Empire States: Empire's Sneak-Peek Iron Man 3 Footage Reaction
Posted on Thursday March 28, 2013, 10:31 by Chris Hewitt in Empire States
 If you read my cover feature on Iron Man 3, then you’ll know that back in January I was lucky enough to see approximately 15 minutes of footage from Shane Black’s Avengers-following threequel in LA. There’s a brief rundown of the footage in our Iron Man 3 cover feature (and if you haven’t read it, be sure to check it out on iPad, where it's still on sale), but I was largely shying away from revealing major details, conscious of the spoiler brigade.
But, with some of the key elements of the footage now in the public domain, it’s fair game. And today I was invited by Disney to see the footage again, and jumped at the chance. Thankfully, this time around, I was just as impressed – the return of Tony Stark is the first chapter of Marvel Studios&rsq... Continue reading... Comment Now (4 comments)
Back To TopEmpire States: HMV And The Dying Art Of Browsing
Posted on Tuesday January 15, 2013, 09:55 by Chris Hewitt in Empire States
 Every Friday, I do a slot on a BBC radio show which is broadcast from just off Oxford Street. Every Friday after it’s done, I walk back to the Empire offices in Covent Garden. And every Friday – and don’t tell my boss – I pop into the HMV on Oxford Street (the big HMV, not the one in the basement of Selfridges), partially because it’s on my route back to the office, and partially because it gives me an experience that’s pretty much unique for a film fan in the UK: honest-to-goodness browsing. I don’t buy every Friday. Sometimes, browsing is just that. But I’ve dipped into my pocket more often than not, particularly over the last few months as the retail giant mounted a particularly enticing Blu-ray sale that never seemed to end. If you’ve been in an HMV recently, you’ll know the one I mean. I’ve added substantially to my Blu-ray collection because of that sale. But the point is, whether I buy or not, the experience is the key. That fe... Continue reading... Comment Now (48 comments)
Back To TopEmpire States: Great Scott
Posted on Monday August 20, 2012, 17:46 by Chris Hewitt in Empire States
 Tonight, I’ll get beat up by the inventor of Scrabble.
Tonight, my ego will be writing cheques my body can’t cash.
Tonight, I’ll debate the merits of the Kirby Silver Surfer vs the Moebius Silver Surfer.... Continue reading... Comment Now (13 comments)
Back To TopEmpire States: Getting iD'd
Posted on Thursday May 24, 2012, 16:03 by Chris Hewitt in Empire States
 So, I’m off to Derby on Saturday. Why? Well, I’m attending the iD Fest at QUAD in that fair city, where I’ll be hosting a Directing Actors seminar with the great Paddy Considine. Should be a cracking Q&A session – Paddy is always great value in the flesh, and there’s no shortage of stuff to talk about with him, from his experiences with the likes of Shane Meadows, Pawel Pawlikowski, Edgar Wright, Ron Howard and more, to Paddy’s own time behind the camera on last year’s stunning Tyrannosaur. It’ll be interesting to glean some insights from one of our greatest actors and, now, directors.
Sadly, tickets for that have already sold out, but seats are available for some of the fest’s standout events and programmes. The iD Fest is a wonderful celebration of British film, and cinema in general, with a ton of fantastic events and screenings of cracking films spread over its four days. It kicks off tonight at 7pm with Mike Hodges: In... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopEmpire States: John Terry Vs. Movies
Posted on Monday May 21, 2012, 15:08 by Chris Hewitt in Empire States
 History will record that Chelsea won the Champions League on Saturday night. Their glorious victory also gave us one of the most unedifying and unintentionally hilarious sights of recent years: Chelsea captain John Terry, who didn’t play in the final through suspension, casting aside dignity and, indeed, the team’s captain on the night, Frank Lampard, and donning his full Chelsea kit to lift the European Cup trophy.
It’s the most public example of shameless gatecrashing since The Joker showed up to Bruce Wayne’s fundraiser for Harvey Dent, and has already sparked its own internet meme, with Photoshop wags (not to be confused with PhotoShop WAGs) splicing Chelsea’s selfless skipper into great moments from history. Not ones to be left out, JT-style, we asked our Twitter followers to come up with a litany of great movie moments, now with added John Terry. The results are rough’n’ready, but utterly hilarious. Enjoy.... Continue reading... Comment Now (12 comments)
Back To TopUnder The Radar: Cannes Cartoon Club
Posted on Saturday May 19, 2012, 12:47 by Chris Hewitt in Under The Radar
 Bonjour, le web.
