Each floor, exposed by a gaping hole in the nearest wall, is powered by a hydraulic lever. First it flips down, sending 007 on his parkour descent…

GASPAR NOÉ IS ON THE verge of launching into an anecdote about a Brazilian transsexual when the phone line cuts out. Seconds earlier he regaled Empire with an admission that he was “drunk, drunk, drunk” when he went up the red carpet at the Cannes premiere of his 3D porn film, Love, earlier this year. Both stories sum up the Argentinian-born, Paris-based provocateur in a nutshell. This is the man, after all, who has carved a career out of pushing the boundaries across a relatively sparse filmography (just four films in 17 years), with sex and violence hitting you like a fire extinguisher to the face. Love is the apex of that. Real sex has become more common on the big screen over the last decade, but Noé really goes…

GIFTED, HARD-WORKING and passionate about their respective crafts, Amy Winehouse and Asif Kapadia would have had plenty in common had they met. Their paths never crossed but the Senna director felt a sense of kinship with the tragic singer and a keen instinct that, beneath the prurient headlines and sensationalist myths that have built up around her, there was a whole other story to be told about her life. “My job was to get the trust of people around Amy to speak,” he told Empire. “These people have never spoken before.” When you started, did you know more or less about Amy Winehouse than you did about Ayrton Senna? I liked her music. She wasn't someone I’d have gone out to see perform at that point, but she was there…

FOR THE KITCHEN SLICE - THE FINAL FRONTIER This stainless steel replica of the NCC-1701D has a five-year mission: to explore strange new pizzas, to seek out new toppings and sauces, to boldly go where no pizza cutter has gone before. popcultcha.com.au, $45.99 ALIEN VS PREDATOR VS BOTTLE Two risible films haven’t even come close to settling the age-old battle that is Alien vs Predator. Can these bottle openers finally solve the debate? Whoever wins… we booze. forbiddenplanet.com, $36 each WING IT No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you — this is a knife set in the shape of an X-wing. Even better, it’s chromed and comes with a set of stainless steel blades. Perfect for slicing into some Porkins, or maybe even cutting a potato Wedge. RRP $110 amazon.com SCREW…

I REMEMBER HAVING dreams about these characters when I was little,” says Jon Favreau of the Disney animated classic, The Jungle Book . “I grew up with the film.” When Favreau came on board the latest instalment of the Disney Live-Action Animation Adaptation Cinematic Universe (the DLAAACU), all he needed was the bare necessities. In this case, just newcomer Neel Sethi as Mowgli, the boy who’s raised by various animals in the Indian jungle. Sethi is essentially the only live-action element here. Everything else, from the likes of Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson as the animals to the lush environments, will be CG. “I felt Avatar was a game changer,” explains Favreau. “Then it seemed like nobody used that technique again.” Until now...…

COSTUME BEST I loved the costumes in Set Fire To The Stars, which is set in 1950s New York. There’s something so transportive about period costumes. I really enjoyed wearing braces and bow ties every day. WORST On The Faculty, all the clothes were provided by Tommy Hilfiger. I had never experienced that before. It didn’t really fucking matter, but I remember being crestfallen. “We’re product placement in this movie!” AUDITION BEST  Lord Of The Rings. I decided to do my own tape. We shot it in my house and in the woods. Peter Jackson later said, “I could tell that you were really passionate about it.” That validation was it for me. WORST  Kindergarten Cop. Ivan Reitman’s comment was, “You were acting.” For a nine-year-old, that was the worst…

MEXICO, MEXICO CITY DATE MARCH 28, 2015 I ’VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING like it,” one of Spectre’s cast tells Empire. “It’s so exciting, I cannot tell you. You have to pinch yourself. It’s… extraordinary.” It’s a sultry March evening in Mexico City, and the topic under discussion is the traditionally eye-popping pre-title sequence of the 24th Bond film, currently shooting in the capital. You’d expect Johnny Extra to gush about anything they saw on a 007 set, but when the actor brandishing the superlatives has already demolished a canalside building in Venice, freefallen from a disintegrating DC-3 into a desert sinkhole and downed a helicopter by blowing up his character’s own ancestral home beneath it, you take them at their word. Yep, it’s fair to say that even Daniel Craig…

AUSTRIA, OBERTILLIACH DATE FEBRUARY 1, 2015 PERCHED BY AN Obertilliach ski slope high in the Austrian Tyrol, only a Spectre-issue Helly Hansen puffer jacket preventing the onset of hypothermia, Empire is shielding its eyes from the glare of sun on snow. Just behind are a group of schoolkids playing hooky to catch MI6 and SPECTRE doing battle for the first time since Never Say Never Again (or For Your Eyes Only, if they’re sticklers for canon). A hundred yards in front squats a two-tiered Alpine barn that only five minutes earlier had been a hive of activity. The last of the stunt and explosives experts slowly depart the area. “No filming!” shouts a crew member as a curious local tees up a smartphone. The skiers swishing blithely past have no…

IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR the biggest gaming blockbusters this Christmas, only one console has the biggest names. Xbox One is the only place where you’ll be able to play Lara Croft’s latest adventure, Rise Of The Tomb Raider, sequel to the smash-hit reboot of this gaming favourite. Fans of the Master Chief will be able to step into the boots of an elite Spartan warrior in the first Halo game to truly leverage the power of the Xbox One, in the highly anticipated Halo 5: Guardians. And if you want to put the pedal to the metal, this year’s biggest racing game is undoubtedly Forza Motorsport 6, with a whopping 460 cars racing over 26 different locations. All three of these blockbusters will be released before Christmas, and only on…

Kung Fu Panda 3 cast JACK BLACK, ANGELINA JOLIE, DUSTIN HOFFMAN, JACKIE CHAN / director ALESSANDRO CARLONI, JENNIFER YUH CAPTION THE PICTURE ABOVE AND WIN AWESOMENESS! KAPOW! THE MASTER OF ROTUND martial arts mayhem is back for his third animated adventure. Again voiced by Jack Black, Po must train a hapless bunch of animals in the art of kick-ass ass-kickery and defeat the bad guys with a Wuxi finger hold! All before yum cha time. Skadoosh! The most excellent of captions will take home every episode of Mad Men in a snazzy box with The Complete Collection on Blu-ray. KUNG FU PANDA 3 IS OUT MARCH 24 2016. OCTOBER 2015 WINNER Congratulations Philip Hawkins! You win Mad Max: Fury Road on Blu-ray plus some awesome Max related swag!…

PSYCHOPATHS ARE THE best actors in the world,” says Nicholas Hoult. Thankfully, this isn’t a confession. Instead, Hoult is simply playing a psycho in Owen Harris’s Kill Your Friends. As Steven Stelfox, the antihero A&R man at a record company during the Britpop boom of ’97, Hoult gets enough blood, piss and cocaine on his hands to last a lifetime. “The easy pitch is American Psycho in the music biz,” says producer Gregor Cameron. Not that Stelfox is simply a British version of Christian Bale’s iconic serial killer. “There’s a fear and desperation that marks Stelfox apart from your Patrick Batemans,” says Hoult. So more like a sociopathic Simon Cowell? “Yeah — there’s been times I’ll say a line, and feel that Cowell smirk creeping across my face. Stelfox is…

1 Our cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema, myself, Barbara and Daniel having a sundowner on our last day in the desert. The relief you may detect is to do with the fact that we just engineered and triggered the largest ever filmed explosion... and no-one got hurt! (Note the second supper next to yours truly.) 2 Sometimes it’s more like an operating theatre than a film set... 3 This photo is very familiar indeed. It is entitled ‘Almost every evening on location’. 4 The best piece of action kit ever invented — the Edge. 5 Either a tiny cinematographer or a giant clapperboard. 6 Myself and Dennis Gassner, location scouting in the Austrian Alps. I don’t get vertigo… Often. 7 We had to get the Dame into the movie somewhere... 8…