As the more keen-eyed among you may have noticed, there are no Cannes videblogisodes this year. Somehow, it doesn’t feel right doing them without Sam Toy, who’s now back in Australia. But fingers crossed, we’ll be able to work something out for next year. In the meantime, enjoy what I’m calling a textiblogisode. That should catch on.
Chris Hewitt
This may seem strange for a film festival that, over the next two weeks, will see films from the likes of Jacques Audiard, Cristian Mungiu, Wes Anderson, Walter Salles, Andrew Dominik, David Cronenberg, Michael Haneke, Thomas Vinterberg, Abbas Kiorastami and Alain Resnais, but Cannes just isn’t Cannes without animation. Or, if you will, Cannimation. (No? Please yourself.)
My Cannes – truncated this year because of the videblogisode situation, a title in search of a Robert Ludlum novel if ever there was one – began and pretty much ended with a double-dip ... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopEmpire States: 19 Things We've Learned About Prometheus
Posted on Tuesday April 10, 2012, 15:09 by Chris Hewitt in Empire States
 If you’ve read this month’s issue of Empire – and if you haven’t, stop faffing around and go and buy it immediately, then come back here and continue where you left off – you’ll no doubt share our excitement about the cover feature, a no-holds-barred peek inside the world of Ridley Scott’s Prometheus.
And after this morning’s sneak peek of 12 minutes of footage from the movie with Alien DNA, that excitement hasn’t abated any. In fact, it’s ramped up a notch or ten. The footage – largely from the film’s opening scenes, albeit with a montage at the end – was followed by a Q&A with Sir Ridley, Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbender, hosted by yours truly. Here’s what we gleaned from the morning’s events.
SPOILERS AHEAD
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Back To TopEmpire States: Is This The Coolest Thing Ever?
Posted on Tuesday October 18, 2011, 16:41 by Chris Hewitt in Empire States
 We all know that Morgan Freeman has the best voice in movies, right? His syrupy, wise, mellifluous tones are perfect if you need someone to narrate your movie. Or play God. Or tell us how the universe came about.
Or, as we discovered this morning when we called our good chums at Revolver Entertainment, when you need an automated telephone menu system and you’re tired of giving the job to some anonymous, dead-voiced robot.... Continue reading... Comment Now (24 comments)
Back To TopEmpire States: Monopoly In The Dark: The Alternative Blade
Posted on Friday January 21, 2011, 10:57 by Chris Hewitt in Empire States
 It’s arguably one of the greatest pay-off lines in movie history. It’s certainly one of the most bizarre.
Wesley Snipes' Blade, the half-human, half-vampire Daywalker, has finally – after a titanic struggle which saw more broken limbs than your average 1970s Leeds United match, and during which he almost lost his sunglasses – dispatched his nemesis, Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) by pumping gallons of anti-coagulant serum into his system. (Via, I should add, a series of nifty quick throws and finally a roundhouse kick that arrows a dart into Frost’s forehead.)
Not bad for a guy called Eric.
Then, as all movie heroes are contractually obliged to do, he delivers a payoff line. A payoff line is a line of cool, dismissive dialogue designed to show how spontaneous and clever and witty the hero is and not, it should be added, to make him look like a cold, callous bastard who trivialises murder. The ideal payoff line should a) involve a... Continue reading... Comment Now (59 comments)
Back To TopEmpire States: What We’re Thankful For: A Movie Special
Posted on Thursday November 25, 2010, 13:00 by Chris Hewitt in Empire States
 It’s Thanksgiving today across the Pond. Empire, of course, is a stiff-upper-lipped, drive-on-the-left, already-bought-three-Royal-Wedding-commemorative-mugs Brit through and through, but that hasn’t stopped us from reaching out to our American cousins, and taking a moment to consider what it is in the movie world right now that makes us thankful. It’s deep. It’s profound. It comes with a side order of vegetables and some cranberry sauce.
Chris Hewitt, News Editor
Right now, I’m thankful for:
Seth Rogen’s laugh. The greatest cinematic chuckle since Sid James, it promises raunch and debauchery in equal measure.
The viral video of Nicolas Cage losing his shit. I’m an unabashed, unashamed fan of Cage, an actor who never puts vanity before performance, and who isn’t afraid of stepping out onto a metaphorical ledge every time, and this video drives that home in four and a half hilarious minutes.
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