DR. NO THE BEE’S KNEES Raise a glass to first Bond girl Honey Ryder with this sweet but sharp tipple. Drink from a freshly sourced seashell for that authentic (but rather salty) experience. 60 ml gin 2 tsp honey 15 ml lemon juice Stir ingredients in a cocktail shaker until the honey dissolves, add ice, shake and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a slice of lemon peel. ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE FOR QUEEN & COUNTRY The ideal après-ski for anyone who’s just escaped an avalanche that trapped their future wife, only for her to be rescued and captured by a homicidal maniac. This never happened to the other fella. 50 ml Scotch whisky 50 ml grapefruit juice 15 ml sugar syrup 15 ml egg white Shake ingredients…

M HEAD OF MI6 RALPH FIENNES “Judi gave a sort of new definition to M,” Ralph Fiennes enthuses, well aware of the tough act he’s in the process of following. “You felt the power of her. It is an intimidating challenge.” So, what do we make of Lt. Col. Gareth Mallory, ex-British army, ex-SAS? He made a dramatic entrance in Skyfall, right enough. From shifty civil servant to taking a bullet for Dench’s M to being enthroned in the classic Whitehall office as the new M wearily squaring off to 007 — an image that sent us back to Connery raising the hackles of the headmasterly Bernard Lee. “I guess people might use the term old-school,” Fiennes offers, carefully summarising the fourth official M (after Lee was Robert Brown, then…

SEEING DANIEL CRAIG LAUGH IS like finding a wombat in your backyard. You know there’s a possibility it could happen; you just didn’t ever expect to experience it. If you judge a man by the movies he makes, you’d be amazed that Craig can laugh at all. His screen career to date — whether it’s Bond, or The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, or Enduring Love — hasn’t exactly been rife with happy-go-lucky roles. Those icy blue eyes can be more usually found staring down the bad guy rather than dancing with mirth. His James Bond isn’t quip-happy, like a stand-up who also happens to have a licence to kill. So, when Empire sits down in early July with Craig and Sam Mendes at the Spectre production HQ at Pinewood,…

Paris, Texas 1984 / OUT NOW / RATED M REVOLUTIONARY ROADS HE WAS KIND OF RAGGEDY AND WILD. And she was very beautiful, you know?” This, in its simple way, is the perfect summary of Paris, Texas, possibly the greatest American film ever made by a European. But those song-like cadences, written by Sam Shepard and softly spoken by Harry Dean Stanton’s immortal drifter Travis, are possessed of the infinite complexities of the human heart. For this is the story of a love story. And the distinction is vital. The film begins watching a solitary figure wandering the parched Texan plain in a pinstripe suit and scarlet baseball cap, a raggedy man following a railway track. Electively mute, Travis is returning from self-imposed exile. And Stanton’s haunted, geological face is…

WIN! Assassin’s Creed Syndicate for PS4 FANCY YASELF A COCKNEY KILLER? WELL, (THE BRITISH) Empire has you covered guv, Victorian style Sir, with the latest Assassin’s Creed instalment, Syndicate. We have 10 copies up for grabs for your PS4, so be sure to have a gander at this comp and jump out of a haystack for yours quick. Go on my son, be lucky! TO WIN, TELL US YOUR FAVOURITE VIDEO GAME CHARACTER, AND WHY. WIN! Pyscho: The Complete Collection on Blu-ray HAVE YOU ALWAYS FANCIED A SHOWER AT THE BATES Motel? Well now you can have six by winning Psycho: The Complete Collection on Blu-ray. No need for your mother’s permission to enter, just take a stab at the question below and you…

Tropic Thunder “NEVER GO FULL RETARD.” SETTING THE SCENE When not detonating massive explosions (including the biggest in cinema history, until it was topped by Spectre), Ben Stiller’s 2008 comedy is squarely about lampooning the unfettered egos of Hollywood folk. Here, fading action star Tugg Speedman (Stiller) and blacked-up Method actor Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) discuss the ins and outs of awards-bait performances. EXT. JUNGLE — DAY Tugg Speedman: You know, there were times when I was doing Jack that I actually felt retarded. Like, really retarded. Kirk Lazarus: Damn. Speedman: In a weird way, I had to sort of just free myself up to believe that it was okay to be stupid, or dumb. Lazarus: To be a moron. Speedman: Yeah. Lazarus: To be moronical. Speedman: Exactly. To…